Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 7:00 PM
Sun Nov 8
8 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04:13 PM
Um, this is incredibly advanced for some of us.
The above pic comes from a '95 Mercedes E320, a car which retailed for $45K-50K back in 1995.
I wish for a hyphenated label! The "alarm activated" light is the right-most item.
I wondered what it was when I bought it in January, 'cause while it looked OEM, the car is 15 years old...so you never know what stupidity is lurking.
Fortunately, it blinks every few seconds when armed, so the first night, I figured it out.
Please note the rocker switch which uses vacuum release to flop the rear headrests to the parcel shelf.
I have to admit, this is an advance over the '89 W126 I had which had -0- indication of an OEM alarm system. Imagine my further embarrassment when I found this out during trying to get it unstuck, moving sand/rock by hand in the Vegas desert landscape. #1980s
12:23 PM
11/07/09
Man, I miss boxy gray dashboards with fake stitching, squared off, airbagless steering wheels and haphazard buttons placed with no consideration of ergonomics. #1980s
11/07/09
I will suggest Anti-Theft
as a solution. #1980s
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
The problem I have with the 80s is that you literally could not tell any car from any manufacturer apart.
Is it a Camry? An Accord? A Maxima? A Celebrity? Seriously. If you were to set all four of the above cars side by side, you would not be able to tell them apart. At all. I've actually seen all four of them at once.
The only good designs to come out of the 80s were the BMWs in general F-bodies, Supra Mk III, Corvette, Mustang, Taurus, Prelude, AE86, 2nd gen 300ZX, and the NSX.
Otherwise, it was all crap.
11/07/09
How can you be sure? #1980s
11/07/09
The Celebrity was the easiest to identify, however; it was the only that was falling apart at the seems. #1980s
11/07/09
All Wheel Drive Tempos, SHO Taurus', Mercury's with light up grills, even sportified Escort EXPs. It was all there. The F-Bodies and Corvettes too weren't much in comparison to, say, the SVO Mustang. We're talking about a high output 2.3L with forced induction that could wipe the floor with a V8 equipped Camaro. Everything about 1980s cars, especially from Ford, was innovative. If not the best, but hey, they tried new things. Which is more then can be said for automakers these days. #1980s
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
@SmaartAasSaabr: #1980s
11/07/09
@SmaartAasSaabr: #1980s
11/07/09
@SmaartAasSaabr: #1980s
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
A lot of Japanese cars the overly similar styling in this era. The late-80s Camrys and 626s are a good example. At the same time, GM completely gave up on making any of their cars look the least bit different. It's bad when you can't tell the difference between an Eldorado and a Grand Am. #1980s
11/07/09
So in short, Ford built great cars that were hampered by quality that was decidedly not job 1, while GMs run bad longer than most cars run at all. And, Chrysler? Well, Chrysler was and still is pretty much on the same 5 year "A few exciting products followed by complete garbage and near backruptcy" business plan it's been using since 1955. #1980s
11/07/09
11/07/09
02:56 PM
I didn't even know it was possible for manual, crank 'em windows to break until I owned that Chevy. #1980s
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
And they had the good sense to set the typeface in Eurostile, I believe. Many Japanese companies love that font; Honda is obsessed with it. Take a look at the Engine Start button on the S2k, for example.
Yeah, I'm a font nerd. #1980s
11/07/09
...Yeah. #nerdalert
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/07/09
10/27/09
10/24/09
10/24/09
10/24/09
But growing up in Southern California, there were Hot Rod and Muscle Car gatherings at everywhere on any given weekend in places like Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, San Pedro, different parts of San Diego, etc. As a child, my dad took me to all of them. And as I learned to drive, I went to many of them with my buddies. We always went because the coolest cars in California could be found there.
But the girls? Ummm...no. There were some cuties, as evidenced by the likes pictures 3, 5, 6, and 10 above, but most others were two hundred pound, chain-smoking blobs wearing too-small tube tops and boy shorts to show off their mass of poorly done and poorly thought-out tattoos with raspy voices, a cigarette in their mouths, asking us high school kids if we wanted to have a good time.
Yeah, no thank you.
If it was girls you were going for, Hot Import Nights, Import Showoff, etc. were the places to be. The cars weren't to our taste, but every kind of gorgeous girl you think of, from leggy blondes, tall and beautiful African American women, and cute-sexy little Asian models could be found there. Sure, some of them might have been bitches in real life. But you weren't there to get into relationships. You were just there for a little eye candy. #photography
10/24/09
I'm just not the killing type. #photography
10/24/09
Keep all your trailer queens and trailer trash; my heart (and other bits of my body I value highly) STILL belongs to three time NHRA Top Fuel champion Shirley "Don't call me Cha-Cha" Muldowney. These girls make better hood ornaments than top fuel drivers. Bruce Springsteen wrote lyrics about illegal drag racing in rural New Jersey, Shirley Muldowney drove the damned cars! #photography
10/24/09