Classic Car Dream Garage

Bill Crittenden
July 18, 2014

Recently Matt Hubbard at Speedmonkey posted his dream garage and set limits of £100,000 and no car made after 1985, and asked what would be in our garages.

Now, I can find a reason to collect or preserve an example of just about any car ever produced, but he didn't say museum, he said garage, so I'm limiting it to cars I'd drive on a regular basis.

Taking his limits, which comes out to about $171,075 in American dollars, here's what I'd have:

1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera

Not a car most would pick to save, but hey, it was my first car, and it barely squeaks under the year limitation.  Most people miss their first car on some level, and it's an Oldsmobile, so it's worth keeping at least one around somewhere.  Estimate $2,000 and a lot of legwork to find one.

1965 Rambler American 440 convertible

This is just a beautiful little oddball car from a great couple years in classic American styling.  I just love looking at this car.  It's just perfect for me.  I saw one in excellent condition go for $6,000 at a Mecum auction a few years ago, so I'll budget $10,000 max.  1965 Rambler American page.

1968 Pontiac Vibe

Take a basic Pontiac Firebird coupe, drop a Toyota 2JZ twin turbo engine into it, put some modern running gear under it, and you have a retro interpretation of my Toyota-powered Pontiac Vibe, inspired by the Nissan-powered Ford Mustang in Tokyo Drift.  $20,000 for the donor car, and at least that much in parts & modifications.  $50,000 total estimate.  More information here.

1928 Pontiac

Okay, so I wouldn't drive it very far, but I would love to have a pre-WWII car.  Really, so very many of them would be just fine for various reasons, but since I'm a Pontiac guy and I enjoy the hell out of hanging out with other Pontiac guys, I'd go for the restored 1928 Landau I saw go for $34,000 at last year's Mecum auction in Schaumburg.  Budget for $50,000, just in case.  Pictures of the car on this page.

1985 Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet

I'm a fan of the odd, the underdog, and the unappreciated.  Instead of picking through the hundreds of failed supercars over the years (which, as mentioned before, are more museum pieces than drivers' cars), I'd love to own a 1985 Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet, because it is just among the worst Ferraris ever produced as rated by a heckuva lot of people who know Ferraris much better than myself.  Why not have an example of the worst car the world's most iconic automaker ever produced?  It's gaudy, it's slow, it's unreliable, but with a Hemmings value of just under $20,000, it still leaves about $39,000 left of my budget for tools and spare parts, which should be enough to keep it running to the cruise nights for a few years.