$1500 Cortina

http://springfield.craigslist.org/ctd/2238139884.html

Desirable model, possibly a rusty POS .

Man, I want one of those bad.

I can verify that Missouri salts their roads pretty heavily. Tinworm is rampant around here. That said, I don't know where you would find another one this cheap...might make the rust repair worth it.

Gut the bottom of it and replace with a miata?

In reply to Luke:

Those are good cars. You get funky looks like a Triumph Herald, but they are super reliable. A MK I GT has trailing arms with the leaf spring live axel, and they can handle pretty well with the better than average real axel location. Big trunk, too.

It should be noted that in 1966, Graham Hill won the British Touring Car championship in a Lotus Cortina, and it should also be noted that the Porsche 911 was considered a touring car in that series at the time.