Curbside Classic -

1966 Buick Wildcat Great Dale House Car – Woah, Nelly!

– Posted on November 6, 2024

(first posted 10/18/2018) Perusing Craigslist as I am wont to do, I was stopped in my virtual tracks by this offering and figured it had to be shared. This is a Great Dale House Car. I had never heard of this before but it is an interesting story made even more so by my immediate recollection of a comment that Mr. J.P. Cavanaugh made at the Midwest Meetup last month where he pondered the most interesting or significant vehicle made in every state. I didn’t immediately have an answer for my home state Colorado but perhaps now I do!

At first I thought this was some sort of a one-off home built job, it turns out that is not the case at all…

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Curbside Classic: 1979 Chrysler Newport – A Like-New Newport in Portland

Brendan Saur

– Posted on November 6, 2024

(first posted 8/26/2014) It’s common knowledge that the short-lived Chrysler R-bodies were a catastrophic flop for the then-struggling automaker. With the majority of them going to fleet sales, these R-bodies took a lot of abuse in the public sector, and were therefore mostly obsolete within decade. Even those that went to private customers, particularly the über-plush New Yorker Fifth Avenue, didn’t seem to stick around quite as long as a comparable GM B-body or Ford Panther.

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Curbside Find: 2002-08 Honda Accord Tourer – The Acura TSX Sport Wagon That Never Was

William Stopford

– Posted on November 6, 2024

(first posted 11/6/2018) We Curbivores are enthusiasts so, naturally, many of us love wagons. The dynamics of a sedan but with extra versatility: what’s not to love? And because of our intrinsic love of wagons, we are statistically more likely to own cars like the slow-selling Acura TSX Sport Wagon – our own Paul Niedermeyer has one! Unfortunately, the wider public would prefer an RDX or MDX, meaning the TSX Sport Wagon lasted only a generation. The Honda Accord Tourer upon which it was based, however, lasted two. Read the rest of this entry »

CC Capsule: 1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato – Slippery Customer

Tatra87

– Posted on November 6, 2024

Aerodynamics is a complex science. A lot of the so-called “streamliners” of the ‘30s and ‘40s were less efficient than an ‘80s Volvo, despite what looks might suggest. Similarly, a lot of Zagato designs just look strange at first, but what they really are is incredibly slippery. Coupled with lightweight construction, this makes the little Giulietta go like stink.

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The Death Of The Cheap New Car As Exemplified By These Two Corollas I Bought New in 2017 and 2024

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 6, 2024

I purchased a new Corolla LE in 2017 to donate to my disabled daughter’s group home. My final out-the-door price was $15,308 (including registration, etc. but no sales tax in Oregon). The MSRP of a 2017 Corolla LE was $19,820, but they (and most small cars) were not selling well at the time so I was able to negotiate a pretty good deal.

Now I’ve just purchased another one, for a second car there, which will allow them more flexibility with their activities. Same basic Corolla LE. This time my check was for $23,976, a 57% increase. The CPI increase over the same time period (2017-2024) is 28%. That means the price of a new Corolla has grown by over twice the rate of inflation.

No wonder so many would-be new car buyers have sticker shock and are forced to buy used cars, not that they’re exactly cheap either. And no wonder profits for the manufacturers are so high, even on lower volumes. They’re largely done with the low end of the market; trucks and SUVs are where it’s at. Let them eat (used) cake.

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Curbside Classics: Ford Festivas – The Circle of Life

Gray Walters

– Posted on November 6, 2024

The famously tough Ford Festiva is one of a mere handful of subcompacts that earned a legendary reputation in North America. Most cars of such small stature are despised and mocked for being too cheap, too cute, too unsafe, too basic, too effeminate, too impractical, or any number of other creatively dismissive snubs.

It’s rare for such a small car in size-obsessed America to earn its keep through sheer tenacity, yet the Festiva persevered. However, not even the rugged little captive-import Ford could hang on forever. Time, careless owners, and perpetually low values are finally taking the last survivors off the road.

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My 1978 Ford Pinto – Growing Pains

Harry Case

– Posted on November 6, 2024

Pinto photo from the CC Cohort by AGuyInVancouver.

After deciding our Chevrolet C20 wasn’t the best family transportation, I began shopping for a second car. Our budget didn’t allow for much so we bought a 1970 Volvo station wagon from a university couple.

The rust was starting to show on it, and it was none too powerful, but it had the durable four-cylinder Volvo engine and a very worn automatic transmission, though it was comfortable. However, the engine developed a rough idle that winter, and I diagnosed a leaky diaphragm in the SU carburetors. I bought a repair kit and rebuilt them in the unheated garage of our new house.

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The First Suburban – 1907

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 5, 2024

(first posted 11/5/2018) The name “Suburban” has of course been appropriated by Chevrolet, but it used to be used generically. Plymouth used it for their station wagons for decades. But this is almost certainly the first use of the term, and a somewhat cryptic one. Just what distinguished this 1907 Pierce-Arrow Suburban from the Town Car version (below) is subtle at best, other than an extra side window, and perhaps a flat roof instead of a rounded one. And the target buyer: “American men to be driven over American roads…” Is there something subtly masculine about it I’m not quite picking up on?

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Curbside Classic: 1960 -1962 Plymouth Valiant – No One’s Kid Brother

Laurence Jones

– Posted on November 5, 2024

(first posted 7/6/2011) Call me crazy, call me nerdy. But one of my favorite cars of all time, just to stare at for hours, is the original Valiant. Within a short three years, it would become the definition of the automotive appliance. But for those first three years of its life, Valiant was the wildest peacock of the Big Three compacts.

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Curbside Classic: 1977 Subaru GL FWD Wagon – The Early Days of the Biggest Success Story In the Industry

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 5, 2024

(first posted 11/6/2018) Are you aware of just how successful Subaru has been in the US? As in, by far the fastest and most consistent growing mainstream brand in the past couple of decades, with an unbroken string of 83 consecutive year-over-year monthly gains. Only Tesla can challenge that record in the past couple of years. Once a genuine outsider, it’s now the seventh largest brand in the land.

In 2018, Subaru will sell about 640k cars, and in the process likely tie Hyundai, beat Kia, tie Dodge and Chrysler together, beat VW by a 2:1 margin, and tie Mercedes and BMW combined. That’s a truly remarkable track record for what was once an little bit player out on the margins of the market. And it started in earnest in the mid-late 70s, with the GL, like this wagon shot and posted at the Cohort by William Oliver.

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Vintage Snapshots: Hawaii In The ’50s-’60s – Part 2

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 5, 2024

It’s been about a year since we paid a visit to the Hawaii of the past, and it’s due time to check out the islands again. While today’s gallery is of reduced size, I feel it covers a good amount of the islands’ ecosystems and car life. On the car front, with images featuring parking lots, average roads, and tourist enclaves. Of course, Hawaii has quite a few interesting sights beyond cars, so I added a few photos that capture a little of its feel.

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Curbside Classic: 1988 Mazda Familia (BF) Cabriolet – Better Luck Next Time

Tatra87

– Posted on November 5, 2024

Pop quiz: what was the first Mazda convertible ever produced? Not the Miata, neither the RX-7 – no, that ragtop to riches story started with the humble Familia, a.k.a 323, Ford Laser and a few other aliases. As far as I know, only the JDM was allowed this particular variant, and yet because it was rather expensive, folks stayed away and sales were minimal. Maybe that’s why only this generation of Familia was scalped. But it gave Mazda a taste for convertibles that has remained strong ever since.

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On The Go Classic: No, It’s Not A Malibu, Although It Is How Old Malibus Used To Typically Look

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 5, 2024

As a follow-up to the Malibu that didn’t look like a typical Malibu, here’s a Chevelle that sure looks like a Malibu, but it’s not. It’s a quite rare low-end 1968 Chevelle 300 Deluxe hardtop coupe. Note the lack of trim between the taillights. And the lack of the Malibu’s lower trim that went across the lower section of the door.

It may not be a Malibu, but it’s very much how so many Malibus used to look back in the day when so many young guys scraped together the bucks to buy a well-worn used one: a bit scruffy, a mild lift in the back along with bigger wheels and tires. But no big exhaust pipes hanging out back. For all we know, it could have a six under the hood, although a mild 307 V8 is probably more likely.

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Curbside Musings: 1985 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am – Nevermore

Joseph Dennis

– Posted on November 5, 2024

English was one of my favorite subjects in school, especially when it came to assignments involving colorful use of vocabulary and creative expression. I wasn’t a big reader (I’m still not), as I generally preferred to entertain myself by creating my own content, whether that meant writing short stories or keeping a journal. Still, I recognized the importance of many of my assignments which included reading, digesting, comprehending, and analyzing great literary works. Sometimes I’d connect personally with a book or poem, which added to the reward. Parts of Hermann Hesse’s Demian seemed both taboo and thrilling when I had first read it for humanities class as a high school senior. That book was my choice on a list of possibilities in the pre-internet age, so I had known nothing about it before reading it. It was a pivotal moment for me in understanding that not everything was black-and-white as my conservative parents would have had me believe.

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Curbside Capsule: Buick Roadmaster – Flint’s Last Land Yacht

Jana Lingo

– Posted on November 4, 2024

(first posted 6/2/2014) This Buick is a rarity, not in that it is a Roadmaster, but in that it is unmolested. There are plenty of Roadmasters in Memphis, but most of them seem to have been donked, and usually appear to be one breakdown away from appearing as fodder in the local pick-a-part’s lineup.

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