Time to do our occasional Cohort tour to check out what finds from around the world have shown up in recent days. We’ll start today’s gallery with this 1968 Ambassador 2-door hardtop coupe, caught by Hyperpack in PA. In 1968 these came in three trims; just Ambassador, the higher DPL trim, and the top SST one. Sans trim and whatever else this one has gotten done over the years, hard to tell which exact one it may be, though I’ll guess that its (current) plainer grille suggests entry-level. In all, about 15K hardtop coupes were sold in 1968 across the three trim lines; not many can remain.
Today, this Ambassador offers a variation of 1960s styling themes, from the Coke-bottle profile to the Pontiac-Me-Too stacked headlights up front. Back then, however, it suffered from rather generic sixties looks and not-quite-full-size credentials (from its shorter wheelbase, to relative lack of cachet, plus some AMC styling quirks), ailments the maker could never overcome in these models.
About these 1968 Ambassadors, a more comprehensive post was posted by Mr. Shafer a while back. And on a period review against Big-3 full-size coupes, the Ambassador acquitted itself well in some performance areas (like braking), while suffering in others, from assembly issues to less interior space.
Let’s move a few years back in time to vintage bathtub cars, with a 1950-1951 Hudson Commodore…
and a 1949-1950 Nash by its side; hard to tell which precise model from this view. These were uploaded by Eric Clem, and the California license plates suggest their location, although the motorhome further back has Nevada plates.
A very well preserved Peugeot 404, with a sunroof and a nice shade of green, caught by Corey Behrens.
Also, by Corey Behrens, a 1968 Opel Commodore in the 2-door coupe version of Opel’s executive segment model. As I recall, finding old iron in this condition in Europe is very rare, and thus, these early Commodores have rarely appeared at CC.
In these pages, the 1967 Chevelle has been referred to as the Big American Opel. Is the 1967-1971 Commodore A the “European Chevelle”? Styling wise, apparently, since some of the same stylists were in charge of creating both models and do recall using the Malibu as a reference for the Commodore. As with many such corporate styling jobs, hard to tell what fed into what, from whom and when, but the point was to have GM genes across it all.
Riveranotario shared only one view of a car I haven’t seen in ages, a 1980s Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais found in Chile, of all places. There was a time when these N-bodies in Olds guise were fairly common, but nowadays not so much. The Cutlass Calais is also the car that made Car and Driver predict Olds’ death.
Eric Clem uploaded this Spot edition of the Citroen 2CV in a setting that feels brochure ready. The image feels in accordance with the Spot’s “sunny funtimes” special edition credentials.
Another bathtub? These 1994-1996 Ninety Eights didn’t find much favor with the public back in the day, I would think partly for their looks and partly due to Olds’ then diminishing image. Also, the cheap and easy to damage body trim didn’t help their case.
But as rare as these may be nowadays, the West Coast is the natural place for one to survive and such is the case with this one captured in California by Matt Wilda.
Today’s chapter of Americans in Europe is via this Chrysler PT Cruiser droptop, another find by Eric Clem.
And now, for the Cute Europeans in the New World chapter; a Fiat 900T van shot by William Oliver in Ontario. These basic looking rear-engined, rear-traction, delivery vehicles are simplicity itself, and charming in that way. They used a 903cc inline-4 shared with the Fiat 127, and were built from 1976 to 1985.
There’s always an old Datsun… with Ferrari stickers? Well, this 1973-1976 120Y was found in Chile by riveranotario, and that unrelated prancing horse makes me think that Chileans are as fond of nonsensical stickers as my folks from Central America are.
But if we’re talking about custom touches, what better than a Mitsuoka? Here is one, in the form of the Buddy, uploaded by William McDougal. The peculiar styling sensibilities of specialty builder Mitsuoka have been featured at CC various times, and the Buddy is no exception. It uses mostly Toyota RAV4 bones, and what I guess is an American-bling wrapper idea. Tatra87 went into detail on this Mitsuoka, HERE.
We’ll close on a junky note today, of which we haven’t had any so far, with this find by Hyperpack. And nope, it ain’t a Cordoba…
It’s, instead, its corporate Dodge Charger sibling. Or as I refer to it, “the Charger I always forget about.” Sadly, this one looks too far gone to be rescued, but what’s the likelihood of parts of it bringing new life to another Charger? Or a Corboda?
Eric Clem here. The PT Cruiser is in Paris. The 2CV is in Edmonds, WA (suburb of Seattle) and the Nash/Hudson combo are from Chimacum, WA.
The Hudson is a ’50 for sure, the Nash is ’49-50.
The Fiat van is cute! I figured Fiat had switched to all FWD by then, but obviously not.
No – it was a mild update of the 850T which replaced the Multipla 600.
Still underpowered (resulting in blown head gaskets) and one needed to leave the spare wheel at home if the passenger wanted to bring his legs with him.
Was eventually replaced from below by the Fiorino and above by the Ducato.
Always nice to see obscure cars in the wild .
That junk ‘Charger’ gave me pause ~ I didn’t know they ever came with T-Tops .
-Nate
Well Nate, at least some of the vinyl roof is still hanging on for dear life.
In 78 the charger was also infighting against the newly relased dodge magnum. The same B body car with a non-cordoba header panel and different tail liights. Are ’78 chargers more rare than. ’71 hemicudas? I dunno but it is interesting to ponder.
“Is the 1967-1971 Commodore A the European Chevelle”?
I could see also the 1967-71 Commodore as the Brazilian Chevrolet Opala despite than the Opala was based on the Opel Rekord.