Mystery car pix

imidazol97

2815 has a nice appearance. What's a comparable US car that is a the same size?

navigator89

Anyone going to gues #2804???

andys120

We're stumped again Navi, give us a look at the front.

#2815 is a '67, not a '68, the ad doesn't say which motor it has but the badge suggests it's likely a 396.

Here's one right up your alley, Navi=>

boomchek

that's the new Toyota Yaris isn't it?

yoribe2

European market Corolla! The 3-door hatchback is especially nice - makes you wonder why Toyota won't bring them here!!

yoribe2

A Tata Indica? An Indian car? :confuse:

andys120

Yep, those are Euro market Corollas and they look a lot sharper than what we get.

navigator89

A Tata Indica? An Indian car?

The correct answer is Tata Indigo, but Indica was a pretty good guess. Yes they are Indian. They're a good alternative to the Hyundai Accent.

stickguy

Well, that 5 door up above would be enough to get me into the Toyota dealer to take a look see.

I don't want to start the whole hatchback debate again, but it does seem that (at least the Japanese makers) insist on giving the US boring and/or ugly cars, when they have much neater stuffer for JDM and Europe.

We get bloated and dumbed-down instead.

andys120

It's not just the Japanese, the Euro Focus is a lot better than the one we get.

navigator89

other nice hatchbacks which aren't sold here, like the Renault Clio, Citroen C4, Peugeot 206/307, Mazda2, Suzuki Swift.

And then there are the fuel efficient space wagons not sold, like the Grandis, Innova, Stream, Matrix, Carens.

w9cw

The more I travel in Europe, the more I realize that we get the short end of the stick when it comes to automobile choices here in the USA. If one is an automobile enthusiast, the USA is not the the place it used to be. Remember all the neat choices we had in the '60s and 70s?

Mr_Shiftright

Yeah but some of us had to live through the 1980s, so today looks pretty good to us.

fintail

We get the short end of the stick in a lot of areas, just not cars. The electronic products available elsewhere are also usually a step ahead of what we get in this lowest common denominator market.

And even with equivalent model names, we still get the clunkier versions. Look at our Accord and Corolla compared to the Euro versions, not to mention the Focus.

jaserb

That's one of the reasons I like Mazda. Other than the 2, we get pretty much all the cars they sell in Europe - 3,5,6, Miata, and MPV.

-Jason

andys120

gets somewhat mixed reviews
in the UK media.

andys120

imidazol97

1962 Comet by Mercury

andys120

It's a Mercury but you're off on year and model. :P

fintail

63 Mercury S-something, like a Fairlane

navigator89

1963 Mercury Meteor.

gsemike

It's too big to be a Comet but I don't know what it is. It seems like Mercury names used to come and go and be recycled alot... Montego? Monterey?

navigator89

I already guessed it, Mercury Meteor.

gsemike

I know that it was something with an M

andys120

Yeah it's the Mercury intermediate Meteor,AKA rebadged Fairlane, the Comet was based on the Falcon.

Here's another mystery=>

kyfdx

It looks like a Datsun or Toyota.... but, that front end sort of looks like a Peugeot...

Weird..

andys120

You have sharp eyes. It's news to me that Peugeot offered car-based pickups but that's a 1985 Peugeot 504.

Here's a pair of newer cars=>

boomchek

Wow those are nice.

I will guess it's a AC Schnitzer or Alpina conversion of the BMW 6 series. The doors and fenders look BMWish.

andys120

The coupe is in fact based on BMW 6 mechanicals but it's not an Alpina or Schnitzer, nor is the convertible a BMW at all. :P

wuster

The new Fisker Tramonto.

Its got bones from the 6 series, but I think the engine, suspension, and interior have been "upgraded"

navigator89

That's easy.

The convertible is derived from the Mercedes SL55 AMG, and is called the Fisker Tramonto.

The coupe is from the BMW 6 Series and is called the Fisker Latigo.

Both are nice but incredibly expensive.

navigator89

The Tramonto doesn't have bones from the 6 Series, it has bones from the Mercedes SL55 AMG.

fintail

Front end is very derivative from an Aston IMO

boomchek

I looked up their website, neat cars. The coupe is what the 6 series should have looked like

You're right Fintail, the front end does look like an Aston. That's because both of the guys who founded the company were ex-Ford PAG designers and actually did work on some Aston projects iirc.

boomchek

sorry about the size

andys120

According to what I read Herb Fisker is credited with the styling of the Aston DB-9, a beautiful car. Their dream is to revive the lost art of bespoke coachwork which seems like not such a crazy idea given the extreme wealth of the very rich and their penchant for showing off their money.
BTW the six-series based coupe is called the Latigo.

andys120

Lancia Thema 3.2 with a Ferrari V8 from the 328GTB/S under the hood, same chassis as the Saab 9000, Alfa 164 and Fiat Chroma.

boomchek

Yes you're right. NEat car and a real sleeper if you debadge it.

boomchek

I had this business idea that has to do with identifying cars, I'm just not sure if it would fly.

Back in 1997 when there were no forums I was surfing the news posts and news subscriptions (part of email).

I was on this car news post where somebody posted a note saying his store was robbed and the robbers got away in a vehicle and he needed identifying it. All he described was the shape of the minivan, and the driver's door handle (he tried to open their door as they were getting away, and described it as "where you put your fingers underneath it to open, and not the pull types).

Anyways to make a long story short after about 2 hours of looking through my brochure collection and buyer's guides I narrowed it down to a Ford Windstar, the year etc...

So I had this idea of starting a business and being a contractor to the local Police if they need help identifying a car either from a witness description or from grainy CCTV images.

What do you guys and gals here think of this? We all seem to be experts here on identifying mystery cars and probably anyone here can do it but I wonder if the police already have experts on things like this or maybe they're familiar with cars in general.

I saw this show on A&E once where a couple detectives investigating a murder or kidnapping took a gas station image of a Honda that was under suspicion to a Honda dealer and the sales guys identified the exact year by looking at the color, the hubcaps etc..

Any opinions, thoughts?

fintail

I've thought about something like that too.

Obsessive people like us can likely easily get the make, model, and year of a car in a camera image within seconds. Most people can't do anything like this, they just don't care.

Watching COPS, I will often see them in a pursuit and mis-identify the car. On the Simpsons, this was made fun of in a pursuit with "were in pursuit of a blue (pause) car". Maybe one could also teach cops how to ID cars. Seeing some of the descriptions they put out in bulletins ("gray Audi" in a local one comes to mind), they do need help with specifics.

wuster

Oops, you're right. I got the two confused.

My bad.

navigator89

imidazol97

Nice looking!

ateixeira

I haven't seen one without the rear spare tire, but I heard they were going to be made available.

It actually looks a little different, but that's my guess anyway.

-juice

andys120

andys120

It's sold in the UK as the Ssangyong Rexton, apparently uses Mercedes diesel power.
[Thank you CAR!]

fintail

Austin Maxi/BMC "Landcrab"/Austin 1800...I think it had a few model names in its long life

The Griswold's car in England in "European Vacation"

navigator89

Yes, 2856 is indeed a Ssangyong Rexton.

andys120

Yep, it's the Landcrab.

andys120

Maybe you'd like to forget 'em.