You may recall earlier this week when I took a firm stand on the grounds that it’s torture to have a wonderful car that you can never really let yourself drive. Well, now I’ve found the strange, twisted doppelganger to this concept: an ultra-low mileage car that nobody gives a shit about driving! A car This is a very confusing car.

This car, and the condition that it’s in, is more of a machine designed to generate questions that start with why than it is an actual machine designed for transportation.

Why does this Sundance have only 152 km/94 miles on it? Why did someone think this was going to be a car worth preserving in pristine condition, if that’s what happened? Why does anyone think it’s worth $9,000? Why couldn’t they have wiped the rain off it before taking all those photos?

Ultra-low mileage cars usually have such crazy value because they’re pristine examples of a car that, usually, has some sort of significance or following or value on its own. That one from the other day, the million-dollar 1964 Beetle, it was valuable because Volkswagen Beetles have a huge cult following and are historically significant, and one with only 22 miles is basically unheard of.

But a Plymouth Sundance? I once picked the because, let’s face it, it was a deeply, richly boring car. A near-perfect Plymouth Sundance is an interesting anomaly, but I have no idea what one should do with this car.

I mean, preserving examples of mundane cars is important for historical reasons, but the low mileage isn’t really a factor for that purpose. A well maintained Sundance with 120,000 miles would be just as good an exhibit in the Mars Museum of Transportation in the year 2245 as this one.

Would you buy it to drive? I mean, that makes no sense for two reasons: One, because the only impressive thing about the car is how little it’s been used, and B., it’s fucking Sundance.

So, would you get it to preserve it? Maybe, but then we run into that same issue: it’s a fucking Sundance.

On top of it all, I sort of feel like a big old hypocrite because . A fucking Tempo! What the hell is wrong with me? Am I getting better because I don’t feel this way about the Sundance, or am I getting worse because I don’t feel this way about the Sundance?

I was just talking to the curator at the Petersen Museum about getting cars for the collection, and

I think I need some help.

This thing is really throwing me for a loop. I have no idea what to think about it, or what one would do with it, or even if it’s worth the seemingly crazy money they’re asking for. Is the best example in the world of something no one really gives a shit about a valuable thing? Maybe?

I’m gonna lie down for a bit.

(Thanks, I guess? to Brent!)