Car shopping part 2

I'm still trying to find a car I can drive to rotations.   Since I can't get a likeable car (since every single car made since the '70s is a soul-crushing waste of a machine,) I decided to look at "responsible" cars.  I found 2 pretty immaculate older black Priuses (Priui?) about an hour away.  One at a dealer, one a private seller.  I make Tyler wake up at 8:30 and drive me to the dealer first, so we can get there early.  We show up, ask for the salesman I'd talked to a few days before, and he announces "I just saw somebody drive that car off the lot.  Let me go double check."  So he walks us to the spot where it was, between 2 newer and way-too-expensive Priuses, and apologizes.  Damnit, at least we have the private seller to fall back on.  I call her, and let her know we're on our way, at which point she tells me that she just took a deposit on it 10 minutes ago, so don't bother.  Aargh!

So, now it's take 2 on finding something that will work.  I can't find any more hybrids in the same price range as the ones that got snatched out from under me, so I'm kind of looking at everything.  Not having much luck.  It doesn't help that I do keep finding cars that I fall in love with, but would be completely irresponsible to buy without an income for restorations and a garage.

Like this Chevy I found.

Or this Plymouth

Or, heartbreakingly, this Pontiac ambulance, that the owner is threatening to scrap if it doesn't sell

But no, I can't have a nice car.  Eventually, I'm going to find some horrible 2000's sedan, or hybrid, or something "responsible," and I'm going to spend a lot of money for something that won't break on me, all the while resenting that car manufacturers decided to forgo any sort of personality or design aesthetic  in their cars, all while trying to convince us that a hybrid that gets 40 mpg is somehow amazing, even though gawd-awful Geo Metros were getting that milage 10 years before hybrids came onto the market.  

Whenever I hear people complaining about how American carmakers are struggling, or lamenting what will happen to the US auto industry, I honestly wouldn't care if GM and Ford bit the dust.  If they're going to shove tauruses and caprices at us, they deserve to struggle.  It was their decision to ruin cars, they can live with it.   What really gets me, is what are classic car enthusiasts going to do in 30 years?  Will we all be fighting over the remaining 50-100 year old cars, or will some nostalgia switch flip, and suddenly we'll be wanting today's crapburgers, because compared to the 2040 models, they're actually pretty decent looking?