Aussie and Kiwi Curbsiders will recognize this common sight: a VT Holden Commodore with a missing fuel filler cap. It seems as though these all fell off a decade ago, because seeing a Commodore of this vintage with the little flap in place is the exception rather than the norm.
Often, when you want to photograph a particular car for an article, you will struggle to find one even though your mind is fixated on it. And yet on just one drive I found two more Commodores missing their fuel filler door. Are these the automotive equivalent of lost dryer socks?
Curbsiders, which cars have you noticed always have a telltale sign of aging? Do you regularly see Oldsmobile Aurora wheels with missing center caps? Mitsubishi Magnas with horrifically faded paint? 1970s Cadillacs with the bumper filler long gone? Share below.
I bet Dame Edna missed the filler cap before Norm did . . .
Hmmm. Arizona doesn’t have rust (much), but there are other challenges.
Things I used to see all the time:
Metallic paints that faded in just a few years.
Chalked non-metallic paints.
Red paints faded to a sort of burnt orange.
Cracked lacquer on GM cars.
Cracked dashboards everywhere.
Sun-rotted and sun-faded seat upholstery (yep; this would happen in just a few years, too).
Tilted lettering as plastic lettering broke.
On GM cars of the 1970s, the rotting weatherstripping around frameless window glass and oozing of adhesive around windshields, rear windows, and vinyl rub strips.
The peeling plastic “chrome” strips.
A greasy film on the inside of all the window glass.
Whole sheets of paint peeling off, again, 1970s GM cars (not to mention Dodge and Plymouth Neons!)
Chrome peeling off interior plastic knobs and trim.
Today:
Clearcoats deteriorating after about 10 years, looking sort of like pattern baldness.
Clouded headlights.
Missing wheel covers.
Slight “dulling” of the paint.
Scratched-up, scraped alloy wheels.
These days it seems that cars look OK for a lot longer, even in Arizona. Metallic paints hold up MUCH better, thanks to clearcoats. Upholstery seems to hold up far better these days. I see much less in the way of cracked dashboards. Exterior plastics seem to hold up far better than they did in the ’70s and ’80s.
Pretty much everything David said applies in Phoenix. The greasy fog on the inside windows is even worse here, 10X if the driver also smokes. (I used to be one).
The “padded” dashes on 60’s and 70’s cars cracked consistently. Dash covers were a cottage industry, and may still be.
Astounding to me is the disregard for cleaning rims as mentioned above, even on BMW’s and the like.
Phoenix’s trademark is rock pecks in windshields from trucks dropping gravel on the freeways. I don’t even bother to fix them, I just look between them.
One of my favorites from the 70’s/80’s were the various GM hard plastic interior moldings fading from burgundy to chalky pink (extra bonus points for realizing the American-made VW Rabbit must’ve sourced the same Fade-O-Matic 3000 plastic from GM because they suffered the same malady..)
Ford daytime running lights that get very dim after just a few years.
This is one you made me realize I witnessed unbeknownst to me! I saw a seedy looking 90s E series Box truck last weekend which upon passing I saw those yellowish dim headlights and nothing else on, looking even seedier. I thought something was severely wrong with the electrical system. DRLs didn’t even occur to me, since most US cars don’t have em. The truck must have come from Canada
I owned a 1997 E350 box van. It was in pretty bad shape, so it may have had a wiring fault, but I never had DRLs. I’m sure they did by the end of the basic styling in the early-mid 2000s.
To add to “old vehicle personalities”, only one DRL working.
When I was a young adult, and the VW Beetle was still selling briskly but its sales supremacy was ending, it was cheap whistling tailpipes installed when the originals rusted out.
Now, it’s missing hubcaps on cars like our Toyota Matrix. Many, many missing hubcaps. Ask me how I know.
Bubbles galore in the dark tinted film that some owners insist on applying to the rear window of their cars.
Most 93-97 Toyota Corollas are faded like crazy, especially if it’s the red or gold sedans. Mine is no exception haha
Fading paint on the roof, worst offenders being ’98-’02 Accords, ’01-’08 Civics, ’03-’08 Corollas, ’02-’06 Camrys
’98-’00 Lexus GS with their trunk mounted pod portion of the taillights that turn pinkish-white
Red Volkswagen New Beetles that turn pink
Sterling 827’s with turn signal covers that love to pop off
Just about everything on Sterlings seemed to pop off. Also the top of the dashboard taking on a greenish hue in hot climates, and the wood trim warping and cracking.
Peeling clear coat on Falcons and Commodores. Bumper tops on red Japanese cars fading to pink and powdery white…
The horrible fake plastic chrome and rubber windshield mouldings on older Valiants that faded to brown and eventually black.
Made the cars look second hand well before their time
Verified: I have a 63 Signet. Looks like the door and bumper trim on 80s GM vehicles
2000s Chevys with the gold center failing from weather
2000s Chryslers with chrome flaking off nameplate letters
90s Roadmaster with black vinyl strips missing from side trim (or glued back on crooked)
Minivans/SUVs with a rubber strip hanging from the rear wiper blade
Cars with a side window held closed by duct tape
Also 4th gen Chrysler Minivans with a rusty leading edge of the hood. Mine has that and in the two years I have owned it I watched the rest of the “chrome” sheeting fall off the letters. Kind of surprised the grill cover badge is still attached.
I am not with you with the VT Commodores missing the filler flap. That’s one of the signs, but there are two that really tell the story to me: mismatched colour door handles and the rubber moulding of the backlight coming off.
– 1st gen Ford Ka: gets very specific rust bubbling around the filler cap and (usually) nowhere else
– SAAB 9000: as well as the oft-mentioned peeling logo I gather these are prone to a worn gearbox part resulting in intermittent refusal to engage reverse. I know because mine did this, the specialist who serviced it said it’s very common on the model – great fun on single track roads in the Highlands
– 80-87 Austin Metro: uneven pressure in hydragas suspension system resulting in the whole car listing to the left or right
– 87-94 FIAT Panda: Door sils rust through at the bottom, while the rest of the car tends to stay tin-worm free (pre-87s simply dissolve, the galvanising works well on the later ones, just not on the door sils)
– 90s Opel/Vauxhalls especially prone to the “fade-to-grey” black plastic trim and curious partial cross-wiring of rear indicator and brake lights (so braking while indicating causes a fade of both, or blinking brake light, etc.)
– French comedy electrics could probably cover an entire post but specifically 90s and 00s Peugeots whose central locking and/or windows and/or HVAC now work in new unpredictable and unintended ways and combinations (if at all) and whose indicators periodically turn themselves on unrequested.
You guys have covered most of what I see curbside… but on the road, let me add one:
Pre-1996 or so Mercedes-Benzes in the summer will almost always be seen with windows down, because none of them have working A/C systems.
Also, older Volvos, either because an expensive climate control board has failed, or because of a poorly designed evaporator that clogs (850 and its descendants).
Older Jeeps (especially Grand Cherokees) never seem to have working A/C, either.
The AC in my 1991 240 works fine (after conversion to R134 and a recharge last month). But Swedish summers must be very mild because even when new I doubt the AC in a 240 could deal with a Georgia summer, and it sucks about 50 of the available and scarce horsepowers when the compressor kicks in with a lurch.
Also on the subject of red fading to pink, the model emblem for the ’78 to ’83 Malibus was a scalloped hexagon, appears to be metal foil under clear acrylic, with a gold Chevy bowtie on a red field. The emblem occurs, depending on the year, on the grille shell, hood ornament, steering wheel, and/or hubcaps. The once-brilliant red field invariably turns pink and the bright gold of the bowtie ends up closer to silver.
Shrinking and wrinkling rubber trim around the windshields on Cavaliers, wrinkling rubber door trim at the base of the windows on IONs here in Tucson.
Looked at an 08 Sebring where the aluminum like trim on the arm rests had been rubbed off to the point of showing the cadaver color plastic underneath.
Scorched paint is common here.
And so many houses and apartment complexes have zero covered parking. Something I don’t understand at all.
Another one I saw several of today: the logos on VW alloy wheels circa 1998-2003, especially those of New Beetles, love to fall off.
Particularly on late 90s and early 00s Ford vehicles, the body moulding on the side comes off, or peels, or pieces break off, or it fades, or… Let’s just say they didn’t do a great job with the plastic they made the moulding out of. Another thing is GM cars from the early to late 90s with leather interiors. It’s ALWAYS a faded, wrinkled, chipped away mess.
Faded or peeling grille emblems on Ford and Chevy pickups are quite common. In hot weather , people driving around with all windows down due to failed AC. This is very common on S10 Blazers. My daughter had one that leaked like a sieve.
We drink coffee on our porch most mornings . It sits kind of high and we live on a four way stop, so I see lots of check engine lights lit up on cars in the early morning light.
4th generation Chrysler Minivans lose their shiny coating on the tailgate lettering, develop a rusty leading edge of their hood, and the rear wheel well arches rust as does the rocker panels under the sliding doors. When I used to visit Florida most Japanese vehicles 5 years and older had UV damage and cloudy headlights. I remember my surprise seeing a 4-5 year old 2004 Sienna with a serious case of fading gold paint and peeling clear coat.
Here in Portland, Oregon I notice a number of 02-07 Corollas from California have some impressive paint/clear coat issues on their horizontal surfaces. Have not seen any similar vintage Camries with that issue, but some have a drooping headliner. Lichen, Moss, and Douglas Fir Pollen are commonly found on cars no longer running and some cars that are road going with some cars sporting an impressively thick collection. I do notice 1980s and 1990s Toyotas with clear coat and paint issues, but sometimes it is a more uniform fade instead of the intense baking you get in sunnier climates. Some vehicles sport water stains due to the rainy climate and some Mercedes Benz Sprinters have bleeding rust stains from rock chips. Some vehicles in Seaside, Oregon have developed 3D patina on their surfaces. If you look over the Curbside Classics from Eugene you will get an idea of what the patina looks like around here.