Tag Archives: C5 Corvette

Six Pack Of American 1980s Cars For Under 25K

Ugh it’s winter and here in Southern Ontario as I type this we are at the tail end of the Polar Vortex. It’s damn cold out. But there are some things that lend themselves well to “tossing another log on” and staying cozy while enjoying being indoors or perhaps in your heated shop or garage.

In fact, the winter is a great time to take stock and plan for your automotive future. Maybe you’ve packed your summer car away for the season and realized there’s still room for one more, or perhaps you’ve been whiling away the winter daydreaming about the car that got away years ago.

Get Out The Hair Gel

Whatever the case, our friends at Hagerty put together their latest valuation info to find some cool ’80s-vintage North American cars and trucks that we would like to add to our collections, and we think you might agree with at least some of them. Read on brave winter warrior….

The following six vehicles can all be had for less than $25,000 usd/ $35,8300 cad in #3 (Good) condition. That’s a solid starting place for a classic you plan on putting some miles on, and a great place to start if you want a running and driving project that you can cruise to RADwood with. Here then are their excellent picks, in descending order based on value.

1989 Ford Mustang LX 5.0

1987 Ford Mustang coupe side proifle
Ford

#3 Value: $24,900 usd/ $35,680 cad

The LX was a bit of a sleeper as it had the same EFI 5.0-liter V-8 as the GT without the flashy bits. We like the later Fox-body styling, and while the ’89 comes close to the $25,000 usd price cap, 1987 and 1988 models look just as good and tend to be just a bit more affordable. Of course, four-eyed Fox-body Mustangs (which some of the Hagerty team find more stylish) tend to be even less expensive, but they are also less powerful. One of these later LX models would be a great place to start for a mild build to enjoy the fantastic 5.0-liter soundtrack, as few platforms have the kind of aftermarket behind it that the Fox-body still enjoys.

1987 Buick Regal T-Type Turbo

Buick-Regal-T-Type-Turbo-rear-three-quarter
Mecum

#3 Value: $23,800 usd/ $38,400 cad

Speaking of sleepers, the turbocharged Buicks of the ’80s are some of the most infamous. Even when the sinister black Grand National gained a reputation, the less overt turbocharged Buick models still flew under the radar. The later turbo Buicks were fuel injected and Buick kept improving the punchy 3.8-liter V-6, with final models getting upgraded airflow by way of a new charge cooler, an aluminum intake manifold, and an improved turbocharger. The final tweaks gave 1987 turbo Buicks 245 hp and 355lb-ft of torque. While those numbers aren’t particularly impressive when compared to more modern performance cars (keeping in mind that hp isn’t everything when it comes to performance measurements) , or family sedans for that matter, they put Buicks firmly in the fight for the title of quickest new cars on the market. Their interesting development history makes them a worthy collectible, and the less flashy T-Type is a great entry point at about 35 percent less than a comparable Grand National.

1989 Chevrolet Corvette Callaway

1989 Chevrolet Corvette Callaway
Callaway Cars

#3 Value: $23,800 usd/ $34,100 cad

If 245 horsepower was a lot in 1987 (it was), imagine how exotic a 382hp twin-turbo Corvette must have been. The late Reeves Callaway had a long history of building exciting and powerful Corvettes, and even the earliest models were an ambitious project. The first twin-turbo Corvettes his company turned out in 1987 produced 345 hp, the same rating the first C5 Corvettes would receive with their naturally aspirated LS1 V-8s starting in 1997. Ever improving, Callaway soon had the 350-cubic-inch small-block pumping out 382 hp and 525 lb-ft of torque, making it one of the most powerful cars you could buy. It even came with a 12-month warranty. Just 69 Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvettes were built in 1989 and today their #3 value is just less than the $26,000 usd cost of the B2K RPO code that indicated the rare powertrain option. They might be more trouble to maintain than the rugged and simple 350 that came in everyday C4 Corvettes, but the Callaway Twin-Turbo mill was truly special. It’s also one of the best-looking C4 variants ever created, if you ask us.

1988 Stutz Bearcat

1988-Stutz-Bearcat-II
Stutz Motor Car Company

#3 Value: $23,100 usd/ $33,100 cad

The Stutz Bearcat is not well known, and those that do have any knowledge of the low-volume cars probably remember the ’60s iteration, a reemergence of the nameplate, and based on the Pontiac Grand Prix. Few will remember the original: a racy, brass-era runabout, and you can bet that if you arrived at a show in the final version of the Bearcat, based on the third-gen Firebird and sporting a carbon fiber composite body built in Turin, you’d be met with a lot of puzzled looks. Only about a dozen were built on the F-body platform, making them a truly rare sight. While the ubiquitous small-block drivetrain would make them easy to maintain, everything else about the car would be difficult to replace. Still, it’s quite a head-turning piece of American and Italian coachwork.

1980 International Harvester Scout Terra

#3 Value: $22,400 usd/ $32,100 cad

International Harvester gave its Scout lineup a makeover for its final year, featuring a new grille designed by Dick Hatch that used rectangular headlights. We think that the final grille is a great fit for the simple, blocky trucks and SUVs. The one shown above, with orange and yellow graphics, is practically perfect. While the standard wheelbase Scout II and the stretched Scout Traveler SUV are both outside of our $25,000 usd threshold, the stretched wheelbase Terra pickup is a more affordable entry point to Scout and meets the criteria when equipped with either the six-cylinder Nissan turbodiesel or the 196-cube four-cylinder that used the passenger bank of the company’s venerable 392 V-8. We love these rugged rigs and the Terra, with its 118-inch wheelbase and short overhangs, combines a decent-sized bed with maneuverability that’s appreciated off-road. The final year of Scout production would make an excellent addition to a collection where it could pitch in with its rugged utility and look great doing it.

1989 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

Courtesy Throttlestop/Andrew Marvan

#3 Value: $18,800 usd/ $26,900 cad

Chevrolet’s competitor to the lighter, more angular Mustang GT was the IROC-Z, the performance-oriented F-body that finally got the 350-cubic-inch Tuned-Port Injection (TPI) engine from its big brother, Corvette, starting in 1987. The 5.7-liter powerplant was only available with a four-speed auto as the T5 transmission that fits under the Camaro’s floorplan couldn’t handle the larger motor’s torque. The TPI intake, perched like a spider on top of the engine, featured long runners that favored low-speed torque. Unfortunately the intake, and the engine’s meager cylinder heads, weren’t great at maintaining that torque to get the power numbers up, Still, it competed well against the smaller Ford V-8 in the Mustang. Contemporary reviews praised the IROC-Z’s power, road-holding, steering feel, and traction compared to its Mustang counterpart, but the 5.0-liter Mustangs were formidable opponents. Your choice might come down to brand loyalty or whether you prefer the boxy Fox-body or the sleek F-body. If we found one of these in our garage, we’d be tempted to troll eBay and swap meets for vintage ’80s speed parts to build a day-two IROC-Z for canyons and backroads. But that is just us.

These Fun, Affordable 21st-Century Cars Aren’t Classics…Yet


Every so often, I engage in a particularly futile and depressing ritual—I shop for cars that I’ve foolishly let go. They’re cars that could have been feasible 10 years ago, but not today. I’ve been priced out of the market for virtually all of them. And while the market might be settling down at the moment, there are few signs of an out-and-out retreat to pre-pandemic pricing. Among cars from the 1970s through the early 1990s, there are precious few bargains. But go a little bit newer, where there’s even some depreciation yet to be done, and the picture gets more enticing. I’m talking cars from the 2000s to 2010s that are getting older, but still aren’t considered any kind of “classic” or “collectible” yet. Here are some highlights.

Fiat 500 Abarth

Fiat

The 500 Abarth is the closest thing to a real hot hatch that Fiat has ever offered in the U.S., a market that is sadly short on real hot hatches. There were more interesting varieties of the Punto and Ritmo, but those were Euro-only cars that frankly weren’t very good compared to competition from Renault, Peugeot, VW, and Ford. As for the 500 Abarth, although it first arrived here in the early 2010s, the 160-hp pocket rocket feels more like a 1990s hot hatch. It’s crude, the ride is choppy, and a 10 year-old Fiat probably wears more like a 20 year-old VW. But it’s loud, analog-feeling, and fun. Most importantly, it’s cheap. Around $8000usd to $10,000usd/ $11,000cad to $13,700cad buys one with under 50,000 miles/ 80,467kms. That’s tons of fun per us or canadian dollar in a package that offers an old school driving experience in something that’s new enough to have most contemporary features and conveniences.

MazdaSpeed3

2010 mazdaspeed3
Mazda/Guy Spangenberg

Back in the days of the Zoom Zoom tagline, Mazda fielded the incredibly entertaining MazdaSpeed3. Offered from 2007-13, it’s a four-door hatch with 263 hp and 280 lb. ft. of torque. It’s exactly the kind of car enthusiasts and auto journalists beg manufacturers for, but rarely head to a dealership and actually buy.  Everyone who tested a Speed3 back in the day found the car fun, especially those of us who were entertained by the torque-steer. Car and Driver wasn’t, comparing driving the car to a game of tug-of-war. But, affordability and perfection don’t often go hand-in-hand, so for $10,000usd to $12,000usd/ $13,700cad tp $16,400cad at current prices you could do far worse than the powerful and practical Speed3.

C5 Corvette

C5 Corvette Front Country Road Action
Josh Sweeney

If hot hatches aren’t your jam, there’s always the bargain Corvette of the moment, the 1997-2004 C5. While some variants, most notably the Z06, sailed beyond true affordability in the last several years, a base manual C5 with somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 miles/ 120,000km and 160,934km can still be had in the $13,000usd to $15,000usd range/ $17,760cad – $20,490cad. That’s a huge bargain for what was an utterly clean sheet design, one of the few in Corvette history, and more performance than almost anything in this price point. Interiors are standard 2000s GM, but livable. And the styling, over a quarter-century after it was introduced, is aging quite nicely.

2003-08 BMW Z4

2006 bmw z4 roadster front
BMW

The 2003-08 Z4 is a bit like the C5 Corvette in that it wasn’t universally loved when new, but is aging well. Available in 2.5- and 3.0-liter six-cylinder forms, the Z4 was larger and more practical than its predecessor, the Z3. Its odd surface detailing and Kamm-tail also look better now than they did 20 years ago. The Z4’s list of maladies is well-known at this point—the VANOS variable valve-timing system can give trouble (it’s often the solenoids), as can the cooling system. These are pricy repairs, but with nice cars available in the $9000usd to $12,000usd/ $12,300cad to $16,400cad range, if you budget $2000usd-$3000usd/ $2,730cad-$4,100cad to sort things out, these can still be a compelling deal in semi-modern convertible German sports car.

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG CoupePalm Coast, Florida

2005-2014 Ford Mustang

2005 mustang convertible skyline beach
Ford Motor Company

You could argue that the 2005 Mustang was the first one to really look like a Mustang since maybe 1973. The brilliant Sid Ramnarace-designed S197 Mustang managed to look the part without being foolishly retro, a hard balance to achieve. Special editions, and certainly the Shelby versions of the S197 are not cheap, but a lightly optioned V-8 coupe or convertible is still one of the best cheap V-8 pony cars out there. Being a Mustang, there are always plenty on the market to choose from at any given time, and a decent manual transmission car can be had in the $12,000usd to $14,000usd/ $16,300cad to $19,130cad range.  For the Silo, Rob Sass/Hagerty.

Featured image: Mazda/Guy Spangenberg