Jason and David came to visit last week and one of the questions they asked was if there were a lot of good cars in the little town outside New York where I live. Initially, I was tempted to say “no.” Compared to the carlover’s paradise that is Los Angeles or, even, compared to the excess and weirdness in the city, my little burgh didn’t quite rate.
That’s not right, though, there are actually some remarkable cars around and the more we walked through the neighborhood the more we noticed. Up top is the last generation of Dodge Ram Van, complete with a lot of appropriate dents and some sweet slotted five-spoke mag wheels.
Here’s a manual, YJ survivor with the Renegade package.
And a clean LXcruiser.
And not too far away here’s a great VW Thing. This guy actually has two (the other is yellow) and his dogs just sit there, unleashed, waiting for him.
And, finally, here’s a great video from Jason of a Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet we found when stretching our legs.
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So, yes, my place is a car town. There aren’t many brand new Ferraris or ’57 Chevys, but there are a ton of interesting survivors that get driven on a daily basis. There’s also a JDM Mk4 Supra I need to get pictures of that’s been rolling around lately.
I bet your town, in its own way, is a car town as well. They all are (well, not Mackinac Island).
Every city is a great car city if your tour guide is a car guy. I’m sure I’m not the only one here with a mental map of all the cool cars in town. I could take people on an amazing car tour in my small university town in central Portugal. We’d likely see 7-8 daily driven Renault 4s, a few other People’s Cars (Renault 5s Beetles, Minis, 2CVs, Fiat 500s), some cool 80s Porsches, a couple Datsuns, a Sierra Cosworth 4×4, lots of old Volvos, some impeccably clean 80s HiAces, even a Chevy Bel Air, a DeSoto and a last generation Mercury Capri. And a couple of years back we’d have an amazing tour of abandoned cars, but the current mayor made a point of removing abandoned cars from the streets as soon as he was elected.
I want to be friends with the guy that drives the Thing.
Actually, I want to be friends with his dogs.
Yeah, the guy who drives the Thing and lets his doggos hang out in it is my kind of guy. I feed stray cats in my street and I swear to god I’ve been thinking of installing a trapdoor in the passenger footwell of my Renault 4 to leave open at night, so they can get in during cold/rainy nights.
Going back home recently I saw a P38 Range Rover which had L322 Range Rover (the next, BMW era generation) front lights grafted on. It was mesmerising and uncomfortable like Margaret Keane’s ‘Big Eyes’ art. Every day is a school day; wherever you go there will be people hosing money at their car in unexpected ways because it’s their car, and God bless them.
Manama, Bahrain is simultaneously a terrible car town and an amazing one.
For one, it’s a giant-ass city where everyone drives, it’s like 55% expatriates and 25% deranged fratboy Saudis and nobody knows what anyone else will do at any given second. It’s a full time game of Mario Kart where everyone else is a blue shell.
However, there are basically no embargoes so you get cars from all over the world. Changans, GACs, H3’s, every possible rebadge of the Holden Commodore, Toyota minibuses, an absolute plague of Nissan Sunnys (I drive one here), and motorcycles of every possible stripe all battle it out dodging one another. To say nothing of the hyper-rich in their AMG G-wagens, that Rolls-Royce SUV thing, and even a McLaren that occasionally parks at my apartment complex. I think that same guy owns a Viper with a black-and-red paint job that at least appears to be the stock livery. On the parking deck above me there is a guy who owns a Hellcat, a vintage Mustang, and a gorgeous Mk4 Supra, all entirely unmolested.
This is a country where you can walk into a mall and drive out with an Aston or a Lotus…that will then share the streets with the most rickety-ass Hiluxes (Hiluces?) and Pajeros driven by contractors making their daily bread.
And the delivery motorcycles? Gigantic, pendulous, cold-forged unobtanium balls on those drivers. You could insulate Chernobyl with those balls. They’re flying around on 125cc Honda Unicorns to deliver takeout across town in the most chaotic environment imaginable and they’re doing it in a helmet and vest in a place where it’s at 100F at night. You bet we tip the hell outta those guys.
Want to see a true automotive melting pot? Bahrain.
A few weeks back I was sitting at a light in the slummiest part of Tacoma, Wa. when a J40 Land Cruiser pulled up along side me on the right and an AMC Eagle pulled up on my left.
The Cruiser took a right and the Eagle went left.
I was left sitting there waiting for the light to change. Completely flabbergasted.
Was this a coincidence or had I missed some cool car event a few blocks back?
Every town is a car town if you pay attention.
Hell yeah AMC Eagle
There are good things about the Adirondacks, but this ain’t a great environment for cars. My town qualifies as a car town only for that there are cars here, many of which will not see their 20th birthday before rotting out.
Idaho in general is an underrated car paradise. There is an abundance of everything from JDM GTRs and kei trucks to every imaginable form of old American car. Just yesterday on a trip to Boise I saw two VW type 2 camper vans (one with an extra tall roof for standing room), a first-gen Bronco, multiple Kei vans and trucks (one of which was pink), and a beautiful dark green 1969 Pontiac Firebird.
Every town out in the woods has several old cars, trucks, and vans in great shape either being actively used or sitting outside a barn, some with a for sale sign on the windshield that’s been there for years. Not just typical American stuff either, I’ve seen old 1960s Saabs (yes, plural) and other obscure stuff out there as well.
Part of this has to do with Idaho’s climate being mostly very dry, but not hot or sunny enough year-round to destroy interiors, so old cars just… survive. I myself drive a 1966 Thunderbird that still has its original interior in good shape thanks to Idaho’s forgiving climate, and I regularly see older folks daily-driving malaise-era cars they bought new, which they never had a reason to get rid of. Also due to the abundance of farms, there are a ton of great old farm trucks still around and being used, and occasionally becoming teenagers first trucks. I laugh when I hear about Californians paying 40 grand for trucks like that when over here, those are everywhere and just honest hardworking vehicles.
So yeah this entire state is a car town.
Yeah, it’s awesome like the Car D’Lane in Coeur D’Alene coming up soon
Pros:
Car town
Potatoes
Weather
Cons:
Nazis
That’s one of the things I like about Portland: the car-spotting here is varied and magnificent. Once you look past the sea of Priuses and Outbacks, I mean.
The only motorized vehicles on Mackinac that I saw were emergency vehicles. Oh, and airplanes at the airstrip.
There’s currently a controversy there around ebikes.
I was thinking of what the car scene is in my town, then realized that I need to plan my commute home today around the weekly car show that shuts down the “downtown” strip. its mostly what I am now calling “boomer classics”, which I do not meant to be a bad term, but it is pretty much all older dudes with their cool, blue-collar-possible old cars. It is a good time – lots of non-cars people come out to hang out – like a block party with cars.
Someone definately needs to cover Laughlin NV. A Car show every week. Mostly 50,60s American steel but huge.
Further proof, were any needed, that mag wheels make EVERYTHING better.
Am I missing something? I think that Land Cruiser is not a YJ.
Ooops, missed a photo. Thanks!
My town is a golf cart town, does that count?
I’ll see a Murano Cross Cabriolet every once in a while. I make sure to get a look at the driver to determine if this thing appeals to a certain demographic, lifestyle, etc. I just want to know who, on this slowly dying planet bought these things.
My Results: Incon-fucking-clusive. The people I’ve seen driving these come from all walks of life and the more I think about it, the more violently confused I get.
They’re just upsetting, full stop. Best not to dwell on it.
If you go up to Westchester (home to Wallstreet) you can find the expensive classic cars. At least I have spotted a lot on the weekends up there.
Over the years in west Austin, I’ve seen a Ferrari Daytona, Lamborghini Muira, BMW Z8, Delorean, and most recently M-B 300 SL Gullwing.
Yeah, have seen all kinds all around Austin (even though most people here have boring new cars and are obsessed w/ washing them) Shout out from Round Rock- just saw a Lamborghini the other day
I knew a woman who took a summer job on Mackinac Island working in the kitchen of the Big Hotel (I don’t know the name)…anyway…she arrived in May and thought it was absolutely the best town she’d ever seen. Totally in love.
In July the stench of horse manure and urine permeated the place and she could hardly stand it.
I was there once as a kid, and that’s what I remember also. That, and my Dad making a joke about the extra “fudge” in the street. I laughed at that joke then, and I’m laughing now.
And just think, until a little over 100 years ago, every town and city was like that!
All towns smell like horse shit, it’s just usually concentrated around government offices.
My dad referred to those leavings as “horse exhaust”. 🙂
El Hotel Grande