(Updated 10/28/2026) In 1997, Ford decided that its time and resources would be much better spent designing and developing a gigantic SUV that you could buy with a 6.8L V10 and that coupes that weren’t named “Mustang” weren’t really worth the effort anymore. Presented with this news we all thought that the good old phoenix would rise no more. But we weren’t counting on one small thing: Retro.
(Updated 10/28/2026) Volkswagen’s EuroVan was never the obvious choice for American minivan buyers, but that was part of its charm. When it returned to the U.S. market for 1999, it brought a new VR6 engine, a hefty price tag, and the same unconventional character that set it apart from the competition. Let’s revisit a contemporary review to see why this European oddball struggled to make a convincing case for itself—and why it still managed to win a few admirers.
Varkenshandel Tijs Haarle B.V. from the east of the Netherlands specializes in pig trading, the company name says it all. One of their vehicles was present at a September 2026 truck show, a 2018 Scania S500 6×2*4 chassis-cab (so having a counter-steering and liftable tag axle) with a triple-deck livestock body. The body’s roof was slightly raised and the fans of its ventilation system were only partially visible.
Text by Patrick Bell.
Today we are going to tour some vintage neighborhoods and soak in these sights of the 1950s – 1970s. There is a lot to see with cars, houses, and people, so here we go!
There was a trend in England in the late ’90s to buy cars in Europe where list prices were much lower and then personally import them. Relaxations in exchange controls and moves by the Common Market to free up trade between members meant that manufacturers couldn’t refuse to supply a right hand drive car to a left hand drive country if you ordered it like that. To save my company money, I’d already bought a Renault Megane, a Peugeot 406 Coupe and a BMW Z3 in the Netherlands for members of my staff. It always made a nice day out to go and collect it too.
I’m not very good at remembering birthdays. I entirely missed my wife Janice’s birthday in September 1999 even though it was quite an important one with a big round number involved. By this time her Alfa Romeo 164 2.0 Twinspark was getting to be relatively long in the tooth. To make amends for not buying her a present, I wondered if I might do a personal import which is how I ended up buying her an entire Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 Twinspark Lusso, even if it was 6 months late for her birthday… Thank goodness, she liked it!
The automobile industry’s retro craze of the late 1990s and early 2000s reminds me to some extent of the swing revival of roughly the same time period. It seemed cool at the time, spawned a couple of catchy hits, and disappeared just as quickly. While many, if not most, of the retro-themed cars sold at the time have not aged altogether gracefully, just about every one of them will still have their fans, and maybe one of those fans will find themselves behind the wheel of this 2004 Chevrolet SSR, which I spotted for sale at a local dealer’s used car lot.
(Updated 10/27/2026) If you’re like me, “Grand Prix” and “convertible” are things you usually don’t think of at the same time. When I spotted this one earlier this month, I had no idea just what a rare car it was. In this storied nameplate’s forty-seven model years spanning 1962 and 2008 and the various guises and roles it played within Pontiac’s lineup, 1967 was the only year the Grand Prix was offered as a convertible. Just 5,856 soft-tops were sold that year, alongside 37,125 hardtop coupes, accounting for just under 14% of total GP production.
Aside from my well-known love of old cars, I am also a huge fan of Frank Sinatra. From his early days as The Voice to his twilight in the 1990s, Ol’ Blue Eyes was a singular force in the world of music. I have always been interested in the cars of all of my favorite musicians. Unfortunately, this information is usually very hard to come by, if available at all. Fortunately, Sinatra’s life is well enough documented that we can at least find a few of them.
When I was a kid, the local Chevy dealer was within biking distance, and I remember distinctly when their new 1988 trucks were introduced. After almost 15 years of production, the Chevy Squarebody was practically an institution, but the rounded GMT400 was a revelation because it was brand spanking new from the tires on up, and I studied the brochure for trim variations from the basic Cheyenne all the way up to the Cadillac of pickups, the Silverado. This 1988 K1500 Silverado short bed takes me back to those days, and it’s for sale on Hagerty Marketplace in Archdale, North Carolina.
My Alfa Romeo Spider was due for its annual MOT, the UK’s periodic safety and roadworthiness inspection for cars three to forty years old. Having recently moved on from my usual Alfa specialist, I took it to a local independent garage, and this place certainly lived up to both descriptions. In fact, it felt like a throwback to the village garages of decades past, the kind of place where you never quite know what might be resting around the yard. A quick wander while the Spider was being tested proved just that, turning up an unlikely trio: a 1982 Matra Murena, a 1985 Saab 90, and a 2000 Audi A6. Read the rest of this entry »
Big luxury coupés are a bit of a guilty pleasure, aren’t they? Let’s go ahead and indulge, then. Have a slice of this Maserati, there’s plenty for everyone. Nice and heavy with a V8 in the front, four leather seats and a slab of varnished wood to put a few gauges in, all wrapped up in understated elegance. A feast for the senses.
In 1988, Oldsmobile tried to breathe some life into the dowdy N-body Calais by offering it with the new DOHC Quad 4 engine. Car and Driver compared the combination to wearing “Reeboks with your three-piece suit,” and buyers didn’t exactly come running. This very original Calais SL has the Quad 4 engine, the rare 5-speed stick shift, and the FE3 sport suspension. Is it an underrated sleeper, or are the high-revving engines and velour interior like chalk and cheese?
(Updated 10/26/2026) 1981 was a tough year in Britain. There were riots in many cities that summer, against government policies, or more accurately the perceived lack of effect—or even negative effect—of government policies in the face of economic woes. The Thatcher government appeared to be losing the fight to lead Britain’s recovery from the 1970s, and pro-active objection and even civil unrest seemed valid options.
In parallel, by 1977 to 1978, the truth about the state of British Leyland and its options for the future in its contemporary state started to hit home. By 1979, BL, and those who chose to understand it, had come to a series of conclusions about its future and its preparedness and the economic and political realities of the 1980s. The company was not big and strong enough, financially, in engineering capability, in production volume or product wise, to survive and prosper alone in its current form.
(Updated 10/26/2026) If the ’80s was the decade of the minivan, and the ’00s the decade of the crossover, then the ’90s was certainly the decade of the SUV. After several years without a four-door competitor to the hot-selling XJ Jeep Cherokee, Ford was finally ready to go toe-to-toe with Jeep with its 1990 Explorer. The Explorer was an instant hit, but Jeep would counterattack with the larger and more luxurious Grand Cherokee in 1993. Ford would fire back with an updated Explorer for ’95. Offering more room and a less utilitarian interior than its predecessor, the 1995 Explorer was appealing to more buyers than ever (as evidenced by its massive sales increase to nearly 400,000 vehicles that year). At that time, the Explorer’s success was seemingly unstoppable. The only way to go from there was up.
Today’s visit to the workbench brings us a collection of smallish Chevrolets in miniature. They may not have been the smallest cars Chevrolet ever built, but these compact classics offered plenty of variety—and, as these scale models show, plenty of possibilities for builders, whether their tastes run to factory stock, custom touches, or something ready to hit the drag strip.
