There are times when I think the golden days of CC spotting in Eugene are over. I used to walk down a block and see nothing but cars 25 years and older. But then the other day, it happened again: I suddenly fell into a worm hole and found myself in the year 2000 or so, on this block of Lincoln Avenue.
Three vintage Toyotas and a gen1 Honda CRV in the background. But that’s just for starters.
Across the street were a Dodge Caravan and a Ford Expedition.
And a bit further down on the other side, just ahead of the three Toyotas, there’s another Camry and a Jeep GC.
Here’s another look at the Toyotas: Tercel, Camry and Corolla.
The Corolla even has a “Camry Dent”.
Always enjoy these posts. But Please take me back to the era of Great American Land YACHTS! Can’t go anywhere without being bombarded with 🤮 SUVS and crossovers. So many of them sometimes makes it hard to find my Town Car! But the search is always worth the effort as I sink in to luxury and drive away! 👍 😎
If you find a scene of multiple “Great American Land Yachts” parked on the street, take pictures and post them on the Cohort, and I’m sure someone will write them up.
That Tercel is calling to me in a way it never would have when new. Funny how what once would have been viewed as a penalty box is now seen as refreshingly clean and simple. It’s especially attractive in that color. There’s just enough “Cheap and Cheerful” around anymore.
It´s a sign of age. The cars you think of as new and newish become old. To my eyes a car from 1997 does not stand out as being as old in the way a car from 1975 looked old in 1997. The ageing process is not as severe for younger cars and, I think, stylistically, “progress” in car styling slowed down. My daughter is however acutely sensitive to cars´ age and finds the charming 2002 cars I like to be as antediluvian as fax machines, horse troughs and MySpace.
I’m so frickin’ old, I can remember when the year 2000 was… THE FUTURE. So much of the science fiction that I read back in the 1970s was set in the far-off year 2000. And now, the year 2000 is the dusty faded past, a land of hand-cranked windows and dial-up internet. OMG, I’m old. And where’s my Moller Skycar?
Actually Mike, your post remined me of a bit on Conan O’Brien’s old show that he used to do about the future called “In the Year 2000”. Just as an element of comedy, he kept it going by that name long after the odometer had rolled past 2000.
Speaking of science fiction, I hear you. In the year 2001, according to Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, we were supposed to be going to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively, by then.
Even Star Trek recently has had to adjust their cannon for a story line that was labeled “back in the late nineties” on the original show. (TOS story Space Seed, and the follow up movie Wrath of Kahn) It’s now referred to has having happened somewhere in the “late 2030(s)” (a story line on ST: SNW). They’ll probably have to edit these shows again if they keep going well into the next decade.
Well, I suppose if we’d kept going at the space program’s pace during the sixties, there’d be a BEST BUY on Mars by now…
Or at least a Radio Shack. 😉
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for my flying car.
In the heady days of the 1960s, we were projected to have a man on Mars by 1980!
We might have had it not been for the “great society”.
Glad to see your continued contributions, Paul
+1
It brings me back to to where I can even hear the Toyota dirt chimes. I hadn’t missed them till just now
Thanks for the reset
Suprised to see that old Plymouth voyager(I think the Dodge had a cross hair grill) still on the road. Those things were treated like a stick of gum. Chew it, wad it up, uncerimoniously toss it out after the transmission blows up for a 2nd or 3rd time.
You still see a few 90’s/early 00’s cars in my neck of the woods, but not like Eugene. I think people drive a lot more in Nashville and wear their cars out. Or the 20 year old cars get shipped back to Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, etc. We do have a sizable latino population.
I always marvel at the number of older cars in great condition still in daily use in Eugene and other West Coast locales, and I live in Texas, where the climate is relatively kind to older vehicles, but there simply aren’t as many vintage autos so readily visible on the road.
Of these, I have a soft spot for the third-gen Chrysler minivans, which, to my way of thinking represent a high-water mark of efficient packaging and automotive design. Of course, the third-gen Camry is also the zenith of Toyota reliability and design. I remember being greatly impressed with the build quality of my parents’ 1994 Camry (comparable to my 1996 Volvo 850 in many ways). In all, 2000 was a good time to be driver on American roads.
Being born in the mid 1960s, the year 2000 always seemed like the future. Companies would add a 2000 after a product’s name to make it sound “futuristic.” It is interesting to see all of the “older” cars. They still seem “new” to me. The designs of the 1990s and early 2000s seem “cleaner” than present ones. They were more upright and less curvy for the most part compared to modern sedans. It is a sign of age and perspective as Richard Herriott said above. Most of those cars are gone here in Maine due to rust and the winter salt brine they use on the roads. These Pacific Northwest survivors are cool and most are the “more reliable and longer lasting” cars of that era being Toyotas and Chrysler Minivans. Most would be considered mechanically and technically simple. Analog instrumentation, fuel injected, not many turbo or Ecoboost style engines. It will be interesting to see in 2050 or so what it will be like looking back at cars of the early 2020s. Will all cars, trucks, and SUVs be electric then? Will a there be a “premium” for internal combustion engined cars? Will there be replacement parts for all the electronic gadgets in today’s cars? Can I get a replacement LCD panel for the dash of my 2023 Tesla? Probably not. Yesterday’s complicated stuff seems simple today. No flying cars in the year 2000 looking back i guess. The Jetsons didn’t get everything right but they got a lot looking back. Neat cars and pictures, Paul!
Speaking about old but futuristic I actually saw live on the road a pristine orange 1973 Saab Sonett III. That was sure futuristic back between 1970-74. At the stop light in front of my office and couldn’t get to my camera behind me. I really need to keep it in front as I always seem to see some pretty nice older cars heading to my office but can’t make a shot. Of course a stick doesn’t make it easier on the local streets.
Is it just me, or does the early 90’s Camry look smaller than the “compact” Corolla and Tercel in the pictures? Optical illusion?
I’ve noticed that too. I think it’s because the Camry is from the era when sedans still were fairly low-slung, whereas the Corolla and Tercel are a bit newer and are from when compact cars were starting to get taller. I think it’s that height difference that makes the Camry look smaller.
There is much to be said for continuing to use something that continues to function. When “continues to function” is a primary criteria, it’s hard to see how anyone drives something other than a 25 year old Toyota…and so I’m sure that the streets of Eugene will likely be rich with old Toyotas for some time to come.
The turn of the Millennium is almost a quarter Century behind us! The “Aughts” came and went. Now the cars from that period are just old used cars, fondly remembered from childhood. I’ve got several vehicles from the Aughts, my ’07 F150, and ’06 Mustang, and ’05 Navigator. I bought the truck new, so it’s hard for me to see it as old, but it is. The others still look pretty good for their age, better than I do!
Most of these I wouldn’t have known their YOM. I’d say sometime in the 2000’s.
As to Paul’s comment on the Camry Dent it is obvious that is a nationwide site it seems. I’ve seen numerous ones over the last two decades and always the same side. What the heck is up with that???
I’m still driving my 1998 Nissan Frontier, which just passed the 25-year mark in my ownership. It has a relatively low 106K miles, so I expect it will last for quite a while longer.
How many people were daily driving 1948 models in 1973 or even 1968s in 1993?
A lady in my hometown was driving a “51 Hudson, in 1973.
“We’re gonna party like it’s 1999..”
If that’s not an ode to days of future passed…I don’t know what is!
Oh god. I think I’ve crested the hill.
I already struggle to identify vehicles of about the six or seven years, and the photos in this post just look like slightly dreary traffic of fairly new things – which they are decidedly not. Well, new, anyway.
I am going to rush out now and buy all the new-car magazines, and study hard. Maybe some hair color, and some tight jeans too, why not? I shall defeat age. No old-fartism for this young bunny, no sir.
That Camry still is in great shape. That body style just doesn’t die. My neighbor has one and the same color; but a coupe that gets driven daily.
I just bought a 96 Corolla with 110,000 miles on it for 3 grand. This is a car I wouldn’t have thought about twice when I was younger, it would’ve been a first car for one of my friends. But now? I love it. The interior is in perfect condition, and I LOVE the unimpeded view from inside. Plus it being so much smaller than all the other SUV’s on the road, it makes driving it a snap. I really really love it in a way that I never did my 03. I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder as far as these things go, I feel about it the way I would’ve felt about seeing an old Valiant/Dart growing up, an old honest car.