I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

fintail

Braille driving academy? :shades:

Saw a mint 86-92 Supra Turbo today, looked brand new.

stickguy

had to run up the turnpike/GSP the other day (Jersey talk). in traffic, saw a '71 'Cuda or satellite of some kind. and later a nice '65 Stingray coupe in a period brown/bronze color.

locally an all original looking light blue '71ish FS chevy wagon with the clamshell.

au1994

That might be half of the NA sales for the year!

I've noticed 3 or 4 X6's in my area. Never understood what the impetus for either of these designs was and apparently neither did the market.

andre1969

I've noticed 3 or 4 X6's in my area. Never understood what the impetus for either of these designs was and apparently neither did the market.

I remember when those hunchbacks came out, sitting in them at the auto shows. They don't make much sense to me, either, but I thought that BMW did a much better job than Honda/Acura did. It seemed roomier, laid out better, and just more useful than the other two. The Acura in particular seemed particularly useless. Small back seat, small trunk, ugly, and overpriced.

au1994

I agree. Neither is attractive, per se, but in the right color the BMW is...'less bad'

fintail

I see X6 now and then in my area. They have a demographic - those with too much money (often from sketchy means) and no understanding of aesthetics.

fintail

A few oldies in podunk today, where cars average about 10 years older than the city. First gen Celica, 68 Barracuda, 75-76 Sedan Deville, nice looking 78-80 Malibu sedan, several Cieras, a couple 78-87 ElCaminos, 60s Beetle, hot rod ~50 Ford pickup.

fintail

And even more oddities today - VW 411 wagon, 2x 87-88 T-Birds (one looked like new), 87-88 Cougar, same 80-82 T-Bird with dog dish caps I see every time I am here, Mitsu Expo.

hpmctorque

The and '87-'88 models were my favorite 4-passenger T-birds, in terms of styling.

lemko

...black 1962 Cadillac Series 62 coupe with a silver top parked in a Bank of America lot at Cottman and Oxford Avenue in NE Philly.

fintail

They were odd, short run and an odd mix of somewhat angular and rounded styling.

Just saw a nice 78-79 Coupe DeVille, real wire wheels, and a K-car NYer.

hpmctorque

Hmm, I hadn't thought of the '87 and '88 T-Bird styling as "an odd mix of somewhat angular and rounded," although that may well be true. I thought of it more as an improvement over the original aero-Bird.

The '89's styling was much more coordinated, conventional, classical, and, thus, less polarizing. Some said the '89 borrowed heavily from the BMW coupe (can't recall which series off the top of my head). Unfortunalely, the '89 came in way overweight, and was criticized for this even by Ford's top management. Knowing this I liked the styling, but could never really love the car.

texases

Not a fan of the '89 T-Bird restyle. the turbo coupe version of the previous gen ('87-'88 included) were my favorites:

hpmctorque

Nice, but I don't imagine there are many of those left. In fact I can't remember when I last any '87-'88.

Now that Ford has its engineering and quality sorted out, there may be a market for a resurrection of the T-Bird, for worldwide distribution.

andre1969

I really liked the '87-88 T-bird, as well, and thought it was a big improvement over the '83-86, which just looked too rounded, and too much like an upside-down bathtub to me.

However, I thought the '87-88 Cougar was a step down from the '83-86. Whatever they did to the roofline, it just seemed awkward and disproportionate.

There was a guy at work who had an '87 or '88 T-bird, base model with the 3.8 V-6. Same guy who had the '52 Benz I stored for him for about 6 years. I think he got the T-bird up to around 200,000 miles before giving it to a friend. I don't know if he ever had head gasket issues with it or not.

As for that '89 T-bird, I think it was inspired by the BMW 635? I kinda liked them when they came out, but in later years I think they uglied them up a bit. And yeah, it was a heavy, bulky, space-inefficient car. Supposedly it's actually a touch shorter than the '83-88 T-bird, but on a much longer wheelbase.

I wouldn't mind having one with a V-8...either the 302 they offered for a few years, or the 4.6 that replaced it. Same with the '87-88...wouldn't mind one with the 302.

uplanderguy

My coworker of over 30 years--we've worked at three different places at the same time--is a tried and true Ford guy. He had a new black '85 Turbo Thunderbird, damaged in an accident and traded in on a new '87 Turbo Thunderbird. I thought it was beautiful and I thought the '87 facelift was a good one. I loved the taillights, and his was a charcoal blue with a navy blue interior. Beautiful. Not as roomy inside as the older-style GM coupes, at least in the back seat I don't think, but a nice car. I agree on that year's Cougar...it got uglier IMHO. At the time, I couldn't get used to four-cylinder sounds coming out of a coupe that size, though!

The '89's? I couldn't stand either one of them. I remember all of the mags at the time saying they came in overweight and over-budget. Whomever was running Ford at the time was not happy about either of those things.

imidazol97

Light cream Benz pulled into the gravel lot at the roadside farm. Looked in profile like a 50 Chrysler Imperial or something of a cross between a 1950 Chev coupe and a 53 Chev.

1.8D 1958, two door model. All original appearance. On its way to the Concours de Elegance held tomorrow, according to the owner.

andre1969

Oh, those '83-88 T-birds and Cougars were smaller inside than GM's RWD intermediate coupes in just about every respect. Less shoulder room, less legroom, bigger transmission and driveshaft hump, smaller trunk. A buddy of mine had an '86 T-bird that I got plenty of ride time in.

I'd say it had a nicer interior and better build quality than GM's competition. However, this was also one of those upper trim levels, like a Fila or Elan or something, so I guess it wasn't fair to compare it to, say, my Mom's '86 Monte Carlo with its base, rat-fur cloth interior.

It was still big enough that I wouldn't have an issue driving one. But, i just prefer the extra room of GM's competing RWD coupes.

I really liked the taillights of the '87-88 T-bird, too. I liked the way they had the two round circles on either side that you didn't really notice, until they lit up.

I wish GM had put more effort into their RWD coupes in this era, instead of letting them wither and die, and then get replaced by the GM-10/W-body.

uplanderguy

When the GM-10 coupes came out, I really liked the Cutlass Supreme coupe--the SL version, particularly. Nice wheels and interior trim, but available with a fold-down center armrest and column shift. I liked the large rear wheel openings and sorta-Colonnade-like fastback roof and big quarter windows. I liked the instrument panel shape better than the Regal and Grand Prix, too, I liked the Grand Prix least of all--seems like all I saw were white ones and the taillights reminded me of Spider Man.

When the Lumina came out and didn't include a coupe, I was disappointed. When it came out a bit later, I liked the shape and size, but was disappointed in the headroom (compared to the sedan), and the rear seat, although OK for legroom IMHO, had the cushion just about sitting on the floor. My Dad test-drove one in thinking about replacing their '84 Monte Carlo V8, but ended up buying a V6 Corsica with bucket seats but column shift.

andre1969

I agree...of those GM-10s, I like the Cutlass Supreme coupe the best. Except for later years, when they had that style that had the 6-headlight look. In a weird, offbeat sort of way, I even like the convertible they offered for a few years.

With the GM-10's, it seemed like each model tried to focus on a smaller market, rather than being everything to everybody. While the old RWD coupes could be almost anything you wanted them to be...luxury car, performance car, old man's car with wire wheels and landau roof, or even a fairly basic, roomy, intermediate for someone on a budget, it wasn't so with the GM-10's. Suddenly, it seemed like the Grand Prix was going after the boy racer/ribs-n-wings crowd, the Cutlass seemed to try to be an import fighter (something the old RWD coupes didn't need to be, because the imports didn't build anything like that), and the Regal just seemed to turn into an old people's car.

Did the Lumina coupe come out later than the sedan? I thought they both came out in 1990? I didn't like the sedan, but thought the coupe was pretty sharp looking. Hated the interior, though.

uplanderguy

The Lumina sedan came out first, and I think the APV and the coupe came out maybe six months later, at roughly the same time. I hated the rear-door cut of the sedan. For the coupe, I liked the Euro best...nice wheels, black-trimmed panel and gauges instead of idiot lights. A year or two later, they started putting just the ugliest steering wheel on all Luminas...an energy-absorbing thing. Dad test-drove a non-Euro '90 coupe. I remember him saying he liked the woodgrain strip across the dash (LOL).

For the GM-10 Cutlasses, I like the '88 and '89 with silver lower cladding (only car I can think I liked that on), but didn't like the later ones, either, with the short headlights and no trim at all down the sides.

Back to '87 T-Birds, I mentioned my coworker's Turbo Coupe with navy blue interior. It was cloth inside. I get so tired of black/grey/beige interiors nowadays.

andre1969

Back to '87 T-Birds, I mentioned my coworker's Turbo Coupe with navy blue interior. It was cloth inside. I get so tired of black/grey/beige interiors nowadays.

Yeah, you'd think there would be some demand for a dark blue interior. While a nice departure from the grays and beiges, it's still neutral enough that it should work with a white, black, gray, silver, or blue exterior. And that's like half the paint choices they give you these days!

I think a burgundy interior would work well with white, black, gray, silver, and most variants of red. My Mom's '86 Monte Carlo's rat-fur was burgundy, while the exterior was a 2-tone gray-over-silver. I thought it was pretty attractive.

fintail

The rear has an angular effect to my memory, and somehow the front does too - I guess I see it kind of being pointed, or V/arrow shaped. I wonder why the design lasted such a short time before the duller (and unreliable, IIRC) 1989 generation.

I had a Matchbox 87-88 style, and Majorette made an 83-86 car:



A few odd sightings today - 2 door Citation, K-car LeBaron, Tempo coupe, nice original looking ~65 Valiant 2 door HT in a pleasing light blue metallic, ~62 Suburban, nice looking 78-84 Olds intermediate wagon, a couple of iffy looking R107 SLs, rear section of maybe an Austin Devon resting in an old truck, TR-6, and this seems to be the place where Ford Aerostars go to die.

uplanderguy

My parents had an '80 Monte Carlo, military dark green not unlike the current Camry color, and I thought it was attractive. It had Rally Wheels, the optional rocker panel moldings, belt moldings, and a gold painted factory pinstripe. I had a new '81 Monte Carlo--I thought the facelift was much more attractive than the '80 and brought back memories of the '74 and '76 (rear especially). Mine was two-tone light jade over dark jade (light jade roof and hood). I had a solid dark jade '82 but I liked my '81 better. My parents had a firethorn-colored '84 Monte, 305 4-barrel with maroon 55/45 cloth front seat (pre-fuzzy days). I liked it a lot and it'd 'scat'. Personally, I like the '86-88 LS if you didn't get the optional side molding with vinyl insert. I like the checkerboard aluminum wheels. There's a ratty-looking gray one down the street here, that has those wheels. Never saw many with them.

fintail

When I was in school (late 90s), someone in the building where I lived had a very nice 86-88 Monte with t-tops and checkerboard wheels. It was black, and very sharp. A friend of mine had an 83 Monte LS (305, light grey on dark grey) at the same time, and admired that later car.

ab348

The original Lumina just looked old from the day it was introduced - sort of like the new Malibu does. I had a Lumina rental back at the time they first came out and I remember the dash was just awful. Actually it was sort of like the current Camry in that it had a dash mat sort of top that overlapped the sides. I remember reading that GM designed it that way to hide inconsistent build quality on the individual pieces that made up the dash panel - they just covered everything with this oversized top panel.

I was in Florida for a couple of weeks when the GM10s first came out and got a Buick Regal coupe from Alamo - I guess that would have been a 1988. It seemed nice enough although a bit strange with the vertical door handles in the door frame and a unique radio design in the dash (also vertical IIRC). Of course it had the GM 2.8 V-6 and so it had the sewing machine kind of thrashy sound all those Chevy V-6s had. But I suppose it wasn't all that bad for the times.

andys120

I saw a very nice looking Triumph TR3 or 3A (didn't see the front) parked, top down, it was light ivory, good bodywork, paint and chrome. It didn't look over restored but just as it might have when new and a lot more interesting than an '80s T-Bird, Monte Carlo or Lumina.

uplanderguy

Did it have enormous black rubber-baby-buggy-bumpers?

uplanderguy

I guess it wouldn't be a TR-3 if it did, right...more like a TR-6 or TR-7?

andys120

Did it have enormous black rubber-baby-buggy-bumpers?

You're thinking of the hideous later TR6s. TR3s were very minimalist and had hardly any bumpers at all and not much in the way of doors or a wqindshield for that matter>

hpmctorque

Speaking of Corsica, I saw two today, a red one and a turquoise one. Both were being driven, and both looked in good shape cosmetically. One was a 4-cylinder, from the engine sound. I can go weeks without seeing a Corsica, so the odds of seeing two in one day, both moving, are really slim. They certainly draw more attention than late model compacts, and they're decent looking cars. I would have enjoyed talking with the owners to learn about the history of their cars.

uplanderguy

Bought my wife a new, charcoal gray '90 Corsica 4-cyl. 5-speed. Coming off a '78 Chevette, she was delighted! We put 108K troublefree miles on it.

I was gently guiding her to a Cavalier wagon, but she liked my parents' new Corsica better.

I thought the styling was actually better in some ways than a Beretta (we also had a new red '89 Beretta GT, with the neutral cloth inside instead of the ubiquitous gray). I didn't like on the later Corsicas, how they 'cantilevered' the taillight lenses. I did like that light turquoise color they offered.

fintail

To be obscure on that subject, back in the day, my parents knew an old couple who had a Corsica 5-door. Don't see many of those anymore.

A 5-speed must have been a rarity too.

A few more oddities out here: AMC Spirit hatchback, early Hyundai Excel still running, blacked out rat rod style 63 Valiant, 62-64 or so Stude Hawk, and my mother's neighbor has a Cobalt SS sedan.

tjc78

AMC Spirit hatchback

What an awful little car. My Grandfather had one of those to go back and forth to work. No A/C, no radio, manual. Copper color with beige vinyl interior. I don't know how he left the Mark VI Givenchy in the driveway! (Oh I know, my Grandmother got to drive that!)

Saw an awesome older Mercedes. I'm not sure of the model, but it was two door with the stacked headlights (60s vintage). Red, absolutely pristine.

explorerx4

Saw a red F430, twice, also a red 308, a yellow 67/68 Camaro convertible for sale, a light green 67/68 Eldorado also for sale. The Eldorado had what looked like some vinyl trim on the back of the trunk lid.
A CJ-7 with classic plates and lost of what could have been event pins on the driver's sun visor.
Also some unknown silver kind of fastback coupe. The headlights reminded me of a 60's Ford Taunus.

ab348

From what I understand, a Spirit was basically a rebodied Gremlin, no?

andre1969

Yup, the Spirit was essentially a fastback Gremlin, while the Hornet morphed into the Concorde. Or Concord. Can't remember now if it had the "e" at the end or not.

I have to admit, I always thought the Gremlin and Hornet were vulgar little things, but the Spirit and Concord/e were at least somewhat pleasant on the eye.

fintail

I've always thought the same about those cars. When I was a little kid, something about the Gremlin really hurt my eyes, I thought they were terrible. Funny story about the Hornet...my uncle was in the Navy in the 70s, and apparently often drove one as a staff car. When he was back in the states for a couple years, what does he buy? A government surplus Hornet.

I think it was a Concord. I've always thought those were very tacky, yet somehow I don't mind them. The "Eagle" versions are cool of course. I remember back around 1985, my dad wanted one, but my mother vetoed it. But an S-10 Blazer was OK...WTH? :shades:

uplanderguy

I've always thought the same about those cars. When I was a little kid, something about the Gremlin really hurt my eyes, I thought they were terrible.

I agree, but the cut of the back predated current small hatchbacks. I hated that look then, and I still hate it! Plus, it was obvious to most anyone that a Gremlin was just a sawed-off Hornet.

Hornets seemed smaller than GM's Nova or Chrysler's Valiant, but in two-door sedan guise and SC/360 package, I didn't mind them. I think the '73 and later Hornet Hatchback really improved the styling. The "Sportabout" wasn't bad looking, but I'm generally not an AMC fan. (I do like the '74 Matador coupes, though--shoot me!)

andre1969

The Hornet was on a 108" wheelbase, same as the Valiant. And shorter than the 4-door Maverick (109.9) and the Nova and Dart (both 111"). However, I think it also had a lot less overhang, so that might have made it seem even more diminutive.

I always thought the Maverick looked really small, whether it was a 4-door or 2-door. But, the 4-door was 190.9" long...not exactly petite. For comparison, my old '68 and '69 Darts were around 196" long.

Actually, once they put on the 5 mph bumpers, both front and rear, the Maverick came out to 193.9" in 4-door form! I think the Dart actually got bloated up to around 206", though. I want to say the Nova stayed around 197-200"?

bhill2

I've always thought the same about those cars. When I was a little kid, something about the Gremlin really hurt my eyes, I thought they were terrible.

That brings back a memory of my younger days. When my crazy (but lovable) cousin started college he decided that his hopelessly unreliable (but lovable) MG Midget would not be a good choice for the commute. Not being of substantial means, he bought a bottom-feeder Gremlin (3 on the floor, heater, radio, and nothing else). The feature that made it special(?) was that it was the color of Welch's grape juice. Anyway, for better or worse that car I will never forget.

fintail

Regarding the MB - I assume it was one of these

Oddest car I saw today was an E36 M3.

stickguy

Hey, back in college when I was cycling though cheap cars, I owned a gremlin, and Hornet (the hatch!)

tjc78

Regarding the MB

Yep, that was it. Had whitewalls and looked great. Nice style IMHO.

lemko

A friend of mine had an orange 1973 Hornet wagon back in high school. Driving a car like that must've motivated him to succeed. Today, he's an osteopathic surgeon and drives a new Corvette.

Mr_Shiftright

A very nice VW pickup truck, albeit with Chevy rally wheels (???)

Even rarer would be the crew cab version, which I haven't seen in ages.

andre1969

Back in college, I was friends with a married couple...husband had a beat-up '78 Malibu Classic sedan with over 200,000 miles on it and the wife had a bright blue '75 or '76 AMC Hornet wagon.

They inherited a stripper '87 Sentra when his father died, and in early 1994 bought a new Civic sedan. The dealer took the Malibu off their hands and gave 'em $75 for it. As for the Hornet, they offered to GIVE it to me, but I politely refused. They tried calling a few local junkyards, and so did I, but nobody would take it...even for nothing. We ultimately had to drive about 90 miles down to Culpeper VA, where there's a big junkyard that I remember my Grandad getting some '53 DeSoto parts back in the late 70's. That guy took it off their hands and gave 'em $90 for it.

A month or so later I was in that junkyard looking for some '69 Bonneville stuff and I asked him about the Hornet. He said something like "Oh yeah, that thing...after I bought it I thought about it, got pissed, and told one of my guys to drive it way to the back of the lot so I don't have to look at it, and get the tires off of it!"

I had gone back to that yard a couple times, and never did run across that car, so he must have REALLY buried it back there! And yet, I was able to come across that same '53 DeSoto that I remembered Granddad getting parts off of, some 16 years before.

I'd be curious to go back to that junkyard today and see how it looks, but judging from some of the aerial photos I've seen, it looks like he's gone through and cleared a lot of stuff out. So maybe he finally got with the times.

ab348

Our family bought a '75 Hornet Sportabout new back in the spring of '75. Their first and last AMC product. It actually wasn't a bad car. I loved how it drove - in comparison to the '74 Maverick I was driving the driving dynamics of the Hornet were like a sports car. It had nicely weighted power steering, was equipped with a set of Goodyear Polysteel radials that helped the handling a lot, and had power disc brakes which had the manual drums on the Maverick seem like mechanical brakes by comparison. It had the 258 six and a Torque Flite automatic (under the AMC name - Shift Command?).

The interior was where it fell down. I'm trying to think of one good feature and I'm stumped. The steering wheel was out of the 1950s, the dash was a strange mix of heavy cast metal pieces and cheap plastic bits, and the fit and finish was not good. We kept it for 3 years and it served us well.

fintail

When I was a teen, my mom was friends with a crazy little old lady who had a Hornet Sportabout. This would have been in the early-mid 90s. I remember the car - I think I rode in it once. It was powder blue, and pristine, looked new, had some insane low mileage. I think it was a 75-76 model. I remember the dashboard of the car was odd, having a tall center stack. The old lady also had a big 76 Olds 88 coupe that had belonged to her husband - the car a pale yellow behemoth in very nice condition, actually would have sold it to me for like $1200, but I passed. I guess they both bought new cars at the same time. The lady is still around, well into her 80s now - I think I saw her last year. She had a Subaru Legacy.

Saw a pretty light blue 61-62 Continental convertible this afternoon.

lemko

There were only two AMC products in our family, but at least we had the cool ones. My Uncle Daniel had a blue 1968 Rebel SST and my Dad had a blue 1968 Javelin.