Mystery car pix

andys120

From Marty Scorcese's seminal Mean Streets(1973):

karsick

Early 70's Beetle
Mid-60's Volvo 122S
Mid-60's Chev Suburban
Early 70's Chrysler Newport (center lane)
Late 60's Mercury Marquis
Mid-60's Plymouth Valiant
:confuse:

andre1969

Pretty close, but I tink that beast in the center is an Imperial, of '69-73 vintage. And I think that Merc is a '65 Monterrey, but I'm not sure. I thought the Marquis came later, and usually had hidden headlights?

karsick

You must be right.

The later Marquis name coincided with the memorable "diamond cutter in the back seat" ad, didn't it? :P

andys120

I can't argue with Andre about the Yank tanks but nice going.

andys120

subearu

It's the Pontiac G6, no wait, the Saturn Aura, no really it's the new Chevy Malibu which shares the Epsilon platform with the others I mentioned.

-Brian

magnette

So what is the red Italian then ?

imidazol97

I hope you're not trying to say there's something wrong with a car having similar underpinnings. I don't follow other brands and cars too closely but I'm sure there are many, many cars that have the same etymology.

Hopefully Chevrolet has done a great job making the car pleasing and competetive for the open-minded folks. The Aura impressed me when I stopped by a Saturn dealer after it came out. I haven't seen a Malibu on a lot yet and haven't ventured into the showroom to see one.

magnette

Beer ? I didn't think the land of Budwisser knew what beer was...

andys120

So what is the red Italian then ?

You must've missed this post:

No offense Shifty but Moretti is awful beer IMO, the Italians should stick to wine and the Germans should stick to beer.

Moretti did make some nice cars, most were Fiat-based. The car shown was sold as a Moretti 1600GS Sportiva or a Fiat 125 GS Special, it was 125-based as you can imagine. My previous statement that the car wasn't sold as a Fiat is..uh..inoperative.

If you look closely, the red coupe has both Fiat badging in the grille and a Moretti badge below the side vents.

Moretti used the nose and/or front fender styling of the Dino Spider on several different models of the era.

BTW-It's Budweiser, not "Budwisser" :P

magnette

Nice car - not one I've ever heard of before...

By the way I was careful with my spelling of the 'beer' - I didn't want to cause our host forum any problems with a slur on a major corporation, but in my view, at least, my spelling was closer to the truth (just substitute p for w)

Mr_Shiftright

I just had another Moretti beer---Andy you need to come over for a cold one--it tasted pretty good. :P

Hey, the Moretti was MY guess---I get so few of these I want the score kept right!

subearu

No, nothing wrong with similar underpinings, just was trying to make a lame attempt at humor and relating the 3 models. And the fact that it was an easy one to identify

-Brian

bumpy

The US version of Epsilon has been a work-in-progress since it showed up here. GM has kicked out another revised version of it about every 18 months or so.

pat

I just had another Moretti beer

At 7:22 in the morning? You are my good friend, indeed! :P

kyfdx

There are plenty of great American beers... they just aren't made by the big conglomerates..

I don't think Moretti is that bad.. Sometimes, you just want a cool refreshing beer, not a meal.. If you want a really light Italian beer, try a Peroni.

Not sure anyone from the UK should be dissing our beer....lol..

Sorry, no pix in this post..

oregonboy

It's the Pontiac G6, no wait, the Saturn Aura, no really it's the new Chevy Malibu

Dang! That sucker is UGLY. Is that the best that the General can do? Looks like they cribbed the snout off an old Stratus, then slapped the corporate chevy grill on it. Sad! :sick:

james

kyfdx

Compared to the last two Malibus, it is a work of art..

Faint praise, to be sure.

ateixeira

How strange that the Malibu is actually an attractive car now, inside and out.

stever

BTW-It's Budweiser, not "Budwisser"

No, Magnette has the spelling right, although US spelling would substitute zz's for the ss's. :P

The real Bud is Czech (Budvar) and they've been fighting the US company over the stolen trademark for over a century.

Mr_Shiftright

WAsn't that a line from a Steinbeck novel? "There's nothing like the taste of that first beer in the morning?"

No, it was LAST night.

texases

Anyone notice the Malibu commercials (bank robbery, jogger) that seem to make the odd point "We built boring unnoticable cars before, but now here's one that actually looks good!" Doesn't seem to be a good way to sell cars :confuse:

british_rover

It is pretty damn ballsy though.

ateixeira

Well, some times it's good to acknowledge your mistakes. Only then can you improve.

urnews

Anyone notice the Malibu commercials (bank robbery, jogger) that seem to make the odd point "We built boring unnoticable cars before, but now here's one that actually looks good!" Doesn't seem to be a good way to sell cars.

The most important thing about a commercial is that it is remembered. The new Malibu commercial works at that level. I believe it is actually pretty clever. Indeed, I do like the looks of the new 'Bu and initial reviews have generally been favorable. GM will hook a six-speed automatic to the four-banger at mid-year. That should be quite an economical package.

andys120

Land of lousy beer, great wine and great cars >

magnette

Granted, a proper British Beer is a very different thing... and our conglomerates can serve up drinks that make you feel glad for the relieved horse that must have been part of the manufacturing process...

magnette

In UK we get both Czech Budvar and US Budweiser ( the latter is actually brewed here under licence.) I know which one I prefer.....

tmart

I prefer a Worthington. Sure wish it was exported to the US.

imidazol97

football and baseball talk. Mystery has gone to beer talk.

Anyone got cars? :grin :P

stever

You should join us at the Mazda chat in an hour and a half. We sometimes stumble on zoom-zoom talk in there. :P

The chat link is on the left sidebar.

imidazol97

Please notice that I put a grin up there. It's kind of pleasant in a discussion for people to get off on a tangent that isn't emotional and violent!

My beer days were behind me and I was not a connoisseur nor was my sampling of brands broad.

stever

I never developed a taste for the stuff myself. I prefer a little dram of wine now and then. :shades: Beer does come up at the chats frequently though.

bumpy

Not much of a mystery, if you know what to look for.

imidazol97

For those with sharp eyes, it's not a Harley Davidson.

andys120

'56 OR '57 Buick?

fangio2

Studebaker?

fintail

1953-54 Chevy Bel Air 'sport coupe'

imidazol97

Right. Grill says '53 to me. But there's a difference in the number of teeth in the grills.

lemko

I remember the commercial very well as the "boring car" used is a 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass sedan - the same mediocre conveyance that my girlfriend once owned. Driving that car gave me some insight as to why some on Edmunds don't like GM.

guss

I had a 1998 Chevy Malibu as a company car for 3 years, so I did my Malibu time. The best thing I could say about it was that it did most things ok. Memorable it was not.

andre1969

Well it's a V-6 in an old truck...so it's either an '85 or newer Silverado with the 4.3...or more likely one of those old 60-degree V-6es in an early 60's GMC.

Interesting how there's the little indentation in the firewall, to make room for the back of the engine and the distributor (and probably the straight-sixes in the Chevy trucks)...guess "Cab Forward" is nothing new!

andys120

Longer, Lower, Wider>

andre1969

I'm going to guess a 1955 Buick Super? The way they drew it in that advertisement, it looks about 20 feet long, whereas in real life they're only a couple inches longer than a current Crown Vic.

I doubt if they'd show an ad for a modern car with it parked on the grass. I remember when catalytic converters came out, they told you not to do that, because it could catch the grass on fire!

imidazol97

I think the don't park on the grass idea is for grass like this where the dead grass strands touch the catalytic converter and can ignite, possibly, if the converter is hot enough when stopped.

andys120

It's a '55 Roadmaster Andre. Around here it's quite common to see cars parked on lawns, in fact on Nextel Cup Race days tens of thousands of field/meadow spaces are rented out to cars that have been driven hundreds of miles to get here. I don't recall the Loudon VFD being particularly busy on those days.

kneeache

Chevy 302 V-6? My uncle had one in a 63 or 64 longbed.Hooked to a powerglide and got about 4 miles per gallon.

hudsonthedog

Chevy 302 V-6? My uncle had one in a 63 or 64 longbed.Hooked to a powerglide and got about 4 miles per gallon.

Did you mean GMC 305 V6?

andys120

<img src="http://www.motorbase.com/uploads/2007/08/10/fs_drivers_side_view.jpg".