Jesse Singer articles

Gas stations were everywhere in the 1970s. But many of the names on those signs were not the same as they are today. And we're betting that most people probably couldn't name five of them—even if they filled up there every week.

You might remember an advertisement. Maybe someone down the street had one, or you spotted one and wondered what on earth it was. But getting behind the wheel of even one—now that’s a whole other story. So, did you?

Some cars are small. These cars look like someone stopped building halfway through. Yet every strange little vehicle on this list was built for public roads somewhere, even if some were legally classified as three-wheelers or quadricycles. Honestly, have you ever seen even one pass you in traffic?

The condo’s EV charger is supposed to be shared. But morning, noon and night, the same car is there. Apparently, its owner thinks “first come, first served” means arriving first and never leaving. Everyone else would like a turn...so can the condo actually make him move?

Finding somewhere to park on the street is annoying enough. Finding an empty spot occupied by your neighbor’s traffic cone? Somehow more annoying. He apparently thinks the space outside his house belongs to him, and everyone else is supposed to agree. But does that little orange cone actually mean anything?

The car is not sitting directly across the driveway. But it is close enough that getting out requires backing up with such precision that being an inch or two off could mean scraping your car...or worse. The driver would probably say it is a public road, so the space is fair game. But is it?

Some cars lose value faster than free donuts disappear from an office break room. And while that is painful news for the first owner, it can create some almost unbelievable bargains for the person waiting patiently in the used-car market. Like...

Buy a new car today and there are plenty of features you simply assume will be there. You probably wouldn’t even think to ask about them. But when Baby Boomers were buying new cars, many of those same features could send the price climbing one option box at a time. Remember?

Some cars become valuable because they were beautiful. Others become valuable because they were fast. This Plymouth had both covered, yet that still doesn’t explain why someone paid $3.3 million for it. The real answer begins with a production number almost too small to believe.