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The $5,000 dilemma

18 July, 2017

If you’re anything like us here in the office, you’ll spend a good chunk of your time imagining what car you’d buy in any given scenario. The Powerball winners garage makes for a good afternoon of daydreaming. So does thinking about finding a daily that could be used on track days without blowing the insurance premiums out of the water.

But let’s start with a question for the ages, an old favourite: what would you buy with $5,000 cash? We put the $5k dilemma to a few of the team and here’s what they had to say:

Jaden Martin — Staff writer at NZ Performance Car

Subaru Legacy RS wagon (BF): There’s not a lot in the realm of 5k that still has an ounce of fun left in it without being thrashed beyond its usefulness. To be fair an RS wagon is probably no exception to this, but hey, they seem to soldier on like champs and still look cool as hell with a slight height adjustment and a properly suited set of wheels — plus who could resist giving it a squirt out on gravel back roads in the middle of nowhere?

Lachlan Jones — Staff writer at NZ Classic Car

Volvo 850R Wagon: Anyone remember the only wagon to ever compete in the BTCC in the 1990s? This is it. And now they’re as cheap as chips but still a blast. I love the box like dimensions that somehow enhance the styling. Quick, comfortable, practical and cool. 

Ashley Webb — Editor of NZ Classic Car

MG Midget: Why? Cause it’s the only bloody thing I can think of that costs $5k and a lot of fun at an affordable price.

Todd Wylie — Editor of NZV8

Ford Pinto wagon: Simply because I saw one for sale recently and thought it was just so ugly that it was awesome. The seller only wanted around $5k from memory, which was stupidly cool for what could be a great little daily driver.

Connal Grace — Assistant editor of NZV8

BMW 318i (E30): For the modest price of $5k, the world of second-rate used cars is your oyster, and after much deliberation, I’m choosing a BMW 318i (E30) with a manual transmission. I’ve always wanted to own an E30 BMW. They look good, drive well, and I really need to write something here before I change my mind. 

 

Honourable mentions:

Peugeot 309 GTI — The 205s less popular non-identical twin. The reality is that he’s just as good and a touch more practical. Sure to start spiking in value like the 205 soon enough.

Suzuki Samurai — Bugger all power and a propensity to cock a wheel at a sniff of wind or a 40 degree corner at over 25km/h but these things weigh less than a Labrador and go just about anywhere. Weekends of fun to be had.

Jeep Grand Cherokee — A good number of them are used by passionate 4×4 fans and adventurers who keep the maintenance up to date and fix issues as they arise. The bulletproof 4L engine appears to be a survivor as you keep looking after her. Proportions are just right and even the interior has aged well.

Toyota GT Starlet — A brilliant starting point for any budding car enthusiast. Small, economical, reliable and quick enough to put a smile on your dial.

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.