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  • For Sale: Atlas’ 1999 Ford Ranger

    It’s no secret if you’ve been in the Collector Car Feed Discord server that I am the self-proclaimed off-roading expert. I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Ford Ranger platform for well over ten years now, and I can safely proclaim that it’s the best truck to take off road, ever.
    My personal truck has had some slight modifications done to it. Born from the forum days and built in several garages, mostly with a 110 volt MIG welder, I present my 1999 Ford Ranger.

    If you have a trained eye, you’ll see it’s not factory anymore. But I promise you its life started out bone stock as can be. I bought this 1999 XLT 4×4 after owning a 1994 STX 4×4 in Medium Aubergine (read: Purple) for many years. The purple people eater decidedly went on to greener (get it?) pastures after it kept blowing lower intake gaskets. When it was time to replace it, I knew I wanted to solid axle swap the truck down the line, so I did what most people who are about to ruin a car do: I found the cleanest stock example I could.

    April of 2012, The day I drove it home.

    I found this truck in a little town just off the highway in mid Michigan. It cost me $4000 in 2012 and it had 90,000 miles on the odometer. The entirety of its service history was contained within the glove box and showed that it had two parts replaced: A sway bar link and the front shocks. So naturally, the first thing I did was a body lift and 33 inch tires.

    August of 2015 at Badlands ORV park in Attica, Indiana.

    It remained body lifted until 2016 when I acquired the entirety of a Dana 30 front axle and various bars, links, and suspension components. The axle was previously trussed, had upgraded two-piston WK (early 2000’s Jeep Grand Cherokee) brakes, and Fox 2.0 shocks. It was four-linked and ready to swap in. So like most projects, I dumped it into cold storage until a month before I had an adventure planned.

    2016, fresh from a scrapped Ranger’s solid axle swap.

    Over the course of that month, with the help of a few friends and my old man, I swapped this Dana 30 solid axle underneath the Ranger and finally stopped driving it on the highway and began taking it exclusively off paved roads for years.

    Since then, like most ’90s era Fords, the core support had rusted away, and I couldn’t sell this thing to someone for it to only break and end up in the junkyard. So after acquiring some new parts, I embarked on the last ever project I planned to perform on the truck.

    That was a bad one, huh?

    So now, refreshed and off-road ready, it’s for sale. If you’ve got a $6500 bag and a trailer, come scoop this and live your wildest rock crawling fantasies. No lowballers, I know what I have.

  • Doug DeMuro Just Destroyed Your Chances of Buying an EP3 Civic for under $10,000

    I’m gonna level with you, race fan. I wasn’t aware I could be emotionally hurt by a Honda Civic. I’m sure there’s an irrational Honda boy out there right now, with the same anger and rage that I feel, now that I know the EP3 Civic market has been forever changed. In case you’re not up to speed, we can start with this recent Cars and Bids listing.

    “Highly modified” 2004 Civic Si (The EP3 Generation)

    THIS…. is a 2004 Civic Si that just sold on Cars and Bids for $14,720. A few of us in the Collector Car Feed Discord have been playing a virtual Price is Right style game, trying to predict the hammer price on auctions as they end. Today, however, I was not prepared for this letdown It happened again: an outlier is attempting to sway the market. If you have seen some of my past articles (or click here) you’ll see I am not a fan of outlier cars setting the market price.

    Highly. Modified

    Before I decided on my prediction for the hammer price, I did a search of all the EPs currently for sale. Of the Si variants, only a handful came back with under 150k miles. Of those 3, none were stock or even near stock. Most of them were cracked, chipped, dinged, and dented. Every single one of them was slammed. At this point, I was thinking even with Honda bois being irrational, there’s no way they’re worth a lot of money. With that knowledge in hand, I slapped down a $7200 prediction and went about my day.

    Here it is, in all its shame.

    As I said in the beginning, I was not prepared for what this auction would bring. My fear, which I’m saying out loud now, is that the EP3 market is about to double in price. When potential Civic sellers do their due diligence, one of the first sales they’re going to find will be this Cars and Bids auction, safely confirming the (delusional) thoughts they continue to have: The riced-out civic in the driveway is finally worth something.

    So in closing, I hate when this happens. I hate it even more when it happens in real-time, right in front of my eyes. It’s like watching your favorite childhood actor do rips at the private table in a Vegas club. You hate to see it, wish you could be in on it, but ultimately nobody is going to be the same afterward.

  • Found on the Feed: Better ACTY now!

    If you’ve ever been to Japan, then odds are you’ve had the pleasure to see what’s known as a kei car. These are smaller Japanese market-only vehicles that value function over form. Kei cars and trucks have been making their way to America for quite some time, but it’s only recently that they’ve become staples on many import shops’ websites, with some places going as far to only import kei vehicles. Powered by tiny, sub-660CC motors, in this ACTY’s case, it’s a 650CC I3. These vehicles also came in a variety of forms, from trucks to vans; there’s an ACTY for everyone.

    Bet you didn’t notice she wasn’t wearing shoes.

    It should be known that when I pulled this example up during the Feed’s offices daily “T. Flats and Trucks” luncheon, there were several vomiting noises, and we can’t be sure which caused it. [editor’s note: we don’t all agree with Atlas’ disdain, I THINK IT’S CUTE] However, here’s today’s 1994 ACTY Van, currently listed on Facebook Marketplace. It’s been in the states for less than a year and only has around 50,000 miles on it (76,000 km). It’s a stick shift and the seller states that it’s in great condition for its age. The seller, a Feed discord regular, has a deep-rooted love for the ACTY platform, and when asked what makes it special, he said it’s got a rare double sunroof, for taking your six-pack of Asian thots on a pleasure cruise to the nearest beach for an afternoon of backgammon.

    The seat that’s held 1000 Japanese farts.

    Overall this example seems to be fairly clean and with a good detail, and some carpet extraction, you’ll be the star of the next Cars and Coffee. Priced at $8,000, I think this vehicle won’t last long. It’s a fair price and if Bring a Trailer has shown us anything recently, it’s that 90’s JDM stuff is on the rise and this ACTY is about as JDM as you can get.

  • Found on the Feed: Rally Spec Pulsar GTI-R

    The Nissan Pulsar is the (already) eccentric Nissan fan’s Nissan. These were some unique little hot hatches made for the Japanese market, and never quite made it here to the United States (we got the Sentra instead). That’s kind of a shame, because certain models (GTI-Rs) came with a SR20DET, all wheel drive and the rest of your classic 90s Nissan tropes. The only thing this little car didn’t do is race Mt. Akagi against a certain panda Trueno. [editor’s note: fact checked for accuracy. It’s true: Takumi never races a GTI-R]

    That brings us to today’s model, which is set up to be a true Group A rally car, which, according to Wikipedia, was an actual thing Nissan did! However, this particular example, found on Facebook Marketplace, is a recreation, appearing to be a GTI-R underneath, as stated by the seller: “NOT saying its a NISMO car !! Has some Nismo parts !!” But nevertheless, this is a cool car, decked out with everything you’d need to attend the next New England Forest Rally with your favorite co-driver.

    There do be a redtop there

    Now, the price isn’t exactly cheap at $19,500. But I’m going to forgive that for the fact that it’s both a 90s Nissan with an SR20DET (thanks, Bring a Trailer) and a bonafide Rally Car. It sounds like at the end of the day there’s some room to wiggle here, being that it’s been listed for a week now. With the rest of the mods the seller lists, I don’t have a ton of doubt that this would be a solid weekend driver.

  • Found on the Feed: Your next NB Miata Project

    We all know NBs are the superior Miata [we don’t -Feed]. It’s been discussed on the Collector Car Feed podcast several times now. However, what we’ve got here is a real project that is (thankfully) OBO so you might be able to scoop it for a reasonable price, considering the low miles it has.

    Almost everyone on this fine website knows about Miatas; it seems like even the most common folk know now. I double-checked this by yelling out the window of the Feed offices “Hey what’s a Miata?” and a nice gentleman on the sidewalk below replied “A great driver’s car!” If you need more convincing, let me tell you this fact: It’s the best selling roadster of all time.

    A nice wet picture to hide how terrible the paint really is.

    This particular NB has just under 29000 actual miles on the car. However, the seller does state that the Arizona sun has taken a toll on the vehicle’s paint and dashboard, as noted by the above and below pictures. The car is an original 5 Speed and does have a hardtop, which is an exceptionally desirable, hard-to-come-by amenity.

    Overall, this car’s a little steep at $8500, but as I said in the beginning, the seller states this is or best offer, so you could potentially scoop it for a decent price. A little Maaco love, some time on the internet finding either some new seats or having an upholstery shop run free and you might (keyword might) have a Bring a Trailer winner on your hands. You can go here to find the listing. Unless it’s slipped away by now, in which case you should have gotten Feed Premium to find this gem and ones just like it, first, when they hit Facebook Marketplace.

  • How To Ruin The Market: Nissan 240SX Edition

    Like many enthusiasts and users of this fine website, I appreciate collectible and rare cars. I also seek out the high profile sales of some of these collectible and rare cars. It helps me form a better opinion of where the market is heading, so that I can offer that advice to you fine folks (and anyone else in the office who will listen to my soapbox rants). If you can’t find me browsing the forums here, I’m probably browsing Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, or newcomer Cars and Bids. And in doing so, I’m noticing a scary trend: undesirable outliers setting the price to unobtainable for exceptional examples. Case in point, this 1990 240SX (S13)

    I can smell the little tree from here.

    Undesirable

    This is an undesirable S13. Why, you ask? This is a USDM model with a single cam KA24E truck motor. It’s a “zenki” (or “pignose”), pre-facelift model, which is widely considered the ugliest variety, although some people (mainly zenki owners) do seem to appreciate the kitsch of it.
    Short of being an automatic (this 240 does thankfully have the five speed manual), this is pretty much the least desirable iteration of the 240SX. While that’s not so bad for Facebook, this wasn’t listed on Facebook. This is Bring a Trailer. The name and reputation of the website itself implies that this vehicle is so rare, unique, and special that you need to Bring. A. Trailer. This car is none of those things, especially when you can import an example powered by the legendary SR20DET or with Type X parts equipped. This example is an average 240SX, which somehow evaded a drift kid strapping an eBay turbo on and cutting the fenders off.

    This car sold for a whopping $32,750, and no, I did not make the number up. If you look at the data Bring a Trailer provides on specific models, you will see that this vehicle is an outlier. Prior to the sale of this example on August 24, 2020, the highest-selling 240SX went for $20,000, and that puts the average price of a unique and collectible S13 (at least according to the folks at Bring a Trailer) at approximately $8,800.

    As I said in the beginning, I believe sites like Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, and Cars and Bids are useful tools to help predict and set the market, especially as enthusiasts and collectors flock away from auction events like Barrett Jackson and Mecum, where they don’t often showcase cars that our generation wants. This is also equally important to note, because as import regulations become lifted for 25-year-old cars that were never sold in North America, we’re going to have to look somewhere else to get some guidance on pricing.

    Why this S13 matters

    So, you might be asking yourself: why does this particular 240SX, which sold in August of 2020, matter? Well, when I originally began to cogitate on this whole idea, I knew something like this was going to happen: here we have another S13 that just closed its an auction on Bring a Trailer. The high bid of $18,001 did not meet reserve. Upon learning this, I broke several pieces of furniture in the Feed’s office (sorry guys, I’ll get another coffee pot soon). Why does this make me irrationally angry? Because aside from the Juniper Green Metallic, the car in question was just as undesirable as the listing in August! [Editor’s note: I want both of them, but at 2005 prices pls] The seller even had the nerve to list the car with a reserve that was entirely too expensive! At the end of the day, these auctions set price trends in the secondary market. For evidence, check out the S13 listings page here on Collector Car Feed. Wow, that’s a lot of $1234 listings, isn’t it?

    I don’t see someone paying $9,000 for this.

    Observe the above BaT reject, recently found for sale using Collector Car Feed. An 80,000 mile example, its paint is far from perfect (note the peeling roof), it’s a single-cam KA, and it’s automatic. Three strikes and you’re out. But, because of that single moon shot S13, the price of a Nissan 240SX has risen so drastically that this formerly $4,000 car is now asking $9,000, which, coincidentally, is the average asking price on Bring a Trailer. [Editor’s note: I bet we see this constantly once I add finished auction analytics.]

    I don’t think this is the first example of this issue in the market; in fact, I’m sure this has happened before, twenty or thirty years ago when companies like Barrett Jackson first began to auction cars. Except then it wasn’t S13s, it was Camaros and Mustangs. The only respite we’re going to get is when a real JDM legend hits the market, it should finally make the value of true collectibles reflect the opinion of their owners thirty years later.

  • Craigslist Treasure: 2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX Sport

    Panther perfection. Source: Craigslist

    The Crown Victoria is without a doubt iconic. First introduced in 1980 and ultimately killed off in 2012 at the ripe age of 32, The Crown Vic served as Ford’s rear wheel drive v8-powered sedan as long as many of the staff here at The Feed can remember. The Crown Victoria rose to fame with its most notable Police Interceptor (P71) package, which accounted for almost 90% of the panther platform production after 2008. It was the vehicle of choice for numerous state and federal municipal departments, making its grille and headlights the most recognizable front end ever produced: see one of these in your rearview, and you’ll still probably check your speedometer involuntarily.

    No Officer, I don’t know why you stopped me.

    Today’s Found on the Feed is a 2002 LX Sport, the most loaded civilian trim package you could get for a Crown Vic, and the most aggressive, save the P71. The LX Sport featured stock 17″ wheels, Monochrome exterior (no chrome), dual exhaust, rear airbag suspension, leather bucket seats with a center console and floor shifter, and more aggressive differential gearing. The seller of this vehicle claims the previous owner changed the grille to the P71 Interceptor style, but includes the original in the sale. Notably, the headlights also seem to be interceptor style or marauder lights.

    Like riding on a cloud.

    The seller claims that this example has never “been tampered, just pampered” and garaged its entire life. The pictures, while they lack in quality, do show a car that has been meticulously maintained and shows signs of regular wear for 18 years. This example has a touch under 90,000 miles on the odometer and the seller is only asking $4750. One Feed editor could be heard yelling “God damn that’s a great deal” when this article was drafted; later on, flights to Atlanta were priced out. So act fast unless you want to read an upcoming Understeer article on this beauty.

  • Found on the Feed: 2008 Pontiac G8 GT

    Projector headlights in a 2008. Neat.

    Today’s Found on the Feed is one of the best V8 and Rear-wheel drive sedans of the modern era. The Pontiac G8 was a direct import from Australia where it was built as the Holden Commodore and sold by GM under the Pontiac Brand in 2008 & 2009. Later to be replaced by the Chevrolet Caprice PPV (Police Patrol Vehicle) and it’s civilian version, the Chevrolet SS. The Pontiac G8 stands the test of time with its LS3 because its rated north of 350 HP mated to a 6 speed automatic (the 6L80 for you gearheads). Both make it very comparable to modern sedans.

    This example is fitted with Chevy SS wheels

    The G8 GT in today’s example is the top trim level for 2008, The GT. In 2009 GM would release the G8 GXP, which would be the top trim. This particular example seems to have some basic modifications that all LS3’s usually ended up with; exhaust and intake. This example should still make for a great highway cruiser and real bruiser on test and tune night with a few more key mods.

    Check out those tips.

    The seller is asking $4800 for the car, which has 140K miles on the odometer. Assuming this car has no lights on in the dash and it drives decent, I’d say that’s not a bad price for what could be a reliable daily driver that could put a smile on a drab commute. With the included creature comforts of heated seats and an 11 speaker premium audio system, this is one fine automobile.

  • Found on the Feed: 1990 Mazda Miata

    The Mazda Miata is the best sports car of all time. This is almost universally known by enthusiasts. But for the uninformed, here are some quick facts for you: When the NA (first generation) was introduced to North America, it had a 50/50 weight distribution. It was also very affordable allowing the vehicle to catch on like wildfire as the amateur racers choice and the weekender’s toy.

    All Original

    The Miata came with a 1.6L I4. Which would be replaced in later generations with a 1.8L. It could be had with either an automatic or manual 5 speed, like today’s example. Typically, these motors were pretty reliable with the timing belt seeming to be the only major part that needs service. The seller notes that this example has had its timing belt replaced already. However, this roadster is noticeably unmodified otherwise.

    Freshly Detailed

    The ad for the vehicle states that this is a one-owner car that has been garaged in the winter, which wouldn’t be hard to verify in person. However, it is tough to discern with the pictures provided. This vehicle also has the optional Daisy wheels and newer radials. I don’t think the $5800 asking price is worth the one owner, optional wheels it claims. With the mileage over 109k, under $5000 seems to be more reasonable. Why not check the Mazda section of today’s Feed and find your own?

  • Building an Off-Road Rig: A Beginner’s Guide, Part One

    From lifted jeeps to pre-runner minitrucks, from SEMA-spec mall crawlers to home-built truggies, to the extensive aftermarket for trucks and (especially) Jeeps: the world of off-road has never been bigger or more confusing. I’ve been in the off-road community since the internet was in the model-specific forum days, and the time has never been better (or for you or your wallet) to get out to your local ORV park and begin your own adventure.
    In this article and the following series, I’m going to walk you through the process of which questions to ask yourself, and provide advice on which direction to take your build.

    Whether you are building it yourself or having someone do the work for you, there are a few questions you will need to ask yourself before deciding on any vehicle.
    The first, and most important question: what kind of fun do I want to have? The off-road spectrum is wide and contains things like Baja 1000-style pre-running to Ultra-4 Truggy rock crawling. On a more sensible and practical scale, these are two main categories I’d like to focus on in the beginning: pre-running and rock crawling.

    Now before we jump right into it, there’s something I’m specifically not going to talk about: Cost. Any project car will cost you something. It’s probably cheaper and more fun to just buy a Brazzer’s subscription than to buy a project car, but for the sake of this article, we’re gonna leave cost out of it and you can fit it to your budget.

    Pre-Running

    Photo coursey of Larry Chen

    So you wanna go fast? And jump things? And jump things fast? Then a pre-runner build might be for you. Pre-running is historically the designation given to vehicles that take to a racecourse prior to the race to spot and re-route the course around any danger that could be encountered. Often these vehicles have to be light, robust, built with parts that can easily be found for repairs and be able to carry plenty of supplies.

    Source: OffRoad Xtreme

    Pre-runners typically have some sort of independent front suspension or I-beam front suspension, allowing the springs to have a massive amount of travel, providing better on-road performance. Typically, the I beam suspension is considered the stronger option as it is able to handle the repeated blows the suspension takes when landing a jump.

    Rock Crawling

    Like to go slow? Climb over things? Climb over things slowly? Then a Rock crawler might be for you. Typically, most home-built and entry-level rigs will do this well. The history of Rock crawling is a bit difficult to piece together. It seems to have always been there as something to do with your truck. In a more professional sense, Ultra 4 and things like the Easter Safari (Jeep’s major MOAB trip) fall into this category, which is a great jumping-off point for off-roading as a hobby. Mostly, vehicles with sheet metal bodies (as opposed to fiberglass bodies of most pre-runners) are preferred as they take a walloping.

    Source: The Engine Block

    Most rock crawling rigs will have a solid axle front suspension and there are plenty of vehicles out there that came with one from the factory (some of them aren’t even jeeps). However, a common theme among rock crawlers is taking a Dana front solid axle, either in the 30, 44, or the coveted 60 series and swapping it into your own vehicle. Additionally, you can have it in either leaf spring or coilover configuration, both offering their own sets of pros and cons.

    Over the next few articles, I’ll take a more in-depth look at each of these platforms, recommend some suggested vehicles to start with (that can all be found here, on The Feed) and point out some of the vital things you need in order to choose, build and enjoy your own off-road vehicle.