Livermore Street Sighting - 1979 Ford Ranchero GT

I don't know what it was about the 1970s, but someone decided maroon and gold looked good together on cars. I don't mean to offend any Arizona State or House Gryffindor fans, but when I was a kid, I did not like the combination. In 1980 my dad bought a 1966 Mustang convertible that had been repainted maroon and gold. I suppose it's a classic color combination for clothing and such, but on that car I hated it. This '79 Ranchero came from the factory like that. Except on this vehicle, it's not plebeian maroon. It's Cordovan.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1976 Ford Ranchero 500

Over the past several months, my friends have gotten me into a new pastime: flea markets. Every so often we get together early on a Sunday morning and hit the Laney College Swap Meet in Oakland. It's a fun little place full of bargains and occasionally sellers who think they have something made of gold-plated unobtainium, both of which make for amusing interactions. It has contributed significantly to my diecast collection, and also triggered my interest in customizing small-scale toy cars thanks to the low price of used examples at the swap meet.

Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1978 Ford Ranchero

I have a mild interest in late-model Ford Rancheros. The mid-to-late '70s utes are big and boxy, coming in two flavors mostly. There's the '72-76 model, beginning with the fish-mouth Torino-based front and evolving into the Starsky and Hutch '74-'76. An all-new Ranchero bowed for '77, based on the new LTD II. It used the same taillights as before, but the rest of the body was new and featured the LTD's coffin nose, pointed fenders and stacked quad headlamps. The body had more of a linear fuselage appearance as well, where the outgoing Torino-based pickup had a sculpted quarter panel.

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero

I love the '67 Ford Fairlane. I've been a big fan of them for about ten years now, and I also dig the Ranchero coupe utility pickup-car thingy produced from 1957 to 1979. So it figures that I like the 1967 Ranchero based on the Fairlane.

Millbrae Street Sighting - 1982 Cadillac Coupe DeVille Mirage Pickup

Last year I commemorated Halloween with two vintage Cadillac hearses. I hoped to feature another hearse this year but I haven't seen one on the street since a midnight screening of Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" in Oakland. Photographing a black car on a dimly lit street at night while waiting in line for a movie doesn't work so well. So the closest thing I had in the archives was this, a 1982 Cadillac Coupe DeVille converted into a pickup truck. How is that related to a hearse? Well, some people I showed these pictures to believed it was a funeral flower car. I'm not so sure.

El Segundo Street Sighting - 1962 Ford Falcon Ranchero

Avid readers will already know that I love the Ford Falcon in almost all of its forms. Australian friends, that includes many of the Falcons sold down under as well. And speaking of Australia, the car-based coupe utility pickup, or 'ute', is virtually a way of life in that country. Here in the states, it's more of a novelty, but the Ford Ranchero is one of America's best known and most popular utes. I featured a 1968 Ranchero years ago, a larger version based on the redesigned Fairlane and new Torino. That version was more akin to the Ranchero's roots as a large Fairlane-based pickup from 1957 to 1959. For most of the 1960s, though, the Ranchero existed as a compact Falcon variant, and again as a Fairlane for 1967.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1985 Subaru BRAT GL

In the world of coupe-utility pickups the names Ranchero and El Camino are well loved and widely known. Utes are a way of life in many countries, where the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore and even Fiats and Peugeots are offered in car-based pickup versions in certain markets. There is another ute that was sold in the US market which a lot of people forget - the Subaru BRAT.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1972 Chevrolet El Camino

Every now and then I visit a friend of mine in San Jose, and we like to eat at a Carrows restaurant on the main drag in his part of town. Incidentally, someone often chooses that block to park an older vehicle with a for sale sign on it. The first such vehicle I saw was the 1962 Chevy Impala sedan I featured some months ago. One of the several I've seen over the past year was this 1972 Chevy El Camino.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1972 Ford Ranchero

Last month we looked at a 1972 Ford Gran Torino coupe. Now let's look at the Torino-based pickup, the Ranchero. I happened to find this '72 Ranchero parked down the street from a small repair shop where at least three other feature vehicles have been spotted thus far (note the 1936 Ford pickup in the background of one of the photos). It's a somewhat scruffy part of town (I once had a homeless man con $10 out of me about one block from where I found this Ranchero, after he claimed to be a penniless refugee from New Orleans who just wanted to buy a meal for himself and his wife - and then skipped off right past the sandwich shop he told me he planned to go). The light was fading, so I didn't spend much time taking pictures.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Chevrolet El Camino

For some reason I have a completely irrational love for the 1959 Chevy full-size car lineup. Coupes, sedans, wagons, all with fancy "bat wing" tail fins and cat-eye taillights. But perhaps the most ridiculous finned car Chevy built that year was a brand new variation on the theme: the El Camino coupe utility pickup.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1968 Chevrolet El Camino

I'll admit it, I've been hesitant to feature a Chevy El Camino here. Because I see so many of them, particularly of 1960s vintage, I generally pass them up. However, to date I've already done two Ford Rancheros, so it's probably time. Produced from 1959 to 1960 on the fullsize (Impala) platform, and 1964 to 1987 on the midsize (Chevelle/Malibu) platform, the El Camino is still a relatively common sight on California roads as a car-based alternative to a traditional pickup truck.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1971 Ford Ranchero

There are some vehicles I've been hesitant to feature here on California Streets. Some are just not that rare, not particularly photogenic, or maybe I just don't get enough pictures for an exciting feature. I have an informal name for stuff like that: "Quick Takes". It usually applies to cars that are interesting but I have fewer than five pictures of them. In this case, I have six.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1968 Ford Ranchero

Is it a car? Is it a truck? Yes. Debate has raged for decades as to whether the Ford Ranchero and its competitor, the Chevy El Camino, should be classified as either. Both are car-based, but sport a pickup bed. To me, it's a truck. To the Australians, who created the concept of a "coupe utility", or "ute", it's a way of life.