Sightings from our Travels

"Amoore100" (amoore100)
01/04/2016 at 22:00 • Filed to: Sightings from our Travels, Pictures, Travel

I’ve been rather absent from Oppo for about the past month or so, with school work and holiday travel temporarily consuming my life. However, the new year has finally turned over and so everything can start all over again. Expect to see my regular posts beginning next week, hopefully.

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In the meantime, this post is meant to be a compilation of all the interesting (and not so interesting) vehicles I’ve seen over our Thanksgiving trip to Arizona and Christmas trip to San Diego. Finally equipped with a smartphone and therefore now able to take decent pictures, I present to you pictures of cars seen in the wild. (P.S. Some (ok, most) of the photos are of rather awful quality, may you be fairly warned...)

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Here we have a lineup of CUVs/SUVs in the middle of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Two are body on frame, three are unibody. Two are American (mostly), two are Japanese, and one is American with Italian roots. Definitely not a scene you would have witnessed thirty years ago.

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Again, nothing quite epitomizes the global economy of today as well as seeing a Swedish crossover from a Chinese owned brand in the heart of a uniquely American landscape...

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Now here’s something a bit more patriotic, a GMC hauling an Airstream along the highway.

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Of course no trip to Arizona would be complete without a visit to the classic Wigwam Motel on Route 66 which showcases collection of decaying classics from the 50’s and 60’s...

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Here we see the ferocious Volvo S80 stalking its prey in the wild as it attempts to sneak up on a hapless Yaris...

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It’s interesting how with mid-cycle refreshes it’s sometimes difficult to tell what changes have been made...for reference, the new one is on the left, the old on the right...changing the location of the reverse lamps was apparently an important action on their agenda...

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In the few weeks that we were home I managed to snap a picture of my V50 enjoying a rare Californian rain shower...

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On our Christmas trip we first set off down the Monterey coast and spent the night at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! where their fleet of state parks vans manages to be rather politically correct across all three American automakers...

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This fleet of Toyotas that the San Diego Lifeguard Department uses is replicated in a rather small scale by Matchbox on their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (picture courtesy of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ’s Flickr page)

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British Columbia to San Diego is quite a drive in any car, nevertheless doing it in a VAG product... (just kidding)

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Refreshing to see someone using a V60 as a family hauler instead of something stupid and useless like a Traverse or the like...

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Mid-cycle refresh comparison again, and the reverse lights were moved again...must be some sort of newfangled trend that I’m not understanding...

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I ride in my chauffeured Rolls to the Buddhist Temple because being humble is for peasants, godammit!

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Myself I would have preferred to roll up in this mid-60’s Chrysler Imperial driven by an elderly Asian couple (IIRC)...it seems that it would probably be the first car they ever bought in America, meticulously maintained as a status symbol ever since based on what I’ve seen with other immigrant families... really makes you reconsider that American ideal of replacing cars every two or three years...

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Now for some more international fare; this was a Nissan Frontier NP300 ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) that was seen headed northbound out of San Diego towards LA, likely visiting family or sightseeing, as this is too nice to be a work truck.

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We were climbing around Vasquez Rocks when from up high I spotted these two yellow beauties: a 911 and a Dino. Unfortunately this is the picture quality from the iPhone camera on zoom, since there’s not enough glass to properly magnify the view...

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Spotted this lovely Ranchero piloted by a middle aged to elderly lady as we left Kettleman City. Reminds me of the story that utes came about in Australia after some elderly ladies decided they wanted both a utilitarian pick up for the farm as well as a comfortable sedan for Sunday church, and thus the ute was born.

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Exciting is not a word I’d use to describe either of the two nouns on that billboard...

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By the time we returned, this was the state of the Odyssey’s flanks from two weeks of highway travel through rain and dust.

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Also when we returned my dad’s V70 had decided it was a bit thirsty so we filled up both its engine and my V50’s with about half a quart of the recommended 5W-30.

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That’s all that I have from this most recent trip, I apologize for the large amount of pictures this ended up being. There were still two that got away that I regret missing, though; one was a vibrant blue Suzuki Swift scurrying between San Diego and LA just ahead of the NP300, and one was a Vehicross parked in downtown Campbell just five a minutes away from home. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this compilation, and feel free to share any thoughts/comments of your own below!

DISCUSSION (24)

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Amoore100
01/04/2016 at 22:04

Body on frame =/= CUV

Amoore100 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
01/04/2016 at 22:05

Sorry about that, you’re right...I knew something felt a bit off as I typed a ‘C’ before that ‘UV’...

pjhusa > Amoore100
01/04/2016 at 22:09

just curious, how old are you?

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Amoore100
01/04/2016 at 22:12

I’m going from BC to NYC in a 25 year old C1500. I can’t tell if that will be worse than driving from BC to San Diego in a Touareg.

Amoore100 > pjhusa
01/04/2016 at 22:27

16, why?

Amoore100 > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
01/04/2016 at 22:28

Well I can tell you the Touareg is likely infinitely more comfortable but the C1500 infinitely more interesting.

Wobbles the Mind > Amoore100
01/04/2016 at 22:54

I think it helps the backup camera immensely with the reverse lights being in line or below it. I’ve also noticed reverse lights have become way brighter due to the cameras. That and I think the silver connecting to the chrome went out of style with everyone wanting less brightwork. Though now they connect grill chrome with headlamp brightwork. So odd.

MLGCarGuy > pjhusa
01/04/2016 at 23:00

no stop

Amoore100 > Wobbles the Mind
01/04/2016 at 23:11

What I find odd is that while the Odyssey lights migrated down, the Toyota lights migrated up, indicating that they have different intentions in each case...I like your interpretation with the reverse camera though, makes a lot of sense. Brightwork is just brightwork. Most modern cars look better without it although with a few exceptions (mostly American). They’re all copying something that can never be reached since they lack the sense of lineage that comes from someone like Caddy or Buick.