Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.

[twosmoke300]

Saw a modern ish 3 dr Swb land cruiser today . Never knew such a thing existed. Looked comically under wheeled too 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

1 hour ago, twosmoke300 said:

Saw a modern ish 3 dr Swb land cruiser today . Never knew such a thing existed. Looked comically under wheeled too 

Wasn't this one , was it?Its Autocar's long termer, and I'm sure it's the only one in existence.

I've seen it twice , once near Heathrow and once on the M40 near Gaydon, both times driven by Matt Prior of Autocar.

[twosmoke300]

No was 07 plate or something 

[GrumpyCat]

As seen on Hairnet's thread,  Citroen C-Elysee. 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I'm in Granada today and on the drive up from Malaga, I must have seen 20 odd of these , compared to last week driving from Calais to Nice I did t notice 1.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Wasn't this one , was it?Its Autocar's long termer, and I'm sure it's the only one in existence.
I've seen it twice , once near Heathrow and once on the M40 near Gaydon, both times driven by Matt Prior of Autocar.

The SWB Land Cruisers are even unpopular here in Australia! Home of the Land Cruiser! I’ve seen a few about, but certainly many, many more LWB models.

[MikeR]

its a ...

and a chimney on the top !!

[Datsuncog]

On ‎7‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 4:28 PM, quicksilver said:

One from FOTU that caused a lot of head scratching. It looks like an Alfetta but bigger and badged 'Alfa Romeo 2300 Rio'.

It was made in Brazil and sounds like complete and utter shite that nobody wanted. The Brazilians were moving to ethanol fuel so Alfa ended up with a load of unsaleable petrol-engined cars that they dumped on their European importers. They sold badly there too and quality was so bad that the importers eventually had to buy almost all of them back. The ones in the Netherlands were then stored outside for 3 years and sold on with no warranty, pretty much destroying what was left of Alfa's reputation there. It must be a miracle that this one has survived.

Funny, a red one of them with Dutch plates appeared on Instagram only the other day (@plankhond) - a totally new one on me too.

Another commenter mentioned that, in its country of origin, these cars were very, very, VERY expensive to buy new - about the same price as a house. Plus, of course, the ethanol thing making them unsaleable by the early 80s.

And they were based on the 1950s Alfa 1900, so in terms of driving dynamics they were no great shakes anyway.

Those badges on the back look like Halfords stick-on jobbers. Those on the red example were just as wonky, showing the fastidious* attention to detail which the importer lavished upon these fine Italo-Brazilian throughbreds.

Verdict: 1000% shite. Irredeemably godawful.

Hence Mr. Bickle's probably lining one up... ?

[barrett]

Funnily enough, @plankhond posted some pics of a car I wasn't aware of the other day, too: the XM Séduction. This is the lowest spec XM, with a 2-litre carb-fed engine (although you could order a 2.1 n/a diesel, too) which, unlike other XMs, wasn't fitted with the afterthought rear spoiler, had no centre console, cloth seats etc and was generall the closest you could get to the XM prototype. I had never noticed it before, but not having a spoiler totally transforms the look of the car and makes it much more retrofuturistic. They also had 'the trims' which were carried over from the prototype. Actually, properly lovely. This one is for sale and looks worth every penny.

http://www.theparking.eu/used-cars-detail/citroen-xm/2.0l-seduction/LD25K808.html

[320touring]

I learned about this one today..

Aussie market Ford Capri apparently..

[bunglebus]

The Seat Tarraco. Totally different* to all the other MPVs

[Aston Martin]

I saw a Clio Campus Van.

The normal Campus is a sparse sight, I didn't know they did a van version.

[lesapandre]

14 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

The Seat Tarraco. Totally different* to all the other MPVs

Why do they all look the same? Legislation, use of common platforms and parts, fear of being different...or is this look what the market demands? Is that dual exhaust exiting through the bumper like some 50's chrome laden monster? Probably totally pointless and difficult to repair in a rear end bump or needing a new exhaust...but thats probably not the point.

[RoadworkUK]

4 hours ago, barrett said:

 XM Séduction. This is the lowest spec XM, with a 2-litre carb-fed engine .... had no centre console, cloth seats etc and was generally the closest you could get to the XM prototype... but not having a spoiler totally transforms the look of the car and makes it much more retrofuturistic. They also had 'the trims' which were carried over from the prototype.

Rightoh, that'll be me spending this evening looking for early French XM brochures on eBay

[adw1977]

The basic XM in the UK was imaginatively called “2.0 Carb" (did it actually say that in the rear badge?) but did have a spoiler. 

(Edited to remove incorrect reference to alloy wheels that NorfolkNWeigh pointed out). 

[barrett]

Don't bother with brochures, why not pick up the real thing?

This one is €2k but it's a one-owner car with full Citroen service history
https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1618815645.htm/

This one is a weird colour and is a bit rougher, but its five hundred quid

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1636439349.htm/

Both, importantly, have a full compliment of The Trims from what one can see, and are 2.1 diesels

[TataBobu]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

Is that dual exhaust exiting through the bumper like some 50's chrome laden monster?

Nope. That's just for show. Apparently the customers think this looks nice, and everyone on the road will envy the big muscled twin exhausted 1 liter TSI monster of an automobile, or the 1.6 diesel one. Also adorned with fake twin exhausts.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

7 hours ago, adw1977 said:

The basic XM in the UK was imaginatively called “2.0 Carb" (did it actually say that in the rear badge?) but did have a spoiler and alloy wheels. 

No, just said XM with no engine size, I drove a lot of carb fed XM's when new and they were no slower than 2.0 Granadas, Carltons etc.

They didn't have alloys either , only top of the range Sei (?) got those. All other XMs got the same flat trims.

[cort1977]

Obviously old hat to shiters based in Blighty but I hadn't realized that Lagunas could be obtained in coupe flavor. 

Definitely would.

[adw1977]

9 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

No, just said XM with no engine size, I drove a lot of carb fed XM's when new and they were no slower than 2.0 Granadas, Carltons etc.

They didn't have alloys either , only top of the range Sei (?) got those. All other XMs got the same flat trims.

You're quite right about the alloys, I misread the specifications. 

Link to 1990 brochure

[Timewaster]

On 7/23/2019 at 3:19 PM, lesapandre said:

Why do they all look the same? Legislation, use of common platforms and parts, fear of being different...or is this look what the market demands? Is that dual exhaust exiting through the bumper like some 50's chrome laden monster? Probably totally pointless and difficult to repair in a rear end bump or needing a new exhaust...but thats probably not the point.

Biggest shame is VAG had a great individual SUV in the Skoda Yeti but instead of persevering with it,  they just launched a pair of (very good but) fairly non descript VW clones instead.

 

No manufacturer dares to be bold anymore. What was the last new model that made you look twice?

Renault Twizzy maybe?

I don't know about other markets but it's a bit of a joke car in the UK, although Seat appear to have cloned it.

https://images.app.goo.gl/6s5vw7Npt4dZsMbF6

 

[lesapandre]

I quite like the new Twingo - it could not be anything but French...but it is a Smart clone. 

[egg]

1 hour ago, Timewaster said:

What was the last new model that made you look twice

Renault Alpine, A110 but that is still a knock-off of something older...

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Timewaster said:

Biggest shame is VAG had a great individual SUV in the Skoda Yeti but instead of persevering with it,  they just launched a pair of (very good but) fairly non descript VW clones instead.

 

No manufacturer dares to be bold anymore. What was the last new model that made you look twice?

Renault Twizzy maybe?

I don't know about other markets but it's a bit of a joke car in the UK, although Seat appear to have cloned it.

https://images.app.goo.gl/6s5vw7Npt4dZsMbF6

 

And Roomster. Not a looker but certainly different.  In fact most Skodas of that era. Now they (and Seat) all seem to have the same sharp edge look as the VW's. Don't know if they've been lent on by VW to do this or if they just decided it was the way to go on their own. 

[bunglebus]

Last one I liked was the new Pug 208 I saw a while ago, did I mention I saw an estate? They're often in a lovely red too. Other than that - yawn.

 

[Asimo]

This looks very angry.

It has Mercedes logo but doesn't look untidy enough to be a modern Merc. There was a '19 plate on the back. Any ideas?

[jumpingjehovahs]

This looks very angry.
It has Mercedes logo but doesn't look untidy enough to be a modern Merc. There was a '19 plate on the back. Any ideas?

I’m pretty sure it’s a Mercedes GT-R AMG. But it looks like it might have a body kit or something?


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[chaseracer]

On 7/24/2019 at 6:39 PM, Timewaster said:

What was the last new model that made you look twice?

Lexus UX250h, conveniently... ?

[Timewaster]

2 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

Lexus UX250h, conveniently... ?

Well I have too admit, they are er,..... Distinctive?

[bunglebus]

 

Can't remember if I posted the Hyundai Kona before