on today's episode of hello Road I'm once again spending way too much time looking for rad cars from the ' 80s and '90s let's go Montage [Music] time hey everybody how's it going I hope you're doing well so if you're familiar with my channel you'll know that I'm a big fan of the cars from the ' 80s and '90s especially forgotten and unloved cars from that era over the years I've owned many of them and often like to take these cars on road trips and Adventures I finally got my car Fleet down to a manageable level so I shouldn't really be buying a new car right now but it's always fun to look the good thing is that I'm not one for expensive cars I prefer to try to find decent values so I'll try to keep that in mind when doing my search but as the cars from this era grow in popularity finding good deals on them is getting a bit more difficult but they're still out there if you search and many of the vehicles that I'm interested are weird or mostly forgotten so some of my choices aren't exactly collectible or valuable I also tend to like cars that were unloved back in the day or maybe didn't sell very well so today these can be a bit tough to find but I'm always up for a challenge so today let's fire up Facebook Marketplace offer up and Auto tempus in your web browsers and let's get searching it's Lotus tune suspension perfected by the engineers who design Grand Prix cars now I talked about the second gen Isuzu impulse in a previous video but today let's talk about the first gen known as the Isuzu Piaza outside of North America and the Holden Piaza in Australia this first gen impulse has an interesting history the sheet metal was designed by none other than giorgetto jaro but the underpinnings are related to the lowly Chevrolet Chevette the first Piaza was built in 1980 and we got this first impulse here in the US from 83 to '89 we only got a naturally aspirated 4-cylinder for the first 2 years but after that a 2 L turbocharged variant was available these cars had Lotus tune suspension though later models were more dialed in than earlier ones the impulse turbo provided decent performance for the era and looked pretty rad too MotorWeek praised its handling but noted that a fully loaded Mustang GT was the same price and gave you more for your money not many of these were sold in the US maybe they were too expensive maybe few buyers like the idea of an Isuzu sports car either way very few are left on the roads today I think I've only seen maybe like two or three in my entire life okay let's see what we can find Auto Tempest has come up with nothing let's check out Craigslist ah here's one for $6,600 what's going on with this one sitting on rollers that's not a good sign my guess is that maybe this thing is not running it's got some dents it's got a manual transmission oh yeah but that hood is really messed up a big dent on the side too let's see if it's actually running okay no it's been sitting since 1999 so yeah 25 years not running I'm guessing that this needs some work but I guess if you really absolutely want an Impulse you might have to spend a lot of money for one because there's just so few left uh let's see what else we can find NOP no no no so far we found one and it's kind of expensive okay so if you live in the United States and you want in theu impulse right now a first gen you probably have to buy this one right here because I can't find any other ones all right off to the next [Music] one you might not believe it but there was once a time when Toyota made weird cars and one of the most unique vehicles they built was the Sarah built from 1990 to 96 this JDM vehicle was never sold in the States and it's a shame because it's so quirky and cool butterfly doors wraparound glass with a panoramic view giving you the convertible experience without the messy hair the same 104 horsepower 1.5 L 4cylinder found in the poo and Starlet isn't exactly Stout but the vehicle is light enough to be fun to drive the butterfly doors are Super Rad but also useful they can be open fully in a relatively confined space the expansive glass canopy can make the cabin a bit warm on sunny days so Toyota provided roof panels that can be put in place and if I find a Sarah to purchase it absolutely needs to have the optional super live surround system mainly because it has a casual and funky setting I think everybody needs a funky setting in their car right and the speakers in the back can rotate to point either Direct ly in the car or bounce off the rear window that's pretty rad so they built just under 16,000 of these cars and a few have been imported to the states can we find one let's find out okay there's a couple here um these are pretty expensive this 94 looks to be in really good shape it's only got 35,000 mil on it look at those floor mats those are insanely cool and there's those butterfly doors doesn't appear to have the sound system though 20 $2,000 okay yeah that's kind of expensive I was hoping for something a little bit cheaper than that all right so this other one they're asking just under 17 I really like this blue color these are just such cool looking cars I want it it doesn't have cool formats though you think they could have actually thrown in some new flats for a car they're asking 17 grand for but that's fine a little bit too rich for my blood though let's see if there's anything else here oh here's one 10 grand Charleston South Carolina let's take a look at this one right here red with aftermarket black wheels 136,000 Mi it's got those pretty rad floor mats it's manual transmission there's a little bit of rust here and there but yeah pretty cool if you don't want to import one yourself oh here's a few more this one looks like it's in really nice shape this maroon color 96,000 M automatic transmission not my favorite but you know it's not like this is a sports car so it doesn't really matter that much yeah that one looks like it's in really really nice shape now of course one other option is importing one of these from Japan and that process is kind of long and tedious but it can be done if you really want a Sarah okay okay off to the next one Chrysler creates a more powerful laser because the competition is always on our tail and we intend to keep them there you might be familiar with the Dodge Daytona but many people forget about its sibling the Chrysler Laser in 1984 Chrysler attempted to lure enthusiasts away from import showrooms with the laser the first real sports car from the brand the laser turbo churned out 142 horsepower from a 2.2 L inline 4 the turbo was quite capable from a performance perspective Chrysler's marketing showcased it out maneuvering a Nissan 300ZX in slalom tests outperforming a Pontiac TransAm in braking and even outpacing a Chevrolet Camaro Z28 in a 0 to 50 mph Sprint not only could it keep up with the big dogs it also provided a good amount of luxury with Mark cross leather sports seats and an optional state-of-the-art digital dashboard despite their efforts competition was strong and buyers didn't exactly flock to the idea of a Chrysler sports car so they killed it off just 3 years after it debuted the laser is an often forgotten car but I think it deserves to be remembered let's see if we can find any ooh here's one in California not too far from me $4,500 this is pretty exciting let's click on this one o I love this red color it's got kind of basic Wheels but this thing is pretty red ooh a beige interior automatic transmission but this thing looks like it's in pretty pretty good shape just under 70,000 Mi but it does look pretty rad let's see if we can find another one okay this one looks like it's in really rough shape but I do like this black color I don't know what they call this wheel but it looks like a sort of like a Swiss cheese wheel yeah it needs some work $1,500 yeah that's in pretty rough shape but if you really really want a laser and you want a project on your hands this could be an option all right let's see is there another laser here yes there is one in Ohio let's click on this one all right this is an 885 they're asking 6,00 which seems pretty reasonable says it has no rust it's a 5-speed manual oh I love this thing I might have to go to Ohio and buy this like today that is super cool 6 grand for this car I think that's kind of worth it okay so there's a few lasers available that one in Ohio I think I just have to go get it right now all right off to the next one introducing the Volkswagen Fox at 5690 it's German engineering everyone can afford the next car on my list is something that I've already owned actually I've owned two of them the Volkswagen Fox this No Frills car is also known as the Volkswagen goal in like five other names depending on where it's sold I guess the Volkswagen marketing team in the 1980s just couldn't decide on a name ultimately this car was most popular in Brazil as it was manufactured there and you might not remember but Volkswagen really thought the fox was going to be the second coming of the insanely successful Beetle but as we all know now that never did quite happen an idea whose time has come and gone Has Come Again Volkswagen of North America wanted an entrylevel model to compete with the influx of low priced cars like the Hyundai XL they initially offered the Fox as a two-door a four-door and a two-door wagon powered by a longitudinally mounted 1.8 L inline 4 the fox produced a whopping 81 horsepower an 11sec 0 to 60 time was nearing snail territory but it still wasn't as slow as an Excel and it actually had independent suspension a rare sight on an economy car from the era while the fox provided decent simple Transportation it just wasn't really all that competitive with its Rivals it lacked power it lacked Creature Comforts it didn't have class leading fuel economy and it was considerably more expensive it never really sold all that well in the US so finding one now can be a bit of a challenge but let's see what we can come up with oh look at this one here's a fox GL it's on eBay they're asking $5,500 so this is one of the post facelifts later models you can see the headlights are a little bit different than the earlier models yeah this thing looks like it's in really nice shape it's a 5-speed manual 55,000 Mi yeah so this thing is a low mile example let's see what else we can find actually there's quite a few okay so this 89 looks almost identical to the 87 that I had 19,000 Mi looks like it's in pretty good shape these cars are kind of adorable aren't they this red one also in New York okay so this one's kind of rough has some paint issues only 115,000 Mi though they say it runs good who knows what that means yeah so that's an option what about this one in Pennsylvania also looks like a big big project for $900 might be a good 24 hours lemons car thank you for blocking your license plate okay so there's a couple more here's one in Florida got some pretty fancy aftermarket wheels on it $88,500 for this thing that's a that's a lot that's a lot but it looks like it's in pretty good shape really only 17,000 Mi is that for sure is that real I don't know if I buy that anyway here's one for $1,000 lot of projects here we're finding today this one has a bad fuel pump according to the seller wait a second why do the front end look so different is this a Quantum I'm not sure what's going on here this looks like a fox that has been swapped out with a Volkswagen Quantum front end so somebody that knows more about Volkswagen than I do let me know what's going on with this listing I can't figure it out all right here's one for $700 a lot of these foxes are very cheap oh this is actually a wagon so these are incredibly rare I actually own one of these for a while and these are extremely hard to come by even though this one looks like garbage it's probably worth the asking price if you have time to actually make this thing look nice all right so a lot more foxes are available than I was originally anticipating okay off to the next one next up is a weird little buge eyed hatchback this is the Nissan nx2000 this egg-shaped Sentra based sport compact car essentially replaced the Pulsar NX X and was only sold in the US from the ' 91 to '93 model years it competed with small sporty compacts like the Mazda MX3 Honda Del Soul and the Toyota MR2 back in an era when people still bought two-door sporty cars the NX was available here in two flavors the nx600 which came with a 1.6 L 4 cylinder but I'm more interested in the nx2000 which was the sportier of the two outfitted with a now iconic sr20de 2 L 4cylinder making a respectable 140 horsepower the nx2000 was mechanically related to the very capable Sentra se but stepped things up a notch including larger brakes more aggressive tires and wider Wheels the nx2000 had an extremely lightweight stiff chassis and was touted as being one of the best handling front-wheel drive cars of its era But ultimately the weird styling may have been the demise of this ooid machine from what I could find it looks like possibly 22,000 nxs were sold in the US during it three-year run with just over 9,000 of those being NX 2000s the NX is mostly forgotten today but back in the day it was an extremely capable machine can we find one for sale today okay so there is a Nissan Sunny NX which is the imported version from Japan and there's also a nx600 not exactly what I want so I think I saw this sunny for sale like three or four months ago it's been for sale for quite a while but I'm guessing there's just not a huge market for these cars but this one looks like it's in pretty good shape it's got some aftermarket stuff that I'm not really a huge fan of but oh it's an automatic that's why it's not sold yet nobody wants this car as an automatic anyway looks awesome oh it's got this really really cool digital dashboard all right let's take a look at this 92 so this is a very steep price 22 grand for an nx600 it's not even the 2,000 so I'm thinking this seller might need to lower their price a little bit if they actually want to sell this car I mean I love how it looks I mean I'm I'm hoping maybe it has like 2 miles on it or something let's take a look 160,000 m no I'm not sure what's going on here this car is not worth $22,000 I love it it's it's not worth that much all right here's one in sked New York 157,000 Mi this is an nx2000 they say it's stock yeah it's got some Rust I'm not surprised considering where it's from yeah that could be an option if you don't mind a little bit of rust $4,200 all right here's a couple there's a 1,600 right here manual transmission it's got t-tops it's been sitting a while it's got the cool Digital dash the needs a lot of interior work what are they asking for this 1,800 bucks yeah if you want a really unique project that could be pretty cool here's another one in Colorado terrible tiny photos but yeah looks kind of rough but $10,000 what all right here's an nx2000 in Washington it's only 2 Grand I'm guessing there's probably an issue with it but let's click on it and find out yep engine has a knock it needs to be replaced ran when parked well the good news is you can still find SR20 Motors so if you really wanted to put a new engine in this thing you could that might not be a bad deal right there buy this and um get an used engine from Japan to throw in this car all right I think that's it we found more than I thought we were going to find I think some of them are very optimistically priced but there's a few projects in here that might be worth checking out okay off to the next one a new Excellence it's aoud of achiev what luxury Road Sur from the late ' 80s and early '90s used an airplane as part of its assembly line the C CAC alante in their early to mid 80s General Motors was stuck in a cycle of badge engineering and some might say substandard quality compared to many of the imported cars hitting the market to counteract this increasing threat from foreign automakers GM decided that Cadillac needed a High-Tech high design halo car to boost the Brand's image and credibility the goal was to cement Cadillac's reputation as a luxury brand that could compete with the likes of Mercedes and jaguar introduced in 1987 the elante was an ambitious entry into the Luxury Landscape with a Sleek exterior and interior designed by pin and finina the esteemed Italian coachbuilder and the Assembly of the elante included a very unusual step airplanes so I think this is kind of nuts the vehicles's bodies were actually manufactured by pin and finina in Italy and then flown to a GM plant in Michigan in batches of about 50 using a specially modified Boeing 747 upon arrival these bodies were then mounted onto the chassis that was built in Michigan adding an extra layer of complexity to its production at the time a GM exec called it the longest assembly line in the world Cadillac's new flagship featured fully independent suspension and three different V8 engines throughout its 7-year run even though initially it had modest acceleration the elante was well received in the automotive press Car and Driver gave it first place in two luxury convertible shootouts in 89 and 92 besting Mercedes and jaguar the elant stood out as an elegantly designed convertible with a distinctly clean and moderate appearance that set it apart from other Cadillac models of the era GM forecasted sales of about 6 to 8,000 per year but the shockingly high price of 54,7 which is 149k in today's dollars kept many potential buyers away the elante ran from 87 to 93 with just over 21,000 built during its 7-year production run today the elante is often forgotten but I think it should be remembered because it was at a time when GM took a chance with an audacious production process let's see if we can find one now I actually think there's going to be quite a few alantes because I think people really love these cars and probably tried their best to take care of them okay there's a lot to choose from here here's a red one for just under $155,000 it's got just over 50,000 mil these wheels oh These are not my favorite those are terrible anyway swap out those Wheels with something nicer and this might be kind of a nice looking car 15 grand I don't know might be worth it I'm not sure sure depends on how much you like alantes but there are a lot of others to choose from uh here's a nice black convertible this is a 91 they are asking just 5 grand for this car it looks like it's in really nice shape here's another red one with very Chrome very 9s Wheels 880,000 mes are asking 13 Grand for this car right here very very boxy dashboard I love that yeah it's in really really nice shape all right so I think I found the elante that I want it's this beige one right here I don't know what it is I just love it it's beige with a red stripe it's just kind of amazing in my opinion this is the one I want how much are they asking for this 16 Grand that's pretty cool I don't want to spend 16 Grand on an old Cadillac but if you're really into alantes there are a lot of really good examples out there okay so which one of these vehicles would you want in your garage unfortunately I kind of want all of them but I think I do want to keep an eye out for the Nissan nx2000 thanks so much for watching if you like this video and you want to see more like it please consider subscribing and hitting that Bell icon so you can get notified of all my videos if you want to help support the Channel please consider buying a hell Road t-shirt like the broken Ford Probe t-shirt that I'm wearing right here thanks so much for watching I hope you're well and I'll see you soon is the result of our desire to design all the characteristics country automobiles that are The Benchmark by which all other well you know
