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In Ronald Reagan's day, it wasn't smart for an American politician to be seen in a Japanese vehicle, but the soon-to-be-President quietly kept a quirky Subaru BRAT at his ranch in California under an agreement that the automaker would get progress reports from Reagan on the little truck's performance. Read about how this strange arrangement came to be in this report from Benjamin Preston exclusively for Jalopnik —Ed. More »
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GM has a history of vehicle names based on weather phenomena- Typhoon, Syclone, etc. While we're still waiting on the Chevy Titty Twister, the forecast for today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe calls for a 100% chance of ThunderStorm. More »
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Remember when you used to have to pull a lever to send power to all four wheels in your Subaru? The hardships our forefathers endured! More »
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The Subaru BRAT is a great runabout but the backwards-facing jump seats are as dangerous for storm troopers as they are for everyone else and thus makes for an underachieving AT-AT. Check out Lunchbreath for the full series. [Flickr] More »
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We're convinced BusinessWeek intentionally created its "Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years" list to offend Jalopnik reader sensibilities as much as possible. We've pulled out ten cars that simply have no place on this list. Two-minutes hate ahead. More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. It's winter and I'm in Denver, so it's BRAT time! More »
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As much as we may be inclined to mock the Thunderstorm, which combines the nose and a powertrain of a Geo Storm with the rear end of a Subaru Brat and was constructed with an impressive level of parts-bin rummaging, we're in awe of how cool it actually is. The Thunderstorm is up for sale due to the "RECENT PASTING" of the seller's deceased "BELOVED HUSBAND" and has the lineage to prove it. Designed by someone in Alabama, the curiously-named Thunderstorm is a rolling metaphor for 1990s GM: Geo headlights, Isuzu engine, Cavalier bow ties, Subaru rear end. The Stormamino has less than 38K miles and, for a car that's mostly Japanese, a patriotic paint job. Bidding starts at just $9,999. Seller description with a list of the 20 cars that went into making this impressive amalgam below the jump. More »
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What with all the great DOTSBE photos coming in from readers all over the globe, we haven't had a chance to show any Denver cars for a few weeks. This means we have quite the backlog, because in addition to Denver regulars Kitt and Ejacobs, I get shipped to Denver for work every so often and shoot the occasional street-parked vehicle myself while in town. Today is Kitt's turn, with this clean BRAT she found in her South Denver 'hood. It seems that every third vehicle in town is a Subaru, but you don't see many of these things around. More »
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It's no mystery that buying a new pious Hybrid to save money on gas is a bit counter-productive. Yeah, you'll spare pennies at the pump and score points with the eco-snob crowd, but the cost of that new car is likely to still end up costing you more than what you'll be saving on gas. But what if you could save gas with a car that's hardly costs anything to buy? That's what these gearheads are trying to do. They've parked their full-size trucks and bought old beaters for daily driver duties. Proving it can be done in style, one guy even went for a vintage Subaru Brat complete with rear-facing jump-seats! You hear that truck guys? Now you've got "gas prices" as the perfect excuse to indulge in that secret little Japanese fantasy you've always had. More »
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We saw the Gremlin beat the Spirit by quite a margin in our last Choose Your Eternity poll. Maybe it was the Wayne's World connection, or maybe it was just the obscurity of the AMC Spirit. Either way, we're going to follow up a pair of quirky American machines with a pair of equally quirky Japanese machines. Sure, Subaru is plenty mainstream in North America these days, but remember when Subarus just seemed vaguely weird, say a couple decades back? When you only saw the little boxer-powered cars in areas with huge amounts of snow and NPR listeners? Those 80s Subies are semi-rare and quite cool, not as bulletproof as your Japanese Big Three machines of the era, and parts are getting tough to find... which makes them great raw material for your exile adventures in the garage! More »
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I was born fairly close to the Mexican border. To put it in perspective, I moved north to get to Houston and up until recently Austin was the furthest north I'd ever lived. Now I live in Chicago. Chicago is great, but Chicago is freaking cold. Unnecessarily cold. I was out shooting photos last night and most didn't come out because my hand was shaking too much. Today, it warmed up to the 20s. I need summer. I need summer now. I need all of you to tell me what your ultimate summer car is. I need stories of warmth and beaches and barbecues. Stat. More »
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