![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:24 • Filed to: Dots, italy, sicily | ![]() | ![]() |
You’ve seen one of the hundreds of Piaggio Apes I’ve seen (mostly clogging up traffic and belching foul-smelling exhaust, to be honest) and my lovely blue Alfa Romeo rental. Now here are some random things I spotted while walking around today.
A Tata pickup. I also saw a Great Wall pickup truck with the ugliest bed cover/rear window combination imaginable. No picture because I was busy driving.
A Land Rover Freelander with a removable rear, which I suspect is the only way to enjoy a Freelander.
I swear I saw this thing reviewed on Top Gear but I can’t remember what it is. Anyone? ETA: Smart Coupe version of the Smart Roadster. Thanks, everyone!
Last but certainly not least, a Citroen CX with a lovely brown leather interior that looks like an old man’s living room.
Also: approximately a million Fiat Pandas and Puntos, many Smart cars, both Vauxhall and Opel Astra variants, numerous other terrible econoboxes, diesel commuter trims of 3-series and C-classes and small Audis, and several tractors blocking highways. Plus two beat-up Jeep Compasses and a really nice old Fiat 500.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:31 |
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smart roadster
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:40 |
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I love me a pickup where the body only comes down to the top of the rims, not the centerline.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:44 |
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Yeah, I heard the parking gets pretty tight.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:52 |
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In Sicily just because? Also, that Tata pickup is awesome
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:53 |
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Never seen a CX with round headlights before. Some kind of aftermarket conversion?
In my experience the most commonly seen car in Italy is the Mk1 Fiat Panda, which suggests that they have a very dry climate...
The unknown is a Smart Roadster coupé (as opposed to the plain Roadster).
![]() 11/28/2017 at 15:59 |
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Yay Pandas! :D
I do love the classic 500 though, so awesome you saw one! The little silver roadster is a Smart!
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:18 |
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There was a private importer or two of CX in the US back in the day, not sure if these are the same units:
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:21 |
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Thanks!
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:22 |
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Weird. I’d guess they’re the same ones. The rest of the car looks to be “rest of the world” spec though.
CXs are beginning to go for quite fancy prices now.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:23 |
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You’re right about the early Pandas, at least in the hills...a little less common on the coasts as far as I can tell, perhaps because the sea air turned them all to dust by now.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:23 |
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Oooh, a Mirafiori! Don’t see them often now.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:24 |
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Because vacation! Eating all the food and drinking all the wine.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:24 |
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Italian market sidemarkers, so likely not a re-import (also looks like an older car with the chrome mirrors etc). I’ve seen US light conversions on W126 and R107 in Europe, too - anything just to be different.
Can’t be too many truly pristine survivors anymore, same thing is happening to W126 prices in Europe, for the best cars anyway.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:27 |
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Awesome...enjoy the food for me! My dad is from there but I haven’t been there since I was a kid.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 16:38 |
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I want this!
![]() 11/28/2017 at 19:01 |
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Actually Italian market indicator repeaters! Side marker lights weren’t required in Italy, then or now. They’re allowed in the EU but rarely fitted.
![]() 11/28/2017 at 21:11 |
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Even weirder then, that’s a small lens for a repeater. Cool.
I can imagine side markers are a dumb Murkan thing, but they make it easy to date some cars anyway.
![]() 11/29/2017 at 04:37 |
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Those little round ones were almost universal on Italian cars at one time. Like this 128 and 127:
And even this Miura:
![]() 11/29/2017 at 09:19 |
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I remember it from the late run DS in “European Vacation” (many scenes filmed in Italy, never mind the plate):