BACK ALLEY=FUTURE GOLD

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Jerry Admin
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Alley-crawling is a favorite car guy activity because we all like looking for that ultimate automotive prize tucked away beside some guy’s garage.

It’s like panning a stream for gold because you turn over a lot of rocks before you hit that nugget. 

I have my own memorable nugget of gold because every day one winter I walked by a 1969 Road Runner sitting in a neighbor’s backyard down the alley.

Jerry Sutherland

He wanted 900 bucks for the then 5-year-old car—but it could have been 900,000 bucks. That’s how much chance I had to own it while I was living under my parent’s roof. It was solid and it ran–that Road Runner haunts me to this day.

But it did get me hooked on perputual back-alley searches for the next 900-dollar ’69 Runner. That was then and this is now, so what are some equivalent 2025 back-alley deals?

You can’t think like a typical Baby-Boomer classic muscle car guy on this topic. You have to think like a Gen-X (or younger), because all those back-alley Road Runners are gone now. Look for tomorrow’s prize—not yesterday’s.

The first one is a 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra Cab pickup truck.

You look for this truck because “Back to the Future” is a Holy Grail movie to Gen X and that truck was featured in the movie. The little 4×4 trucks never appealed to me because I measure every 4×4 by the legendary post-War Dodge Power Wagon.

The 2.4 -liter Toyota would be a speed bump to a Power Wagon–but that’s my take. Gen X worships Japanese trucks and they’re coming into mature adult earning potential, so if you see any form of import truck in a back alley, knock on the door.

The 1987 Honda CRX Si is another good back-alley car.

These little cars are idolized by Gen X to Z because they were the forerunner for insanely fast import cars. They only had 91 horsepower, but these cars won Car Of The Year many times over. They’re the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for anyone who doesn’t have a Baby Boomer birthdate.

The 1988 Monte Carlo SS is more familiar turf for all ages.

It was an 80s muscle car with relatively old tech, so it has some appeal to Boomers, but the 80s-era Monte Carlo SS is like crack cocaine to any car guy born after 1970. Again, if you see one while you’re on a back-alley crawl ring the doorbell.

You might see a few 1989 Dodge pickups during a back-alley run and that’s fine because old trucks are spiking in value.

But you’re going to need a mint example of an ’89 Dodge truck to generate excitement—or it could be a rusty old beater with a Cummins diesel. That was the year Dodge exploded the pickup market by adding a commercial-grade diesel engine to the pickup world. A beat-up ’89 Dodge Cummins truck is worth its weight in gold.

The second-last back-alley spec buy is another pickup—the 1987 Chevy pickup.

This was the last year of the legendary square-body run that began in 1973. You’ll probably see one in an alley if you go down enough alleys. The ’87 Chevy truck signed off on a classic era.

The last alley-crawler prize find is the 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

This was an under-the-radar, 2.3 liter, turbocharged, 190-horsepower rocket and it looked like your aunt’s T-bird. They became mythical overnight, so if you see one hiding under a tarp—talk to the owner. It might be another jackpot.

There are more potential back-alley goldmines, and I’ll touch on that later this year, but for now these are going to have to be your 21st Century version of that ’69 Road Runner I walked by every day.               

Jerry Sutherland

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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