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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. Here's a car that should be recognizable to anyone venturing to Alameda's main downtown strip during business hours: an '86 Cressida that lives in a yellow loading zone in between pizza-delivery runs. And, having put in my time as a pizza deliverator myself (hat tip to Neal Stephenson for hardwiring that term into everyone's brains), I have nothing but respect for this fine machine. We've seen one DOTS Cressida before this one, and since then I've realized that the big Toyotas are actually quite commonplace in Alameda; I'd been mentally registering them as early Camrys until I started paying closer attention. That means a Cressida must be special in some way to make this series, and a Pizza Deliverator version with a hood mural painted in rust certainly qualifies. The six-cylinder Cressida was Toyota's pre-Lexus North...
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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. We saw a pretty nice 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL about a month ago, so I figure it's time for another '68 Benz. This time, though, we'll be looking at a solid-citizen sedan instead of a rakish roadster, with this 230 I found parked pretty close to the Evil '77 Camaro . Even though the 230 was one of the less expensive Mercedes-Benz machines in '68 (being the entry-level 6-cylinder sedan), it was still quite expensive: $4,544. With a brand-new '68 Chevelle SS396- which was about the same size as the 230- going for $2,899 and even the '68 BMW 2002ti listed at $4,165, you had to be thinking long-term when you chose the Mercedes sedan. Long-term as in 40 years , in this case. This car is used for everyday transportation nowadays, 40 years and who knows how many Astronomical Units of travel later; the interior still looks pretty...
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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. We're starting off the new month on a Truck Monday , and we might as well get right back to pickup basics here, with a good ol' Chevy half-ton that lives in the heart of Alameda's downtown. I spent a summer driving one of these when I was in high school, and I liked it quite a bit (once I got used to the three-on-the-tree gearshift). Bouncy, squeaky, and rattly, but not much to go wrong and plenty of style. Back in '63, the base C10 Stepside cost $2,009. That got you the indestructo-grade 230-cubic-inch I6, which would get the truck up to highway speed even with several old refrigerators in the bed… eventually. The '63 Ford F100 Flareside was priced at a near-identical $2,002, but the real truck steal of 1963 was the Dodge D100 Sweptline, which could be had for just $1,823. Here's another multiple-DOTS block; the '69 Skylark...
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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. Alameda has flotillas of trailered boats parked on the street, what with it being an island and all, but I haven't been paying much attention to them for this series. However, this old Evinrude- which has been parked for weeks on a particularly parking-challenged block on one of the busiest streets in town- has vintage charm that runs fathoms deep, so here we go: our first DOTS boat! Anyone who grows up messing with cars in Alameda will eventually come into possession of some sort of wretched patched-up beater of a 60s motorboat, even if that person knows nothing whatsoever about nautical crap. Someone will offer you a boat/trailer combo as part of a deal on a car, and you figure an engine is an engine, right? Next thing you know, you're roaring around on the Bay with all the required gear on board: boombox, cooler full of beer, and pirate...
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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. I've been looking for a DOTS-worthy Subaru for a long time, but it seems that most of the 70s and 80s examples were crushed long ago. While I'd prefer a BRAT, we'll have to settle for this Justy. First, let's listen to the song I always hear in my head when contemplating a tiny Subaru from the days before mall parking lots were full of the things. Dr. Demento was a big fan of this tune, of course: I've driven a couple of these cars, and "underpowered" doesn't really do that 66-horsepower 3-cylinder justice. In fact, the only post-WW2 vehicle I've ever driven that was slower than the Justy was the VW Rabbit Diesel my high school used for driver training class. But so what? This thing can probably cross several counties on a shotglass of fuel, and it proves that you don't need a Sprint for 3-cylinder 80s action...
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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. I know what many of you DOTS aficionados are saying now. You're saying "Hey, didn't we just have an old VW bus a mere two Truck Mondays ago? What about that '78 Power Wagon we still haven't seen?" However, the VW geeks out there are saying "Oooooh! The doors! " Yes, this here Alameda Transporter has the rare and sought-after "walk-through" door setup, which means we're doing VWs for two of the last three Truck Mondays. I found this bus in the same neighborhood as the incredibly low Transporter , but I'm pretty sure it's not owned by the same guy. For one thing, it could still be lowered another few inches and- theoretically- be driven; the Low VW Guy probably gets vertigo when driving a vehicle at such high altitudes. Some bodywork might be a good idea, but overall it seems quite solid. Once...
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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. Cadillacs sold pretty well, even after most of a decade of Malaise-y gas prices and general sense of diminished expectations, so you could still buy a great big angular slab of rear-wheel-drive Fleetwood as late as 1984. Here we've got a raggedy '79 Fleetwood that's been sitting on a major commercial strip for a couple of weeks now. This stretch of road is a popular spot to park cars for sale, since the traffic is so heavy. This Caddy, however, has no For Sale sign in sight; it may belong to the resident of a nearby apartment building, or it may be abandoned (this car has the telltale purple window tint, indicating that it is probably on its last owner). The APD is vigilant about this sort of thing, so a date with a tow truck may be in the offing. These things listed at $21,735 from the factory, or about 65 grand in 2008 dollars. Power...
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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. Hooray for old Detroit station wagons! You don't see many small Detroit wagons these days, since the Vista Cruisers and Country Squires sold in such greater numbers back in the pre-SUV era, so I was very happy to spot this bright yellow, Moon disc-equipped Chevy II (or maybe it's a Nova- hard to say with the emblems removed) parked downtown. You could get your little Chevy wagon with a 153-cubic-inch four-cylinder- whoa, a four -cylinder in a 60s Detroit wagon? Call the HUAC! You could also get a 194-cube six-cylinder; sorry, V8 fans, you had to wait until '64 for an optional 283 in your Chevy II. Even though this wagon's owner is clearly a salt-flat-crazed hot rod hoodlum, the single exhaust suggests that he or she has kept the four or six under the hood. Parts runnner? Daily driver? galleryPost('DOTS63NovaWagon', 17, '1963...
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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. When we had the quasi-abandoned '70 Karmann Ghia last month, I got a flood of emails from rusty-state readers who were aghast that such a rare car would be allowed to go to The Crusher. Thing is, Karmann Ghias aren't at all rare around here; I've been passing today's car- which is located just a few blocks from my house- for months and months, figuring I'd get around to shooting it one of these days. And here it is! This one might not be a '74, but the bumpers place it somewhere in the Malaise Era. It's a Beetle under the skin, but for some crazy reason the sporty Karmann Ghia actually weighs more than the utilitarian Beetle: 1,919 versus 1,831 pounds. Both cars got the 46-horsepower 1600 engine. Yes, US emission-control regulations were tough on the air-cooled VW. The price tag on the Karmann Ghia was pretty nice for a...
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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. Since it's DOTS Truck Monday , let's have an old Ford! I found this '60 parked just across the street from the '70 Dodge Challenger and the '57 Cadillac , and it's one sharp-looking work truck. This truck is clearly a work truck, one of several associated with a Victorian under serious renovation, but it also appears to be in mid-restoration. Let's hope it doesn't stop going to work once it's fixed up. Check out this beautiful dash layout, with its Space Age decorative touches! The column-shift manual! I'm pretty sure this is an F-100, but the body emblems appear to have been removed for the new paint job. galleryPost('DOTS60FordTruck', 16, '1960 Ford Truck Down On The Street'); DOTS FAQ
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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. I've been neglecting the big BMWs for most of this series, so it's time to follow up the the '86 735i with another E23 from the cocaine-and-S&L-money-mad mid-1980s. Remember the Savings And Loan Crisis? Wild West loans on worthless assets and egregious fraud following in the wake of deregulation of a once-staid sector of the financial system, ultimately costing 160 billion bucks in taxpayer money? Wait, that sounds familiar, except for the bargain price tag… anyway, here's the kind of car that a low-level S&L scamster would have bought with the proceeds of his first "dead horses for dead cows" loan. Now that I'm looking for these cars (and don't worry, 5 Series fans, I'll get some of your cars too), I'm seeing them all over the island. This '84 has seen shinier days, but it still gets its owner...
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