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Hagerty sent three of its own editors onto the streets of Portland with $3,000 apiece to find the best classic car that budget could buy, and came back with an Alfa Romeo, a Volkswagen Beetle, and a rotary-powered Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE. Commenters didn’t hold back — questioning the RX-7’s shift points, disputing the Beetle’s model year by its taillights, and side-eyeing the Alfa’s flame paint job. Watch to see whether $3,000 really stretched as far as the video claims.
Oldsmobile’s 1966 Toronado paired a 425 cubic-inch V8 with front-wheel drive at a time when that combination was nearly unheard of in America. Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard heads to the Lingenfelter Collection to walk through exactly what separates a well-sorted example from a expensive mistake, and makes the case for why this overlooked personal luxury coupe deserves real collector attention. Watch for the full checklist.
Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard stands beside a documented 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from the Lingenfelter Collection to show buyers exactly what separates a real numbers-matching car from an expensive clone. The guide covers fender tags, VIN decoding, common rust spots, and why only 137 R/T Hemi hardtops left the factory with the pistol-grip four-speed. It’s the same checklist serious collectors use before writing a check on a fifty-year-old muscle car. Watch to see what most buyers miss.