QOTD: Can You Build an Ideal Crapwagon Garage? (Part II: Sedans)
In the first installment of the Crapwagon Garage QOTD series, we asked all of you to submit value-priced used hatchbacks which were near and dear enough to earn one of the limited spots available.
Moving away from the hatch and liftback body style, today we turn our virtual attention to the sedan section of the Crapwagon Garage.
First, the honorable mention from last week’s post. This is a single vehicle which falls under I Wish I Thought of That. From Part I:
It’s the Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S, as first selected by paxman356. An American-made hot hatch from the late ’80s that most people forgot long ago. It’s great, and I love it in its monochrome white. Nice job.
Before we turn you loose on sedans, let’s see this week’s rules.
- A crapwagon must be a vehicle which is relatively easy to find and purchase using an internet.
- All vehicles in the crapwagon garage must have been sold as new, in the North American market.
- Said vehicles must be obtainable to the casual crapwagon collector (CCC). This means in clean, running condition each one asks $7,000 or less on a normal day.
- Your suggestions must fit into the vehicle category of the week. If you don’t like the category, that’s tough. We’ll get to a category you like eventually.
- There are five rules to this garage game, and that’s the maximum number of vehicles you may submit for each section. Only five.
And what do I mean by sedan? A sedan must have a real trunk and not a hatch, and two passenger entry doors on either side of the car, totaling four (4). The deceased “two-door sedan” subcategory of vehicle does not apply here, as those vehicles fit within the coupe entry coming along later. Here are two of my Crapwagon Garage sedans.
The early-00’s Infiniti M45. It’s rear-drive, V8-powered, and has frameless windows. It’s a JDM Nissan Gloria with a nicer interior and the steering wheel on the correct side. The M45 was the last hardtop-style JDM sedan North America received. And because it was off the wall and unpopular, it’s an easily affordable Crapwagon pick.
Another selection is the circa 1997 Jaguar XJR. Timeless elegance and British style shroud one brute of a large, supercharged sedan. Who could ask for more?
Get those memories working, and give us your sedan picks.
[Images: Jaguar / Land Rover, Toyota, Infiniti]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
More by Corey Lewis
Comments
Join the conversation
Corey, I am not really comfortable with calling a $7,000 car a "crapwagon". I think, in today's car market, a $7,000 car is an AVERAGE car. Not crap. I think the price cutoff for a "crapwagon" should be about $3,000.
1996 Jaguar XJR 1995 Cadillac Seville STS (Yes, I know, Northstar, but I've always loved these) 1993 Audi V8 Quattro (no love for these yet?) 1989 Mitsubishi Sigma (another irrational long-term object of desire) Can you get a decent Mercury Marauder for under $7k these days? I used to own an '03 and kick myself over selling it. Not sure what values are like currently, but I'm guessing one with 150k or so might slide under that cutoff. If not, park a '91 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with the 350 in slot #5.