There is a certain novelty in seeing twins. I work with a set of twins, I went to elementary school with several sets of twins, and two great-aunts had twins.
During a recent venture up the hill to the end of the cul-de-sac where I live, there was a set of Chrysler twins parked diagonally across from my house. Both were privately owned.
Traipsing further up the hill were these two Subarus.
I’ve never seen any of these four before and I took these pictures within a minute of each other. How many sets of automotive twins do you have near you?
Mostly fraternal twins around here such as four 2nd gen Odysseys and three 3rd gen Camries though I did see two Green 2nd gen Priuses recently.
When I worked for a rental car company I saw numerous identical Nissan Altimas, Dodge Grand Caravans, and Ford Transits. I thought there was a glitch in the Matrix.
A LONG time ago I lived in a neightbourhood where one house had two Acura Integras. Different colours, though.
It always struck me as odd that people with more than one car wouldn’t try to maximize their utility by choosing cars with complimentary strengths and weaknesses.
Still, by reputation, not much downside to having two Integras.
As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, I had a neighbor that had a pair of identical 1966 Chevy Bel-Aire 2 door sedans, both red, and both with 283 and 3 speed column shift.
No twins but lots of apparently heavily tattooed triplets, quads and quintuplets, mostly caged in commercial lots. Many are larger, but there is one set of about a dozen little blue Sonics or similar belonging to a house cleaner outfit. Must be hard to wrangle all those rambunctious little ones toward the end of the day…
Man, that first picture just captures the idea of suburban uniformity… I couldn’t help but think of Malvina Reynolds’ ditty “Little Boxes.”
Suburban uniformity? Nah, that would be two SUVs. But two minivans… and domestic-branded minivans at that… these folks are rebels!
There is a house near here that has three Honda CRVs but they two different generations and three colours.
This Matrix is a more of a twin pairing with the same colour but slightly different rims.
Glitch in the Matrix, indeed. Although they look like different trim levels at least; if one is an AWD and the other a 2ZZ-powered, 6-speed manual XRS that might at least offer sufficient variety and complimentary characteristics.
It sort of makes sense, but the farther upmarket twin sets go the more they make you wonder why, as 993cc pointed out. Sometimes you see houses with two full-size SUVs.
They are indeed two different trims levels but I don’t quite recall what they were.
I walked by these at lunch. One is badged XR and the other has no badging.
Friends of my parents had his’n hers W-120 Ponton Mercedes while attending University in the late 60’s early 70’s. He had a white 180 gas powered model and hers was a 180D in gold. At the time, these wonderful cars were just good reliable used cars and not viewed as anything special.
The parents of one of our daughter’s childhood friends had two same-colored Volvo 740’s. One was turbo, one was not, they were a few years apart but to all intents and purposes essentially identical cars.
Identical Twins NO. Fraternal Twins YES. And right in front of my house.
Back in the Nineties, my then wife had a sapphire blue 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. At the same time, I had a black 1988 Thunderbird LX V8, with all the trimmings.
It gets better. Her son purchased a 1988 Thunderbird Sport in red when he was living there with us. That made for 3 ’88 ‘Birds in front of our house.
As to the two sets of subject twins? While privately owned, it would seem they wanted the whole “Fleet Purchase Experience” having chosen white for all four vehicles.
Here’s the kicker – the two Chryslers belonged to company of the home owner. However, this homeowner is into white vehicles – a BMW convertible and an F-150 Super Crew. It’s a divorced woman who lives there. Even the company she owns has a white Econoline parked there occasionally.
There is an outlier – she has a black ’57 Thunderbird.
I owned a pair of 1979 SAAB 900 EMS, light blue. SAAB was still selling the 99 GL as the entry level vehicle. The 900 EMS was the least expensive 900 and came only in the Sport-Combi ( three-door) body shell. Power nothing. They were equipped with the same features as the previous year’s 99 EMS. Soccerball alloy wheels, manual sunroof and the upgraded (velour) sport interior. Pretty much the only option was A/C.
I was working for an import parts specialist. A customer told me he’d traded one in at a used car lot when he upgraded to a 1981 900 four-door. We purchased the trade-in from the dealer. $2k as I remember A year or so later, a different customer told me he was going to sell the identical car. His was much rougher, several dents, and much cheaper. $200.
As the movie Twins had recently played, we named the cleaner one , Arnold. The dented one became Danny DeVito. Drove them both into the ground.
None that I can think of present day, but when I was a kid there was a family the next street over who bought a pair of 66 Olds Cutlasses in the same metallic rust/bronze color. One was a 4 door hardtop and the other was a Vista Cruiser. They used to back the into the garage and it was odd looking at two identical front ends when the garage door was open.
Also a block up was a guy who had a thing for robins egg blue 66 Fords – all bought used. He had a pair of them, though one was a Galaxie 500 4 door sedan with a white painted roof and the other was an LTD 4 door hardtop with a white vinyl roof. I think he even had a Ranch Wagon or Country Sedan for a time, but it had no white roof. He eventually started upgrading to 1972 Fords, but I was out of the house by then.
Not identical twins, but in the early 2000’s, my sister, my best friend, and I all had Hyundai Santa Fes, in different colors. At the time, they were new, cheap, and well equipped for the money. I would assume that the folks with twins in your photos are those who truly see vehicles as appliances. Funny, but they all are in appliance white. And those folks see utility and conformity as benefits, not detractions, so they are getting exactly what they want. Unless they bought them both at the same time, they found that the first one suited their needs and just bought another. It’s only extremely odd to an enthusiast, but it is odd that they are all in the same color. That could have been due to what was available on the lot at time of purchase.
The Subarus were a surprise. The last I was by the house there was a silver Grand Marquis belonging to the teenage son. I know so as he hit my mailbox about two years ago and was really apologetic. It did nothing to my mailbox but it did to the Mercury.
Incidentally, the house next to the Subaru house has the same problem with color, but all in black. He’s got a black BMW coupe, Suburban, and Town & Country. There is also a Cadillac in the mix, but it is stretched. The owner is a mortician.
My sister wanted a Santa Fe at one time, she was living in the Boston area and the potholes were making for a rough ride in her Grand Am GT.
When my wife and I were planning our wedding 14 years ago, I was not keen on hiring a limo or party bus for transportation between venues. At that time, between us and friends we had 3 Geo Prizms and one Toyota Corolla. So, we decided to do a “Prizm Parade” instead. Worked out well and made for some good photo ops!
Around the corner there’s a family with matching Grand Caravans….this is their 3 rd set in the 20 years I’ve lived here. Their kids have to be college age and with their current GCs around 6 years old I wonder what’s next. Pacificas? Downsizing?
Growing up back home there was a house up on the main road where they got new twins every 2 years for many years, usually sensible Mopar products like Valiants, Aries, etc. Last 2-3 years I’ve visited though I haven’t seen twins, so I’m guessing the house was sold.
Around here the most commonly seen “twins” would have to be Prius or Subarus, particularly Outbacks.
A friend of my bought an Outback several years ago to replace his totaled vehicle. His wife liked it so much they bought another that the only difference was that it was blue instead of red.
My driveway has or has had many sets of twins. Right now the true twins are Maraduders, but I’ve had Multiple Panthers and Econolines in the drive together for many years. We also still own the C-Max that my MIL now drives in addition to the the one that my Wife drives. Those are more like cousins though. They were both born in 13, but one is plain and boring, a base silver, while the other has all of the options and is an Energi (plug-in).
Two pairs of appliances, right down to the color.
When I was in high school, my father bought a ’78 Pinto Squire painted “Sears Service Truck” green. It was so ugly, it had sat on the dealer’s lot for six months, a fact that helped Dad negotiate a price close to dealer’s invoice.
Six months later, the neighbors across the street brought home a new car- A Pinto Squire painted the same bilious green. Probably the only two Squires painted that color in all of Denver, parked across the street from each other…
I rather like that color with the wood panels.
Not identical but they were fraternal as my parents had his and her Chrysler Sebrings sedans. Mom’s was black and Dad’s was gold. Both were 2007 models and bought new from the same dealer and the same salesman. Mom bought hers first having traded in her 2002 Chrysler Sebring sedan and then dad bought his when he traded in his 1997 Infiniti I30. Both had a V6 and sunroofs. Both cars are gone now as mom traded hers for a 2012 Subaru Legacy and dad’s met its demise when a talkative young lady driving a minivan failed to see him stopped behind a car waiting to make a left turn. He was okay but his car was totaled.
Not quite identical twins, but I think we can be a bit lenient when the subject house has two Peugeot 505s. I took a drive by this morning, but the sedan must have been out for a ride, so the Google StreetView image here will have to suffice.
Here is about as close as I can come. Closely matching license plates also, with variations on the word, “RENDEZVOUS”
Or, how about triplets?
photo too large, here it is this time –
At one point, our family friends–Shawn and Dawn–had His & Hers Toyota Tercel 2-doors. But one was turquoise and one was white.
I also find it fun when people have the same basic car from two different brands.
When I was really little, my great-grandfather had an 80s Buick Century, while my great-grandmother had a Pontiac 6000 LE of roughly the same vintage. They traded them both on a new 2002 Buick Regal, and that was their last car.
Likewise, I had a friend growing up whose parents had a 2004 Lincoln Navigator and a 2005 Ford Expedition. What’s hilarious is that–somehow–it was news to them that they were the same thing, when I brought it up.
But can I think of an instance where a household had two of the exact same car, in the same color? No, because–unless they were company cars–that would be silly. At least buy different colors, so you can tell them apart.
the same, actually……heard of someone having head gasket issues with a Rover 400 saloon (K series) so be bought a Land Rover Freelander petrol next to be sure not to get the same issue…..sneaky salesman?
True twins would be the same color. But the same car in two colors is odd also. I would think the cars that compliment each other would make more sense. So a sedan and a minivan. Or a coupe and a SUV. But I saw the dumbest combination once.
Two Smart cars. One red and one blue.
My grandfather went to buy a new car years ago and came home with 2 identical Chevy Citations. They were a one car household at the time. They didn’t last long and were replaced by 2 A-bodies; A Chevy Celebrity and an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.
Back in about 2002, my Mum bought a SEAT Ibiza new from a main dealer. The car was duly delivered. A few weeks later the registration documents had not arrived from the DVLA so they contacted the dealer. “Ah”, they said, “we needed to have a word with you. There’s been a mix up. You’ve got the wrong car.”
It transpired that the dealer had had 2 identical Ibizas, and had registered one under Mum’s name but put the registration plates on the other. So, the easiest thing to do was to swap the cars over and therefore, albeit for a period of only a few minutes, there were 2 identical (like identical, with consecutive VIN numbers) SEAT Ibizias side by side on the driveway, separated only by a slightly embarrassed salesman.
But only one had a full tank of fuel and a set of mats.
A neighbor had a pair of 79-85 Cadillac Eldorados, one white, one pale yellow. Another neighbor had not-twins, but peculiarly parallel vehicles: a bustleback Seville diesel and a Continental with the BMW turbodiesel, both two-tone maroon and rose. A doctor on the next street had matching Mercedes W114/115 sedans, both blue as I recall, and Dr. Shahbabian, still a neurosurgeon at age 75ish, had matching W126 300SDs that he would park in his circular drive, nose-to-nose, centered in front of his front door. Gotta love the 80s.
My 2 youngest sisters owned a total of 4 different Nissan 200SX/240SX (one was the 200, three the 240). The youngest one started with 200SX, which was totalled in a hailstorm, replaced by a 240SX, and then the older sister bought her first 240SX (owned at the same time as youngest sister had her 240SX) but then older sister’s 240SX was totalled in an accident, so she bought (in 1997) the 240SX she still owns as her only car. One was red, the other 3 were/are white, all notchbacks, and all automatics.
After my Dad’s Dodge 600 was totalled, he became a serial Mercury Sable owner, having one of each generation, an ’89, a 94, and a 96. Then he switched to Chevy Impala, owning a pair (’01 and ’06) consecutively, the last of which my Mother still owns (my Father, sadly, is no longer with us, nor is my youngest sister who owned the 200/240SXs