Unreal

Someone recently paid 217 thousand dollars for a Volkswagen.



A completely concourse restored 1963 twenty three window Volkswagen van that took seven years to restore.

Click the link for a picture.

What Barrett-Jackson says about it:
Every part on this bus was completely rebuilt and detailed to the highest level possible. The interior has a German mohair headliner, original German balsamic gray interior, all original latches, handles, ashtrays and luggage rails restored to perfection. Many NOS parts were used on this build like the speedometer and clock. The entire inside of this bus is beautiful . Every detail down to the original radio is correct. The paint and body work on this bus are some of the first details you notice. The entire undercarriage of this bus is as detailed as the rest of it. Not only does everything on this bus look great underneath but it runs and drives like it would have when you drove it off the lot in 1963. This bus is museum quality and has every correct detail down to every correct little decal on the engine.

Still, really?

Junk before ...

Gonna be junk after. Ain't nobody I know liked working on Saabs (well, except for my buddy Vinny who made a cottage industry out of being a Saab specialist). The "backwards engine" idea was the best. Try changing accessory belts (normal maintenance) in any amount of time when you got an inch between them and the firewall. Anyway, it looks like Saab is going the way of Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn as failed GM divisions:

PARIS - The outlook for Saab took a turn for the worse on Thursday, after the automaker’s Dutch owner said that it was unable to pay employees their June salaries and warned that the prospects for obtaining short-term funding were uncertain.

...

The announcement Thursday dashed hopes that recently announced deals with Chinese partners would turn Saab around. Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile has agreed to pay €136 million, or $195 million, for a 29.9 percent stake in Swedish Automobile, the companies said June 13. That deal came on the heels of the announcement in May that Pang Da Automobile Trade would pay €109 million for 24 percent of Swedish Automobile.

The companies have portrayed the deals as game changers offering access to the Chinese auto market, the world’s largest. But industry analysts have expressed skepticism that those cash injections, assuming they are approved by the Chinese authorities, are of a sufficient scale to fix Saab.

...

It's time to let it die a somewhat dignified death, as opposed to letting the Chinese turn it into a bigger piece of junk than it is now.

Rat Rod

This is in response to Fixer's Gangsta Hamsta ad. These are more my kinda guys. Heh.

Thanks to kayakdaddy.