"...no, no, no, I said he wanted to collect carDs! With a D!"
Anyway, here's the story. We are about to find ourselves with a
fairly modest sum of money (I've had bites on both the Chevelle
*and* the Pontiac wagon), and we're planning to replace these two
proto-family-cars with one reasonably sized, interesting, worthwhile-
to-drive vehicle. My dream: "Waaaal, Ah got this h'yah 1958 MG
ZB Magnette, the motor's knockin' and the tranny howls but it ain't
rusty, Ah figger Ah'd let it go fer a coupla hunnerd..."
This will have to be a Practical car, though not necessarily a
Sensible car. It needs back doors for schlepping leetle ones in and
out of. It needs to cost no more than, say, an MGB engine rebuild.
And it has to fit in with two Britcars -- one stock, one race -- and
a Prusso-American hybrid Mini Cooper S clone.
The problem is, there ARE no British cars, at least in the States,
that fill the bill. Sure, Jags make fine family cars, but the
two V8s won't bring in that much money. And a Morris Minor is too
small for our purposes -- I need something more the size of a Cortina,
a Magnette, or some of the nifty English Fords that we only read about
in the magazines.
Or am I simply forgetting something that I should know about? Here are
the criteria:
- Four doors
- Reasonable size -- bigger than a Rabbit, smaller than an Audi 5000
- Fun, either through performance or through sheer charm
- Cheap cheap cheap (under $2000)
- Adequate performance (spark ignition only, please)
- Reasonable fuel economy (a by-product of most of the other specs)
- Fair parts availability
- Durable and reasonably reliable (assuming comparable maintenance
to the MGB)
If you've got British suggestions, please share them with the list.
If you've got non-British suggestions, I want to know but the rest
of the list might not.
And if you have such a creature available for purchase, I'm especially
interested, or will be in about a week.
--Scott
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