Craigslist Crapshoot

By Robert Emslie Sep 7, 2016

The World’s Worst Car Is For Sale On Craigslist
Welcome to Craigslist Crapshoot, our weekly search for the most bizarre, awesome, and/or terrible vehicles that the online classifieds has to offer. 
 
When chickens are seeking to hatch their eggs they sit on them to keep them warm. In a similar fashion auto makers have birthed some hot hatches over the years and last week went looking for best deals on ones that sellers might be sitting on. We’ll see those in a sec, but first we must discuss this week’s quest!
Hot hatches are great and all, but they don’t really express to others your status in life once you’ve really made it. That’s the purpose of the sport sedan. Those aspirational cars however, can go from status symbol to albatross as they age and become more costly—both in repairs and down time—and that’s just what we want to find this week: sport sedans that while once lust-worthy are now most likely money pits. 
As always, we want your finds to go down in infamy and not in the site’s spam filter. Since we’ve changed commenting systems, you may need to update your commenter account. Make sure you have a Disqus account – they’re free and easy to get – and then comment away.

Got that? Good, Now, is it hot in here or is it just me?


Holy cow, there are a lot of cool cars that fall under the “hot hatch” moniker. Many of those, like the Ford Focus SVT (ad gone missing) found by JayP were cheap enough to make arm chair quarterbacking their purchase a practical activity.
The Saab 900 located by Jofes2 was perhaps outside the boundaries of what we might traditionally construe as being a hot hatch, but with its turbo mill and gaping rear door opening it certainly met enough criteria to be included. Perhaps better excluded were the PT Cruiser (purple flames!) found by ptschett, and a Honda Civic that amazingly belches smoke from an exhaust tapped to an oil tank. That latter one was brought to us by gerberbaby. Fuhrman16 couldn’t believe that a GTI hadn’t made the list yet and so offered up a nice 16V MKII to make up for the omission.
It was hard to pick one car from the lot, seeing as there were so many awesome rides from which to choose. In the end I picked the Canada-located 1999 Toyota Glanza V which was brought to us by The Real Number_Six. That’s because it’s a car that’s both super-rare and likely rollerskate on steroids fun.
Congrats to The Real Number_Six and thank you all for the excellent contributions. Without you our crapshoot would be really crappy! Now, let’s go find some bad ideas.
http---www.kijiji.ca-v-cars-trucks-dartmouth-1999-toyota-other-glanza-v-coupe-2-door-CC
 

0 thoughts on “Craigslist Crapshoot”
    1. I wonder if it actually has engine troubles, or just needs a new ECU. I think this era is notorious for the ECU death, especially on the second or third owner. Apparently, it really does need the fancy battery that costs $400 to prevent ECU frying.

      1. Alternatively, this is a very cheap shell to throw in some alternative motivation, maybe something surprising. Four Trabant engines for example…for a grand total of 104 hp.

  1. http://s.sbito.it/images/39/39444376639191.jpg
    “Sorry, kids, there will be no Christmas this year because daddy has spent all money going on a trade mission through the south of Europe to find some left-over Ferrari head gaskets for his oxidizing Saab.”
    That perfectly tight, black leather interior is enough for anyone to start exploring their submissive side, though.
    http://www.subito.it/auto/lancia-thema-8-32-lim-ferrari-catalitica-1992-trapani-139938335.htm

          1. Could it be the first electric pop-up spoiler on a street car. VW Corrado had something similar but that was a bit later. Something for Hooniversity to investigate.

      1. At the time, Chrysler’s LH platform cars sold reasonably well, and were much nicer (and faster) than their Buick/Olds/Lincoln rivals… if ultimately far less durable. Remember, this was the late 90s, when jelly bean shapes and blobby plastic interiors were the industry standard.

      2. I think I sufficiently lusted after certain 3.5L 2nd-gen LH cars, prior to 2006 (particularly the 300M and the Intrepid R/T) to address this concern.

  2. I introduced fellow Hooniversialist, who had sadly lost his beloved Citroen XM via rear-ending accident, to the idea of cheap Maserati Quttroporte. That €3k car was sold by dealer so maybe not ideal for the Crapshoot, here however is one sold by private party, engine runs a bit rough and inspection is over due. What can go wrong, the car looks great! €4,5k?
    http://ww3.autoscout24.de/classified/288995220?asrc=st|as
    http://pic1.autoscout24.net/images-big/220/995/0288995220004.jpg?59ded1cad208b4f6aa546a5e18ea32e6

        1. I remember the post, sad story. I just can’t resist making a Unitarian joke. The opportunity doesn’t come up much, not like Swedenborgian jokes.

  3. Totally OT again. For sale: 1 used “Karakat”, the type of vehicle slightly drunk, mainly Russian, men who are into ice-fishing would build for themselves so they can get to sometimes already disappearing ice, away from home, with the ice drill, fishing rod and a bottle of vodka. 450€. Has electric starter (engine seems to be from a snowmobile), comes with a trailer for fishing stuff. http://soov-ee.postimees.ee/481493-karakat/details.html
    http://s.kodusoov.ee/images/listings/2016-09/270ba45d-1472734606-962-e.jpg

  4. Trying to find an S70R posed to be a surprising challenge. The only Norwegian-Craigslist car was located in Sweden. Even mobile.de has only three, this being the cheapest one, for probably being modded “slightly” by some kid’s hands:
    http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=227509296
    http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjU1WDEwMjQ=/z/1TkAAOSwZ1BXcrbS/$_20.jpg
    http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDQ3WDEwMjQ=/z/6ksAAOSwnFZXUZ5E/$_20.jpg
    The early R-series are probably not the worst “luxury” sedans to invest into, but they are rare and have their challenges. What I didn’t know was how these cost from 10k€ upwards already.

  5. Jaguar racing history with a manual gear box. Oh this was one sporty sedan back in its day. Now though it’s lost its luster. It’s an old cat that’s just laying in the window letting you admire it while it fades away.
    But wait, what’s that?
    She still has something left in her. You can bring her back with enough time, money, spare parts, hopes, dreams, and British spare parts. Oh and don’t forget the Lucas smoke. You’ll need some of that too. Now get out there and bring the old girl home for Britain!
    1967Jaguar MK2 3.4.. RIGHT HAND DRIVE, 4speed with over/drive, Rare Factory air condition, Complete car all original, Original Jaguar tool box in trunk, Body has rust but all glass and chrome are in great shape…Car has been sitting for over 25 years $5000.00 O.B.O. Call Jim @
    show contact info
    http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/5721050134.html

        1. The rust that falls off is actually metal to be used on other parts of the car. See the British are actually trying to help you out.

    1. Pretty sure you’re supposed to consult with a mechanic if it stays in firm mode for more than 4 hours.

        1. Sounds like some/all air suspension elements are doing something else than their job. I wonder if it’s wise to get such parts from a salvage yard.

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