Notable eco-cars (old & new) spotted in the wild: post your pics!

[War_Wagon]

I'm only posting this because I forgot to check it myself, but don't these things have lightweight plastic body panels? Kind of like a Saturn minivan, before there was a Saturn minivan? '96 Chevrolet Lumina van with 139k KMs (86k miles).





It sold for scrap so it'll get crushed, kind of a waste but at the same time, it's totally worthless. I tried to find it a home but there's just enough wrong with it that it isn't worth fixing.

[MetroMPG]

Wow. I know someone who would have bought that in a heartbeat. o

And, yes, plastic panels. My brother had one (Pontiac version, because they built Excitement).

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I don't remember to have ever seen any Lumina with manual crank windows in my country. Well, if I could legally import that one I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[War_Wagon]

Two people that want a Lumina van? Dang, that's two more than I thought were out there! It has til Monday until the registration gets switched to "Dismantle Only", after that it's doomed. I hate seeing old stuff go to waste (as anyone that has seen some of the things I have rescued from the crusher can attest), especially when it is in really nice condition. But really, I get away with murder when it comes to getting storage for cars, and when someone like me gets to the point that I think I have too many old nerdy cars around, then you just have to realize that not everything can be saved. And that they really only have a value to people like the people on this site, and not many of them live near me!

Not much interesting at the auction today, though I did find a BMW i3 sitting in a back lot, so tomorrow I'll take it for a spin and get some pictures. There was an old beater Gen 2 Prius though. Ya know, I thought I knew someone that wanted one of these, but I can't remember who haha. 2005 with 203k KMs (126k miles), and the sexiest aftermarket hubcaps ever! Had near new Good Year snow tires, and came with the factory wheels in the back. But man it was ROUGH.

[War_Wagon]

I didn't get a chance to drive it, but here's the first BMW I3 I have seen at the auction. I didn't realize how swanky they are inside, I thought it would be more like a Smart Car and less like an M5.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

Two people that want a Lumina van? Dang, that's two more than I thought were out there!

If used cars less than 30-year old could be imported into Brazil you would get many customers back here.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

I didn't get a chance to drive it, but here's the first BMW I3 I have seen at the auction.

I'm surprised an I3 would be at auction... I suppose that means it was traded to a non-BMW dealer that didn't want to deal with re-selling an EV? I read on one of the big US blogs that used I3's are selling for as much as new.

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Ooo, that '05 Prius... looks OK in the picture! Gotta love beige.

[Fat Charlie]

That makes it scary.

If it's still under warranty, there's no risk for the selling dealer. If it's out and there's a problem, or if it's still in but the problem isn't covered, ship it to the auction and act like this guy:

[dirtydave]

[War_Wagon]

The I3 could have been there for a few reasons if I had to guess. The seller could have been hoping that being the first one to go through, there may be interest in it from all the American dealers buying cars up here. When you have a bunch of car dealers that are spending money that has a 25 cent advantage built into it with the current exchange rate, you can end up getting more for a car at the auction than you would retailing it. I saw a Ford Lightning sell for about $7000 more than it was worth on the street here last week. It was a perfect, low KM example of one, but still, people don't walk onto a car lot and offer you more than asking price, sometimes the auction is worth a shot if you have a rare item to sell.

More likely though is that because the car is so close to being brand new (it had 4000 KMs on it), that you could go buy a new one for not much more than buying that one, so why wouldn't you? New cars are easier to get financed, have more warranty left etc than used, and since the price on a 6 month old used car would be pretty close to the price of a new one, most buyers will just go with new.