I think my Saturn Outlook looks rather nice in brown:



Saw this very good looking brown Subaru Legacy at Cars and Coffee this past summer:

Welcome! You and I share a number of Automotive history and interests. First, I love hatches. My first car was a '76 Camaro, but since then I've owned almost nothing but hatches. Replaced the Camaro with an '80 Monza, the Monza gave way to the predecessor to the NX, an '88 Pulsar NX SE, the pulsar was replaced by a bare bones '93 Escort 5 door and the Escort gave way to my '05 Mazda3 5 door.

The other two relate to the cars in the post. The first is the Pulsar / NX 1600 connection, the second being that my wife had an '88 Chevy Nova. Alas, it was not a hatch, it was a sedan. Still, an excellent, if boring, little car.

Did you catch that the Smart car with the Sharpie art was actually a vinyl stick on and not actually sharpie on paint. Still kinda neat, but not as neat as if they actually drew on the paint.

I'll take my Mirada in this glorious T-topped, alloy wheeled, white walled, white pleathered, red seat belted (!) version:



I don't recall a CMX trim, does that imply that Dodge actually exported these things? The mind boggles.

05 Mazda3 S 5-door

- AC comes on (with no light) in floor or any floor defrost combination setting with no way to prevent it.
- Pretty bad in the snow. Replacing the stock Goodyears with Dunlop Sport Signatures helped a lot, but it's still pretty marginal. Thankfully central OH doesn't get a lot of serious snow. If we did. dedicated snow shoes would be mandatory.
- Rust. Yeah, it's 6 years old with 101K, but still disappointing to see rust in all 4 doors (Mazda replaced one under the 5 year perforation warranty) and both quarters.

Other than that, it's been a fabulous car. Decent MPG (averaging 28.7), decent power, great handling and 5-door practicality.

I grew up during the tape and stripe era, so I have a soft spot in my heart for a lot of these.

Had an R/C Mustang II Cobra, I'd love the real deal.

My wheels in college was an '80 Monza plain old 4 cyl 4 speed hatch (craptastic car), but I've always had a secret love for the special editions like the Mirage, which incorporated an 'IMSA Lite' body kit:



That one sports aftermarket rear and side window louvers - FTW!

Then there was the Buick Roadhawk, with it's crazy wing extensions that wrapped around all the way to the door:



Guess I should't leave out the Firenza:



or the decidedly more tame Sunbird Formula:

Nah, the proportions are all off. Too much front overhang and odd relationship between the rear wheels and rear deck. Either the rear wheels are too far back or the rear window is too far forward or the rear deck is too long or something. Odd shape to the quarter windows too, not to mention the odd flat spots on the trailing edges of the wheel arches.

This has got to be a record of some kind. These are usually solved in minutes, maybe a few hours. For it to go a few days is unheard of.

For Flickr images, you can grab the HTML code right there on the page under the share link right above the image.

I was thinking Rampage, but I think you may be right. Either way, it's a pretty improbable choice of donor bed material.

Reminds me of this VW contraption I saw at an O'Charlies restaurant one time:



I had to admire the guy's loyalty in choosing a VW pickup bed to make that thing.