One Lap of the Web: a Brat, a Saab, and best classic cars for college

-- We have our own views regarding perfect cars for college freshmen, none of which are endorsed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or any insurance company (except perhaps Hagerty), but Petrolicious has come up with some proper choices as well. And they're actually quite reasonable. As students are getting back to their respective institutions of higher learning, check out Petrolicious' "Seven Vintage Cars for College Freshmen."

-- A GAZ 13 Chaika for sale on eBay out of Moldova claims Soviet Union General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev provenance.... though unconvincingly. These V8-powered saloons were handmade by the Gorky factory, and featured a push-button automatic transmission, a rarity for the time. Even if this is a Chaika from Moscow's government garages, there were hundreds of them there. And since all the government cars were regularly rotated, it's impossible to claim that one single car was "attached" to a particular official, with some rare exceptions. Even if the original documents are included with the car, the listed owner wouldn't be Brezhnev, but rather a government garage. Brezhnev was quite a car fanatic, and accumulated a collection of cars which were given as gifts by other heads of state, including a Lincoln Continental given to him by Richard Nixon at Camp David in 1973. Other notable cars included a Nissan President, a Mercedes-Benz Pullman, and a specially made GAZ 2495 Volga all-wheel drive sedan. Chaikas regularly trade between $8,000 and $25,000 depending on condition (excluding rare versions like cabriolets and station wagons), so $40,000 of the rather ambitious starting price here accounts for quite questionable Brezhnev ownership. To answer your next question: yes, the Packard Caribbean did serve as the inspiration for the design of this car.

-- A Finnish hoon has just taken delivery of a sharp Saab 900S Combi Coup

By Autoweek Editors