Five Obscure Unicorns for $10-$24k……. or Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder?

Writing this post for my new friends at the Facebook page “Obscure Cars For Sale 2.0” who think like me.  There are unusual cars out there that somebody loves.  Here’s my first five CarMax “unicorns” aka Obscure Cars for Sale.  I hope you enjoy them.

The only think obscure about this 2006 Mustang GT is the crazy low miles – 7,000!  It’s brand new inside and out, and priced the same as a Honda Civic and way more fun. Throw in a MaxCare warranty for about $2,000 and you can drive this car until 2023 – when it’s 17 years old – and another 143,000 miles without a repair bill.  It’s a 300hp V-8 in Cincinnati.  Love it. Here’s the link to the CarMax ad.  If it’s dead the car is either sold, on hold, or in transit to another dealer.  I’ll keep tracking it.

 

 

It’s cute as a button, German, cheap, and has a convertible hard top.  But this little guy has the underappreciated VW-Audi 3.2 liter six-cylinder pumping out 250 hp.  It also has a DSG transmission.  What’s that you ask?  It’s a Direct Shift Gearbox, an electronically controlled dual clutch automatic designed by Porsche that snap shifts stupid fast.

This is a sleeper version of a Golf-R32.  Find this one-owner VW in Naperville, Ill and the CarMax page here.

The PT Cruiser was designed as a Plymouth but sold as a Chrysler from 2000-2010, and over a million were made in Mexico (for the US) and Austria (for everybody else).  If I’m not mistaken the PT Cruiser was one of the first retro cars in America of our generation, just after the New Beetle and before the Mustang, Camaro, Thunderbird, Chevy SSR and HHR, Challenger, and Fiat 500.  It’s fun to let a youngster try to open a PT Cruiser’s door handle.  Seems bizarre now but takes me back to my youth.  This one-owner car in Modesto, California would be a hoot for a college kid, and at only 27,000 miles and the MaxCare warranty should be trouble-free.  Not fast but obscure in 2017.  See it here!

There are few cars prettier than the Jaguar XK.  It’s a poor man’s Aston Martin.  I’ve gotten to the altar with two only to get cold feet three times (almost bought the same XKR twice.)   This one is about as nice as you’re going to find at a really cheap price.   It’s in Santa Rosa, California, where I will be for New Year’s Day, and perhaps the impulse will hit to buy it.  Only 300hp, the same as the 2006 Mustang GT above, and just enough.  It has auto cruise control – radar controlled cruise that’s a bit rare for the price.  And yes, Jaguars melt down.  But with the MaxCare warranty I don’t care if a piston shoot through the hood – it costs me nothing.  Check it out here. (Bonus….here’s a Jaguar XKR – supercharged XK...for only $25,998!)

Last but not least is a really rare car, the Mercedes CL550.  It’s not a CLS550 or a CLK550, and although they sold for well over $125,000 new, outside of the Mercedes followers few know it’s the real S-Class coupe before there was an S-Class coupe.  With no B-pillar it has a striking silhouette.  Not as pretty as the Jaguar me thinks, but still unusual.  No slouch with a 380hp V-8, it’s a stylish sleeper and a bargain at $23,998.  Two tons of luxury and performance from Sindelfingen!   Here’s the CarMax page, and you can find the car in Los Angeles, California.