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BMW has done it again: here comes the ugliest car you have ever seen
Mein Gott that’s bad
This is Collector Car TL;DR: a weekly recap of what happened on Collector Car Feed, plus car auctions, listings, automotive news, and other things of interest to the average CCF Enjoyer, and you can get it weekly by giving me your email address.
The Videos
The Videos
This past week in Collector Car Feed videos was pretty great, I’m talking S-tier every day:
One deranged man thinks he can save them all: welcome to the Isuzone
One of us bought yet another Isuzu SUV. His driveway has hit capacity so this one’s going to live in the back yard. He swears it isn’t a problem. This is a key lore episode: we will absolutely continue to talk about this purchase.
Every Aftermarket Jeep Grille Ranked
Wrangler sales are down and Bronco sales are up (praise the Ford), but the Angry Jeep Face persists on the streets and in our minds, so we put every single one Netgear could find on a classic tier list.
Hunting for real stolen cars on Facebook Marketplace
This is one of our best performing videos in months, at least over the first few days. Our audience loves stolen cars and poverty rides, but it also happens to be a great video. They’re really out there and they’re not hard to find.The News
The Next BMW M3 front end design has been leaked
Scroll up. That first image is the new M3. We were all wondering how they were going to add more kidney to this grille. They did it by letting the kidneys consume the headlights, coincidentally making the whole thing look like the 1999 Pontiac GTO concept car.
Subaru is discontinuing the WRX in Japan
It’s almost certainly not a permanent goodbye, but Subaru is pulling the plug on the WRX in the Japanese market, and news sources are citing noise and emissions regulations as the culprits. The CVT-only WRX is too loud and inefficient to be sold in Japan.
Jaguar’s Design Boss Is Officially Leaving The Company
It’s unclear if he was fired or quit, but Jaguar’s lead designer for the past two decades is out. Weirdly the article only mentions him having designed the Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Evoque, and most recently the Jaguar Type 00 Concept, which is linked to that disastrous Jaguar rebranding campaign you probably already forgot about. There’s a picture of it in the article, and they call the design “highly controversial”, but I thought it was kind of cool, if you can separate it from, again, that awful commercial they made that the entire world absolutely hated. Feels like this guy is being punished for the marketing department’s mistakes, but what do I know.The Cars
2016 Ford Focus ST
This would be a great match for my shadow black Fiesta ST, but the secret seems to be out on these and they’re hitting new heights all the time bid-wise on these online auction platforms. 54,000 miles, one owner, ST3 package and optioned just right (everything except the upgrade wheels; the snowflakes are better). Those options are leather heated Recaros, heated leather steering wheel, Sync 3 (Carplay/Android Auto compatible), sunroof. And it’s a facelift! The only negative are a couple accidents on record, which the Cars and Bids crowd will completely ignore as they run the price up to probably around $20,000, which is deep into Ecoboost Mustang territory.
I know, you hate all of this. You’ll come around, but until you do, let’s look at something else.
1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo
This is actually the only other ongoing auction I have saved from the past week. It’s been slim pickings. 144K on the clock and three days left as of this writing. It’s a real turbo, not a swap. It’s more or less unmolested and has a clean title. There’s no mention of any accidents. The mileage is the major drawback here, and it’s an SW20 so of course it’s leaking oil. Luckily the seller has no record of the timing belt having ever been done, so you can replace all the front side seals when you do that critical piece of work.
This unmaintained, meh-mileage MR2 Turbo should sell for around $10,000, but I’d bet on $14,500 as the final price.
1995 Ford Taurus SHO
This is actually TWO 1995 SHOs, both in project car condition, for $1500 OBO. They’re both stick shift. I wish I had Netgear-level space for derelict vehicles when I see things like this.
Lamborghini Countach Replica
Classic: it’s a Fiero wearing a Lambo suit. Check out the old school hood pins on the frunk. Doug says “for those who want the eye-catching Countach look without the eye-watering Countach price, Pontiac Fiero-based replicas like this can be a lot of fun.”
Doug, when are you going to stand up for yourself? I know you didn’t write this.
Ferrari 308 GTB Replica
Classic: it’s a Fiero wearing a Ferrari suit. And of course, Doug loves it: “The Ferrari 308 GTB is an iconic ’80s poster car – but not everyone can afford (or wants to maintain) the real thing, and that’s where high-quality replicas serve a great purpose.”
This will probably sell for more than the MR2 Turbo above. Which would you rather have: the Poor Man’s Ferrari, or the Complete Idiot’s Ferrari?Final Thoughts
I gave away several more Scion CD Samplers to people who read this in their email earlier today. Could have been you, man. I have a whole box of ’em. Some other junk too. Get the email, scroll back up.
See you Soon.
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Ranking 2G Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX listings on Facebook Marketplace
It’s the baby Evo. It’s the BETTER Evo. It’s the crankwalking nightmare. It’s some weird soap bar from the ’90s. No matter how you look at it, it’s the 2G Eclipse GSX, and it’s an tuner favorite, a cult classic, a drag racing legend.
None of these are stock. An unmodified DSM does not exist in 2022, probably hasn’t existed for decades at this point. Will we find any worth whipping? Click through.
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Skull Shifters, Boy Racers, and Broughams: Reviewing Your Cars
The fourth chapter of reviewing your cars for 5K subs. We’ll do more in the near future, promise! Some great ones in here today, including an S13 hatch, a Caddy Brougham, and a Phoenix Yellow E46 BMW M3 coupe.
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Dodge Magnum SRT8: Recession-Era Racing
Image courtesy of Bring A Trailer Born from a Whipple-supercharged concept unveiled at the 2003 LA auto show, the Dodge Magnum SRT8 hit the street in 2006, becoming the 4th SRT8 product offered by Chrysler, who always referred to it as a “sport tourer” and never as a wagon.
Image courtesy of Bring A Trailer The Magnum SRT8 was powered by the revered 6.1 HEMI, pushing out 425 naturally aspirated horses and 420 pound feet of torque. Like all SRT8 products at the time, no manual was available: just the beefed up 5-speed auto derived from the Mercedes 5G-Tronic, which was deemed sufficiently responsive by the motoring press and dependable by the passage of time.
Image courtesy of Bring A Trailer 14 inch slotted discs and 4 piston Brembo calipers sat on all 4 corners to help tame the big wagon, which delegated its 4200 pound curb weight to the 20 Inch forged aluminum wheels and the Mopar-tuned suspension components underneath it. All this standard equipment resulted in respectable road manners and impressive straight line performance, with a 0-60 in 5.1 seconds and a 13.1 second quarter mile.
Image courtesy of Bring A Trailer Despite the impressive performance figures, only 2970 units left the factory during the first year of production in 2006, followed up by a comparably sad 921 units the next year in 2007, before dropping down further to a fractional 239 in the final year; when the Magnum itself was dropped from the dodge lineup in 2008. In total just over 4000 units left the factory over 3 years of production, with the ultra rare 2008 facelift models being the most coveted by collectors.
Today the SRT8 Magnum holds up as a solid daily for a discriminating buyer, and as the second to last American V8 wagon ever made. With low production numbers, lead footed drivers and 14 long years having passed since the end of production, Expect to pay mid 20s for sub 100,000 mile examples of this HEMI powered family hauler…. That is, if you can find one.
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Nice Price or No Dice: The Bring A Trailer Auction Game
It’s a simple game: nice price or crack pipe? Today I’m presenting a handful of Bring A Trailer auctions to the boys and seeing if they can tell a good deal from bad.
Oh, and Puchii bought a BMW Z3 for a steal. Nice!
