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

ab348

Maybe those cambered wheels are inspired by Hondas that suffered failed lower ball joints.

fintail

I snapped a pic of the car when I saw it a few weeks ago:



Maybe it's just me getting old and having some nostalgia, but it kind of made me smile. Something I wouldn't have cared for when new, but it is rare, cheerful, and apparently being looked after.

boomchek said:

Wow. I never knew (or forgot) that Paseos were ever sold as a convertible model.

fintail

Those V12 wheels though, my buttons are pushed. I've always really liked those, and apparently others do too, as the recent Maybach W222 trim has wheels that are kind of a homage:



The interior of the C215 is especially dated on pre-2003 cars with the two piece infotainment (screen and buttons) setup. Maybe they will end up being seen as an upcoming classic like the 140 cars, but for now, 220/215s are in that position of being too old to be new, too new to be old, and can have huge running costs. I saw a sedan with the V12 wheels, I assume a S600, sitting forlornly and maybe too low in a driveway just yesterday. I know an indy MB shop that won't work on early W220 S600s anymore, as apparently the risk of the owner giving up and walking away mid-repair is too high.

The C216 has aged a lot better, and doesn't look particularly "old" even today. My best sighting of one was when I was in Vienna late last year - Russian plates!

boomchek said:

I used to see a lot of C215's in Vancouver a few years ago, not so much anymore. One time at the used car lot I worked at we happened to have one CL55's for sale, plus one owned by one of the sales guys, and a customer happened to pull up in a CL600 with the unique triangle shaped wheels. So 3 of them happened to converge at once.

Funny thing though is I don't think they aged that well, especially the interior. At one time years ago it was one of my dream cars, but working in the car business and seeing a few of them come through work, the desire has worn off for me.

I much prefer the newer C216. I had one at work that I took out for a night out a few times and it just has so much presence either parked or on the road, that it's still one of my favorites.

fintail

For most cars, I don't even want them lowered - but will try not to hold it against the owner. We were all 20 once, and fell for period fads (I put clear corners on my old W126, I wouldn't do that again).

Funny, there's a movement out there also doing this to old MBs:





Of course, these will have air suspension to allow them to be driven normally. As many of these cars might be headed to the junkyard without these modifications, at least it keeps them alive.

boomchek said:

I feel the same way. Not sure if I'm just getting old and don't see the point of modifying a car to that extent, and instead spending money on something that matters, or if I just don't like the new trends and style. I do like when cars are lowered an inch or two as it gives any car a more aggressive stance, but this crooked wheel thing I just don't get.

berri

No one does the color blue on cars better than the Germans IMHO.

stickguy

My wife got frustrated looking at cars recently. She likes blue, and it needs to be the right dark blue. Only BMW really had one she liked.

andre1969

Y'all remember a few weeks ago, when my buddy totaled his '09 Grand Marquis? Well, he found a replacement...and damn if he didn't go out and find a near duplicate!!



And, for this last shot, I figured I'd let my old man's Regal mug the camera...


Anyway, my friend went to CarMax, and had them do a search for a Grand Marquis, and they found this one in North Carolina. It only has about 61,000 miles on it, and has been very well maintained. It's stripped down a bit compared to the one he totaled though...the older one had fog lights, power adjustments for the passenger seat, and I believe, heated seats as well. The replacement is the same trim level, LS Ultimate which, I'm sorry, if you're going to call the car something like that it's my belief that just about EVERYTHING should be standard!

stickguy

Strip the missing parts out. At least can trade seats if he really cares. Though the drivers side fog light might be iffy.

ab348

Fog lights, for me at least, are something I very rarely used when they were in the cars I owned. The seats would be a useful swap though, if the harness connectors are all the same.

stickguy

I’d be surprised if in that car, the plugs were not already there.

tjc78

Tell your buddy to check out Crown Vic.Net

There is tons of information on there about these cars, especially the whale body years (03-11). The wiring for the power passenger seat should be there.

The steering wheel should also just be a swap if the totaled car had the redundant controls.

Tell him to grab the HVAC panel out the totaled car as well. The O-rings can fail in those causing the air to all blow out of the defrost instead of where selected.

boomchek

We had a Chrysler Aspen LIMITED for sale once at a lot I worked at. There was nothing Limited about it, cloth interior, no nav, no DVD, pretty plain jane. Not sure what was limited about it. lol

kyfdx

boomchek said:

We had a Chrysler Aspen LIMITED for sale once at a lot I worked at. There was nothing Limited about it, cloth interior, no nav, no DVD, pretty plain jane. Not sure what was limited about it. lol

Limited has slowly drifted from being the top trim to nearly the lowest.

Remember when LX was an upgraded trim?

tjc78

Well if you think about it.... "limited" on options.

My 93 Taurus was an "LX" it was top trim at the time if you weren't getting an SHO.

boomchek

Or "special edition" models. Basically a low model with a few popular options at a special price.

boomchek

Fintail I agree about the Maybach wheels. They're very similar.

I actually thought you reposted a closeup of the CL V12 wheels until I looked closer.

tjc78

boomchek said:

Or "special edition" models. Basically a low model with a few popular options at a special price.

Yeah Nissan and Honda both did that in the 90s and early 2000s

my Aunt’s Accord was a special edition. IIRC it was basically an LX with alloys and a few other things from the EX. 

andre1969

Oh I hate how they dragged the name "Special Edition" through the mud. "Special Edition" used to be a Dodge specialty, although sometimes it was abbreviated as "S/E" or just "SE" I think. I remember the old Dodge Dart S/E and even the Aspen S/E, and they were the top of the line for those cars.

But, then fast forward to 2001, and I remember they came out with the Intrepid SE. In 2000, they just called the trim levels "Intrepid", "Intrepid ES" and "Intrepid R/T". But, for 2001 they tacked the "SE" onto the base intrepid, to actually give the trim level a name, I guess. Sounds better than calling it "base" perhaps? Or, worse, sometimes the lowest level, or "standard" model would be abbreviated as "STD" in literature and such!

texases

Don't VW and Honda add "Special Edition" tags to their late in the model editions, right before the new version comes out?

fintail

This name thing reminds me of an old Seinfeld routine, appearing on the John Voight LeBaron episode:

"Like, no baron has ever owned a LeBaron. Or the Ford LTD. "LTD." Limited. It's a "limited" edition...what did they make, fifty million of those? "Yes, it's 'limited' to the number we can sell." Or when they try and mangle a positive word into a car name, you know how they'll do that? The "Integra." Oh, integrity? No, Integra. The "Supra." Or the "Impreza." Yeah? Well, I hope it's not a "lemona"...or you'll be hearing from my "lawya.""

For a long time trim levels were easy. Ford = L, GL, G/LX. Honda = DX, LX, EX (or in Canada LX, EX, EX-R), etc.

tjc78

It is certainly hard to keep track.

 Buick did away with trim levels.  

Look at older LaCrosse and Enclave models.  You’ll see CXL or CXS.  After 2012 that’s gone.  

I remember the sales person telling me this when I went I test drive a 2012 LaCrosse.   I asked for a CXS and he explained the whole thing.  

ab348

Not sure if these are sold in the USA but for years Toyota Canada has offered a Corolla CE (I think it stands for "Cheap Edition") as a bottom-feeder model. And today I saw a previous-gen Sentra "FE" (not sure if that stood for "fuel efficient" or "fail edition"). Honda offered a lot of bottom-end "DX" editions of Civics and Accords here that I don't think were offered in the US either.

Mr_Shiftright

Yep, we got the CE in the states, too. You see 'em around.

fintail

Yeah I suspect a Canadian DX was lower than an American DX, as the other equivalents matched fairly well. Some markets love a cheap car. I remember back in the 90s there were also super-economy CX and HX Civics.

ab348

texases said:

Don't VW and Honda add "Special Edition" tags to their late in the model editions, right before the new version comes out?

An old and time-honoured tradition. Throw on a set of alloys, maybe add some pinstripes and a badge. I remember an Altima where the "Special Edition" stick-on plastic badge looked straight from the Pep Boys clearance shelf, and a Sonata that had an awful script "Special Edition" decal on the lower part of the front doors, just awful.

andre1969

My uncle's 2003 Corolla was a CE. IIRC, back then they had the CE, the nicer LE, and the sporty-ish S. Even though the CE was the entry level model, it was still fairly nice. For the time, at least. I'm sure if I had to go back and experience that car today, after being used to all the features we take for granted these days, I'd hate it!

boomchek

Canada also got a Corolla VE, the bottom of the line base model, it stood for Value Edition. I remember when I first saw a Corolla VE from afar I thought it said V6 because of the font, and it got me excited for a second until I saw it was just VE.

ab348

This is kind of interesting - the first minivan limousine!

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/10/22/maximum-luxury-in-a-minivan-1980s-style

PF_Flyer

ab348 said:

One grocery chain here has done something with their newer stores I haven't seen in years. The painted lines on their spaces are a sort of elongated U shape, making the effective shape much wider so there is a lot more room to open doors. I love their lots.

That's a clever way to make people more precise when they pull in. Gold star for the grocery chain

tjc78

That Limo is kind of cool. Wow, Chrysler made some plush seats in the 80s.

Mr_Shiftright

The 80s was when American carmakers were giving up on performance and focusing on luxury.

andre1969

Mr_Shiftright said:

The 80s was when American carmakers were giving up on performance and focusing on luxury.

Heck, by the 80's they were giving up on luxury as well, in cars, and that's when the luxury truck/utility vehicle market started to take off!

Mr_Shiftright

That's true--they pretty much gave up trying to compete in the car field.

santosto

I say that that the 1955 Dodge still share the 1949 platform despite the all-new Forward look

fintail

Saw a first gen RAV4 - two door, soft top. Not many of those around.

andre1969

The other day going home from work, I spotted this in traffic...


It's hard to tell from the pic, but it was a nice, deep emerald green hue. It was a bit ratty now, but in its day I'm sure was a pretty car.

fintail

I always liked the way they smoothed out the 95-97 TC, the facelift worked. Years ago I had a boss who had one in a silvery blue, pretty car.

texases

The last good-looking TC, IMO.

tjc78

Yeah 95-97 was a nice improvement. The 98-02 is largely unloved but the 03-11 are also nice looking IMO.

uplanderguy

I used to get TC's of that generation as rental cars when I travelled all the time with work--rented from Budget and I often got a free upgrade to those.

I don't know model years of Lincolns of the '90's well, but didn't some of those just have a one-piece rear door window, and others had Ford's usual "vent window up against another vent window" look (the 'second' vent window being in the C-pillar?).

boomchek

uplanderguy said:

I used to get TC's of that generation as rental cars when I travelled all the time with work--rented from Budget and I often got a free upgrade to those.

I don't know model years of Lincolns of the '90's well, but didn't some of those just have a one-piece rear door window, and others had Ford's usual "vent window up against another vent window" look (the 'second' vent window being in the C-pillar?).

I think those where the Continentals. They all sagged in the rear after aging due to their air suspension.

boomchek

Someone in my neigbourhood has this old 560SEC. I see it every day. Maybe not so obscure but it does have period correct mods makes it unique.

kyfdx

I like the '72 model. This is what I learned to drive on (Coupe model)

fintail

The 1995 facelift removed the soft pillar in the door, making the rear door window one piece.

uplanderguy said:

I used to get TC's of that generation as rental cars when I travelled all the time with work--rented from Budget and I often got a free upgrade to those.

I don't know model years of Lincolns of the '90's well, but didn't some of those just have a one-piece rear door window, and others had Ford's usual "vent window up against another vent window" look (the 'second' vent window being in the C-pillar?).

fintail

Euro lights and bumpers (although the latter could be because of the aftermarket style), I wonder if it is a Japan import.

boomchek said:

Someone in my neigbourhood has this old 560SEC. I see it every day. Maybe not so obscure but it does have period correct mods makes it unique.

andre1969

blockquote class="Quote" rel="fintail">The 1995 facelift removed the soft pillar in the door, making the rear door window one piece.

uplanderguy said:

I used to get TC's of that generation as rental cars when I travelled all the time with work--rented from Budget and I often got a free upgrade to those.

I don't know model years of Lincolns of the '90's well, but didn't some of those just have a one-piece rear door window, and others had Ford's usual "vent window up against another vent window" look (the 'second' vent window being in the C-pillar?).

I think that's the only thing I don't like about the '95-97...the door window with no quarter window. Because of that, the rear window only rolls down about 2/3 of the way, whereas on the '90-94, I think it went down all the way. It wouldn't keep me from buying one if I found a nice one though. I guess roll-down rear windows has always been a sticking point for me ever since that damn '82 Malibu Classic wagon my grandparents had!

I thought the '03-11 Town Cars were nice looking as well, a really good update to the '98-02, which I thought looked ungainly in the front. But, at a quick glance, the '03+ looked a bit too much like a Mercury, and not enough Lincolnesque! And by that time it seemed like they were cheapening them up, to where the interior kind of seemed like a taxi with leather seats thrown in after the fact.

PF_Flyer

So it's close to Halloween, and there was this movie on the TV...

explorerx4

Movie: Christine?
Car: I have no idea.

uplanderguy

andre, thanks for confirming my memory.

While windows going the whole way down is a good thing, I always hated that 'double vent glass' look and Ford seemed to use it on a lot of cars, for a lot of years.

PF_Flyer

explorerx4 said:

Movie: Christine?
Car: I have no idea.

Christine {ding}

1950 Plymouth I think