Oldie but goodies : Car ads that are Strange and Obscure
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I just learned about the Sterling 825. Yikes!
My neighbor had a visitor park a Sterling in front of his house two weeks ago. First time I saw one of them in years.
I drove a used 1994 Rover 825 Sterling while I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall '02-'05. Great car for us, Honda V-6 powertrain and chassis, just a little different sheet metal in places. I changed the timing belt and plugs as soon as I bought it, we drove that thing all over Europe and only replaced brake pads and tires. Sold it when we transferred back Stateside, hope it lived a good life.
the rover 800 wasn’t a terrible car, the dealer network here killed all hopes of success. range rover dealers did not want to associated with that car and they got punted to the lowest bidder
the 75 that replaced it has a cult following, now those are very sad vehicles
I love this stuff. I rode in an Avanti back in the late 90s, at the time I remember them saying it was the only hand-built American car on the market.
My dad had a friend that bought a Checker, he was a fleet manager for some company and he bought a new one as a family car. It had an enormous rear seat and the sheet metal was ridiculously thick. That's all I remember about that one.
And that Zimmer was one of several makes available in the late 70s and 80s which were based on some commercial chassis but with custom bodywork (some just modified the existing sheet metal of a commercially available model). Another example was Excalibur based here in Milwaukee.
Thanks for the video.
My dad had a friend that bought a Checker, he was a fleet manager for some company and he bought a new one as a family car. It had an enormous rear seat and the sheet metal was ridiculously thick. That's all I remember about that one.
And that Zimmer was one of several makes available in the late 70s and 80s which were based on some commercial chassis but with custom bodywork (some just modified the existing sheet metal of a commercially available model). Another example was Excalibur based here in Milwaukee.
Thanks for the video.
Remember when Infiniti was launched? The ads were all conceptual, no cars shown at all. Talked about feelings. Back then even my 77 year old grandmother was confused, she asked what was this new car all about? called In-feen-neaty?
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Anyone remember a car called a Merkur? Mid 1980s maybe?
The only one I saw was in Britain. An interesting car for sure. Seems to me they had a different power train there.
AKA Merkur Scorpio
Merkur XR4Ti = Ford Sierra with turbocharged lima 4
these vehicles are the origin of the jellybean. Ford of Europe carried the entire company on its back.
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Yeah, the inspiration and influence from their European divisions definitely saved them. My jellybean Explorer has a German engine and French transmission on an American Ranger chassis, and was a competent enough vehicle to be sold anywhere you could buy a Ford in 1997, including Russia and Japan. The new Motorcraft water pump it got a couple months ago was still made in Germany.
Absolutely, a guy at work had one back in the late 80s. He parked next to me in the parking lot and I always thought it was a pretty cool looking car.
I owned a VW411 when I ived in Arizona. Had a huge trunk in the front and a economical 1700air cooled motor in the back and automatic transmission. Got really great mileage, 28 in town and 34on the road and hard to keep it under 90mph.
Everybody Needs a Yugo Sometime.........
I used to call the Merkur the Merkin.
Not an attractive car in my opinion.
Not an attractive car in my opinion.
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