Starting with the Mercedes-Benz W124 steel body, with rigidity to spare, the drop-top conversion was fortified to Brinks-like levels and given a flawless, one-touch mechanism, a portal to the sky. Fine examples are out there for around $12,000 and…what? Heated windshield and headlamp wiper fluid? Mercedes never built them better than this.  Decades from now, youngsters will marvel at 12-cylinder engines as we do grand complication watches. This car has the double curiosity of a V12 buttoned to a six-speed manual transmission. The 850 was a stunning grand tourer and a technical tour de force, with oil and transmission intercoolers and multi-link rear suspension with passive rear-steer geometry.  Like the Citroën DS, the Saab 900 appears more futuristic as it ages. This was the generation before GM ’s ownership of Saab, and the Scandinavian bloodline inhabits every smart and oddly practical contour. While the sedan version is aesthetically superior, I recommend the ownership experience of the convertible. You want people to see what good taste you have.  Fox hunting, anyone? A four-wheeled monument to American fawning over British aristocracy, the Range Rover Classic (1970) was initially a response to American vehicles like the Jeep Wagoneer and Ford Bronco, dual-purpose, road and rut. It evolved into the first true luxury SUV, along with the Toyota Land Cruiser of the same era. In 1992, the LWB came to the U.S. with the 4.2-liter V8. This one.  Subaru tried to grow beyond its granola-y following in the 1990s, and the flagship of that effort was the SVX grand touring coupe, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign—if those window insets didn’t tip you off. With a potent 3.3-liter flat six engine and all-wheel drive, the SVX had the goods, but it was wildly expensive for a Subaru—$25,000 in 1992, before options.  The first-gen Honda S2000—a lightweight roadster with a four-cylinder that revved like God’s dentist’s drill—was more fun to drive than the subsequent AP2, whose tuning dialed out some of the first-gen’s tail-wagging liveliness. Collector’s note: Later is not always better.  If you were looking for a car to be buried in, how about a glass-topped coffin? The Volvo 850 wagon gained fame when the company entered one in the British Touring Car Championship. Volvo juiced the turbo-5 to 240 hp, shod it with low-profile rubber, and pronounced it the 850 R. History will remember it for its family-size torque steer.  Here is the first mass-produced hybrid sold in America, and it was a minor miracle, getting 70 mpg on the highway. The hatchback integrated such now-common features as regenerative braking and electric power steering. The big fear was battery bricking. But first-gen Insight batteries proved utterly reliable, and there are now affordable replacements.  They existed. I saw them: A supercharged mid-engine Toyota minivan with AWD and two sunroofs. Shaped like a big suppository, the Previa was “Star Trek” in more than styling. It didn’t sell well at first, but it did amazing in reruns. Unmolested specimens are now rare. Be prepared to buy another man’s passion.  The last of the ancien régime, before VW Group bought Bentley, the Turbo R and RT were glorious bricks thrown through the windows of propriety. Powered by a 6¾-liter V-8 with Garrett turbochargers strapped on, the Turbo S, R, and RT editions made progressively more power, topping out at 420 hp. Kids, that’s what a real car used to look like.  One day in the late ’90s, Ferdinand Piëch, soon-to-be chairman of VW Group, decided to build the world’s best sedan, irrespective of price. More than 100 patents later, in 2002, VW delivered the Phaeton, with air suspension, continuous ride damping, automatic all-wheel drive and a 200-hp W12 engine that ran like a sewing machine.  In 1996, I made the acquaintance of the first Lotus Elise, a radically spare aluminum spider with a high-strung Rover engine amidships. That was the most fun those cars ever got, though they did get faster and more reliable, which wasn’t hard. The Toyota-powered Elise and the track-hardened version briefly flourished in the U.S., 2005-2008. Dastardly fun.
A dozen cars—all less than 30 years old and gettable for south of $30,000—that could one day be collectibles.