The suburb of failed obscure European imports

Being unem­ployed means that you pay atten­tion to useless noth­ing­ness while avoid­ing the actual task at hand, i.e. find­ing a job. So here I was, randomly Google Mapping the city of San Antonio, a place I don’t partic­u­larly care for, when I discovered a subdi­vi­sion who must have had a fairly massochistic master developer.  Or, like me, just a fan of under­dog European budget hatchbacks.

(For the record, it’s located off of Rittiman Road just west of Loop 410.)

It is a neigh­bor­hood where all the streets are lovingly named after failed and/or obscure European auto­mo­biles.  And not your Ferraris or Mercedes, we’re talk­ing the Hillman, the Austin Allegro, the Renault Dauphine, Alfa Romeo, and Fiat.

Heeeeere’s Fiat!  They improved the warranty because they had to.

At least this Austin Allegro didn’t have the quartic (read: square) steer­ing wheel that came stand­ard in the UK.

Alfa’s weren’t all that obscure, being favored by the quirky, swinging, poly­gam­ist, condo-dwelling middle-aged people who usually bought Saabs.

It actu­ally unlocks its own doors for you!  But not much else.  C’est tell­e­ment de luxe, n’est-ce pas?

Dauphine, French for prin­cess!  Even though the French aban­doned the monarchy in the 1700’s!

Hillmans were lower-range cars made by Rootes, which was a second banana British car manu­fac­turer.  Their biggest impact on America was the design of the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon, two hideously ugly early 80’s hatchbacks.

And check out the kreepy kid in the back seat!