Author Archive
1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S
Note: The following story was excerpted from the October 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Perhaps one of the most unexpected automotive icons of the Eighties is Toyota’s humble Hachi-Roku, Japanese for “8-6.” This nickname refers to Toyota’s AE86 model code for the top 1600 GT APEX performance version of the Japanese-market 1983-1987 Corolla Levin and closely related Sprinter Trueno. (The latter is a pop-culture star for its central role in the Japanese street-racing manga Initial D). Lesser known is the pair’s American-market cousin, the 1985-87 Toyota Corolla GT-S. It’s the AE86 we want to wring out for Cheap Wheels.
2021 Ram 1500 TRX
Note: The following story was excerpted from the October 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Over two generations, Ford’s F-150 Raptor has demonstrated there’s a market for high-performance trucks with serious off-road capability. As Ford prepared the third-generation Raptor, Ram introduced the 1500 TRX as a 2021 model, which it said was inspired by the idea of a powerful truck capable of off-road speeds over 100 mph. The company called TRX the “Apex Predator of the Truck World,” communicating Ram’s belief the Raptor has been big-footed by their meaner “Tyrannosaurus rex.” One-upmanship aside, this beast swooped into the craziness known as 2020 and we think it’s one of the year’s four-wheeled highlights.
2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat
Note: The following story was excerpted from the August 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
It’s fair to say the idea of 700-plus-horsepower Dodges isn’t as shocking as it once was. Starting with the original 707-hp 2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat, the 2021 Durango SRT Hellcat is the fifth supercharged, Hemi-powered Dodge we’ve considered in this space.
Alfa Romeo Spider
Note: The following story was excerpted from the August 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
The Alfa Romeo Spider had a long history in the U.S. It first went on sale as a 1967 model called Duetto. It was fairly typical for a two-seat convertible sports car in its day with low bodywork, a four-cylinder engine, Weber carburetors, manual transmission, folding top, and a live rear axle. For this Cheap Wheels, we pick it up further downstream, in 1983, when Alfa facelifted the already long-running Pininfarina-designed car. By then it was called Spider Veloce, and these Alfas are sometimes referred to as Series 3 Spiders.
First Look: 2023 Toyota Crown
2023 Toyota Crown
Last night Toyota officially unveiled its latest production vehicle, and that vehicle wears one of the company’s earliest model names. The new-for-2023 Toyota Crown is a genre-bending mashup of an SUV and a full-size sedan—its unusual shape combines a SUV-like lower body with a low-and-racy fastback roofline, but unlike other “coupe-style” crossover SUVs, the Crown maintains a traditional rear trunk instead of an SUV-style liftgate. The Crown also comes standard with a gas/electric hybrid powertrain; in fact, Toyota offers a choice of two new hybrid powertrains, both with standard on-demand electronic all-wheel drive.
2001 Dodge Stratus R/T
Note: The following story was excerpted from the June 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
For nearly 15 years, Dodge’s lone coupe model has been the throwback Challenger. Readers are surely familiar with its classic muscle car styling, rear-drive chassis, and Hemi V-8 with seemingly limitless amounts of horsepower. Therefore, we completely understand if you need a moment to recall Dodge’s last pre-Challenger sports coupe, not to mention what its friskiest variant was called. Give up? It was the 2001-2005 Stratus R/T.
Buick Regal TourX
Note: The following story was excerpted from the June 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
It’s a cliché to say it’s the end of an era, and it’s still difficult to believe, but Buick is technically out of the car business. That’s right; every 2021-model Buick in the U.S. market is a crossover SUV. Perhaps more surprising, the last Buick cars weren’t the marque’s famously all-American four-door sedans. Rather they were the 2020 Regal Sportback and Regal TourX wagon.
First Spin: 2023 Toyota Sequoia
2023 Toyota Sequoia Platinum
One of the most old-school SUVs on the market is about to get a lot less old-school. It’s been a long time coming, but late this summer an all-new, third-generation version of Toyota’s full-size SUV is slated to go on sale. The Toyota Sequoia is redesigned from the ground up for 2023, finally doing away with its 2008-vintage platform and adopting new body-on-frame architecture that’s shared with Toyota’s redesigned-for-2022 Tundra full-size pickup truck.
What’s New For 2023: Toyota
Toyota’s PR department has been especially busy for the past three weeks or so, issuing a steady flow of press releases on the updates to its product line for the 2023 model year. With the release of info on several models today—most notably the Corolla compact car and the Corolla Cross subcompact crossover SUV—we now have a fairly comprehensive picture of Toyota’s complete model lineup for 2023. Check out the model-by-model details below!
First Look: 2023 Lexus RX
2023 Lexus RX 500h F Sport Performance
Tonight, Lexus took the wraps off its all-new 2023 RX crossover SUV. Long the Lexus brand’s best-selling model, the RX kicks off its fifth generation with a fairly ambitious, from-the-ground-up redesign. It’s built on the new GA-K global platform and introduces an evolution of Lexus’s “spindle-grille” design language that results in a burlier front-end appearance. Four new 4-cylinder powertrains will be offered, three of which are gas-electric hybrids (including a forthcoming plug-in-hybrid model). New features include the Lexus Interface Multimedia System, an expanded Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 suite of safety features, available Digital Key smartphone-app access and starting, and two additional trim levels.
