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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Can you believe we've never had a Honda Accord in this series? Have the early Accords become that rare? They sure have, which makes me sad; the first-gen Accord was a great car for its time. It was reliable, had fairly decent performance, was less cramped than its tiny Civic cousin, and- in my no-doubt-shared-by-few-others opinion- looked pretty good. The Accord's engine had the same CVCC technology as the Civic's, but it displaced 1600cc instead of the 1488 of the Civic. With 68 horsepower, the Accord was no hot rod, but its weight of just 1,993 pounds- about 1,650 pounds less than the current Accord- kept it zippy enough to be fun. The price was pretty good, too: $3,995, about the same as the '77 Chevy Nova Concours and about 400 bucks less than a new VW Dasher hatchback. It's always fun when I find a DOTS car with another one...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Strange as it seems, we've only seen one Alameda Monte Carlo so far, and that was a first-year-ever 1970. What about the big Malaise Era Montes, the ones that came close to breaking the two-ton barrier? Welcome to 1977! The 1970 Monte Carlo weighed 3,460 pounds, which was on the porcine side... but compare that to the 1977's 3,852 pounds! Naturally, engine power was one of those best-not-mentioned subjects, with a 170-horse 350 being the best The General could do for you. Yes, that's the '72 Mercury Monterey in the background, though they're not owned by the same person. I spoke to the Monte's owner; he's had the car since it was new and still drives it regularly. Unfortunately, he had the vinyl top redone a while back and the job wasn't done very well. Now the car has an especially bad case of GM Rear Window Rust....
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There's just something right about a primer second-gen Camaro, isn't there? Add the obligatory GM rust around the rear window, hang a pair of handcuffs from the rear-view, stop by the 7-11 to grab a pack of Marlboro Reds and a sixer of Mickey's Big Mouths and you're set! Now, we don't know for sure whether the owner of this '77 fits the Ideal Camaro Demographic- hey, maybe this car is owned by a 68-year-old veterinarian who favors those three-dimensional sequined sweaters- but it's more fun for us to assume we're looking at an ICD car here. In 1977, the standard engine in the Camaro... well, you don't want to know. Let's just say that the super high-performance optional 350 put out 170 horsepower and leave it at that. Not only that, the F-body's weight had crept up to 3,500 pounds by '77, about the same as the '65 Impala 4-door and a good 400 pounds more than the '70-1/2 Camaro. Still, I've driven quite a few of these cars and...
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I probably shouldn't have tried to write a DOTS post a couple hours after coming home from a crazy weekend of racing, but I did... and totally spaced on the Truck Monday tradition. Not that the Datsun 1200 isn't a great car, but we're supposed to have a truck here to start our week, dammit! To make up for that screwup, I'm going with a truck I've been saving for a special occasion: a rusty, crusty survivor straight from the Alaskan bush! You don't see a lot of Alaskan plates in Alameda (Hawaiian ones used to be fairly common, with the huge Navy base on the island and many sailors bringing cars from the islands); this truck seems to have become a permanent resident, so we'll probably see boring ol' California plates on it one of these days. I like to imagine this thing grinding down some icy dirt road with a bunch of tools rattling in the back. I'm not sure whether "Scout II Traveler," "Scout Traveler," or just "Traveler"...
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Once I found the Fiat Strada , I knew I'd have to be able to find a 124 somewhere on the island. Sure enough, on the same block as the aquamarine '65 Impala , here was this fine example of Italian Malaise. These things used to be quite common on the island (as were MGBs ), but... well, you know the rest of that story. This Fiat has a few dents, but all the parts are there, there's no (visible) rust, and it's in pretty good shape. It must drive, too, because it's not always in the same parking space. With just 86 horsepower to haul its 2,180 pounds, the '77 Spider wasn't exactly fast. And with a list price of $6,115, buyers were likely tempted to shell out the extra $884 for the Japanese reliability and 149 horses of the Datsun 280Z. Of course, the Z wasn't this car's true competition; British Leyland products like the MGB and TR6 were. So let's have a poll to see whether the Jalopnik readership would choose the 79-horsepower red MGB over the 86-horsepower...
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I had meant to put more Volvo 240s in this series, since the island is full of good examples (and, besides, I'm racing one next month). But somehow a few months have gone by since the last one , so here's a somewhat earlier example I found parked near the '82 Mercedes-Benz 380SL . And yes, I noticed that '79 Civic across the street while I was shooting this Volvo; don't worry, Honda fans, I shot it while I was there. Did Volvo paint half their Malaise 240s this particular shade of mustard yellow? Or was it two-thirds? These cars were pretty pricey when new, with the list on this one set at $6,595 (well over two grand higher than the '77 Malibu sedan and a bit under a grand less than a new BMW 320i). This one is pretty banged up; I could have photographed many nicer examples of Malaise Era Volvos on the island, but this car seems to capture the tough-survivor essence of the Volvo Brick. It drives every day and doesn't care if you think it looks frumpy. And hey...
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We haven't seen many Oldsmobiles in this series, and it's been almost two months since the most recent station wagon , so this Custom Cruiser seems like the right car for today. This is actually our second '77 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon, the other one having been shot just a few blocks from today's car (which also lives just around the corner from the '71 Blazer we saw on Monday. A few decades before getting the axe from The General, Oldsmobile was moving quite a bit of iron off the showroom floors, mostly Cutlasses but also plenty of wholesome American station wagons like this one. Sometimes the owner of a DOTS car comes out to see what's going on while I'm shooting the car, and that's what happened with this one. This guy was pleased that his pride and joy was getting such attention, and was even willing to pop the hood and let me get shots of that 185-horse 403 (also known as the "6.6 Liter" under the hood of many a Malaise Trans Am ). With 320...
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With all the talk about Detroit Malaise last week, it seemed like a good time to break out an example of one of The General's Malaise warriors, as captured in its natural habitat of an Alameda street. The Nova is a great example of the Malaise Effect; it started out as a small, barebones commuter car with a steel dashboard, went through a period of wild hot-roddedness in the late 60s, then bloated into a big, tape-striped slug in the 70s, cursed by British Leyland-esque build quality and slathered in cheap-looking plastic that cracked and faded before the buyer even paid off the car. The 80s Corolla-based Novas served only as a cruel epilogue to the Nova story. Still, I can't help but like the Malaise Novas for their sometimes-say-die spirit; I had a '76 for a while and it may have been the most easily-repaired car I've ever owned (but the only way to learn this about a vehicle is to have it break down constantly, which my Nova certainly did). Did Ford shamelessly rip off...
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So we had our Favorite Detroit Malaise Car poll last week, from which the '78 Cadillac Eldorado emerged triumphant (the combo of a 500 cubic-inch engine and T-tops proved unbeatable). But what about Malaisemobiles from across the waters? This poll includes the rebadged imports sold by Detroit as part of their "if you can't beat 'em, put your name on 'em" strategy of the era, in addition to straight-out imports. Jump like a UH-1 leaving the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon to see the contestants! Note: Since we've got two apiece '74 Porsche 911s and '77 Toyota Celicas, I'm choosing one apiece (yes, we have two '78 Colts, but one is a sedan and the other is a wagon). Now on with the Malaise! 1973 BMW 3.0CSi 1973 Capri 1973 Datsun 610 1973 Ford Courier 1973 Volkswagen Thing 1973 Volkswagen Squareback 1974 Porsche 911 Targa 1975 Datsun B210 1976 Honda Civic 1977 Toyota Celica 1978 Dodge Colt 1978 Dodge Colt Wagon 1978 Honda Civic 1978 Jaguar XJ...
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With the Malaisetastic '80 Plymouth Fire Arrow that we saw yesterday on my mind, I got to thinking about the meaning of the Malaise Era, specifically about the American-built vehicles sold during that period. Not captive imports like the Fire Arrow or quasi-domestics like the Capri, but real Detroit (or Kenosha) machinery. And, yes, I know that Jimmy Carter never actually uttered the word "Malaise" in his so-called Crisis of Confidence speech in 1979; what started as a joke term for the cars of the 1973-1983 period has now hardwired itself into my brain). Then I realized that I've forgotten the quasi-tradition of having a Friday poll for the readers to vote on their favorite DOTS machine of the week, so I owe you some DOTS poll action. That means it's time to jump like the late-70s inflation rate to pick your favorite of Alameda's Malaisewagons! Looking at these cars, I realize that I've been remiss in not photographing early-80s Detroit iron on Alameda's...
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When you're talking about Malaise Era Fords, you might choose the Maverick we saw on DOTS as a good example of the Early Malaise period, and the Fox-bodied Fairmont as the archetypal Late Malaise Dearborn machine. But what about the Middle Malaise period? Why, the Granada is the obvious choice- they sold in huge numbers, yet featured the hallmarks of Detroit Malaise: miserable engine power and cruddy build qualiity. Still, the Granada (and its Mercury sibling, the Monarch) got the job done, and- as is the case with the Maverick- it's a bit sad that such a once-common car is now such a rare sight. Ford marketed the Granada as being like a Mercedes-Benz SLC, only cheaper , but it was really the last of the line of leaf-springed RWD sedans that stretched back to the old 60s Fairlanes. My parents had a 6-cylinder '78 Granada when I was in high school, and it was so sluggish as to be dangerous; freeway onramps were to be avoided whenever possible. The Mustang guys grab the disc-brake...
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Who would have believed, back in '77, that the glory days of the Detroit station wagon were soon to be over? The minivan would appear a few years later, followed by the ascendancy of the SUV, and the good ol' iconic American wagon would end up on the...
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