When the 1979 model year began, Cadillac was on top of the world, commercially speaking, with its popular downsized De Ville line, the handsome new Eldorado, and the aging but still very successful Seville. Little did anyone realize that the bottom was about to fall out. This low-mileage original Cotillion White car, which has only about 13,000 miles, might be the nicest surviving example of the first-generation Seville, before Cadillac dragged its own reputation through the mud.
(Updated 11/4/2026) Far removed from its luxury pony car origins in 1967, the Mercury Cougar had become something quite different by the late Seventies. For 1977, Mercury repositioned the nameplate across its entire intermediate lineup, while the Cougar XR7 took on the role of a personal luxury coupe, sharing much of its hardware and styling with the contemporary Ford Thunderbird, differing mostly in lacking the Thunderbird’s most distinctive details; its hidden headlights and basket handle B-pillar with inset opera window.
It was a rather different kind of Cougar, and it suffered from classic middle-child syndrome, which continues to afflict it today, starved for attention among Ford personal luxury cars between the Thunderbird and the top-of-the-line Lincoln Mark V. This well-preserved example caught my eye not only as a survivor of a largely forgotten Mercury, but because I believe it’s the very same car I used to see regularly in the same parking lot more than 30 years ago.
(Updated 11/4/2026) If you were to name a British sports saloon in the late 1970s that included the qualities of traditional sports cars, history, familiarity, relative affordability, high performance and innovation, then the names Talbot, Sunbeam and Lotus cover them pretty well. Talbot. Sunbeam. Lotus. Run them together and you’re there, aren’t you? All the right ingredients, all you need to do is to get them together in the right way?
Well, maybe, but it was certainly a memorable mix. Read the rest of this entry »
CC has had the pleasure of entertaining the ol’ shovel-nose T40 here a number of times. Which makes sense, as it’s probably the marque’s first real global hit. Corona has a way of spreading across the world, doesn’t it? Part of this viral success had to do with a key optional extra that this particular car is equipped with: the Toyoglide automatic transmission.
While the 1971-73 Ford Mustang may look nothing like the car that captured America’s heart a mere handful of years beforehand, it has a charm all its own; besides, how do you follow up a car that was the hit of its generation? While my preferences lean toward the Mach 1 of this era, I also have a soft spot for 1973 convertibles, the last such bodystyle in the Mustang lineup for a decade. Paint it Medium Bright Yellow and slap on a set of the surprisingly stylish basic “Ford Motor Company” hubcaps with trim rings, and I’m hooked. For those ready to spend the money on such an extravagance, it’s for sale on Hagerty Marketplace in Kansas City, Missouri.
Sometimes the most memorable purchases begin with the least sensible intentions. I went to Porsche Cambridge hoping for a test drive and perhaps a free coffee, with no real plan to buy anything. A short while later, I was driving home in a brand-new yellow Boxster S, having made a rather expensive decision on impulse—and one that would give me three memorable years of open-air motoring, mechanical lessons, and a decidedly chilly reception at home.
If you spend a lot of time reading car magazines, it’s easy to absorb their preoccupation with performance statistics: top speed, quarter-mile elapsed times, lateral acceleration on the skidpad, or racetrack lap times. With a ’60s luxury car like this 1963 Lincoln Continental, the most important numbers were not its gross horsepower rating or its 0 to 60 mph time, but the vast number of available color and trim choices (18 exterior colors and 17 interior choices), in a car that was designed for luxurious cruising rather than burning rubber.
(Updated 11/3/2026) I present to you the final installment in this series which began in September. I’ve been lucky enough to have covered single marques in the previous three posts, but now I end with a scattering of some of the other brands present at the Como Park shows. First up is this Iso Rivolta IR 300/340/350, the first I’ve seen in person and let me tell you, it’s very, very desirable in the flesh. Some of you will already recognise a concealed Chevrolet; the Iso packed the Turbofire 327 in two states of tune putting out 300 or 340bhp (upgraded to 350bhp after 1966).
(Updated 11/3/2026)
“What is that big old car?”
A passerby asked that question as I was taking the above photo… timely, since I was transfixed by seeing a 1940s-era car in a modern setting. We’ve discussed this topic before here at Curbside Classic – that modern cars are dimensionally similar to those of the 1940s – but viewing such a comparison in a random parking lot drove this point home for me. This 1947 Chevrolet, and the Toyota that’s six decades newer, share a mighty similar size, though the journey from there to here took a long, low and wide detour.
Jeremy Clarkson has said that you can’t be a “petrolhead” unless you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo. Obviously, that’s an exaggeration (I’m as much a gearhead as anyone), but I’m finding myself more and more inclined to take his advice. I’ve been tempted by a lot of Alfa Romeo Spiders lately, namely the “Duetto,” and this example is up for auction on Hagerty Marketplace in Marion, New York. It’s been owned by the same person for 40 years, and I for one will be watching the auction with an itchy bidding finger.
Text by Patrick Bell.
Nashville, Tennessee, is where we are headed today to visit the E. B. Smith Chevrolet dealership. They bought the Coggin Chevrolet shop in May of 1968, and started a journey that capitalized on the muscle car movement. Their showroom displayed many of them to attract floor traffic, and they always had a good stock of all models, so you could be sure to find a car to fit your needs, desires, and budget.
Here it is! We begin with a 1968 Camaro Z-28 on the showroom floor. It was Ermine White with a black vinyl roof, stripes, and interior. It appeared to have the Air Spoiler Equipment option that included a special front valance and rear deck spoiler. Plus a plastic diaper was attached to protect the showroom carpet.
I was browsing Facebook Marketplace, which is what I tend to do when what I’m watching on television is not terribly interesting. It’s something that, unfortunately, happens more often than I care to admit. On one recent night, however, it led to a “Hey, I know that car!” moment: a 1995 Chrysler Concorde I’d seen several months earlier in motion, and not just any Concorde, but a remarkably well-preserved example with just 79,000 miles on the clock, now looking for a new owner.
If someone mentions the Pontiac Ventura, you probably think of the Chevrolet Nova-based compact of the ’70s, but for a brief two-year period in the early 1960s, the Ventura was a full-size Pontiac model with fancy all-Morrokide interior trim. This 1961 “bubbletop” Ventura Sports Coupe also has the rare 4-speed manual transmission and the hot 425A Tri-Power 389, the engine later made famous in the midsize Pontiac GTO.
(Updated 11/2/2026) The first generation Thunderbird has never been a car I’ve paid much attention to, but seeing this one outside a European car show in its patinated glory I was struck by how well the design holds up against its transatlantic contemporaries. Thunderbird week gives me the ideal opportunity to share a personal take on this model.
(Updated 11/2/2026) The Carina was a somewhat curious addition to Toyota’s lineup in 1972, as it squeezed into the rather modest-sized gap between the smaller Corolla and larger Corona. Presumably not a lot of folks in the US thought that gap needed filling, and the Carina was a relatively modest seller, and only offered here for three model years (1972-1974).
