cleveland

My interest in Cleveland motoring last month was not entirely idle.

I flew to Cleveland last month to buy a car from a small pan-German garage that deals a few cars on the side.

I bought a 2001 BMW 323iT station wagon with a five speed. This is a rare car in the US. I got a sense of how rare with a persistent ebay query. Ebay sends me a note every morning with a list of new listings for station wagons with manual transmissions within a few hundred miles of home. The results are surprising.

Here's a two month tally by brand for the ten most represented brands together with the overall 2012 market share for each firm or parent firm:

           ebay    overall
brand      count   market share
_______________________________
Subaru.......153.......... 2.2%
Volkswagen....36.......... 2.4%
BMW...........17.......... 2.3%
Chevrolet(GM).15......... 18.2%
Volvo.........14............ 1%
Scion.........11.......... 2.9%
Audi..........10.......... 1.2%
Saab...........8............ 0%
Land Rover.....8........... .2%
Chrysler.......8......... 11.6%

On a recent day, there were about 36 thousand cars available on ebay in the same radius. About one thousand are wagons. About two thousand have manual transmissions. Eighty one were wagons with manual transmissions. Diesel convertibles are less common, as are manual SUVs, but that's about it.

On the same day, there were about 15 thousand sedans available in the same radius. That's almost half of cars. Six hundred of those have manual transmissions. I was surprised to find that manuals were more prevalent  in wagons (8%) than in sedans (4%). If you're buying a statistical car at a statistical future time, then this works to your advantage. If you are stuck buying actual cars, then only the actual size of the market matters.

If you want a used manual wagon today, you're getting a Subaru. More than half the Saabs in the list are re-badged Subarus. If you want a particular manual BMW wagon in a particular color with particular options, be prepared to wait a while.

I found a car in a color I liked with the close to the options I wanted -- which was none. I bought it.

If I had thought harder about it, I might have asked for some better pictures first. They would have highlighted some of rust on the car. Rust appears endemic to the area. I would probably have passed on the car if I had seen it.

I'm glad I didn't see it. The car is otherwise great. I'm glad I have it. I'd still be looking for another one if I had passed on it.

The kids love it. The Miata is for sale. The kids are sad about that. The memories they already have will  probably make them happier than would retaining this actual specimen.