The Toyota Paseo was the sporty smaller two-door cousin of the Tercel. It was the same basic small-car engineering, but wrapped in a low, swoopy coupe body that looked far more ambitious than its actual performance. Today’s example looks remarkably original and appears to have factory wheel covers, factory spoiler, stock ride height, stock trim, […]
The Nissan Be-1 is one of the original Japanese “Pike cars,” a wonderfully odd little design experiment that came out of Nissan’s Pike Factory styling group in the late 1980s. Underneath all that cheerful retro bodywork is much more ordinary hardware from the K10 Nissan March/Micra, which means front-wheel drive, simple mechanicals, and a tiny […]
This is the good-spec S60R with a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five, AWD and the 6-speed manual. Factory output was about 300 hp and 295 lb-ft, which was serious sedan power in 2004. Volvo’s R treatment was more than badges, as these got the electronically controlled Four-C adaptive suspension, larger brakes, quicker chassis tuning and the Haldex-based […]
I love a good oddball car like a Lotus Elite, but there’s a problem with getting into strange old cars. It’s the same thing that happens to people who buy odd dog breeds like Whippets or Pugs — they start well intentioned with a single dog, but after a few months you end up owning […]
I’ve purchased a few cars that were stuck in the garage over the years and I can tell you it isn’t for the weak man (or woman). You need to understand that you’ll probably spend the better part of the next 12 weekends replacing every single flexible rubber component and then you’ll have to decide […]
This is the first year of the third-generation TL, and the 2004 redesign was a big deal: sharper styling, much more power, and for the first time in TL history an available 6-speed manual. The manual car is the one enthusiasts want. Acura paired it with a limited-slip differential, Brembo front brakes, stiffer anti-roll bars […]
The L’Automobile Ventura was a interesting piece of Brazilian automotive history built on a Volkswagen chassis — similar in concept, spirit, and styling to the awesome Puma. It technically isn’t a kit car, but it was as close as you can get before being accused. The pretty fiberglass body sits on top of a VW […]
This started life as a Ferrari Mondial 8, Ferrari’s mid-engine 2+2 coupe and the relatively practical member of the family — four seats, decent luggage space, and the same basic transverse V8 layout lineage as the 308. The original Ferrari V8 and transaxle are gone, replaced with a Cadillac Northstar 32-valve V8 and its matching […]
You won’t catch me assigning mythical values to mundane cars simply because of a low odometer reading…but this next MX-5 looks to be in that sweet spot between “great condition, low miles” and “low miles, can’t roll the 4th digit on the odo.” I wouldn’t recommend speculating with used/modern classics, but this is where my […]
This is the Geo Storm Wagonback, the less common squared-off version of the Storm that looks like somebody took the normal fastback and stretched its roofline with a ruler. Like every Storm, it was actually designed and built by Isuzu in Japan, then sold through GM’s Geo brand in the U.S for the 1991 and […]