And here I was bragging about my 2000 Honda Insight’s streamlining (0.25 Cd). I’m now humbled by the new generation of ‘slippery cars’.
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ps: At 1800 lbs it was … challenging … in the snow.
(Not my photo, thank Og)
Thank goodness that’s not you!
Ugh. Why would you it a Chevrolet engine in there? Put a Pontiac Super Duty 455 in there and top it off with a Tri-Power manifold.
Fun fact: during the arms race in the ‘60s every GM division made their own big-block and small-block V8s except for Pontiac. Every V8 from 1956 until 1981 was made from the same basic block, which means that you can beat the utter hell out of a Pontiac engine because they were all completely overbuilt and while they certainly weighed much more than the more tailored engines offered elsewhere they could be hopped up with little risk and bored out to pretty much whatever displacement.
Heh. Not much of a gear head really. Did help a buddy drop a hi-powed 327 into an old FJ 40 Land Cruiser though. Interesting vehicle. I imagine he surprised some people with it. It looked like a beater. But would rock your world. In low range, you could do wheelies.
A friend of my sister in law has one of those. It’s very nice. (I didn’t get to drive it, but I did get to sit behind the wheel while it was in the driveway.)
An Endangered Species (doomed to extinction?), the Jeep Gladiator
The Jeep Gladiator, introduced in 2019, was Jeep’s first pickup truck since the Comanche was discontinued in 1992. In the years 2019-2021 they were wildly popular. They were everywhere! But lately they’ve been scarce. I hardly see them. Nobody wants them any more.
According to a quick web search, in 2023, US Jeep Gladiator sales fell to 55,187, a 38% drop from 2021’s high of 89,712; and in June 2024, Jeep sold only 3,542 Gladiators, the lowest June sales in six years.
➜ An Endangered Species (doomed to extinction?), the Jeep Gladiator - Album on Imgur ■
Maybe he needs it to carry his ski.
This is not an uncommon pattern with certain types of vehicles, especially ones that mostly appeal to one particular niche. There’s an initial burst of excitement when it first goes on sale and a bunch of people rush out to buy them. But then after a few years the excitement dies down, and all the people who want one already have one, and sales fall off a cliff.
The Gladiator mostly appeals to people who 1) Really want a Jeep, and 2) need/want a pickup bed. I’m not sure the intersection on the Venn Diagram between those two groups is that big. People who are only in group 1 will probably just buy a Wrangler. People who are only in group 2 will probably buy a Tacoma or Ranger or one of the myriad of other small pickups.
That might be a good market for the Ford Bronco pick up. I saw one yesterday, it took me a second to figure out why there was a horse (bronco) logo on what I thought was a Jeep.
The one I saw had some kind of soft/canvas ‘cap’. I went past it too fast to tell if it was meant to look like it did or if it was aftermarket and didn’t fit properly. I know they have a convertible version of it, so it might have been that.
I’m guessing the price of fuel is another factor. When gas is cheap people buy these giant behemoth vehicles, then when gas prices start shooting up suddenly it’s not such a great idea to own one.
I saw a Hummer a few days back and thought “man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages.” At one time it seemed like you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one. Fad + cheap gas were likely the reason they were everywhere for a while.
There used to be a H2 parked near us. Hasn’t been in its usual spot since a large amount of on-street parking spaces were closed off to make room for a nearby construction project five years ago.
I saw a new Challenger with I don’t know how many x-mas lights taped to it with blue painter’s tape. Good lord! At first I thought it was that kind of camo paint carmakers put on new models. Getting closer, it looked like fins or scales. Wish I could post a pic. Can’t guess how many rolls of paint it took. And I sure hope that tape doesn’t mar the finish…
Not only have sales fallen off a cliff, but I’m guessing that prior owners have traded theirs in out have otherwise gotten rid of them. There are very few on the road today compared to a few years ago.
And @Joey_P , thanks for your post. I haven’t seen any Bronco pickups yet but I’ll keep my eyes open. It’ll be interesting to see if that concept of a serious 4x4 SUV pickup catches on. But they’re up against the Tacos and Tundras which are well established.
Great typo - or was that autocorrect?
Taco is a common nickname for the Toyota Tacoma.
Mercedes-Benz E320 4-door wagon (W124 chassis) — perhaps a 1995?
When I saw this in the parking lot (near San Francisco) it spoke to me one word: “Europe.” Europeans value the station wagon more than Americans typically do. Station wagons are more popular there than here.
Per wiki, the “E-Class” name first appeared with the facelifted W124 in 1993 for the model year 1994. The W124 was introduced in 1984 but continued with the older naming convention until 1993 when all Mercedes-Benz models switched to a new system (e.g., E 320 instead of 300 E).
Word-nerd time (I’m channeling my linguist cousin Nanette T here) —
E.g. is equivalent to “example given” and stands for the Latin exempli gratia which means “for example”.
I.e. is equivalent to “in other words”, and stands for the Latin id est which means “that is” or “in other words”.
I try to use them correctly!
The grill badges are: United Kingdom, and Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz is HQ’d in Stuttgart, Germany.
From the license plate sequencing I’m guessing this car is about a 1995. A guess. Anybody know?
Note the one-armed windshield wiper — a ‘mono-wiper’. Mercedes-Benz’s “Monoblade”.
Per wiki, Mercedes-Benz pioneered a system called the “Monoblade”, based on cantilevers, in which a single arm extends outward to reach the top corners of the windscreen, and pulls in at the ends and middle of the stroke, sweeping out a somewhat M-shaped path. This way, a single blade is able to cover more of the windscreen, displacing any residual streaks away from the centre of the windscreen.
I’d actually be interested in seeing how this works IRL.
The rest of the pictures follow:
I owned a ‘90 300E for a spell that had the ol’ One Armed Wonder.
Pros: no streaks or lines of water where the passenger blade stopped on the upstroke. Made for a clean windshield. I don’t live in snow country but I imagine this was an extra useful feature when driving during an active snowfall.
Cons: even on high speed it wasn’t that fast since that single blade had to sweep the entire windshield. In a heavy rain it left something to be desired.
It was a long time before M-B officially entered into the wagon market. There are custom built examples from the Fifties, one of which can be seen in “Wheeler Dealers”, season 13 episode 1. The story of which, told by a M-B garage employee who Mike visits for help with their '87 convertible, is that a lady went to a NYC M-B dealer to buy a wagon and was told there was no such thing. M-B ended up building a 300c (W186, I think) wagon for her.
Cool. Thanks @Skywatcher .
