Good morning! This week we’re doing Shitboxes Without Borders, and taking a look at some cheap cars for sale outside the US. I’m only giving myself two limitations: It has to be a car that wasn’t available in the US, and it has to be more than 25 years old so it’s importable. For our first installment, we’re going to take off to the Great White North.
Friday was international in name only; I think the House of Pancakes is more “International” than the Race of Champions our two contenders were built to commemorate. The Camaro suffered from too high of a price tag for being as relatively common as it is, and the much rarer Dodge Daytona won easily. Having the proper transmission for a sporty coupe helped the Dodge’s cause as well.
You know which one I’d take, if you’ve been paying attention over the last four years. I dig Camaros, but there’s no way I’m choosing an automatic Camaro over a stickshift Daytona. I’d prefer it in dark green or Black Cherry instead of red, but you can’t have everything.
As you would expect from a country so nearby and so closely aligned with the US, the Canadian auto market is a lot like ours. There are a few import models that they got that we never did, and a couple of nameplates that didn’t exist south of the 49th parallel, like Fargo, Beaumont, and Acadian. And a few brands known to US car buyers sold models we never got, too, and that’s where our focus is today. You know Mercury and Acura, but if you’ve never been to Canada, I’m betting you’ve never seen either of these. Let’s take a look.
1966 Mercury M-250 – $2,500 Canadian
Engine/drivetrain: 390 cubic inch OHV V8, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Preeceville, SK
Odometer reading: unknown
Operational status: Runs and drives, needs brake work
Yep, that’s right; for twenty years, Ford sold pickups with Mercury badges in Canada. As far as I can tell, there is not a whole lot of difference between Ford and Mercury trucks apart from trim and badging. This is, therefore, just a Ford F-250 with a different grille and horn button.
Behind that Mercury-specific grille is a 390 cubic inch FE big-block V8, backed by a four-speed manual transmission. It’s all standard Ford stuff, so parts should be no problem at all. The seller says it runs and drives, but it needs minor brake work. The parts are included; you just have to do the work.
This is the only interior shot in the ad, and it looks like the opening shot to a 1990s alt-country song video. Which is cool, but not terribly useful if you’re trying to assess its condition. I would imagine it’s as rough as most old trucks are inside, but it’s also dead-simple to fix up. Of course, you could always just throw a blanket over the seat and call it good.
All old trucks end up with the same aesthetic eventually, and you either love it or you hate it. Personally, I love it. You can’t get this look by trying; it takes years of use. Not abuse, not neglect, just lots of things loaded in and out of the bed, lots of dirt roads, lots of miles. You could clean it up, repaint it, and make it shine again, but then it would take another 60 years to get back to looking like this.
2000 Acura 1.6EL – $4,300 Canadian
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter OHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Odometer reading: “About” 250,000 kilometers
Operational status: Runs and drives, needs brake master cylinder
The story goes like this: apparently, the four-door Integra was a complete sales flop in Canada, so Honda Canada decided to replace it with a domestically-produced model. Honda Civics were already being built in Ontario, so adding Acura badges and some options to a four-door model was easy, and presto – the Canada-only Acura EL was born. It sold well, and lasted for two generations. This is the final model year of the first generation.
The standard engine in the EL is Honda’s D16Y8 four-cylinder, but the seller mentions that it used to have a K-series engine. I guess it was modified and then un-modified? Or something? Honestly, I have no idea what’s under the hood of this car. The seller says it runs fine, but the brake pedal is soft. Nothing is leaking, so the seller suspects the master cylinder is going bad.
There’s definitely some wear and tear inside, but we’ve all seen a lot worse. The front seats aren’t original, and they’re pretty rough. The EL is more or less the same as our Civic EX, so it has a lot of power stuff. How much of it still works after the modifying and un-modifying and a quarter-million kilometers is anyone’s guess.
The suspension has been modified as well; it’s been lowered like so many Civics on this side of the border. I’m surprised there isn’t a little stuffed animal hanging off that tow hook, or is that fad over? What was that all about, anyway? It was partially repainted by the previous owner, and the seller says there isn’t any rust on it.
Neither one of these is really anything different from what we get here in the US, except for the badges. But if you factor in the conversion rate, they’re pretty cheap for the condition they’re in. You could just get a Ford truck, or a Civic sedan, or you could head north, have a little adventure, and come back with a conversation piece. Which one would you bring home?
The post Which Canada-Only Model Would You Bring Down? 1966 Mercury M-250 vs 2000 Acura EL appeared first on The Autopian.
