An Honest $500 Car: 1985 Renault Fuego
Back in 2006 when the 24 Hours of LeMons first launched the world’s craziest racing series, you could actually buy a running car for $500. It wasn’t easy and you didn’t have your pick of the best stuff around, but for 500 smackeroos you could get something that just needed a roll cage and some new wheels to make it to the race track. But inflation marches ever forward…and Cash for Clunkers decimated the population of really cheap stuff on craigslist. Add the fact that anybody can get “cheap” loan money combined with the effect of un-ending random stimulus checks from multiple economic crises, the same amount of cash won’t buy you much. Today, the $500 on craigslist costs $2000, but every once in a full moon, you find something with frozen rear brakes, bald tires, dead battery, and various other problems for under that magical, mythical, and arbitrary $500 price. Time to go racing. Find this 1985 Renault Fuego offered for $500 in Binghamton, NY (or PA?) via craigslist. Tip from ME.
