Maybe there’s something a little twisted about this, but I was one of those kids who was always rooting for Sylvester The Cat to get Tweety Bird. I’m sorry, but I still find Tweety so annoying, with his constant taunts, feigned obliviousness, and dependence on “Dwanny” and/or Hector The Bulldog to clean up his messes. As far as I’m concerned, Sylvester, even at his most inept, is the protagonist of those cartoons.
Anyway, I spotted this little, yellow Miata-bird in my neighborhood in front of a local, storefront fast-food joint. (Miata enthusiast and owner JPCavanaugh, I apologize – it’s probably too late by this point for you to cover your eyes.) I have never seen a Miata on the road that looked this mangled. This one even has the hardtop (!), which was not a cheap option in its day. It made me wonder about this specific example’s downward trajectory and the story behind it.
I find the first Miatas as charming as I find Tweety irritating, but perhaps this example is still on the road, three years after this photograph was taken. Hopefully, anyway. Dents and rust have no impact whatsoever on top-down enjoyment, and with spring finally and solidly here again in the Midwestern United States, it is about that time.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, January 6, 2013.
Wow, this one has lived a hard life. As I think about it, all of the other really ratty Miatas I have seen involve someone trying to “improve” it. Whether they take a crummy one and give it a camo treatment or get stuck in bondo and primer purgatory, someone is at least trying to make the car better somehow. This one looks like the owner may as well own an old Taurus.
I have to agree. I’ve never liked Tweety Bird. I was always cheering for Sylvester the Cat to catch him. And that damn grandmother always swatting the poor cat.
I fail to see what that has to do with the Miata in the pic.
Mangled, little, yellow Miata as automotive metaphor for Tweety after having been caught by Sylvester.
Sylvester was more fun and, to his credit, he did try to clean up his act:
Today Granny would have had Sylvester taken away and be barred from owning cat’s from her mistreatment of him with the broom beatings.
I wonder if the owner of the Miata should be treated the same for abusing his car.
Sylvester got the treatment from Speedy Gonzalez as well, who at least is less irritating. Trivia: June Foray did the voice for Granny & other female characters, & later did Rocky Squirrel. She’s still around!
I was so into Warner Bros. cartoons, I cared who the director was: Chuck Jones first, then Robert McKimson, then Friz Freleng. BTW they despised Jack Warner, who was so out of it, he thought they did Mickey Mouse (according to Jones).
Michael Maltese was the writer for a lot of the Warner animated shorts, he deserves to be remembered too.
June Foray? I thought Mel Blanc did all the voices for the Looney Tunes cartoons at the time…
According to the Wikipedia entry, Director Chuck Jones reportedly said “June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc, Mel Blanc was the male June Foray.”
Foray was often uncredited for those parts. Her Witch Hazel is priceless, & I heard that was one of her favorites too.
A YouTube interview by a fan shows she’s very approachable & unpretentious.
I imagine you can’t take yourself too seriously when your job is doing cartoon voices! No doubt some do though
June Foray looks like such a cool lady! And she’s close to 100. Wow. Still doesn’t make me like Tweety, but I like her!
This is almost too painful to look at.
Quick, bang out those dents, compound and polish that paint, vacuum the interior, clean those wheels, change the oil, refill the washer fluid, top off the clutch reservoir, top off the power steering unit, Armor All the dash, wipe off the steering wheel (I can feel the grease from here), chamois the inside of the windows (well that model still has a plastic rear window), change the wiper blades, put in new spark plugs, check the mileage to see if the timing belt and water pump need replacement. Then, back it into the garage and don’t let its prior owner near it again. Ever.
Poor baby.
Makes you wonder what the story behind that is. Is the original owner still driving this? Imagine the dreams of rakish adventure that made someone choose a well-optioned canary yellow Miata, complete with hardtop and extra dollar alloys off the lot 25 years ago. Perhaps then he/she fell on difficult times in the ensuing decades, seeing the once prized purchase as a simple appliance, letting time and nature take its toll. Rust goes unattended to, a parking lot fender bender results in the proceeds from the other guy’s insurance company funding a rowdy weekend in Cancun while Tweety is left as-is. One’s mind could reel considering just how something like this ends up, well….like this. It takes a certain personality, I think, or at least a certain mindset to pull the trigger on the purchase of a bright yellow sportscar. There’s so much optimism and “Look at Me” involved in that. This pic is sadly reminiscent of Brigitte Nielsen during her Celebrity Rehab days. *sigh* Now I’m sad:(
You make some great points, especially about the choice of color – yellow is so deliberate. And as far the hardtop, I remember owning a copy of a c. 1990 new-car buyers’ guide and being fascinated by how much the hard-top cost for these.
(The Brigitte Nielsen reference actually kind of makes me pine for the early days of “The Surreal Life” on VH1 – one of my guilty pleasures from like ten years ago.)
Fully agree. Tweety is a total dick. I rooted for Wile E. Coyote as well.
Wiley never gives up!
Bugs Bunny was the worst of the bunch. That Dwatted Wabbit!
This is a common condition of older cars in Chicago. But, I’ve never seen a “Miata Beater” before!
It’s a rite of passage for a generation of car to pass into ‘beater-dom’ here. This year for example, some 2008-09 Malibus are showing their age, and it seems too soon!
I’ve also seen a few of that-generation of Malibu looking worse for wear. That’s actually my favorite Malibu of the past 10 years (including the new one). They still look like a fresh design to me. It’s always disconcerting to see a good-looking car in sad shape – which is, I guess, the point of this post. 🙂
Very funny! I was also rooting for Sylvester, Wile E Coyote and Tom (of Tom and Jerry).
That poor Miata is in sad shape, but at least it has lasted a long time. Brings back memories of another yellow car that was totally trashed and one that I will never forget. Back in 1991, I was happily driving my 1988 Phoenix Red Honda Prelude Si, and I always was on the lookout for other Preludes. In the office building garage where I parked at the time, there was a 1988 Barbados Yellow Prelude Si–a color I always liked. But this one was utterly trashed–fully smashed on both sides, dented deck lid and hood, mangled front bumper, pop-up headlights permanently in the “up” position, cracked windshield. I couldn’t fathom how a nearly new and desirable car could be kept in that condition. The poor trashed Prelude was parked there daily–never fixed–for the entire two years I parked in that building. It was even beginning to rust badly where the sheetmetal was gouged and crumpled… I can’t imagine that sad Prelude surviving on the road much past the mid-1990s.
I am with you. As a cat person, I always rooted for Sylvester. Birds are .22 Long target practice, as are Tree Rats, aka Squirrels. But it is a sad fact of life, if you look hard enough, you will find a beater example of just about any vehicle, regardless of it’s “coolness”. I remember my brother and his buddy’s, in the mid ’70s, parting out several what would now be considered “collectable” muscle cars. Yank engine, trans, maybe rear axle, scrap the rest. By ’74ish, they were clapped out,and with the oil crisis, nobody wanted them or even cared. Dime a dozen. Sorry, muscle car nuts, that’s just how it was. And that’s how a friend of my brother ended up with a Medium Riser, dual quad 427 Ford in his ’72 F-250 4X4. Sadly, did not get to ride in it…sniff… I still wonder where that truck ended up
Ive seen several MX5s in this condition, theres a rumour about that MX5s handle well and it appears people who have no driving skills whatsoever believe if they drive a MX5 they will be transformed into a modern Fangio, yeah well it doesnt work like that and these little Mazdas dent like everything else.
Thoughtful comments in the thread, here. I, too, was theorizing about how this Miata might have come to this condition, and where my mind keeps going is that perhaps it might have been a gift at some point. I’ve observed that cars given as gifts seldom get the care bestowed on those purchased with the owner’s hard-earned cash.
In other news, it appears the 1,000,000th Miata was produced just four days ago, according to a story from Motor Trend: http://www.motortrend.com/news/one-million-mazda-mx-5-miata-reaches-big-milestone/ .
When I think about all the $$$ Sylvester would have had to spend on his schemes to trap Tweety, he could have bought stock in Fancy Feast to carry him through retirement. Still, Sylvester is by far one of the more likable “bad guys” from the studios of Warner Bros. To me, anyway. (Darn that Tweety.)
Amazing .
I like 1st. generation Miatas and wish the windshield header wasn’t at eye level else I’d have one .
I see lots and lots of these in the Southern California Pick-A-Part yards , never beaten like this , just expired .
Even my Son’s old track racer looked better than this when he sold it .
-Nate
From the looks of it to me, this car was likely an early morning victim of a sideswipe due to being parked down one of Chicago’s numerous one way streets. As someone who lived only several blocks from this exact location, I cannot tell you how many times I would head to work in the latter part of the morning and see another local resident become a victim to such a thing. So common, in fact, I’d tell my friends who would drive in and visit to avoid parking in such a manner and just walk the distance to my place (Lakewood Balmoral, of all places).
That said, I’m coming back to visit this weekend, and this really makes me miss all the fun i’ve had off the CTA Granville. Gino’s for dinner, followed up with a throuough watering at the Anvil, and a final late night fill up at Sam’s? Sign me up for Friday, please!
The sideswiping issue is aggravated by the lack of street-parking during certain parts of the day, with drivers circling (sometimes very impatiently) behind other drivers and dangerously close to parked vehicles, in an automotive game of “duck, duck, goose” to find that elusive parking spot.
I have had the misfortune of arriving back into my neighborhood late on a Sunday afternoon in a rented car, and circling about nine square blocks for about *an hour* in one instance, trying to find a spot not too far from my building.
That aside, this neighborhood really is a great one. Some days, I pinch myself that I was able to buy into such a great place. Would have been great to meet up – though I have prior plans for Friday night. Enjoy your visit back!
No kidding about the duck duck goose game… I was in shock the first winter when people put “dibbs” on “their” spots on a literal public street. This coming from a Minnesota boy who thinks Chicago winters are like hometown Aprils.
You are not wrong for loving Edgewater; I should be shot for being stupid enough to leave. I’m determined to come back and forget that I ever called anywhere else Home.
May I ask ? .
.
How is Evanston these days ? .
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My Mother was born and raised there long ago .
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TIA ,
.
-Nate
Hi, Nate. It’s funny you should mention Evanston – it’s really not all that far from where I live, and it’s handy from public transit. But I haven’t gotten up there in about a year or so. It’s still a very beautiful, clean, somewhat eclectic and arty college town. On the occasions that I’ve ventured north to hang out there, I’ve never had a bad time. My Aunt & Uncle from outside of Detroit used to stay at a bed & breakfast there and used to make recommendations of things for me to see, though I can’t remember the names of any of them at this writing. Makes me want to head up there soon.
Thanx Joseph ;
.
Mom left in ’39 or ’40 IIRC , I *think* I was there in 1969 for a day or three .
.
-Nate
Future LeMons racer?
I always hated Tweety as well, hated Jerry from Tom and Jerry also.
I will never forget the first time I laid eyes on a truly dilapidated car. I walked over to the gas station near my house, maybe because there was a new barbecue place that was beginning to open and I filled out an application because I was unemployed for over a year, or maybe it was just to buy a lotto ticket and a snack. But, while I was walking over there, I saw a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado in white in the parking lot of the hotel next door. I was so excited because it would be the first time I saw my favorite Cadillac in real life, then I got closer and it was just trashed. The interior looked like someone was living in it (they probably where), the entire headlight and grill assembly was torn out and missing, the wheels had no hubcaps and looked ragged, the chrome letters and trim had been stripped off, the place where the vinyl roof was had turned into rust to the point of no return, there was rust around the body, it was horrible. I couldn’t even snap a picture of it, it was just in such poor shape, and it was getting ready to be towed as well. I remember the guy who was examining the car with me asked what it was, and he said that car must’ve seen better days. For me, seeing that busted up 67 Eldo was equivalent to meeting your childhood hero for the first time and he’s a completely overweight and alcoholic wreck. As a former commenter of this site once said, there’s nothing more sadder than a beaten up luxury car, I have to agree with him on that.