Good morning! Today’s Shitbox Showdown is an intervention of sorts, and a glimpse at some of the rust-free wonders on offer in southern California. I’ll explain in a minute. First, though, there is the small matter of yesterday’s inline sixes to attend to:
On, Comet! The Mercury sedan burned brightly in your imagination; after all, cars like this only come around every so often. And yeah, it’s not likely to ever be a prized classic, but any further depreciation should have a long tail.
Ahem. Anyway, to new business. Transplants from colder and saltier climates are often awestruck by the variety of old cars in and around Los Angeles. It can be a bit overwhelming. You give yourself whiplash gawking at a street-parked Saab 96, and stare openly at the faded boat-tail Buick Riviera in the Ralphs parking lot. And then you start perusing the classifieds. And that’s where the danger starts.
Our intrepid editor-in-chief has fallen down the rabbit hole of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace listings since relocating to the Golden State from dreary rust-addled Detroit, and posts a near-constant stream of ads to our Slack channel, where the rest of us offer encouragement, or, sometimes, just try to let him down easy. Yesterday, however, he posted something that raised some alarm bells for this cool cheap car connoisseur: a Chevette. No. Bad David. You don’t come to southern California and waste precious cool old car capital on a damned Chevette. That’s like going to Magic Mountain and spending the whole day trying to knock over those stupid milk bottles to win a stuffed Marvin the Martian. There are a whole lot of other much cooler things that are way more worthy of your attention. Like these two, for instance.
1980 Chevrolet LUV – $5,000
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8 liter overhead cam inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Mar Vista, CA
Odometer reading: 77,000 miles (but it’s broken)
Runs/drives? Yep!
Before there was the S-10, there was the LUV. This captive-import Isuzu pickup handled the compact end of Chevy’s truck lineup for ten years before being replaced by a home-brewed compact truck. Chevy wasn’t alone in the captive-import game, of course; Ford and Dodge also sold Japanese-made trucks with their own badges. Years later, all three turned the tables on their former small truck suppliers and sold their own American-made trucks under Isuzu, Mazda, and Mitsubishi badges – but that’s a story for another day.
Today our focus is this impossibly clean ’80 LUV. These things rusted under a crisp morning dew, so finding one this rust-free, even in LA, is a real treat. It’s too bad it’s appliance-white; LUVs were available in some wonderfully bright colors, and with some incredible stripe packages. But at this age, I’ll take clean and shiny over rusty but striped. That awful ill-fitting topper has to go, though.
The interior is mighty clean as well, but missing a few things, like carpet, and at least one window crank. I’m not sure what’s with the blanking plate over the radio opening, with the toggle switches and what looks like a USB port in the middle – maybe there’s an amplifier in there? A hidden sound system would explain the sound-deadening material. But come on, man; get some carpet remnants and cut them to shape. There’s no reason for the floor to look like a Jiffy Pop container.
It’s a little on the expensive side to use for serious hardcore truck purposes, but for weekend hardware store runs, it’s just the thing. You don’t need a three-quarter-ton V8-powered monster to pick up mulch and paint; this will do the trick just fine, and a lot more economically, and with more style.
1986 Alfa Romeo Spider Graduate – $5,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Odometer reading: 64,000 miles (but it’s also broken)
Runs/drives? Sure does
But then again, we’re talking southern California here. Sunshine and twisty canyon roads are in abundance, perfect conditions for a little classic inexpensive sports car. And nobody does them better than the Brits and the Italians (quiet, Miata owners; I said “classic”). And Alfa Romeo’s Spider, unofficially called the “Duetto” but never officially because there was already a candy bar with that name, is one of the finest examples out there.
You can tell the different generations of Alfa Spiders apart by their tails. The third generation has this weird rubber spoiler on the back; it’s a styling cue that I’ve never quite understood, but you can’t deny it’s distinctive. This is the “Graduate” model, a special lower-cost US version named after the Spider’s famous appearance in The Graduate. (Hey, maybe that’s why the big black spoiler is there. One word: Plastics.) This car would have originally come with steel wheels; I’m not sure how I feel about the white alloys. They could be worse, I guess, but I’m sure you all will have plenty of your own opinions.
It runs and drives, the seller says, but could use a little refreshing; from the sounds of it, the suspension is worn out, and obviously the interior has seen better days. The top looks more or less watertight, but the back window is pretty opaque, and could use replacing. Or, you know, just drive it with the top down. The seller says they’ve driven it daily for ten years, so obviously the odometer reading isn’t anywhere near accurate; it would be worth asking how long ago the odometer stopped turning.
It’s shiny, at least – it has a fresh Maaco respray, and there’s no sign of the front end damage that’s so common on these. That sharp Pininfarina styling was not designed for easy repair, and lots of Spiders end up with salvage titles and wrinkled noses after a minor front-end collision. This one is straight, and the title is clean.
Now, obviously, these options are both quite a bit more expensive than the $1000 Chevette that David found. But a good friend of mine in college gave me some advice about drinking that I think applies to cars as well: He told me to only ever drink the expensive stuff you really like, so you can’t afford to get really drunk. Likewise, car collections should focus on quality, not quantity. A few curated selections are more impressive, more fun, and less work than a whole bunch of clunkers. Which one of these would you add to your collection?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
As someone who got really into the idea of buying one of these Alfas last year but never went through with it, it’s gotta be the Alfa for me. That one is much nicer than nearly anything I was able to find local to me all for roughly the same price.
Ordinarily I’d be all over the LUV. That comes from a genre of incredibly inexpensive and practical compact trucks that will do the vast majority of things people us a truck for. However, every single thing that has been done to it is completely janky, from the flooring to the radio to the hubcaps to the cap. That makes me suspect there’s probably a lot of janky things going on mechanically as well so it’s a pass from me.
The Alfa is not really one of the most desirable ones to me but the example shown would at least be fun.
Love me a mini-truck, so Luv it is. The Alfa almost had me, and had this been a second gen it might have won the day. The interiors on both need some help, so that’s a wash, but while Alfa has nice shiny paint and an un-rumpled nose (haven’t seen that in a while, honestly), the plastic-fantastic third gen rear end and ugly wheels can’t overcome how well that Luv has aged.
I find it funny to think about how unloved the Luv was for most of my life versus how much people have grown to love the Luv recently. The Luv was our farm beater of choice back when they were new, so I’ve always had a fondness that people used to consider irrational but now falls squarely into the “deserved” bucket.
For $1k I don’t think that Chevette is too terrible a choice. Might make a fun project car to teach kids how to wrench and take care of things.
And/or as part of an elaborate prank to convince someone they’ve traveled back in time.
A long time ago in a bar in the Philippines, a young woman attempted to engage me by announcing, “I love you, no bullshit.” That was a great pickup line and the LUV (Isuzu Pup) was a great pickup line back then, too. Chevy, please.
the truck wins by default.
Alfa: People hate us all over the world but will still choose us over others without hesitation.
First impression, a shiny Alfa for $5k! Then I looked closer. There is nothing more expensive than a beater Italian car. LUV me long time.
in before someone says “LS Swap”
I can’t be the Chevy isn’t getting more luv in the comments section. That is an awesome truck for the money. For those who say $5,000 is overpriced for a rust free, running LUV, please send me links to similar trucks for sale for a lower price.
I like the condition of this truck. It is nice, but not so nice that I would feel bad about driving it. I would leave it as-is, but this truck would be great with new carpet and a repainted tailgait. You could partially offset the cost of those repairs by selling the bed cap.
The Alfa is nice and I can see why some people would prefer it, but the LUV is the clear winner for me.
I’ve owned an Alfa Spider from about this same vintage, and that was….an experience. My Fiat Spider was 10x more reliable. So I voted for the LUV!
A dog chewed Alfa with a Maaco paint job, I vote no.
That leaves the LUV, it’s not really useful, it would be a two season truck around here, it would last two winter seasons with the salt or you could drive it from late spring to early fall and have it last for some years. A winner, not really, but it gets my vote.
Should’ve had the Chevette on there as a third option. I would have gone for that just because it is 20% of the price of these, and in a better color than either. I went Alfa because who doesn’t want one of those?! I do love the Luv as well, but it’s more of a $3k car.
DT’s ‘Vette wasn’t even the 2-door.
Today I want both but Clarkson said everybody needs to own an Alfa at least once so that took my vote today.
Charming but unreliable roadsters from Italy and Britain seem like great cars to electrify and that Alfa looks like it would be good for that.
It is Alfa for me. Doesn’t look too bad, and I presume would look much better with a bit of interior refurbiushment and maybe paint the wheels (or at least clean them, lots of gross rust dust). Also, I have some weird affinity for the latest model classic Spiders.
$5K on the Luv? Nope!
I went with the Alfa
Does it really matter on something like this? Whether it’s got 77k miles or 200k miles, whatever needs to be fixed needs to be fixed. I went Alfa because who cares what the mileage is. If you can’t turn a wrench or at least know a good mechanic, you should probably stay away from either regardless of mileage.
The LUV is interesting, but when push comes to shove, it’s a small PU, and you can find other PUs, and I’m not thinking it’ll be as much fun as the Alfa.
And there is a lot to be said for quantity over quality; I forgot who said it, but quantity is its own quality.
I went Alfa because
1) I can’t imagine dropping five grand on a LUV.
and
2) That Alfa is just rough enough to be a guilt free weekend fun car… when it works.
That’s a LOT of money for a LUV, but I did luv the one I had! I can’t even remember what model year it was. Inherited from my father in law’s estate. It was beat up and rusty enough that I didn’t care about hurting it! Did truck stuff for many years until it spit a rod through the side of the block!
I spent years of my childhood riding in the bed of a Chevy Luv just like that one. Which was okay back then. It was better than riding up front in the cloud of Mom’s cigarette smoke.
That lil’ LUV is amazingly straight and clean, aside from some stains on the tailgate.
But… FIVE GRAND?!? For that?!?
Nope, nope, nopety nope nope.
Gimme the Alfa.
While both are over priced. The Luv has use as a hauler. What the hell is that brown stuff on the Alfa’s interior?
Throw some carpet down and ditch the cap and the LUV wins for me.
I can’t vote, I wouldn’t fit in either. I mean I guess I can take the Luv and give it to my daughter.