|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Down On The Street » 1984 ( RSS)
-
|
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...
|
-
|
Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we're going to look at one of the many reasons that Cadillac has had to struggle so mightily to build a coherent brand image- ideally, one that attracts buyers who might otherwise buy European machinery- in the Post Malaise Era: the 1984 Eldorado Biarritz. These cars weren't built for the long haul, but The General built them in sufficient numbers that you still see one now and then. This example parks near the high school, just down the street from the '69 Lincoln and the '76 Buick Donk ; while it rarely leaves its parking place, the current registration tags indicate that it has moved under its own power in the not-too-distant past. In '84, the base engine in the Eldorado was the 135-horse 4.1 liter V8, which was good enough to haul the car's 3,748 pounds. The disastrous Oldsmobile 350 diesel engine was also available...
|
-
|
After the reign of the Crown, but before the Lexus, Toyota shoppers seeking a (relatively) powerful luxury sedan headed straight for the Cressida. With rear-wheel-drive and the same 156-horse 5M engine as the Supra, the '84 Cressida also came with mildly oddball- by Toyota standards- styling and relentlessly good build quality. They're almost all gone now, however, fed into the ravenous jaws of The Crusher in order to make room for more Camrys... but a fair number still live on in Alameda. It took me a while before I even noticed Cressidas while out looking for cars to photograph for this series; they tend to look like any number of boxy 80s midsize sedans at first glance. The funky quarter windows are pure vintage Toyota, however. And how about this hood ornament? There's still some vestige of pre-bland Toyota style here. Maybe not as much as we saw in the '75 Celica from last week, but it's something . This Cressida probably has 250,000 miles on the clock, and we can...
|
-
|
Considering how many Jaguar XJ6s I see in the junkyard, they're not so common on the streets of Alameda. My guess is that dead Jags languish in back yards, garages, and driveways for year after year (it just needs a few "minor repairs," really!), until an enraged wife or landlord dispatches them to The Crusher. Whatever the reason, it's been quite a while since we last saw a Jaguar in this series, so I was pleased to spot this decent-looking '84, not far from yesterday's DOTS Porsche 912. Close examination of this car reveals a few warts, but try to imagine the post-Malaise cocaine-fueled optimism of Jaguar ownership in the mid-80s when you look at it. I could sit and photograph a cool-looking animal hood ornament all day, and this cat is one of my very favorites. Such feline anger! Of course, Jaguar owners displayed facial expressions similar to the one on their cars' hood ornaments every time the gentlemen down at the local British-car shop sent them a bill...
|
-
|
OK, so maybe it wasn't fair that Uncle Sam bailed out Chrysler but told AMC to drop dead, back in the Malaise Era. It seemed like the Chrysler bailout worked out as hoped, though, once the K Car emerged from factories that had long created gas-swilling behemoths. With so many early Ks made, you'd think there would be more of them still on the street nowadays, but that's not the case; I went out looking for a non-beater example and it was tougher than I'd expected. Finally, I found this '84 Reliant parked just around the corner from the '84 Porsche 928 (and, yes, I see that 70s Firebird in the background, next to the 70s Mercedes; unfortunately, driveway-parked cars are on private property and thus off-limits to DOTS... which is a shame, because there's a very clean 4-speed AMX parked in a driveway nearby). It's not quite as pathetic as Ford claiming the Granada looks just like a Mercedes , but the Benz-ified pentastar emblems of early-80s Chryslers always...
|
-
|
It's been a never-ending challenge to find old Japanese cars for this series, but (in the months since the readers applied their Stamp-O-Approval to early-80s Japanese DOTS cars ) I've been able to find a few of these Late Malaise Toyotas on Alameda's streets. This '84 Celica is somewhat frayed around the edges, but still in solid running condition. This is the high-end GT model, with plenty of mid-1980s attitude (and- most likely- 300,000 miles available in its 22R engine). This car's styling has held up well with the passage of 24 years; even today, it's got the looks to make your robotic alien mailbox say "Nice Car!" Back in the day, I recall thinking this rear marker-light treatment looked pretty goofy... and I still think so now. What is the symbol on this ornament supposed to represent? Back when we were looking at a '77 Celica , some commenters felt it was a swan, while others saw a dragon. galleryPost('DOTS84CelicaGT', 14, '1984...
|
-
|
We'e seen a Porsche 912 and a couple of 911s in this series, but it's taken me until now to find a 928 parked down on Alameda's street. So here we go- a Fantasy Garage / DOTS combo! Since this is an '84, it was probably purchased in '83, meaning there's a good chance it was paid for with ill-gotten S&L skim . The 928 was a common reward for bent mid-level S&L personnel back in the day. Always good to have some history in a car! Porsche got all sci-fi-movie futuristic with the emblem by this point; sure, the 928 looks a bit dated, but its performance measures up quite well when compared to today's machinery. Of course, the $50K price tag on the 1984 928S equates to about $97K today, so you figure you got what you paid for. I found this car parked on a little side street on Alameda's East End. Who knows what other surprises lurk on such streets? I haven't checked them all, and new cars show up all the time. Maybe there's a Tatra in this town...
|
|
|
|