Word

Before you read this headline, when was the last time you honestly thought about the Jaguar XJ?

The Dodge Dart was pretty much a Giulietta, and look how that turned out...

The change has been quite marked.

I guess that’s viable because an Ypsilon is basically a 500 in an evening dress.

That, and the missing rear window surround / spoiler.

Word

This. Fiat sells the 500 and the Panda, but they gave up on the Punto supermini years ago, and the Tipo is a Golf sized, Turkish built afterthought that mostly competes with Dacia.

Jeez, what the heck did they do to the back end of that poor Renault 11?

Those Renault vans, the Kangoo and Trafic in particular, sell in large numbers under a range of different badges, though. Including Nissan

I’d have sworn blind that the later Lancia Gamma Coupé was another Gandini design in a remarkably similar vein to the Garmisch, but no: the Lancia is the work of Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina.

If I were to have bazillions to waste on a car, this is the sort of thing I’d blow it on. Not a modern supercar or hypercar: this, a unique piece of automotive art that models what an ordinary car could be.

The 2CV didn’t have any headgaskets either, a result of both engineering vision, steely pragmatism and the history of the mass produced car.

There are dedicated car shows for these endangered species now:

They’re interesting machines, and reasonably rust free ones can be had for chips in France

Yup- nearly all the ones on the endangered list have gone through the Valley of Death, and emerged triumphant. I’m not sure why in the case of the Nova and Cavaliers, though, but different strokes for different folks and all that.

I guess kilometerteller (‘kilometer counter’) doesn’t quite work in English.

I like to think I’m confident enough to ignore others, and do my own thing. But the Manta is a reminder that, however much I like the design of both Manta A and B in isolation, I could never drive one.

And polyurethane v. old skool rubber bushings. Which makes me think you can put an old car’s suspension seriously out of whack without even consciously modifying it from its original bare spec.

My first thought too.