The Renault Fuego was old news by 1985, and definitely *not* a success in the U.S., where survivors are very rare now, but it was a nice car to drive and had a style all…
Modern Vanning: Toyota HiAce 4wD
In its first few years, it was only a Toyota, but the 4th-gen HiAce van has been in production in various countries since the spring of 1989 and is still being churned out in fair…
Baby Cadillac: 1932 Chevrolet Landau Phaeton
99% of the photos you see here are originals, but sometimes it’s nice to show something else – and today we’re time traveling to NYC circa 1940. Photog Stanley Mixon took this shot on Washington…
Rotary Madness: Mazda RX-3 Wagon
Mazda’s first U.S. dealers, in Oregon and Washington, opened in April of 1970, and a regional office in Seattle soon followed, with a small HQ in Compton, California not too far behind. Toyo Kogyo sold…
The Fancy Small Car: Nash Rambler
Later on, “Rambler” and AMC would become synonymous with “economy,” and it’s true that the original Nash Rambler was economical, but it was much more of a small premium Nash than a bare-bones economy car…
Airborne Armor: Land Rover 1/2-ton Lightweight
It’s a Land Rover alright, but of a very particular kind – it’s called the “half ton lightweight,” although it’s actually not as light as the name or materials used would imply. The story of…
Good Old Days: 1973 Oldsmobile 98
It could be described as the postwar American car mantra – “longer, lower, wider,” even if the trend arguably began in the 1920s. The proportions of “standard” American cars grew progressively larger and lower-slung after…
Arachnophobia: Fiat 850 Spider
Fiat intentionally designed the 850 Spider to be a “first” sports car for buyers who wanted something cooler than a 600 or 850 sedan, but were still on a tight budget. Being tiny and cheap…
Twists and Turns: Volvo 1800ES
The Volvo 1800 spent most of its life as the attractive coupe made famous by “The Saint,” but in a twist that could characterize only this car, 11 years into its life it got a…
Triumph Stag: The Complicated Web
What became the troubled Triumph Stag started off as a simple request from Giovanni Michelotti to Triumph design chief Harry Webster. Michelotti had strong links to Triumph and wanted a donor car for use in…
Raising Arese: Alfa-Romeo Milano
The Alfa-Romeo 75 was the House of Arese’s replacement for the first “Nuova Giulietta,” which ran from 1977 to 1985, but Americans had never seen the wedge-shaped Giuletta, or the AlfaSud, or the Alfa Six,…
Ford’s Roadrunner: 1969 Ford Torino Cobra
Despite the slightly earlier arrival of the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, Ford was the first company to introduce a compact-based “pony car” as they became popularly known – and it took GM, Chrysler, and AMC until…