Danville Street Sighting - 1978 Ford Pinto Runabout

I have a completely irrational love for the Ford Pinto. At best it's a perfectly ordinary compact car that's become cool in an ironic way. At worst it's regarded by others as a rolling punchline or a rolling bomb waiting to go off. Or if you're slightly crazy, it can be a starting point for a mad little autocross car, dirt track racer or drag car.

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1984 Ford Mustang SVO

If you like grey Foxbody Mustangs, you're in luck this week. After an '87 GT coupe, here's the second one, a 1984 Mustang SVO.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1987 Ford Mustang GT

One of my best friends has a birthday today, so we're going to honor him with a feature of one of his favorite cars. He loves 1979-93 Foxbody Mustangs. Now these cars are still a dime a dozen in California, but there are some problems. Most of them have been ridden hard and/or modified within an inch of their life, and many look like the example seen here. That's not really why I photographed this car. I shot it because Medium Gray Metallic over Titanium with an electric blue accent stripe is my buddy's favorite color combination for these cars, and from what I've seen it's a rather rare paint scheme.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1978 Ford Fiesta

I have a friend who owns a 2015 Ford Fiesta hatchback. He loves all things Fiesta. This is is the ancestor to his car, the first year the Fiesta was offered in the United States. His mother had one of these as her first car. The 1978 Fiesta served as a stopgap model for buyers who wanted something smaller and more European than the aging Pinto, until the 1981 Escort "world car" arrived. It was a captive import that competed with the likes of the Honda Civic, VW Rabbit and Beetle, Toyota Corolla and Tercel, and Datsun B210 or 510.

Foster City Street Sighting - 1987 Yugo GV

This is one of my favorite street sightings. This past week I've featured some famously "bad" cars, so here is the king of them all. It's a 1987 Yugo GV.

Danville Street Sighting - 1975 Pontiac Astre SJ

It's funny how people lampoon one car for being terrible to the point it becomes infamous, and completely forget that rebadges of the same car even exist. Such is the case with the Pontiac Astre. The Astre was a rebadge job on the Chevrolet Vega, now famous for its rust problems and unreliable 2.3 liter aluminum-block engines. The Astre was sold in Canada only from 1973 to '74, then it came to the US market in '75 as Pontiac's smallest and cheapest model.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1976 AMC Pacer X

I adore early AMC Pacers. They're just so dorky, awkward and such a symbol of the 1970s that they've become sort of ironically cool. Between Wayne's World and Pixar's Cars 2, the Pacer is recognizable to all generations. It even made an appearance on Top Gear once, and Goofy drove a yellow one in Disney's A Goofy Movie. Unfortunately the Pacer is also remembered by many for being a "bad" car that failed at its intended purpose.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S

Lately we've been looking at a lot of huge cars here, so today let's switch it up with a classic Mini. This one's a Cooper S from the late '60s. I didn't spend a whole lot of time shooting it, so I don't know much about it. From what I can see in the pictures, this Cooper has been customized quite a bit with a roll bar, fender flares, different wheels and an aftermarket grille. The yellow-tinted headlamps give it a French-market appearance. If the taillight design, script badging and rear window shape are any indication, I think this is a 1967 car, an early Mark II. Mini fans, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1969 MG MGB GT

I've always liked the early models of the MGB. The late ones made after 1971, hobbled by ugly black rubber bumpers and an aerodynamic plastic front end cap, just don't appeal to me. The roadsters are nice, but I really like the MGB GT 2+2.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1978 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT

I've always liked the Alfa Romeo GTV6 of the 1980s. What I didn't know for a long time was that the GTV6 had its roots in the 1972 Alfetta sedan. The Alfetta range was expanded in 1974 when a fastback coupe, the Alfetta GT, was added. The GT initially was offered with only a 1.8 liter engine, though a 1.6 and 2.0 were added later. This was where the GTV moniker came from, the top-spec 2.0 engine. At this point it was still a pretty simple-looking package, a car that could almost wear four rings on the grille if the Alfa triangle were removed. If my comparison seems far-fetched, Google "Audi 100 Coupe S". The similarity is uncanny. I don't think Giugiaro was involved with designing the Audi like he was for the Alfetta, though the 100 Coupe S has been described by Audi themselves as having "distinct echoes of contemporary Italian car design". Funny given that it came to market more than four years before the Alfetta coupe.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1970 Mini Mk III

Oh dear, a Mini. Let's see what an ignorant fool I am about these cars. Readers from the UK, please be gentle!

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1978 Chevrolet Chevette

The economy cars of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly the American ones, have a bit of a reputation. And it's not really a good one. Among the lowest of the bottom-feeders during this time period was the Chevrolet Chevette.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1988 Isuzu Impulse

Rounding out my week of 1980s products from orphan brands is a car from a company that is still in business, but which no longer builds cars. It's a 1988 Isuzu Impulse.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1989 Merkur Scorpio

This week we're looking at 1980s models from orphaned brands. Second up is a 1989 Merkur Scorpio.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1982 Toyota Starlet S

Admittedly, when searching for notable cars to photograph and document here, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the compact economy runabouts of the 1980s. But every now and then there is a bright star among the sea of rattly little crapcans. One such econobox that now has something of a small cult following is the Toyota Starlet.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1975 Chevrolet Monza V8

There are some cars I photograph more extensively than others, and it frequently depends on the environment or how good an example of that model the vehicle is. Sometimes both factors apply, in the case of this orange Chevy Monza in dappled late afternoon shade. Parked on a quiet residential street in Alameda, this Monza is not really what one would expect to find. But given that the same block contained a 1973 Cadillac hearse, a late '70s Trans Am, a VW Thing and another Monza, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Alameda Street Sighting - 2008 ZENN LSV

We now live in a world where the electric car has gone mainstream. Unlike the small leased fleet of GM EV1s or the smattering of electric-converted Ford Rangers and Toyota RAV4s of the 1990s, people are now rushing out to buy Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts (the latter actually a gas-electric hybrid of sorts). Luxury and performance electrics like the Tesla Roadster and Fisker Karma sedan now exist and can command six-digit prices. The Tesla Model S just won Motor Trend Magazine's 2013 Car of the Year award, a first for an all-electric vehicle. But it's been a bumpy ride for electric cars, and the road to mainstream adoption is littered with small upstart companies that hoped to make a difference. In a blog that features all manner of cars from A to Z, it seems fitting to end the year with ZENN.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1988 Yugo GV

I've wanted to write this post for a long time. Think like three years. Basically, ever since I started California Streets I've wanted to feature a Yugo, and today it comes to light. It shouldn't be too surprising when I tell you they are hard as heck to find!
The Yugo has a horrible reputation in the United States as the worst car in history. Is it warranted? Probably not. People love to hate cheap cars that are terrible. Even I like to hate terrible cars. But at the same time I find myself coming to love cars everyone else hates. I'm one of those people whose fantasy garage includes a Ford Pinto and an Edsel and numerous AMC products. Meanwhile I frequently loathe cars that are rock-steady reliable, popular and yet so ungodly boring I can't understand why anyone buys them.
The Yugo came to market in the United States when Malcolm Bricklin decided there was room in the market for a cheap hatchback at the very bottom of the price spectrum. Bricklin had already brought us some stinkers in the form of early Subaru imports (the 360 as a VW Beetle competitor) and the fiberglass Bricklin SV-1 "safety sports car" with its unusual gullwing doors. Now he set his sights on the little Fiat 127-based hatchback built in Yugoslavia by Zastava Automobiles.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1977 Chevrolet Monza 2+2

I never would have guessed that people collect obscure and unloved GM compacts, let alone the H-body Chevy Monza. Someone in Alameda apparently does just that. This one's a 1977 Monza 2+2 hatchback.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1970 Mini Cooper S

What's this? Another classic Mini? I told you guys San Francisco was full of the little buggers. This time it's a Mark III Cooper S edition produced between 1969 and 1971. The Cooper S was the highest-performance Mini in its day, available with a 1275cc engine intended for circuit racing. If that badge is to be believed, this is one of only 1,570 Mk III Cooper Ss built. There is a problem though, in that this car looks awfully... sedate for a performance trim. No hood stripes, fender flares, foglights - and it's all one color. And it doesn't help that one can buy the Cooper S boot lid badge online for a little over £10 plus shipping. If it is a genuine Cooper S though (and it's RHD even), that makes it fairly special among the plethora of vintage (and not so vintage) Minis in town.