Want to go off the grid of 60s classics just a touch? Then how about looking past the Chevy and Dodge nameplate and plunk yourself down in a Buick? This 1967 Wildcat, seen here on craigslist, might just be for you. It’s been sitting for a while, but it’s mostly all there, and it’s priced just about right for a budget starting point at a $5K asking price. It’s in the greater Seattle area, so anyone on the east coast of the US should plan on additional expenses getting it home. Do you dare plunge into this potentially deep pool?

Wildcat. The very name suggests ferocity, though the car here is a bit neutered despite having a 430-CID V8 which is suggested to be good for 400 horsepower. (Unlikely in the current state.) The seller says he put new points in the car and that it then fired up. A few days later, it was back to not running. That makes this suggestion a laugher: “If you can get it started, you could potentially drive it home.” True if you live on the next block, maybe, but not gonna happen if you’re not in the car’s part of Washington.

Further, this car might be more demanding of love (read that “money”) than it first appears. Long-tenured ownership, twenty years in this case, appears to be a good thing, but not when that last ten of those, the car has essentially done no exercise. That equates to less than one hundred miles in this time, a sure remedy for problems in the cooling system, fuel and braking systems, and anywhere else that carries fluid. From a distance, the body looks OK, but check out the bottom leading edge of the doors—rust. Plus there’s a prang on the driver’s fender. The interior looks like the Wildcat the car is named after got locked in and thought the way out was through the seats.  You’ll be starting at zero there. One other slightly perplexing thing is that the car looks like it’s been stored in a wet environment. Oh wait, it’s in the Pacific Northwest. Good for no rust from salt. Not good for no moisture seeping into every crack.

But if none of this dissuades you, bid the guy $3500 and see if you can get it in that range. You would have a fantastic looking full-sized Buick of truly 1960s vintage: the second of two generations that roamed the highways for the 1963 and 1964 model years, and then 1965-70. And unlike the aforementioned other marques of the era, you’ll have a car which was made in the 68,000-unit range, not one that you’ll see every time you turn a corner at the local cruise-in.