@mattmacklind: My billion-year-old next-door-neighbor had one of the two-door ones when I was a teenager. Blue with black sticker trim, kwim? Anyway, she drove it to Mass every morning and that was that. Rust killed it long before normal driving wear-and-tear did.

Five. A la station wagon. Not very hip, but it's how I like it.

The people in the back are sitting on the convertible boot because that's the only way your legs and feet fit into the back seat of a 200SX.

@layabout: Damn skippy. That car is hideous!

I think the real hero here is the man's wife!

I had an '83 "Motor Trend Car of the Year" edition. It was charcoal gray with a pin stripe, 5 speed, a tan cloth/vinyl interior apparently unique to the MT edition, a cassette stereo, and a little numbered plaque on the dash; I believe mine was number 1300 or 1500.

@flyingstitch: I've noticed, too, how bumpers on Skylarks of this era tend to droop at the ends. I noticed in the 70s when these things were still plentiful. Maybe the bumpter is just heavy and the only solid bolt was in the center.

@west-coaster: Good lord, I've seen maybe six episodes of that show — all in daytime reruns when I was very young — and I've seen that episode!

@SCROGGS!: I'm wit ya on that. Much more balanced design.

The light-duty pickup idiom was perfected in the 1960s, which is why they are still relevant today!

Speaking of the Sawzall, how many people have you heard pronounce it "sawzaw," as if they were unaware that they were unaware that they had no idea how the word was spelled?

The exterior is an improvement, but the new dash is craptastic.

In 1989, fresh out of college, I found a bright green 1972 KG with 60,000 allegedly original miles on a shady used-car lot for $2500. I had a friend and VW expert give it a thorough look and he pronounced it solid. And then I could not get a loan for that paltry amount to save my blipping life, not from the bank, not…

Dreadful things, really!

I'd've bought the Corolla, because I'm a tightwad.

A fuel injected two-ten? Wow.

@mobilene: Well, except for the Valiant-inspired grille, that is.

That car's downright menacing!

That thing is gorgeous. I'm smitten.

Quatsch! Blödsinn!