Vintage Cars Spotted: Opel Rekord and More

We went into a tough neighborhood today. The industrial-turns-into-residential, 'cross the tracks, down by the riverbed, over in the 'hood sort of place. Near my old high-school, actually. I thought it was time to see if every part of town has cool old cars. And you know what ...

Yes, it is an Opel Rekord, it runs well, shifts easily and (Surprise, surprise!) it is for sale. Any Germans in our viewership, feel free to inquire, as the dollar is dropping it should be cheap. The owner is a nice Mexican gardener who gave me quite a sales pitch but eased off when I told him I had 8 cars already. He has 5 so he could sympathize with my weakness ...



I was happy to see so many old vehicles still licensed and on the road. They're not all dead in the ditch or the back garden.







See how one car leads to another? Mustang begets Cadillac down the block



But before the Caddy there's a Dart and Dodge Van to cover first



A little tired but still working



I guess the same can be said for the Cadillac.





I'm astounded by the very high ratio of 4x4 trucks. The survival rate certainly seems disproportionate to the sales of the trucks when new.





This El Camino has seen better days



but it still gets someone to and fro



Someday I might have to concentrate solely on old cars that are in handicap parking spaces, as there are lots of them









You can tell that the owners have worked to keep these machines going past their sell-by date





We seemed to find a plethora of Dodge Darts and other Chrysler products.








In varying degrees of disarray



This "Imperial" was the lowest point in the history of Chrysler Corporation's shameful brand exploitation.

Does this look like "of or relating to an empire or an emperor; of superior or unusual size or excellence"? 

No, I thought not. What a piece of crap engineering and manufacturing. Yukk. Thank goodness I didn't ever buy one when they were new.

Are these tires a little out of scale with the van? Or did they mount this body on a pickup chassis?

Let's leave the Chrysler products for awhile, and move on to Chevrolet









What a difference a set of wheels makes









I take back what I said about the rims











OK, enough GM - moving on to Fords now







I love the look of this 60 year-old truck. Just enough rat rod and not too far from a good paint job and low-rider status symbol



I don't really want to close on a low note, but you can't get much LOWER than this NSX



His driveway is not very steep but I can see why he has to park on the street. Those fender wells are not even scarred up, so he must be an extremely careful driver.

Thanks for coming along today. No matter what neighborhood, what time of day, work day or weekend or holiday - we can find cool cars.

Cazalea