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Keith’s Blog: From Eleven Cars to Three

It’s getting to be time to prune the collection. At the moment, we have 11 cars in the SCM fleet, including my daily driver Hyundai Elantra. Eight are on the button, and three are in the midst of mild mechanical refurbishments. For sheer ease of management — and perhaps to […]

Birds in the Hand

1993 Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon Exceed 4WD S/N P24W0400476. 176,100 kilometers (109,500 miles). “2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine producing 145 horsepower and 152 lb-ft of torque, 4-speed automatic transmission and a 2-speed transfer case, 15-inch wheels, a brush guard, a sunroof, sliding, folding and swiveling second-row seats, folding third-row seats, an information […]

Wait and Pounce

“If it’s not really the car you are looking for, pass on it and keep looking.” Those were Miles Collier’s words to me as I was engulfed by the red mist. I was at a Silver auction in Portland when I spotted a handsome 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider. I recall […]

Fashionably Early

It’s nice to be first. Ask Jeff Bezos. Or Bill Gates. Or the Netflix guy. And, yes, even Mitsubishi. It didn’t nail it right out of the gate — that came later with the Lancer Evolution (see “Affordable Classic,” July 2021) — but the Eclipse GSX marked a lot of […]

Stamp of Approval

Last month, we looked at various factory-supported programs that provide certifications of originality, condition and provenance of collector cars. But those are not the only “stamps of approval” out there. There are also third-party services that provide inspections and documentation to help establish authenticity, although these vary in scope even […]

Online Scam Dealers Multiply

Publisher Martin called and said, “You’ve got to talk to our friend ‘Mark.’ You won’t believe what he’s gotten into now!” Martin had made a huge impression on Mark, telling him how his Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG was the best thing since sliced bread. So Mark started digging around on the […]

Keith’s Blog: The Allard Experience

Starting when I was three years old, my grandfather would perch me on the nose of his Ford 9N tractor. It was a ritual we repeated every Saturday morning at our family’s small farm in Novato, California (about 28 miles north of our home in San Francisco). My engagement with […]

Keith’s Blog: First Drive

A few months ago, my son Bradley turned 15. He passed the written test and then I signed him up for lessons for street driving from a professional. In the teacher’s Honda CR-V, he had several sessions navigating local streets, and a couple of stints on freeways. Now it was […]

Keith’s Blog: The Sporto Gets a PPI

Over the last two weeks, I’ve begun telling the story of the newest addition to the SCM fleet. I bought a 1975 911 S Sportomatic from the Hershey swap meet corral last October. The car was represented as having 47,000 original miles. It was originally purchased from Holbert Porsche in […]