I just had a brilliant idea. We have an Airbnb studio over the garage, which is highly rated, very popular, and a good little earner. I’ve noticed that Airbnb has been pushing “Experiences” lately. And I see that in Eugene the current choices are Foraging for Wild Mushrooms, an Astrology Workshop, and a Eugene Bike Tour. How about a Curbside Classic Foraging Hunt? Why didn’t I think of this before?
I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I’m going to give you loyal readers a free sneak preview (albeit virtual). Well, you do put up with the obnoxious ads, so I owe you one. This is not CC cherry-picking, I just started shooting everything I see in the driveways and at the curbs on my morning neighborhood dog walks a week or so ago, so now you can pretend to walk along with me and Little Man. And you decide how many stars it’s worth. Or how much I should charge for the real thing.
Let’s start with one of my favorite driveways; this guy loves him some vintage Japanese iron.
A pop-top Toyota van; an Eastfalia, in other words. The only one I’ve ever seen.
He was working on it just then, so we’ll excuse the mess.
Oh, that’s a VW Corrado behind the Tercel. I guess he like vintage German iron too.
And this guy loves him some vintage Swedish steel. No less than two 240 Turbos, and a 780 Coupe.
And a 240 2-door in the driveway with a For Sale sign. Let’s take a closer look.
Looks pretty nice.
If you’re interested…
He’s also had this BMW 635i for years. I wrote it up ages ago. And what’s that in the foreground? Oh no; that’s too good to give away for free. You need to sign up for the genuine Adventure tour for that. Or maybe wait for a full write-up.
One of my favorite cars in the ‘hood: the last Colt still in regular service. Sadly, it seems to have lost its grille recently.
I know its days are probably numbered; the first major issue that comes up will end its working life.
I will be sorry to see it go.
Here’s an odd one: a swb Colorado flat bed.
The shortest new flat bed one can buy?
A typical international melange.
Next door is a car you’re going to see a lot of.
This makes the second Tercel of this vintage. I’ve been familiar with this one for over 20 years, as it used to belong to a neighbor down the street, but she is very hard core about her environmental concerns, and sold it to a friend a few blocks away. She only rides her bike now, or when this friend gives her a ride in her former Tercel. Welcome to my neighborhood…
And along with the Corollas, your going to be seeing a lot of Prii. Prepare yourselves. And more than one (or two) Eurovans.
As well as just a lot of Toyotas.
Here’s a Prius Prime plugged in and ready to deliver its 25 miles of electric-only range.
A not uncommon pairing.
As I said, I’m not just cherry-picking. Yes, there a few domestic cars here too.
Oh, and lots of Subarus. But you already knew that.
Another Prius Prime and a delectable 2002, which has been sitting outside in our healing rains since we moved here in 1993. It still looks fab.
Across the street, a gen1 Forester. These were once way too common, but they’re thinning out some now.
For today’s finale, we’ll walk past the funkiest house in the neighborhood. Roof peeling off, or tarps, or something. the daily driver is an old Buick.
In the driveway sits a forlorn Taurus. but the really good stuff is behind the fence in the back yard.
That Firebird in the foreground sat up on jack stands in the driveway for about ten years, but has now found its way into the backyard graveyard, along with a couple of FWD Cadillacs and an early Falcon.
Another angle.
And up front there’s a 60’s Dodge pickup and a mid-’70s LTD. Quite the collection. I’m just waiting for when this all ends, and the house gets a major do-over by a flipper and is put on the market for $350k. That’s without the cars; $375k if you want the cars to stay.
OK, from the title I thought you were offering an Air B&B stay in that pop-up camper for the true Eugeniac experience. It looks like there are several in the neighborhood to choose from, that make your Promaster look like the one reserved for Air B&B Platinum members. And you had me laughing out loud at the Eastphalia.
On your finale locale that car at the curb looks like a Buick LeSabre to me. And that backyard is a trip. I can’t decide if the most noteworthy feature is the really odd variety of cars (I mean who owns both an HT4100 Cadillac and a Dodge Sweptline truck?) or the lawnmower being slowly consumed by the lawn.
The Olds was just there to see if all of you are awake yet this morning. 🙂
Or more realistically to see if I was still awake last night when I put this together after spending the day up on the roof of a rental tearing more and more of the roof (and sheathing) off because it had been leaking for many years. Quite the fun week I’m having. 🙁
Poetic justice, right? The lawn exacting revenge on the lawnmower.
Exactly! My other idea was that if the animated Pixar movie Toy Story had been about cars, this would be Sid’s backyard. 🙂
It might be just the angle but in the picture with the silver Prius and the Volvo 240, the Prius looks gigantic compared to the old Volvo
Paul should have kept the Chinook for that very purpose!
This is a motley assortment of cool old cars. I love the “eastfalia”! Is there still room for a bed in that thing, though?
Minor edit, the DD at the last house is a white Buick LeSabre I’m pretty sure. And wow, what a great collection of cars! I’d go for walks more often if this was my view.
About the short, flatbed Colorado: my city uses a get-up like that to go around downtown to empty the sidewalk trash cans. It has a large fiberglass bin sitting on the flatbed that hinges and dumps out into the back of a waiting large garbage truck when full. Maybe this is retired from some similar former life.
I was thinking Importamation perhaps that Colorado is a former Union Pacific maintenance vehicle. I see a few Colorados with that flat bed running around Portland.
Well, that would have been a pretty compelling experience for me to sign up for. Mrs DougD, not so much.
But we did stay on an airbnb sailboat in Florida for a week around New Years, fun!
Nice that Colt and Tercels are still doing well, poor little Falcon needs a rescue.
Mr. Volvo’s brother/cousin/whatever lives in my neighborhood about two blocks from the house. Virtually the same scene but heavier on 850’s.
When we first looked the neighborhood over, his place was a major point in favor of moving there. His setup, cluttered but neat, showed that the neighborhood wasn’t too snooty, had limits on acceptable trashiness, and would complain no matter how many motorcycles appeared in my driveway.
The house with the four 2-door Volvos is even more interesting by the inclusion of a Ram 2500 Crewcab. In the driveway, no less. That seems an unusual pairing. As does the 2002 and Prius for that matter, but not sure why.
I concur in regard to the white LeSabre towards the end, not an Olds.
An excellent “experience”, Mr. N! Looking forward to part deux.
As I told Jim above, the mis-labeled Buick is a casualty of my fun day yesterday up on the roof.
I was looking at a Road & Track Owner Survey published in the October 1969 issue for the BMW 1600 & 2002. It’s funny that pre-dollar-devaluation, the BMWs were considered to be efficient economy cars. “—and BMW’s attractively low price was mentioned by 15%(of owners)”. “As these two models are basically practical sedans of modest price, it’s only natural that they are all used for daily transportation.” They were the Priuses of the day.
As a former Prius owner and long-time 1600/2002 fan, starting in 1968 (I still remember that owners survey as well as R&T’s first 2002 test), my initial reaction was to question your equivalency of the two. But as I think about it, that’s a good characterization and shows how “enthusiast” cars have changed so much over the years. I made a friend in the Fall of 1969 whose dad drove a BMW 1600. Yes, he was an enthusiastic driver who clearly enjoyed the sportiness, but I think there was something about the discreet practicality of the car which also appealed to the owner. A family with two kids, their other car was a 88” short wheelbase Land Rover. I could certainly see him as an early adopter of a Prius 45 years later. Not sporty, but practical, stylistically distinctive, and technically innovative. I know a lot of car buffs who have owned Gen 2 Priuses for those reasons, myself included.
I was being a bit facetious, but they do have some similarities in their own contexts. The BMW was a fairly advanced design that delivered better fuel economy relative to its performance and utility than more conventional offerings. It was more road worthy relative to its peers than a Prius, but the Prius is incredibly well suited to the typical urban slog through rush hour traffic. The BMW saved fuel nobody really cared about. The Prius saves fuel that nobody really cares about. The BMW was very space efficient for its day, just as the Prius is today. The BMW was a high quality product relative to $2,800 cars from Detroit, the UK and other European nations. The Prius is a high quality product relative to $28,000 cars from Detroit, Korea, and Mexico. I’d say Europe too, but Mexico covers their affordable offerings.
I’d still be more likely to take a spin in a 2002 just for the sake of it, but I did once borrow my sister’s Prius V just to see what it was all about.
I didn’t realize that Eugene was sister city to Berkeley just without all the wet.
I’m pretty sure the Toyota pop top is a Country Homes conversion. This outfit was in Scotts Valley, California just inland from Santa Cruz. They offered vertical pop top and interior camper conversions for VW, and later for Toyota and Aerostar … at least those are the three I remember. In the late eighties we moved to Mountain View, now famous for a Google but then just another modest South Bay suburb. A neighbor was one of the principals of the company, but they started winding down by the early nineties. I just looked them up, and they still exist in some form and provide parts, from San Diego. However, their website includes Aerostar but not Toyota, but I definitely remember seeing many of those with the Country Homes logo and still occasionally see Country Homes VW’s locally. https://countryhomescampers.com/company-info/
What a great tour, thanks Paul! Some of those cars, like those 2nd generation Tercels, I haven’t seen on the road around here in aorund 25 years. We used to have a pretty decent Volvo 240 population, but even those hardy cars have mostly disappeared now. That last yard with the old American cars might be something similar to what I’d find on an old rural property around in Ontario. With all the great hiking, outdoor activities and scenery, cars and otherwise, in the Eugene area, it be a place both my wife and I’d love to visit (okay, she probably wouldn’t care about the cars to much). Nice to know there is a great AirBnB in the area too. 🙂
The short WB of that flatbed Colorado indicates that it probably started off as a pickup, not a chassis cab. The chassis cabs used the 3200mm WB of the extended and crew cabs, but never had a long bed pickup version. If they had, it may have looked something like the uncommon Midbox version:
Well that is cool, I do not think I have ever seen a Colorado like that before!