ISUZU VEHICROSS

I bet many of you have never even seen or heard of a Isuzu Vehicross. That would make you a very luck person indeed. Your eyes would have been spared the indignity of one of the ugliest motoring oddity ever produced, even though the Pontiac Aztec still rates as more grotesque, by a slim margin. Luckily there were only 4153 sold in the U.S. market between 1999 and 2001.

Gardens and Cars

Hey, no-one said that you couldn't like cars and gardening. I found this blog that had a photo of a Chicago area homegrown tomato ready to eat in June. This is a miracle, so I thought I would share the site with you. http://gardensightings.blogspot.com/ Check it out!

Ford Edsel

I guess Ford is in the gun sights again. Before the Edsel was introduced in 1958, there was much hoopla about a totally new car coming from Ford. This new car would be so much better then anything else sold to date. Newly created Edsel dealers blanked out their windows in anticipation of the unveiling of this gift to the motoring world. From what I have heard from witnesses to this event, when the curtain was raised there were gasps and many stood in stunned silence. What was unveiled was a much overhyped automotive joke. Looking like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon, the grille was the first thing that shocked everyone. The rear end was not much better. At first glance this all new car, once you regained your composure after seeing the grille, was just a redone full size Ford with ghastly styling. Sales of the car never amounted to much more then a drop in a bucket and the car soldiered on until the last one came off the assembly line in 1960. Wouldn't you have wanted to be an Edsel dealer and lost all of your investment on this dog?

Cadillac Cimmaron

This was Cadillac's answer to the luxury imports. Wonder why it wasn't a huge success? "Hey George, we've got a bunch of these Chevy Caviliers that aren't selling. Maybe we can throw a Cadillac name plate in it and sell it for $6000 more. Then we advertise it like it has the quality of a Mercedes, BMW, or Volvo. It will sell like hotcakes!" Way to go GM!!! It has been more then 30 years and the domestic car companies are still in ruins, both financial and in creative ways. What new or innovative product have they come out with since the last fuel crisis? The navigation system, or heated and cooled seats come to mind. Leave it to the imports to give us a usable hybrid car. Check out the fine engineering of Ford and GM's hybrids. the Ford Escape/Mariner hybrids shut off the engine when the vehicle is stopped. What's wrong with that you might add? The A/C compressor also stops, so no air conditioning while sitting at a stop light. Does the Toyota Prius do this? I think not, Toyota was smart enough to use an electric motor to run the a/c compressor when the engine is not running. Check out the fuel mileage of the "NEW" Chevy Malibu Hybrid, IIRC there is only about a 2 mpg gain on the highway. This is a hybrid? Does the Malibu also turn off the a/c compressor when the engine shuts off at a stop light? I will let you do the research. Do you have to wonder why the domestic car companies are in trouble?

Renault Le Car

It it is hard to believe that the Renault Le Car was designed and built in France. All these years I thought the crisp flowing lines was a product of styling studios of Italian's Bertone or Giugiaro. I love the way the grille flows into the headlight, or how deeply inset the lamps are positioned. This front end is probably as aerodynamic as an outhouse. For those of you too young to know what this is, think porta potty lying on its side. The racing(?) stripe on the side really emphasizes the performance slant that a Le Car exudes. Unfortunately where I live, rust has taken its toll on these fine vehicles and sent them to an early grave and there are no more to drool over. Didn't AMC sell these nuggets as well as the Renault Alliances? If so, way to go AMC!

AMC Matador Barcelona

Holy crap batman! Take a gander at this rolling pile of dog doo doo. This car should have been renamed the barfelona. I hope these things came with a king size barf bag as standard equipment for anyone who had to look at this rolling work of art. With the slick styling it is hard to tell which end is the front and which is the back. Who was the designer of this thing? There is just so much wrong with this design, where does one start. What is it about those bug eye headlamps. It looks like the car is on qualudes, or else someone is standing on its gonads. The vinyl top is another styling gem. Now check out the interior. Wow, is that fabric from a barcalounger recliner? It will be hard to top this one!

Chevette Love

Who could not love the Chevette? Even the name is enticing! What cars didn't the american auto companies put vinyl woodgrain on? Yuk! These were dark days for sure. The '70's and '80's give me much fodder to work with.