And The Winners Are: Chevy Corvette vs Jeep Comanche vs Volvo 164 vs Dodge Ram 250

Good morning! We’ve reached the end of what has been for me a long, weird, and tiring week. I saw my little brother get married, wandered around my old Portland stomping grounds for a bit, had an arduous ordeal getting back home thanks to airline shenanigans, saw a fantastic concert, and drove home from that through a pouring rainstorm.

I also haven’t, until just now, looked at the results from the week’s votes. It all came out fairly close to what I expected, with one exception. So now it’s time for an American Idol–style results show, which I guess makes me Brian Dunkelman. (I’m nowhere near good-looking enough to be that other guy.) We’ll go over the results, I’ll give you my picks, and then you can vote on your favorite from the week.

Also, I need your opinions on something: I have another vacation coming up in November. I can either front-load a bunch of Showdowns like this, or I can try to sweet-talk some of the other Autopian writers into doing guest spots. We’ve done it both ways in the past; let me know in the comments which way you prefer.

And with that, here are your week’s winners.

1984 Chevrolet Corvette – $1,000

When you think of $1-2,000 cars, a Corvette might not be the last car you think of, but it’s pretty far down the list. Despite its garden-variety V8 and Chevrolet badges, the Corvette has always been the stuff of legends, the Paul Bunyan of American cars, and as such, is nearly always over-valued. That’s why it was refreshing for me to find two running Corvettes for cheap. Of course, they’re not the Corvettes anybody really wants, but that’s not my problem. This ratty, title-less C4 beat out a nasty C3 with an interior like a superfund site.

Honestly, this result surprised me. I expected the lack of a title on the ’84 to be its downfall. But it sounds like the C3’s reputation and condition were just too much to overcome, and most of you would rather do battle with the DMV than whatever might be living inside the ’79. Having driven both a C3 and a C4, both with automatics, I feel like this is the right choice. The difference in driving dynamics between the two is just night-and-day, which isn’t surprising when you consider that the C3’s basic chassis design dates all the way back to the C2 in 1963. It was really something then, but it wore out its welcome by the late 70s. Given the choice, you want the C4, title or not.

1992 Jeep Comanche – $2,000

On Tuesday, I gave you the choice between two non-running 80s classics – yes, I know this is a ’92 model year, but its design is firmly rooted in the 80s – and I had no delusions that the Dodge Daytona was going to win. But they come up for sale so seldom these days that when I found one, I just had to feature it. The mysteriously-inoperative Comanche pickup won this round easily.

Personally, I have no real interest in the Comanche, but I can see why someone would. Though, I guess I don’t have much interest in a Daytona either, despite having owned a Laser in the past. I had an opportunity to buy a non-running Daytona Turbo Z several years ago for next to nothing – $300 if I remember right – and passed it up, because it was an automatic. Had it been a manual, it would have been a lot more tempting. If I didn’t go for that one, I’m not going for this non-turbo example for two grand. Given the choice, I’d fix the Comanche and sell it.

1974 Volvo 164E – $1,000

Sometimes the cars I find don’t really go with anything else, but they’re too compelling to ignore. Such was the case with Wednesday’s contenders. A rough old Volvo sedan and a bizarrely-modified Pontiac Fiero are not two cars anyone is going to cross-shop, and yet, here we are. The Volvo needed a lot done to it, and the Fiero needed a lot of things undone. The vote was closer than I thought; I expected that silly Fiero to turn off more people, but the Volvo did win.

I have always really liked Fieros, but I don’t think I’d touch that Fiero with a ten-foot pole. It has seen too much, gone too far down the road to… wherever the hell it was going. The Volvo needs a lot of work, but it looks like a good opportunity to learn some cool skills – and rid the world of one more BW35 automatic transmission in the process. Put me on Team Volvo as well.

1987 Dodge Ram 250 – $2,950

Yesterday I showed you two old fleet trucks wearing one of my all-time favorite truck colors: Forest Service Green. The old Dodge pickup is a far more traditional USFS vehicle, a base-model stickshift pickup, but the Chevy Tahoe is a much nicer vehicle in which to spend time. There was a lot of back and forth in the comments about this one, and several of you were clamoring for a “both” option. But I couldn’t do that if I wanted to do a four-way shootout today. So, in the closest vote of the week, the Dodge won.

Obviously, I like both of these, but the funny part is, I don’t really have any use for either of them. The Dodge is functionally equivalent to my own Forest Service truck, and the Tahoe is basically just an older version of my wife’s Yukon, which isn’t Forest Service Green, but it is a very nice shade of dark metallic blue. I guess if I were going to go for one of these, it would be the Dodge, since the extra weight-carrying capacity would come in handy.

So, there are the week’s four finalists, as chosen by you, my faithful readers. Now, you must choose once again, and decide which one is the week’s winner. I’ll see you back here next week for more fun with cheap cars, and as always, thank you for reading!