Some car makers make it easy; posting their sales details in a copy-friendly format instead of pdf. So the full details of Nissan’s not so bad December (up 18%) and not so great year (down 19%) are here for your perusal after the jump. First, the highlights:

• Nissan Division posted sales of 64,296 units in December compared with 53,829 units sold in December 2008, a 19.4 percent increase.
• Nissan Versa sales in December set a record for the month at 6,809 units, a 32.5 percent increase over December 2008 sales.
• Other Nissan models with double-digit, year-over-year sales increases in December were Maxima (59.5 percent), Z (63 percent), Frontier (113.1 percent), Xterra (14.9 percent), Pathfinder (49.2 percent) and Armada (75.8 percent).
• For calendar year 2009, Rogue set a record of 77,222 sales, a 7.2 percent increase over 2008, and sales of Maxima and Z saw increases of 13.3 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively, compared with calendar year 2008 sales.

Infiniti highlights and the full reveal follow: (Read More…)

Ford wraps up a difficult year on a high note: sales were up 33% in December compared to a year ago. And although year-end totals were down 15.4% from ’08, that still outpaced the market to deliver Ford’s first annual market share increase since 1995. Ford estimates its 2009 market share to come in at 15%, up one percentage point from 2008. Details: (Read More…)

Coming back to gray and drizzly Eugene after a week on the sunny coast of California can be a bit challenging. But then all the compensations make themselves apparent: no traffic jams, a familiar bed, and…K cars! Eugene is Kar heaven: every permutation of Lee Iaccoca’s Karmagination is on display, everywhere. Sometimes even two at a time: (Read More…)

A while back, I decided to drop dropping hints. That still applies to the verbal kind. But here’s a visual aid: the car we’re identifying is in the foreground, but most conveniently, a visual hint drove past just as I squeezed the shutter. I hope the vacation from CCClueing didn’t take the edge off your skills. I doubt it.

This is one of exactly 1,873 Jaguar XJ-C V12 coupes ever made. Like a fine wine, I was saving it for a special occasion; but what better time to break it out than to coincide with today’s feature on Jaguar styling with Ian Callum. Undoubtedly, the XJ-C and XK-E are the two most divine, essential, and final manifestations of Sir William Lyons’ fertile Jaguarium. Never again would the leaping cat grace such a sublime creation. Given that Ian Callum’s difficult task was inspired by this very car, lets savor this fine vintage white Jag today. (Read More…)

I was just packing up at control central here at Peets in Half Moon Bay, when I see this old Dodge drive by the window and park in front of the super market next door. It’s driver is elderly, but very much not the “granny” mold. And it has a bike rack on the back of it! This is a regular driver, from all the evidence. (Read More…)

Here’s my quickie farewell California post: an always popular Caddy Coupe DeVille, vintage 1966. Once again, I’m going to be sparse with my words, and let the pictures do most of the talking. And of course, it’s regrettable that the formidable grille is hiding up against the garage door, but here’s a cheater picture of one. (Read More…)

On Sunday, we hit the road back home to Eugene. I’ve shot more cars than I’ve had time to post, and we’ll come back to some of them soon, like on a coming President’s birthday (hint). I’m going to keep throwing up a few posts from my hangout at Peet’s in Half Moon Bay, until Stephanie is finished doing her thing. So let’s start (or end, depending) with this 1981 Dodge Challenger. And don’t overlook this triple CC: the Toyota van and a Mitsubishi/Dodge pickup in the driveway. (Read More…)

In this day and age, when it’s increasingly uncommon to to find even a full-size pickup with a regular cab and long bed, I took a double take on coming across this long-bed Chevy LUV. I’ve got some interesting LUV’s and Isuzus in the can from Eugene, but none in this particular configuration. That bed sure looks like its a full 8′ long, but according to wiki and my own memory, its a 7.5′ number. Still, plenty of load space for this little hauler with 75 or 80 hp. These Isuzu built trucks were everything that its Chevy S-10 successor wasn’t: simple, cast iron-rugged little work horses, although rust was a problem in the wrong parts of the world.

More New Curbside Classics Here

I have a growing cache of Eugene El Caminos, and was going to break them out soon enough. But taking a stroll around San Mateo, I ran into three ’67s within a few blocks of each other, so let’s caminar down that long and fertile el camino of Chevy’s popular ute pickup, with this particularly popular year. And what’s that lurking in the garage? Let’s take a closer look: (Read More…)

We lived in Los Gatos from 1987 to 1993. It was already becoming a high-priced enclave for Silicon Valley high fliers then, and now it’s utterly transformed. The Ford, Chevy and even the Honda dealers are now all shuttered, but the RR, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Bentley dealers are flourishing. Disneyland-esque mansions the size of hotels have replaced little ranchers. Driving back into to town after a wonderful hike in the hills with friends, I saw the ultimate extremes: a brand-new “reproduction” full-sized water-wheel “mill” on a dry, scrubby hillside, “turning” slowly while the pump-fed recirculating “stream” spilled from its “sluice” to “power” it. This thing was the size of a two or three-story house; a “lawn ornament” of grandiose proportions straight out of a theme park. Ok; I don’t have any problems with folks having lots of money; but do they have to spend it in such grotesque ways? But just a block away from our old house I found the perfect antidote to my nouveau riche nausea: a 1977 Datsun 810. (Read More…)

I could spend three life-times finding Curbside Classics on the streets of San Francisco. Last time here, before I started this series, I found a running Fiat 600 Multipla parked on the street. Does that give you a fair idea of the potential? On the other hand, I get annoyed by the city’s traffic and parking, so I don’t spend anymore time then necessary there. But on New Year’s Eve morning, we bopped into an almost dead town for some time at Fort Mason and the waterfront. I wasn’t really looking to shoot anything, but then there it was, sitting in front of a purple building. For a moment, I thought I might have found a very elusive ’57 model, but until that appears somewhere, this ’58 will do, quite well. (Read More…)

You never know what will wash ashore on the beaches of Half Moon Bay. Heading for the coffee/wifi cafe to send these dispatches, what do I find in the parking lot, but a pristine 1971 (or ’72) Manta. As you may remember, the best I could in Eugene was this ’74 in a carport that probably hadn’t been driven in some ten years. (Read More…)

The odds of seeing a cool car parked by a CA surfing beach is always a bit higher than average. We’ve been staying in a friend’s guest house on a hill overlooking Half Moon Bay, without cell phone reception or any internet; very relaxing to unplug it all. But the surfing is good around Half Moon Bay, and this nice ’64 Galaxie “fastback” coupe was a nice change from the Priuses to either side of it. (Read More…)

Longtime reader/contributor David Holzman asked yesterday if I could find him a ’64 Chevy wagon while hanging out in San Mateo. We aim to please, so here it is, unfortunately hiding in a garage. Sorry, David; that’s as good as it gets. But for anyone who grew up in the sixties or early seventies, the back end of this then-ubiquitous wagon will undoubtedly trigger memories of riding in one. And hearing that little 283 rev it heart out in first gear up to about seventy, when the two speed Powerglide finally shifted into high under full throttle. In a break from tradition, Chevy went with uncharacteristic rectangular tail lights on the wagons only for 1964. If it weren’t for that Chevy badge, you’d think for all the world this was a low-end Oldsmobile. Enjoy, David; and Happy New Year.