The BMW Z4 is now in its 21st model year, 34 years after the first Z Series cars were built. I’ve been seeing discarded Z3s for a few years now, during my travels through the boneyards, but its E85 successor appears to have held onto its value well enough to get fixed when it gets
The idea of trucks shoving station wagons and even big sedans off showroom floors seemed far-fetched as the 1980s dawned. Then a bunch of Renault engineers descended on Kenosha and the XJ Jeep Cherokee appeared a few years later, for the 1984 model year. At that point, the idea of a truck comfortable enough to
Sometimes a vehicle manufacturer builds something that’s so far ahead of its time that nobody quite knows to make of it, such as the American Motors Eagle. Other times, there will be a new vehicle that fills a need in admirable fashion but looks so weird that potential buyers shy away in horror (see: Pontiac
One of the earliest spinoffs from Lee Iacocca’s versatile, Chrysler-saving K Platform was a stretched-wheelbase version known as the E Platform. These cars were supposed to resemble European luxury sedans, to the extent that a couple of models were badged as the Chrysler E-Class and Dodge 600 SE and given suspiciously Mercedes-ish badging. At first,
Toyota did passably well selling its Van (the model name it applied to the MasterAce Surf in North America, following the precedent of selling the Hilux pickup as the Truck) here during the 1980s, and the decision was made to follow it up with an Americanized version of the Toyota Estima van. This was the
The Toyo Kogyo Company first began importing the Mazda Familia to the United States in 1971. Various names for the US-market Familia were used at first (including 1200, R100, 808 and RX-3), but eventually the company settled on GLC (which stood for Great Little Car and featured a catchy little tune in its TV commercials)
For the 1964 through 1972 model years, GM’s Buick and Oldsmobile Divisions produced midsize station wagons with amazing fighter-jet-style roof windows. The Buick version was Skylark-based and badged as the Sportwagon, while Oldsmobile used a stretched Cutlass chassis as the basis for the Vista-Cruiser. For 1973, the Vista-Cruiser got the same wheelbase as its sedan
Sometimes a car gets babied for decades from day one, its every maintenance item performed on the dot and its every night spent shielded from the elements in a garage. Generally, things go downhill for such a vehicle once it reaches its second or third owner, and it ends up suffering abuse and/or neglect for
After flying high during the 1970s and 1980s, sales for GM’s Oldsmobile Division had dropped alarmingly by the early 1990s. Its cars seemed stodgy and outdated, technology-packed Japanese luxury machines were stealing customers, and the syllable “Old” leading off the brand’s name just served to remind car shoppers that the days of Dr. Oldsmobile’s Youngmobiles
For the entire 24-year production run of the GM J platform (best known for the Chevrolet Cavalier), the Pontiac Division offered new J-Body cars for sale in the United States. First there was the J2000, followed in quick succession by the 2000, 2000 Sunbird and Sunbird. The Sunbird stuck around until the Cavalier got a
