Home » Why Certain Cars Like This Exist In An Internet Deadzone

Why Certain Cars Like This Exist In An Internet Deadzone

Lexus Sc430 Pebble Top
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I’ve often seen a younger gentleman rolling around my neighborhood in what is clearly a 2006 Lexus SC 430 Pebble Beach Edition. This surprised me at first, as the car MSRP’d for the equivalent of $109,000 in 2025 dollars. Then I remembered that my luxury car was the 2025 equivalent of about $70,000, and I paid $3,000 for it. I’m not sure what deal this kid got, but I was determined to write about it. That turned out to be harder than I expected.

There’s a specific set of years for which information on cars and, honestly, information in general on the web is hard to come by. It’s a deadzone caused by the maturation of the internet from the past into the internet as we know it.  To use an outdated parlance, this is the transition from the bleepy modems and restrictions of Internet 1.0, to the cable modems and video/image-rich Internet 2.0.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

While it isn’t universal, there’s a specific model year period that’s difficult to find good information about and, worse, to find official press photos that aren’t tiny and almost unusable. Depending on the automaker, it’s between MY 2003 and MY 2006, meaning cars revealed between 2002 and 2006.

I have a theory for why this is, mostly because I started to work on the Car Internet back in 2007 and witnessed a lot of it firsthand. The way car photos used to be distributed to journalists was by literally sending out a photo of a car with a caption attached:

Source: Stellantis

This one seems to have been embargoed to September 23rd, 1980, because people must have been clamoring to see what the new Dodge Aries was going to look like. Back in the magazine era, this date let publications like Car And Driver know they couldn’t put the photo in a publication that published before that date. A lot of these photos still exist as almost all of them were scanned in by someone at some point.

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When the Car Internet came around, this caused all sorts of trouble. Magazines would often print photos of cars well before the agreed-upon dates, having a lot to do with the fact that magazines can’t really control exactly when they show up at the Rite-Aid in Grand Central. After about 2009, this no longer really mattered, as all photos were released via email link/proto-dropbox, but this caused all sorts of problems for a while.

It’s that interim period where things get a little fuzzy. And I mean that literally. What photos were distributed were often distributed at lower res than we’re used to, owing to the fact that the largest photo you’d see on very old, pre-blog or early-blog websites was about 500 pixels wide. I believe when I started at Jalopnik in 2007, the photos weren’t ever supposed to be larger than 600 pixels wide. So you get a lot of photos from that era, which, at best, are 600 pixels wide:

Suzuki Grand Vitraa Large
Source: Suzuki

This is a MY 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara, and there’s basically no one online around to preserve or support this brand’s photos. It’s possible that, without enough searching, you’ll find something on FavCars or NetCarShow, but even then, I couldn’t find photos of the 2006 Lexus SC 430. Nor were they on the Lexus USA press site or the global Toyota newsroom I often use for photos.

Pictures Lexus Rx 2008 1 1600x1200
Photo: Lexus

Could I find photos of the 2008 Pebble Beach RX350? Of course! The 2007 SC 430? No problem! By 2007, blogs like Jalopnik and AutoBlog were ascendant, and automakers were making sure to create high-res assets.

Eventually, after much searching, I did find a couple of photos on the Lexus Canada site, which preserved them at a reasonable ~1000kb.

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(multiple Values)
Source: Lexus

Just look at that sweet Camel Brown interior, matched with the Tiger Eye Mica exterior. This is a gorgeous car and, while press photos aren’t easy to find, there are plenty of classifieds.

(multiple Values)
Photo: Lexus

This isn’t universal. Japanese automakers, Korean automakers, some German automakers, and General Motors are absolutely the worst at this. Ford has, unfortunately, followed GM in having an influencer-focused newsroom that makes finding photos nearly impossible, but Ford thankfully has the Heritage Vault, which has almost everything you’d ever need, including brochures. Obviously, you can call up most automakers and get photos if you really want them, but it’s not as easy for regular folks.

The best at this? For cars in this deadzone, Stellantis actually has the best archives, including actual video footage. It’s kinda the only “best” thing about Chrysler cars from this era, but I respect it.

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Lotsofchops
Lotsofchops
18 hours ago

Obviously, you can call up most automakers and get photos if you really want them, but it’s not as easy for regular folks.

Can I call and tell them I’m writing a freelance article on The Autopian, or will that get my number/email extra blocked?

Strangek
Strangek
18 hours ago

A lot of bands that I loved from back in the early 2000s, kinda pre high speed, pre YouTube days, have little to no online presence. It’s frustrating, but takes you back when you wouldn’t hear some local or regional act that was totally awesome unless you lived near them. Now they’re all in my pocket!

Warcabbit
Warcabbit
18 hours ago
Reply to  Strangek

They were probably all on MySpace. That’s not a wiseguy remark, I mean that literally. MySpace had the best music integration features.

Captain Avatar
Captain Avatar
23 hours ago

An SC is my next car. My wife looked at it and said “ugh”

“Well, its a V8, and …if we modify it, it can probably keep up with your BMWs”

“Oh…well, ok…that sounds like fun…does it come in a convertible?”……

😀

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
23 hours ago

Gosh, I found a sticky note with guidelines for images on the first website I worked for (a student portal in 2005): 530 px wide.

5
3
0

(I think we were allowed to go bigger shortly after that.)

Lotsofchops
Lotsofchops
18 hours ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Honestly if it’s school portal-related, you could’ve said the limit in 2025 is 530px and I’d believe you.

Last edited 18 hours ago by Lotsofchops
Twobox Designgineer
Twobox Designgineer
1 day ago

Two days with no posts from Jason. Is he ok?

B P
B P
1 day ago

He’s probably still on his seven day passage back from the UK via a container ship…

Tim R
Tim R
20 hours ago
Reply to  B P

“How I smuggled a Jenson Interceptor back to America in a shipping container with me in the trunk”

Lotsofchops
Lotsofchops
17 hours ago
Reply to  Tim R

Oh man now I kinda want him to recreate the Great Ghosn Get-Away Gamble.

SCJeff
SCJeff
1 day ago

Has Jason ever really been “ok”? 😉

Lizardman in a human suit
Lizardman in a human suit
15 hours ago
Reply to  SCJeff

If he starts acting “normal” for a guy his age, call an ambulance. His heart is acting up again

Roofless
Roofless
1 day ago

I’ve used Bring A Trailer for this in the past – nice way to get a lot of modern pictures of what’s usually the cleanest version of something you’re gonna find, and they’ve got a shockingly large collection of vehicles I frankly wouldn’t have considered to warrant that kind of detailed coverage.

Evopanop
Evopanop
1 day ago

No thanks. Lexus should have called it something else. As a “successor” to the SC400, the 430 is a complete failure. The SC400 is a beautiful looking automobile. The SC430 is just… not. I’d love a final model years (98+) SC400 with a 6-speed swap. #lifegoals

TheBadGiftOfTheDog
TheBadGiftOfTheDog
1 day ago

I know the feeling. There was a car item in a magazine back in the 80’s that I only found a single copy of at postage stamp size and unreadable. In the modern Internet some things just don’t draw enough interest to be dredged up and put in display.

WalmartTech
WalmartTech
1 day ago

Then you have the YouTube channels like Rivlanta, ROVR, and MyMopar preserving dealership training media that the general public can use for their vehicles.

Sam I am
Sam I am
1 day ago

I recently bought a 2008 SC430 after a year+ of looking/lurking. It’s a fantastic car. V8 power, impeccable build quality, hardtop works flawlessly every time, what’s not to like? Owner’s forums are a great source of information for any car, but especially for cars like this that are a bit obscure and sold in low numbers. But yeah, I do miss the days of nice brochures.

Vb9594
Vb9594
18 hours ago
Reply to  Sam I am

’05 SC430 in my fleet. Fantastic car. Can’t even tell it’s a convertible until the top goes down!

Brockstar
Brockstar
11 hours ago
Reply to  Vb9594

‘02 in my fleet. It’s just a comfortable car to drive top up or down. The leather also holds up surprisingly well

LTDScott
LTDScott
1 day ago

On a somewhat related note of being able to find info on older vehicles, I am seriously lamenting the loss of printed brochures. For years every manufacturer would print a brochure which would clearly lay out all of the trim levels, options, etc. that were available. Part of my job as an auto parts product manager is to catalog products to the correct vehicles and those brochures are a resource I use often. This site is bookmarked on my work computer.

But several manufacturers have stopped doing this in recent years and it makes my job more difficullt. I have to use the manufacturer’s website to research and it’s MUCH harder to see all trim levels and options at the same time. Not to mention that as the vehicles age, manufacturers don’t keep old model year info on their site, so after a few years all of that info is gone and not so easy to find elsewhere. At least the old printed brochures provided a snapshot in time you could look back on.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 day ago
Reply to  LTDScott

This is why as soon as I purchased my Mercedes-Benz, I went to the MBUSA site to download the brochure as well as all the manuals in pdf for future reference.

Makes searching for the content I need much simpler – esp when I’m futzing around in the dark trunk – the iPad is lit and easier to read.

WalmartTech
WalmartTech
21 hours ago
Reply to  LTDScott

I was actually lucky enough to snag a 2006 Buick product portfolio (shows everything Buick was making that year; and it even has both paint colors and interior seat material swatches) on eBay along with a printed brochure for my Lucerne.

SlowCarFast
SlowCarFast
20 hours ago
Reply to  LTDScott

I’ve managed to find electronic brochures on multiple manufacturers’ websites. They might not be easy to find, but if you poke around enough, you might stumble onto their hiding place.

I have had luck with Honda, Toyota, and Lexus, and Cadillac, as well as the Audi A5.

LTDScott
LTDScott
20 hours ago
Reply to  SlowCarFast

Sure, some still do, but others don’t. Ford, Ram, and Chevy/GMC all stopped publishing brochures around 2022/2023, and given that most of the products I manage are in the Light Truck segment, that’s a major loss for me. Heck, even Toyota doesn’t have brochures for their 2025 model trucks.

Maryland J
Maryland J
1 day ago

Beautiful car. Another forbidden fruit for me – I’m too tall to survive the test drive. If you can stomach changing out timing belts, and get rid the horrible stock run flats, you’d find a really relaxed grand tourer cruiser, before such a thing really existed. If you are shopping for one, there was also a major refresh in MY2006 – improved transmission with an added sixth gear, arguably better looking rims, Bluetooth for music only.

Drew
Drew
1 day ago
Reply to  Maryland J

I haven’t been in one. How tall is too tall for one of these? There’s a 2007 not too far from me, but far enough that I don’t want to go check it out if you need to be 5’7″ or something. It’s also a little higher priced than I would like, but I might go check it out if I’ll fit.

Squirrelmaster
Squirrelmaster
1 day ago
Reply to  Drew

Much like with many other convertibles, bodily proportions make a big difference. I can fit in the SC430 nicely at 6’1″, but I am pretty equal in leg and torso length – someone at my height with a longer torso might start running into issues, though. This is conjecture based on my singular experience sitting in one, but I think 6’3″ is probably the upper height limit for the car.

Drew
Drew
1 day ago
Reply to  Squirrelmaster

I’m your height and a little torso-heavy, but not too much, so I think I’ll have to sit in one to find out. Thank you for the insight!

Sam I am
Sam I am
1 day ago
Reply to  Drew

I’m 6’1″ and consist mostly of feet, knees and elbows and I’m very comfortable in my SC430.

Chartreuse Bison
Chartreuse Bison
1 day ago
Reply to  Maryland J

*Bluetooth for phone calls only. Lexus didn’t get Bluetooth media until 2010

Maryland J
Maryland J
22 hours ago

Yep. Brain fart on my part.

6’5 for folks wondering how tall I am. Average NBA height.

OnceInAMillenia
OnceInAMillenia
1 day ago

About a year ago, I tried to find the total sales numbers of the Mazda Millenia in the US, but they fell in the same hole of time. I eventually found *some* sales and manufacturing counts from early HTML pages on Mazda’s media site by just randomly changing the URL until a page resolved, but not every year was still there.

Ultimately, I found a complete record in library archives of old Automotive News market research books and I put the numbers on the millenia’s Wikipedia page for all to find. It was about 169,000 units, for anyone wondering

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
1 day ago

You even went to NYPL! I went there to get some info on the Pak-Age-Car (1930’s issues of Milk Journal Monthly are hard to locate) but they proved unable to locate almost anything on my list, even though they were supposed to be there. Also, the scanning process was hilariously cumbersome.

Dogisbadob
Dogisbadob
1 day ago

The SC430 is the Mercedes SL done right. People hate on it for no reason.

JDE
JDE
1 day ago
Reply to  Dogisbadob

I think it really goes back to when it was new. it was in my mind the replacement for the Sc300, that was an attractive, sporty looking car that to this day I would still like to own at some point. the 430 on paper was better, but it looked weirdly bubblicious. Even the V8 could not really draw me in. I am sure they are perfectly grand touring cars, but I would still take the SC300 over the SC430. Kind of like the OG G35 coupe vs the G37 coupe.

Roofless
Roofless
1 day ago
Reply to  JDE

Yeah, I think the 300->430 change happened just at the shift away from 90s car design, which was focused on sleek and svelte cars, to the more modern, uh, “growth” era of cars. Most cars around that generation had a similar jump, where you can really see the last car that was penned in the 90s era and then the first of the 2000s (the BMW Bangle era jumps to mind) – belt lines got higher, surfaces got arbitrarily curvier, everything looks a little more bloated, and curb weights jumped by a ton or so. The 430 got there early, and it replaced what was really a standard bearer of Japanese car design, so absolutely everyone hated it. If it had been released 5 years later, everyone still would’ve hated it, but I don’t think it would still be remembered as uniquely bad.

Squirrelmaster
Squirrelmaster
1 day ago
Reply to  Dogisbadob

I knew a guy who bought an SC430 new at launch and he took so much grief from people about it. He mostly just shrugged it off and told everyone they should drive one before talking. I got to sit in his car and was shocked at how nice it was and how you could feel quality throughout. It may not have been a real grand tourer, but I could absolutely see why it was a great car for driving around in a city like Houston with highly variable-quality roads, traffic, and little opportunity for open, spirited driving.

JC 06Z33
JC 06Z33
1 day ago
Reply to  Dogisbadob

I think its featureless gelatin mold of an exterior is a perfectly good reason to hate on it.

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
1 day ago
Reply to  JC 06Z33

It’s “feature” is really weird proportions. The things are just ugly – ESPECIALLY with the top up. And then you compare it to the absolutely beautiful car it replaced, that was Toyota’s best effort since the 2000GT.

And despite a decent bit of power, they drove with the same excitement level of a 4cyl base Camry.

PBL
PBL
3 hours ago
Reply to  Dogisbadob

Lexus did two great things with the SC. First, give customers a reliable, practical SL with reasonable operating costs. Second, remove the burden of choice. Like the LS, this was done in basically one spec. You want exclusivity? Try the Pebble Beach edition.

What we hate about it is mostly down to taste. It’s not slow but it’s not much fun to drive unless you want to relax. The styling has never really improved with the years, and despite knowing that the back seats are an insurance dodge it’s still headscratching to see Lexus do something so impractical. I always thought if if they just stretched the wheelbase out a few inches they could have had a car with more balanced styling and a real rear seat. And some real storage… with the top down you are basically forced to use the rear seats as the trunk.

But again, minor stuff, and on the basis of my wallet alone, I’d prefer to own one of these than a similar vintage SL.

Dogisbadob
Dogisbadob
2 hours ago
Reply to  PBL

those fake back seats don’t seem to be any worse than the SL’s back seat 😛

Hangover Grenade
Hangover Grenade
1 day ago

If I’m getting an SC430, I want it with the ridiculous silver platter wheels and a cassette player. Lean into and embrace the bad.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
1 day ago

I dunno, I have it on good authority from SWG that the Durango from that era is awesomesauce.

NC Miata NA
NC Miata NA
1 day ago

Chrysler media archives: The only thing about our cars you can expect to last!

JDE
JDE
1 day ago
Reply to  NC Miata NA

Except Allpar, that certainly has not lasted the past 5 years.

Eli
Eli
1 day ago

I blame the switch from internet forums to Facebook. Model specific forums had every detail of new cars, how to fix them, main problems to look for etc. All stickied or easy to search for. Facebook is the wild west for info. So any car made before FB became popular for it’s groups, that info is gone. Photobucket’s broken links remind us of what used to be.

Dan Roth
Dan Roth
1 day ago
Reply to  Eli

Facebook ruined so much. Interpersonal relationships, the internet, stable democracy…

And that “pivot to video”….

Last edited 1 day ago by Dan Roth
I don't hate manual transmissions
I don't hate manual transmissions
1 day ago
Reply to  Dan Roth

We live in the age of asocial media, and spend way too much time watching artificial reality television. “News” channels are mostly propaganda.

Yeah, fun times.

Jason H.
Jason H.
1 day ago
Reply to  Dan Roth

I’m hating the “pivot to video”.

Video can be great – if you are presenting an idea that needs a visual AND you take advantage of the video format. However, so much video is just done so badly with just people talking – which is far quicker to communicate via the written word.

Captain Muppet
Captain Muppet
23 hours ago
Reply to  Jason H.

I refuse to watch anything filmed in portrait, on the assumption that it’s recorded by an idiot.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago
Reply to  Eli

While we’re at it, f*ck Reddit, too.

Not that it isn’t useful, but all of them just siphoned off people in the name of making things 10% easier to use. I never got into it. The idea of a single forum containing all of my interests and family and habits always felt weird to me, but that’s the perspective of someone raised on Internet 1.0. I still prefer to search a DIY fix and find a site like FamilyHandyman or OdyClub or PreppersAnonymous because I feel like they’re more curated to that specific need.

1996: Whatever you do, NEVER give your real name and location on the internet! There are so many sketchy people out there…

2020+: This person doesn’t have their real name and location on the internet. That’s pretty sketchy…

Dan Roth
Dan Roth
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

Yeah. You ever stop to think about the idea of TNCs?

You use the internet to summon a car driven by some rando that you just jump into without a second thought. It’s a trifecta of stuff we used to be cautious about.

Finding information has gotten worse, not better. And we’re not teaching people how to research.

Gubbin
Gubbin
1 day ago
Reply to  Dan Roth

I’ve called Uber “Overshare” in my head ever since reading the Warren Ellis comic that starts with a (Millennial, in the 2010s) junior intelligence analyst who blithely hops into his “Overshare” rideshare after work and ends up compromising the whole agency by the time they dump his corpse.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago
Reply to  Dan Roth

I once questioned Uber on a Gawker thread and was beaten into submission for suggesting that saving 10% vs a taxi was not worth the hassle of having to download an app, create an account, ride with a stranger, and have little recourse if things go poorly.

And don’t even get me started on Review Culture. We offer 1-5 stars, but almost everything is 4.5-4.9, from Amazon to AirBNB. Retaliatory reviews are very, very real.

I’m halfway thinking about a “review normalization website” that looks at the clusters and breaks them out, statistically, into actual ratings spread more evenly between 1-5. The median review should always be a 3 for any product or service.

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

Once the car arrives, Uber is indistinguishable from a taxi. You have no idea who the taxi driver is – he could be some serial killer who offed the actual cabbie just as easily as an Uber driver is a serial killer.

The magic of Uber is in the ease of getting a taxi in the first place, and the transparency of knowing what the ride is going to cost before you get in the car, and not having to deal with the payment. So while I think their business model of offloading most of the costs to the driver sucks, the actual service works really, really well compared to traditional taxis. Which pretty universally sucked.

Ash78
Ash78
22 hours ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

I semi-agree, but a lot of the places where I go (and need taxis) are places like airports, business districts, or tourists areas where it’s quicker and easier to grab a cab than an Uber, anyway. But you make a good point about how it could be anyone driving that taxi. I just think the odds are a lot lower.

If it was a service I needed at least once a week, from bars or restaurants or other places like that, then I’d be 100% on board. Also, times I’ve needed to go from my suburban home to an airport, scheduling an Uber is pretty nice. I just wish their standards were higher on vehicle condition, I’ve had some shady ones (taxis are all predictably mediocre)

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
22 hours ago
Reply to  Ash78

There is certainly room for both approaches, and I generally use cabs at airports as well. But if I am in some random downtown and needing to get around (and or I need to get TOO the airport), Uber/Lyft absolutely KILL cabs in ease of use.

I find worrying about who the driver is to just be very odd, but I don’t have the paranoia gene in general. In a few big cities there is possibly some vetting as to who cab drivers are, but in the vast majority of places it’s just some rando either way. Where I am from it’s inevitably going to be some dude fresh off the boat from Somalia who was driving a camel a month ago, the “Somali mafia” having taken over the taxi business a couple decades ago The driver MIGHT even have a US driver’s license, if you are lucky.

Pilotgrrl
Pilotgrrl
18 hours ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

Depending where you are, maybe try the Curb app or the Bolt app.

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
18 hours ago
Reply to  Pilotgrrl

I can’t be bothered, i don’t need it enough, and to add to the ease of use, both Uber and Lyft directly interface into my company’s expense reporting system.

They suck as employers/abusers, but at the same time they just work too.

GreatFallsGreen
GreatFallsGreen
1 day ago
Reply to  Eli

I was thinking about forums as soon as that mid-aughts time was mentioned, that had to have been the peak time. Some I only think of when I get an email on my birthday, but most of the ones I was on or read back then have gone down, often unceremoniously. When people ask what happened, it’s always that the time & cost to maintain them basically hit a breaking point for the operator which might be a little “chicken or egg” vs. FB, but the revenue bit certainly didn’t help either. That is more on Google/programmatic advertising, any forums since are drenched in ads like the old lighting site.

I get a lot of FB groups suggested in my sporadic lurking, but that only furthers the algorithm latching on to odd things and giving me random suggestions. Some are interesting, but the algorithm is like leaving dry spaghetti in the rain to dampen and then throwing it at the wall and leaving it to dry: some of it might actually stick but then it’s a PITA to clean off.

LTDScott
LTDScott
1 day ago
Reply to  Eli

I’ve been on the internet for so long that multiple times I have searched Google for a technical question and the result served up to me is a forum post that I actually made 20+ years ago. Past me has helped future me in this way on several occasions. All that is lost on social media, sadly.

Cerberus
Cerberus
23 hours ago
Reply to  LTDScott

I wish future me could have helped past me.

Captain Muppet
Captain Muppet
22 hours ago
Reply to  Cerberus

I keep buying these sports almanacs just in case I ever get to communicate to past me.

Captain Muppet
Captain Muppet
22 hours ago
Reply to  LTDScott

Last year I had to repair the headlight on the Kawasaki ZX7R that I’ve owned for 21 years. I needed to know what temperature and duration to bake it for to get the glass unstuck from the back unit.

I found a very helpful post on PistonHeads from 2013 which had exactly the right information.

I’d written it in 2013.

Ash78
Ash78
22 hours ago
Reply to  LTDScott

Or 15 Youtube videos that do a worse job than I did 20 years ago (in a written post with pictures that can be printed and taken to the job). And they’re making money from this rehashing?

Drew
Drew
22 hours ago
Reply to  Ash78

My personal favorite:

“Here’s what you’ll need to do this…”
8 steps filmed at terrible angles later, trying to speedrun the task instead of teaching:
“Now grab your [specialized tool not previously mentioned] and…”

Twobox Designgineer
Twobox Designgineer
1 day ago
Reply to  Eli

Similar experience. I learned a hobby/craft entirely from one website forum plus a book. People there were helpful and friendly, had good information, and ranged from staring hobbyists to industry professionals. There was no puffery and little self promotion, just love of the subject matter, and free two-way exchange of ideas. And I stress two-way.

Then FB and YT started siphoning off people, and it shrank. FB is useless because it is filled with idiots with much opinion and zero clue, and YT is a one-way street serving mostly garbage, and if there’s good info it is just one minute of a thirty minute self-promotion monetization video.

The original forum is still around, but with I would guess 1/5th – 1/10th its former engagement, it isn’t the same. They made the transition to being user-supported monetarily from just a free side project for its founder, and to hosting its own media instead of relying on magically disappearing Photobucket. There are a few highly skilled experts still there, but most pros are too busy spending any time not making actual product on making content for social media in order to stay in business.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 day ago

This is where independent archives come into play.

Some are brochures only – often including countries in addition to the US.
Others will include additional content – such as showroom sales guides, accessory brochures, paint and color guides, period ads and such.
These are passion projects – so they’ll all have their own quirks – and some have non-english content since their owners are from abroad.

I’m unable to post all the links as a previous post was kicked out – but here’s the titles of my favorites:

Dezo’s Garage
Lov2XLR8 (Norwegian)
Old Car Manual Project
AutoBrochures.com
Auto Catalog Archive

There are also some good marque-specific archives – such as OudeMercedesBrochures.nl (in Dutch and English – He also includes press packages)

Geoff Buchholz
Geoff Buchholz
1 day ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Lov2XLR8 is one of my most visited sites – that person has everything.

GreatFallsGreen
GreatFallsGreen
1 day ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

The 2nd and 4th links are always my first stops looking for a certain brochure. This might have been one of the ones you left off so that your post would send – ImportArchive is really loaded up even with a yearly paint color availability. Just the brochures are lower res/not as readable without making a donation which is certainly fair given the amount of content and time/cost it took to collect all that.

Nick B.
Nick B.
1 day ago

In 2007, I was a freshmen in college. We had far more interest in changing the passwords on unattended laptops after setting their background to certain… things, things I will not mention but anyone 30+ and online by the early aughts will know. A college where your average student had no idea how to even open the hood and let places like Jiffy Lube refill their washer fluid because they didn’t know how. But they could build lasers, rockets, and all sorts of other impressive things. Just didn’t know cars.

And now I feel old, because I was doing that before a Discord resident/commenter was born.

Anoos
Anoos
1 day ago
Reply to  Nick B.

It was goatse, right?

Nick B.
Nick B.
1 day ago
Reply to  Anoos

Among other things.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
1 day ago
Reply to  Nick B.

Oh man, I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one leaving surprises on laptops in the mid to late aughts.

I used to leave a specific webpage open on my buddy’s laptop that he was ALWAYS leaving unattended (the type of site that would make you say “wow omg” for it’s rhythmic spinning).

Then one day I discovered that you could set the desktop background as a webpage and LOCK IT WITH A PASSWORD.

That was a glorious day.

Nick B.
Nick B.
1 day ago

Yup! That was another of them, along with the key ingredient in lemonade. We were all awful people. But it was fun

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
1 day ago
Reply to  Nick B.

The internet of the late 90s through the aughts was a lawless wasteland. It was our Wild West era of the digital space.

I miss it terribly.

Anoos
Anoos
1 day ago
Reply to  Nick B.

That sounds like a party.

Gubbin
Gubbin
1 day ago
Reply to  Anoos

Per Wikipedia, there was an actual Parti Citron du Canada.

Anoos
Anoos
1 day ago

That webpage is still up and running with a flash emulator. (It came up in a conversation last week and I checked.)

Captain Avatar
Captain Avatar
23 hours ago
Reply to  Nick B.

We use to do thew same on Win 95 computers in the lab when they were brand new. Nothing too risky…more ‘practical joke’ stuff.

Someone actually had some of the images on a 3.5 floppy, so it didn’t matter if teh school had rudimentary blocks on certain sites.

Fun times.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 day ago

This is where independent archives come into play.
Some are sales brochures only – not just for the US and Canada, but around the world.
Other archives will include accessory brochures, showrooms sales guides, paint and upholstery guides, price lists and period ads.

My favorites are:
Dezo’s Garage – https://xr793.com/
The Old Car Manual Project – https://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/
Auto Catalog Archive – https://autocatalogarchive.com/
Auto Brochures.com – https://www.auto-brochures.com/index.html
Lov2XLR8 – https://www.lov2xlr8.no/ (Headings are in English – but his articles are in Norwegian)

Then there are marque-specific archives – such as OudeMercedesBrochures.NL https://www.oudemercedesbrochures.nl/

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 day ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Oh, look – it went thru after all!

Mercedes Streeter
Mercedes Streeter
17 hours ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Sorry about the delay! The spam filter doesn’t like comments with lots of links, but I usually find them and free them.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 hour ago

Thank you – when it disappeared, I assumed it had been kicked out!
Oh well!
🙂

Last edited 1 hour ago by Urban Runabout
LTDScott
LTDScott
1 day ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Unfortunately we’re now currently in an internet dead zone for brochures. See my post above.

Lifelong Obsession
Lifelong Obsession
1 day ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Daz’s Import Archive, https://importarchive.com/

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
21 hours ago

They used to be low-res imagery from what I recall – Now they want a membership to see anything beyond the front cover.

That takes them off my list.

CarEsq
CarEsq
1 day ago

I had an in-law who had and referred to the SC as a “collector’s car.” We all laughed at him.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago

I’m one of the “OG dislikers” of the SC430. Back in the pre-Jalopnik era, I believe TTAC was my main source of Internet Car Stuff. You know, back before 90% of the Car Internet was just AI articles comparing two vehicles from a generic stat sheet. The whole car felt like a ripoff of the Mercedes CLK430, all the way down to the stats. The design never grew on me, and I declared it the ugliest car for sale at the time (not because it was objectively poorly built; it wasn’t…it was just never good enough to command that price. And also it’s ugly from every angle.). These days it just feels like a footnote and almost has some retro-cool factor, but not really.

Last edited 1 day ago by Ash78
D-dub
D-dub
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

Mercedes design with Toyota build quality sounds good to me.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago
Reply to  D-dub

Yep, at least in theory — that’s how Lexus came into being, by building a better S-class and calling it the LS400, then selling it for less money. But this one missed the mark, IMO. The peak of Lexus Hubris.

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

It missed the mark and it’s objectively hideous – but as a used car, I still want one.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

Never stuck me as a Mercedes ripoff.

But it does always remind me of Penelope Pitstop’s Compact Pussycat.
https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Compact_Pussycat

Ash78
Ash78
22 hours ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Not directly on aesthetics, but Mercedes says “Hey, let’s do a 4-seat convertible with a 4.3L V8 for around $65k” and Lexus did….the exact same thing. I just found it oddly coincidental at the time, and I still do. I know I also had a little nostalgia for the 1990s SC models, so I wasn’t a big fan of them continuing the name on a much less attainable car.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 hour ago
Reply to  Ash78

I get your point – but they’re very different cars.

One is a convertible derived from a coupe with a semi-automatic fabric roof and a relatively roomy, but basic interior – and the 4.3 V8 is the top selection of a number of engine choices.

The other is a stand-alone convertible with a fully-automatic retractable hardtop with a plush interior, but nearly unusable rear seats – it’s 4.3L V8 was the only engine choice available worldwide.

GhosnInABox
GhosnInABox
1 day ago

Try finding a decent hi-res image of concept cars from this era.

Shame because some of the best concepts to ever do it came from the 90s-2000’s.

Fitting seeing how that future never came to be…

Anoos
Anoos
1 day ago

I am sorry to hear about your young neighbor’s early-onset ED.

Lizardman in a human suit
Lizardman in a human suit
15 hours ago
Reply to  Anoos

Dont worry, humiliation is his kink, and he gets it a lot when the ladies see him driving a midlife crisis mobile

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