I've been grabbing pictures with my phone of old cars that I've come across, and now I have a use for them. I'll be posting them here on Mondays, though some weeks I will deviate and do something different.
I came across this relic of the 1980s in the parking lot of our local Ocean State Job Lot three or four months ago. It was the middle of the afternoon and the lot was pretty empty, but this car's owner has seemingly parked it strategically to avoid potential contact from an adjacent car door.
This is a Pontiac Safari; this basic vehicle was produced from model years 1977 to 1989, but the fact that its side says only Safari and it wears no other nameplate, such as Grand Safari, Bonneville Safari, or Parisienne Safari, indicates that it's from one of the final three years of production, 1987-89. By that point minivans had become quite popular for families that needed both passenger and cargo space. They were smaller and more efficient than older designs like this, while offering comparable interior space. Large wagons like this were fading away, but were kept in the lineup because they had long since earned back their tooling costs and any sales, even just a few thousand per year, were profitable.
But in the late 1970s, cars like this were everywhere. I used to get a ride to school sometimes from a classmate whose father had a version of this car in pale yellow, but without the fake wood adorning the sides. This car was also available at the time as a Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, or Buick Estate Wagon, and later I rode with another classmate who drove his mother's Buick version, white with the woodgrain sides and a plush red cloth interior, quite a classy ride.
The front fender of this car shows discoloration of the vinyl applique; it's possible the fender was replaced and this is from a different vehicle. The rear wheel opening also shows signs of some work, possibly body filler. But the wheel covers are nice and the dark blue looks good under all the dust; it wouldn't take too much effort to get this car cleaned up and looking sharp.
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