How cool a Lagonda!! another car i really like! and yes, the other one is a Seat, a 1200 Sport, nicknamed "boca negra" (black mouth in spanish) that was a good catch Steve!!





I like the Custom Cruiser too, as well as the Caprice wagon too, i told you once, and about that little european car you ask for is a Renault Encore!! now its me who says that most of you wont find it exciting but i do! since i love to see american versions of our european cars there!! very nice find Taxiguy, and actually seems to be in a pretty good shape, surprising...

And by the way, yes it was officially sold there taxiguy, as i said under the name of Encore, the european one was practically the same but it was called 11

Nice finds indeed I agree with Ccf.

About the customized Caprices, that's sad, they look so nicer in their original state...
I guess that these are a quite common old car in USA. Here it is so rare (being not officially sold), I'd like to have one (but not as daily driver, it's too big and expensive in gas)

80's continued..


Fiat-Abarth of some kind...


Cadillac pic from december '85


Customized pick-up


I know there was a Vauxhall Firenza coupe with this type of front, but i'm not sure if this estate is original?

I agree. The customized ones just look stupid. And yes, they are quite common too, at least where I live. It's funny you should mention that, because the other day I took a short trip to the store and on my way I started to notice quite a few of them driving around. So I started counting and I saw a total of eight 1991-1996 Caprices just while driving about one mile! (Although one of them was a taxi, so I guess that one doesn't really count ) Another similar car that is quite common is the 1991-96 Buick Roadmaster Wagon (which is basically a Caprice wagon with a different grill). For some reason the Buick Wagon sold much better than the Caprice Wagon, and a ton more than the Oldsmobile wagon, which was only made for two years and had a total production of only 12,010 cars! That's compared to the almost 850,000 Caprices of that generation that were made (that includes the sedans)! That is why the Oldsmobile I posted was such an interesting car, it's one of only 12,000 made, and 15 years after production of the last one has stopped!

EDIT: By the way, are there even any of these cars around where you live? They would have to be imported, which seem pointless since the streets are much too tiny for such a collasal car and the gas prices are so high. I would be so sad living in a place where I didn't see Caprices (and Crown Vics for that matter) driving around each day like I do here

Indeed i'd like to own one too, with the rear wheel half covered (what year would it be then?) and oh that automatic change with the gear shifter on the steering wheel column

That would be 1991-92. I saw a really nice one the other day, actually it was one of the eight that I previously mentioned. It was a 1992 with the fender skirt and everything! It was even the two-tone colored LTZ model
It looked exactly like this one:



By the way you think the column shifter is cool? Here that is considered such an "old-fart" kind of feature, like a bench seat.

I guess that few were imported by individual who liked the car (if I had lots of money, I would do it), or by people on army bases.
I am not even sure to have seen one in the last few years, except hearses which are often based on US cars because there the size is an advantage (I guess) and also because they are not taxed. From time to time I see a nice silver Caprice hearse around here, I suppose it belongs to a "funeral office" (not sure of the word; the only French word that I know for that is not in my FR-EN dictionary ) from this area.

It appears to be blue "astroturf" (outdoor carpet) covering this strange Grand Marquis. I am not sure why someone would do this to a car. By the way, I could not make any sense of their website either.

Beautiful

And yes i love the gear shifter to be in the column, its considered as ugly in the USA? really? what a dissapointment, i might be the only one to like it then, but i really think it fits nice, and seems pretty comfortable and leaves you more space inbetween the driver and the codriver.

Hmm, column shifter. Which was the last European car, which had it?

But there was not only one version. The system of Renault and Citroen was not identical with the "classic" column-shifter like Opel or Audi (Audi 60 and the early Audi 100) had.
The Trabant had annother one, too.

Except the Trabant, I think, Opel was the last one with the Rekord D.

If I remember well, the Renault 4 and Citroën DS had that... long time back indeed

Edit: and for the R4 I have a doubt now Maybe it was just on the dashboard?

That is really neat! I can just imagine so many problems arising from having that on your car though. Depending on how it was attached, it could trap moisture and cause severe body rust underneath. I bet it adds a lot of weight to the car also. But still, a very nice example of an "art" car!

It reminds me of another art car I once saw

Just on the dashboard yes

The current ML has the shifter on the column as well, but it is much smaller and hardly noticeable by anyone.

http://blogs.cars.com/photos/mother_proof_august/ml550interior.jpg

Well a bit of offtopic here, i didnt know where to fit this and i didnt want to start a new thread, or actually, would it be a good idea to open a thread called "spy photos" so we can know what's coming new? what do you all think, and specially you Antoine?

Well while we decide, look at what will be the new CTS Wagon

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/es.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/cd_ctswagon_03.jpg


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/es.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/cd_ctswagon_04.jpg

My Expy has a traditional column shifter for its transmission.
"O/D OFF <" is displayed on the side of the shifter. There is a button on the very end that when depressed will lock-out the overdrive.

Yes i knew the Expy still had it on the colum what's the overdrive by the way?

Sure, why not. If it is to post photos that you have not made yourself but just some found on internet, it is better to make that in another topic indeed.

The overdrive is just the highest or "final" gear in a transmission. The Overdrive Lock-out simply denies the transmission access to that final gear. The concept of locking out the O/D is not new, its been around for quite some time. Its extremely useful when towing/hauling heavy loads (especially in hilly or mountainous terrain) as it optimizes the engine’s torque output.

Ah i understand, it is as if you could put it on a lower gear to have more torque, as when on manual you put third to go up a hill, thanks Neptune

Neptune i also see that your vehicle has 1 and second gear, do you ever use them?