Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
A few weeks back, I wrote up a restored Scirocco 16V. With a lot of work completed, I guessed that the reserve was set high at around $10,000 considering some of the better Sciroccos we had seen and what they brought. Well, I was wrong; that car is back up for sale with a “Buy It Now” set below the high bid when I wrote the article at $5,000. Does that mean the world isn’t ready for $10,000 Sciroccos? Well, this seller apparently thinks we’re very close:
I’ve alluded to my M5 ownership throughout my posts here, but haven’t really put together a more informative piece about what it’s been like to own my dream car. No, the experience has not always been a dream, but having a firm belief going into ownership that the car is a dream has been a great baseline attitude when something breaks or the mechanic’s bills come. To quote Walter Sobchak paraphrasing Theodor Herzl: “If you will it, dude, it is no dream.â€
What’s going on here? Tax returns are still heading out and we’re feeling rich? Well, not so much but it is nice to dream. While normally on Friday we look for the best deals, this duo was too good to pass up. You could argue about who started the super-sedan trend, but there’s no doubt that the Germans perfected it. Two of the most memorable of these are the E28 M5 and W124 500E; blunt instruments that achieve their goals of luxurious speed in very different ways. We’ve covered many M5s recently of different generations, but as I mentioned in the M5 Roundup, while it’s tempting to buy the cheapest M5 you can get your hands on that’s often a poor decision; in many ways, the same could be said about the 500E. So, here are two quite nice examples to choose from – which would be your dream? Let’s start with the M5:
About a month ago, I wrote up a 2002 M20 Turbo built by a company called Manofied. Well, the Manofied folks have been at it again, this time with a 535i. They’ve fully built the car in the style of the Alpina B9, replete with plenty of Alpina parts, some Euro bits, and what appears to be a fantastic individual throttle body engine. The downside? As with the 2002, the price for this build is quite high for a non-original car. But before you jump to conclusions, take a look:
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” How many times do we hear this in passing? Perhaps in this age of instant communication and mass produced goods, it rings more true than ever. For the most part, new cars are more reliable and offer technology one could have only dreamed of a scant ten years ago. For some, new cars have lost a bit of that special feeling that came with design driven by passion rather than committee and accountant. Step into a car today and even the most extravagant models will have some parts from a central supplier or share switchgear with lesser models in the parent company portfolio.
This nicely presented 560SL comes to us from our friends at Sun Valley Auto Club in Idaho and is a stunning example of one of the most iconic Mercedes designs of the last few decades.