Home » Here Are Eight Fantastic Summer Boulevard Cruisers You Can Buy For Less Than $6,000: Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness

Here Are Eight Fantastic Summer Boulevard Cruisers You Can Buy For Less Than $6,000: Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness

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Welcome back to Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness! One of my favorite pastimes is searching for rare and weird vehicles for sale online. I’m always looking for something cool to look at and maybe buy, so I have a hilariously long list of vehicles just gathering virtual dust on my computer. I don’t always know what I’m looking for. Sometimes I find a Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI and buy it, and sometimes I find a lightly-used Boeing 757, but that’s the beauty of the internet.

Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness cracks open a morsel of my search history to show you the vehicles I’ve been looking at, lately. Some of the vehicles are affordable, after all, I do try to buy some of them, while others are better fits for a collector like our Beau Boeckmann.

Vidframe Min Top
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This week, I’ve decided to find eight summer cars for $6,000 or less. Everything seems too expensive right now, but if you look hard enough, there are still cool cars out there that don’t break the bank. Let’s go!

1970 Datsun 510 Wagon – $6,000

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You can even find a classic Japanese wagon if you look hard enough! Nissan has a long history of producing sporty, yet attainable vehicles. A famous vehicle from its past is the 510, which Nissan says was its first four-door sports sedan. It was a fuel-efficient family that many racers took to the track. Nissan sold more than 300,000 of these! These cars have some nice equipment, too, from an overhead cam engine and a four-wheel independent suspension featuring MacPherson struts up front and semi-trailing arms in the rear.

Sadly, Datsun 510s in pristine condition fetch a lot more money than this one, but I see potential here. This 1970 510 has rust here and there, but the car appears in overall okay shape. Power comes from a 1.6-liter four making 96 HP. That’s shooting to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual.

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It’s $6,000 from the seller in Hillsboro, Oregon. The vehicle has 100,999 miles.

1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 – $6,000

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Here’s a car with graceful curves and a name that ignites some passion in the heart.

This story brings us to the period after World War II in Britain. Automakers in the UK figured they could make a buck by selling sportscars in America. They were right as we gobbled up their attractive offerings. One important moment happened in 1958 with the launch of the Austin-Healey Sprite. This scaled-down sportscar was affordable and could be parked just about anywhere, even in the shed where you parked your motorcycle.

As people scooped up Sprites, Triumph wanted in on the action. Development began on “Project Bomb” in 1960. To save money on bringing the car to market, Triumph would not go with unitized construction, but borrow the chassis and other components from the body-on-frame Herald sedan. The Herald’s designer, Giovanni Michelotti, would then be tasked with giving the new vehicle a svelte body.

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Triumph ran into troubles and found itself under ownership of Leyland Motors, but production of the Spitfire began in 1962. The Spitfire would get a handful of facelifts and updates, but would otherwise enjoy an impressive production run of nearly two decades. As Hagerty notes, that means multiple generations of the same family could have purchased Spitfires new.

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Power comes from a 1.5-liter four making 53 HP and the only transmission choice is a manual. U.S.-bound Spitfires were saddled with a lower compression ratio, a catalytic converter, and an exhaust gas recirculating system. Despite being choked out, the Spitfire was still able to hit speeds close to 100 mph. You aren’t going to win a race, but you will look stunning blasting one of these down a country road.

The seller of this 1979 Spitfire says the engine and body are in excellent shape, but the interior is merely fair. It’s $6,000 in Aurora, Colorado with 59,500 miles.

1971 Norton Commando – $5,850

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It’s no secret I love a good vintage motorcycle. I’ve been interested in a Norton Commando since I first saw one in person in 2019. The great thing is that these motorcycles remain affordable!

The modern incarnation of Norton gives us some history:

James Lansdowne Norton, affectionately known as ‘Pa’, founded Norton in 1898 as a manufacturer of fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade. Little did he know what that simple business would go on to become. In 1902, the very first Norton Motorcycle, the Energette, was produced – powered by a 143cc, single-cylinder Clement engine.

[…]

It wasn’t until 1967 at the Earls Court Motor Show that the public had its first glimpse of the world’s first production superbike – The Norton Commando. Perhaps the most famous bike to bear the Norton name. In the next decade over 55,000 were sold, with Commando named Motor Cycle News’ Machine of the Year for five successive years. As Japanese bikes became increasingly more popular, many great British marques were driven to the brink of extinction. The last Commando was produced in 1977.

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To be clear, the title of “world’s first production superbike” is disputed, with some believing the world didn’t see the true first superbike until the 1969 Honda CB750. Some say the first superbike occurred earlier than that with the 1937 Brough Superior SS100.

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With that said, the Commando was still a force to be reckoned with. Commandos like the one for sale here came with a 745cc parallel twin making 58 HP and more than enough oomph to exceed the ton (100 mph). So, you’re getting a classic bike that should be a ton of fun to swing a leg over.

This 1971 Norton Commando roadster is said to be in original condition and it certainly looks fantastic. It’s $5,850 from the seller in Phoenix, Arizona. The motorcycle currently has 17,022 miles.

1991 Daihatsu Mira J Turbo – $6,000

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If you click across sites like Bring a Trailer or Duncan Imports it’s easy to become saddened at the price of Japanese imports. But you can find some once-forbidden fruit for affordable prices!

The Daihatsu Mira Cuore launched in 1980 to replace the Daihatsu Max Cuore. Daihatsu says the name Mira comes from the Italian word for “Envy.” The vehicle was sold as the Mira Cuore for its first two years before the Cuore was dropped.

This car comes from 1991, a year after the Mira entered its third generation. This Mira was especially weird for its large number of body styles, from three-door and five-door hatchbacks to commercial versions of the same. The wildest Mira of the third generation is the Mira walk-through van, which looks like a Grumman LLV that spent too much time in a wash.

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This 1991 Daihatsu Mira J Turbo is a sporty five-door hatch featuring a fuel-injected 659cc intercooled turbo three. Officially, it’s tearing up the streets with 64 HP delivered to the front wheels through a manual transmission. Inside, you’ll find colorful original seat covers and a pretty clean cabin. The seller says it’ll do 86 mph at 5,000 RPM, but it will also cruise at 70 mph at 4,500 RPM. Remember, it’s a Kei car, so I wouldn’t expect to race it across the country.

It’s $6,000 from the seller in Corona, California. The car has the equivalent of 48,000 miles.

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III – $6,000

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I feel like the big boats of the late 1960s and the early 1970s, right before the Malaise Era, don’t get enough credit for how cool they are. Sure, this isn’t a muscle car, but it oozes style and I bet it’s comfortable.

As Mac’s Motor City Garage explains, Lee Iaccoca was VP of Cars and Trucks at Ford in the mid-1960s when he faced a couple of dilemmas. Sales of the Ford Thunderbird were falling and at the same time, Lincoln wasn’t doing so hot, either. Reportedly, Lincoln hadn’t even turned a profit since Ford acquired it in 1922. Given the fact that Lincoln was Ford’s flagship brand, something had to change.

Iaccoca’s path forward was a small Lincoln and this would be facilitated by the then-new Ford Thunderbird, which was moving from unitized construction to body-on-frame. Reportedly, initial designs didn’t really please Iaccoca, so he had designers adorn the car with a large vintage-style grille and a continental tire hump. The designers hated it, but Henry Ford II was all-in.

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When the Continental Mark III launched in 1968, the press reportedly panned it, but the public scooped up the $6,741 luxury barge. Power comes from a 460 cubic inch V8 making 365 HP and lb-ft of torque. Those were gross numbers so don’t get too excited just yet.

This nice 1969 Lincoln Continental appears to have a decent body, but the seller warns that the vinyl is gone on the roof, the power windows don’t work, and neither does the air-conditioner. So, I would fix either the A/C or the windows unless you feel like baking in the summer sun. The good news is that the car is said to run and drive well. It’s $6,000 from the seller in Bullhead City, Arizona. The vehicle is said to have 94,500 miles.

2007 Saturn Sky Red Line – $5,000

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One of my favorite cars that I do not talk about enough is the Saturn Sky Red Line. This car, along with its platform mates, were GM’s short-lived answers to the Mazda Miata. While many will still say the Miata is better, it’s hard not to appreciate what GM achieved.

The Saturn Sky is one of those awesome cars to come from the brain of legendary auto exec Bob Lutz. One of Lutz’s dreams was to create an affordable, rear-wheel-drive American roadster. When Lutz took the helm at GM, he finally took his chance to realize the dream. The General’s engineers created the Kappa platform, and riding on it is a handful of low-slung roadsters. It launched with the Pontiac Solstice, a curvaceous drop-top sports car that was America’s answer to the Miata. Saturn got its own version, as did Daewoo with the G2X, Opel with the GT, and Tauro with a burly V8 swap.

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The best part is what’s under the hood. You get a 2.0-liter Ecotec LNF turbo in there. That gives you 260 hp and 260 lb-ft torque to the rear wheels through a manual transmission.

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Alright, the seller doesn’t give us much information about this car. There’s some body damage, but the vehicle has the correct Red Line parts present and accounted for. However, rusty brake rotors and a license plate that expired in 2023 would suggest that the vehicle has sat for a while. Be sure to look it over top to bottom!

Otherwise, the Saturn’s $5,000 price tag makes it the cheapest Red Line in America. It’s located in Victorville, California with 150,000 miles.

1962 Buick Skylark – $4,000

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Here’s a classic General Motors product that could use some new wheels and some interior work, but looks ready for a downtown cruise today.

The first Buick Roadmaster Skylark was introduced in 1953 in celebration of 50 years of Buick. At the time, the Roadmaster Skylark was a top-of-the-line convertible joined by its stablemates in the Oldsmobile 98 Fiesta and the Cadillac Series 62 Eldorado. Penske Automotive Group notes that out of the trio, the Skylark was the most successful, selling 1,690 units at a price of a little over $5,000 each.

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The name made a return in the 1961 model year as the Buick Special Skylark. This was based on the Buick Special and rode on the Y-body platform alongside the Pontiac Tempest and Oldsmobile F-85. In 1962, the Skylark finally became its own model. These rode on the GM A-body platform and were available in two- and four-door hardtops, coupes, sedans, and convertibles. The Skylark was $2,621 in 1961, or $27,470 today.

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This 1962 Skylark is just $4,000 today. Sadly, the seller doesn’t say much about its condition other than the fact that it runs and drives. My eyes also spot some paint peel and torn seats, but nothing that shouldn’t be too hard for a new owner to fix or ignore. Power comes from a 215 cubic inch V8 making 190 HP. That reaches the rear wheels through a two-speed automatic transmission.

The 78,000-mile Skylark awaits its next owner from the seller in San Antonio, Texas.

1959 Edsel Ranger – $5,500

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The story of Edsel is still a fascinating one. Ford believed there was enough room between it, Lincoln, and Mercury for another brand. At the time, Lincoln competed with the likes of Buick, DeSoto, and Oldsmobile. Ford thought Lincoln could move upmarket and that the Continental could be Ford’s luxury halo car. As Lincoln climbed into high-end luxury, Ford thought it was left with a hole in its intermediate space.

Edsel would go up to battle Buick, DeSoto, and Oldsmobile. The automaker would also stand out with bold styling. Reportedly, 18,000 names were considered and none of them were Edsel. The Ranger was intended to be Edsel’s price leader and was based on the 118-inch Ford Fairlane chassis. Neat features included a Teletouch pushbutton gear shifter in the steering wheel as well as a speedometer that scrolled like a compass.

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This 1959 Edsel Ranger looks to be in overall decent shape with what appears to be some interior pieces that could use some refurbishment. The engine is a 292 cubic inch Y-block V8 outputting 200 HP to the rear wheels. It’s $5,500 from the seller in Blaine, Washington.

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That’s it for this week! Thank you for reading.

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Honus
Honus
6 months ago

I actually owned the first three vehicles on the list. In high school 69-73 I drove a 510 wagon and in college a Spitfire (OK, actually a GT6 but I owned a few old spitfires too) and later I had a Norton Commando (an 850, but with the proper right foot shift/left side brake and no electric start). Loved all three.

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
6 months ago

Ooohh, that French Connection Connie! (heart emoji)

Nice paintjob on the Spit’, but those four big black rubber dingusses: Yuck..

Last edited 6 months ago by Jakob K's Garage
Gilbert Wham
Gilbert Wham
6 months ago

TBH, all of them. There’s not one on that list I wouldn’t like to have.

Morgan Thomas
Morgan Thomas
6 months ago

There’s not many out of that collection I wouldn’t be interested in, but I’d have to choose the Datsun 510, mostly because I have owned lots of 510s in the past, including one wagon (which is quite rare here in Australia, but mine was unfortunately written off in an accident). One correction though – they did have an independent rear suspension in all body styles except the wagon, which had a leaf sprung live axle.
But I’d also be very tempted by the Spitfire and the Norton!

No Kids, Just Bikes
No Kids, Just Bikes
6 months ago
Reply to  Morgan Thomas

Beat me to it! I’d prefer a wagon in almost all cars but not a 510.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
6 months ago

I’ll take the Spitfire for Six Thousand, Bob

Gerontius Garland
Gerontius Garland
6 months ago

I love the ’58 and ’60 Edsels, but I hate the ’59. It’s the ugly duckling of ugly ducklings.

Rich Hobbs
Rich Hobbs
6 months ago

Another awesome job Mercedes! So I’m 16, my first real job at a car wash. Vacuum station. Omg, piggy people! But got to drive the cars around the corner to get em hooked up to go thru the wash. Old school. Put a triangular bar down in the chain up against the bumper and…But I got into an Edsel. And I’m like ok…where’s the gearshift? No lever…no buttons off the side like the Chrysler products…I’m at a loss…feeling stupid…I hung my head in shame…and I saw it! Buttons for trans in the steering wheel! WTH? Whew…To quote the WHO…Won’t get fooled again! P.S. Got in an old VW bug to drive it around… no steering wheel! It was RH drive! Damn Skippy!

10001010
10001010
6 months ago

Gotta vote Skylark for the doglark.

Greensoul
Greensoul
6 months ago

Another side note. I was looking on another car site (I’m a ho like that) and the feature car of the day is a 1988 Toyota Tercel wagon. I clicked. Wow, memories and I want it, the adjusted market value has long been paid for. Life was so much easier back then (except for the mark ups on Japanese cars, they are truly nothing new) If you would have told me then that I would have ever found an 88 Tercel wagon attractive when I’m a mature older guy, my young everything still worked on my body knowing everything self would have put the loaded gun in your hand and begged you to shoot me LOL

Greensoul
Greensoul
6 months ago

BTW, I want that Edsel. Mercedes, how cruel of you to post a collector car I could actually afford, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Greensoul
Greensoul
6 months ago

oh, oh, oh Mercedes. Just when I think I couldn’t love ya more you start doing finds that I can actually afford, being the poor assed cloth member that I am LOL. I am so proud of you. You never respond to me or my comments, but, I want your trans self to know I’ve been fighting the fight for you since the 1980’s. My flag never got caught in my wheel spokes, but the wind did whip it out of my hands once back in like 1988

Alan Christensen
Alan Christensen
6 months ago

Ah, the Norton. I was a college freshman in 1971 and Nortons were a special kind of cool. Cooler than Steve McQueen. The ads always featured a hot babe sitting on or leaning against the motorcycle. I joked to my buddy, “Does she come with the bike?” Then one day we saw a Norton go by with a hot babe on the back. We looked at each other and said simultaneously, “She DOES come with the bike.”

Last edited 6 months ago by Alan Christensen
Honus
Honus
6 months ago

I vividly remember those ads and they were no small part of the reason I bought a Norton when I got out of college and could finally afford a (used) one. And yes, the girls loved it. Hell, even my mom made me ride her around our our small West Virginia town past all her friends houses!

Church
Church
6 months ago

That triumph is worth it for the bumperettes alone. Also that Edsel is sweet as heck.

Rich Hobbs
Rich Hobbs
6 months ago
Reply to  Church

No….take the bumperettes off..Battering rams! Top speed up by 2 mph! Lol ????

StillNotATony
StillNotATony
6 months ago

So far, there’s no love for that Buick, but I’d take it home and fiddle with it for years!

Rich Hobbs
Rich Hobbs
6 months ago
Reply to  StillNotATony

Buy the Shitfire (save matches) , AND the Skylark…put the 215 aluminum V8 in the Spitfire! Have a bargain TR-8!

Bill D
Bill D
6 months ago

If you want to spiff up that Spitfire, all the interior bits should be available from Moss Motors. (And I find that Moss acquired Victoria British while I wasn’t looking.) If I had room for more than one car, which I don’t, I wouldn’t mind a Little British Convertible again.

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
6 months ago

One small nitpick – Datsun 510 sedans did indeed have fully-independent suspension but the wagons had live axles and leaf springs in back, presumably for load-carrying ability.

Geekycop .
Geekycop .
6 months ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

I was about to say that as well. Unless you back half the chassis with a 4 door, you don’t get the irs. One day I’ll get a ’68 wagon like my grandpa’s was.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
6 months ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

Came here for this

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

The depth of knowledge of automotive esoterica like this some people have blows my mind.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
6 months ago

In my case its because the 510 was a very popular choice among my HS friends. Because at the time they were cheap AF, like $50 for a rolling not rusty shell cheap.

Rich Hobbs
Rich Hobbs
6 months ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

5 points! That and $7.00 you can have half a cup of foam at Starbucks! Lol ????

Toecutter
Toecutter
6 months ago

Spitfires make great EV conversions. With a modern drive system, stock with the top up, this is like a 200-220 Wh/mile car. Aerodynamic modifications can make that consumption go way down. That particular model of Spitfire has a frontal area of 15.5 sq ft and a Cd value of 0.42.

You’d only need about 120 horsepower to do 0-60 mph in under 6 seconds with one, retaining the transmission(albeit that transmission and differential will not last long in that application and you’ll want to swap in components from a TR6).

Gubbin
Gubbin
6 months ago

YOU PUT THE BEST ONE FIRST!
I’m going to be in the vicinity of that Datsun tomorrow, it will be very hard to resist its magnetic pull on my heart.

Sgtyukon
Sgtyukon
6 months ago

How can you have a Mark III in Bullhead City AZ and not fix both the AC and the windows?

StillNotATony
StillNotATony
6 months ago
Reply to  Sgtyukon

No sense of self-preservation? A mild death wish?

BentleyBoy
BentleyBoy
6 months ago
Reply to  Sgtyukon

That’s ok, the black interior will help 🙂

I_drive_a_truck
I_drive_a_truck
6 months ago

Half of these cars are on my want list. Between this and blowing the cover on direction of pricing for Ram SRT-10s and the Fiata, you’re ruining all my plans!

Boulevard_Yachtsman
Boulevard_Yachtsman
6 months ago

Oh this is just crazy! I’ve wanted a Spitfire for a long while, and that looks like a pretty solid one. Much better than the super-aged yellow ’79 I test drove last year with cracked tires and a leaky exhaust that the owner wanted $5900 for.

Norton? Yes please – one of the only motorcycles I still actively consider owning.

The sixty-nice Continental would look great parked next to my ’71 deVille.

The link on the Saturn Sky is taking me to the Spitfire again, but if that car is an automatic, it would be a great replacement for my wife’s ’95 Escort (I’m a Solstice man myself).

’59 Edsel? I’ll take that too – I’m a sucker for pretty-much anything built that year.

As to the rest, they’re not quite hitting me the same way, but they all seem like a lot of fun for the $$$s. Too bad I’ve got $21,500 left to go on the house’s new roof – there do appear to be deals out there once again!

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
6 months ago

It’s a good thing I don’t have space for more cars when Mercedes posts MMMs like this one 😉
-if I had to whittle it down to two, I’d take the 510 wagon & the Sky Red Line—I think the latter are quite under appreciated

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
6 months ago

Shorty Datsun 510 wagon tugs on my heart; Spitfire tugs, um, something else. Gonna have to buy both.

Arrest-me Red
Arrest-me Red
6 months ago

The spitfire always interests me even in brown on brown. Though that Mark III puts me in the cruising and taking up two parking spots modes.

Mike Harrell
Mike Harrell
6 months ago

“Neat features included a Teletouch pushbutton gear shifter in the steering wheel as well as a speedometer that scrolled like a compass.”

Sadly those were only available in ’58. The ’59 and ’60 models had to get by with more conventional equipment.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
6 months ago

Damn it Mercedes. I dropped 2 grand on a guitar last weekend. Don’t tempt me!

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago

Pix or it didn’t happen

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
6 months ago

I have no idea how to post pics on this site lol

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
6 months ago

But the store I bought it from still has the listing up! This is the exact one I bought:

https://chucklevins.com/products/prs-s2-10th-anniversary-mccarty-594-electric-guitar-eriza-verde-s2070871

Gerontius Garland
Gerontius Garland
6 months ago

I know nothing about guitars, but that’s gorgeous.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago

Google PRS guitars for epic figured maple tops in pretty colors.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago

Bruh

That’s my color, after I get an older studio model with the NF3 pickups and maple fretboard.

Enjoy!!!

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
6 months ago

I will, thanks! I have a CE24 as well that I love. It was a random run they did for a shop in Georgia…basically the gray/purple burst they do on the Mark Holcomb models with a black headstock and a satin black neck.

My wife has told me that for my 35th birthday next year I can finally bite the bullet and do a full Core. It’s gonna tough choosing between a McCarty and Custom 24, but I think I’ll manage haha.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
6 months ago

A PRS. An S2 McCartry 594 10th anniversary specifically, in Eriza Verde. The 10th anniversary run got the full fat 58/15 LT pickups, which are absolutely delightful.

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