Every summer, it happens many times in America: Someone has an old car with resale value hovering around scrap levels on one side of the garage … and cutting tools on the other side of the garage. Next thing you know, that car has had a roof-ectomy, becoming what is known as a Sawzall roadster. […]
Junkyard Gem: 2001 Honda CR-V with 403,757 miles
Several readers have suggested that I document some early compact crossover SUVs during my junkyard travels, making the point that these little truck-influenced machines went on to squeeze most small hatchbacks and sedans out of the showrooms and are thus historically significant. Junkyard Gems are all about automotive history, of course, so I set out […]
Junkyard Gem: 1964 Pontiac Catalina Custom Ventura
Like Impala, Skylark, Malibu and Silverado (among many others), the Ventura name began its career as the designation for a trim level or option package used on another GM model, then became a model name in its own right. Initially a designation for a snazzed-up Pontiac Catalina two- or four-door hardtop, the Ventura name moved […]
Junkyard Gem: 1979 Toyota Longbed Truck
Toyota began selling pickups in North America in 1964, when the Stout 1900 appeared on our streets. The Stout never really caught on here, despite its cool name, but a more civilized small Toyota pickup proved to be an enduring sales success on our side of the Pacific: the Hilux. Today’s Junkyard Gem is a […]
Junkyard Gem: 1956 Ford Zephyr Saloon
Henry Ford began building cars in Great Britain all the way back in 1911, when the first Model Ts came off the line in Manchester. By the 1930s, Ford Britain was assembling models designed just for the European market, leading to something of a parallel Blue Oval universe across the Atlantic. After World War II, […]
Junkyard Gem: 1992 Mitsubishi Expo LRV
Chrysler did reasonably well selling first-generation Mitsubishi Chariots in North America with Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista badging during the 1980s, and so Mitsubishi Motors decided to take a shot at selling the second-generation Chariots with its own company’s badges when those vehicles went into production in 1991. Those vehicles were known as Mitsubishi Expos here, with […]
Junkyard Gem: 1981 Ford Mustang Coupe
After building Mustangs on a Pinto-derived platform from the 1974 through 1978 model years, Ford moved America’s original pony car over to its new Fox platform for 1979. There it remained through 1993 (or 2004, if you believe—as I do—that the SN95 platform was still a Fox), and along the way created some of the […]
Junkyard Gem: 2009 Hyundai Elantra with manual transmission
As recently as the early 1990s, a good-sized percentage of bread-and-butter commutemobiles were still sold in the United States with manual transmissions. In those days, skipping the automatic transmission made a car much cheaper, sometimes as much as 10% cheaper, and three-pedal cars tended to get significantly better fuel economy. Then automatics got cheaper and […]
Junkyard Gem: 1993 Subaru Impreza AWD Wagon
With Subaru finally planning to retire the 1970s-vintage Leone in the early 1990s (the very last Leones, badged as Loyales by that time, were 1994 models), a modern competitor for the likes of the Civic and Escort would be needed. That car turned out to be the Impreza, and the very first examples showed up […]
Junkyard Gem: 1979 Lincoln Versailles
Sometimes a car manufacturer creates a chassis design that continues to make money for decade after decade, and that’s just the jackpot that the Ford Motor Company hit when it built the 1960 Ford Falcon. While that car itself stayed in production in Argentina all the way through 1991, the real payoff for Dearborn came with […]