I’d say we all could use some R&R after exhaustively documenting the Vega’s innumerable weaknesses and frailties. So how about we spend a little time communing with its polar opposite in almost every conceivable way possible (while still being a small wagon). I could have picked any of some thirty or forty Tercel wagons still hard at work on the streets of Eugene to shoot. But check out the impeccably-restored 140 year-old Carpenter Gothic house behind this one. The house and the Tercel are both owned by my nearby neighbor David Gusset, a renowned maker and repairer of fine violins, including my 1833 Valenzano. If anyone can appreciate a well made instrument built for the long haul, it would be him.
Nothing like a well-run long-distance fuel economy comparison to cut through the hype and exaggerations. Edmunds took the 2010 Prius, 2010 Insight, 2009 Jetta TDI, 2010 Fusion Hybrid, and a 2009 Mini Cooper on a carefully-controlled outing from L.A. to Las Vegas and back, including back roads with steep grades through Death Valley one way; 200 miles of tedious city driving in Sin City; and I-15 back to L.A. The results shouldn’t be very controversial, since they’re reasonably close to EPA numbers. But TDI fanatics swear the EPA tests undercount diesels. Not according to this test. Here’s the skinny:
After being trapped six weeks in a 1971 time warp, I had the controls of the Curbside Classics time machine all set for the mid-eighties. But once again, fate interceded. Running some errands, I had my first encounter with no less than two 2010 Camaros. Then, on the way home, something called out to me as I tooled down Franklin Boulevard. I found it parked behind the old boarded-up Chevy dealer, and it had an important message for you and me: “beauty is not in the eye of the beholder; it’s in the object itself.”
Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.
There it is, a golden yellow Vega, seductive and infinitely irresistible, hanging from the tree of automotive disappointment. Its serpent maker found plenty of smitten takers (especially among the motor press), because the bitter truth imparted was apparently in a time-release potion: “The best handling car ever sold in America” (Road &Track). Motor Trend’s COTY. C/D readers voted it the best economy car three years in a row. And it won this C/D six small car comparison. I (mentally) bit too, having spent idle hours in 1971 with a Vega catalogue speccing a yellow Kammback GT exactly like this one. But sure enough, the sweetness of that first bite evaporated all too quickly: the apple was rotten at the (engine) core. The Vega was GM’s Watergate/Waterloo, the beginning of its inevitable end. And yet here I am forty years later, totally smitten, seriously considering biting the apple again.
We’ve reached the end of our 1971 six small car comparison at last. And what a winner we have indeed! Without giving too much away, let’s just say this car runs, was for sale, and I was sorely tempted to buy it. Let’s also say that since many of you probably know our not-so-mysterious winner by now, that what we’re looking for are pithy, profound and insightful comments to explain the significance of the setting and background of where I discovered this very rare car.
Curbside Classics is taking you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.
I don’t have any shots of the Simca 1204. I haven’t seen one in over twenty-five years; have you? So I’m taking my lifeline (to Google images). But the Simca 1100/1204 was such a remarkable and historically significant car, perhaps the most influential small car since WWII. Its DNA is in every transverse-engine FWD hatchback in the world. The VW Golf was a perfect crib of the Simca wearing a handsome Italian suit. Plus, j’aime les voitures françaises. And the Simca almost won the C/D test. It should have won. So forgive me, but we’re going to have show and tell without the show.
It’s (still) 1971. Disney World just opened. Nixon pledges to end US involvement in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg reveals the “Pentagon Papers.” The Doors release “LA Woman.” The Bee Gees inflict “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.” Charles Manson is sentenced to death. “All in the Family” starts. The Stones are on top with “Brown Sugar.” The voting age is lowered to 18. Intel invents the 4004 Processor. Peugeot builds a 404 Wagon that ends up as the Niedermeyer family truckster. Janis belts out “Me and Bobby McGee.” China is seated at the UN. Nixon imposes a 10% surcharge on imported cars.
Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.
Hail the conquering hero! Well, not of C/D’s comparison test, but who cares, as long as the sales are there. And by 1971, the Corolla was well along in its conquest of the US small car market, despite being only three years fresh. In 1969, only its second year on the US market, the Corolla leapt to the number two import sales spot, and was nipping hard at the Beetle’s pointy tail. Try replicating that today! And by 1975, the “little crown” was lording over the defeated krabbeltier. So what exactly were the Corolla’s remarkable qualities that sent VW (and Opel) into such a deep and permanent retreat? And it’s shortcomings that kept it from winning this comparison?
Is it beginning to seem like we’re stuck in a 1971 time warp? Sorry, if that era is a bit painful for some of you. True confessions: I don’t like writing when it’s nice outside. And it’s glorious here in the summer. I wrote this six-car comparison back when it was still rainy and gray. So I’m “on vacation”, and you’re stuck in the early seventies for three more weeks. But for you dear CC readers, I offer this faint hope: If I’m inspired, or if writers start getting paid again (god forbid), I might increase the Curbside Classics once the weather turns crappy in the fall.How often would you like to see a fresh old moldy car?
Oh, and if you already know this week’s car from the results of the C/D test, please don’t spoil it for the others still hanging in deep suspense. Thanks!
Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.
Few cars are more polarizing than the Pinto (except the Prius, of course). Commonly derided for its exploding gas tank and general crappiness, other folks found (still find) it to be cheap, fairly reliable transportation with a variable fun quotient, depending on its configuration. Sometimes cars develop their reputations later in life, but the underdeveloped Pinto was pretty much an open book, right from the beginning. A children’s book, at that. The Pinto should have been called Foal; it was a baby car.
Last week’s clue was super hard. But there were several correct answers by some of our most diligent B&B sleuths: Lokki, no_slushbox, allythom, and dadude. Awesome! Time to give your summertime sunburned craniums a break. This week’s clue is a no-brainer.
Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.
If you were going to a speed-dating event, and were thirty-three years older than all the “competition”, you might be forgiven for wanting some quick cosmetic surgery. But if the result was a reverse Michael Jackson, you’d damn well better hope that your “experience” and “build”, and other timeless qualities are still in demand. Otherwise, your days finding willing partners/buyers are numbered, like this 1971 VW Super Beetle.
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