Posts Tagged ‘hatch’

Ragtop Two-Door – 1979 Renault LeCar

November 15, 2015

Economy cars are, for the most part, soulless and boring, but every so often some fun manages to sneak its way into one. Depending on your perspective, the Renault LeCar was in the soulless category, but perhaps you’ve forgotten the spare mounted over the engine, the tremendous amount of interior room for its size, the spartan gauge pod and switch panel for a dashboard, or the optional ragtop. So if you’re willing to reconsider your point of view in light of those facts, check out this 1979 Renault LeCar for sale for $4000 in Eugene, OR.

1979 Renault LeCar 2 left rear

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Heavenly RA42 – 1978 Toyota Celica GT Liftback

November 10, 2015

Here’s a car from the “wow, that still exists?” files. Many low and middle specification Japanese cars only lasted as long as their bodies, or in low-moisture/salt states, as long as their drivetrains would go on. And while the drivetrains kept going, the paint faded, the upholstery tore, and the interior plastics decayed, the dashboards forming their own miniature Hayward, San Andreas, and Cascade faults – hit that railroad crossing fast enough and the whole thing might come apart! Inexplicably, lone automatic examples of these cars seem to pop up every so often, just waiting for someone to pick them up, polish them, and photograph them with good lighting and a high-resolution camera before flipping at an exorbitant price through an online auction. Here’s a prime candidate for that treatment – this 1978 Toyota Celica GT Liftback for sale for $4000 in Longview, WA.

1978 Toyota Celica GT left front

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All Creatures Great & Small – 1968 Ford XL Fastback and 1980 Ford Fiesta

October 20, 2015

People like to make fun of American manufacturers’ products from the late 1970s, but while recognizing there were some real blunders in there, you have to look at what the manufacturers were going through. And for a good idea of that, just look at today’s pair of cars. They’re separated by a mere 12 years (okay, and the Atlantic separated the two product teams), but compare those two to, say, a 2003 Taurus and a 2015 Fiesta and you’ll notice how relatively drastic the transition was. Of course, the situation was uniquely disastrous in the short term – a fuel crisis combined with new safety and emissions controls gave them a repeated clobbering. Check out this 1968 Ford XL for sale for $3600 in Spokane, WA.

1968 Ford XL nose

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