In the pantheon of orphaned car brands, perhaps the most poignant today is Eagle, not because of its sales numbers but because of its lineage. Eagle was the bastard child of the 1987 AMC-Renault tie-up and its subsequent sale to Chrysler. At the time of the Chrysler buyout, AMC had product in the pipeline that Renault had a financial interest in seeing hit the market. Chrysler didn't want it — Jeep was their trophy — but Renault forced them to take the Franco-American models as part of the deal, so Chrysler spun them off into their own brand: Thus was born Eagle.

Eagle initially offered the Eagle Medallion and Premier models through co-branded Jeep-Eagle dealerships. The Medallion, a rebadged Renault sold in four-door and wagon body styles, was practically orphaned at its introduction and disappeared after just two years. The full-size front-drive Premier soldiered on through 1992 along with its Dodge Monaco cousin, in part due to a contract Chrysler had with Renault to purchase 260,000 V6 engines for the cars. In the end, Chrysler broke the contract and paid Renault for the 121,000 engines it never needed, after selling just 139,000 Premier/Monaco models.  read more »

Welcome to Project Car Hell , where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Italy held on to its PCH Superpower crown in our last Choose Your Eternity poll, with the Alfa Romeo Duetto taking a 53-47 victory over the British contestant. After admiring the lovely surfboard-friendly Hang Ten Dodge Dart in yesterday's Moment of Zen , we had no choice today but to pit a basket case totally restorable Hang Ten against an equally awesome Malaise Era Special Edition AMC, complete with tape stripes and low-performance engine. The Hang 10 Dodge Dart didn't come with a surfboard, but it did feature a rear seat that folded down, enabling Slant-Six-powered hodaddies to avoid that unsightly board-out-the-window look. You got cool Hang 10 graphics and a bunch of other special stuff to make you forget that the base Slant Six only made 95 horsepower and the 318 V8 just 145. We all want a Hang 10, of course, but where can you find one these days? Hawaii? Huntington Beach? No need to go anywhere near the Pacific, dudes and dudettes, because this 1975 Hang 10 Edition Dodge Dart (go here if the ad disappears) lives in South Carolina! We don't know what kind of engine this one has (in fact, judging by the height of the front end, we're not sure it even has an engine), but every junkyard in the hemisphere has at least one 360 waiting for you. As for the rest of the car well, the seller doesn't waste any keystrokes on excess description: "Needs normal restoration, solid car." Does "normal restoration" mean "total replacement of floor pans, quarter panels, trunk floor, upholstery, wiring harness, brakes, and fuel system," or will this car end up being a difficult project? Only one way to find out! At least you can get repro decals for it. Darts are great, but all the surfing-themed decals in the world can't make one a rare car. If you're thinking about a special-edition Malaisemobile that you don't see every day, you need to look at some of the stuff they built in Kenosha. Say, f'rexample, this 1977 Levi's Edition AMC Hornet AMX (go here if the ad disappears), priced at just $3,200. It's in (theoretically) rust-free New Mexico. The seller claims "This car is said to have belonged to the Levi Strauss family," and that it's either one of 2,500 or one of 100 made. It "runs and drives good," but needs a U-joint (or something more expensive that makes a sound like a defective U-joint) and a bunch of body work. The Hornet hood and trunk graphics are psilocybic, and you can even get replacements if necessary. How hard could it be?  read more »

While we've previously reported on the Chrysler/Nissan small-car/pickup-truck mind meld, the Wall Street Journal now says the two companies are discussing collaboration on a mid-size vehicle platform. The report states that the agreement currently under consideration would have Nissan building mid-size sedans that Chrysler would then market under its own nameplate in the US. There's no specific mention of a platform or nameplate likely to be used, but it's not hard to speculate that the much-maligned Sebring could be replaced by the end result of such a collaboration.  read more »

For the first time, a single car part beat an entire car in a Project Car Hell matchup, according to the results of our most recent Choose Your Eternity poll. Today we're going to celebrate the Fourth of July, but not by getting all liquored up and firing large-caliber handguns into the sky. No, we're going to celebrate our freedoms by sentencing ourselves to years of thankless labor in the garage, on vehicles so patriotic that they're literally named after America.  read more »

You hear a lot about the late-60s Chargers, the Malaise Era Chargers, and the current crop, but what about the forgotten '66 and '67 models? Some think they're homely (and suspiciously similar in design to the AMC Marlin), but 40+ years sit pretty well on this '66 that the unstoppable Kitt found in her Denver neighborhood. In this case, the car's proud owner was present and happy to open hood and doors to facilitate photography of his Dodge (which, sadly, lacks the optional 426 Hemi).  read more »

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There werent nearly as many new production cars at this years Detroit auto show compared to the array of concepts, but Cars.coms Mike Hanley, David Thomas and Joe Wiesenfelder take on each with gusto. 2009 BMW X6 Mike Hanley: Winner If the BMW X6 is a success which I think it will be with its muscular, athletic styling it'll go to show that the AMC Eagle of the '80s really was before its time, as the X6 follows the path set forth by that all-wheel-drive hatchback. With a healthy helping of horsepower, the X6 looks like a smart way for BMW to attract more SUV shoppers without diluting the driving experience too much. David Thomas: Loser Its neat-looking and I cant wait to drive one with the turbo V-8, but otherwise the X6 doesnt work for me. You cant see out the back, you cant fit in the backseat. It doesnt have much utility at all, and its going to be expensive. Yeah, sign me up for that. Joe Wiesenfelder: Loser I like the idea of the X6, and I think it looks pretty good. I'm down on redundancy, though, and I don't see this model's necessity. I'd be more enthusiastic about the style and styling if it showed up as a next-generation X5.  read more »

Here's another set of car photos sent by Denver's tireless Kitt; I'm starting to think that Denver might be worthy of its own DOTS series, judging by all the cool Mile High iron we've seen so far ( read more »

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