DT 5th Birthday Wrapup

Wow, it has been a fivetastic week.  Fiveriffic.  Fivellisimo!  From cars with 5-cylinders to 5-doors to 5-owners to 5-finger discounts, the week has been exhilarating and esoteric. I just wish I'd thought of that 5-finger discount thing before the week started.  How about one more before we end this party -- how about a 5-window thing, this 1960 Suburban Airport Limo offered for $6,800 in Kieler, WI via craigslist (tip from Zach Z).

DT 5.0 Best 5-Cylinder Cars Under $20k

I've always felt like the 5-cylinder was the red headed stepchild of the inline internal combustion engine family. Four-bangers are everywhere; inline sixes are "teh sex" and normally reserved for silky German machinery (unless we're talking pre-V6 America, in which case they were completely pedestrian). But the 5-pot never got much attention. Maybe that's why I find myself drawn to them - who doesn't root for the underdog, especially on DT? Let's check out the world of 72° crank pin offsets. This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Best 5-lug Swap: 2000 Ford Escort

Lug swaps from 4 to 5 or 6 to 5 aren't all that uncommon but usually are done as part of a quest for more stopping power. But who cares about stopping anyway when you're trying to go fast? Find this 2000 Ford Escort for sale in Camden, SC for $11,000 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT5.0 Coug'd it: 1967 Mercury Cougar XR7

Wrapping up our celebration of the first 5 cars posted to Daily Turismo, coming in at number 5 is the Mercury Cougar XR7  (Now read that again in your best Casey Kasem voice).  Find this 1967 Mercury Cougar XR7 for sale in New Haven, CT for $18,000 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0: Best 5-Oh Cop Cars

Putting together a list of the best cars from your local fuzz depot sounds easy because...well...there is the Crown Victoria.  Everything else is just a pretender.  Unfortunately, the modern cop cars are faster, better equipped, and ride nicer than old Queen Vic, but we'll kick of this festival of 5-Oh with a Vicky.

DT 5.0 Best Mercedes 500 Series Mercedes

The Mercedes 500 series has been around in some sort of way since the 1970's.  These were premium cars with big boy V8 engines.  Today's piece covers car from as old as 1991 to as new as 2003 in the E, SL, CL, and SEC class of cars.  Generally speaking, these Benzes suffer from pretty severe and quick depreciation when a newer model with more power and power gizmos replaces it (with a few exceptions).  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Shhportee: 2001 Porsche Boxster S

The 4th car posted to Daily Turismo was a shhhhporteee 2001 Porsche Boxster S.  If you missed your chance to pick one up 5 years ago, here's another chance for you now.  Find this 2001 Porsche Boxster S for sale in Sandpoint, ID for $12,900 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0: $50k Cars For Sale

Fifty thousand greenbacks buys you a seriously mean piece of steel on wheels, but only if you avoid the garbage like Porsche 912s (seriously...why do these cost more than a similar condition Beetle?) and brand new Jeep Wranglers (newsflash...the car will be worth $5k in 10 years...sorry new Jeep buyers...I didn't make the rules, I just arbitrarily shout at people from my soapbox).  A few more comments on my $50k search -- I didn't just find $50k cars that looked nice or were new, I picked cars that got you in a group where you couldn't afford for $30k, but looked like they could be parked next to something that cost $100k.  So, awesome cars like the new Focus RS, or Civic Type R just won't make the cut -- same for a $50k restored muscle car from the late 60s...because you can get something that looks 99% the part for half the price. /end rant...on to the cars. The more I cruised through a selection of manual transmission equipped $50k cars on fleabay, the more I realized that this was indeed a difficult assignment.  But here goes...

DT 5.0 Old Number Number 3: 2001 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Car #3 posted to DT back in the day was a 2001 Corvette Z06.  That was then, this is now.  Find this 2001 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 for sale in Bothell, WA for $19,500 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Best High Five: Lifted Junk

There are places around the world where having a lifted 4X4 is functional, useful, and downright essential for daily driving during monsoon season, winter, or Black Friday.  Los Angeles, California is not one of those places...so, naturally, I'm going to focus my search for lifted junk in the city of Angels.

DT 5.0 Best 500cc Bike: 1971 Kawasaki H1 500

For the best 500cc bike I suppose I could have searched for some sort of race bike that had won numerous championships or something from the land of excitable people that gesture a lot with their hands, but I decided to go with "the triple with the ripple" from the two stoke nuts at Kawasaki.  Find this 1971 Kawasaki H1 500 for sale in Oceanside, CA currently bid to $5,100 on eBay with 3 days to go.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Best 5K Cars

Cars costing five grand are the life blood of DT.  It is a dicey price point that can lead to any number of potential outcomes: a slightly better than beater, money pit, the nickel and dimer, or the diamond in the rough .  Craigslist searching skills, hard negotiating, and knowledge of a marque all go a long way to deciding your fate on a car for five stacks.  Here is a pretty diverse list of gems in this arena.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Twice as nice: 2000 Honda S2000

The second car posted to good old DT was a 2000 Honda S2000.  That car was a silver S2000 for sale in Denver, CO with 80K miles and needing a new top for a $11,200 ask.  Fast forward 5 years and here is a 28K mile cream puff for your compare and contrast pleasure.  Find this 2000 Honda S2000 for sale in San Diego, CA for $21,500 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0: Best 5-Door: 1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon

With all the Volvos posted around these pages you'd expect that the best 5-door would have been some kinda Swedish machine (maybe even a Saab??) but you'd be completely wrong.  I don't write this because I don't appreciate the sublime feeling of a vintage Volvo...but I can tell you that if you drive a wagon and it isn't a Roadmaster, you're doing it wrong.  Just examine the name. Road.  Master.  It owns the road.  No other car devours asphalt like a Roadmaster...and I can say this because I daily drive one.  Find this 1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon offered for $8,700 here on eBay starting bid located in Jupiter, FL.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Best $500 Cars

Five hundred smackeroos doesn't buy you much in a car.  You are lucky to get something that isn't labeled "mechanic's special" or the seller is only listing the price of a door instead of the entire car (like this Aztek...seriously, the seller thinks the entire car is somehow worth more than $250?).  Anyway, as part of DT's 5th birthday celebration, we are going to find you the best $500 cars for sale around the web. This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5.0 Still a deal?: 1999 BMW M3

The first car posted to DT back in 2012 was a silver on black 1999 E36 BMW M3 on Craigslist in Glendale, CA listed for $7,400.  In it, our intrepid E-i-C talked about how since the E30 values have increased, the old magic of depreciation has made the following generation E36 of M3 a deal.  Question for the readership:  still the case 5 years on?  Find this 1999 BMW M3 for sale in San Jose, CA for $10,995 via craigslist.  This post is part of DT's 5th Birthday Celebration.

DT 5th Birthday

Good things come in sets of five.  Take fingers, for example. Don't actually take my fingers, but take a look at yours and you'll see that you've got 5.  Remove one and you'll have a hard time doing the things you do with your fingers, from holding a pencil to picking your nose.   It is with great pleasure that I announce that this week, DT will offer a theme of 5 because we've just turned 5 years old.