A recent (1991-96) Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon in awful shape, like a beached whale.
Today I was driving behind a brand new Hyundai Sonata (It still had the temporary paper tags). A Sonata is generally a pretty mundane car, but I hadn’t exactly kept up with the latest developments from Hyundai. I have to say, the rear styling on the newest generation Sonata is… um, interesting. The taillights sort of wrap around and flow up onto the spoiler lip thingy on the trunk lid. But I guess it’s not as bad as the current Prius. Maybe it will grow on me. And apart from that, from the front and side views it looks pretty nice. I wonder if it has Smaht Pahk. I wonder how long it will take before the owner gets tired of people asking if it has Smaht Pahk.
Yesterday my attention was captured by one of those insanely tiny little “cars” that (I think) are made for one person, appear to be taller than they are long or wide. It looked like a plastic cat carrier on casters. And about as safe as one would be in traffic.
Double decker bus in Walmart parking lot. Looked like someone was living in it.
My neighbor down the street has a Datsun 1600 Roadster, of which only 30,000 were made. Nice looking car.
A bright yellow Mazda RX-7, 3rd-generation.
Today - I was watching a YouTube video shot in New York City in 1976: dozens (if not hundreds) of those classic Checker yellow cabs.
I wouldn’t even know what to call them, but the first really warm days of the season always bring out unique vehicles, I’m guessing custom built or retro open air vehicles and other special things, sometimes with three wheels, or a vaguely batmobilesque design.
A fairly pristine 3rd-gen (1976-78) Toyota Corolla, in orange, like the photo. At the time it came out, probably one of the world’s least interesting cars, admittedly, but rare enough now (at least around Houston) to be rather noticeable.
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The same group was out tonight. I’m guessing they do this every Friday. This time I spotted 2 mid-1960s Chevy II/Novas, a mid-1950s Ford, a mid-1960s Buick Skylark. Also several modern sports cars, which I’m guessing were part of the same group since it seemed like there was a much higher than average concentration of sports cars on the road. There were several Corvettes from the past couple of generations, a Porsche Boxster, and a modern Dodge Challenger convertible with a “'Cuda” conversion kit. And the same Volvo Amazon wagon I saw last time.
But the most interesting car, by far, was a friggin’ Morgan three-wheeler. I’m sure I’ve never seen one of those on the road before.
And today, a VW Type 2 pickup. While the vans are fairly common, the pickup is pretty rare in the US due to the “chicken tax”. While it looked reasonably solid, it was definitely showing its age. Its condition combined with the fact that it was pulling into the Lowe’s parking lot while I was waiting in line to get into Trader Joe’s makes me think this truck is still being put to work hauling stuff, it’s not some pampered collector vehicle.
I took the MG out to do errands today. I saw a British Racing Green MG TD at a convenience store/gas station on the way out. When I got to the Dollar Store, there was a red, '70-'72 MGB pulling out.
Oh – At Safeway we saw some sort of kit car. I didn’t really look closely, but it may have been an Excalibur or an MG replica. The back end looked like it may have had a VW engine; but again, I didn’t go over to look at it.
Mrs R and I have owned a couple of Datsun roadsters. Fun cars, but both the ones we bought were used and so had a load of little things that needed to be fettled.
My mom thought about getting a Datsun 1600 Roadster, but she and dad thought it sounded ‘tinny’; so she bought the MGB.
Not a car but a 20+ foot silver Slipstream mobile trailer. Parked in a quiet suburban neighborhood in front of a house. Pretty as can be on the outside but gutted inside and being used as an onsite workshop.
I’ve seen many a repurposed RV, but it makes me kinda sad to hear this about a Slipstream.
An Olds Alero, last made in 2004. Not a happy car when it was brand new.
A Ford Bronco II. I see 1st-generation Broncos more than I see the Bronco II.
A first generation Ford Taurus, in fairly good shape for its age. You don’t see many of those anymore. And I have to say the design still looks reasonably modern, considering it was introduced nearly 35 years ago.