This ‘Exclusive Limo’ based on Chrysler’s late and unlamented PT Cruiser was designed to transport Russian about-to-be-weds in, er, style.

You had one job, wedding coach designer… and you succeeded, though at what cost? We’re not talking about the bushel baskets full of rubles that must have been poured into this project. Oh no… it’s the cost to everyone involved – from manufacturer to operator to user – in terms of their presumably hard-earned reputations.

OK, maybe we’re being a tad harsh. Maybe it’s unfair to focus on someone’s or something’s “humble” origins instead of heaping praise upon what they or it has become. Even the ugliest duckling transforms into a graceful, dignified swan; even the creepiest of crawling caterpillars metamorphoses into a glittering, beautiful butterfly. Yeah, good for them: this baroque-ass wedding cake on wheels was once a PT Cruiser and that particular road apple hasn’t fallen too far from the ugly tree, hitting every branch on the way down.

Supposedly this hair-raising honeymoon coach was customized in the Ukraine. PT Cruisers were manufactured at the Eurostar Automobilwerk in Graz, Austria, during 2002 and were available with a 2.2-liter inline four-cylinder diesel engine built by Mercedes Benz, so it’s got that going for it, which is nice. The Benz-iness stops right there, unfortunately.

On the bright side, the manufacturer went the extra mile to ensure Mopar’s retro road machine kept its truckish origins under wraps… or should we say, under multiple layers of leather, vinyl, drapery and polished wood. An integrated minibar serves to raise the spirits of the passengers, up to six of whom can be accommodated within the vehicle’s bloated central “coach” section.

Speaking of coachwork, dig those funky brass-age (though brass-less) lanterns hanging off the roughly trapezoidal guest compartment – freeway cruising is not recommended. The spacious central section and its walk-in doors feature some alarmingly curved glass – sources don’t state it but we have to assume they’re acrylic plastic. One would hope the transparent floor insert is composed of more substantial material.

The upholstery is embossed with the name of the owner/operator, Exclusive Limo, who at the very least can’t be accused of misleading advertising. Two short videos (here and here) showing this unique bridezilla-mobile in action are watermarked with the company’s name as well.

As far as the uniqueness factor goes, there may be more than one PT Cruiser honeymoon coach working the wedding circuit in the former Soviet Union. The vehicle appears to sport different wheels and/or hubcaps in some photos. As well, the coach flaunts an Art Deco-ish chromed hood ornament in some views while other images show no ornament.

It’s quite possible the (or these) PT Cruiser wedding coach’s appearance has been modified over time, along with necessary mechanical maintenance performed over the years. And yes, we said “years” – the coaches have been snapped in action as recently as January of 2017. Nice to see today’s Russians are still Putin on the ritz when it comes time to put a ring on it.

Why do most of our brand new cars still look like they were released in the 1990s? Judging by most of the concept designs released over the last few years, it seems like we’re destined to slide from the clunky, boring silhouettes of the late 20th century right into dorky, bulbous autonomous vehicles with absolutely nothing stylish and fun in the mix. According to car design engineers, the primary reason for the serious post-1970s decline in the aesthetics of everyday vehicles is simply shrinking profit margins for manufacturers. Fun and exciting car design still exists, but the catch is – of course – a very high price tag.

Ground Stealth Fighter SUV by Karlmann King

High-end auto manufacturer Karlmann King presents a luxury sports utility vehicle (unofficially known as ‘Ground Stealth Fighter’), built to perform in extreme temperatures with pretty much any luxury you can imagine at hand. Features include a limo-style rear passenger compartment, Playstation 4, mini fridge, Nespresso machine, safe, Apple TV and rainbow mood lighting. Considering that it takes a team of 1,800 people to design and 30,000 hours to manufacture just one, it’s not surprising that it costs about $1.85 million.

2018 Aston Martin Lagonda Vision Concept

Aston Martin takes its understated classic style and kicks it up a few notches with its 2018 Lagonda Vision, a fully autonomous luxury vehicle with a sleek profile and a windshield that stretches over the entire yacht-inspired cabin. The Lagonda is the first of the vehicle maker’s new line of electric cars, aiming to bring automotive luxury into the future.

Jaguar D-Type: From 1956 to 2018

Ever wish automakers would revive classic designs from the 1940s – 1970s for modern usage? The golden era of the automobile brought us a whole lot of unique silhouettes and fun styling that we just haven’t seen since. It’s certainly not for everyone, but Jaguar is re-releasing its classic D-type race car, which first debuted in 1956. Only 25 of them will be built at the Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works in England. But in this case, there’s no electric engines, no contemporary interiors. Every single part is being produced to the original specifications.

Lyonheart’s Interpretation of the Classic Jaguar E-Type

Another classic design revived for the 21st century is the Lyonheart K coupe, a reinterpretation of the Jaguar E-type. Designed, engineered and hand-built in England, the K features carbon fiber panels, an aluminum chassis and a 5.0-liter supercharged V8 engine. Price tag? About $582,000.

Vision Mercedes-Maybach Six Cabriolet

Mercedes brings us a cabriolet version of its Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, a 750-horsepower electric concept car with 200 miles of range. Like a lot of recent concepts, it’s got one big cabin with accessible storage rather than a separate trunk. It’s full of glowing lights and buttons for the feel of a boat that’s also a spaceship. You guessed it, this one is also “luxury of the highest order” (in Mercedes’ own words) with a price tag to match.

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A Balm For Boring Contemporary Cars 14 Fun Stylish Modern Vehicle Designs

It’s time to pay tribute to parking meters, those metal “trees” of the concrete jungle that have collected billions of coins over eight decades of service.

Parking meters have been fixtures of the urban street scene since the first of 150 “Black Maria” meters was installed on the corner of First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City exactly 82 years ago today. The so-called “curbstone parking automats” (see photo caption above) were quickly embraced by retailers who watched their sales increase as day-long street parkers vacated choice parking spaces in favor of actual shoppers.

Park Hair

Space reserved for Jayne Mansfield? OK, that was in poor taste but still – Flickr member Lulu Vision thought this “only in S.F. moment” was worth capturing and we must agree. Parking meters have evolved over the decades but they don’t get much respect. Even so, you don’t have to be one of those “that cloud looks like Elvis” types to see the winking blonde plying her trade on the streets of San Francisco.

Wait, so putting wigs on parking meters is a thing now? Flickr member Tofu (tofuart) snapped the black-wigged meter above in September of 2013 while strolling along South of Market, San Francisc… aha, now we get it: wigging out the parking meters is a ‘Frisco thing. Whew!

Don’t Be Carless, Help The Homeless

The turnover from analog to digital parking meters left many municipalities with hundreds of obsolete meters. What to do? Well, if you’re the city of Montreal you re-install those meters with a new purpose: collecting donations to support the homeless.

Dubbed “ParcoDon” and instituted in 2007, the program saw 70 obsolete parking meters dolled-up and decorated by local celebrities and organizations. The artwork helped members of the public discern the difference between an actual parking meter and a ParcoDon meter, with roughly $23,000 being collected over the program’s first three years.

Never mind the irony of meters once used to charge drivers to park now helping to support citizens who can’t afford a home, much less a car. Oh hey, looks like the idea’s catching on – the images above hail from Miami, Florida and Pasadena, California, respectively.

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No Quarter Parking Meters Pimped To Perfection

The Chevrolet Corvette’s long list of silver screen starring roles turned America’s first mass-produced sports car into an automotive pop culture icon.

One of the Corvette‘s first film appearances was in the 1955 film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly. Directed by Robert Aldrich, the movie starred Ralph Meeker as Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled private investigator Mike Hammer. The latter roamed the mean streets of Los Angeles in his 1954 Corvette, one of only 3,640 manufactured that year and one of only FOUR painted black.

Hammer’s black ‘vette may have looked cool but performance was anything but hot due to the pedestrian Stovebolt Six engine under its fiberglass hood. GM introduced a V8 for 1955 but limited model year production to just 700 in order to move the rest of the slow-selling ’54s. Even so, Hammer’s sleek (for the times) ride definitely added badly-needed panache to a niche model whose future was very much in doubt.

True Lies – 1959 Corvette

True Lies, a 1994 action-adventure-comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, and even Charlton Heston has aged rather well. Ditto for the red 1959 Corvette driven by Paxton (playing sleazy used car salesmen Simon) as he regales AH-nold on his time-tested seduction technique: “Let’s face it, Harry, the ‘Vette gets ’em wet.”

Clambake – 1959 Corvette XP-87 Stingray Racer

“Hey buddy, where’s the gas cap on this thing?” Built in 1959 “to test handling ease and performance,” the Corvette XP-87 racer won an SCCA National Championship in 1960. It was then modified with the addition of a passenger seat and made the rounds of the auto show circuit.

The XP-87 bowed out in grand style, appearing in the 1967 film Clambake as the private car of Elvis Presley’s oil tycoon character. Thank you, XP-87, thank you very much.

Heavy Metal – 1960 Corvette

“You can hedge your bet on a clean Corvette”… Heavy Metal – the 1981 animated sci-fi fantasy film produced by Ivan Reitman and inspired by the eponymous graphic magazine, featured a 1960 Corvette but if you arrived a few minutes late to the movie theater, you probably missed it.

Here’s a link to the ‘vette’s impressive entrance (dude totally sticks the landing!) in which it literally brings evil to the world in the form of the glowing green loc-nar. Mustang owners most definitely approve.

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Like A Rock Star 12 Iconic Movie Corvettes

The Soviet Union not only manufactured cars, they exported them to buyers charmed (or duped) by some amusingly and bemusingly photographed advertisements.

Putin the pedal to the metal lately? Don’t let the jet-fighter-like rear fender air intakes fool you, the ZAZ-968 “Zaporozhets” wasn’t exactly a muscle car even by Soviet standards. Built at the Zaporizhian Automobile Factory in Melitopol, Ukrainian SSR from 1971 through 1980, the ZAZ-968 was propelled by a 40hp air-cooled V4 engine mounted in the rear. Export versions were upgraded with international-spec headlights, a safety glass windscreen and an anti-theft steering lock which was rarely, if ever, tested.

Wonder if that guitar-playing model knows “Back In The USSR”. Designed to be a “people’s car” that was sturdy yet affordable, the Zaporozhets is fondly recalled by Russians of a certain age… including some guy named Vladimir Putin. According to the Russian President’s official website, Putin’s mother won a ZAZ-968 in a lottery when young Vlad was a third year university student. His parents then gave the car to Putin – no word if he frequently drove it shirtless.

Whole LADA Love

Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ, based in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast based their boxy Lada Classic on the mid-sixties Fiat 124 sedan. Between 1966 and 2012, over 20 million Classic sedans and station wagons had been sold without the vehicle undergoing a major design change. Dig that groovy vinyl roof on the last ad above; it kinda breaks up the Red Square look.

About 60% of all Lada Classics were exported to both East Bloc and West Bloc nations – the USA being a notable exception; Americans had to wait for the Yugo to “enjoy” owning a workers-paradise-made copy of a Fiat. Note what appears to be (at first glance) a Soviet laptop computer in the faux photoshoot ad above.

AvtoVAZ introduced the VAZ-2108 in 1984 with export versions named Samara and domestic market cars labeled Sputnik – hey, Plymouth had a Satellite so why not? The French copy on the ad above translates to “More stylish and less expensive. Hold on! Yeah, hold on to your wallet.

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Unfree Wheeling Amusingly Surreal Vintage Soviet Auto Ads