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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. It's Porsche Day today, and we're getting our very first 924. So far we've seen one 356 , a few 912s , a bunch of 911s , some 914s , a couple of 928s , and a pair of 944s (plus a faux Speedster ), so it's about damn time I found one of these. They were still making the 924 in 1988? Yes, the 944 hadn't totally pushed its cheaper sibling aside as the 1980s drew to a close, though 1988 was the very last year for the 924. By this time, the old Audi engine was gone, replaced by the 944's Porsche-made engine (the 944S had a more powerful version of the engine). Still, the '88 924S was a pretty good deal; at $19,900, it was $5,600 cheaper than the base 944, yet had the same 147 horses under the hood. This example seems fairly solid, though there's no telling how far it is from the dreaded timing belt replacement that keeps...
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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. When we saw the Mitsubishi L300 - which is a seriously rare machine in the United States, though I've just found another one in Alameda- some readers felt that the Toyota Van deserved a place in this series as well. You can find those things all over the place, so I decided I'd wait until I found an interesting one… and now I've found two! Alameda's waterfront on the Oakland Estuary side has all manner of marine-related businesses, from dredging companies to marine engine rebuilders to sailmakers. Sea Worthy Canvas- located across the street from a Toyota parts warehouse (and just down the street from the '64 Olds Jetstar )- uses a pair of Toyota Vans to deliver the goods to salty sea dogs throughout the Bay Area. Actually, it looks like they're using them for sail storage at the moment. These mid-engined vans sold like crazy...
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You still see a few of the mid-engined 80s Toyota vans around, but when was the last time you saw a Mitsubishi van of that era? Very few of these things were sold in North America back in the day; in fact, I can't even figure out what Mitsubishi called this vehicle here; was it marketed as the plain ol' Mitsubishi Van? Van Wagon? In any case, the 1988 Mitsubishi van is one seriously rare machine, and so it has earned its place in DOTS Truck Monday. Looks like this van wasn't actually sold in North America, according to the Guamanian dealership emblem. Back when the Alameda Naval Air Station was in full effect, you used to see plenty of license plates from Hawaii and a few from Guam in town, as the Navy would transport sailors' vehicles when they got transferred from base to base. Most likely this Mitsu was originally brought to Alameda in that fashion. It sure looks a lot like the Toyota Van Wagon , doesn't it? I believe this van is powered by Mitsubishi's 4G64 2...
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You want rare cars in this series? How about this '88 Renault Medallion? After purchasing the wreckage of AMC in 1987, Chrysler decided to rebrand the Medallion as an Eagle partway through the '88 model year, so surviving Renault-branded examples are probably rarer than Hemi Superbirds (or '53 Packards, like the one that lives on the same block as this car ). Based on that paragon of automotive build quality, the Renault 21, and tainted with the smell of death from obviously-doomed American Motors, sales of the Medallion started out poorly and went downhill fast from there. Part of the problem was that the not-exactly-stellar reliability of the Renault Alliance had made American car buyers wary of AMC-Renault products by the time the Medallion came out. That diamond on the grille might as well have been a Biohazard emblem, given how much it helped sales. Still, this car looks a bit different from the usual late-80s thing, especially around the rear quarter glass and rear wheelwells...
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