eBay Motors
Announcing Winding Road Showroom (Beta)!
We are so pleased to be able to tell you that, as of today, Winding Road’s newest venture, Showroom, is open for business. We have great hope that you’ll find the Showroom entertaining to browse and effective to use. Here’s what it’s all about.
Get Ready For Winding Road Showroom
Buy cool stuff, sell cool stuff, tell other car guys about your cool business. In the very near future, Winding Road’s all-new Showroom will allow you to do those things, and a whole lot more.
Secondhand Gems: $10K Turbo Dreams
We’ve been on a bit of a V-8 kick here in the Secondhand Gems garage for a while, but that shouldn’t suggest we’re biased towards the disemboweling torque and baritone voice those engine are known for.
Secondhand Gems: Sensible Twenty-Something Fun
It’s Friday evening at the local pub. Or Saturday afternoon at the coffee house near campus. Or Monday morning in the break room at work. Wherever you go, you’re almost always surrounded by a core group of friends and colleagues; they’re young, single, perhaps a bit idealistic but also realistic, just like you.
Found On eBay: “Da Hoopty” Project Car
We just stumbled across an unbelievable eBay find. This 1991 Nissan Sentra project car, nicknamed “Da Hoopty,” is truly a one-of-a-kind vehicle. Where else have you seen a car with rope lighting, “Stealth mode,” and “tailgater avoidance system”? That’s right, nowhere.
Secondhand Gems: Lottery Win Cars
It has been a long, brutal winter. Spring thus far hasn’t been much better, with most folks still dealing with cold, or wicked storms, or record flooding, or a combination of all three. This might be a good time to look at good secondhand off-roaders, machines that can chase storms and cross swollen rivers without giving up the fight. Or perhaps we should examine bulletproof German sedans, the ones with tank-like body structures and bank vault solidity that can weather winddriven debris while massaging your backside. And with fuel at an all-time high, this might be a good time to talk the finer points of good used hybrids.
Brand New Classic: Lotus Esprit SE
While the last Lotus Esprit to grace our shores was powered by a very un-Colin-Chapman-like (but still super quick) twin-turbo V-8, the third-generation model sported a small, 2.2-liter turbocharged four-pot. Initially available with 215 horsepower, by the time our 1990 model rolled out of the factory, it was sporting a new water-to-air intercooler. This granted the newly dubbed Esprit SE 264 horsepower, with an additional 16 horsepower coming in on overboost.
Top 10 Worst Ways To Spend $10K On eBay Motors
For every amazing deal we spot on eBay Motors, we find maybe a dozen or more horrendous potential bilkings. Especially around times like these, where very high gas prices are throwing many established values out of the door, there are more than a few sellers out there with some awfully wrong-headed ideas.
List: Ten Project Cars You Can Buy With Your Tax Refund
It’s tax season. We know, bummer. But once you’re done crunching the numbers, many of you will be expecting a check from the IRS. A quick Google search suggests last year’s average refund for an individual was $3000. That’s enough for a car! That’s where eBay Motors comes in.
Facebook List: Top 10 Cars We’d Drop $10K On
We thought we’d ask our Facebook faithful which cars they’d be the most interested in if they had a spare ten grand lying around. The resultant list may not mirror, exactly, the ten cars we’d choose ourselves, but it’s a pretty interesting grouping, nevertheless. We took reader leads and tracked down some actual cars for sale on eBay Motors, making sure to pay strict attention to our $10K ceiling (wink).
Secondhand Gems: $20,000 Tailgaters
After last month’s voyage into the realm of “cheap” supercars, offering up a selection of truly affordable performance machines with accommodating backsides seemed the perfect antithesis. Not all motoring enjoyment takes place at speed, and though we’re currently roasting away in the dog days of summer, autumn tailgating adventures will soon bewitch the football faithful around the country. You know the season well—crowded parking lots packed with people dressed in sweaters and sweatshirts, the air a delicious mix of brats, burgers, beer, and burning leaves. Traditional vehicles for such venues are ones with plenty of room out back, so weekend warriors can cook, feast, and down enough adult beverages to officially be labeled a distillery.
Secondhand Gems: Thinking Inside The Box
There are few automotive genres that polarize the motoring masses more than the one we’re about to discuss. Perhaps the word genre isn’t entirely accurate here, because the three vehicles featured in this comparison have, at one point or another, been labeled the following: crossover, sport-utility vehicle, compact, subcompact, five-door hatchback, station wagon, and our personal favorite, foxy boxy. (It’s possible we made that last category up.) What matters here is that these three cars are pretty much all of the above, making them a bit hard to pigeonhole. And therein lies the appeal for these, um, vehicles. They’re not status quo, they’re not cookie cutter, and while their love-it-or-hate-it styling isn’t for everyone, there’s no denying the sense of individuality these vehicles bestow upon their owners. So go ahead and label these non-conformist rides goofy, or hideous, or ugly, but don’t forget to include quirky, cool, and the most important descriptor of all, successful—especially in the youth market where individuality is everything.
Secondhand Gems: $20K All-Wheel-Drive Sport Sedans
Life in the northern latitudes—or nosebleed elevations in the west and southwest—gets a bit more interesting during the winter months. Sure, you could pilot a rear-wheel-drive performance sleigh through snowy roads, much the same as you could go skydiving with a parachute packed by The Three Stooges. You may convince yourself that nothing bad will happen or that you can handle the consequences. Some people may even derive some excitement from the challenge.
Keepers: Saab 900 Turbo—Shopping
Shopping for niche machines like the 900 can be intimidating to the uninitiated, and for good reason. Unique vehicles invariably come with unique problems requiring expensive, hard-to-find parts, and if you’re not much of a mechanical master, finding someone to handle the repair can be the greatest challenge of all. Yes, the Saab 900 Turbo meets all the aforementioned criteria, but it can also be a reliable, million-mile survivor when maintained by knowledgeable hands. More on that to come.
Secondhand Gems: $10K Winter Second Cars
Many of us who choose to enjoy the fruits of dedicated performance vehicles also know the value of having a second vehicle on-hand. Those of us in four-season climates also understand the necessity of piloting something a bit more winter-friendly, if for no other reason than to keep our expensive, fair-weather ride out of the salt and slush.
The Saga of “Our” 24 Hours of LeMons Car
You may remember a couple months ago, we asked you to give us some ideas for a 24 Hours of LeMons car. In case you missed it, this slightly absurd parody of the French classic, is an endurance race for cars costing $500 or less.
Back then, we had just emptied the Winding Road staff’s pocket change into a number 10 business envelope and sent it as our sponsorship package to some hapless college students masquerading as a “race team.” We also promised to help by enlisting the crack Winding Road readership in suggesting the perfect car/weapon for trouncing LeMons competitors. In return for all this, they promised to tape a copy of a Winding Road logo somewhere on the car.
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