@Turbo Driver: Actually, the year imprinted in the tail light is only the oldest year the car could be. If the tail light didn't change from year to year, they often didn't update the year in the tail light mold.

The "pillar" in the backlight gave it away.

I wonder how much they paid some graphic designer to come up with that. "Ooh, let's curve the corner of the F!" Brilliant stuff.

Looks like the next-gen Matrix.

A kid I knew in high school (early-mid 80s) had a beat-up Maverick. I rode in it once, only time I've ever been in a Maverick. It was loose and underpowered. You didn't steer the thing; you aimed with the wheel. The Pinto I had a couple years later was, astonishingly, far better screwed together.

I learned to drive on Dad's 5-spd 83 Alliance. He taught me to shift the thing by driving around in circles in a big school parking lot. The lot was sunken, and he said I couldn't drive on the roads until I could get the car out of the parking lot without stalling it.

My father taught me to drive. Dad "knew" what kids with licenses and cars did and wasn't eager for me to be on the road racing in his car. He didn't seem to get that his slug-slow '83 Alliance was not exactly going to tear up the asphalt. Regardless, he dragged his feet, and so I got lessons only every couple months…

I drove a friend's 78 Rabbit diesel once on the highway. He warned me not to try to pass anybody, but I didn't listen, and boy was I sorry. That car was as slow as a slug.

See, now, this is why I feel so not worthy. If I were to PCH what's in my garage, it'd be between an '03 Matrix and a second-hand Trek Mountain Track.

I'm with you, Murilee, that this car would be better in something other than red. But this is otherwise a great specimen, for sure!

Oh, man, fIREHOSE! I used to play this one song of theirs all the time on my radio show back in college, it just wore a groove in my head. Whenever I'd play it, I'd get a call from one of the guys at the federal pen (the one where they executed McVeigh): "You have a collect call from PLAY SOME OZZY DAMMIT! Do you…

Good heavens, don't make me late to where I'm going by stopping me to thank me for driving courteously.

@///Mink: The 67/68 fastback/coupe were the stuff. Just gorgeous cars. The 65 pillarless coupe, however, was the best looking 60s Impala four-door, imho.

My grandparents had one of these, in pale yellow. Not sure why, but they called it "The Pumpkin." Grandpa strapped a big snowplow blade to the front of it so he could get out of his rural southwestern Michigan driveway on winter work days.

@akbar: I can't top that comment. Says it all.

1. 1987, I-80, central Pennsylvania, snowstorm, 1985 Civic CRX HF. Hours upon hours upon hours with my left leg aching on the clutch, creeping along at 10 mph, being passed and then blown around by semis.

I spent the first 18 years of my life in South Bend, where Studebakers were pretty plentiful even through the 70s and mid 80s. Meanwhile the Studebaker factory buildings looked more and more like eyesores all the time.

I'm not in favor of the cams, but I will say this: Where I live, there's an unwritten rule: "If the guy in front of me can get through the yellow light, so can I!" This has caused me to miss a left-turn light countless times. Oh, oh how I wish those drivers would get nabbed.

@squablow: I've got a soft spot in my heart for the Ford Pinto and if I ever stumble across one for sale in reasonable nick I'm going to have a hard time not buying it. Why the Pinto? My first car was a '75.

clinto: Rim blow — oh, that's perfect. My aunt had a Dart with the rim blow wheel. I'd never seen one before so it made an impression on me. This was 30+ years ago and I was maybe 10. I'm trying to find a reason why I might be wrong about it being a Dart, but I have got to think that if it were a Cuda or a Challenger…