Take the Shortcut.

Stephen King wrote one of my favorite short stories about a car ever, called "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" about a woman in Maine who drives a Mercedes "Go-Devil" into a supernatural shortcut that allows her to bend time. I first read that story well before there was an internet, and for the longest time I only had a rough idea of what kind of car she was driving - but once I learned, I have never been able to look at a 450 without thinking of Mr. Todd's first wife, who had "lead in her foot and a ball bearing sommers in the back of her ankle".

Mrs. Todd's Benz was champagne colored, but today's two seater benz is silver with a lovely red interior. It comes with 2 tops and less than 100k miles, all for $7800. The owner apprently bit off more than he could chew, car wise, and this one is getting voted off the island. I went to Arizona today to look for two reasons - because there was a little rust on yesterday's wagon, and because I work for a Phoenix.  For under eight grand, if this car runs as nice as it looks, it's a steal; the owner says the car books for 14k, so I'm guessing that he has a wife that's pushing him to get rid of this car at a fire sale price.

Nice backside

The only thing that worries me a little is what is hiding under the sheepskins. If the covers were put on preventatively, that's great, but you might be in for a visit to the upholsterer.

It might not be baaaad though. 

Someday, I will have one of these cars, and if I have my choice, it will have a red interior - but most likely a black exterior.

Here is the craigslist ad.

Swagger Wagon

Today's post takes us to Topeka, KS, where you can get a very rare, probably totally undesirable running and driving project car for $1200. In this case, I'm counting on you using the rest of your ten grand to fix this little wagon up.

AMC Sportabout

This is a 1972 AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon. The seller claims that it's one of 2500 made, and that it is a running, driving example. "Sure'" you say, "but it's just some crappy old green wagon. I know you love wagons, but I don't see what makes this one special"

How about this?

Gucci Edition

That's not custom, that's factory. 

This is a Gucci edition car. The AMC Hornet was the first auto "Collab" that Gucci undertook, and then they moved on to Cadillac and now Fiat. (source). Obviously the front seats need a little work, but the backseat and door cards look pretty good, so there might not be as much cost in the interior as you think. The dash looks fairly nice, and carpet can be had fairly cheap. As cool as this interior looks, I'm sure that once this car is redone it will draw a pretty big crowd at Cars and Coffee.
I think that if you can get this car finished in your ten grand budget, you will have something really special, and you might even have some upside once you are done.

Because wagons are cool.

Here  is the Craigslist ad.

Foxy Lincoln

 So everyone worth their salt knows that a Fox body Mustang GT is a good investment. I don't have one of those today, but I do have a 1990 Lincoln Mark VII LSC with the 5.0 drivetrain. The LSC is the loaded version, so you get leather and all the bells and whistles. The one I found today is in the right color (black) and seems to be owned by an enthuisiast of some sort. Lots of these are destined to end up with crazy lifts and 22' wheels on them, so the market is going to get much thinner over the next few years, and if you are going to buy one, this is the one.

Hot Rod Lincoln

This is a nice car with less than 100k miles - and it's been for sale for a while, so you might be able to do better than his asking price of $3999 - and I think that this Lincoln has some serious upside in the next decade or so as these get used up. Right now, this is just a used Grandpa car to lots of folks; I think it's cool as hell and could be a nice sleeper hot rod.

Even if we set aside the potential for appreciation, this would be a nice daily driver that has a ton more style than most of the cars you are going to find for this price - and unlike some used $4000 shitbox economy car, this isn't going to be exhausted after you put another 40k on the clock.

Here is the ad, now someone go get this thing.

So what is this? This "Thing"?

I spend a fair amount of time looking at cars online, and I read blogs like "Bring A Trailer" and "Daily Tourismo", and enjoy checking out the lower priced cars they find, especially the ones that are in the $5000 - $6000 range. Since I check Craigslist so much myself (and have found cars for both websites) I thought I'd just put up my own blog and share with the wide wide web. I go to lots of car meets, and I love to ask "how would you spend $100,000?" Lots of folks would buy one nice car, but I would be more inclined to buy 20 cool $5000 cars instead. I set the blog limit at $10k per car, because sometimes the extra $5k will buy you a ton more car.

I also started this place because I need a way to warm my mind up for my "real" job, part of which consists of blogging for our company website, here. That's more insurance oriented, obviously, but as we specialize in classic and custom car insurance, there is some good info, especially if you are just starting a car collection.

Finally, I'm going to link directly to the Craigslist ad (or other) that I find, but I will be saving photos here so if the car sells before you get a chance to read, you can still see what we are talking about. If you have a car to submit, please feel free to email it to me - whether it is your ad or someone else's doesn't matter at this point, so send 'em if you have them.

Now, on to today's car. Sort of.

1973 Volkswagen "Thing"

I say "sort of" because I don't know if the Thing is a car, or a 4 wheeled motorcycle, or a really underpowered Jeep. When I was in high school, I wanted one of these so bad I could taste it. I drove a VW bug (several, actually) and spent a lot of time thinking about how I could turn the car I had into a Karmann Ghia or a Thing, but my cars where all purchased for less than $700, and even then, I probably paid too much. Flipping them for a profit was out of the question, and even after I dumped plenty of paychecks into each one, there was zero increase in value, as I was always chasing problems and not making improvements.

Other Side

This Thing is listed at $4500 (and has been for quite some time, I might add) and is described as being in "good shape, running and driving", but does need some interior work and brakes. I've never worked on a Thing before, but I can tell you that I redid two "Bug" interiors myself, and they are pretty simple. As the Thing is based on the German military "jeep", I'd assume that interior is easy on these is pretty simple as well. I'm also guessing it wouldn't be as bad if he didn't let those kids play in the thing, but that's just me.
I'm not up on the Thing market, and don't know what these are "worth", but this one looks pretty straight and shiny, and offers a good place to start, at the very least.

Here is a link to the Craigslist ad.