Those cars are kind of 'hip' in the UK (as are Ford F150s for some reason - why is there a love affair in the US for pickups?).

I particularly like the stone washed paint job..

I think the new name for that paint job is 'Vintage' - And no doubt Gap would charge you extra for it.

If they made car paint jobs.

Which they don't.

Luckily.

I don't even want to imagine a car version of their Khaki-a-go-go advert.

Or Madonna and Missy Elliot trying to make a knackered old (sorry, 'Vintage') car look cool. That's just too degrading!

It depends where you live. I used to live in an area that was so bad for car crime that I used to take vital parts of the engine out when I parked up. And that was on a car that was so beat-up that your example looks like a showroom model.

Never mind that though - I've just realised the point of having "The Club". The advert says $1000 reward if car stolen. Heck - you could make a profit!!

Just wait 'til the owner snaps you in half for taking suspicious photos of his (ahem) car, paying particular attention to the security installed.

Man you should come visit Cape Town, South Africa some time soon. This is an example of about the average automobile age here.

Crappy Ideas inc (Publicly Traded) today anounce their New Business Venture, the:

"Crappy(TM) Car Protection System"

A photo of the driver will be taken at various intervals and posted on the web. People will then be able to see and LAUGH at the person driving such a crappy car (the normal driver is filtered out of the picture) with the overall intent being that nobody would steal it because they will be HUMILIATED.

Sad irony may be that the Club is worth more than the car.

In my hometown of Greenville SC, there was a rash of thefts of "the club" just after they fist came out. Seems someone was breaking into cars at the local mall during the christmas season and just stealing "the club" from them. No one knows why or what this person needed with the clubs, but last I heard there had been over 150 of them stolen. Perhaps he stole them just to prove a point...

Needless to say, few clubs were sold in this area after news of that incident spread :P

sometimes, the not-so-rich have to make do with old crappy cars! and losing a crappy car might be too heavy on some people's pockets (or money purse or whereever-one-keeps-$$$)... so they sometimes resort to 'the club' (and other naive acts like chaining their bikes)..

the car-owner didn't deserve to be ridiculed (unless it was your spot s/he was parked on!)

Vatsan -

"the car-owner didn't deserve to be ridiculed"

True - I did it out of the kindness of my heart.

Two things, though:

1) I've been so poor that I couldn't even afford *that* car, so I guess I feel like it's OK for me to joke around a bit.

2) It *is* a joke, and I'm totally aware that the person who owns the car isn't going to see the post, so no real harm is done.

The point is that it *is* funny to see a total piecer with The Club on it. I even think that the person who owns the car meant it as a joke - Portland is a pretty safe town, and the chances of a car like that getting broken into are about zero.

My father and I lived in a house together for about seven years, and we didn't even have locks on the front door (didn't have doorknobs, either, but that's another story), and we never had a single problem.

So, I think it's OK :)

"and we didn't even have locks on the front door (didn't have doorknobs, either, but that's another story)"

Doesn't that deserve a blog entry Rory?

Was that sort of an Anglo-French-Portland -
'It's 1988 - Ronald Reagan is president and the world won't be worse if someone steals all of the stuff we own - because the powers that be have said that there is this think called trickle down so it should actually trickle back and Margret Thatcher is trying to protect small islands in the South Atlantic from the evil Argentines and anyone trying to get into 'our' dwelling will look for a doorknob... but wait there isn't one. And then you could like call the police because there was this strange person standing around with a bag, and picklocks and a crowbar scratching his head mumbling ... no doorknobs... no doorknobs until the nice young men with the bats and guns and badges (we don' neeeeed badges) carry him off to were ever one carries confused criminals.'
err... kind of thing?

I'm sure you could explain this better right?

Rory, my '92 Eagle Premier happens to be a particularly unique beast of Crap-Car in that it's sole function for being manufactured at all was to "use up" all the leftover parts of the '91 Eagle Premier line before killing off the Eagles entirely. WHICH MEANS the only way to obtain just about any part of my vehicle is to contact all local junkyards and feebly inquire as to whether they might have a spare '92 Eagle Premier lying about. This explains the blue bungee cord securing the left turn-signal housing onto my car (I lied when I said it was for asthetics).

WHICH MEANS that if there is someone out there with an ill-off '92 Eagle Premier and even worse off morals, they are undoubtedly in such a state of desperation (on TOP of that original state which drove them to purchase a a Premier in the first place) that my car happens to be at particularly high risk of theft and/or vandalism WHICH IS WHY your posting has inspired me to get a Club to secure my precious rarity.

IN FACT, I am heading straight to GI Joe's to purchase this safety insurance. As soon as my car gets out of the shop. Hopefully the junkyard gods are smiling upon me. I have to go now. I need to buy a black hoodie and...go for a walk. In Gresham.

Welllllllll...

Touchy, touchy!

I don't know if you know, but these cars are quite rare. A collector would easily pay 3000$ for it. I think it's an Opel Manta A, and was build I think in the 1970s.

Ciao

Oli