2003 Saturn Vue

The Saturn division of General Motors had originally been launched as an entirely clean-sheet-of-paper project intended to revamp the way GM looked at building cars. While the corporation had long shared a great deal of componentry among divisions, the Saturn SL sedans and SC coupes were on their own chassis and used their own engines and shared next to nothing with any other division.

The first crack in the foundation was when Saturn added a midsize sedan to the previously compact-only lineup for the 2000 model year. The LS-series sedans used GM corporate four- and six-cylinder motors and shared the GM2900 platform with the Opel Vectra and Saab 9-3 & 9-5.

For 2002 Saturn jumped into the booming compact SUV market with the Vue, on the all-new unibody Theta platform. It had the platform to itself initially, but it was soon enough sharing it with the Chevy Equinox, Pontiac Torrent, and Suzuki XL7.

For the first few years the Vue could be had with the base 143hp 2.2L Ecotec four cylinder or an Opel-designed iron block 3.0L V-6 rated at 181 ponies. 

Car and Driver tested an AWD 2002 V-6 Vue with the 5-speed automatic and clocked an 8.4 second zero-to-sixty time and a 16.6 quarter at 83mph.

The Electric Blue example in the photo was snapped with a Canon EOS RP and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens in July of 2026.

2001 Isuzu Rodeo LS

The 2001 model year debuted the facelift for the second generation Isuzu Rodeo on the US market, with a better blended grille and bumpers. The two door version, formerly sold as the Amigo, was now the Rodeo Sport. Cars for sale on our shores were built at the Subaru plant just up the road from me in Lafayette, Indiana.

Like the first generation Isuzus, these were body-on-frame vehicles, rather than of unibody construction.

While the base Rodeo S came with a standard Holden-sourced 2.2L DOHC inline four making 130 horsepower, the more upscale Rodeo LS had a 3.2L DOHC 24-valve V-6 rated at a respectable-for-the-era 205 ponies. Both could be had in RWD or 4WD form.

Base price for this Garden Green 2001 Rodeo LS would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $24,000, or about $45,400 in current dollars in RWD format. This one was photographed in November of 2025 using a Sony a77 and a 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

1986 Chevrolet Suburban C20 Silverado

The seventh generation of Chevy's Suburban nameplate stretched from 1973 all the way to 1991 with only minor changes every few years. Going by the cosmetics, this one could be an '85-'87 and it's the Light Blue Metallic and Frost White two-tone paint job that has me leaning towards a 1986 model.

Not a diesel, so it's got one of two carbureted V-8 options: the 5.7L motor making 165hp or the 7.4L 240-horsepower big-block. 

This one was photographed in May of 2026 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS zoom lens.

2007 Honda Pilot EX

For 2003, Honda jumped into the largish SUV market with the eight-passenger, three-row Pilot, manufactured primarily at its plant in Alabama.

Sharing its platform with the Odyssey minivan and Acura MDX luxury SUV, the Pilot was Honda's biggest SUV and aimed primarily at the North American market. It could be had in FWD or 4WD configurations and in LX or upmarket EX and EX-L trims.

For the 2007 model year, like the Dark Cherry Pearl one in the photo, the first generation Pilot received a styling and mechanical refresh. Under the hood was a 3.5L SOHC i-VTEC V-6 making 244 SAE net horsepower.

This one was snapped with a Sony a77 and 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom lens in November of 2025.

1978 International Harvester Scout II

Spotted at 56th & Illinois while grocery shopping and grabbing a quick Frappuccino from the Starbucks on a September afternoon in 2021 was this 1977-'79 International Harvester Scout II. Fortunately I had a Nikon D7000 wearing a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens along with me.

The Scout II's can generally be identified by model year according to the grille...up until the '77-'79 models, where the front end trim was the same for three years running. In 1980, they went to rectangular headlamps. In 1981, they were discontinued.

Friend of the blog T. Stahl has commented with amusement on the peculiarly American obsession with specific model years. 

German cars tend to go by generations. For example from the Eighties to the early Aughties, 3-series BMW's went from the E30 to the E36 to the E46. A generation will run for six to ten years, typically, receiving a styling update somewhere in the middle of its lifespan to keep it fresh-looking.

"Model Year" in the US has regulatory implications, but it also used to have a lot more significance as a styling thing.

"The concept of yearly styling updates (a practice adopted from the fashion industry) was introduced to General Motors' range of cars by Alfred P. Sloan in the 1920s. This was an early form of planned obsolescence in the car industry, where yearly styling changes meant consumers could easily discern a car's newness, or lack of it. Other major changes to the model range usually coincided with the launch of the new model year., for example the 1928 model year of the Ford Model A began production in October 1927 and the 1955 model year of the Ford Thunderbird began production in September 1954.

Model year followed with calendar year until the mid 1930s until then president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order to release vehicle model years in the fall of preceding year in order to standardize employment in the automotive industry. The practice of beginning production of next year's model before the end of the year has become a long standing tradition in America."

At its height in postwar America, the new model year launches were a big deal. Dealerships would paper over their windows, the 'longer, lower, wider' new cars would be delivered under tarps and rolled into the showroom by dark of night.

Pretty reliably from the late '40s through to about the early 1980s, enthusiasts of a particular model of American automobile can pinpoint its exact year of manufacture by some sort of cosmetic differences.

This is, of course, a wildly inefficient way to make cars. Post-fuel-crises Detroit, getting clobbered by Japanese imports, generally hewed more closely to the global norm of mid-cycle refreshes on platforms that remained largely unchanged for many years, maybe changing a minor styling detail every couple-three years to keep things fresh.

ETA: If this is correct, the Flame Red color would make it a 1978 model.

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1988 Isuzu Trooper II

The Isuzu Trooper II had been on the U.S. market since the early Eighties, and got a light styling refresh for the 1987 model year, most notably getting rectangular headlamp assemblies to replace the old round sealed beams.

It was a rugged SUV with all the off-roading credentials you'd expect to find: a full array of skid plates protecting the vitals, nearly ten inches of ground clearance, five-speed manual backed by a dual-ratio transfer case, self-locking hubs allowed shifting into 4WD on the fly... the works.

Although it's bullying that orange Honda Element in the background just by being parked next to it, though, it's worth remembering that the stock powerplant in the Trooper II was a little weedy.

That's right, this butch-looking Isuzu off-roader had to haul around 3,600 pounds of sheet metal using only a 2.3L SOHC 4ZD1 Isuzu inline-4 putting out 96 SAE net horsepower at a thrashy 4,600 RPM. If you want to go slower, there was an optional 80hp 2.2L turbodiesel four.

Base price in 1987 was $12,999, or roughly $36,600 in today's coinage.

This one was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

2012 Cadillac Escalade EXT

Launched for the 2002 model year, the EXT version of Cadillac's Escalade luxury SUV was intended to compete with the first iteration of the Lincoln Blackwood. While the Blackwood fizzled after a single model year, having sold fewer than 3,500 units, the Escalade EXT did well enough to get continued.

In fact, the Cadillac of pickup trucks did well enough to get a second generation for the 2007 model year.

The new styling featured an even more massive chrome grille, with a rodeo belt buckle sized Caddy badge front and center. Only mild styling changes to trim bits followed over the next several years.

For 2012 the powerplant was the L94 version of GM's Vortec 6200 6.2L V-8, interesting for being the first mass produced pushrod motor with variable valve timing. It belted out 403 SAE net horsepower, which was ample enough to let even a nearly three ton SUV get out of its own way. The L94 differed from the earlier L92 only in having Active Fuel Management, which could shut off cylinders when cruising under light throttle load. Given Cadillac's previous experience with a more primitive version of the same concept, you can see why they'd pick a vague circumlocution to call its reboot.

When Motor Trend tested a 2007 Escalade EXT with the L92, the enormous land barge nevertheless managed a 6.5 second lunge to sixty and a 15.1 quarter at 92.5 through the traps. Respectable numbers for a vehicle that could have its own ZIP code.

This Radiant Silver Metallic 2012 model is from the second-to-last year of the EXT, which was discontinued after only 1,972 of the luxotrucks crossed the curb at Caddy stores.

It was photographed with an Olympus E-510 and a Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens in November of 2021.

1974 Toyota Land Cruiser

The FJ40 version of the heavy duty Toyota Land Cruiser was produced, almost unchanged, from 1960 through 1984, which is incredible longevity for a single generation of vehicle. If you got driven home from the hospital as an infant in one during the Kennedy administration, you could have bought one that looked just like it when you graduated college while Reagan was president.

Oh, sure, the new one would have had front disc brakes, a factory roll bar, the vent windows would have been deleted, and the grille/headlight bezel would have been squarer, but it would have been essentially identical.

This one's been resto-modded heavily enough that it's hard to be certain of the exact model year, but the rear lift gate, rather than a pair of full-height barn doors, combined with the presence of MVSS '68 compliant side marker lights, makes me guess it's somewhere between '69 and '74. (That instrument panel, for instance, is completely aftermarket.)

For 1974, the FJ40 would have had Toyota's 3.9L F engine under the hood, a torquey undersquare lump of a pushrod inline six with a 7.8:1 compression ratio that allowed it to run on garbage gasoline from whatever shady seller you stumbled across while roaming around the outback. It made 138 SAE net horsepower and grunted out 215 lb/ft of torque at only 2200 RPM.

This Freeborn Red example was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus PEN E-P5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-45mm f/4 PRO zoom lens.

1986 Toyota Land Cruiser

The FJ60 generation of the Toyota Land Cruiser introduced for the '80s had a more civilized interior than its FJ50-series predecessors. Niceties such as a tilt steering wheel and intermittent wipers were standard and you could even get air conditioning.

It still had the rugged ladder frame with enclosed box-section frame rails and 4-wheel drive with a standard four-speed manual transmission and two-speed transfer case.

Power was provided by the carbureted 4.2L 2F overhead valve inline six. Output was a mere 125 SAE net horsepower at 3600 rpm, mostly because the compression ratio was only 7.8:1, the better to be able to run on whatever garbage gasoline was available when you were safariing way out past where Jesus left His sandals.

MotorWeek got an '89 model to sixty in 14.2 seconds and managed the quarter in just under twenty, but nobody buys these things to drag race.

This Blue one was photographed with a Canon EOS 7D and EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lens in April of 2023.

1982 Jeep Scrambler CJ-8

Long before the Gladiator, Jeep offered a pickup version of their keystone off-roader in the form of the Scrambler.

Essentially a CJ-7 with the wheelbase given a ten inch stretch to 103.5" and a removable fiberglass half-cab fitted, the CJ-8 debuted in 1981 as an '82 model.

Billed as "America's import pickup fighter" by the manufacturer, the 1982 Scrambler could be had in regular, SR Sport, and SL Sport versions. 

The base motor was the 151 cubic inch OHV "Iron Duke" inline four cylinder, sourced from GM, and rated at 84 SAE net horsepower. Buyers could opt for the AMC 258 cube inline six, which bumped power output to 98 horsepower. The standard transmission was a 4-speed manual, with a 5-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic with locking torque converter optional.

The Sun Yellow one in the photos is obviously well-loved and cared for.

The top photo was taken with a Nikon D2X and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 VR zoom lens in August of 2021, while the lower photo was snapped in October of the same year, using a Nikon D800 and 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom lens.

2022 Volvo C40 Recharge

This all-electric Volvo C40 was based on their XC40 Recharge Pure Electric BEV crossover SUV, (itself the all-electric variant of the regular XC40, which was originally available as a regular internal combustion vehicle, but now even the base version in the US is a mild hybrid.)

It shares a platform with not only the XC40 but also the Polestar 2 electric car. The difference between the C40  and its XC40 progenitor is that the latter is a typical boxy five-door compact SUV while the C40 sports a zoomy fastback roofline for its rear hatch.

The C40 is only available in an all-electric dual-motor format, with separate motors for the front and rear wheels. Tallying up the output of both motors, it has 402hp, and sprints to 60 in 4.2 seconds on its way to a 12.9 second quarter at 108 miles per hour. Top speed is governed to 115, and for a lardy little truckette that weighs in at 4,763 pounds, batteries included, it even manages to circle a skidpad at 0.82g, which was IROC-Z territory when I was a kid. Range is supposed to be 228 miles.

The only car I've ever owned that would come close to those acceleration numbers had a fire extinguisher strapped to the transmission tunnel, five-point harnesses, required ether to be squirted down the carb throats in order to crank on any morning cold enough to need a jacket, and idled like a paint mixer. (Probably had about the same range, too.) This thing, on the other hand, is invisible in the Fresh Market parking lot; just another grocery getter.

This Onyx Black example was photographed in July of 2022 using a Nikon D7100 and the excellent 16-80mm f/2.8-4E DX zoom lens.

1996 Suzuki X-90

Suzuki's inexpensive Samurai, sold elsewhere around the world as the Jimny, was a big hit here in the '80s, basically establishing a beachhead for Suzuki in the US as something other than a motorcycle maker. It was joined in 1989 by the Sidekick, which was called the Vitara in other markets. A similarly jeep-like vehicle, it was slightly newer and more sophisticated and available in enclosed cab forms.

In the mid-Nineties the fun and funky Samurai was discontinued and replaced in Suzuki dealers lineups by the X-90.

The X-90 was an odd little enclosed two-seater that had cartoon-like styling, vaguely reminiscent of Honda's Del Sol. Based on Vitara/Sidekick mechanicals, it had a teeny 86.6" wheelbase. Since it was based on the Sidekick, it had a longitudinal four-cylinder up front with part-time four-wheel drive through a center transfer case. Rear wheel drive only versions were also available.

It had t-tops, a snug passenger compartment with minimal storage behind the seats, and a teeny trunk.

While the lines might have suggested "sporty car", they were writing checks the truckette powertrain couldn't cash. The alloy 1.6L SOHC 12V inline four only put out 95 SAE net horsepower.  

Car and Driver magazine tested a 1996 model with the five speed manual transmission and noted that, while the 4.63:1 final drive let it squirt to sixty in 10.8 seconds, it ran out of juice quickly. The quarter mile took 18.1 seconds at 74 miles per hour, and the car hit an aerodynamic wall at only 94mph. Of course, between the short wheelbase, 2500 pound curb weight, mediocre cornering grip, and fairly low ride height it always felt like it was going faster than it was.

Price for the test car, with options, came to $16,288, which is something like $32,750 in current money.

The X-90 was just too weird to live and was discontinued after the 1998 model year, with something like 7600 units sold over three years in the USA.

The Midnight Black example in the photo, which has been heavily modified for better off-road capability, was photographed in January of 2025 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

1980 Jeep Wagoneer Limited

This was something that doesn't happen often. Myself and fellow Indy-area car spotter Jim Grey both caught this Russet Metallic 1979-1985 Jeep Wagoneer Limited, possibly the same day. Certainly we both saw it on College Avenue.

The plush "Limited" model of the AWD Wagoneer was introduced midway through the 1978 model year, and all Wagoneers, whether base or Limited, only came with the 360 V-8. Over fifteen feet long, with a two-and-a-quarter ton curb weight and boasting full-time Quadra-Trac four wheel drive, the V-8's torque was felt necessary.

Then came the '79 Energy Crisis, triggered by the Iranian Revolution, and so for '80, you could get your 4WD Wagoneer with either a 97bhp 258 cubic inch OHV inline six as a credit delete option, or with the standard 360cid American Motors V-8 fitted with a Motorcraft 2bbl carburetor and pumping out 127 SAE net horsepower.

The faux-woodie fad was starting to wane by the early Eighties, but it still signified the more luxurious version of most wagon models. I think those optional slotted forged aluminum wheels mark it as a 1980, but I'm no Jeep expert.

It was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in April of 2024.

1976 Chevrolet K5 Blazer

The round headlights and grille pattern, combined with the half cab and lift-off shell over the bed suggest that this Chevy Blazer is a 1976 model. The locking hubs and visible front transfer case tell us it's a 4-wheel drive K5 Blazer rather than the rear-wheel drive version, although simple statistics favor that. The RWD versions weren't as common.

The standard powerplant would have been 250 cubic inch Turbo-Thrift inline six, putting out 105 SAE net horsepower. Optionally the buyer could go for a 350 V-8 rated at 160 horsepower, or a 185 horse 400 cubic inch small block. Four speed manual and three speed automatic gearboxes were available.

Pickup, Van & 4 Wheel Drive Magazine tested a 1976 Chevy K5 Blazer Cheyenne with the 400 cube V-8 and TH400 slushbox. They recorded a 0-60 time of 11.9 seconds and an 18.2 quarter at 73 mph. The big V-8 managed to force the brick-like snout into the wind all the way to 94 miles per hour before being defeated by aerodynamic drag, 500 RPM short of the redline. 

This one was photographed in August of 2024 with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.

2021 Cadillac Escalade Sport

An absolutely eye-catching murdered-out '21 or '22 Cadillac Escalade Sport in Raven Black. The black 12-spoke wheels, gloss black "Escalade" name badges, and monochrome Caddy crest on the grille indicate it's an Onyx Package, a $2500 addition to the base Slade Sport.

The tailgate had this "600" badge which I had to go look up. Caddy has decided alphanumerics look Euro and upmarket and so they indicate the potency of the car with this number plate. Except it's not the displacement or the horsepower, it's the torque. And it's not the torque in decent American foot-pounds, but in newton-metres, which is metric torque. And it's not the actual torque in newton-meters, which would be 624, but rather rounded to the nearest hundred newton-meters, since "600" looks better on a badge than "624".

You can tell it has the 6.2L EcoTec3 gasoline V8 and not the 3.0L Duramax inline-6 turbodiesel, because the latter would have a "600D" badge. (Both engines have the same peak torque, but the diesel's shows up 2600 RPM sooner on the tachometer.) This thing's as big as house and the 420 horsepower V-8 will launch it to sixty in 5.9 seconds and down the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds at 95 mph, according to Car and Driver.

Say what you will about it being a gussied-up Tahoe/Yukon, but they ain't having a hard time moving Escalades. It's been a consistent hit for Caddy, with enough badge recognition that it kept its name through the alphanumeric soup era of Cad model designators that saw even venerable nameplates like "Eldorado" and "DeVille" get replaced with random Scrabble hands.

This one was photographed in December of 2021 using an Olympus E-510 and Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.