Eschewing the appliance (how to buy used)

The lovely pagoda top Mercedes 280, a car you can still afford.

For some, the car is nothing more than a means of getting from point a to point b. For such folks, the automobile is an appliance that is less respected than a lawnmower (particularly if that lawnmower is electric and thus desirable to be seen pushing around.)

For other people, the car is a portable amusement park. The Road Rake is written for such people and will continue to be written until all its readers have found their very own Xanadu on wheels.

Compiling a list of portable Xanadus would prove quxiotic. Linking to evo magazine (included in my links) or perhaps Wheels of Italy locally will get you started. In the meantime, if you are looking for a great car keep the following in mind:

Shop for soul. That means you’ll be interested mainly in pure breeds like sports cars, real trucks and the like.

This is tough because all manufacturers build cars from the same parts bin these days. Yet pure breeds still come into being. Best of all, they rarely sell well when they are made in larger numbers, which can mean a great deal to you. Witness the Lincoln Mark II (too understated for the time). The original Riviera (same thing). Or more recently the Mazda RX-7, the Toyota Supra Turbo and the current Corvette (sadly, not the Z-06 everyone realizes it for the brilliant car it is).

Of course this is not always the case. Pretty much all the Maranello Barchettas on the market are currently spoken for, as are the Pagani Zondas and the BMW M3s (the 2007 model). Yet some Ferarris in the mid-60s were not selling so well, given the craze at the time for mid-engined supercars (which Enzo firmly resisted), and even today there are great classics that are only now coming into their own.

Here’s an example. Take the Mercedes Benz 280 SL convertible (with available Pagoda top), last made in 1971. A good example can be found for the mid-20s. Does this car have soul? Oh, yes-particularly from 40 mph to 100 mph. Is it a pure breed? You betcha, it is a beautiful roadster. Is it the purest example of the breed? No. That would have to be the 300 Sl, which can be had for a mere $150,000 more. But the average transportation appliance driver can hardly tell the difference, and most women go wild for both sets of wheels.

Heck, the ladies even go wild for my Alfa Spider (a mere 7k toy). I know this because I know no longer have the hairline to make it on my own.

(note: portions of this entry have been lifted from my own bulletin/blog groovyman.com.)