An F spotted in the wild

[old yellow 78]

Today I saw a '79 Aspen coupe going by in traffic. It was the first one that I have seen, other than at car shows, for a LONG time, and it was quite notable because is was so different from the other vehicles in traffic. It was obviously just a driver, and was yellow with a white vinyl roof and SE rear windows. It had one Road Wheel on the front and a plain black rim on the rear. It was worse for wear, with the obligatory busted grille, but didn't look all that bad. What really struck me was how really different it looked from all the other cars. It reminded me that these are now 40+ year old cars, even if I can still remember when they were brand new. Time marches on.

 

[droptop]

I remember when you could tell the make and model of a car by the look and configuration of the lights and grill. Now they all just look alike.

 

[Trey]

Unfortunately aerodynamics work the same for all car makers, so all the cars are similar. It's the curse of efficiency.
My childhood is the 70's and a 40 year old car back then would have been a 1930's car. Never gave much thought to how much car design has changed in my lifetime until this post. Glad I got to see it.

 

[Kernel Sanders]

This ones been in the kijiji forsale for quite some time but looks to be in decent shape for being in Ontario (Its not mine and dont know the seller and I havent enquired)

1979 Dodge Aspen R/T with rebuilt 1969 318 engine 727 Trany | Classic Cars | Kawartha Lakes | Kijiji

 

[Darth-Car]

It used to be fun to identify the car brand, and possibly the engine just by hearing it start in a parking lot. Of course that was the same time you would hear some poor sort turn off their car and it would sit there and diesel for about 30 seconds.

 

[Aspen500]

I remember when you could tell the make and model of a car by the look and configuration of the lights and grill. Now they all just look alike.

There are exceptions. Charger and Challenger for a couple. Many times at work, I go out to the lot for a car to bring in the shop and you think I can spot it right away? Nope. Can't tell a Honda from a Toyota for example. If it has a remote, I'll just press the unlock button and look for the flashing park lamps (also helps if there's more than one of the same or similar vehicle out there). I've also had more than once, go out looking for the car and walk right past it and end up making a lap of the whole building before actually seeing it was right in front of me.

 

[53ryder]

I remember when you could tell the make and model of a car by the look and configuration of the lights and grill. Now they all just look alike.

Many of the new cars and trucks I find butt ugly!

 

[Aspen500]

There are some that look really good, some that don't look good or bad, just generic. Others are just plain butt ugly and then we have the fugly ones like the Ram Promaster vans and from a few years ago, the Chevy Malibu MAXX (puke!). Then again, the ugliest cars built aren't sold here so we never see them, and that is French cars. Those cars are so ugly they make you go blind if you see them.

What I've noticed is, it doesn't really matter what it is. If it's older and in nice shape, you will notice it. For example, every so often in the summer I see a 1984 Tempo and it looks brand new. Yeah, it's a Tempo but in a sea of melted blobs, it stands out and looks pretty darn good. To see anything more than a few years old that looks new yet around here is not very common, and when you see them, you notice (if that makes sense). As far as spotting an F/M/J in the wild,,,,,,,,,,,,,that's even more rare than rare. I know of a couple F's but neither have been on the road in years. One is just sitting next to a house, the other is in a garage on a long, slow, when he gets time, build.