(Updated 10/13/2026) For all middle children life is hard. And no life is harder in the automotive world than the middle model or trim level. The most difficult life to live is between the bargain entry point and the lap of luxury in any postwar line up. And in a middle brand family, the pressure to thrive is even harder to survive.
(Updated 10/13/2026) Back in July 1999, Nissan’s newly redesigned Frontier was still a fresh face on the compact pickup scene. After 13 years with its predecessor, Nissan went for ruggedness over refinement. The funny part? This version lasted just six years, while the truck that replaced it lasted until 2021.
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What is an intermediate? On the surface it would appear to be easy to define: something in between a compact and a full-size car. But how did you engineer such a car? Ford’s answer (’62-on) was a stretched and widened compact. Chrysler’s answer (’65-on) was a rebadged downsized full-size car. GM tried a bit of both, and today we’ll be looking at Pontiac’s solution to that question.
No Ford Falcon is rare; they were wildly popular when new and that popularity hung on for the entire first half of the 1960s. Some Falcons, however, are so bafflingly optioned (or not optioned) that you have to wonder what the original owner was up to, and this is one of those cars. It’s the “fancy” Futura 2-Door Sedan, which in itself isn’t uncommon at all, but it has exactly one option: the Fordomatic. Buying the bucket-seat Falcon with the base 144 and an automatic was an interesting choice, but here’s evidence that it happened, and it’s up for auction with no reserve on Hagerty Marketplace in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
Talking about “bargains” and “value” in the luxury car league is often a quixotic effort, but back in 1972, the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight gave you a full measure of Detroit luxury for a surprisingly reasonable price. This Montana-registered Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan offers a good sense of what the big Olds had to offer — and for how little money.
Fall is advancing, but seasons aren’t the only things changing around here at Curbside Classic. Some of our current COALers are nearing the end of their runs, which means it’s time to go hunting for new ones once more. Got car stories to share with the CC audience? Your first car, family cars, memorable purchases, breakdowns, road trips, or that old clunker you just couldn’t part with? We’d like to hear from you.
(Updated 10/12/2026) Ack–another white car! Don’t have my head; I capture what comes my way and it’s truly perplexing how I encounter so many cars of the same color; unfair, even. For what it’s worth, these were actually popular in this color, so maybe it’s not a stroke of bad luck. Actually, finding one of these might be considered good luck, as they’re a rare gem from Nissan’s short-lived early ’90s renaissance.
(Updated 10/12/2026) I have a soft spot in my heart for the Mustang SVO. More precisely, it’s the one Mustang that I could actually have seen myself buying, as my soft spot encompasses its two main qualities: high tech and superb handling. Yeah, yeah; I know the 302 was the better car for 95% of Mustang buyers, but then I didn’t exactly fit the Mustang buyer profile.
The SVO was an attempt to build the Mustang of the future: using high tech to optimize efficiency, by making a turbocharged four as fast or faster than a V8, and by optimizing its handling prowess by all the means available at the time. For that, Ford gets kudos from me. And it did from Road & Track at the time, which was duly impressed, not surprisingly.
Not surprisingly, the SVO sold in very limited numbers, although that was largely by design. But it developed a cult following, and it most certainly predicted the future where turbo-four Mustangs (and so many others) are the norm, not the exception.
Text by Patrick Bell.
Today, we’re taking a stroll through the industrial landscapes of a bygone era, peeking into the parking lots where working people left their cars for the day. What a different world it was: rows of colorful American sedans, with a few imports and trucks scattered among them. Their workplaces provide the backdrop, from heavy industry in full swing to power plants and storage facilities. Together, the cars and their surroundings capture a mix of nostalgia and the busy rhythms of mid-century life.
This was a joint effort, as Eric703 lent his talents in finding the locations and other interesting tidbits on many of these vintage images. Many thanks, Eric!
Demolition derby enthusiasts aside, you won’t find much pushback in saying that perhaps full-size General Motors cars took bigness a bit too far from 1971 to 1976, but a lot of people still like them. I’m one who prefers the 1972 model to all the rest, and an Impala Convertible such as this one, offered on Hemmings Auctions in Mogadore, Ohio, is just right. It looks like a nice driver with a fairly new repaint in its original “Golden Brown” color.
It’s been a minute since we’ve had a visit from the original extraterrestrial Citroën, hasn’t it? There are a few floating around town here, so I do have a few candidates to choose from in my files. I thought this one would be the best to pick for several reasons: it looks fairly original, it has the “old” nose and it’s not a DS, it’s the lower-spec variant, the ID.
(Updated 10/11/2026) Okay you guys, fair warning: there will be no Saabs, no air-cooled VWs, no Volvo 240s, Triumph Bonnevilles, BSAs, Goggomobils or Toyota Supras in this post. No, this CC is a paean to my Brougham-centric psychosis. I will stand in front of you all, and say thus: I love Chrysler Fifth Avenues. Yes, yes, I am well aware that they are based off of the recall-tastic Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volaré. I will nod my head and agree with you if you say these Fifth Avenues were the worst kind of lipstick on a pig. I know they were the antithesis to smooth and linear VW Jettas, Honda Preludes and Saab 900 Turbos that also occupied the decade with these mini-me Broughams. But, I do not care. I still like them. Should you share the same affliction, join me, as we delve into the depths of the origins of these Parthenon-grilled, Landau-roofed, poof-tastic interiored Mopar Broughams.
(Updated 10/11/2026) The failure of the Crown in the US market has been hard for many to grasp. If the Corona and Corolla and all the other Toyotas were so red hot in the US, why was the Crown such a flop? And it’s not just that the S60 had a weird front end, although that undoubtedly pushed it over the edge and Toyota cancelled it in the US after just two years.
The reasons are elucidated in this review. R&T did not pull their punches either; they panned it. It was inferior in just about every respect compared to say a Chevy Nova. And quite so in some.
The problem was that although the Crown felt very “American” it wasn’t designed for the US. It was a big, prestigious sedan in Japan, despite its severe dynamic limitations. That didn’t matter there. Toyota eventually figured it all out, with ever better Cressidas that paved the way for the category-killer Lexus LS. But that was still a way off in the future. In 1972, Toyota would just have to put up with a rare black eye.
It’s time to catch up with the latest Cohort finds from our contributors. We’ll start with what may be the rarest of the bunch by original production numbers: a 1970 AMX spotted by nifticus392. This was the final year for AMC’s unusual two-seat sports car/muscle car hybrid, and the rarest of the 1968–1970 models, with just 4,116 built.
Here’s a rad image. Fresh and fly. Sorry, it’s hard to resist the ’80s slang with today’s photos, but if you lived back then, these were the cool wheels to have if you were into GM’s youthful offerings.
There’s no date attached to this image, but the aero kits suggest these Camaros and Firebirds hail from the late 1980s, perhaps the early ’90s. We do know the photo was taken in Southern California, with the cars riding aboard a PMT truck based in Van Nuys.
