Archive for October, 2013

RustyButTrusty On The Street – Tough Americans and Boxy Germans

October 20, 2013

There must have been a movie or TV series from the 1970s that cemented certain cars in your mind. The Plymouth Fury with the fuselage body is such a car – something about these, particularly when they’re rough around the edges, looks absolutely menacing. For an example, take a look at this Fury coupe parked on the streets of Oakland, CA. Silver is not always a color you’d associate with a scary car, but wouldn’t you be more afraid if one of these was silently pursuing you, as opposed to a modern, shiny black SUV that’s all the rage with the cool kids?

20131017_115612

(more…)

RustyButTrusty On The Street – Buick (yes, Buick), Honda, Chevrolet

October 19, 2013

Chronicling the cars you see on the street sure does a lot to make you appreciate them, both in terms of quantity and variety, if not always quality! Today’s edition of RustyButTrusty on the Street covers three cars that, in spite of not being orphans, are rare sights indeed. Our first car is perhaps the rarest version of GM’s X-body platform, the Buick Apollo 2-door coupe, only built from 1973-74. In 1975, this was renamed the Skylark, and lost a lot of appeal for it, because what’s cooler than a car named after a Roman god, and sharing its name with a sports car (awesome) and a rocket (double awesome!!)? Unfortunately, it’s beige and not the rare spoilers-and-stripes GSX version. Either way, the slight styling variations on this badge-engineered special are enough to make you do a double-take.

20131012_134951

(more…)

RustyButTrusty On The Street – Oakland VW Edition

October 18, 2013

The streets of Oakland and Berkeley share the same variety of obscure cars found in San Francisco, if not more so. The mixture of college professors and students, immigrants from all over the world, and people of diverse political leanings mean you can sell a few of anything there. And that’s how you can see, say, a Lotus Europa, first-generation Mazda 626 coupe, and Subaru DL liftback coupe on the way in to work. While VWs are still relatively mainstream cars, the attrition rate of disposable cars means that many have disappeared from the road. And that brings us to today’s cars.

20131010_164128

(more…)