The 10 Best Places To Find An Affordable Classic Car Pt 8: Marque and Model Specific Websites

Part VIII:  5. Marque and Model Specific Websites

We’ve clearly established the fact that the “world wide interweb” has changed our lives forever. Can you even remember what the world was like without it? The car hobby was quite different pre internet. Enthusiasts interacted with each other on a much more local level in general, and when it was time to buy or sell a car you were pretty much at the mercy of print publications, most of which reached fairly local or regional audiences.

Thanks to the internet, car hobbyists from all over the country, and world for that matter, can get together in forums and discuss their cars. Every one of these forums I’ve ever had a look at seems to have a classified or for sale area. Like car club publications, these sorts of classifieds are posted and viewed by enthusiasts actively seeking something specific. The fact that they’re web based means things move quickly, postings are added easily and often, and you can react to them quickly, that’s what makes them the fifth best place to find an affordable classic car.

Web forums exist for just about every car you can imagine. Whether the forum is more broad, geared towards a particular manufacturer, or a specific model, every car seems to have some sort of following. As they say, “there is an ass for every seat” and so too does there seem to be a place on the web for all of those people to discuss the modifications they’ve made to their cars, what’s wrong with their cars, what’s right, and questions about what they should do to fix the most recent problem that’s come up.

Forums, the good ones, can be great places to meet other people that share your passion for a particular car, but perhaps even more importantly, a great place to ask questions and learn about your car, how to fix something if it goes wrong. I’ve been quite impressed with a few forums that I signed up with, here are some I’ve found especially good.

Benzworld.org Classifieds

Benzworld.org is a very comprehensive Mercedes-Benz enthusiast website with forum sub categories for most Mercedes-Benz models. It’s an extensive site with a general For Sale section, but I’ve noticed some of the specific model areas seem to have their own classified sections, so it’s worth a look around the site to make sure you’ve seen everything there is to see. Whether you’re looking for a whole car or a replacement sun visor for a car you’ve already got, classifieds on benzworld.org are a good place to look. Today alone, more than 20 classifieds were posted on the benzworld.org general classified section. I’m sure within each category there are many more, that’s real activity, no stale classifieds here.

Vintage air cooled Volkswagens, TheSamba.org

I came across the best Volkswagen enthusiast site I’ve ever found some years ago when I was looking for a used Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia camper. The Samba.com is an extensive Volkswagen site with forums covering every air cooled Volkswagen ever made. The forums on this site are very active and are moderated by some pretty knowledgeable folks. The classifieds on this site are just as impressive. There are separate categories for all sorts of Volkswagens and new listings appear daily. Today, for example, seven new Vanagon listings were posted. It’s a great place to meet those people who have 12 Volkswagens in their backyard who have decided it’s finally time to sell some of them off. There are always good deals, and interesting cars, at The Samba. Vintage Volkswagens will rarely ever win a drag race, but there are some interesting cars that can be a lot of fun. They’re easy to work on and, relatively speaking, pretty easy on the pocket book.

North American MGB Register, everything B.

When it comes to affordable British sports cars it’s tough to beat the MGB. Between roadsters and GTs, 4 cylinder cars and V8s, there were more than half a million MGBs built between mid 1962 and 1980. These are great entry level sports cars that offer more fun than their often small price tag would have you believe. The North American MGB Register (namgbr.org) is a website where owners can sign up and register their car, so other hobbyists can keep track of them I suppose. There is a similar site for the MGA, the North American MGA Register (NAMGAR). There are the typical forums with guys talking about their cars in way too much detail…but these are the same guys that will come to your rescue when your car won’t start or when you turn on the lights and the windshield wipers go on. They have a classifieds section where you can find complete cars or the most seemingly insignificant part for your car. Many of the folks on these registries have two, three, or five and a half MGs. These members are generally in tune with the market and are realistic when it comes to their selling prices.

Mazda RX7, all generations, all years.

When it comes to more modern affordable classics the Mazda RX7 has always interested me. Unconventional rotary engine and unique styling it’s been a cool machine through all of its design changes and different iterations. RX7Club.com is a solid RX7 resource for RX7 owners and enthusiasts. This site splits up the categories between the different generations of RX7s as you would expect. The classifieds are fairly extensive. It looks to me that you may have to sort through quite a few highly modified and non stock cars to get to the good, original stuff, but it is an active community with quite a bit of action on the different forums.

A great Alfa Romeo Resource.

The last website I will mention specifically is the Alfa Bulletin Board (Alfabb.com), a site dedicated to the wonderful cars from Milano, Alfa Romeo. This is a huge Alfa community, as a result, there are lots of good classifieds here. There is something about Alfisti, not unlike MG owners, they can never seem to make due with just one car. At the same time, they can never seem to work on all of their projects very effectively either, so perhaps that’s why there is such a good classified section here. In future articles I plan to review two Alfa Romeo models in particular, the Spider Veloce and the GT V6, both are pretty exotic machines that can be purchased pretty cheap these days. Of course, a cheap purchase price doesn’t mean they’re cheap cars, the purchase price is often merely the price of admission. Good ones are out there, and I think the Alfa Bulletin Board is a good place to find them.

Enthusiast forums exist for just about every make and model of affordable classic car, I’ve simply mentioned a few that I visit regularly. All of these sites will have classifieds sections where these die hard enthusiasts advertise entire cars or parts for them. Unusual model variants often appear on sites such as these. If you’re looking for something specific don’t just look through the classifieds and see if it appears, be sure you throw your hat in the ring and post a “Wanted to Buy” message to the classifieds section. Let people know what you’re looking for. Don’t be shy, folks on these sites are generally happy to help someone looking for a car like theirs. It is important to read the rules of each forum, and be sure to read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section to see if your question has been answered before, you want to be taken seriously. If you follow their rules and read for a while before you write… like listening for a while before you talk, you’ll be welcomed with open arms and you may just find that affordable classic car you’ve been looking for in their classified section.