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.