This is Collector Car TL;DR: a weekly recap of what happened on Collector Car Feed, plus car auctions, listings, automotive news… Things of interest to someone who might watch Collector Car Feed. You know, you.
And you can get it weekly by giving me your email address.
The Videos
This past week in Collector Car Feed videos includes bargain performance cars and one to watch out for if you’ve ever dreamed of a nice car flip come up.
Converting my Toyota MR2 into a Ford RS200 part 1: bodywork
I may have been a bit of a Scotty Kilmer with this title: a little too clickbaity. But the topic does come up: someone turned a second gen MR2 into an RS200, much in the same way Justin Long was turned into a walrus in Tusk.
The Ford Focus ST is bottoming out in price. Under $6500 on Cars and Bids
This starts a two video Cars and Bids roundup; in this one we find some cheap Focus STs. Vukos explains that he’s “a Scotty Kilmer” because he now owns two key Scotty-approved vehicles. We also discover the horrors of Burt Toyota Englewood, a thankfully defunct dealership and automotive torture facility. If you’re going to watch one video this week, make it this one.
Find one of these rare Toyotas before the Cars & Bids resellers take them all
This is a continuation of the Focus video: more Cars and Bids browsing. The title focuses on my favorite car in the video: a Toyota Corolla XRS, in fact the first and only XRS ever sold on Cars and Bids. It sold for $13,000 (low miles, ~7000 total produced in two year production run). If you find one of these for sale near you, email me: collectorcarfeed@gmail.com
The News
A Subaru Baja Revival Might Happen. Could It Come Here to Fight the Maverick?
The easiest fight of Ford’s life is shaping up as an Aussie Subaru exec says “There have been discussions of a ute”. The Drive really made a meal out of that sentence.
They Mocked Minivans For Years, Now Americans Are Fueling A Massive Sales Surge
…is a weird way to say minivan sales are up 34% in Canada (and 20% in the United States). 110,006 Pacificas sold in the US, 101,486 Siennas. Are there other minivans? Don’t know.
World’s Ugliest Car Manufacturer CEO Says the Era of Manual Transmissions Is Nearly Over
Frank van Meel says BMW’s current transmission is limited to 440 pound-feet of torque, and there’s just no way transmission manufacturers could make something stronger, as the power of performance cars increases. An absurd statement to get you ready for the day (coming soon) when BMW finally pulls the plug on the stick shift.
The Cars
2005 Toyota Corolla XRS
Like I said, this sold for $13,000. Fantastic find. Low production numbers, two year run, six speed manual, the best four banger they were making at the time, It’s a Corolla, this really does have it all. Absolutely the auction of the week.
1991 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4
A viewer sent this in to collectorcarfeed@gmail.com and it’s nice to see a rare DSM, but this one is in standard Facebook DSM condition: a picture of a 471 peak horsepower dyno sheet is included, but it “needs a tune”, has an oil leak “coming from somewhere”, is a salvage title (whatever)… But it’s OBO, so go lowball this guy and ruin your spring.
1980 Looney Tunes El Camino
Included for the faded hood artwork in which Taz looks like Blanca from Street fighter. There’s more on the sides. Not bad, worth a click.
Ongoing Auctions
1999 Toyota RAV4 Convertible
It’s the perfect first gen Rav4: two door, 4×4, stick. This one has 121,XXX miles. That’s low for the year but not low for the earth, and you can still find similar examples floating around. It’ll be interesting to see what this goes for.
2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STI
880 miles, blessed by Doug Himself, and the best facelift of this generation? No wonder it’s at $67,000 with three days to go. MSRP was ~$32,000. Will we see it tripled? Will we see six figures? Definitely one to watch.
Final Thoughts
I’m going to leave you with this edit of Netgear57 saying which cars he would and would not drive. “I’d drive it” is a philosophy we can and should all get behind. What does it mean to you?
Have any feedback? Want to contribute? Want to sell your car? collectorcarfeed@gmail.com