Curbside Classic -

Curbside Classic: 1991 Chrysler New Yorker – Paging Bill Blass

– Posted on November 1, 2026

(Updated 11/1/2026) There was a sad and dark time in the 1980s when the world was shrinking, and the big American sedan was forced to shrink with it. The conventional wisdom was that the only way the traditional sedan would survive would be to reduce to 60 percent of its former self, but in a way that left the proportions of the traditional car largely intact. DeVilles, Park Avenues and Ninety Eights held their breath, tightened their belts and switched their drive wheels, but lived to cater to their graying customers another day (or decade).

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Classic CARmentary: 2001 Volvo V70 T5 – A a Luxury Wagon With 247 Turbocharged Horses

Adam Dixon

– Posted on November 1, 2026

(Updated 11/1/2026) Sometimes the best press cars are the ones you never asked for. I originally requested a Land Rover Discovery for a 500-mile family-moving expedition, but the press-car gods had other plans. Instead, I ended up with a 2001 Volvo V70 T5, a nearly $43,000 turbocharged luxury wagon that turned out to be a rather excellent substitute—and a reminder of why Volvo knew a thing or two about building station wagons. Read the rest of this entry »

Teal Was So 1990s: A Junkyard Gallery of Cars in the Color of the Decade

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 1, 2026

If there’s one conversation from my college days in the early 1990s that I still vividly remember, it’s one I had with my classmate Michelle. “Have you seen all those teal new cars that are around? Boy, talk about a color that’s going to feel soooo 1990s!” Yep, Michelle, you certainly called that one!

Now, thanks to a bunch of junkyard finds uploaded to the Cohort by canadiancatgreen, we can continue our 1990s automotive tour from last week, this time devoting the whole gallery to that very ’90s thing called teal. Or tealish, in the case of a few of these cars. You know, just to keep things fun.

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Route 66 in Its Heyday: Vintage Postcards From America’s Mother Road, 1950s-1960s

Rich Baron

– Posted on November 1, 2026

Just about everywhere, there are old roads that have fallen into disuse or lost their relevance as newer, more efficient routes came along. No blame there; we all like getting to our destinations a little faster. But whenever I come across one of these old roads, something of a time traveler awakens in me. Somewhere in the back of my mind (and sometimes not so far back), I start wondering what that road meant in its day, the places it connected, and the journeys that once took place along it. Roads are more than just ways of getting from one place to another. They’re a means of connection, and forgotten roads often tell the story of places that were once important, and of communities and gathering spots that may have since faded from view.

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Found: 1964 Buick Electra 4-Door Convertible Towing A Travel Trailer – Living The Beach Bum Lifestyle

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on November 1, 2026

There are still places on the California coast where one is not surprised to find something like this: a 1964 Buick Electra 4-door hardtop with its roof hacked off pulling a vintage travel trailer. The beach has always attracted those that didn’t readily fit in, and it used to be easy to live cheaply on the California coast. The challenge is to keep that lifestyle going in the 21st century; some manage it in a variety of ways. And a few even do it in style, but then a certain style or panache seems to come rather easily with this crowd; an old VW bus is always in high style. As is this Electra and its trailer; one might almost think it was there for a photo shoot for a hip clothing chain or such.

But a closer look in its interior rather suggests this is the real thing; someone’s living the genuine beach bum lifestyle.

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My 2010 Cadillac CTS — The Dream Car I Actually Got to Own

gdwriter

– Posted on November 1, 2026

New year. New car. Same me. January 2014 in Portland, Oregon.

Sometimes you see a new car come out and immediately think, “I want it!”

Then you see the sticker price. “I’m not going to get it.”

But after depreciation kicks in, you learn you can turn “I want it” into “I got it.”

Sometimes, a dream car is merely a dream deferred.

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Curbside Find: Mazda AP Cosmo – Rotary Relic

Perry Shoar

– Posted on October 31, 2026

(Updated 10/31/2026) Only one picture exists of this find by canadiancatgreen, but luckily it’s of its more visually interesting posterior aspect, showing off both its roll-down opera window and hockey stick taillights. No, it’s certainly not a beautiful car, but as an example of one of Mazda’s most legendary nameplates, it deserves some attention (though its preservation seems completely accidental).

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Graveside Classic: 1970 Cadillac Superior Funeral Coach – Got Corpse?

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on October 31, 2026

(Updated 10/31/2026) Where have all the old hearses gone? There was a time when these body haulers were a common alternative to the VW bus (conveniently displayed in the back) if you wanted to hit the road as a group, or just collect a group as you rolled along. Plenty of stretch-out room, and gas was cheap. Throw some mattresses in the back, and scrounge some cans of left-over paint to redecorate the outside. Go somewhere, do something. Riding around in a hearse was a perfect way to express one’s youthful immortality. Have kids stopped being immortal? Read the rest of this entry »

Car Show Finds: Pumpkin Beetles And Killer Clowns

Rich Baron

– Posted on October 31, 2026

There aren’t many cars that can compete with a Beetle when it comes to fun displays. A pumpkin-themed Halloween getup? Well, naturally, it suits the model just fine, particularly when it’s a Super Beetle with its more bulbous nose. This one is clearly ready for some Halloween fun, along with a little after-hours partying and surfing, judging by the other items on its roof rack.

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Flat Tires and Roadside Trouble: When Motoring Went Wrong in the 1950s-1970s

Rich Baron

– Posted on October 31, 2026

Text by Patrick Bell.

Our feature today is a gallery of vintage experiences that for the most part were not fondly remembered, but were part of our lives nonetheless. Thankfully, technology has largely eliminated this type of “fun” in our daily lives. If you lived during these times you will instantly recognize many of these activities, so let’s hit the road and see what kind of trouble we can find.

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Auto-Biography: Wildcat!

Paul Niedermeyer

– Posted on October 31, 2026

(2007)

They were both gorgeous in that all-American, wholesome, sexy, energetic way. Voluptuous, but athletic. Heartland traditional, but always ready for a good time. Exhilarating and accelerative. And they were both mine, to do with as I pleased. So why was I, a healthy young man, having a problem with both of them? Read the rest of this entry »

The World’s First Successful Torque Converter Automatic Transmission Was In A Bus: The 1938-1948 Yellow Coach/GMC Spicer Hydraulic Transmission

Aaron Severson

– Posted on October 31, 2026

Almost 10 years before Buick’s Dynaflow, the first mass-produced torque converter transmission for passenger cars, GMC transit coaches were already using fully automatic Spicer Model 90 and 91 hydraulic transmissions. Because constant shifting of manual gears in city buses was a chore for the driver, hard on the drivetrain, and made for a jerky ride, these “hydraulic drive” automatics quickly found favor with operators and passengers alike. They were the predecessors of the long-serving GM Allison “V-drive” bus automatic family — continuously variable torque converter transmissions with lockup direct drive clutches, produced into the mid-1970s. Here’s how they came about and how they worked.

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1997-2004 Mercedes SLK 200/230/320AMG (R170): A Little Roadster That Made a Big Impression

Herbert Blaha

– Posted on October 30, 2026

(Updated 10/30/2026) Twenty-six years ago, in 1994, Mercedes unveiled a study of a small roadster at the Turin autoshow. It immediately caught interest because it looked light, competent and good. It was a compact two-seater (3,995 cm = 13.11 feet) with small overhangs and no roof. Although decidedly new—and in no way retro, nor what you would expect from the brand– it was unmistakably a Mercedes, thanks to subtle design quotations from the glorious 300SL (look at the bonnet) and the 300SLR (the grille, the fairings behind the seats). So far, so good.

But some questions remained, however: Would they ever build it? And if so, what will it cost? These were good questions, given the fact that Mercedes already offered a roadster (the R129 SL type) and the usual pricing of their offerings. Two years later, again in Turin, these questions were answered. Read the rest of this entry »

Dealer Classic: 1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z – “Ten With A Two”

Aaron65

– Posted on October 30, 2026

(Updated 10/30/2026) When Willie Nelson released “Ten with a Two” in 1990, he wasn’t singing about shopping for a Camaro; however, the concept of coming home with something that belies a drunken first impression isn’t indigenous merely to those who are accustomed to the art of the “Third Rate Romance.” Smart used car shoppers preach the following: “Don’t buy a used car in the dark,” so whoever buys this IROC-Z I recently found on the lot of a local Cadillac dealer would be well-advised to wait for a sunny day to do it in order to avoid any Sunday morning surprises.

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Curbside Find: 1960 NSU Prinz – A Little German Classic Waiting for Its Next Owner

Rich Baron

– Posted on October 30, 2026

What was tiny, budget-minded, German-built, powered by an air-cooled rear engine, and sold in the U.S. back in the day—but was not a VW Beetle?

If you dig a little deeper, the answer offers more possibilities than you might think. Quite a few German-built small cars arrived in the U.S. during the late-1950s import boom*. But in this case, we’re talking about an NSU Prinz, represented here by a remarkably well-preserved, bright-yellow 1960 example spotted in Washington and shared by Eric Clem on the CC Cohort.

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