I am unabashedly a fan of 1960s American compacts. That said, I don’t have a grand preference for one over the other, though I do like some aspects of certain cars: the early Mercury Comet’s design, the Falcon’s taillights, the Rambler’s interior, the Dart’s super clean lines, and so forth. So I set out to find a couple for comparison in one locale for a couple good cars to make a Would You Rather? post. What I found, however, was a bonanza of cheap compacts with six cylinders and four doors, all found in or near Seattle. Yeah, I know two-doors are all the rage, but if you’re looking for an entry into classic-car ownership, a cheap four-door is a great starting point. Let’s look at the contenders.

We’ll start with this 1965 Dodge Dart for the oddly specific price of $2,099. It’s far from cosmetically perfect with some dings, dents, and nicks. That’s understandable since the seller claims to have bought it off someone who had used it as a daily driver. A better shot of the interior would be nice, but for two grand, this is the cheapest of the cars we’ll list.

Under the hood is a 225-cubic-inch Slant Six, which was the inline-six used in so many Mopars over the years. The Leaning Tower of Power looks pretty stock, but it comes with a rebuilt carb so if you were in the process of building a healthy Mopar small-block, this six-holer would get you around for a while.

Next up is this 1965 Chevy II Nova for $2,500. You’d be lucky to find a two-door Nova in this condition for twice the money so this seems like a pretty solid deal if you don’t mind the extra car for the money. Hell, it’s a deal to spend less money for more car, right? That always seemed to be Cadillac’s philosophy anyway. The interior does look pretty beat-on here and the rear bench in particular will need some work.

Calling it a six-cylinder car doesn’t really solve which engine is in the car, however. The Chevy II had two straight-sixes on the order sheet, the base 194 cubic-inch (not the Stovebolt) and its 230 cubic-inch big brother with 120 and 140 horsepower, respectively. The 1965 Nova ushered in the muscle-car era for the nameplate with the optional 327 cubic-inch V8 so you probably could make your own crew-cab Nova SS clone if you wanted with this one.

Our Ford option, a ‘66 Falcon, comes with a slightly higher price tag at $3,500. However, the exterior of the car looks clean and the interior appears impeccable so even though needs some carb and electrical work, you’re pretty far ahead of the game cosmetically. This was the first year of the Falcon’s final generation and while sales weren’t particularly great when new, it’s still a fine-looking car with color-matched interior.

Under the hood, you’ll find the biggest of Ford’s Thriftpower 6s, the Ford 200. Like the Chrysler’s Slant Six, this engine was dropped in Ford’s base-model everything for two decades until 1983. And even then, the “High-Swirl Combustion” 2.3-liter four-cylinder used in the Ford Tempo was essentially a Ford 200 with two cylinders lopped off. That remained in production until the mid-1990s. There’s a useless history lesson for you, but it’s nice knowing that you can always source a replacement engine from two decades of Ford cars should the now-running 200 go kaput some day.

OK, so this 1962 Rambler is a wagon, technically, but it does have four doors (Well, really five) and it looks pretty boss so we thought it worth including with the $3,250 price tag. We’re not sure what’s up with the patina since I don’t think Rambler ever offered a woody wagon in ‘62, but there looks like there was maybe a two-tone paint that was poorly applied or something. Either way, I like its look and probably wouldn’t change a thing.

Like all Ramblers of the era, this one should have the 196 cubic-inch straight-six, which was based on Nash’s flathead six but redesigned in the early 1960s with an overhead valve setup. It was no powerhouse engine and like most of Rambler’s designs until the Marlin, it was fairly conservative for the time. However, that also makes it something of a classic snapshot of the era; early 1960s Rambler interiors feature some of the coolest early Space Age design you’ll ever find.

We nearly let the list go with four because it would make the lead image design easier, but this 1963 Studebaker Lark was just too pretty to omit. The Lark is an oft-forgotten anachronism from a defunct manufacturer and the $3,500 asking price is very telling of this idea. If it’s not a show-quality car, this is at least a super-clean Lark and it costs about what you’d pay for a clean ‘68 Charger fender. Whereas early Larks (‘59-’61) have bizarre proportions and later ones (‘64-’66) are Rambler lookalikes, the ‘62 and ‘63 hit the sweet spot looks-wise. They have the four-headlight design of its contemporary Hawks and a clean roofline.

In 1963, the Lark’s option box included a place to tick the box for the same supercharged 289 cubic-inch, 289-horsepower V8 used in the Avanti (or the naturally aspirated version that made 240 horsepower). These were pretty rare and the one in question here has instead the long-used 170 cubic-inch straight-six that would have made 100 horsepower on a cool, dry day.

So there you go: A handful of classic compacts. Which would you have? They were priced and considered drastically different automobiles when new, but a half-century later, they’re all extraordinarily similar.

Follow the links for the: Dodge Dart, Chevy Nova, Ford Falcon, Rambler Wagon, Studebaker Lark.