Author: Murilee Martin
Volvo did well enough selling the PV444/544, Amazon and 140 in the USA, but it surely was the Volvo 200 Series that actually launched Göteborg iron into the American big time. Introduced here as a 1975 model, the 200 stayed in production for nearly two full many years and stays probably the most immediately recognizable Swedish automotive ever made. Here’s an early-production 244, present in a Denver-area automotive graveyard not way back. The 200 Series may very well be considered an update of the late-Nineteen Sixties-vintage 140 Series, because it’s essentially the identical automotive from the A pillars back. The…
Jeep is all the way down to just two models with available manual transmissions now (the Wrangler and its Gladiator sibling), nevertheless it wasn’t so way back that atypical commuter Jeeps might be purchased with three-pedal setups. Today’s Junkyard Gem is one in all those machines: a first-generation Liberty with a six-speed manual bolted to its V6 engine, present in a Denver automotive graveyard recently. I’m at all times on the lookout for rare manual-equipped vehicles during my junkyard travels, and I’ve found such oddities as a manual 2007 Toyota Camry (in addition to one in all the last V6/manual…
A lot of the vehicles you will find within the Ewe Pullets of the land will likely be atypical cars and trucks, but unexpected surprises can show up in the combination. I’ve documented ice cream trucks, TV stars, art cars, military staff vehicles and even a tank over my years of exploring automotive history in junkyards. Today’s Junkyard Gem is an icon of the American crunchy-snacks industry, present in a boneyard near Monterey, California. Plenty of auto manufacturers have aircraft of their DNA, including Saab, Subaru/Nissan (via the Nakajima Aircraft Company) and Mitsubishi. Grumman Olson was born when the Grumman…
Ford began selling the Escape Hybrid in america 4 years after the introduction of the Toyota Prius here, with production continuing through 2012. To switch it, a Focus-derived MPV that had proven itself in Europe was given a gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain and introduced as a 2013 model for North America. This was the C-Max Hybrid, and I’ve found one in all those first-year cars in a Wyoming self-service automobile graveyard. The C-Max was the primary American-market Ford model that was available only as a hybrid, and sales continued through 2018 (after which it was canceled as a result of being…
After writing about nearly 3,000 discarded vehicles throughout the past 17 years, I’ve learned that it takes just over a decade for a brand new kind of automotive to start showing up in the large self-service boneyards (not counting unrecognizably crashed and/or burned ones). The primary mass-produced battery-electric vehicles of the fashionable era hit American streets throughout the early 2010s, which implies used-up examples can now be found in Ewe Pullet-type automotive graveyards. Here’s one currently residing in Carson City, Nevada. While battery-powered vehicles enjoyed mainstream sales success throughout the early days of the auto, there have been only a…
The Ford F-Series was one of the best selling motorcar in the US for the 1982 model 12 months and has remained within the No. 1 spot ever since. You’d think that Junkyard Gem-worthy examples of that historic F-Series generation could be easy to search out within the automotive graveyards I frequent, given what number of were sold, but a lot of the ones that do show up have been used up beyond easy recognition after which picked clean by junkyard shoppers. That is not the case with today’s truck spotted in a northeastern Colorado yard: a reasonably solid 1985…
An American automobile shopper in search of a brand new V12-engined coupe in 1985 had two selections: Spend the present-day equivalent of several hundred grand for a Ferrari or Lamborghini … or get a Jaguar XJ-S for a few third that price. Today’s Junkyard Gem is one among those cars, present in a Denver automobile graveyard recently. Jaguar began bolting V12 engines into the E-Type starting in 1971, then into the XJ12 sedan soon after that. By the point the E-Type was discontinued after 1974, Jaguar had spent the higher a part of a decade grappling with the near-impossible task…
Toyota and Honda enjoyed lucrative American sales success with the RAV4 and CR-V compact crossovers, which went on sale here for the 1996 and 1997 model years, respectively. Suzuki offered its first-generation Escudo/Vitara here (because the Sidekick, along with being sold by GM with Geo Tracker badging), but its Eighties design had develop into embarrassingly dated by the center Nineties. Something needed to be done; that turned out to be the second-generation Vitara, which appeared here as a 1999 model. Here’s a first-year example, present in a Colorado automobile graveyard recently. The primary Suzuki-made automobile model sold recent in america…
By the center Sixties, George Romney had left the helm of American Motors to turn into governor of Michigan and company president Roy Abernethy had decided that AMC needed to compete more directly against GM, Ford and Chrysler. To ensure that the Kenosha manufacturer formed from the 1954 merger of Nash and Hudson to try this, a real full-size automobile needed to be created to steal sales from the Impala, Galaxie and Monaco. With a wheelbase stretch and a restyling by Dick Teague, the Rambler Ambassador became that automobile for the 1965 model 12 months. Here’s a once-snazzy soft-top Ambassador…
The 1965-1970 version of GM’s full-size B Platform was considered one of The General’s best successes, underpinning nearly 13 million cars. Each of the U.S.-market GM automotive divisions (except Cadillac) had their very own B-Bodies during those model years, from the proletarian Chevrolet Biscayne on as much as the opulent Buick Wildcat. Doing business only one small rung below Buick on the GM “Ladder of Success” in 1968 was the Oldsmobile Division, and the king of Olds B-Bodies that 12 months was the Delta 88 Custom Holiday Sedan four-door hardtop. Today’s Junkyard Gem is considered one of those cars, present…
