1965 Volkswagen Samba

With 23-windows and a ragtop roof, a restored Samba can command $100,000 or more in today's market. As the second picture shows, the microbus was and still is available in a whole bunch of different configurations.

Tweet

The Malaise King: 1977 Ford Granada

The price of a barrel of oil in inflation-adjusted dollars went from $18 in 1970 to $100 in 1980. Japanese and European carmakers responded to the oil crisis by engineering new, space-efficient front-wheel drive cars with small but technologically-advanced and powerful engines. But Detroit wasn't having any of that. No, the American carmakers decided to sell us cars on the same old platforms that looked more or less like what we bought in 1970, only a bit smaller and with stone age engines that were reasonably fuel-efficient simply because they had no power.

From wikipedia: "Malaise era is a term used to describe the state of the U.S. automotive industry from roughly the early 1970s through the early to mid 1980s, characterized by malaise: poor products and a generalized industry unease."

Or as curbsideclassic.com said about the Ford Granada, "Can I interest you in a 1961 Falcon with 50% more weight, 25% less power, and 100% more fluff?" This was a car with an engine that produced only 0.28 hp per cubic inch of displacement. By comparison, both GM and Chrysler had been selling engines producing 1 hp per cubic inch back in the 1950s. This particular Granada was parked for some weeks (?) in the same spot at the Shoreline Costco. Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to keep it nice. I wonder why?

Tweet

2023 Greenwood Car Show: Chevrolet

One Seattle event I never miss. I think there were more cars than last year. Let's start with the dominant brand in the collector car market.

1954 Bel Air. Nice, but it can't compare in appeal to the all-new Chevy in 1955.

1952 Suburban. In 2035, the Suburban will be the first car model to be sold for 100 years.

1935 Chevy Standard. They hadn't gotten clever with the model names yet.

1925 Chevy Superior. This was the car that finally convinced Henry Ford that the Model T was outdated and needed to be replaced.

1960 Corvette.

1965 Impala. This was the last year for the round taillights. Also after 1965, the Impala started becoming more of an old-man's car.

1957 Bel Air convertible. Nicely restored, this is the one everybody wants. That's not the original interior. This color is called Matador Red. It has a slight orange tint to it.

1967 Camaro RS.

Very rare and valuable 1967 Corvette SS with the top engine offering: 396 V-8 with 375 hp.

1969 Malibu.

1955 Model 210 Handyman wagon. Sometimes mistaken for the Nomad wagon.

This is a 1969 Camaro RS made into a copy of the Yenko Camaro. Yenko was a Chevy dealership in Pennsylvania that customized muscle cars.

1957 Bel Air. Very correctly restored.

Tweet

1960 Mercedes 190 SL, and an easily-defeated razor wire fence

Made from 1955 to 1962, the 190 SL is a beautiful car with superb mechanics. With only about 3,000 copies made per year, a nice one will set you back about $130,000 today.

Now someone went to a lot of trouble to put barb wire and razor wire on top of this fence. Were they perhaps too busy trying not to cut themselves to ask why?

Tweet

2 Pontiac Fieros on the Same Block?!

These have got to be owned by the same guy. I mean, this car is not exactly known for its longevity. It has its fans I'm sure, but not enough that two guys on the same block would own one. Both of these are the 1984 or 1985 model. One's a stick, the other automatic.

Tweet

1970 Cadillac Fleetwood

I'd like to see the reaction of the GM guys who built this car if I could go back in time and tell them that in just 12 years, they'd be selling a Cadillac that made only 88 horsepower. That would be the infamous Cadillac Cimarron. This Fleetwood however packs a 472 c.i. V-8 that makes 375 horsepower. The biggest, most luxurious American car made in the second half of the twentieth century started at $7,284 or about $57,000 in 2023 dollars. (You know, that's not really that expensive. The cheapest Chevy Suburban you can buy costs that much today.)

Cadillac's top of the line included a dizzying array of magic carpet ride features. For instance, "The front suspension used upper and lower control arms with a new integral steering knuckle for greater dependability and longer life. It had independent helical coil springs, rubber mounted strut rods and rubber bushings to isolate road noise as they absorbed impact. The rear suspension was set-up to accommodate the Automatic Level Control network. The rear suspension used the Cadillac four-link drive system, helical coil springs and large rubber bushings to improve ride quality."

Tweet

1981 Subaru BRAT. Take That, Chicken Tax!

When I was a kid, I remember seeing this truck with its bizarre plastic jump seats in the bed, and thinking, "They've got to be kidding." Yeah, they actually were kidding. Subaru's expectation was not that Americans were clamoring to ride in hard plastic seats in the back of pickup trucks.

Those seats are back there to beat the Chicken Tax. As we discussed in my post about Volkswagen Type 2 trucks, in 1964 in response to a European tariff on American poultry the US introduced retaliatory tariffs including a 25% tariff on light trucks. By bolting seats in the bed, Subaru was able to classify the BRAT as a passenger car.  By the way, BRAT is an acronym for, "Bi-drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tweet

1984 Chevrolet Corvette

Surprising to see this nearly forty year-old Corvette in immaculate condition on the street, especially since it's from the very first year of the C4. In 1982, GM decided to move the 'Vette to fuel-injection, but the system it adopted proved troublesome, and collectors strongly prefer the 1985 and later Corvette with new port fuel-injected engine. This car was nothing like its mostly rock-simple predecessor, the previous Corvette Stingray dating back all the way to 1968. And that was certainly reflected in the price tag. In 1976, a Corvette could be had for a little over $6,000. I remember quite well the first 1984 Corvette I ever saw at a dealership. The sticker price was north of $25K, or $72K today.

Tweet

1957 Chevrolet 3200 Pickup Truck

This truck looks like it's trying to tell me stories about 66 years of traveling the pacific northwest. The 3200 was the long-bed model. I understand that the length and width of the beds on Chevy trucks stayed the same for 30 years. Note that the grill is painted, not chrome. That was optional from the factory, I assume it was slightly cheaper. This was the last year before they went to four headlights.

Tweet

One Ugly Thunderbird. Ford, 1967.

All-new for 1967, this car is a long, long way from the attractive 1966 "Thelma and Louise" Thunderbird convertible. The T-bird was always kind of an old-man's car, now Ford decided to take the car even more in that direction by making it closer to a Lincoln product. Pretty much any two-door car made by GM or Chrysler in this era is considered a valuable collectable. Ford products, not so much. And it would get worse. The car pictured here is downright tasteful compared to the "bulldog" T-birds introduced later.

Tweet