![(first posted 10/22/2012) Nineteen eighty-five. The year of Back to the Future and The Goonies. The year of songs like “Born in the USA” and “Take on Me”. What better […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/xttttyg.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "Curbside Classic: Subaru XT – Forward To The Future In 1985")
![In late fall of 2013 with a desire for something new to drive and my 2006 Saab 9-2x on the market, I started my search for something new to drive. […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/BMW.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL: 1998 BMW 318i and 1995 Mazda Miata – My Current Rides")
![Thus far in the COJL series I’ve profiled a selection of mostly ‘fun cars’ which my spouse John had for the time we were together. However, during that time he […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/smart-1.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL (COJL) – 2005 Smart ForTwo Passion – A Friend Till the End")
![During the time that John was having his Mercedes-Benz 380 SL restored, we also had the occasion to drive a couple of cars that the body shop doing the […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SEC-side.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL (COJL) – 1991 Mercedes Benz 560 SEC – Only The Best Car Ever!")
![For much of his driving career, John had coveted a Mercedes-Benz SL roadster. He told me that he remembered the very first SL when it debuted in the mid […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/trudeau-gullwing.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL (COJL) – 1985 Mercedes-Benz 380 SL – Some Dreams Should Stay That Way")
![In summer of 2002, John decided to purchase a Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.6. Having driven BMWs (among other cars) for much of his driving life, he thought that moving up to […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/190-1.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL (COJL) 1993 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.6 – Petite Sophisticate")
![In 2001 I met John Southin, a car aficionado of the highest order. A retired Biologist and Geneticist who was a professor at McGill University for 28 years before he […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/319-i-out-2.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL (COJL) – 1991 BMW 318 i – My First BMW, Even If It Wasn’t Mine")
![I still think it cuts a handsome profile. Mine was also Bronze Dust Mist in colour, and almost never looked really dirty. After the nightmare that was my 1993 Saab […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2001-pontiac-bonneville-interior-wallpaper-5.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL: 2004 Pontiac Bonneville – Used, But Not Used Up")
![So after selling the Sidekick, I assumed the ownership of my partner John’s Saab 900. It was the last year of the long-lived original 900 platform, having originated in 1969 […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1989-Saab-900-FPT.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL: 1993 Saab 900 S – Saab Story #1")
![After a black-ice related accident totalled my 1999 Suzuki Swift, I was in a somewhat precarious position. I didn’t have much money for a car and I was also scared […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1998-suzuki-sidekick-rearside_szsid2djx981.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL: 1998 Suzuki Sidekick (Vitara) – Fun In The Sun, Not So in the Winter")
![(Not my exact car, but a virtual twin) So after my 1988 LeBaron was no longer safe or reliable to drive and with a bit of cash to spend, it […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/images.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL: 1999 Suzuki Swift – An All Too Brief Experience With An Ok-Car")
![1999 was a watershed year in my household. I was back from my first year from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario as a journalism major, and my one-year-older sister was […]](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/001.jpg?resize=115%2C115&quality=75&ssl=1 "COAL – 1988 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe – Midnight Blue")
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