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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's a little car that's nearly extinct in rust-prone areas. We saw a '77 Accord in this series not long ago, and it was startling how many readers had never seen a first-gen Accord on the street. Now we're going to look at an example of the early 2nd-gen Accord , which was still quite small (2,076 pounds) and was the first Accord to be built in North America. Horsepower was up to 76- yes, those weight and power numbers would be considered laughably small nowadays, though these cars drive just fine- and Honda's rep for reliability was really getting entrenched in the American consciousness by this time. The price back in 1982? $8,449 for the LX, or $1,050 more than the base Accord hatch. Clearly, the cachet of the LX badging wasn't enough to stop some vocab-challenged vandal from keying "ASS" into the hood paint...
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Every weekday in 2008- except for Christmas Day- we saw another cool street-parked vehicle from the streets of Alameda, California. Now I'm going to share my personal favorite ten DOTS finds of the year. These are the cars and trucks that, for one reason or another, really made my day when I ran across them on the streets of Alameda. Some of them are on this list because they're rare and/or interesting (the "Whoa! What's that? " factor), while others made the cut simply because I yearn to own them. And, yes, the Fire Arrow falls into the latter category, because I'm sick like that. So here we go, my personal Alameda DOTS favorites for Ought-Eight: 1953 Citroën Traction-Avant Once I found the '75 Citroën GS 1220 , I figured there'd be no way in hell I'd ever find a cooler street-parked Citroën on the island. Then… this car! Not only is it a Traction-Avant, it's a really solid street-driven example with a custom vintage hood ornament. 1958 Mercedes...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Remember when four-door hatch versions of small Japanese cars were commonplace? As we now know, the 80s were the last gasp for lengthened, four-door hatchback versions of Japanese subcompacts; once the minivans and SUVs took charge, the cold-eyed accountants at Toyota knew they wouldn't be making these things in quantity for much longer. In this case we've got a four-door hatch Corolla, fairly well beat up but still getting the groceries. Chevrolet sold a badge-engineered version of this car, built about 25 miles south of here and given the Nova name. You could also get a Fremont- built Corolla FX in the mid-to-late 80s. galleryPost('DOTS85CorollaWagon', 13, '1985 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon Down On The Alameda Street'); First 400 DOTS Vehicles • DOTS FAQ
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we've got Exhibit A in the Datsun/Nissan Rebranding Story. It seemed like utter madness when Nissan decided to ditch the Datsun name they'd spent so much to build up, but that's what they did in the early 1980s. At first, they just added an inconspicuous "By Nissan" to their vehicles' emblems, and apparently they figured that, while they were at it, they'd also do a gradual transition for the model name of their big six-cylinder machine. So, for 1981, the full-luxe top-of-the-line 810 was sold in North America as the "810 Maxima." I found this car, with its brake lights in 24/7 "on" mode, parked on the same commercial strip that gave us the 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL . It's rough, but it's the first non-junkyard 810 I've seen in years. The 810 Maxima for '81 came with a smaller...
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The streets of Alameda, California never seem to run out of surviving vintage machinery, and we've got the proof right here in the 400th street-parked classic Alameda vehicle. Here they all are. The streets of Alameda, California, never seem to run out of surviving vintage machinery, and we've got the proof right here. That's right, the 400th street-parked classic Alameda vehicle was featured in this series last week, and that means it's time to see 'em all! Actually, the collection of links below contains 402 cars and trucks, so you get a couple of extra DOTS machines for your enjoyment; just click on any of the thumbnails and you'll go straight to a big photo gallery of that car or truck, plus digression-laden commentary by yours truly. New to the series? Check out the DOTS FAQ . 1932 Ford 1937 Cadillac 1939 Chevrolet 1941 Chevrolet 1942 Pontiac 1943 IHC 1945 Ford 1946 Chevrolet 1947 Plymouth 1948 IHC 1950 Dodge 1950 Ford 1950 Ford 1950 Plymouth 1950 Pontiac 1951...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's a type of car I've been hunting for since this series began, a machine so 80s it's like Ollie North in pink leg warmers: the Dodge Daytona Turbo Z! We've seen some members of the extended Chrysler K Family (such as this Aries and this Reliant ), but now it's time to see one of the sporty Ks (technically a G, but close enough). This one isn't exactly pristine, but it's not too rough for a 22-year-old car that few have ever considered a real classic. You got 146 turbocharged horsepower out of the 2.2 in your '86 Turbo Z, which moved the 2,630-pound car pretty well for the era. Back in the turbo-mad 80s, you had to advertise the hairdryer's presence with emblems all over the place… but was a window trim emblem really necessary? The price tag on one of these things came to $11,301, which was about a grand cheaper...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Should the early-to-mid-80s Land Cruisers qualify for this series? I've been seeing a few of them around town, and they always struck me as belonging a bit more to the Maximum Cup Holder Comfy SUV Era than to the Unkillable Warlord Grade Toyota Truck Era. But the RHD Troop Carrier Land Cruiser was made in the 80s, and I noted un-cupholder-esque details such as the locking front hubs on the civilian 60 Series , and the styling on this era's trucks is pretty truckish, so what the heck: here's an '84 Land Cruiser for Truck Monday! I assume that these things are still pretty commonplace all over the continent, but maybe the Rust Monster's appetite for Japanese steel has been insatiable in the road-salty regions of the land. They're big, they're simple, and they've got the good ol' six-banger F engine called for by to...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's a car that should be recognizable to anyone venturing to Alameda's main downtown strip during business hours: an '86 Cressida that lives in a yellow loading zone in between pizza-delivery runs. And, having put in my time as a pizza deliverator myself (hat tip to Neal Stephenson for hardwiring that term into everyone's brains), I have nothing but respect for this fine machine. We've seen one DOTS Cressida before this one, and since then I've realized that the big Toyotas are actually quite commonplace in Alameda; I'd been mentally registering them as early Camrys until I started paying closer attention. That means a Cressida must be special in some way to make this series, and a Pizza Deliverator version with a hood mural painted in rust certainly qualifies. The six-cylinder Cressida was Toyota's pre-Lexus North...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. I've been looking for a DOTS-worthy Subaru for a long time, but it seems that most of the 70s and 80s examples were crushed long ago. While I'd prefer a BRAT, we'll have to settle for this Justy. First, let's listen to the song I always hear in my head when contemplating a tiny Subaru from the days before mall parking lots were full of the things. Dr. Demento was a big fan of this tune, of course: I've driven a couple of these cars, and "underpowered" doesn't really do that 66-horsepower 3-cylinder justice. In fact, the only post-WW2 vehicle I've ever driven that was slower than the Justy was the VW Rabbit Diesel my high school used for driver training class. But so what? This thing can probably cross several counties on a shotglass of fuel, and it proves that you don't need a Sprint for 3-cylinder 80s action...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. It's Porsche Day today, and we're getting our very first 924. So far we've seen one 356 , a few 912s , a bunch of 911s , some 914s , a couple of 928s , and a pair of 944s (plus a faux Speedster ), so it's about damn time I found one of these. They were still making the 924 in 1988? Yes, the 944 hadn't totally pushed its cheaper sibling aside as the 1980s drew to a close, though 1988 was the very last year for the 924. By this time, the old Audi engine was gone, replaced by the 944's Porsche-made engine (the 944S had a more powerful version of the engine). Still, the '88 924S was a pretty good deal; at $19,900, it was $5,600 cheaper than the base 944, yet had the same 147 horses under the hood. This example seems fairly solid, though there's no telling how far it is from the dreaded timing belt replacement that keeps...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. I've been neglecting the big BMWs for most of this series, so it's time to follow up the the '86 735i with another E23 from the cocaine-and-S&L-money-mad mid-1980s. Remember the Savings And Loan Crisis? Wild West loans on worthless assets and egregious fraud following in the wake of deregulation of a once-staid sector of the financial system, ultimately costing 160 billion bucks in taxpayer money? Wait, that sounds familiar, except for the bargain price tag… anyway, here's the kind of car that a low-level S&L scamster would have bought with the proceeds of his first "dead horses for dead cows" loan. Now that I'm looking for these cars (and don't worry, 5 Series fans, I'll get some of your cars too), I'm seeing them all over the island. This '84 has seen shinier days, but it still gets its owner...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. The BMW E24 is not exactly an endangered species, but it's such a good-looking car that every single one I see in Alameda qualifies for this series. Never mind that I have photographs of six Alameda 2002s stockpiled- it's 6 Series time again! This car is owned by the man I consider to be the King Of Alameda BMWs; not only does he have a '74 E9 on the street, he's got a turbocharged 745i and who knows what other droolworthy Bavarian steel in the garage and scattered around the neighborhood. We'll be seeing the rest of his cars soon enough, but today it's the E24's turn. He picked up this '82 633CSi cheap when its previous owner despaired of ever getting his PCH running. It needs some work, but the body is straight and it now runs just fine. It's tough to find an example of car-quality-per-dollar quite as good as...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. There's been no shortage of BMWs in this series, but I've sort of overlooked the 5 and 7 series cars so far. No more! Today we'll look at one of the last of the E23s , a somewhat scuffed but still proud 735i, located in the post-late-50s landfill part of town, not far from the '66 Dodge A100 Sportsman . Driving one of these things back in the 80s showed that you were serious . At $36,880 list (well over 75 grand- and climbing- in today's inflato-dollars), you could have bought nine brand-new Yugos and had enough left over for a couple of pretty clean used Datsun B210s. Tough decision! Nowadays, these cars have depreciated down to about 2-3% of their original purchase price. Pretty good bang-for-buck, in terms of how much German engineering and sophistication you get for your money: a 182-horsepower six-cylinder engine, big brakes...
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October is generally the warmest month here by the Bay, so that's when you get the big car shows on the island. On Saturday, Park Street was taken over by hundreds of chromium-dipped chariots ; the following day, a horde of Ferraris, Fiats, Lancias, Alfas, and the like swarmed across the bridges and set up shop on the soccer field of the junior high school at which I was forced to learn " The Hustle " in P.E. class, circa 1979. Sadly, the LeMons-veteran Ecurie Ecrappe Alfa wasn't there, but the presence of such jewels as a Fiat 2100 wagon, supercharged Lancia Scorpion, and SEAT 850 compensated somewhat. Jump, jump, and see all the purty cars! galleryPost('LHSItalianShowTop', 6, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow2', 50, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow3', 27, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1');
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. When we saw the Mitsubishi L300 - which is a seriously rare machine in the United States, though I've just found another one in Alameda- some readers felt that the Toyota Van deserved a place in this series as well. You can find those things all over the place, so I decided I'd wait until I found an interesting one… and now I've found two! Alameda's waterfront on the Oakland Estuary side has all manner of marine-related businesses, from dredging companies to marine engine rebuilders to sailmakers. Sea Worthy Canvas- located across the street from a Toyota parts warehouse (and just down the street from the '64 Olds Jetstar )- uses a pair of Toyota Vans to deliver the goods to salty sea dogs throughout the Bay Area. Actually, it looks like they're using them for sail storage at the moment. These mid-engined vans sold like crazy...
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