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.
At least in the US midwest, I expect every car to have cloudy headlight lenses and surface rust or rust bubbles around the rear wheelarches by its tenth year.
That one hit too close to home, both literally and figuratively.
Yep.
Definately the headlights. I would like to go back to the old glass ones. My 33 year old TC-3 has clear glass ones that are probably 25 years old as I have never replaced them and they are perfect. The newer cars are all faded. The kits that have the sander pads with progressively finer grits and finally the polish liquid seem to work well.
In Texas, it’s the cloudy headlights, and failed clear coats by the time they hit 5 years unless they’ve been somewhat taken care of.
I’m glad I didn’t get the dark blue Civic, some of the 2006+ black or blue models are already looking pretty rough. Nobody in Texas should own a black car more than once…at least without a garage.
K-cars sagging in the back
Chevy Astros with peeling paint
Faded headlights on damn near everything
Unpainted plastic bumpers faded to stone grey
Cloudy headlights, rusted rockers and rear quarters, faded and peeling paint
EVERY early ’00s Ford Explorer has a big vertical crack on the rear liftgate.
Haha so true. I also see a lot of 90’s Cavaliers with a crack in the middle of the dash
’02 to ’05s do that little stunt, as well as their Mountaineer and Aviator brethren 🙂 .
Worked at a Ford dealership several years, this is very true….Lincoln Navigator same thing….people would go to the tailgate first thing and look for the crack…good catch. 🙂
A friend’s family has an irrational Explorer love, they currently have 4, and probably 3 of that generation have come and gone. 100% have had the cracked panel below the rear glass. In the years since I’ve notice this, I’ve seen exactly 2 Explorers/Mountaineers/Aviators with unbroken panels. I’m guessing the plastic is too brittle to be slammed repeatedly.
Cloudy headlights, like they are suffering from cataracts.
These drive me particularly crazy for some reason, every time I see a W210 with cloudy headlights, which is all of them, I think to myself if they just put in traditional round sealed beams this would be a complete non issue. I’m more forgiving to rectangular or organic headlights with the fade since there’s no bulbs that match those shapes.
To me, cloudy headlamps implies “parked outdoors.” We garaged our XV10 Camry & didn’t see this after a decade.
Original ‘lessors’ of these luxury cars have long ago moved on to another new car, so they won’t see this fade.
Yes, these cloudy-headlamp W210s are quite common. I think the worst used to be the first-generation Dodge/Plymouth Neon, but most of these have gone to the crusher by now.
Not the least annoying: if you could afford to buy one of these Mercedes to begin with, you can afford to have the headlights polished. Of course a MERCEDES owner would never polish HIS OWN headlights…that’s for peasants.
So what, the headlights get all cloudy and ugly…”This is a Mercedes-Benz!”
Rust and paint fade is kind of a given in certain climates, and certain things like dents are the result from actual abuse/neglect, so the prominent things I often notice that really are from age and age alone are:
-Hazy yellowed headlights
-Dryrotting black trim, especially around the windows on modern cars, which resembles 100 grit black sandpaper
-Pink faded taillight lenses, which I see A LOT of on older Lexus models (second gen GSs are especially bad)
-Condensation in headlights after rain
-Purple/peeling window tint
Hondas, any and all of them, first rust where the body meets the back bumper behind the rear wheelarches.
Otherwise-pristine Pontiac Vibes with the Pontiac arrowhead logo on the hatch faded to a pale salmon pink.
Secondgen Kia Rios with rust on the bottom of the driver’s door only.
Good call on the faded badges. BMW’s seem to be especially bad about this. Our 99 E46 is parked indoors, and is currently on its 3rd set of badges, because the blue on the roundel fades to nothing.
Saw a Bentley Arnage Red Label at an auction a couple months ago, and it’s badges were all a sickly salmon pink color. Such a shame
Fading paint, noticeable scratches/scuffs/dents that go un-repaired, rims that are scratched or have peeling finished are the initial warning signs for me.
Pretty much all gone now, but there was a Lincoln Continental from the 80s with new-fangled (for Ford, anyway) hydraulic self-leveling suspension; within a few years almost all of them were dragging their asses on the road after the hydraulics failed.
And then there’s that tacky fake-chrome trim that GM used everywhere, which peeled off to bare plastic within a year making the cars look cheap and shoddy.
Down here in TN I’ve still occasionally seen those Continentals both dragging their tails and then jacked up with air shocks to replace that dead hydraulic suspension.
Broken door-handles on 2nd-gen GM F-bodies — “We don’t need no stinkin’ stress analysis, just ship it!”
Oxidized metallic paint on any Sunbelt car.
Faded Euro-black door trim. Bring back chrome!
Red 93-98 Toyota Corollas with the paint faded to a pinkish red.
94-2004 Cadillac Devilles with the ass sagging due to bad air shocks.
I once had a Saab 900 and the Saab emblems on the hood and hatch peeled off. Specifically, the design (red griffin on a blue background) peeled away, leaving only a shiny metal disc. This was a common problem for Saabs at that time at about their 5-10 year mark, and it was really annoying… but not annoying enough to actually buy new ones.
An artist might be able to fabricate a more durable inlayed-enamel replica.
Scion XBs and Toyota Corollas can’t keep hubcaps. Gone, just gone. Camrys and Siennas as well.
Scion Xb1’s with tape holding on the rear hatch latch.
In San Francisco, cars with a million tiny chips out of the paint on the rear bumper accumulated from on street parking battles.
Happened to my buddys corolla 3 times. So I made him a replacement:
Hahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahaahahahahahaah! Ha! Complete with cooing vents!
Since its an ultra lightweight alloy, he lowered his coefficient of drag…prolly picked up 10% higher top end speed. I even offered to install a cold air exhaust for him….
Don’t forget the 1993-2001 Nissan Altima.
1st Gen Versas the same
I had a Sentra for 5 years and small rust appeared at top of A pillars, was annoyed it was so soon, but then I don’t have a garage. Also, was losing its shine after car washes.
Still, should have pushed it another 100k miles. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Another big sign of aging, appearing at BHPH car lots.
“1970s Cadillacs with the bumper filler long gone? ”
Seen usually by 1981 😉
’97-’06 TJ Wranglers and XJ Cherokees after ’97 are notorious for the fender flares going from black to a chalky grey.
The full hard doors on AMC-era CJ7’s and Scramblers tend to get a crack inside just behind the vent window.
’70’s and ’80s GM products had sagging headliners more often than not. In college, one of my circle of friends had 2 G bodies and an S10 blazer that suffered this. It was synonymous with him, so much so that anytime we saw a car with the headliner coming down someone would point and say “look, theres Marcus!” Good times!
Yep. Every late 70’s to late 80’s GM I’ve encountered had either a sagging headliner, a missing headliner, or one that had been recovered.
My 2003 Subaru has the cloudy headlight covers (that I keep meaning to take care of) and the rubberized coating on the roof rack rails has largely been sun-baked to the point where it’s peeling off. This car lived in Southern California for about seven years and was seldom garaged during that time–that intense sun will have its effects.
Add to that, peeling or missing tape stripes that leave adhesive marks and oxidized, cracked plastic. My car doesn’t have these issues, but I see plenty that do, most often ’90s GM cars. They just look as if they weren’t engineered to last and not sold to people who had the funds or time to keep up with those small details. This is why I can see the appeal of stripper specials–nothing extra that can deteriorate!
Hondas – the rusty wheel well arches
All other brands – foggy headlights and missing wheel center caps
– Cloudy headlights. No brand is free from them, but particularly common on Benzes, Opels, and Ford Focuses. Easily the most visible one, since even with proper maintenance, it will occur.
– Missing hubcaps, the front right one going first. Often seen on VWs & co, for taking roundabouts too fast.
– Related: non-brand hubcaps, or from a different brand.
– Broken or loose door handles. 80s and early 90s VWs liked to lose them.
– Logos fading/peeling off. Must be an intentional move by Ford on its Euro cars: once the cars start to look bad, we don’t want them associated with us anymore.
– Broken bumpers, and unpainted ones replacing them. Again, common on Euro Fords.
– Bumpers fading from black to light grey, even worse when there’s other trim on the car fading at a different speed, it immediately makes the car look worn off. The Opel Corsa B is a major offender (picture).
E36 BMW 3-Series trim fades noticeably and unevenly as well.
the black plastic body cladding all over Avalanches turns grey in Arizona…
+ Honda Element, but most cars have this to some extent, e.g. the hood cowl. Sun☼ is murder on such plastic, but carmakers don’t care.
Probably because it was designed in rust belt.
-Hondas with rust on the rear arches, even in relataively rust-benign places like North Carolina. The good news is the rust doesn’t seem to spread.
-Foggy headlamps. This seems to be worst on the older plastic diffuser-style composites, but it happens on projector-style too.
-White cars with black spotting that is nearly impossible to remove on the roof. My Crown Vic has this.
-Missing center caps on alloys.
-Late 90’s and early 00’s GM cars with the rear windows taped, blocked, or otherwise supported shut. When the window regulator fails, the windows will sink slowly unless you physically stop them from doing so.
No wonder Honda is so rare in Michigan. But Honda has better rust resistance than Toyota on the other hand, and Toyota is far better than Nissan on that.
Strictly from personal experience:
1978-80 Chevy Monte Carlo: missing or cracked bumper strips
1970s Cadillacs: missing filler panels in front of taillights
1970s Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and Buicks: rear bumpers rusted through like aluminum foil
Most 1970s & 80s GM cars: cracked dash
Plymouth Reliant: sagging rear, hubcaps faded from chrome to gray
1980s Ford Thunderbird: red velour interior faded to pink
1980s Toyota: hubcaps faded from chrome to yellow, on hatchbacks (Supra, etc.) mandatory rust around tailgate
Subaru Forester: all clips and taillight panels in trunk loose or broken off, non-working digital clocks.
Mitsubishi Sigma: rattling front axles
Mitsubishi Colt Vista: not running 🙂
On any french car : rear lights doing a impressive imitation of christmas lights with tailights, brake lights, and turn signals blinking randomly whenever the driver hits the brakes.
Really, never seen that could be from using incorrect replacement bulbs, ageing on 90s Peugeots and Citroens is gear knob held together with duct tape broken window switch mounts on Xsaras though the windows will still work and clear coat lifting headlights need to be brasso polished to get past our 6 monthly inspection regime, oh and leaking cam cover gaskets on the diesel engines, my car has all those issues but runs great and drives excellently.
Gearknob ! You’re so right.
I think there isn’t any 306 or 405 left in France with a gearknob.
I’ve heard that the bulbs on some Peugeots connected to a printed circuit board that gets corroded over time, causing short circuits where the wrong portions of the cluster light up. That was also the likely problem on this Saab 900 I captured in traffic a few years ago.
YEs they do connect like that the sprung terminal connector links to a circuit board on PSA cars thats why that SAAB issue doesnt occur, with that SAAB someone has incorrectly fitted both light bulbs into the wrong sockets, it happens my Hillman could be done that way untill I updated the rear lights.
Many 1990s-2000s GM products do this as well. Worst offenders are GMT800 pickups and U-Body vans.
Volvo 240s also have that flimsy printed circuit board in the tail lamp assembly. On mine the original assys were badly faded and the circuit boards had been badly repaired by the previous owner, so I replaced them with knock-off Estonian copies that both failed within two years and I replaced those with OEM Cibie units. No problems since.
Other 240 age issues: yellow headlights (US models anyway; I want to replace them with glass E-code EU units; I replaced the originals with knock-offs that turned yellow after 3-4 years), faded lower body moldings, dash cracks, rotting seat foams. Otherwise the old hag is holding up well. I’ve addressed all these issues and she looks great from 20 feet away 🙂
From what I recall, I’ve seen it on Peugeots and Renaults from the 80’s to mid-00’s.
Don’t recall seeing it on Citroens though.
Citroen and Peugeot use the same light fittings different lenses though, Renault are different again.
Although the first-gen Méganes suffer from the problem independently.
2000s S-Class Mercedes with rusty door bottoms and quarter panel doglegs. Late 90s? Chevrolet Mailbu and their Olds Cutlass cousin with horrendous rust around the fuel filler door…the whole quarter panel just rots away. How about 96-98 Mercedes E-class with spring perches that rust off, so the front spring falls out and the car looks like a low rider. Dried out leather that shrinks so seams split across the top of the back seat. Volvos, all the way back to the 740 series, lose their fuel doors too. Cars with “gold kits” where the anodizing wears off so the emblems look awful. The list goes on and on.
The tint has turned purple on seemingly every Ford F-Series built between 1987 and 1996.
Toyota hubcaps. Every hubcap-equipped Toyota more than 6 mos old is missing at least one. I also find them everywhere on the side of the road on my jogs, usually propping them up against a sign or tree so they can be easily found by their owners and the cycle can repeat itself again next week.
90s Dodge Rams with cracked dashes
by the end of their lives, the GM Colonnades all seemed to lose their rear bumpers even in non-rust prone areas
80s GMs with cracked or missing plastic fill panels
80s GMs, Fords and Chryslers with peeling paint
90s Lincolns with deflated air bags
Most 80’s and some 70s era Dodge trucks and Ramchargers had that thick textured rub strip (that obscured the lower character line) which sometimes shed chunks of itself, leaving white plastic mounting squares.
The tinted windshield shade band that fades from blue to nothing
On my former ’80 Volvo, the tinting went from blue to a very light brown.
Fading paint, small rust spots, broken outside mirrors, missing gas caps, rips in the interior fabric, missing hubcaps, paint fading from plastic and rubber parts of the bumpers, dim headlight covers, condensation in taillights, and cluttered up interiors.
Econolines with the paint completely worn off the rocker panel below the driver’s door.
Dores and Coons with no clearcoat rust and odd coloured panels are a sure sign of aging those flimsy plastic fuel cap doors have often been replaced with other coloured ones harvested from wrecks, Mitsubishi Veradas and Diamantes listed on trademe at $1 reserve is a sure sign they are too old to be a viable sale,
* GM dustbuster minivans: Dashboards that warp into miniature skateboarding ramps.
* Ford Rangers and F-series trucks: Blue enamel that sheds from the Ford oval, resulting in a toaster-sized blank silver emblem.
* Ford Aspires: Amber turn signals that fade clear.
* First-gen Subaru Legacies: Holes rusted through in the fenders, holes rusted through in the rear hatch letting carbon monoxide in.
* ’80s Japanese cars: Dashboard knobs and levers that break off.
* ’90s Pontiacs: Rust stains seeping out from behind the plastic cladding, hinting at hidden horrors.
* Any ’70s or early ’80s car or truck: Crumbling dashboards.
* Disintegrating seats on ’90s Hondas and Acuras with leather interiors.
* Disintegrating seats on anything (unless a Mercedes-Benz) with a vinyl interior.
* Plasti-chrome trunklid emblems that turn solid black.
* Third brakelights that burn out (or fail due to the wire in the hatch hinge being pinched).
* Missing or broken ground-effects pieces.
* Unpainted plastic bumpers and trim that turns a mottled, milky gray (except where they’ve been scratched).
90’s Fords with yellow plastic showing through the chipped paint on the bumper.
’73-’87 Chevy pickups with crooked tailgate latch handles.
First gen Caravans/Voyagers with missing trim above the rear license plate.
On Volkswagens of the ’00s, the fuzzy, rubberized soft-touch coating on the interior door pulls and various buttons and knobs has partially worn off on seemingly 75% of them
Hmm … our ’93 Corolla kept its hubcaps for the 11+ years that we owned it. And the paint on the hubcaps lasted well too; in fact the headlights stayed pretty clear too. I wonder if the Japanese Corollas were better in those aspects than NUMMI Corollas. However our Japanese-made T100 has chronically yellow lights, though it’s now 18 years old. But I think the worst car for early headlight yellowing was the Vovo 240. The first ’80’s 240’s with composite lights turned yellow in a few years. Another common and very visible ailment is one burned out headlight on late ’90’s GM trucks and VW New Beetles.
Showing up here as a Curbside Classic.☺
*cues the rimshot*
Last-generation Lincoln Town Cars (2003-2011) almost always lose one or more letters from the nameplates on their trunk lids. As a result, most are a “Town Ca” (which at least would be phonetically correct in Massachusetts) or less.
I moved to Mass at age 7. This is a true story, Robert. The year was 1957. My second grade teacher, Miss Keaney, told my parents that I might be having a problem with the local accent. Asked to spell “car”, I wrote, “C-a”. It’s a Famous Family Story.
Chevy TrailBlazer: rear bowtie peels off
SAABs (90s-00s): peeling logos
Volvo S70: water in taillights, fuel door
1992-1997 Cadillac Seville and 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix: taillights delaminating
2004-2008 Acura TL: dash cracks if parked in sun
1986-1995 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans: rust at rear corner of rear fender
1996-2007 Taurus/Sable sedans: rear springs collapse, and car visibly sags
Mercedes E-Class W211, at least pre-facelift (2003-2006): LEDs in CHMSL on trunk lid die off one by one. Door lock “golf tees” break off along with the folding cupholder. Sun visors sag. Yet the leather and most “soft-touch” interior surfaces hold up very well, unlike its Audi contemporaries. And no propensity to rust, unlike its predecessor!
Late-period DeVilles, Sevilles, and DTS/STS also seem to be prone to missing trunklid CHMSL LEDs. I wonder if this frequently goes unfixed because the driver may never see what his or her car looks like with the brake lights on.
1975-79 Chevrolet Nova along with NOVA Group Cars and Cadillac Seville rear wheels dog tracking and bottoming out/rear sag. Front wheels sat higher than the rear wheels.
The older Toyota trucks have that rear sag. 80 series Land Cruisers and gen. 3 4Runners especially.
faded vinyl roofs: seams coming apart, rust stains dripping down from underneath vinyl roof, padding/stuffing exposed to the elements
dirty white walls- or white walls that are faded
cracked steering wheels
1980s/1990s – broken ignition key- i.e you can start your car without the key….
’80s-’90s Fords with leaky plastic power steering pumps. They’re perpetually low on fluid as the internal seals are gradually eaten away. The noise is instantly identifiable.
’60s-’70s Chrysler products where the small Pentastar emblem behind the right front wheel has fallen off.
’60’s-’80s GM products where the ignition key can be removed while the car is running.
Second gen Dodge Dakotas and 1st gen Durangos with severely rusty bumpers. Doesn’t matter if they’re chrome or body color.
Head gasket failure(s) on a ’98-’02 Subaru EJ25.
’80s-early ’90s Fords, but especially the 1st gen Taurus/Sable with paint flaking in a “racing stripe” pattern down the center of the hood, roof and trunk lid. F-series trucks were also prone to stripes.
Could take the ignition key out while driving the 05 ONION. A GM Legacy feature I guess.
In Wyoming, we don’t have rust issues. What we have:
Cloudy Headlights
Black plastic trim becoming grey
Clearcoat issues (A lot of cars here have it burning through, or falling off in sheets)
Missing lug nut covers
Paint chips on the front of the hood
To add to my previous comment, Ford Escorts (any generation left on the road) always appear to be out of alignment…especially the ZX2 for some reason.
Steering wheel covers and little tree deodorizers.
Every ford aspire left (all 2 of them) seems to have the turn signals and Amber part of the taillight faded to white
Back when first gen Isuzu troopers were common, it seemed every one was missing the badge on the grille.
Pretty much any rust around the rear wheel wells, sagging rear suspension, etc. SOme cars have their own specific problems when they get older…
For a ford ranger, the flap cover for the center compartment in the split bench seat will break the little tab that keeps it closed. Every single one in the junkyard I have seen had this problem. I super glued magnets to mine
Longtime autobody/detailer here…
Car got dented or dinged. Oh well.
Windsheild got cracked. Oh well.
People who don’t clean their rims. Good lord, asbestos is caustic, it will destroy the finish. The back rims are bad, but the fronts look like they’ve been driving in hot cocoa mix.
Way outdated election stickers.
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.