Modern vehicles seem increasingly generic, which makes older ones stand out. Even cars from the 80s seem like something from another world, including this Mercedes station wagon.
This Honda Civic hatchback looks like an alien probe.
Even this Buick (Regal?) sedan from the 1990s stands out, with the metallic green adding to the effect.
And of course the rims don’t hurt.
This former Ford Crown Victoria police car is probably not even 25 years old, but you can bet it’s seen a ton of wear and tear. You can almost imagine Elwood telling Jake about the cop tires, cop suspension and cop shocks.
Not every vehicle is a car. For instance, there are some vans with a definite “Don’t bother knockin’ (If this van’s rockin’)” vibe to them, like this Ford Universal from around 1990.
And this Toyota from the mid 1980s.
You’ll also see ancient pickups, like this Chevy C/10 from around 1970.
You’ll see some true classic cars which have been lovingly maintained, such as this Cadillac DeVille from about 1970. You can practically hear the Bobby Womack soundtrack in the background.
This Mustang convertible sat briefly in a used car lot.
And then this Chevy Styleline made an appearance on the street one day.
And then there are the oddball vehicles. I’m guessing this modified Suzuki Every microvan dates to the early 1980s.
And finally, this Daihatsu Hijet fire engine is one of a number which have been imported into the US in recent years.
Most vehicles you see walking around these days are boring cars, pickuos and SUVs. But not all of them.
I had a Honda Civic wagon from the same era as that hatchback. It was glorious, and is the only car I wish I had kept and rebuilt. It had a beautiful bronze/brown exterior, even.
Stylin’! (As the kids say.*)
* They actually do not say that.
I wish there were a lot more cars that color these days, along with more greens and yellows and purples. I know you can custom order if you’re willing to wait, but on the lots these days it’s down to just a few options most of the time.
I had a friend that had about 3 or 4 of those Mercedes wagons but they were the Euro diesel model. He put all the parts together and made one for himself and one for his mom & shipped that one to Hawaii for her. I never understood his obsession with them but he thought they were great until he ran out of parts and it got really expensive to maintain them. My girlfriend in high school had that exact Honda civic in that color.
well the old diesel ones do just keep on trucking forever….buuut you know…thats over here….where all the parts live relatively cheaplike
…I know you’d have to saw it half & add another one in the middle to get it to the same size but something about the honda van makes me think of the one from stripes
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/em-50-from-stripes-who-has-built-one.330571/
…which of course people have actually built road-going versions of?
…damn it
…wrote honda…meant toyota
…nobody said anything so I assume it was clear which one I meant?
P.S.
…the 70s pick up is nice…but the ones from…I want to say the 50s…with curves to the hood & such…I dare say their factory fresh ride might not be much up against modern conveniences & creature comforts & airbags & whatnot…but for the look of the thing…they seem like the best pick up trucks?
that particular modal every is a 90 i think….going by what i can see of the head lights
also i only know this coz oppo has a hard on for these things for some reason
i just like the name….suzuki every joypop
They’re an optical illusion. If you see one far away by itself, your eyes trick you into thinking it’s full size, until you get close and you realize you could practically pick it up yourself.
come to think of if tho….if you replaced all cars and trucks and whatever with those little everys and nissan figaros
life would feel like a cartoon
(is a 90s car despite its looks)
I actually had one of those ’70 Sedan DeVille’s for a while back in the ’80s. We used to call it the Love Boat. I’d cruise Lake Shore Drive with WGCI Quiet Storm (107.5) playing on the FM and it was fine.
My wife’s uncle had one like that but a convertible. It was really rundown when he passed away and we ended up giving it away just to not deal with it.
How was the mileage and handling? I’ve seen luxury cars from that era in movies, and I was struck by how crummy the ride looked (but maybe movie cars took a major beating compared to what civilian cars were like).
…first time I came across it was in an italian car, oddly…but growing up in a narrow gauge automotive context that borderline fetishized fuel efficiency because of all the tax on the petrol…american cars took some getting used to for me
…even after getting over the part where they seemed to have been blown up like the whole thing was a balloon you could just swell up…the mileage was…just abysmal…like…a third or worse of what was pretty normal throughout europe for cars from the same year…so it even made a sort of sense that you could need twice the same full tank to go half as far…which was weird when everywhere was twice as far away on account of all the space…but…a switch on the dash to flip from the tank you filled on the one side to the tank with a cap on the opposite side…not, as kid me had naïvely assumed, a neat way to not have to remember which side to pull up to the pump on
…that one absolutely floored me?
In the 1960s and 1970s my grandfather used to trade in his huge Cadillac every two years. He and my grandmother were snowbirds, driving to Florida from Pennsylvania for five months each winter. Comfort was important. He this one:
https://images.app.goo.gl/Vco3Gz4uD8ghbR4Z6
…is that the sort with the headlights that flip round out of sight?
…I thought that was the height of cool when my height was still lower than that roofline