After a typically slow start, we’ve had some nice summer weather in Vancouver. This has left plenty of time for car spotting, so without further ado:
I can’t remember the last time I saw a first generation Sunbird. Pontiacs were always popular in Canada and that extended to the Sunbird, which was always more loved in Canada than its Cavalier cousin.
This lovely MG looks to be a 1973 model with the hideous bumper thingies. I guess we have to give the owner credit for keeping them in place. I would have tossed them on day one.
This Buick Park Avenue was my go-to cheap car a dozen years ago, along with the LeSabre. There are scant few left around here. They are not really old enough to have collector appeal and too old to daily.
What a lovely little BMW 325i. These are what BMW cars should be in my opinion. Tidy, good handling and an excellent motor. I consider today’s Golf a worthy successor.
This Micra isn’t a classic by any means. I included it to demonstrate the C$10,000 car actually exists. This family in fact has two of them, both manuals. I’ve seen more than a few of them around Vancouver but the last time I was back in Quebec, they were everywhere. Cheap little cars as winter beaters abound in Quebec.
This is a lovely 2003 Acura TL. I had a 2000 TL for six years and I just loved it, except for its prodigious thirst. The 2003 cheaped out on the headlights, losing the HID lights of the previous models. For a car that was supposed to have disastrous transmissions, there are still plenty of them around.
This 911 Targa is the piece de resistance. It was parked right in front of my home and I haven’t seen it since.
So ends our Neighbourhood Classics 2022 Summer Edition. It’s time to start looking out for the next edition.
A fine selection, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an MG with those giant rubber bumpers, every other owner must also have tossed them on day one.
The Sunbird and Park Avenue remind me of a driving game I used to play. As I explained to my wife: Generally GM vehicles fall into two categories. When you encounter one while driving, you either say “truck”, or you say “piece of s**t”. That covers about 98% of GM vehicles you see on the road, although you occasionally say “Nice car!” and occasionally “that’s a truck AND a piece of s**t”.
Fun things to do when you’re driving somewhere and the rest of the family has fallen asleep. Around here it’s getting quite rare to see a GM car, so the game doesn’t work as well as it used to.
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I’ve long considered DougD to be the politest of all of the polite Canadians I know personally, and was therefore quite surprised to not only hear of his in-car parlor game but admitting (with evident glee) to it in such a public forum. He’ll be weighing in on US political forums soon enough if he keeps this trend going.
We Canadians tend to be rather reserved, even when amongst ourselves. However, watching some of the “news” programs on cable coming from south of the 49th can get the blood flowing. Here I will add a “Sorry eh!”
As far as The General is concerned, they can keep pumping out vehicles, but their brand loyalty from years ago is all but gone. A few blocks from my house there used to live two Malibus from the ’90s and the ’00s. I was going to write them up and posture that they had likely succeeded some early year Chevelles and a stream of colonnades. Truth be told, now two Mazdas live in that driveway.
A friend of mine who used to drive nothing, but nothing, but Oldsmobiles, gave up after the last one rusted as bad or worse than the earlier examples, and went Japanese for his last two cars.
I saw a Cavalier up top until I read that it was a Sunbird. I had forgotten about the Sunbird.
I have long been amazed that these MGBs never became more valuable. In my area it seems that there are always a couple for sale that are in good condition and priced very reasonably. I guess there are MG people and everyone else.
That BMW was the last one I really, really wanted. And those 3800 Buicks were the last really good used cars from GM.
I also used to also recommend the Pontiac Vibe (especially the relatively rare 2nd generation) as a good, cheap, practical used car too. Toyota reliability, Pontiac depreciation!
Love the Buick 3800, especially in later Series II and III guises.
If Doug’s driving game is common in Canada, imagine how how much crap that Sunbird has had to take. Every year that goes by, it’s mere presence is a more majestic middle finger response.
Especially a mosquito killing Turbo Sunbird!
I have a good friend who paid a good price for an early seventies MGB, which the seller (a dealer in classic cars) represented as being in turn-key condition.
Well, after having spent probably more than he paid to purchase the car on repairs, it is now at the point where the engine fires every time he turns the key; except of course when the engine is hot.
This probably has something to do with why these never became more valuable.
A friend had one of those Acuras. I think he told me it had the transmission changed three times.
About the most common GM cars round these parts now are the Terrain/Equinox utilities. However the 2016 Malibu that resides next door is very much the exception. Toyota/Honda/Hyundai pretty much rule the roads except for more upscale cars from Lexus, Bimmer, and Merc.
I drove an Acura TL for 100,000 km and never had a mechanical problem.
Transmission failures on these cars is almost always caused by stomping it off the line. Let it shift into second gear and then stomp it. The transmission will then last the life of the car.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Nissan Micra, which is odd because we get a lot of drivers from Quebec here in New England. But maybe they’ve left their Micras at home. It’s a funny-looking little car, but I could see its urban utility.
That’s amusing because the one time I’ve been outside of the US came in 2017 when we took a day-trip to Ottawa while on a camping trip in upstate New York. During those few hours in Canada, I was (of course) anxious to see whether I’d spot any cars that weren’t sold in the US market.
The only such car I saw was… a silver Micra. I even took a picture of it, and at the time I thought I must be the only person to just randomly photograph a Nissan Micra. But I guess Len here makes two of us.
A neighbour in the 1990s had a Micra. It looked something like this, is looked very flimsy to me. He also had a BMW 2002 and a Nissan Maxima, so the Micra was a beater car.
Canada actually had a spec Micra racing series for a while. Neat little cars.
Not as funny looking as previous models!
7 replies and NOBODY realized the “Park Avenue” is a Lesabre???
We all just played DougD’s fabulous new-to-us game and moved on to the next picture.
Reverse the names in the caption and we are all good.
And the MG’s rear thingies are so huge, it must be a ’74, when 5 mph hit the rear. And that’s a second generation Sunbird. The first was based on the Vega/Monza.
In think I might understand the owner of the nicely preserved MG.
When the Datsun Z cars added long bumpers to the front and rear to meet USA standards, purist moaned and groaned about how the lines of the Z-car were ruined. But when I bought my ’78 280Z it was just perfect in my mind. Indeed, the earlier models with the original small chrome bumpers seemed incomplete and vulnerable to damage with even a minor tap from an inconsiderate parallel parker.
I can see the new and proud MG owner loving it as-is, and preserving it in that original form.
BTW, I do not recall seeing these MG “bumperettes” here in the USA. They do seem less unattractive that the big black rubber front ends on noticeably raised bodies of later model USA models.
According to Wikipedia here’s the answer to the MG bumper evolution:
(*) To meet impact regulations, 1974 US models had the chrome bumper over-riders replaced with oversized rubber ones, nicknamed “Sabrinas” after the British actress Sabrina. In the second half of 1974 the chrome bumpers were replaced altogether. A new, steel-reinforced black rubber bumper at the front incorporated the grille area as well, giving a major restyling to the B’s nose, and a matching rear bumper completed the change.”
(*) From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_MGB
Funny you brought up the Z car. Just last weekend I saw a beautiful 1972 240Z. I lusted after one when I was a kid.
One of these lives just down the street from me. Beautiful car.
The Carrera is quite nice, in a very attractive color and the later 964-series wheels on the earlier generation update it tremendously. The bumpers though, it seems that Porsche looked at MG and decided to option the entirety of the surplus rubber once MG production slowed down.
As a daily, I think I like the Micra, which may just be the forbidden fruit aspect of it. It looks comfortable enough for slow city traffic although the manual would get old in that quickly. But nothing would likely ever break on it.
The Micra just looks honest. Not trying to be upscale or fancy. I respect that.
It would look great with Datsun badges.
The ironic aspect of the Nissan Micra is they had Jim Parsons from television’s Big Bang Theory doing their tv ads. https://mediaincanada.com/2014/05/15/nissan-gets-big-star-power-for-new-canadian-spots/
First generation Sunbird goes back to 1975-76
That’s even kinda-sorta not a first-gen J Body Sunbird either, since it’s post-’88 refresh. I know the core structure stayed the same through ’94, but don’t most people consider the refresh a second generation?
Our neighborhood is a little diverse. Our neighbors directly across the street are a Black family that used to have lots of cars, but always one 2002-era Mercury Mountaineer. I no longer see it or any other vehicle regularly going up there, it’s always a Malibu, Altima or other vehicle from one of their family members who live near by. I can only assume it’s only the old lady there now, and she must not be driving any longer.
Next to them, we call them the F-150 family. They used to have several different vehicles, including a Tundra and a Tahoe. Slowly, they all disappeared for new F-150s, ranging from XLT to a Platinum. They also have a “cat eye” beater Chevy truck and a mid 00s Super Duty gas burner that replaced the Chevy as a work truck. There’s two people who drive in and out every day but don’t live there, and their vehicles are consistantly older and crappier. One we call SUV guy. He drove a 90s Discovery for the longest time, then got a manual transmission 4Runner that sounded awful. Now he drives the oldest of their F-150s, I assume the Yotota is down for repairs or was crashed. The other guy drives a ’02ish Civic, and I’ll never forget the first time it came in, because I heard it LONG before I saw it as it’s front bumper was dragging the ground. They fixed that the first day.
Our next door neighbor also had a Tundra, but after it’s 3rd transmission, he bought a Cummins Ram 2500 from his work and drives that. His wife has a Rav4 that replaced a Camry.
Down under the hill, there are some trashy rentals, so at times, there’s a string of meth zombies driving cars that need to be crushed. The F-150 neighbors are diligent about alterting the local LEOs when there’s any sort of issue, so they regularly dissappear. Right now, the only regular one living down there is Versa Lady (drives a Nissan Versa Note blasting classic rock, classic country or sometimes gangster rap) that goes in and out countless times a day. Whatever Versa Lady is doing, she seems to be getting away with it, and she doesn’t look too strung out. She’s also the friendliest when my partner and I are outside (big smile and waves, usually).
“Our neighbors directly across the street are a Black family that used to have lots of cars”
What does their skin colour have to do with anything?
Because I didn’t gush over the Toyotas mentioned?
I think the first gen Sunbirds were 1976 to 1980 and I really really want my 1977 Sunbird back again.
I remember a lot of hot air coming out from under the dash; same in the Chevette.
A Sunbird sedan in silver/grey, pretty much represents the default grand prize giveaway on Canadian game shows of the 1980s.