You love wagons, we love wagons, everyone loves wagons! But old Detroit station wagons are a dime a dozen, and parts obtainment is just too darned easy. You need something European, preferably from a defunct manufacturer and packed with weird engineering. We've definitely got you covered here, and we're sure that once you lay eyes on this 1961 Borgward Hansa 1100 Wagon" (go here if the ad disappears) you'll be a believer in a boxer-four-powered 47-year-old hearse-esque German wagon! Don't worry about the body, because it's "almost free of rust," and your Subaru-driving friends will be envious of your wagon's engine: "Subaru bought the blueprints and maybe some tooling too. I am told it uses a VW 36 horse cam and crank." Imagine the fun of getting this engine of dubious ancestry running again (normally we'd advise swapping in a turbocharged Subaru mill, but it would be a sin to dump an engine this hopeless rare). Best of all, the Project Car Hell meme continues to gain fresh territory: "Need a small hearse to carry you off to project car hell?" You bet you do!


They made Borgwards in Mexico into the 70s, so you might be able to get some parts for that Hansa without having to pay vast amounts for shipping, which means you could be taking the easy way out with that car. How about a machine that wasn't even sold in North America, a machine that will raise, then dash, your hopes repeatedly as you scour the world for parts, all the while taunting you with the fact that it was built by one of the world's major manufacturers and should be easier than this? Come on down to eBay and drop a big bid on this 1971 Peugeot 304! There's no reserve price, and the top bid is sitting at $100 with only a couple days to go. Come on, a 37-year-old front-wheel-drive French sedan that's been sitting since 1990... for a hundred smackers? You can't go wrong! We're a bit put off by the seller's punctuation and spelling (where's the traditional eBay CAPS LOCK, not to mention the requisite "i saw restored one a thees go for $$$49000$$$ dollars resently" statement?) but the spare transmissions, heads, etc. compensate for that drawback. And hey, the seller says "it was every bit as reliable and efficient as, and much more "substantial" than, my 77 Honda Accord," so you figure it will be a bulletproof daily driver once you've got it running again!

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Having a Checker Marathon would be fun, of course, and we've seen one beckoning invitingly at the flaming gates before, but what if you need to drive through heavy snow and up a ravine to get to your Book of Revelations-themed survival compound in the woods? Yea, and the very skies shall rain red-hot brake drums, and only this 4x4 1964 Marathon shall see your load of freeze-dried food through to your acolytes. What we have here is a '74 Blazer chassis with a Marathon body, built to operate in Aspen as part of the Mellow Yellow Cab Company (they'll pick you up at the Trans Love Airlines terminal at the airport). Long story short, it doesn't drive. Supposedly it has "a fresh engine, tranny and lots of other chassis and drivetrain parts," but of course we don't hear much more than that on that boring old mechanical stuff. Best of all is that it will need to be towed away... through several winding mountain passes, which ought to be entertaining. Winter's a-comin'- better beat the snow! The auction ended today with nobody beating the reserve, so you'll definitely have a chance to contact the seller and make him or her see some reason on the price front. Thanks to Akirachin for the tip!

However, maybe you like your car to get attention, but in a more subtle, restrained manner. You want something that causes a "what the heck is that?" double-take from passersby, yet isn't grabbing them by the lapels and screaming "I'm special!" and getting droplets of spit all over their faces. In that case, this 1959 Borgward wagon is calling your name! It looks pretty complete, and it's an Arizona car so you figure rust isn't going to be so bad (unless, of course, it lived in North Dakota for its first 40 years). Not only that, the seller says it will run! For just $1050, you can discover the joys of chasing down parts found in dusty boxes in Bremen basements, fabricating the stuff you can't find all along the way. But hey, at least a Mexican company bought all the tooling and kept making Borgwards after the company went kaput in 1961, so there should be a few parts cars available south of the border. Hmmm... wouldn't a 4AGZE give this car a bit more zip? Or should it stay German?

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