Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
Blogs
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Jim’s Blog: Give Dad the Gift of Horsepower
Want to give the father in your life a Father’s Day he won’t forget? Then you need to give him what he really wants. Not sure what that is? Well, if he’s anything like me, the answer is always horsepower. With that in mind, here are a few gifts he’s sure to love: A…
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Seven Tips for A Successful Road Trip
Summer is the season for using our old cars. Portland’s 10-day forecast shows nothing but sunny days ahead with temperatures in the 70s and 80s. This Wednesday, the Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon have their annual summer tour, a relaxed two-hour affair that winds its way through the backcountry outside Portland. My eight-year-old son Bradley will…
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The Sport SUV Comes of Age
I’ve never had much use for today’s “sport” SUV. When I tested the Porsche Cayenne Turbo for the New York Times in 2003, I found that it had blistering acceleration but felt very heavy. With an as-equipped price tag of $96k, buyers weren’t likely to take the Cayenne on any serious off-road excursions. And it didn’t have the…
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Jim’s Blog: Outsmarting Restoration Problems
Old cars offer an un-ending supply of small problems to solve. Figuring out creative solutions — especially for the serious head-scratchers — is one of my favorite things about classic car ownership. Here’s a project I’m working on right now. A few months back, I wrote about finding a cheap set of hubcap wheels…
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Buying Cars By Accident
I have tried to keep the number of cars in my collection to a reasonable number. I. Really. Have. Tried. But friends and circumstances are conspiring against me. Was it really my fault that the 1972 Citroën Méhari I’ve always wanted was crossing the block at the same instant I arrived at the Silver auction in Fort…
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Heading to Italy for the Modena Cento Ore Classic
This Sunday I’ll be on a plane to Rome. I’m participating in the 15th running of the Modena Cento Ore Classic. My copilot is Lilly Pray, and it’s her first time driving in an event in Europe. I’ve driven in the MCO several times before, in an Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super (with SCMer Monte…
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Jim’s Blog: Four Overlooked Old Car Fixes
If you drive an old car on a regular basis, you’ve likely had to come to terms with the fact that it’s just harder to use than a modern car. Brakes, lights, wipers, and suspension systems just weren’t as good 40 years ago, right? Right. But that’s not the whole story. The age of the…
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Moment of Truth for SCM’s 1958 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce
There comes a moment of truth for any old car that has been restored: the day you put that car on the road. This past weekend, the Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon and the Northwest Alfa Romeo Club (headquartered in Seattle) put on a joint tour, “Motore Alfisti Avventura NW.” Dennis Torgeson, Forrest Whit and Gordy…
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The $3,700 Turbo Tune-Up
My rule of thumb is that you can expect to spend about 10% of a car’s purchase price on it within the first few months of ownership. Sometimes the expenditures are necessary, such as for repairs. Tuneups, tires, oil changes, and the like fit into this category. Other times they are just things you do…
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Jim’s Blog: ACC’s Next Car is a Truck?
Last week, ACC Auctions Editor Tony Piff and I hopped a flight to Detroit. While we were there, we visited with longtime ACCer Ken Lingenfelter and checked up on our old 1964 Nova wagon, which sits prominently in one of the rooms of his massive car collection. We completely restored that car while we…