Posts from ‘Classic Cars’
Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast
Whether you drive a car, need a car, or just occasionally bum a ride with friends, you’ve come to the right place. Join the editors of Consumer Guide Automotive as they break down everything that’s going on in the auto world. New-car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of great guests. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast.
1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner Convertible
Note: The following story was excerpted from the February 2016 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine
Riding the competitive advantage of an all-new and attractive design, Ford was able to produce America’s best-selling 1957 automobile. The push to deliver 1.67 million copies of its expanded lineup included significant contributions from two body styles that had historically been segment-leading sellers for Ford: station wagons and convertibles.
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.
Photo Feature: 1969 AMC Javelin SST
1969 AMC Javelin SST
Note: The following story was excerpted from the February 2019 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine
After the successful Romney years, American Motors Corporation stumbled in the mid Sixties. One misstep was the Marlin. It began as the well-received Tarpon show car based on the compact American chassis. Had AMC stayed with the original concept, it would have had a sporty compact to compete with the Ford Mustang in 1965. Instead, Marlin was stretched to fit on the midsize Classic chassis and sales were minuscule.
Classic Car Ads: Luxury Cars of 1985
1985 Chrysler Town & Country
For the most part, we identify luxury vehicles not by price, but by make and model. For example, an Oldsmobile 88, to most people, was not a luxury car. But an Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight… we can pretty much agree that the senior Olds was a luxury ride.
Songsan Motors SS Dolphin
A pair of hard-working Las Vegas showgirls are friends, co-workers, and roommates, and each has custody of a much younger sibling. That’s the premise of a short-lived Garry Marshall-produced TV show called “Who’s Watching the Kids.” And in predictable sitcom fashion, often no one is watching the kids—and hilarity ensues.
Classic Car Ads: Electric Cars
General Motors EV1
A fun fact shared often in the automotive media is that electric cars fairly handily outsold gasoline-powered vehicles in the earliest days of the automobile era. Around the turn of the century, 40 percent of American automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and just 22 percent by gasoline. (Granted, we’re only talking about a few thousand vehicles here, since the entire industry was in its infancy.)
1963 Ford Country Squire wagon
So much has changed in American culture over the past decade or so, but there’s at least one time-honored tradition that appears to be holding on just fine: the classic car show. From low-key summertime cruise nights to high-profile concours gatherings, people young and old love to get together and enjoy special-interest vehicles of all stripes. And some car shows, such as those produced by the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association, get big—really big. Goodguys bills itself as “America’s Favorite Car Show,” and every year the company produces an ambitious nationwide schedule of large-scale car shows that take over fairgrounds-sized venues. The events are two- or three-day extravaganzas that typically attract 3500 to 6500 vehicles and 35,000 to 100,000 spectators per show. Put on your walking shoes!
Classic Car Ads: Cheap Cars of 1983
Cheap Cars of 1983
Affordability is a relative thing. But odds are, if a manufacturer is sharing the price of a product in advertising, the thing being sold is probably a good deal. Of course, in the case of automobiles, the listed base price is subject to any number of asterisks and fine-print notations—especially back in the Eighties, before regulators were paying especially close attention to auto ads.
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.
