Sommaire pour December 2020 de Octane

‘Putting young people in old cars.’ That’s how CEO of StarterMotor, David Withers, describes the work of the charity, which was started in 2016. Based at Bicester Heritage, StarterMotor works closely with the Heritage Skills Academy and other colleges to support apprenticeships and apprentices and help them broaden their experience of the classic car industry. It’s backed in its work by a host of industry players including Bicester Heritage, Goodwood, HERO ERA and a selection of other well-known classic names. And, while keen to see young people driving classic cars, it wants to inveigle them wholly into the classic universe, with maintaining and enjoying classics as important as experiencing them. StarterMotor is determined to make sure the historic motoring world offers a very practical welcome to young people, not just…

It felt strange watching the Le Mans 24 Hours from the comfort of my sofa rather than being at the circuit in person. That said, I followed it intently. While the identity of the winning marque was practically preordained, there was still plenty of action. Sure, there were a few incidents that left me in no doubt that a few drivers were out of their depth. It also continues to disappoint that the premier LMP1 class is a shadow of its former self, with Toyota being the only major brand left. Even so, well done to the team for taking its third win in a row. It was also great to see Brendon Hartley claim his second victory as a driver alongside Sébastien Buemi and Nazuki Nakajima. I know Brendon…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1955 Jaguar XK140 ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1960 Triumph TR3A• 1962 Norton Dominator• 1965 Aston Martin DB5 GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1989 BMW 320i Convertible SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director • 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio• 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante MARK DIXON Deputy editor • 1927 Alvis 12/50• 1927 Ford Model T pick-up• 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in• 1966 Ford Mustang 289• 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5 PI• 1968 Jensen Interceptor JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1961 Saab 96• 1972 Rover 2000 TC• 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos RICHARD HESELTINE Contributor • 1966 Moretti Sportiva• 1971 Honda Z600 MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230• 1972 Fiat 500L• 1975 Alfa Romeo GT Junior• 1979/80 Range Rovers• 1982 Mercedes-Benz 500SL•…

AUTUMN’S HERE. My summer home office uniform of shorts and shirt has been swapped for jeans and jumper. But I’ve made the most of the last warm days when they’ve coincided with longish work journeys by taking the BMW and going top-down. You might recognise the destination pictured here. I had a date with an Abarth 595 on the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb, more of which you can learn about in Overdrive in the next issue. I wasn’t about to go for a ‘time’ in my E30; it’s not really the car for that type of thing, favouring a more languid (yet beautifully balanced) approach to corners, though I couldn’t resist rolling it up to the startline once the frantic stuff was done. Shelsley is 100 miles or so from…

THE ONLY PROBLEM with owning a classic Mercedes 123-series is that you get spoilt, taking its legendary reliability for granted. I bought my 240TD on 13 June 1990 and over the past 30 years I’ve driven it about 220,000km (137,000 miles – less than half of its total) without any mechanical breakdown. So, after taking it out for the first time after almost nine months of lockdown and winter storage, I was surprised that it malfunctioned. The plan had been to ride out with a couple of friends to watch the sunrise. They were due to come over at 5.45am so, about half-an-hour beforehand, I started to wake up the car. I let some air out of the over-inflated tyres, checked the liquids, connected the battery and turned the key.…

YOU CAN CALL it Baby, but don’t accuse this miniaturised Bugatti Type 35 of being a toy. Many will doubtless be bought for the offspring of those wealthy enough to buy a full-sized Type 35, but the small EV’s 42mph top speed means it’s no plaything. ‘The EU says it is too fast to be classified as a toy,’ says Ben Hedley, CEO of the Little Car Company, which is building 500 on behalf of Bugatti. Nearly a century ago, Bugatti created an electrically powered half-scale Type 35 for Ettore Bugatti’s youngest son Roland’s fourth birthday. The sight of this zipping around the factory persuaded many of the company’s clientele to order their own and around 500 of the original Bébé were built. They are now highly collectable (and expensive).…

LOTS OF NUMBERS, mainly big ones, lurk in the Panamera Turbo S spec sheet. Top of the list: 621bhp at 6000rpm, making for a top speed of 196mph in a car that weighs 2135kg. There’s 605lb ft of torque on tap too, between 2300 and 4500rpm (though that results in a small number: 0-62mph in just 3.1sec). Big CO2 figures, er, figure, though they’re tiny by the standards of a car this hefty, fast and powerful just a few years ago, and there’s big thirst (it claims 25mpg; I saw 12 on the trip computer), a big engine (4.0-litre twin-turbo V8), and a pricetag from £137,760. Porsche’s test route is in the north Pennines, taking in some epic roads and matching scenery in rural County Durham. I was last here…

DICTATORS LEAVING imposing legacies as testamant to their power is nothing new, whether it be grandiose parliament buildings, new voting systems or even changing the names of cities – Tsaritsyn to Stalingrad, anyone? But in 1793, four years after the start of the French Revolution, the National Convention in France attampted to change time. Thinker Jean de Rond D’Alembert and scientist Jean-Charles de Borda had proposed rationalising time – just as the revolutionaries had done with weights and measures – and the National Convention grabbed the idea with both hands. Graciously, they deigned to keep 12 months in a year, though with each month renamed after the weather or agricultural activity, but there the similarity ended. Each month got 30 days divided into three ten-day décades, and each day had…

There are plenty of toy and model London Routemasters around, but Spot-On’s version is rather special. Until the 1950s the Dinky range had the market for diecast toys almost to itself. Then, in 1956, Mettoy’s Corgi toys took on Dinky at its own game, and in 1959 Britain’s biggest toy company, Line Brothers (Tri-ang), introduced yet another brand: Spot-On. The key selling point here was that all the models were to the same scale, 1:42, something that makers of diecast toys had always avoided doing, for obvious reasons. A double-deck bus or big lorry at the same scale as a saloon car would be large, heavy and expensive to make. Dinky and Corgi buses were usually reduced to smaller and more manageable dimensions – but that wasn’t the Spot-On way,…

Due to cancellations and moves online, it is essential to confirm details with auction houses 21 October H&H, online 22 October DVCA, online 22-24 October Barrett-Jackson, Scottsdale, USA 22-29 October RM Sotheby’s, online 23-24 October RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA 24 October Cheffins, Cambridge, UK 26-30 October Gooding & Co, online 28 October Charterhouse, online (motorcycles) 29-31 October Mecum, Indianapolis, USA 30 October Bonhams, London, UK SWVA, online 31 October RM Sotheby’s, London, UK 1 November Artcurial, Paris, France 5 November Brightwells, online 7-8 November Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK 8 November Osenat, Chassieu, France 10 November Barons, Sandown Park, UK 11 November Charterhouse, online 11-18 November Shannons, online 12-14 November Mecum, Las Vegas, USA 12-19 November RM Sotheby’s, online 13-14 November Silverstone Auctions, online 14 November H&H, Bickenhill, UK…

HAVING BEEN IN the Services for 17 years, I am pretty good at routine and, recently, I have been getting up at 6.30am and going for a run with my 13-year-old, Tom. I am not a great one for breakfast, so after that I head straight to the Mission Motorsport workshop for 9am. The charity’s Wantage HQ is about 20 miles from my home near Newbury and it is a glorious drive along the B4494 whatever you are in. Today that was a Seat Ibiza with 160,000 miles on the clock and three cylinders, but it could have been my 1973 Porsche 911 RS rep or road-legal 1976 Carrera 3 race car. I also have a 1971 Range Rover Suffix A that gets used at least once a week –…

HARRY METCALFE ‘I was a farmer long before I got involved in motoring journalism – but I’ve always been a petrolhead. So it was inevitable that one day I would own a combine harvester. Finding somewhere to park up under cover can prove tricky at times.’ Read the full story – and see David Shepherd’s fabulous photography – on pages 100-108. JORDAN BUTTERS ‘Shooting pre-war classics is always an experience as there are often moments when you’re reminded just how much more convenient modern motoring has become. But when the subjects are as elegant and characterful as that Lagonda, you quickly forget any hiccups. What a fantastic car!’ See Jordan’s photographs on pages 78-86. RICHARD MEADEN ‘I cut my teeth on Minis so have always had a soft spot for them. I’ve…

THE VERY EPITOME of the American dream, Irish-born John Campion arrived in the USA from Cork with $25 in his pocket and, after working as a roadie, built up a fortune supplying portable generators to the music industry, and later in powering areas of the world that had lost electricity due to natural disasters. Well-known for his support of young driver programmes in Ireland and elsewhere, he also built up an impressive collection of cars. Most famous were his competition Lancias, ranging from Fulvia to Delta S4 and including 037, Stratos and LC2. However, the mainstays of his collection were sold earlier this year during Campion’s battle with leukaemia, and he switched his focus to competition cars with Irish connections.…

While the 1979 Bond film Moonraker may not have been the best in the franchise (discuss), it did have a great opening sequence. It’s the scene in which a piggy-backing Space Shuttle is acquired by Bond villain Sir Hugo Drax’s henchmen from the Jumbo Jet it’s riding on, and, while improbable, it was nevertheless inspired by a real aircraft, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft of 1976. Piggy-backing aircraft had been created before, most notably the 1937 Short S21 float plane that transported an S20 mail-carrying float plane on top, and the Luftwaffe’s 1944 Ju88 Mistel, with its FW190 fighter perched above. Both designs answered particular needs at their respective times, and so did the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The Space Shuttle, a reusable low-orbit spacecraft, is basically a high-tech glider. Once propelled…

Terence Conran died in September. He had been an enormous presence in my life for more than 40 years. First, as a distant inspirational figure. Then, by happy accident, as a patron, mentor, friend. Then antagonist, then friend again. Finally, as an antagonist. Who knows what might next occur from the other side of the Styx? You know what they say about love and hate: they are not opposites, but different aspects of the same condition. Hate is not the opposite to love. Indifference is the opposite to love. Terence took three major legal actions against me, then declared his undying affection. Like everyone else in this country, I knew the Conran phenomenon even before I knew the man himself. For over 50 years, his various shops and restaurants had…

Back in 1984, the then-owner of this Lagonda LG45 Rapide was driving through Shropshire when he decided to stop for petrol. As he later described it: ‘All of a sudden, an old, battered car came onto the forecourt at much speed, skidded to a halt, and the driver exited, shouting “I passed my driving test in that car!”’ What’s remarkable about this encounter is that the person doing the shouting had passed his test in Bedfordshire, a long way from Shropshire, and it was during the late 1930s, almost half-a-century earlier. Richard Neil was a pupil at Bedford School, where one of the masters owned the Lagonda. Richard had a picture of himself taken beside the car, wearing his Scouts’ uniform, on the day it was delivered, 30 July 1937.…

LOOKING AT MY pristine Lamborghini Espada parked up at the London Concours in the late evening sunshine, you’d never guess what a mad rush it had been to get in finished in time. It wasn’t the engine rebuild that had caused the late nights: no, it was that ‘glass’ roof, which isn’t actually glass but high-grade Perspex. There is currently a huge shortage of Perspex, as every retailer and service centre in the world rushes to erect the screening required by today’s Coronavirus regulations. Even though we’d ordered the custom-tinted Perspex panel several months in advance, it hadn’t arrived as the London Concours drew near. Daily phone calls and emails didn’t bring any response from the supplier, so at the last minute we decided to fit the dummy clear Perspex…

MY FIRST TRIP out in the Bentley after its many months of absence was to the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court. Not to display, but merely to arrive within the spirit of the event and impress my passenger chum, who found it hard to believe that I had a car that actually worked. Weather fine, traffic light, motor running sweetly, we swept into Esher High Street, conscious of the obvious pleasure that the sight of the magnificent HJ Mulliner fastback coachwork was giving fellow motorists and pedestrians. Then, as we came to a halt at a set of traffic lights, I was suddenly gripped by panic as a posse of Climate Change activists charged towards the car, unfurling a very long banner as they approached. Now, I must admit,…

‘Drove the Honda Z600 to the launch of the new Honda E. The Z’s 1970s orange paint looked right at home next to a lime-green E’ Richard Heseltine ‘My Porsche 356 streamliner has finally returned after four years of being away. My daughter pressed it into use straightaway for a fashion shoot – more next month’ Delwyn Mallett ‘My Audi A2 has a broken exhaust, so I’ve swapped into the Xantia Activa for daily duties. Driving the Activa is like relaxing in an armchair; in the firm A2, it’s more like sitting in a church pew’ Matthew Hayward ‘Weirdest transaction of my life: a man drove from Katowice, Poland, arrived on my London doorstep at 2am and swapped a freshly fabricated Jensen bonnet frame section for a set of Bedford…

‘ONLY THREE PARTS were carried over from the old Ghost,’ said the man from Rolls-Royce at the launch of the 2021 model. ‘One of them is the Spirit of Ecstasy – and the other two are the umbrellas in the doors.’ A clever conceit, and one that undermines how new the New Ghost actually is. Presumably he was referring to the body and trim, since the engine is the familiar twin-turbo 6.75-litre V12, delivering an ‘adequate’ 563bhp and 627lb ft of torque. But the rest of the car is very different indeed. For a start, there’s all-wheel drive and all-wheel steer. The latter helps tighten this 5.55m-long car’s turning circle, and increases its agility at speed. The suspension is also new and features a unique upper-wishbone damper system to further…

1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Gooding & Company, Online, USA 26-30 October, goodingco.com Delivered new to the USA via Luigi Chinetti Motors, chassis 5931 GT is one of the very last Lusso models built. It has spent the majority of its life on the East Coast, being passed between collectors. It’s still fresh from a comprehensive restoration at marque specialist Fast Cars of Redondo Beach, California, and is estimated to sell for $1.4-1.8million in Gooding’s Geared Online timed auction. 1903 Thornycroft 20hp Bonhams, London, UK 30 October, bonhams.com This survivor was owned by founder Tom Thornycroft until 1957, and clearly loved by all its custodians, the second owner subsequently buying it back from the third! With its current owner for more than 30 years, it has undergone a recent ‘nut…

The multi-tool has finally eroded the deep-seated scepticism of hardened enthusiasts with corrugated knuckles who felt it was all a bit Ronco to be a genuine workshop accessory. Dremel most notably persevered, advertised and marketed furiously until its product was deemed a superb Christmas or birthday present for difficult-to-buy-for middle-aged men who enjoy repairing things they’ve recently broken. And in turn we have grown to appreciate its multiplicity of uses, from cutting and grinding to cleaning to polishing on your classic car and pretty much everything else in your life. Yet while the multi-tool – OK, the Dremel – has proven itself endlessly useful, its greatest power remains as a distraction. Who hasn’t spent ages cutting down and smoothing off a bolt on a kitchen cabinet rather than tackling a…

ALWAYS INEXTRICABLY linked with Alfa Romeo, Jon Dooley started racing in the 1960s and reached his peak in the 1970s and ’80s when he won the Production Saloon Champiosnhip, and was a fixture in the BTCC in his Alfasud and GTV6 and 75 Turbo. Despite many class wins, his most impressive result was third overall in the Championship in a six-year-old Sud when it had close to 100,000 miles on the clock. He didn’t restrict himself to circuit racing, however, and also campaigned an Alfasud on the RAC Rally, as well as taking part in the Tourist Trophy, sprints and hillclimbs.…

In my seemingly never-ending quest to drive every type of car on the planet, I’ll travel far and wide to achieve it. As much as I love Los Angeles, driving 100-year-old automobiles and motorcycles in LA traffic can be a bit daunting. Newport, in Rhode Island, is perfect with its New England foliage and well-paved roads, some dating back 400 years or more. I realise that in Great Britain these would be considered a new part of town, but I digress. It’s the perfect place for me to drive a car that has fascinated me my whole life: the American Underslung, actually a 1910 Traveler Toy Tonneau. Underslung was not a model designation, just a nickname that stuck. Like Ferrari’s 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’. This was probably the most authentic survivor…

The Land of the Free used to manufacture the most advanced and beautiful automobiles. Stutz, Duesenberg, Packard and Cadillac were all pretty much ahead of Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz in terms of technical prowess in the early 1930s, with their independent front suspensions, hydraulic brakes and lusty great engines. Personal mobility of a type had been provided prior to the arrival of the Ford T in 1908 by the horse, bicycle and motorcycle. Apparently the humble bicycle was responsible for a significant increase in the birth rate, as young fellows could cycle to nearby villages and meet more attractive women than they might have back home! No doubt the Model T had a more widespread effect; it even came in delivery van configuration. I wonder if in those days there was…

in association with THE ROOM IS a blur of industry and denim. We’re in a restaurant halfway up the Alps, the other diners having long since left. Tables are being cleared and chairs stacked, but we’re being left alone. Vic Elford is royalty here, clearly. It was in these environs that he stormed to victory in the Monte Carlo Rally in January 1968. The reigning Group 3 European Rally Champion famously demolished the opposition on the icy mountain sections to claim outright honours for Porsche. Nine days later, he was part of the line-up that bagged the Daytona 24 Hours – by five laps. Three months after that, he recorded a remarkable win on the Targa Florio despite a first-lap puncture. Later that season, he finished fourth in the French…

MY MORGAN ownership should have started like this: a drive home through the beautiful villages of North Essex, then the back-roads of Cambridgeshire and the familiar and pretty villages of East Northamptonshire. It should have been a sunny-Sunday experience of blipping downshifts and sweeping bends – except that for me it was chronic misfiring, horrific handling, binding brakes, smoke, a sauna-like cabin and parts spraying themselves across the carriageway. Plus an AA truck and home in the dark. They didn’t mention this in the welcome pack. I had a feeling we might have some trouble, and I would rather break down in a village than on the M25. I’ve known my 4/4, a 1600cc Ford CVH-powered two-seater with a four-speed Rocket ’box, since the mid-1980s, when my father bought it…

EVAN KLEIN Photographer • 2001 Audi TT Quattro MATTHEW HAYWARD Markets editor • 1990 Citroën BX 16v• 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four• 1996 Saab 9000 Aero• 1997 Citroën Xantia Activa• 1997 Peugeot 306 GTI-6• 2000 Honda Integra Type R• 2001 Audi A2 SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible• 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL JESSE CROSSE Contributor • 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390• 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth MARTYN GODDARD Photographer • 1963 Triumph TR6SS Trophy• 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII DELWYN MALLETT Contributor • 1936 Cord 810 Beverly• 1937 Studebaker Dictator• 1946 Tatra T87• 1950 Ford Club Coupe• 1952 Porsche 356• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL• 1957 Porsche Speedster• 1957 Fiat Abarth Sperimentale• 1963 Abarth-Simca• 1963 Tatra T603• 1992 Alfa Romeo SZ TONY DRON Contributor • 1932 Austin Seven SARAH BRADLEY…

WE’RE HUGE FANS of the Reverend Adam Gompertz here at Octane – see Day in the Life in issue 198 for his full back-story – so, when he asked if I’d take part in some filming for his online REVS project with my Model T, I was only too happy to accept. REVS is not a churchy thing, as such, but it aims to help ‘restore’ people in the same way that we restore cars, by celebrating our mutual love of interesting machinery. Having started as a series of small-scale car meets, it’s migrated online and now boasts some 5700 members (search for REVS-Limiter on Facebook). The plan was for the owners of an assortment of cars – from pre-war Aston International to the latest Polestar 2 – to be…

PRESUMABLY the lawyers at Mattel Inc have already applied for a licence to model the Touring Aero3 because, with its metallic red paint, dramatic rear fin and racing numbers on the flanks, it’s a shoo-in to become the next Hot Wheels replica. A grown-up toy for very big boys. Touring’s 21st Century renaissance as a coachbuilder has already been established with such low-volume products as the Disco Volante and the Sciàdipersia, and now designer Louis de Fabribeckers has unveiled his most radical creation yet. Unashamedly referencing the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 streamliner that ran at Le Mans in 1938, the Aero3 is intended – to quote Louis’s own words from the car’s debut at Salon Privé this September – ‘to create a vision of aerodynamics and speed, without being obsessed…

I CAN’T REMEMBER the last time I was in a car that attracted quite so many smiles. Part of me knows it’s just the lurid shade of green, yet there is something particularly cheerful about the way this small hatchback looks. Why are we here, in Germany, driving this rare if humdrum Mazda? As you may be aware, the Japanese company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and the town of Augsburg – itself a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site – houses the fantastic Automobil Museum Frey. The largest private collection of Mazdas in Europe, it’s the perfect location to hold a small celebration with some drives in rarely seen heritage models. Getting in, the first thing I notice is the surprising amount of space in the cabin. It’s…

£1,563,000 (CHF 1,840,000) 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport Bonhams, Chéserex, Switzerland. 20 September £807,500 ($1,072,500) 1935 Auburn 851 SC Boattail Speedster Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA. 5 September £787,000 ($1,045,000) ‘The Stainless Steel Trifecta’ Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA. 5 September £580,000 ($770,000) 1935 Auburn Eight Supercharged Speedster RM Sotheby’s, Auburn, USA. 3-5 September £580,000 ($745,000) 1963 Aston Martin DB5 Bring a Trailer, 10 September. Online. £568,500 (CHF 669,300) 2007 Gemballa Mirage GT Bonhams, Chéserex, Switzerland. 20 September £476,500 ($632,500) 1936 Duesenberg Model J Tourster ‘in the style of Derham’ RM Sotheby’s, Auburn, USA. 3-5 September £446,000 (€481,600) 1967 Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2 Artcurial, Gibel, France. 13 September £444,000 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Collecting Cars, 20 September. Online. £425,000 (CHF 500,250) 2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series Bonhams, Chéserex, Switzerland.…

Among the many qualities traditionally required of astronauts is a willingness to pack light. Men and women who flew on the Space Shuttle were allowed a ‘Personal Preference Kit’ of no more than 682g. They went into orbit with a bag that even Michael O’Leary would consider small. It is impossible, then, to understand how Edgar Mitchell was allowed to stash stacks of Bibles aboard Apollo 14, until you learn that each copy of the Good Book, printed on microfilm by the National Cash Register Company, measured about 1.5in square and weighed virtually nothing. Mitchell stored 100 copies in the lunar module he piloted to the surface on 5 February 1971. In touching down with this holy cargo, he fulfilled the wish of the first American to walk in space,…

1972 CITROËN SM $9750 Feeling brave? This US-market 3.0-litre Citroën SM might look a little the worse for wear, but it should form a solid base for a restoration project – but please reinstate the European headlights. beverlyhillscarclub.com (US) 1961 FORD THUNDERBIRD £22,500 Imported in 2014, this one-off Thunderbird was built in the style of custom car royalty, the late Larry Watson, and finished with 42 coats of paint with stunning pinstriping by expert Neil Melliard. dukeoflondon.co.uk (UK) 1972 OLDSMOBILE TORONADO €19,950 It might not have the great looks of the original Toronado, but it retains the peculiar front-wheel drive layout and mighty 7.5-litre V8. A genuine slice of 1970s Americana, imported and ready. erclassics.com (NL) 1974 JAGUAR E-TYPE V12 £145,000 This stunning S3 V12 Roadster has had only two…

WHAT TO PAY Perhaps unsurprisingly, Azteks can be picked up for very little money in the US, but it is highly unlikely you will find any for sale in the UK. Non-runners can be found from $500, with rough but drivable cars from $1000. Early cars in good condition cost from around $2500, with great examples topping out at $3500-4000. Opening up to the later, if slightly less characterful cars, will offer a far wider choice. Even the best of these won’t cost any more than $5000. Collector-quality cars will be significantly more, though. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Owners regularly clock up interstellar mileages, and it’s rare to find one with fewer than 150,000 miles on the clock. As long as the engine and transmission are healthy, mechanically speaking…