As often happens with my pointless CL shopping, I’ve morphed several generations away from my original search criteria.
I’ve been researching Volvo 240 wagons. Prior to the last couple of days I knew nothing about them other than they looked pretty neat. Now, I want one. They’re cheap and plentiful in the junkyard for parts. The usual maintenance and wear parts are cheaper than dirt, and they’re crazy simple to work on (going by what the internet says... zero first hand experience). Naturally they’re several decades old now so I don’t expect to be without a breakdown or two, but it should be reasonably easy to make one reliable.
Will this idea only lead to tears?