San Ramon Street Sighting - 1965 Chevrolet Impala

With General Motors in a state of constant turmoil and the parade of brands getting the axe, one nameplate sticks in everyone's mind when they think of GM: Chevrolet. It's easy to forget amid all the chaos of a really screwed-up economy that there were once brighter times.

Sebastopol Street Sighting - 1974 AMC Hornet

Oh snap son, an AMC! Well, that may not seem too special to some (particularly those of you reading this in Wisconsin), but American Motors products are getting pretty scarce in my neck of the woods. In fact, this wasn't spotted in my neck of the woods at all. I nabbed this 1974 AMC Hornet sedan in Sebastopol, California.
It may not look like much, and for all intents and purposes, it isn't much. It's a generic beige color, spiced up only by a chocolate brown vinyl roof which, like the body, has seen much better days. I'd chance a guess that the engine is one of the two straight six options. I'm curious which side's hubcaps are original.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1960 Chevrolet Corvette

Old Corvettes are pretty few and far between when it comes to finding street-parked examples. So I cheated. This gorgeous 1960 Corvette roadster was parked outside of a repair shop in San Francisco, and God she's beautiful. I should check that shop out more often, since they also had a 1966 Dodge Charger 426 Hemi parked across the street (as seen in the pictures) and a black 1936 Ford pickup truck. I have seen the Ford at car shows and I believe one of the employees owns it. The Charger and Corvette are most likely customers' cars. All will eventually be featured here. Interestingly, the shop is across the street from a motel which frequently has some manner of old car in the parking lot as well. I've seen a '49 Buick Roadmaster, '57 Thunderbird, '59 Chevy Apache and a '67 GTO in their lot, to name but a few.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1956 Mercury Montclair

Many old cars have an interesting story to them. The story behind this 1956 Mercury Montclair Hardtop Sport Coupe is a sad one. It sits, day in and day out, on a street under the Central Freeway flyover in front of a Best Buy store in San Francisco's SoMa (South of Market) district. The plates are recent and registration is current but I have always seen it in the same spot over the last two years. I suspect this old Merc isn't used so much for transportation as it is for shelter.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Monza 900

Name me a car available today with a rear-mounted engine, rear-wheel-drive, manual transmission and sporty performance.

You said Porsche, didn't you? Understandable. Now, let's add "available with four doors" to the criteria. Narrows things down a bit, doesn't it?

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1956 Continental Mark II

The hands of fate have not been kind to all of the old iron on California's streets. Contrary to popular belief, cars do rust here when not taken care of. Case in point: this rare 1956 Continental Mark II. Only about 3000 of these European-inspired boulevard cruisers were built between 1956 and 1957, and they were exclusive to the rich and famous -- because only the rich and famous could afford the $10,000 asking price.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1975 Pontiac Catalina

I first found this 1975 Pontiac Catalina in summer of 2007 when I was on a road trip with my friend Colin, who coincidentally operates his own blog much like this one. We had made a grand circle tour from my hometown in the East Bay to Las Vegas to Los Angeles and then to San Francisco before dropping me off back at home. En route to Golden Gate Park, we passed a baby blue full-size Pontiac parked on a street. I snapped two quick pictures of it from the car and never saw it again.
Fast forward to May 2009. I was wandering around the city with my camera as I often do when I have free time, and lo and behold, I happened upon a gigantic baby blue full-size Pontiac parked in a different part of town. I took a dozen or so pictures and went home. Turns out it was the same car. The last two years have been mostly kind to this behemoth. The paint and pinstriping are the same. The original hubcaps and license plate are still intact. The parking permit and bumper sticker are the same ones the car wore in 2007. The front turn signal reflector lenses haven't been fixed. It has some minor rust in the rockers but it appears not to spread since I last saw it. The only immediately noticeable difference is a driver mirror which has been replaced by a Cadillac unit that probably originated on a Fleetwood Brougham.

Castro Valley Street Sighting - 1980 Volkswagen Dasher

If any company doing business in the US at the dawn of the 1980s had small cars down to a science, it had to be Volkswagen. VW helped put the world on wheels with its Type 1 (Beetle), Type 2 (Microbus), Type 3 (Fastback, Notchback and Squareback). But even the People's Car had to have a top model, and in 1974 the Passat (German for "Trade Wind") was born. It was available in a variety of body styles including a two or four-door sedan, a three or five-door hatchback, and a station wagon. In North America the first generation of Passats were marketed as the Dasher between 1974 and 1981. Following the model's refresh for 1982, the name was changed to Quantum, and then, in 1986, to Passat. It remains Volkswagen's large-midsize sedan in the American market.

San Francisco Street Sighting - BMW 2800CS

These days one expects to see BMWs everywhere. I once sat down to dinner at a window table in a restaurant in my town and counted over 40 BMWs driving by during the meal. And I think I was only counting E46-generation 3 Series models. But once upon a time, BMW was just "one of those foreign cars" and most Americans aspired to own a Cadillac if they wanted luxury.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1972 Chevrolet Kingswood

Many Americans have fond (or perhaps not so fond) memories of family road trips in a big station wagon. The Family Truckster has since given way to the SUV, but some folks still hold on to their big old wagons. This 1972 Chevy Kingswood Estate Wagon is a prime example of a fixture of yesteryear still lurking on the streets in the 21st century. And in eco-centric San Francisco, no less!