(first posting 9/20/2018) Go looking online for information about the GMC version of the Advance Design trucks and you’ll come up with very little. For the Chevy you’ll find more than one list of year-over-year changes, but nothing remotely like it for the GMC. I found one source that talked about the GMCs separately, and it claims that GMC called these trucks “New Design.” Nobody cares; everybody lumps the GMCs and the Chevys under the Advance Design banner today. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 9/17/2018) I’m going to give you a glimpse into the language of us infuriating young people. “Gib” is a horrible slang version of “give” and “Plz” is a lazy way of saying “please”. Why did I choose such a title for a respectable car website? Two reasons. Number one, it catches the eye, and number two, it will serve the article. Read on to find out how… Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time again to give Dearborn’s middle child a few minutes of attention, with this set of images portraying the brand in some of its better days. Most shots date from the 1950s, but a couple do come from the 1960s. And regarding the folks posing alongside these Mercurys, they make a curious juxtaposition; from family-types to some with a James Dean vibe.
The transformation from a DAF 8×4 chassis-cab into a Ginaf 8×4 Wide Spread is like a Dobermann morphing into a Rottweiler. Completely unrelated, I know, but you get the picture. Even better, featuring two fully identical 2015 Ginaf G6 4243 CS asphalt dumpers, caught in the yard of a used truck dealer on September 14.
I’ve been waiting for a while now to see an actual Cybertruck in person, and today it finally happened! I wanted to share with you my spontaneous, initial reactions; because when you see something this radically new for the first time, you will never see it the same way again!
Like many fans of vintage cars, I do enjoy a show with plenty of classic cars rolling around. And back in the mid-80s, for a short while, that not-quite-common need was satisfied by “Crime Story”. A groundbreaking period cop drama produced by Michael Mann, stuffed with all sorts of glitzy rides from the ’50s and ’60s. You wanted some shiny Jet-Era fins in your RCA box set at prime time hours in 1986? If so, “Crime Story” was your happy place.
(first posted 13/3/2013) This isn’t the kind of speculation one may find in the Future Classics column of Collectible Automobile. I am not arguing that any of these cars will become Barrett-Jackson trailer queens. Instead, I pose these as the cars us Curbside Classic car-nerds will be fussing over in 15-20 years’ time when we see one on the street. Not every Curbside Classic-er will like these cars now or like them in the future, but I am sure in 15-20 years’ time each of these will summon the kind of vigorous debate and historical analysis this site is known for. And I am sure this website will still be around then!
(first posted 9/19/2018) Throughout the 1980s, Volvo was a very square automaker, in both the figurative and literal senses. Its 200 and 700 Series sedans and wagons were durable, comfortable, practical, and very square in their styling. While charming in their own conservative ways and a rational choice in European car, Volvos of this era were hardly the cars that turned many heads or stirred many emotions. Nevertheless, Volvo did have at least one vehicle in the 1980s that oozed sex appeal — the ultra-low-production 780 coupe.
Most sources cite only 8,518 examples produced globally, though the Volvo Bertone registry claims this number is 11,905 total, — either way, the odds of encountering two of them together are not favorable, and more so, what are the odds I did within minutes of getting behind the wheel of another 2-door Volvo for the first time ever?
I have no idea how this happened, but it did. The pictures are there to prove it. There was a break in the space-time continuum and a pink Rambler wagon appeared, seemingly straight out of Havana. The weirdest body variant from the unlikeliest ‘50s American carmaker, dressed in the most cliché of hues and nowhere near the usual concours condition – something was very, very off.
My last posts here at Curbside Classic developed a theme of alternative-powered vehicles. Thus far we’ve progressed through a diesel swap straight to a homemade solar array; the next step is naturally an even more spectacularly unlikely powertrain to DIY: a gasoline-electric serial hybrid!
The Summer of the ‘Gator!
I’m sorry, I really wanted to hate these things! I started out that way. Luxury SUVs were a joke in my eyes, an abomination!
These were not real Lincolns, just as the Escalade was not a real Cadillac. They were a slick joke that the manufacturers played on gullible consumers. But just as I had to satisfy my curiosity with my Explorer, I became really curious about these luxury SUVs.
(first posted 9/17/2018. Update: The Cadillac doesn’t seem to be any longer in this spot)
Back when I was living in New York City, one day I went walking through Brooklyn’s Windsor Terrace neighborhood – adjacent to sprawling Prospect Park – and saw something that stood out from the swarm of late-model Camrys and crossovers. It was a ’70 Cadillac Sedan de Ville that had more stuff in it than a Manhattan Mini Storage lockup or, to be less charitable, more junk in one place than a Midtown street corner on trash collection night. Read the rest of this entry »
(first posted 9/16/2018) The Daihatsu Compagno is not an everyday sight around here. Until I caught this one, I had never seen one in the metal. Earlier this year, CC featured its first Compagno, a highly desirable drop-top. So I guess it’s the famous CC Effect (with a few months’ time-lag) that made me bump into its polar opposite, the pickup. A Vignale-designed pickup, if you please.
(first posted 9/18/2018) Incredible. What are the odds of finding two well-used survivors in the same parking space? A few weeks ago, I encountered a 1987 Oldsmobile Calais Supreme sitting in the exact same space as this Eldorado. Is it merely coincidence or a gym rat with an affinity for old front-wheel drive General Motors metal? Although suffering from the same faded paint and brittle trim that plagues most cars in the Southwest, this Eldorado seems to be holding its own: a perfect microcosm of the 1979-85 Eldorado’s many ups and downs. But it’s the fundamentals behind our subject car that make it stand out. Later Eldorados may be great, but they lack the first impression that this grandiose coupe is just so good at leaving behind.
