Automoto Network

The Ford Pinto, butt of so many exploding-car jokes from the day Mother Jones published “Pinto Madness,” was built from the 1971 through 1980 model years. I’ve documented many discarded Pintos (and Mercury Bobcats) over the years, but today’s Junkyard Gem is the only final-year-of-production Pinto/Bobcat I’ve managed to find in a car graveyard. This […] July 24, 2022 at 01:30AM

The station wagon’s final period of true mainstream sales relevance in North America took place during the 1990s, though the minivan and SUV had long since been shoving the wagon aside by that point. Peak Wagon — measured by the number of new wagon models available here — occurred in either 1964 or 1977, when […] July 17, 2022 at 01:45AM

It’s no easy task to determine the year of the very first Dodge station wagon, because the wagonlike vehicles of the Dodge Brothers’ early years were “screensides” based on truck chassis and the sedan deliveries of the 1930s weren’t made as family haulers (though the truck-based Dodge woodie wagons of the middle 1930s seem to […] April 11, 2022 at 01:26AM

One thing I’ve learned, after documenting more than 2,200 crusher-bound vehicles since 2007, is that most 1946-1975 Detroit sedans aren’t considered worth saving once they get a little battered. Coupes and convertibles are another story … unless you’re talking about a coupe that became a convertible — or, in this case, a roadster — in […] March 20, 2022 at 06:45AM

When Honda introduced the Acura brand to North America for the 1986 model year, there were just two models we could buy here: the Legend luxury sedan (developed in partnership with Rover and sibling to the Sterling 825) and the Civic-based Integra. Most Integras we’ve seen on the street for the last couple of decades […] February 13, 2022 at 06:05AM

Fifteen years ago, I wrote my first-ever automotive article under the name Murilee Martin, and it didn’t take me long to start writing about one of my favorite automotive subjects: the junkyard. Before I’d refined my system for documenting discarded vehicles, however, I shot a lot of boneyard photos that never got used. For today’s […] February 07, 2022 at 06:45AM

Imagine you’re an American Mercedes-Benz salesman during the winter of 1989-1990, looking over your inventory of majestic W126-chassis 560 SELs… and then you glance across the street at that brand-new Lexus dealership and flinch at the sight of your rivals gloating over a lot full of futuristic-looking big luxury sedans priced at less than half […] January 16, 2022 at 06:10AM

Filed under: Dodge,Automotive History,Hatchback,Classics Continue reading Junkyard Gem: 1988 Dodge Omni America Junkyard Gem: 1988 Dodge Omni America originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 2 Jan 2022 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Email this |  Comments January 03, 2022 at 06:58AM

The very first water-cooled Volkswagen sold in the United States, after a quarter-century of exclusively air-cooled vehicles shipped over from Wolfsburg, was the 1974 Dasher (the Rabbit aka Golf didn’t show up here until the 1975 model year). Known as the Passat elsewhere in the world and sibling to the Audi Fox aka 80 (not […] November 07, 2021 at 10:30PM

While I find plenty of 1950s Detroit cars in quick-inventory-turnover self-service wrecking yards during my travels, they tend to be the ordinary post sedans that were built by the millions during the heyday of the three-on-the-tree manual transmission and nuclear-attack symbols on car radios. The more sought-after convertibles, coupes, and four-door hardtops are tougher to […] October 24, 2021 at 06:44AM

Toyota finally killed off the Lexus GS last year, after nearly 20 years of earning respect but not nearly as many yen as the Toyota City overlords had hoped. American car buyers came to prefer truck-shaped machinery during the production life of the GS, and those who wanted sedans didn’t see the advantages of the […] October 17, 2021 at 06:12AM

During the 1970s and into the 1980s, each member of the Detroit Big Three imported Japanese small pickups and sold them with Ford (Mazda Proceed), Dodge/Plymouth (Mitsubishi Forte), or Chevrolet (Isuzu Faster) badges here. Ford developed the Ranger and killed the Courier for 1983 (though Americans could still buy the Mazda-badged version all the way […] October 10, 2021 at 06:49AM

After years of watching the Pontiac Division rake in money by selling snazzed-up Chevrolet siblings bedecked with affordable opulence and big engines, the low-priced unit of The General’s empire had had enough. Not only did Chevrolet glom marketing maestro and talented engineer (in that order) John DeLorean from Pontiac, but Pontiac had overstuffed the cash […] October 04, 2021 at 06:48AM

While the actual first-generation Camry was a Japan-only Celica variant, the first time the Camry appeared in American Toyota showrooms was when the second-gen car showed up in early 1983 (and I’ve managed to find one of the very first US-market Camrys in a Denver junkyard). While the Camry has been available only in four-door […] September 26, 2021 at 06:18AM

When the Lexus LS 400 first appeared here in late 1989 (as a 1990 model), sellers of German-made luxury sedans broke out in the shaky sweats and car shoppers flocked to see — and buy — this well-built statusmobile that retailed for about 60% of the price of the cheapest S-Class. Not attracting nearly as […] September 20, 2021 at 06:13AM

When you visit a big American self-service car graveyard these days, you’ll find plenty of Ford Mustangs. Nearly all of those cars will be the 1994-2004 SN95s, with a few fifth-generation Mustangs plus a surprising number of 1974–1978 Mustang IIs. Pre-1974 Mustangs are exceedingly rare in the big, high-inventory-turnover yards nowadays, of course (though I […] September 19, 2021 at 07:02AM

Even as many American car shoppers sought to stretch their gasoline budgets by purchasing the primitive-but-reliable rear-wheel-drive Datsun B210 during the middle 1970s, Nissan brought over the more sophisticated front-wheel-drive Datsun F-10. Because the Cherry-based F-10 (known as the F-11 in its homeland, just to confuse everybody) was such an awkward-looking little machine, it found […] September 06, 2021 at 07:32AM

The Cutlass proved to be such a big-selling model for Oldsmobile— particularly during the middle 1970s— that The General saw fit to apply the Cutlass name to three unrelated Oldsmobiles during the the mixed-up-muddled-up-shook-up period of the 1980s. There was the Cutlass Supreme, a midsize rear-wheel-drive G-body sibling to the Chevy Monte Carlo and then, […] September 05, 2021 at 06:47AM

American Suzuki Motor Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2012, and new Suzuki-badged cars stopped being sold here the following year (meanwhile, Suzuki went on to create one of the biggest-selling cars in its home market). While many of the United States-market Suzukis of the previous decade had been Daewoos beneath the emblems, the Kizashi sedan […] August 30, 2021 at 06:48AM

If you’re looking for a controversial Junkyard Gem, here’s your car! Yes, I’ve found a first-year-of-production Chevrolet Corvair sedan, the innovative Detroit compact with an air-cooled boxer-six engine in the back, in a Denver self-service car graveyard. These cars sold very well at first, with sales of 200,000-300,000 per year from 1960 through 1965. Because […] August 16, 2021 at 06:47AM