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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
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Well, I suppose a man can have far more expensive habits than throwing away $200 a month on maintaining a large V-8 french poodle.
(Aw...fifi is upset, she needs a diamond collar--LOL!)
As much as I've always liked GM RWD cars of the 70's and early 80's, I never really liked the downsized LeMans. I think they really messed up the nose of the car, although the unobtrusive, plastic covered bumpers were a nice touch, and ahead of their time. I like the way the beltline kicks up a bit at the rear window though, faintly evocative of the old GM "Coke-bottle" look.
They want $4995 for this beast, which is WAAAAY too much, but I think it's kinda cool to see one that's still this nice. I liked the '81 LeMans, that had a somewhat Trans Am-ish looking nose.
Almost forgot...does anybody know anything about the wheels that are on this '80 LeMans? I don't recognize 'em. I like 'em, though.
Also, spotted a red 1964 Ford Galaxie convertible with white top at lunchtime.
I love those early-mid '60s Galaxies.. Both my uncle and grandfather drove them... but, not convertibles, unfortunately..
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I never was much of a Ford man, but there are some years of Galaxie I love, too. '61-64's are cool with me, with the '63 being my favorite. And I like the '65-67 style, with its vertical headlights. My Dad had a '64 Galaxie 500 2-door hardtop when he was a teen, and when I was a little kid we had a '64 Galaxie 4-door sedan that I positively hated. But for the life of me I don't know why...maybe my Dad tried to teach me to hate Fords? ;-)
He bought it for my grandmother who was going to learn to drive... she never did.. He didn't start driving it until they moved to the "city" in '68.. When he died in '71, it only had 30K miles and my grandmother sold it for $500.
I begged for that car, but only being 13-years-old, I didn't stand a chance.
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That Gm reminded me of something else I saw yesterday, and have seen several times around town: A nice two-tone brown, 4-dour, Motor Trend Car of the year from 25ish years ago... Yep, a Chevy Citation.
That Gm reminded me of something else I saw yesterday, and have seen several times around town: A nice two-tone brown, 4-dour, Motor Trend Car of the year from 25ish years ago... Yep, a Chevy Citation.
I've noticed a couple of Camry All-Tracs around, not so many of the Corollas.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Today, I saw a female driving a yellow Honda S2000... Just the second time I've seen that..
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I gotta belive there are more women in Cincinnati than that.
<sorry, couldn't resist ... puts head back down to work>
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Of course, with the current temp at 37 degrees, I doubt that the tops are down today!
But, I guess I'm surprised at the number of RWD vehicles I see on the roads around here.
Boxsters.. 50/50
SLKs.... women
Hey..we used to have a topic on this..
And.. I'll have no comment about the tops being down..
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I personally like the style of them but I wouldn't own one as an everyday driver because the gas costs alone would bankrupt me.
The MB specialist I know here has a Euro 230E from 1987. It's very stripped...front power windows, cloth, no headlight wipers, plastic wheel covers, and of course it's just a 4cyl. It's also a non-metallic blue. He saw it in a newspaper and called, thinking it must be a typo. But it was brought back by a military person. He picked it up pretty cheap, but it's really sparsely equipped. I wonder if military people get a personal car exemption from inane EPA/DOT regs.
Also spotted .. a Citroen SM. It was dark, so I didn't get a good look at the color or condition.
kyfdx: OK, I deserved that comment.
Many diesel Benzes (most in fact) are used in commercial service as taxis. If you see one stripped down like that, you can almost be sure it was an old cab, probably brought over by military personnel as a 2-3 year old used car. I've never known diplomats to be thrifty!
I think Toy made a Celica AllTrac Turbo also. Ready made rally car way before Sub and Mitsu.
"So does 'dysentery', until you know what it means!"
That '56 DeSoto actually showed up occasionally in episodes of "The Ropers", so I'm guessing they kept it around for at least the season.
I could see from a distance that there were several old convertibles of 40s and 50s vintage including a black '48-'49 Lincoln and a '56 Chevy.
I thought the flag-bedecked Lincoln might have been Ike's ( don't ask how I remembered that).
I looked closer and sure enough, Eisenhower was standing up in the middle of the car waving to the assembled crowd.
Nearby on the wall was a small poster commemorating his speech before the NH General Court in August 1956. There's all kinds of neat details elsewhere in the photos such as a group of teenagers in ducktail haircuts and blue jeans leaning on a '54 Ford and a 40's Buick or Caddy convertible with Secret Servicemen on the running boards, just behind Ike's Lincoln.
If you know your old cars you can often tell the year of a photograph or movie by the cars that appear in it.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
A few years back, there was a '72 Impala 4-door hardtop near me for sale. One day I stopped off and looked at it. It was a good 50-100 footer, but up close I could see the rust coming through, and it looked like a fairly cheap repaint. Interior wasn't in bad shape though, as I recall. They wanted $6000 for it! I think it sat for about 7-8 months before finally disappearing. I would've given them maybe $1200 for it. And even that might've been a bit too generous.
Ebay time:
Nice earlier Morgan
In the dictionary under "hopeless"
Graceful in a piggy old Rolls way, worth finishing, but no real upside
Clean early LeCar with healthy bidding
Another project worth completing
I swear every one of these sad things survived, and they all end up on ebay
If you have a weak stomach, don't click here
This must be extremely rare, I kind of like it
Very cute little Fiat
Looks good with the tires anyway. Suicide doors are nice too
If you're an heir or an overpaid underworked CEO, here's your fixer upper
Very nice early fintail in my color, first year of production. Bench seat is impossibly rare in this car.
Low mileage Andre-mobile
Hemi K-Car
LeCar --- holy crap, Batman! $1,500 for a LeCar? Excuse me while I sweep my jaw off the floor.
Fiat --interesting little wagon, but at $5,000+ , let it go, man. That's a fair bid. Time to drop the reserve on this one and hope for perhaps a little more.
the "packard-cougar" -- some people should be arrested for what they do to cars.
Nash -- perhaps "rare" in this condition, but they made about 60,000 of them, so not a rare car per se.
Benz Fintail -- I wonder how many gallons of red dye they sloshed on that upholstery--eek!
That Fintail looks nice, except for that clashy red. It looks to me like that interior is screaming out for any shade of blue, or maybe a creme. Or white with blue on the carpeting, metal parts, and other trim would be pretty sweet. That red wasn't original, was it?!
That freshly dyed red interior is a bit overdone. But it very well could be original...I've seen a blue on red one before. MB was odd at that time...cloth interior colors could only be matched to certain exterior colors, but MB-Tex and leather could be chosen at will by the customer. You'll sometimes see bad things, like a brown on blue car. I think blue or creme would be the best choice for the interior color.
They were a neat idea, but for all practical purposes, a convertible was probably a better choice. The Skyliners look horrible with the top up, and trunk space is almost non-existent. Plus, all that wiring, electric motors, etc just waiting to fail.
The big problem with the early retractables was that the car had to be perfectly level, which was a real pain.
Still an interesting novelty and really an admirable engineering effort. I like goofy stuff like that sometimes.
The Skyliner was also viewed as a flop, saleswise. However, I think it's actually pretty impressive that they sold as many as they did. IIRC, they sold around 10,000 per year, from '57-59, and while '58-59 sales were off, considering the severity of the recession, they weren't off as much as total car sales.
Did Ford lose money on the Skyliner? IIRC, they cost about $1000 more than a regular Ford Sunliner convertible ($3500 instead of $2500 base price). That $1000 premium is one reason they weren't hot sellers. But still, that seems like an awful lot of research and technology thrown into the car, for just $1000 a pop. And even at $3500, that base price was only about $400 more than my '57 DeSoto's base price. And my top doesn't go down! :-(
My Uncle Johnny had a red and white 1957 Skyliner back in the day. That top was troublesome. Sometimes it would fail halfway through its raising/lowering cycle. Fortunately, there was a manual overide so you wouldn't have to ride around with the top at "half-mast."
I'm the type of person though, that if I'm in the junkyard and I see a car with the windows rolled down, I'd put them up to try to preserve the interior of the car. Of course, that's not so easy to do nowadays, since most cars have power windows.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I wish I would have gotten a better look at the Elise...
Love that Fiat Abarth. One of my first matchbox type cars was a Fiat Abarth. Unfortunately it found the bottom side of a hammer, to simulate a crash.
That Packouger, what a joke! Just as funny as Andre's "garage" up in the tree!
A coworker has an Opel GT, brings it out in the warmer season. Has 13" Daytonas w/spinners on it, in the original sense, not the latest in spinners. Has nice exhuast on it. He's an electrician, keeps it in good running order. Is a mustardy yellow orange color.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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