In the eight years I’ve been shooting cars in Eugene, I’ve seen many come and go. And it appears that one of my favorites has finally gone. I first shot it almost six years, when it lived in my neighborhood and it was for sale. I never wrote it up, but I’ve seen it in daily front-line (ab)use ever since, by whoever bought it and moved it to the Whitaker Neighborhood. And I shot it several times since, always planning to write it up. Now that it has disappeared, it’s time to honor another fallen CC.
Here’s how it looked back in the spring of 2010, a bit fresher than now. Its custom paint job is what first caught my eye, and then I noticed the For Sale sign on the back.
$1200 OBO. Well, if we assume that the buyer got it for an even $1000, they got their money’s worth for cheap and reliable transportation for almost six years. These Sprints (Suzuki Cultus) have developed a rep for being hard to kill, and the new owner worked at it pretty hard.
And here’s how it looked the last time I saw it earlier this year. A bit worse for wear, but I kept seeing it either here or in front of the Laughing Planet Cafe or elsewhere, and often on the go, being worked for all it was worth. Its 993 cc three-pot made all of 48 hp, but with a weight of 1,488 lbs, the Sprint wasn’t named all that ironically. Its 0-60 time of 14.5 seconds, not all that bad at all for the mid-80s. As in only two seconds slower than a 7.5 L Mark IV.
It sports a Wandering Goat sticker; that’s a destination in the Whit, and was once a hangout for the handful of anarchists that have survived here.
I’m going to miss its distinctive ‘W’ and the blubbering bleat of its less-than original exhaust, but this car has earned its rest, as an ingot of steel. Now watch it pop up again, after having taken its owner on a cross-country trip.
An even faster Sprint: CC: 1987 Sprint Turbo
Same reputation here in Austria too and the current Hungarian-built ones seem to be up to standard; I was genuinely interested in the current, 136 hp Swift Sport when I started looking at cars to buy recently, but the Vienna dealer was unable (or unwilling) to find me a car to do a test drive… So the nearest I get to one is when the river boat goes by on the Danube, fully loaded with them. You still sometimes see the older models around, usually driven by students but they are getting rarer.
Oh, I think there was also a Holden badged one – the Barina?
Yes it was a Barina but with a 4 banger engine, there are still survivors in both Suzuki and Holden clothing around here, they are very hard to kill cars and very cheap on fuel so still popular.
On the pretty large assumption that the car has left the road for good, I would say everybody involved got there moneys worth, perhaps excluding Suzuki and Chevy. The car probably cost less than $6000 in 85-86 and the owners got 30ish years of economical service. At 40-50 mpg and late enough build to have emission controls, the environment got a boost from virtually any other 1986 choice. The unique paint job and upgraded wheels show the owners had that extra bit of love for it.
Chevy and Suzuki seem a little left out of the fun. At $6000, the car could not have made much money for either. And with such high quality that it can last 30 years, the car never has to be replaced and it’s maker gets punished. Suzuki left the USA, but perhaps it could have modified the old Ford tagline, “Have you driven a Suzuki, Lately?”
The upgraded wheels may have been forced on the owner, by the difficulty in buying 155×12 tyres. Been there, done that. Must write up the CC one day.
paint job looks like an old winnebago
I had a 1987 Turbo Sprint that I bought in 2003 (and it was pretty worn then) and I drove it until 2009 with 180000k and from what I understand it lived until 2014. That’s a hell of a long time for a cheap little car to go! I also had a 94 Metro Xfi for 10 years as a backup car until very recently. Keep in mind I paid only $1000 for each! They are VERY good cars if you change the timing belt/water pump and clean out all the little egr components.
I have some pics of this rare beast and I have uploaded them to my account and added them to the pool at the Cohort.
I think another reason these cars stuck around so long were the crazy roller coaster gas prices of the 2000’s. A lot of them were brought back to life then. 40-50 mpg combined with a low used car purchase cost made these types of gas sippers highly sought after. Too bad this car wasn’t looked after a little better, it really seemed to go downhill a lot in 5 years. But I’ll bet it has a impressive amount of miles on it by now. I wonder if it was a towed car behind a Winnebago motor home when it was new.
The hood graphics make it look like a 4 wheel record player. Maybe one wiper doubles as the needle arm.
Everyone on this site knows I like to add Canadian cars when related to the article. Here is a brochure image for the 1985 Pontiac Firefly. Yes, a car named after an insect! Well, there was the Hudson (and later AMC) Hornet, and of course the VW Beetle…
Nice! This car is owned by a former roommate of my guitarist. I see it in the Whit all the time.
My brother and I are attempting to purchase this car for an up coming cross state rally race.. Fingers crossed ?