This fall I had occasion to make numerous trips to Lane Community College (“LCC”), due to my son breaking his foot. Paul’s taxi service; and the xB does make a rather good taxi, almost the next best thing to a Checker. One day I decided to make a quick tour of the various parking lots and see what students drive these days, other than the usual boring semi-recent-vintage sedans and CUVs.
Because I didn’t want to arouse suspicions or the campus security, I shot very quickly, and as a result, a few of them turned out to have bad focus, as my old iphone 5S takes its time doing that. But you’ll still recognize them. And I’m also saving the best two finds for the end, to make you at least scroll through them all.
A representative cross-section: Japanese, old and new
Ford Escort; these gen1 versions are getting scarce
Have to have one A-Body
And a B Body
EVs charging at the free solar-powered charging station. This is the smart way to commute. Used leafs are going for peanuts, and no fuel bills.
Toyota Previa
Mazdas; vintage and newish
’68 Barracuda, parked at the very end of the lot, for obvious reasons
Fuzzy, but unmistakable
Toyota Tercel
Gen 1 Acura Legend
Nova, 1975-1979
Always can count on a few of these
And these
Infiniti M30 (Nissan Leopard)
528e
The first two hybrids keeping company
Two gold Sables
Gotta’ have a FWD A Body
VW (Golf) Cabriolet
Another Nova
The second best find turned out to be very blurry. I’d seen it driving in earlier, and was glad it was still there when I made my loop.
In case it wasn’t obvious, it’s a Ferrari 458. At a community college? Well, its driver was a young Chinese man, one of quite a few very rich students that find their way to Eugene from China, for a number of reasons. We covered this subject here. True to form, he drove it exceedingly slowly.
And here’s the best for last. A ’75 or ’76 Chrysler New Yorker, formerly known as an Imperial. I will share the rest of the shots in a post before long. And whoever drives it, presumably also has a ’76 Eldorado, as I’ve seen it parked on other days in almost the same spot. And said Eldorado is the very one that was for sale a few years back, and I posted it here. Someone is a lover of ultra-big Brougham coupes.
I think the rarest car photographed is the first generation(in the US anyway) Ford Escort. Seeing any Ford Escort happens about once for every twenty Lamborghinis I spot in traffic, let alone one that isn’t a reskinned Mazda.
You just KNOW that was Grandma’s last car. Purchased in her 60’s during the early days of Reagan’s second term, she (Margaret) lived a long and fruitful life with lots of walks up Skinner’s Butte, an early adopter of Kale as a foodstuff, and several cats. Several years ago she decided that her third grandchild (Jenna) could make better use of the car that had been sitting in the garage for the last fifteen years, it only has 38,000 miles on the odometer. She (the grandchild) took good care of it through her last two years of high school and is now well on her way to finishing that associate’s degree at Lane and will be transferring to U of O in the fall. Go Ducks!
Nice accumulation of cars/shots. And many of them are shot in the artistic style of “How the average LCC student probably sees the world at 11pm on a Friday evening, i.e. very blurry” 🙂
I think my favorites are the 1986 Escort (due to the time capsule look), the David Bowie edition RX-7 with two different color headlights (eyes), and the early ’90’s Saab 900, just because.
Overall this is very much the exact same grouping of cars you would see in the average Bay Area supermarket parking lot exactly twenty years ago, just most of the cars would be a bit shinier and newer of course. Over the last twenty years they all had a child, they all moved north to Eugene/Springfield and they all handed their cars down to their offspring to use while they started their CC (College Careers) at the local CC (Community College) with their CC (Curbside Classic), a situation also known as a CC tri-fecta.
You can always count on a college campus to have an eclectic mix of vehicles, because students will almost always fall under one of four categories: new cars that are paid for by the parental units, hand-me-downs from someone else in the family, car guys with sporty/obscure models, or whatever clunker the student in question can get their hands on for almost nothing.
If someday i move to that great country i sure know where i want to live.eugene or springfield next to simpsons.
They sure have gotten a lot of use out of that lavender Sedan de Ville and red Colonnade wagon, haven’t they?
Las car was the best but I’ll gladly take that Diamante wagon.
Agreed.
Please tell me that you are not using an iPhone to get those fuzzy pictures!
I just love how one can still see so many newtimers in such good condition.
I like the aftermarket rims on the Baracuda as much as the factory ones on the Chrysler barge.
The only thing I ever use is my old iphone 5S. But I’ve learned the hard way that if I rush it, it may not yet have focused. And I was rushing it here, shooting from my car on the move.
Oh I can relate. I finally replaced my 5S after 2.5 years and I’m glad. I think I should have taken it to the Genius Bar a long time ago because the auto-focus was awful even if I wasn’t in a rush. But I was always so annoyed by how many photos were ruined.
My new 6S doesn’t seem to have the problem.
It only happens when I rush and beat the focusing. Otherwise, it’s great. I bought it used for $150 two years ago, and cheapskate that I am, I’ll probbaly keep it another two years or more. 🙂
I don’t like anything bigger in my pocket, and since I have to put on reading glasses anyway, a bigger screen is mostly lost on me.
Paul- I write iPhone apps for a living, so I get the new model phone every year (not for free!) and I can tell you the cameras on the last couple models are really greatly improved. If you don’t mind the larger body and screen size it’s definitely a worthwhile upgrade.
As for the cars, I think the only way I’d spot most of these in Chicago is if I happened to be within 500 feet of Joseph D. What an amazing array. Thanks for shooting them.
Paul, you know that you can manually focus by tapping the screen, right? It may not be as focused as the phone does it, but it can stop most of the blurriness.
What an eclectic, fun mix of cars. When I came to that classic Barracuda I wondered what in the world was being saved as best for last!
That’s certainly a wide cross-section, about what I would have expected at a community college lot (except for the Ferrari).
It would be interesting to do a ‘demographic test’ to see if you can match the owner’s description to his/her own vehicle. There’s probably more than a few that really don’t ‘match up’ with the vehicle they’re driving, particularly in the case of the hand-me-downs, like the Lincoln Town Car.
I went to high school between 2001-2005 and my post-secondary education lasted for six years after that. Pretty crazy that some of these pictures could mirror the exact mix of cars from any of those years. I suspect the parking lots of high schools and colleges around here would look similarly if we didn’t salt our roads.
Back when I was in college in the mid 90s, a friend had an old S-10 pickup. The red paint had long since faded to a pinkish shade, but otherwise it was in pretty good shape.
One afternoon a bunch of us guys in the dorm decided to have a few beers and go watch some college hockey at the campus ice rink. After the game and a “few” beers we were walking back to the dorm and there was that S-10 in the parking lot, with nothing else parked anywhere near it. In our infinite alcohol-fueled wisdom we decided to lift the rear of the pickup and turn it 90 degrees. I can’t remember how far we managed to move it, but it was definitely not where we found it.
The next night, we saw our S-10 owner friend and none of us could keep a smile off our face as we waited for him to tell us that something happened to his truck. But he kept quiet- did he figure it was us and didn’t want to let on?
Finally one of us spoke up–“uh, anything happen with the truck recently?” He looked puzzled. “Uh, what are you talking about?”
“Nothing in the parking lot?”
“Not since I parked it earlier. I was out visiting my parents this weekend and just got back!”
So, other S-10 owner, whoever you are, sorry for moving your truck twenty years ago.
The community college attendees are sure spoiled today with nice paved parking lots with parking lines and curbs. When I went to Portland Community College in ’69 all we had was a cleared hillside with very little gravel that was called a parking area not a lot. Everybody soon learned to wear boots because of the mud.
The 68 Barracuda is a Formula S !!! I won’t comment on the wheels but the tires should help out the S springs and sway bar to make it even more fun to drive. That New Yorker though, wow, the waterfall grill…I’ll take it.
Funny that there are no K derivatives, or at least none captured on your phone.
Not many K’s left, but there’s a perfect looking white Acclaim sedan (last K based model, I think, with a completely different body) that parks in my Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s the only one I remember seeing in years.
I live near George Mason University in Virginia, and we also have the phenomenon of foreign students (largely Saudis in our case) driving Ferraris and the like. It’s truly something that I have a hard time comprehending.
On the other hand, there’s one house nearby that’s rented by a group of several students, and they drive two Grand Marquis and one Town Car. Their automotive choices are more of an outlier than a Ferrari at that college… but obviously one that I like a whole lot more!
So true, the best saved for last.
I dunno, I kind of thought the Barracuda was the winner. Haven’t seen one in years.
It’s W123 land!
What a great journey through auto-mobilia! So much to love…the Benzes, the Volvos, etc. I’d have to finally go with the MR-2 though – they were a blast and under-appreciated during their time.
Toss up on the Barracuda and the 75 Chrysler for me
Love–LOVE–that NYer coupe. Two tone, road wheels, just perfect. I’m sure it’s got a 440 under the hood as well. Wonder if it’s an always-garaged survivor or if it’s had “work done”?
The Barracuda and the 1st-gen RX7 are pretty great too. Good to see a late 70’s Nova still out on the road. And that Parisienne looks to be in excellent shape, as is the Escort; I’ll go with Jim’s guess of “Grandma’s car” for both of them, hopefully in the hands of people who will keep them nice rather than use them up and throw them away.