Mikey and Mels May 2025 Cruise in

At the Electrify Expo Phoenix 2025, we saw all sorts of electric cars, trucks, and SUVs, including the updated 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E lineup. As Mustang Mach-E Assistant Brand Manager James Duszkiewicz explains in this video, customer feedback led to some of the changes made to the all-electric Mustang, such as the standard heat pump and the Premium model’s heated and ventilated front seats.

Duszkiewicz also tells us more about the GT-style Sport Appearance Package and the Mustang Mach-E Rally, a lifted model designed to blast over trails with 480 horsepower and 700 lb-ft of torque. Later on, we get into the things traditional Mustang fans and those who have never driven a Mustang at all should know about the Mach-E.

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Every Friday, my colleague Diego brings you a list of vehicles that caught his eye on AutoHunter.com, but he is on a much-deserved vacation so I will be filling in for him today. Other than the color white, there’s not a theme to my selections, although they would make for a well-rounded collection of cars: a wagon, a hardtop convertible, and German and British roadsters.

1956 Pontiac Star Chief Safari (Auction ends August 26, 2025, at 12:15 p.m. PDT)

If you’ve seen some of my previous AutoHunter Spotlights or Pick of the Day pieces, you can probably guess I have a thing for wagons, which partially explains this Safari’s presence on this list. But there are other reasons too.

The Shadow Gray and Cream White paint colors go so well together and are applied in just the right areas. Then there’s the bold vertical trim on the hood and the upright brightwork at the rear end. The interior is just as eye-catching yet subtle, furnished with gray leather seats with black, gray, and white striped cloth inserts.

Updates can sometimes ruin the looks or personality of a vintage car, but in this case, the power front buckets, 350 V8, and 700R4 four-speed automatic are nice additions. This Safari would be great for a family night at a local drive-in movie or a run to get ice cream in this seemingly endless summer heat.

1957 Porsche 356 Replica (Auction ends August 27, 2025, at 11:45 a.m. PDT)

Ideal convertible weather is coming and this Porsche 356 replica made by Vintage Motorcars looks like a perfect car for it. Finished in the pleasant combination of Ivory over a Cognac Brown leather interior, it brings to mind languid, top-down drives along the coast.

To where? That doesn’t really matter – the journey is the best part. But if there are twists and turns along the way that are too enticing, the dual-carb, air-cooled 1,915cc four-cylinder engine and the four-speed manual are ready for action.

1959 Ford Galaxie Skyliner (Auction ends August 28, 2025, at 12:45 p.m. PDT)

This is a great example of how forward-thinking certain automakers can be. In the mid-1990s, Mercedes-Benz made a big splash with its first-generation SLK roadster, which wowed people with its power-retractable hardtop. There’s no denying that that’s a cool feature, but it wasn’t an industry first. Way back in the 1950s, Ford’s Galaxie Skyliner had that kind of roof and it covered two rows of passengers.

This ’57 Skyliner benefits from a total restoration that resulted in the attractive pairing of Colonial White with a two-tone blue vinyl and fabric interior. A 300-horsepower Thunderbird 352 Special V8 keeps the breeze blowing during top-down driving.

If the weather turns nasty, the power Hide-Away hardtop will keep it out – but it won’t stop people from staring at it when it’s transforming this Galaxie from a convertible to a coupe.

1969 MG MGC (Auction ends August 27, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. PDT)

Before the Toyota Prius came along in the late-1990s, the term “hybrid” had a very different meaning in the automotive industry. Cars such as the Facel Vega, Iso Grifo, and De Tomaso Pantera combined European styling with American V8 power. Thanks to an Oldsmobile 215ci V8 engine swap, this MG roadster falls into that same category. In addition, the transmission was upgraded to a TREMEC T-5 five-speed manual.

But there’s more to this MG than what’s under its hood. The entire car was restored, repainted Wimbledon White, and fitted with a new red leather interior from MG specialist Moss Motors, which provides the perfect pop of color to contrast with the low-key exterior.

Much like the Mercury Marauder X-100 we recently featured, the Mercury Cougar also suffers from misconceptions. In this case, enthusiasts tend to call the Cougar a luxury pony car, but have you bothered to look at a 1967 Cougar’s interior? “Upscale Mustang” seems to be a better descriptor. However, several years later, the Cougar had moved into different territory, certainly becoming more luxurious, as evidenced by our Pick of the Day. This 1971 Mercury Cougar XR-7 convertible is listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealership in Lillington, North Carolina.

Ford Motor Company was correct in determining the car-buying public was ready for an upscale pony car, and the Mercury Cougar was it. Only available as a distinctive hardtop, and featuring an electric shaver-like grille and taillights (with the latter featuring sequential operation, no less), the new Mercury was a runaway hit, selling just under 151,000 units. A standard 289 V8 offered distinction from the crop of pony cars in the market at the time (including the also-just-introduced Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird), and a big-block 390 was available both as an option or as part of the GT package. A mid-year introduction of the upscale XR-7 added true luxury to the Cougar lineup with leather seating surfaces and a cockpit that would make a European proud.

The distinctiveness that made the XR-7 was lost with the 1969 redesign, though most certainly the XR-7 continued to be a more luxurious version of the Cougar. However, what luxury car didn’t come standard with air conditioning and power windows? No, the Cougar was not a luxury car, even in XR-7 guise, but it was moving in a personal luxury direction. This was a natural evolution for what the Cougar was created, and the timing was perfect because the performance and sporty market was evolving—sales began to fall after 1968 as the younger set that was interested in performance was starting families and whose values as a consumer were changing.

By the Cougar’s second redesign (for the 1971 model year) the Cougar had ditched much of what made it unique and was steeped in something more sophisticated. Fat cat? Originally a term to describe a political donor flush with cash, the Cougar certainly was a fat cat in presence, though its weight between 1970 and 1971 was practically unchanged despite being longer and wider. The connection to the Mustang was still there, but it certainly looked less like a brother and more like a cousin. For the first time, headlights were exposed, with the horizontal grille divided by an upright center grille that imparted a more prestigious look. Taillights also were much different than before, though the Cougar still retained its sequential operation. Model series stayed the same, with the Eliminator package replaced by the GT package that came with a standard 351-2V for the base Cougar coupe. A new 429 Cobra Jet was available, both with and without ram air, though the Drag Pack was not.

Though the Cougar was more entrenched as a personal luxury pony car—a small Thunderbird, if you will—performance options were still available, such as the aforementioned Cobra Jet as well as a four-speed transmission. This 1971 Mercury Cougar XR-7 convertible features the “M-code” 351-4V along with a Hurst shifter in the console, which means it’s equipped with a four-speed manual. Both close- and wide-ratio four-speeds were available, with is car being one of only 47 equipped with the latter and the M-code engine. Other features originally ordered by the original buyer include Traction-Lok differential with 3.25 gears, power steering, power front disc brakes, air conditioning, AM/FM stereo, tinted glass, and Competition Suspension.

There’s a lot of cars out there that are WAY overpriced despite being easy to find. Conversely, here we have one extremely rare convertible that is affordable. In addition, the mature you would appreciate the leather and A/C while rowing through the gears. For $22,500 you can play the role of fat cat as the money you save from not overspending on more popular collectibles will allow you to attend to other interests.

Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com

I’ve never been much of a reader, having read my last fiction book over five years ago. However, I read the news daily, and I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction. Does that count? In that case, I am a voracious reader, constantly going down Internet rabbit holes for things that pique my curiosity. (Will I remember everything I read? To discuss at a later date…)

The lack of fiction under my belt slightly bothers me, as most people who consider themselves voracious readers always choose fiction. However, I don’t get hung up on it because I know cars are the reason I know the things I know.

You may point out that there is little value in knowing the grille differences between a 1961 Dodge Polara and a 1962 Custom 880, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Look beyond the style of cars and you’ll find the style of people—how they dress, how they wear their hair, and the sensibilities that fall in line with them. Am I familiar with a particular type of mid-century item? Likely not by name (sorry, I don’t read GQ), but I can look at an image and identify the approximate year based on the style of the people in the image.

Car colors are a major gold mine (excuse the pun) for knowledge, especially about animals, locales, and the natural world.

• I would not know what an atoll is if it wasn’t for the 1970 Pontiac GTO and the Atoll Blue hue. Ditto Oldsmobile’s Aegean Aqua.
• The same could be said of a certain kind of horse that was the inspiration for Palomino Copper.
• Palisade Green presumably refers to the tree-lined cliffs in a part of northern New Jersey.
• Chevrolet had a color named Ermine White. That’s an animal related to the weasel.
• While Dodge’s Polara is nonsense (inspired by the Space Race), Monaco is a wealthy city-state in the French Riviera (my, another car reference!).
• My dad test-drove a Cadillac that was painted Sonora Saddle, which I realized (after moving to Arizona) may be a tip of the hat to the Sonoran Desert, though it could be the name of the Sonora state in Mexico.

Other musings:

• My mom is an architect, but I didn’t know what a flying buttress was until I read something from the designer of the 1968 Dodge Charger.
• I am not a chemical engineer, but I know lead raises octane.
• Brougham may invoke images of velour interiors, but it’s the name of a carriage design.
• Plaza may sound like a dumb name for a car model, but it was a fancy hotel (among several) that Plymouth used to name its lineup in the 1950s.
• Speaking of hotels, I know what the Bellevue-Stratford was because it was pictured in a Cadillac ad in 1958. I know about Legionnaires’ disease because of this hotel as well.
• I know nothing about airplanes, but apparently Messerschmitt built them before gravitating to cars.
• I learned about the star cluster “Pleiades” (and how to pronounce it) when I learned what “Subaru” meant in English (though admittedly it first came on my radar due to the classic video game by Centuri—did you know it’s named after the seven daughters of Atlas? I didn’t!).

As you can see, it runs the gamut. Aside from cursing, what things that surround our lives have you learned from cars?