Classifieds and Auctions Thread

Case in point.

I do not like those retrobirds but that's actually reasonable compared to the usual $20K+ listing prices I see attached to them. Having said that I've seen how mechanically clapped out Lincoln LSs get with 100k+ miles, so.... :bangedbybird
 
I do not like those retrobirds but that's actually reasonable compared to the usual $20K+ listing prices I see attached to them. Having said that I've seen how mechanically clapped out Lincoln LSs get with 100k+ miles, so.... :bangedbybird

That’s a lot of miles on that car. That guy got his fair use out of it. But yeah, the price is reasonable for what it is.
 
They've disappointed and embarassed the MN 12 but that Black convertible aint so bad (I like the flat surface) if you look beyond the badge. Any other color not so much..
 
They've disappointed and embarassed the MN 12 but that Black convertible aint so bad (I like the flat surface) if you look beyond the badge. Any other color not so much..

Biggest problem is the Tbird went retro when Ford was still in its new edge phase of cars and trucks, so it never fit in with the corporate look, but it was still under the scrutiny of modern standards so all the distinct flare of the originals - the pointed headlight and taillight pods, wraparound windshield was smoothed out in the name of aerodynamics. If Ford held off and designed it just a few years later when the Ford GT supercar and S197 Mustang were, which were faithful to to the original designs, aero be damned, a retro 2 seater Tbird might have actually looked cool like those did.

I'm not going to pretend the MN12 was the best interpretation of the Thunderbird name either, it really wasn't. But the MN12s were pioneering pieces of domestic engineering and the styling doesn't have one bad angle. The 02s are just littered with compromise in their sedan derived platform, and its best qualities were better in the Lincoln and Jaguar where they made sense. It had a puny Jaguar V8 that made less power than the Mustang 4.6 SOHC for Christ sake, whose idea was that? Did they think buyers would find that "exotic"?

BUT I'd rather have it than a Mustang Mach E lol
 
Interior gorgeousness.

I enjoy seeing stuff like that. It makes me shake my head at all the people in the Lexus GS community who go gaga over the black interior. Some people have zero creativity. I've got a way better plan for my tan seats than being a follower who desperately wants a black interior from the junkyard for $47.88.
 
Interior gorgeousness.

Agreed! Its fantastic! There was a car in my local yard with a similar interior. White leather and blue inserts. I would have pulled it but someone had hacked it all up in the yard, Made me sad.
 
I enjoy seeing stuff like that. It makes me shake my head at all the people in the Lexus GS community who go gaga over the black interior. Some people have zero creativity. I've got a way better plan for my tan seats than being a follower who desperately wants a black interior from the junkyard for $47.88.

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Your black interior looks great. The '94-97 interior's character isn't lost one bit with the black.

To clarify my previous post, I meant a black interior on a 2nd gen Lexus GS. Those interiors came in either tan, gray, or black. There was also the limited edition Sport Design which had saddle tan seats. The vast majority of the cars were regular tan though. Black is seen as some sort of holy grail interior color for those cars when it's really not. Most of the interior character gets muted with black because, well, it's a '90s Toyota at the end of the day. Aside from a few small bits and pieces, it's not a striking interior design. To me, black is only desired because tan and especially gray aren't popular these days.
 
Your black interior looks great. The '94-97 interior's character isn't lost one bit with the black.

To clarify my previous post, I meant a black interior on a 2nd gen Lexus GS. Those interiors came in either tan, gray, or black. There was also the limited edition Sport Design which had saddle tan seats. The vast majority of the cars were regular tan though. Black is seen as some sort of holy grail interior color for those cars when it's really not. Most of the interior character gets muted with black because, well, it's a '90s Toyota at the end of the day. Aside from a few small bits and pieces, it's not a striking interior design. To me, black is only desired because tan and especially gray aren't popular these days.

I had no idea that was sought after in those, my dad had a black on black 03 GS300. I did think it was a really nice interior, but more so the materials than the color of them, he actually wanted the tan when he was looking for that car.
 
I had no idea that was sought after in those, my dad had a black on black 03 GS300. I did think it was a really nice interior, but more so the materials than the color of them, he actually wanted the tan when he was looking for that car.
Thankfully, it doesn't share any specific parts with the interior of either the Camry or Avalon from that era, but the overall design is still pretty distinctly Toyota. Having that in all black mutes what little outstanding character is left of the GS interior in my opinion. It doesn't look bad by any means and while I like the black, I don't get the hype over it either.

It's like the kids who get a GS these days as the third or fourth owner are just trying to follow contemporary design trends without understanding them. Both the gray and tan interiors are two-tone, which I think is neat. The shade of gray they used is kind of drab though. The tan has more of a luxury car feel albeit maybe not fully due to Toyota's interior design language, but I can work with it. Maybe kids these days have never been in a car with a tan interior before, because tan always hearkens back to my experiences riding in '80s Mercedes as well as memories of the classic tan interiors in Italian supercars of that era.
 
Interesting find. Not a fan of that camera work. Man, its so annoying how expensive carfax is. Are marks much more difficult to work on?
 
Biggest problem is the Tbird went retro when Ford was still in its new edge phase of cars and trucks, so it never fit in with the corporate look, but it was still under the scrutiny of modern standards so all the distinct flare of the originals - the pointed headlight and taillight pods, wraparound windshield was smoothed out in the name of aerodynamics. If Ford held off and designed it just a few years later when the Ford GT supercar and S197 Mustang were, which were faithful to to the original designs, aero be damned, a retro 2 seater Tbird might have actually looked cool like those did.

Ya, they could have looked pretty cool if they were committing to that 2-seater look, an alternative to a Corvette, but they ended up looking like those Aardman stop-motion Chevron commercials cars. I swear, I expect to see one of those cars start talking.

I'm not going to pretend the MN12 was the best interpretation of the Thunderbird name either, it really wasn't. But the MN12s were pioneering pieces of domestic engineering and the styling doesn't have one bad angle. The 02s are just littered with compromise in their sedan derived platform, and its best qualities were better in the Lincoln and Jaguar where they made sense. It had a puny Jaguar V8 that made less power than the Mustang 4.6 SOHC for Christ sake, whose idea was that? Did they think buyers would find that "exotic"?

I think they are fantastic looking but, ya, they don't say "Thunderbird" in terms of the classic mental image. I remember liking the previous '80s Thunderbirds, the Fox body version. Especially in black, what a cool aggressive-looking car. Then the MN12s came out, initially I thought they looked ok but not as good, but the more I looked at them, goddamn, they have the same proportions as some of the best muscle cars from '68-'72! I mean, you squint and you can almost see a '70 Dodge Challenger or a '70 Ford Torino instead. And then, when I looked again at the Fox body Thunderbirds I really noticed the weird proportions, very boxy, a little too much front overhang, looks more and more like a Mustang on growth hormone.

At least there were 4-seater Thunderbirds, including those land yachts that needed a sub-compact car to act as a tugboat to park them. I've always hated the new Dodge Chargers because no classic Charger was ever a 4-door. Chargers were designed off the Coronet, initially, those cars came as both 2 and 4-door versions. If they'd simply called these modern Chargers Coronets, that would have been fine. Make a 2-door version and call that a Charger, possibly, though a Super Bee would have been more accurate. Way too boxy and snub-nosed to ever be a Charger. Or a Magnum Coupe, that would have been the best name option, that Magnum station wagon was cool.
 
Ya, they could have looked pretty cool if they were committing to that 2-seater look, an alternative to a Corvette, but they ended up looking like those Aardman stop-motion Chevron commercials cars. I swear, I expect to see one of those cars start talking.



I think they are fantastic looking but, ya, they don't say "Thunderbird" in terms of the classic mental image. I remember liking the previous '80s Thunderbirds, the Fox body version. Especially in black, what a cool aggressive-looking car. Then the MN12s came out, initially I thought they looked ok but not as good, but the more I looked at them, goddamn, they have the same proportions as some of the best muscle cars from '68-'72! I mean, you squint and you can almost see a '70 Dodge Challenger or a '70 Ford Torino instead. And then, when I looked again at the Fox body Thunderbirds I really noticed the weird proportions, very boxy, a little too much front overhang, looks more and more like a Mustang on growth hormone.

At least there were 4-seater Thunderbirds, including those land yachts that needed a sub-compact car to act as a tugboat to park them. I've always hated the new Dodge Chargers because no classic Charger was ever a 4-door. Chargers were designed off the Coronet, initially, those cars came as both 2 and 4-door versions. If they'd simply called these modern Chargers Coronets, that would have been fine. Make a 2-door version and call that a Charger, possibly, though a Super Bee would have been more accurate. Way too boxy and snub-nosed to ever be a Charger. Or a Magnum Coupe, that would have been the best name option, that Magnum station wagon was cool.

Yeah I still like certain elements of the fox cars but the 104" wheelbase is awkwardly short for a 200" long car, Ford should have at least kept it at 108 like the 80-82s and the Mark VII.

The thing with Charger in present times is it is arguably Dodge's best car name, if not one of the best car names ever, while Coronet is a dumb name, I just think of the name of the phonetically similar wind instrument. Making it 4 doors gets you gets you that name, you get proper low sedan with a trunk proportions, and potentially lots of power driven to the rear wheels. Nobody wants a Coronet, people didn't even want a Coronet back then; note how many Superbees and Charger 383 and R/T440/Hemis seem to exist today vs the Coronet R/T.

Polara would be better to revive if the 4 door wasn't called charger, as the reality is there's no precious link that a 4 door mopar has to be a Coronet, other than being a B body. but the LX is no B body, and weight wise it is closer to a C body
 
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My buddy Victor had a green coronet in high school. He lost his license for 10 years, lol. It was a badass drag car, with ladder bars. It would do a burnout forever. I think the reckless driving thing that lost him his license was related to a burnout that popped the tires, and the cops were watching.
 
Yeah I still like certain elements of the fox cars but the 104" wheelbase is awkwardly short for a 200" long car, Ford should have at least kept it at 108 like the 80-82s and the Mark VII.

It's amazing how just a little adjustment can ruin a car's look. I remember hating the Ford Ranchero because that nose was so far out over the front tires, it looked like a Superbird.

The thing with Charger in present times is it is arguably Dodge's best car name, if not one of the best car names ever, while Coronet is a dumb name, I just think of the name of the phonetically similar wind instrument. Making it 4 doors gets you gets you that name, you get proper low sedan with a trunk proportions, and potentially lots of power driven to the rear wheels. Nobody wants a Coronet, people didn't even want a Coronet back then; note how many Superbees and Charger 383 and R/T440/Hemis seem to exist today vs the Coronet R/T.

True, but that's a chicken or the egg problem. The Charger is Dodge's best car name because it's Dodge's best car name. There's no secret formula in the name, it was just attached to their coolest intermediate, it could easily have been called a Coronet. I know marketing helps but if a car is amazing, people will buy it, especially now with less choices (only 4, really, today), back during the '60s and '70s every manufacturer had a dozen choices. People love the Challenger now in a way that it never really took off back in the '70s. Why? Because it's a great car, looks cool, goes fast. It could be called the Box and it would still sell.

If "Charger" is such a great name why do they keep attaching new names to it? Daytona and Super Bee and whatever else, no respect for history, just trot out every name. Why is the Challenger a Demon now? I like the new names, Hellcat and whatever, because the engines are new. But stop slapping every old name onto one car over and over, it's confusing. Make the 4-door the Coronet then make the 2-door (like that EV concept is threatening to do) the Charger, done. That EV proves (like the previous concept attempt) that they're capable of making a goddamn 2-door Charger. I hope it gets made and if people scream for 4 doors then the Coronet is brought out of mothballs to distinguish it. I mean, they've used up most of the other names already. Magnum is still viable.

I like "Coronet", feels sort of "Corvette" to me, or maybe like "Satellite" or "Tempest". Not a bad name, though now that you say it I'll think "Clarinet R/T" forever, hahaaha. Clarinets are cool, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, those guys were fantastic.

Polara would be better to revive if the 4 door wasn't called charger, as the reality is there's no precious link that a 4 door mopar has to be a Coronet, other than being a B body. but the LX is no B body, and weight wise it is closer to a C body

Oooh, ya. Or Fury, maybe, more "tough" like Demon since they don't care about name consistency.
 
True, but that's a chicken or the egg problem. The Charger is Dodge's best car name because it's Dodge's best car name. There's no secret formula in the name, it was just attached to their coolest intermediate, it could easily have been called a Coronet. I know marketing helps but if a car is amazing, people will buy it, especially now with less choices (only 4, really, today), back during the '60s and '70s every manufacturer had a dozen choices. People love the Challenger now in a way that it never really took off back in the '70s. Why? Because it's a great car, looks cool, goes fast. It could be called the Box and it would still sell.

If "Charger" is such a great name why do they keep attaching new names to it? Daytona and Super Bee and whatever else, no respect for history, just trot out every name. Why is the Challenger a Demon now? I like the new names, Hellcat and whatever, because the engines are new. But stop slapping every old name onto one car over and over, it's confusing. Make the 4-door the Coronet then make the 2-door (like that EV concept is threatening to do) the Charger, done. That EV proves (like the previous concept attempt) that they're capable of making a goddamn 2-door Charger. I hope it gets made and if people scream for 4 doors then the Coronet is brought out of mothballs to distinguish it. I mean, they've used up most of the other names already. Magnum is still viable.

I like "Coronet", feels sort of "Corvette" to me, or maybe like "Satellite" or "Tempest". Not a bad name, though now that you say it I'll think "Clarinet R/T" forever, hahaaha. Clarinets are cool, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, those guys were fantastic.

I disagree with that, Dodge was using Charger in one capacity or another before it became a model in 1966, the 273 V8 in the Dart GT was called the "charger V8" (much like Magnum was an engine designation earlier), and the ramchargers in drag racing during the Max Wedge era. It's just a cool name, and once Dodge had the opportunity to name a new model fitting of it they jumped at the chance. Of course today your average person will associate it with the wall wart they plug their phone into but it was about charging at you like a Ram, the perfect name for a performance car. What does Coronet mean? A crown worn by lesser royalty.

Daytona, Superbee et al are just trim lines, no different than Thunderbird LX, Cougar XR7 or Charger R/T. They don't usurp the name, they're just in addition to it, and that's obviously not a new phenomena when you consider historical pairings like "Torino Cobra or "Comet Cyclone". If they were to Split the 4 door and two door names I think Magnum for many reasons would be more fitting........ but if history is to be adhered to the First Magnum model was a 2 door coupe as well, not the most well known or beloved thing being a Cordoba/Charger with an aero nose but should reverence influence what historical object is most protected? As an MN12 fan, a largely underappreciated platform, I don't think so.

I think it comes down to if there's a deviation from the original is it worthy of it? In my opinion, yes. Because there's more to the Charger's legacy than the 68-70, you'll get no argument from me that they're the best looking, but the 66-67s and 71-74s had better racing success without the aid of tacked on appendages and it was racing prominence through the ramchargers team that made the name a Mopar icon. The 4 door LX platform started really rocky and was absolutely unbefitting of the name, but the current generation earned it's place. I'd have a different opinion if they made the Durango the Charger.


And as long as I've been alive normies mix up Charger for Challenger interchangeably, calling the latter the former 9 out of 10 times. I know this was the wrong takeaway from the tragic event but when that idiot ran through the crowd in a Challenger I could have started a drinking game for every time a witness or reporter called it a Charger.


I have more of a problem with the new usage of Hornet on a badge engineered italian crossover. That is not worthy to the name Hudson turned into a legend
 
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Thank you Green ! I caught this one but its too tempting to immortalize here HEH. But keep em coming. There's also a really clean black bird I am eying. I was saving up for a house downpayment but Im starting to think its stupid to buy a house in this market (or is it smart, because shits only getting worse)

I have an issue with buying from private sellers that far up in portland/vancouver... This is probably legit but there's a big car theft ring going on. AGAIN, this is why I hate how expensive car fax is. We should have a right to know whether or not a car was stolen or wrecked. Its public record so long as you have a bunch of cash.

I have an interesting story about a Lincoln Mark VII I saw for sale. I started calling him and asking him for info. Asked for proof of title. The title said it was a 4 door, so I took that as my final indication not to proceed with the sale. Several months later, the same guy was shot and killed by police after he stabbed and killed a hospital guard. I remember the phone calls with him because he told a long prayer when I told him I think its out of my budget. Everything about it was weird.
 
Anyone want to talk me into it?

Is there anything the Scan Gauge II can pick up if I brought it?
 
Im starting to look at that cougar more seriously. The custom tune is concerning, how do I figure out if the tune is fine and that the car gets what it needs to accomodate that? Different fuel etc. (aside from asking seller) [Edit: In that regard, what are the proper questions to ask? Did they switch to DOT 4, did they swap over to full synthetic oil, etc]

I will refer to an old article I remember somewhere saying what to look for on inspection, beyond rocker panel inspection. That was a good post, I hope he's still around to post it up here

Whats the first thing you'd do to it?

 
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Im starting to look at that cougar more seriously. The custom tune is concerning, how do I figure out if the tune is fine and that the car gets what it needs to accomodate that? Different fuel etc. (aside from asking seller) [Edit: In that regard, what are the proper questions to ask? Did they switch to DOT 4, did they swap over to full synthetic oil, etc]

I will refer to an old article I remember somewhere saying what to look for on inspection, beyond rocker panel inspection. That was a good post, I hope he's still around to post it up here

Whats the first thing you'd do to it?


It depends on what it is, tune to some people is a resistor on the IAT lol I'd lose that hot air intake first, unquestionably.

The engine bay has been repainted if you look closely, not necessarily a red flag but it's potentially misleading in how clean it actually is. Pearl white engine bays are never that white, but also there's overspray on the shock washers and mount plates , not suggesting quality work to me
 

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