Berkeley Street Sighting - 1956 Austin A135 Princess Limousine

Oh, sure, it looks like a Rolls-Royce. It has the upright Parthenon grille, the Spirit of Ecstasy, the general proportions of a classic British luxury car.
But look closer. The grille is indeed a Rolls unit, probably from a Silver Cloud. The rest of it is an Austin A135 Princess DM4 limousine. As with a number of British cars, dating the exact year and even the exact model name is difficult because so few visual changes were made over the production run. These limos were built from 1952 to 1968, yet are exceedingly rare with only 200 made. What did change, was the name. If pre-1957, it's an Austin Princess. If late 1957-1960, it's a Princess IV. If post-1960, it's a Vanden Plas Princess.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1989 Cadillac Brougham Hess & Eisenhardt 6-Door Limousine

The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham is still a relatively common sight on American roads. A longtime favorite of senior citizens, the once-expensive Brougham has been trickling down into ordinary households for decades now. The 1977-1992 Fleetwood has also been a favorite for limousine conversions. Most Fleetwood limos I've seen have been a four-door stretch, but on rare occasions a six-door surfaces. I believe most six-door limos were built for and used by funeral homes, transporting the family of the deceased. Others did duty as glorified airport taxis.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1983 Chrysler Executive Sedan

I never thought I would geek out over a K-Car.

In the late 1970s Chrysler Corporation was in deep financial trouble. A government bailout kept the doors open, but only if the Pentastar could source some profitable product that could pay back the loan. The Chrysler K platform arguably saved the company with a wide range of FWD sedans, coupes, convertibles and wagons mostly powered by frugal four-cylinder engines. This platform gave rise to the first Chrysler minivans and the larger E-platform sedans, and darn near everything else they made in the '80s and to an extent, even into the '90s. But perhaps the oddest K-Car variant was the Chrysler Executive.

San Francisco Street Sighting - Mercedes-Benz 300d Automatic

Of all my street sightings, this is probably the one that I most regret not shooting more in-depth. The reason I didn't, is because it was before I even thought about starting a blog about cars I found on the streets. In fact, there were two reasons why I shot this car at all. One of my hobbies was posting on a car website called Rice or Not?, submitting just about every interesting vehicle I found. The other reason for shooting it was that a good friend of mine was making drivable virtual cars for the online community Second Life, and I was trying to find interesting cars that could be used for mapping textures on their 3D counterparts, using front, side, rear and close-up wheel photos.
It was only later that I decided to join Jalopnik.com, to submit some of my more interesting local street sightings to weekend editor Murilee Martin, whose "Down on the Street" features were one of the more popular elements of the site. My first "Down on the Street: Bonus Edition" submission was the Hillman Minx that I featured very early in this blog's run. When I continued to submit cars, but they weren't posted, I became discouraged and decided to strike out on my own with a car blog.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75

The first thing you'll probably notice about this 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75 is that it doesn't look like the average person's modern concept of a limousine. That's because it isn't a stretch limousine. This is not your pink Hummer with neon party lights and a dozen drunks throwing up inside it. It's a formal limo, made for transporting important people in smooth, refined luxury. Well, at least it used to be.