Good morning! I hope everyone enjoyed their food coma yesterday. It’s time to take a break from the early-bird doorbuster sales and choose the fate of our three winners from this week. Wednesday’s results should come as no surprise:
Comfortable win for the Cutlass. We do love our station wagons, don’t we? The Sable is a nice car, but there’s just something about a wagon.
Well, with that, we have three winners. So now, we’re going to pit them against each other in an automotive version of that old party game classic: Choose one car to use as your daily driver, one to set up for some form of automotive competition, and one to go up in flames.
1991 Alfa Romeo 164L
This jet-black Alfa handily beat out a Rover SD1 on Monday. It’s a five-speed manual, but keep in mind that the 164 is front wheel drive. It’s certainly nice and comfortable enough for a daily driver, but Alfa reliability is a bit ephemeral; one day this car will bite you on the ass. Best to pay for the roadside assistance on this one.
On the other hand, it has several decades of proud motorsport heritage behind it. This car is a bit big and heavy for a track toy, but you’d certainly gain points for style. It seems a shame to burn something so pretty, but I guess, if the other two appeal to you more…
1984 Honda Civic S
Here we have a nicely-preserved, though very high mileage, third-generation Honda Civic hatchback. Light, tossable, and easily modifiable, this car would make an excellent weekend warrior. But then again, it also gets great gas mileage, and Honda has the polar opposite reputation of Alfa when it comes to reliability, so you could easily commute in it.
But not comfortably. This is a tiny, tinny car, easily swallowed up in highway traffic, and tiresome to drive on long trips. And with something like 360,000 miles on the clock, it has to be feeling pretty used-up by now. And it is already rusting out, as nearly all older Hondas do. Is it better to burn out than to fade away?
1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser
Which brings us to our last competitor. Easily the smoothest ride of the bunch, with a low-stress V6 known for reliability and longevity, a mushy automatic transmission, and those nice soft wide seats. It would be laughable on a track, but sometimes laughter is what you’re going for. If you could tighten up the suspension, maybe swap in a manual (they did exist in A-bodies; they were very few and far between, but they made ’em), you could “win” an autocross event even if you came in last.
But daily use is probably what this car is best for. However, I know hatred of GM products is something of a popular sport in this crowd, so I anticipate a lot of voices choosing to burn it. Poor Oldsmobile.
Personally, what I’d pick: Track the Alfa, daily the Olds, and burn the Civic. Sorry, Honda fans. Tell me why I’m wrong in the comments, enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you all back here on Monday.
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
Gas is almost 10 bucks a gallon here so daily the Civic and track the Alfa.
Man you guys are all off.
Track the Olds (because HA!)
Daily the Civic
Burn, well the Alfa will probably set fire to itself eventually.
Track the Alfa, although FWD cars have a tough time on the track.
DD the Olds.
Burn the Civic, but put the fire out immediately. Then you have a reliable backup for when the Cutlass goes in for inspection. Hondas of that era are dead reliable.
This hurts.
Daily the Olds, neither of the others is up to the task.
Track the Civic, the others are pigs, the Civic has the most parts and potential for racing.
That means burning my favorite of the three. As a weekend hobby car it’s my first choice, but in this setup it has to burn.
None of these cars are ready to burn, yet!
Daily the Honda, without the rack,
Weekend the Cutlass, if you want the third seat, or the rack, come up and see me, cause I’ll never use it!
Track the Alfa, knowing it WILL burn, eventually!
As someone who used to own an extremely high mileage ’84 Civic, you’d be shocked at how tight and spritely it might feel. Those things drove like champions until stuff started to rust off – mine lost a bumper at one point.
It sucks that they’re all iron oxide at this point, I’d love to have one again.
daily: Civic
Track: Alfa Romeo
Burn: The Olds (even though I think those GM A-bodies are good for their time… but I did vote for the Sable).
Track – Alfa
Daily – Civic
Burn – Cutlass ( I voted Sable)
Track the Alfa, daily the olds, and burn the civic.
This is actually pretty easy.
Track the Civic.
Daily the Olds.
Take the Alfa on one, nice drive, and it will probably self-immolate before you get home.
I tend to agree with you, mostly because, as you point out, the Alfa may well burn on its own.
Same. And by track the Olds, I mean crash up derby!
I would use the Olds for a demolition derby, the Civic as a daily and burn the Alfa.
Isnt there usually a poll to vote on?
I’ll probably be the only one, but:
Track the Oldsmobile, Daily the Alfa Romeo, dispose of the Honda.
I already *do* track the Oldsmobile, at least its platform-mate, a Buick Century sedan. A few suspension and brake mods, and they’re competent enough. Their most redeeming qualities are that they’re lightweight, and they’re extremely simple. I hate to say it though, that ‘Red Dot’ 3.8 is NOT a great engine – I mean, it’s made it to 219k miles, but, they’re a blemish on the 3.8/3800 line – nowhere near as good & durable as the LN3 that the A-bodies never got. So, consider this one prime for an L67/3800 SC swap.
I really love the Alfa 166, but, seeing as we never got it over here, the 164 is as close as it gets. Don’t love the hyper-’80s styling, but, every car guy needs to have an Alfa at least once, right? And, Hondas do nothing for me, even though I own 2 and daily drive 1.
Ouuuuuuu, this one’s a roughie!
Since I’d drive the Alfa like it was on a track just to hear that V6 sing, that’d be my daily. The Honda would be the track car, because it is — or could easily be made to be — the most nimble and tossable of the trio.
So the Olds goes on the Burn Pile. Not that I have much bad to say about it — being an 80s GM car says it all — but if something has to go, this is it.
Daily the Olds. Easy choice there.
The other two though……
I feel like the Alfa would be the more fun one to track when it’s running, but also the one that would leave you working weekends to pay for repairs. The Honda would be cheap and cheerful and you’d actually get to use it.
So…. Track the Honda, Burn the Alfa (if it doesn’t do it on it’s own).
Daily the Olds, use it to tow the Civic (I’m thinking K-swap and drag racing?) to and from the track, and burn the Alfa. Because the Alfa is going to burn anyways.
This is hard: very difficult for me. I am not usually a day-drinker (well not till noon anyhow), but given Sophie’s choice here.
Daily the Oldsmobile.
It has sunk as far towards the gutter as it will ever go, assuming the rust doesn’t get it. Mechanical parts are plentiful and cheap, and ol’ gold-tooth Jimmie can fix these for nothing, in his sleep.
Track the Civic. There’s not much you need to strip off it to make it light, and there are a ton of lovely V-tech engines that will drop right in. A roll cage will return the stiffness it needs. Tires are tiny and therefore cheap. So are shocks and struts and brakes.
The Alfa, the Alfa, the Alfa….. well, first I live and breathe Alfa Romeo. BUT: I use a mechanic who specializes in old Italian cars, and he refuses to work on 164’s. Old Lancia’s, Maserati’s, Ferrari’s, ecterini, bring em on. He had one that he kept alive as a personal favor to a member of our club, but when it dropped a valve, he said, “No Mas” not even for this guy. Yes, parts are kind of available, and yes, the cars are amazing enough to make you cry tears of joy on a back road, but you’ll be crying so many tears it’s going to be pretty hard for a casual observer (or tow truck driver) to tell which ones are the happy tears.
So: pull the engine, save that, and burn the car. There I said it.
I can understand that. Perhaps pull the Alfa drivetrain and put it in place of the Honda’s back seat? A mid-engine Alfa-powered Civic would turn some heads…
Daily the Olds, use it to flat-tow the Civic to the rallycross track. Burn the Alfa.
Track the Honda- sure it will probably need and engine and transmission rebuild first but that should be relatively cheap. And that roof rack had to go, also. I’ve owned a mid 80s Accord 2-door and a 2000 Civic HX and they were both a hoot to toss around even though neither was objectively fast.
Daily the Alfa. I work from home, and I live in the mountains of Colorado, so “daily” means grocery store runs and fun runs on twisty roads whenever I feel like it. Hey, you gotta go to the store, so why not do it in style with a glorious exhaust note?
Burn the Olds. I love wagons and I’m firmly in the GM>Ford camp but just looking at that sad 80’s GM interior makes me depressed.
I’m joining the author on this one.
Track: The Alfa. I mean, come on. Hearing an Italian motor sing would be amazing.
Daily: The Oldsmobile. Comfy wagon? Easy choice, honestly.
Burn: Honda Civic. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I like big boats for swallowing highway miles and tracking the Alfa seems like fun.
Burn: That ugly craptastic Oldsmobile
Daily: Honda (H22 from a Prelude would make this thing rock)
Track: the Alfa
We’re on the same page, Mark. Track the Alfa because of that lovely V6 and stick combo. It’s also not going to be running consistently, so don’t count on it for more than weekend fun. Daily the Olds because it should be easy to keep on the road, and brown boxy wagons with a rear facing 3rd row should be preserved. Burn the Civic because I find it the least interesting of the three.
Daily the Olds – it’s the most comfortable and can be fixed easily when something goes wrong.
Track the Alfa – Let her sing! & when a part breaks you can replace it with a more track-worthy part.
Burn the Honda – Only because one of these must be burned. Wish I could save them all..
I had a hard time saying burn the Civic. My family had an ‘84 hatchback very similar to this one, and I have fond memories of going through the hatch to climb into the backseat with my brother. Why squeeze in behind the front seats when you can go through the hatch and slide down that vinyl bench? If we started fighting back there my dad would reach back and swipe at us in between shifting gears. He got really good at that.
Track the Alfa for the exhaust note alone. The other two are trickier. I’m tempted to say daily the Honda and burn the Olds, but those old GMs will fall apart around you, while still going down the road. So it’s a toss up.
I’m with Phil here. I want to hear the Alfa sing. But, while the Honda would be much more engaging to daily, a never had a rear-facing seat in all the long roofs I’ve owned.
*conflicted*
Track – Cutlass
daily – Alfa
burn – Civic
I like a challenge