Early last year we were visiting our son in a nearby town and went for a stroll in his neighborhood, when I spotted this (Super?) Beetle. Nothing really special, not something I would normally dig my phone out to photograph, until I noticed the red New Beetle and thought they made a nice pairing.
A few weeks later, I spotted this pair at our local market. Initially, I planned to snap a photo of the Isuzu Trooper, an increasingly rare sight, but I thought the juxtaposition with the newer RAV4 made for an interesting contrast and included it in the frame. It’s hard to believe that the Trooper was targeted at a similar demographic then, as the RAV4 is now. Or maybe that’s not really accurate, as the RAV4 is targeted at just about every demographic.
Trips to my local Home Depot have resulted in some good CC finds, and this Toyota Land Cruiser FJ45 Troop Carrier was no exception. This is the only picture in this post that was taken from behind the wheel, so composition isn’t great. After realizing that I couldn’t crop out the Infiniti G37, I decided that they made an interesting matchup, like the Isuzu Trooper (not Troopie) and the RAV4. In this case, the iconic SUV is closely tied to the beginnings of Toyota’s rise both worldwide and in the US, while the G37, although a very appealing car, will probably be just a forgotten footnote in a few years.
On another Home Depot trip, I encountered this pair. As with the G37/FJ45 photo, I originally intended to just record the regular cab longbed Tundra, with its interesting color and nicely crafted wooden camper top. Then I noticed the Jeep Renegade beyond, in an even brighter shade of orange, and decided they too made a nice couple. In fact, the pickup next to the Tundra and the CUV in the background are also reddish in tint: who says cars are all boring whites and grays now?
Other than the leading Beetle photo and the two Home Depot parking lot pictures, all of the other photos in the post were taken on walks or bike rides near my house. At some point I realized that I was seeing some interesting cars parked together; siblings or more distant relatives, or sometimes opposites attracted to each other. I’m not sure how to characterize this pair of Mazda’s. Yes, that’s a US Ford Ranger-based Mazda B3000 behind the all-Japanese B2200 in the foreground. Brothers from another mother? Or from completely different generations? Interesting to note that in this case the older one is indeed brightly colored.
By now I was actively looking for nice pairings; this couple is more distantly related, but still from the same family: convertible sports car. Again, the older one, a Sprite not a Midget I think, is in a cheerful color, though in other ways it’s showing its age. And there’s no A-Series BMC engine under its hood; it’s an electric conversion.
More distantly related sporty cars, but now both British. The Morgan is always parked outside, winter and summer, and yet looks well-maintained and must be regularly driven.
And here it is another time, now with a sportier, Colonial curbmate. Due to its proximity, once again there was an interloper that I couldn’t really crop out, but I’ll let it tag along as a third wheel. Though decidedly less sporty, I suppose the Kia Amanti is a CC in its own right, and from this angle looks like it shared some genes with a Lincoln Town Car. The Wikipedia article on the Amanti says that it won a JD Power Award as “Most Appealing Premium Mid-size Car” in 2005. Hmm ….
From sporty to mundane, this matchup highlights two generations of family hauler. Though both are getting on in years, the Odyssey by itself wouldn’t warrant a second glance, while the A Body Cutlass wagon is a fairly rare sight now.
More wagons, this time both Fords. There is a surprising number of both Focus wagons and Freestyles running around here, but that’s true of anything that swallows a few surfboards.
And more Fords. I’ve posted a photo of this F100 here before, but it’s been keeping company with the SuperDuty recently. As much as we like to complain here about the growing height of pickup beds, this F250 was sagging low. Some combination of a load in the bed and too much tongue weight from the trailer dropped it well below the older 1/2 ton’s profile. On other occasions I’ve seen the F250 unladen and it is indeed taller than the little brother of its great-great-great-grandfather.
The final Ford pairing for this post. I’d seen the brown Pinto a few times on the road recently, so was happy to find it parked just a few blocks from my house a few days ago. And, fittingly, adjacent to another Ford that was once everywhere on the streets of California. Only a decade or so apart, but the aero-Bird still looks modern compared to the Pinto. I know which one I’d prefer to have in my collection … and it’s not the TBird.
Rear wheel drive, body on frame, V8 with pushrods and both white, these two highlight how little evolution there’s been in some aspects of American car design, and yet they look so different. I wonder if they belong to the same household.
Both SUV’s, both white with goldish rocker panels, but that’s about all they have in common. I’m not an expert on either Lexus RX or Ford Excursions, but I suppose they could be from the same model year.
And on the same block, two interpretations of the small four door sedan theme. Again the same color, again from different continents, but this time separated by decades. The Corvair showed up in our neighborhood about a year ago and, like the brown Pinto wagon, seems to be regular transportation for a young woman. I was driving behind it recently and it wasn’t smoking. And it’s been protected by a car cover at times, too.
Now for some newer technology. The blue Tesla was the first Model 3 I saw regularly parked in our neighborhood, and this white one joined it about a year later. Both are parked in front of the High School and have faculty parking permits.
More electric cars. One less common than any Tesla except the Roadster and maybe Model X, and one far less common.
Some of you may question whether these deserve to be in this post: what is their relationship? I’d merely suggest that these were the two most significant sedans of the last 30 years. And they’re both black. And very clean and shiny.
Finally, I hesitated whether to include these Chevies. Not really a fan of the style, but they are definitely related. One is just showing off a bit more than the other.
From a few years ago, outside my house. The only thing better would have been an F-250.
I love the pairings! And the Pinto wagon is my favorite of the finds.
I still want a print of that ’56, parked at the entrance to Zion National Park,which was featured last month.
Lots of good finds and great combos. Love the Pinto and TBird.
That Rav4 EV is rare; never seen one. But then they were CA only.
I’d forgotten they were CA only, as there are few on the roads here, but not exactly rare. The later RAV4 seems less common, but there a handful of each generation that I see regularly.
Yes, that’s the Tesla powertrain’d one (3rd gen), they are around in CA and some have gone farther afield now as used cars, but I used to see them at the CarMax near my in-laws’ house in the O.C. when we’d visit.
The first generation RAV4 in EV format are almost never seen anymore though.
I knew there was some collaboration between Tesla and Toyota but never knew these final (at least as of now) RAV4-EV’s used actual Tesla powertrains. Live, and as always with CC, learn. A precursor to your Model Y, come to think of it.
The original RAV-4 EVs were all had a date set with the crusher before they left the plant. With the negative press associated with crushing EV-1s they decided to let a few out in the wild but most were crushed upon turn in at end of lease.
I know a lady who has one of the early ones that she had shipped from CA.
Super Beetle has a curved windshield.
The Impala was happy to see you.
Actually the ’71-’72 Super Beetle still had the flat windshield. But this isn’t a SB, regardless.
Sorry to be pedantic, but the T-Bird is not an AeroBird (’83 to ’88). That Thunderbird is either a ’94 or ’95. But what to call it? We had a discussion years ago in the comments section about what to call each generation of T-Bird, and I can’t recall whether or not we even came up with a name for the MN12.
Perhaps XR7Matt will recall, since he currently has a Cougar of this gen. I’ve had two of these ‘Birds, a ’94 (looks like this one) and a ’97 (the last), but was unfamiliar with the nicknames for the different T-Birds back then. I also had 3 AeroBirds, two ’88(s) and an ’83.
Eric703 may know what these Birds were nicknamed, since he too has one… a ’95 if memory serves.
Warning: Starting a 24 to 27 year old rant….
Oh, and a HUGE pet peeve of mine is being demonstrated here but the owner of that T-Bird. The wheels on that car are directional. They were on the ’97 as well (different rim, but same idea). While these cars were no paragons of performance, they did have directional wheels. The car looks DUMB when the tires are not rotated correctly. It used to drive me NUTS when I would see this. Please keep the left rims on the left side and the right rims on the right side! Thank You.
…Ok, rant over. Sorry.
Speaking of wheels being wrong… Beautiful ’62 and ’64 Impalas. The wheels? Not so much. What does the tach on the ’64 read at 65 MPH, 5,200 RPM? Jeese!
Oh, and I have to agree with JPC’s comments from an earlier post today. As nice as these Impalas are, I like the pair of ’63(s) we saw earlier today much better.
I went outside and asked my Thunderbird what she’d like to be known as, and she simply said “better than a Pinto.”
But come to think of it, I don’t know of a nickname for this generation of Tbird, besides MN12, which is sort of clunky for a nickname. When we see another one on the road, we usually just say “hey, there’s a Thunderbird like ours.”
And phew… my wheels are rotated in the right direction here!
Yes they are!
IIRC, there was a symbol that said “” embossed right into the casting of the wheel near one of the lug nut holes to make sure that the service guy got it right. And they still got it wrong. I rotated my own tires back then.
But that got me wondering whether or not my ’97 was that way. My ’94 had your rims. My ’97 (pictured below) had this wheel, and although these shots are a little grainy, zooming in, it would appear that the left and right sides are in fact mirror image castings after all.
Sorry Eric… it looks like the attempt at showing that symbol must have been stripped out as possible malicious code… Inside the quotes, I tried to show RS and LS with an arrow in text form, and I suppose Akismet didn’t like that, and yet it was completely ok with me creating a link in the post below… Interesting.
Actually Eric, after a little poking around, I found the discussion we had a while back here at this post. It’s about 2/3 the way down in the comments.
Chris M had a suggestion of “Sleek Bird” for this generation, but I am not sure whether or not it was officially adopted here at Curbside Classic. Sounds good enough, as these were an aerodynamic follow-up to the Aero Birds.
Later, I thought of Bimmer Bird after seeing a post (possibly by Paul) that talked of how when Ford was developing the MN12, they were shooting for a BMW Fighter, or something like that. We all know how well that worked out in the seventies when they tried to compare Lido’s Brougham-tastic Granada with a Mercedes. Yeah, no one was fooled then either.
I like Sleek Bird… I think I’ll officially adopt that term for my own T-bird sightings.
I used to call them the “EarlyBird”, since I’d usually see people of a certain age drive them when they were newer and I was younger. But now I know several younger folk such as yourself and Mr. Shafer who also had one. I myself have always liked them better than the older AeroBird, they seemed more cohesive with less fussyness. Or just a bit more ’90’s bland, I don’t know 🙂 Having been in a few they did their job well, smooth, quiet, good highway cruisers.
Ha! My wife bought the T-bird when she was 27. She and I enjoy being outliers.
I nominate “Flatbird”. They always looked like someone had taken a big flatiron to them, especially compared the much more curvaceous AeroBirds.
I like that one, Paul.
Personally, the ’89 to ’93 versions of the MN12 left me feeling a little “flat”.
They tried to update it in ’94 and ’95 with some curves, but one could argue mixed success there.
By ’97 it was done. I can’t find the rest of this Baltimore Sun article, but the clipping I saved from years ago summed it up. The handwriting was on the wall then about the pending demise of the PLC. What stung a little bit was, although not shown in the image below, the article went on to use the phrase “long in the tooth” to describe my car at the time. Ouch. They weren’t wrong though. The truth hurts, I suppose.
Nice theme, and some interesting observations.
here’s my version https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/curbside-compare-and-contrast-1965-mgb-and-2006-mg-tf-135-roadsters-ancient-and-modern/
Interesting that the Land Cruiser has Northern Territory AUS license plates, along with what looks like a temp. paper registration in the window. Out of curiosity I searched the plate number in the NT vehicle registration website, and that plate was last registered in 1998 to a 1971 Ford Capri. So I’m guessing that someone recently imported the Land Cruiser from Australia, and the period-correct license plate was sent with it as a souvenir.
And I do like the Lexus & Tesla pair — definitely marketed to similar demographics in their respective days.
Mate, that’s flash for an FJ40 from the Top End.
They usually look more like this up there.
Wow, thanks for the education into TBird nomenclature (and wheel directionality). I actually don’t think I’d heard terms like SquareBird or FlairBird before I’d started reading CC. In fact, I wasn’t aware of the Panther name for later full-sized Ford’s, pre-CC, though the Fox body terminology was well-known. Whether Flat or Aero, I’d probably rather actually drive an ‘80’s or ‘90’s TBird than the Pinto, but the latter, particularly as a wagon, speaks to me in a way the Birds don’t.
I had a picture that I can no longer find. It was a mid seventies Cadillac Sedan DeVille parked in front of a SmartCar.