Mystery car pix

ateixeira

Funny, poking fun at the Cube and Scion xB, I suppose.

Soul is crushing them in sales. It was before, now Kia put in a DI engine and a better trans, and it only stretched its lead.

Toss in some clever marketing targeting the net-gen, and voila. You have tons of young buyers new to the brand. If they're happy they'll buy an Optima or Sportage in a few years.

wgrafer

I kind of like the wheels - slightly better than the standard hubcaps IMHO. Looks like a '63 or a '64 Studebaker GT Hawk. I'm not sure if there's any difference from this angle, but the '63 had that big aluminum trim on the trunk and the '64 did not. Anybody see and fifference between '63 and '64 from the front????

andys120

'63 Studebaker GT Hawk is correct. The aftermarket wheels don't bother me as much as the overly formal C-post which ruins an otherwise sleek look.

Wheels are easy to change, roofs, not so much.

fintail

I think they are all toasters :shades:

Mr_Shiftright

Well you have to give the car something of a break, because the GT Hawk was built with off-the-shelf parts by a very capital-poor company. Basically what you are looking at here is an 1955 car with new hood, roof and trunk lid grafted on. Giving what they had to work with, I thought they did a pretty good job.

It was hard enough in those days to keep 2D Hardtops from being rattle-traps so anything to strengthen the chassis was a good idea.

berri

overly formal C-post which ruins an otherwise sleek look.

I think the C- pillar may be a bit thick, but that formal angular look was still in back then and it seems to kind of go with the Studebaker's grill. I think they may have copied the roofline a bit off the Squarebird but with larger rear passenger windows. While the Bulletbird was out in 63 and a bit more curvy, many cars in 63 were still kind of abruptly angular like the 63 Riv (although it did have a bit more rake angle with the rear window). Overall, the Riv seems a bit better looking to me, but I prefer the Hawk GT's front end and dashboard. And like Shifty says, when you consider the money involved, the Hawk GT is pretty impressive.

By the way Andys, love all those classic car postings you do!

andys120

BIGGER version, more cars.

Mr_Shiftright

the 63 Riviera got most of the media buzz that year, by a long shot.

fintail

Must be a Ford location. Those are some wide whitewalls.

wgrafer

Up front is a '50 Mercury with 2 '50 Fords behind it. On left behind the '50 is a '49 Ford (with a '49 or '50 Mercury with the added windshade behind it) and to its right another '49 or '50 Ford followed by a '49 Buick and another '50 Mercury. I think I spy a '41 DeSoto in the center background, and i give up on the black & white cop car....

fintail

The old cop color scheme car in the back is a 36 Ford.

andys120

Good job Wgrafer and Fin is right about the "police" car, it has the distinctive grille of a '36 Ford. The strike took place at the Edison Institute at Greenfield Village in Dearborn MI, FoMoCo's headquarters town,

andys120

Mr_Shiftright

You can but THIS or you can buy THAT.....oh, sorry, I saw that car and thought I was back in the Kia hamster commercial.

fintail

Renault Dacia Logan (as I call it) - which still reminds me of a Versa sedan.

andys120

Yes actually it's sold as a Dacia Logan but Dacia is indeed a wholly-owned subsidiary (AFAIK) of Renault/Nissan and it has a lot of Versa in it. I's also related to the Micra, Cube and Clio.

Logans are sold around the world under various badges including Renault (Tondar 90-Iran, Logan- various South American countries), Nissan (Aprio-Mexico) and Mahindra-Renault (Logan-India). It may not impress us very much but is one of the more widely sold cars in the worlds.

andys120

andys120

No takers on the red coupe in #302983?

Here's some hints: It's Italian but features a Ford 1600 mounted amidships making it one of the first mid-engine cars sold for road use.

Going...going...

robr2

Big guess - some sort of Detomaso??

Mr_Shiftright

Right you are! That's a '65 De Tomaso Vallelunga. Only 50 were made. They suffered from insolvable masty vibration issues due to chassis flexing. You probably don't want one, but it is handsome from that angle. Full on profile, no so much.

andys120

You're right Mr. Shiftright.

andys120

wgrafer

It looks like a '71 or '72 Mercury Marquis to me. As far as I know, I don't think there was any distinguishing difference between the 2 years.

berri

That car and the background, looks like the mob is up to something!

andys120

Yup, it's '71 Mercury Marquis. That's right kids, before there was a Grand Marquis there was a Marquis and it was actually even grander.... well at least bigger.

andys120

ateixeira

Lancer Sportback.

Boy, the concept simply looked so much better.

ateixeira

A little off topic, but I'll share it here since I think most everyone in the thread will appreciate this.

My son is young (under 10) but enjoys cool cars, so I took him to a small car show in CT this weekend, where his eyes fell on a gorgeous '67 GTO. It was one of those mouth-agape, enthusiast-for-life moments.

The kid sees the original windows sticker on it, with a bottom line price of $4,600. Looks at me, and says,

DAD! Let's buy this car!

Gotta love 'im. :shades:

andys120

Yup, it's a 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback.. The photo does not do it justice; in the metal it is quite good looking IMO, I like it better than the rather generic four door Lancer.

ateixeira

I guess I don't like that what used to be wagons are now more compact hatches.

WRX is the same way.

andys120

qbrozen

Not sure about the car off the top of my head, but the movie is Radio Flyer.

jwilliams2

Looks like a '63 Pontiac Grand Prix.....

imidazol97

>DAD! Let's buy this car!

Your son has good taste in cars! I love those early GTOs before the grew in size. And when they're original down to the wheels, I like them even more. :shades:

And he has good money managing skills. Only $4000. You should be very proud.

ateixeira

Yeah, I will look back and say that was his first, true car "moment". Thankfully it's a good one. :shades:

For me it was a Fiat roadster this neighbor was fixing up. I asked him about it, he chatted me up, told me all about it. Still appreciate what he did to spark up my enthusiasm for cars.

I'm on my 2nd roadster.

Wonder if my son will be in to early muscle?

jwilliams2

Those '66 and '67 GTO's were great looking cars. I had several friends that had them back then, mostly 389 Tri-power, and thought they were the best looking, but also liked the Chevelle SS 396's. I was a Ford guy, so I had a '66 Cyclone GT which I tweaked somewhat.

Seemed all the young guys had new cars back then, which were affordable with prices ranging from $32-4200. Spent many nights and weekends at the strip racing. It was what we did for fun back then. Don't think I ever lost to a Goat, but there were some really fast Chevelles.

What great cars and great times! I really wish I had taken pictures, because I can't find one the color I had, but that was the furthest thing from my mind. Great times back then to be a car enthusiast!

berri

Great time for music too. Don't forget the Ronny & the Daytona's hit "GTO". I also loved the Grand Prix's, Catalina's, Bonneville's and LeMans - maybe the hey day for the Pontiac brand, rest its soul.

fintail

I remember seeing a loaded one at a Vancouver auto show - 42K CDN - virtually the same price as an A4 Avant. Hmm...what would I rather own...

ateixeira

You sure an A4 Avant isn't more like 50k? I'm not familiar with prices north of the border.

I do know that Subarus cost a bundle there, but they tend to have a lot more content than US-spec models, too.

fintail

I think the Audi was like 44K. You can get German brands in Canuckistan at much lower spec than here.

Speaking of Subaru, I don't like the recent grille bar, it looks droopy.

ateixeira

Ah, interesting. Subaru is the opposite. Things like heated seats, I guess they figure they'd want 'em anyway.

Lemme price my A4 here in the US:

Avant Quattro a given...
Add the Sport and Driver Select Pkg (needs Dynamic suspension for fun)
Skip the pricey tech and cosmetic junk...
Heated seats is my only luxury, that's not too much to ask

$41,425. TMV right at $40k.

Not too bad, if you keep it fairly basic.

fintail

That does seem decent. I don't know if I could keep some of the tech off my list though. No matter, I'd just wait til it was a couple years old and get it all for free :shades:

ateixeira

I'm actually a techie, but smart phones and portables do the trick for me. I've played with older MMI stuff and it's awful, wouldn't want it for free. Took us about half hour and we could not find Carter Subaru on that system, come to find out Audi is apparently afraid of Subaru so they had intentionally removed it!



What if you have an Audi and your spouse has a Subaru, and you need to pick her up at the dealer after service? Find a street address on your smart phone, I guess. Otherwise you are SOL.

That was an S4 cabrio. Great car. Loved the noises, wow. MMI was a nuisance, though. My old Garmin did circles around it.

Their newer stuff is SOOO much better, but still, I prefer simple, and they seem to be about as complex as it gets.

I'd be afraid of 10+ year old German tech.

I take that back. I'd be afraid of *ANY* 10+ year old tech.

fintail

The problem with most of that is that you can't upgrade it. The COMAND 2.0 in my car is amusingly low tech and sometimes even bad, almost like a relic now. If it keeps working, it might add a retro touch to the car in another 20 years.

Nav on my phone works well enough for me, but I like having things neatly integrated into the dash.

tjc78

Nav on my phone works well enough for me, but I like having things neatly integrated into the dash.

I have to say that I was a big opponent to in dash factory nav, but now that I own a car with it, it is nice. I love the big touchscreen for the radio and HVAC as well. The newer systems are starting to get better too, I was surprised on my car that the system actually says street names. Most of the current OEM systems do not.

fintail

The system in my car doesn't even label streets unless it is the street you are on. So handy!

I think in time the tech will get better.

andys120

Yes it is indeed a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Oddly it was misidentified on imcdb.com as either a '65 Pontiac or a LeMans but l straightened them out. :shades:

andys120

andre1969

My uncle had a '67 GTO in the early 70's. Gold hardtop coupe that he paid $500 for. He got in trouble with the cops with it. Went speeding through some little podunk town down in VA, managed to evade the police. But, coming home, he was dumb enough to drive back through the same town, and they nabbed him!

I'm not sure why he got rid of it, although I have a feeling Granddad might have made him sell it!

lemko

Just like the old saying "There's nothing as old as yesterday's high-tech!"