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.
(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).
(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 »
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.
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.
(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 »
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.
![SLK_Closed[1]](https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SLK_Closed1.jpg "1997-2004 Mercedes SLK 200/230/320AMG (R170): A Little Roadster That Made a Big Impression 8")
(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 »
(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.
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.
I’ll come right out and say it: I don’t quite understand why Mercury sold only 2,592 Monterey Convertibles in 1964 when their intracorporate rivals at Ford sold 37,311 Galaxie 500 Convertibles (not including the 15,000-plus XLs). It’s a pity, because the Mercury looked really good in 1964, and it cost less than $200 more than a comparable Ford; however, at least a few Mercury-loving souls beat feet down to their Lincoln-Mercury dealers looking for a sporty Monterey, and this 48,000-mile, one-owner example in Glacier Blue was bought by one of them. It’s for sale at Connors Motorcar Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with an asking price of $38,500.
I’d never been to this Cars and Coffee car gathering in Lafayette, barely ten minutes from home, partly because I didn’t know it existed and partly because it’s usually at 8 a.m. Sunday start. But a chance exchange of online comments with a fellow USS Hornet volunteer finally gave me the nudge I needed to go. Upon arrival, I spotted several classics in the terraced parking lot. Then, I noticed a rather intriguing one: a 1980 International Scout II Traveler with its original Nissan-sourced turbodiesel engine. The turbodiesel was offered for just one model year, making this an especially interesting find—and a good excuse to dig into how rare these diesel Scout IIs really are. Read the rest of this entry »
(Updated 10/29/2026) “I like a car I can leave out in the street all night and which will start at once in the morning and still go a hundred miles an hour when you want it to and yet give a fairly comfortable ride. I can’t be bothered with a car that needs tuning, or one that will give me a lot of trouble and expenditure.”
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was a genuine curbside classicist. Here is some of that story. Read the rest of this entry »
(Updated 10/29/2026) The Infiniti M45 was a curious thing, looking so much like an American four door hardtop, which of course hadn’t existed since the 1978 Chrysler New Yorker we looked at the other day. One might think that Americans would be eager to snap something like this, a big, beefy V8 sedan, but that was not the case. At all.
Whereas VWs always made people think of various kinds of insects, little Fiats were more mammalian in the public’s imagination. Hence the 1935-55 Fiat 500 Topolino, or “little mouse,” the original miniature Italian car. The rear-engined Nuova 500 had a less rodent-like physique, but apply a dab of chrome here and stick out some fins there, and you had yourself something rather pleasing to the eye.
