I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today!

stickguy

was looking at a house listing that just came up nearby, and in the garage picture, you could see the front half of a nice looking dark green gen 1 Cougar. sharp car.

laurasdada

Running a special errand yesterday, coming at me a blue (Estoril-ish) Dino 246gts; beautiful. Between a couple of SUVs, looked tiny.
Also, in the center lane of Rte 128, a Porsche Taycan Turbo, doing ~ 55mph (65 speed limit). Really, hypermiling in a rocketship?

uplanderguy

On this date in 1976, the last factory-built Cadillac convertible was assembled.

I was never a fan, but even my small-town dealer delivered two '76's. One was owned by a local eye, ear, nose, and throat doctor whose daughter was in my class. He passed in 2010. A couple years before that, I was in town at a red light and looked up and saw the 'Doc' in the Eldo! It was a little banged up but still had presence, LOL. 'Doc' was a white shoe, white belt kind of guy. His Eldo was a firethorn color with white interior.

I connected on FB with his daughter maybe five years back and I asked whatever happened to the Eldo. She said it was sitting in the parents' garage on flat tires and they sold it cheap just to get rid of it. She said "If I knew you liked it, I'd have just given it to you". I know people can say anything, but I thought that was nice of her to say.

fintail

And by 1984 or so Caddy dealers were selling Eldo convertibles again.

I bet you'd have loved to be given a neglected Eldo, uplanderguy

roadburner

In 1981 I was sitting in the student lounge at law school talking cars and a prof I knew prety well said, "I didn't know you were a car guy- I had a Sunbeam Alpine I gave to my nephew but I would have given it to you if I had known."

laurasdada

My father, for his convertible loving wife, bought her a '75 Eldo vert (white/black) for fear the verts were going Jurassic.
I drove it several times, a gargantuan, floating good time!

And, the Eldo actually cost me money; as soon as I turned 16, got a job pumping Mobil gas. It was rare I was tipped, but one client (pea-soup aficionado Linda Blair) always tossed me two bits or more. Until the day she saw me, on my off-day, pull in to the station in the Eldo; no tips after that. Darn you, GM!

uplanderguy

I bet you'd have loved to be given a neglected Eldo, uplanderguy

Yeah, just my style, huh? I normally am turned off by humongous cars, although I can admire the '71-72 Fleetwood Sixty-Special Brougham for being the last of the great Cadillacs (although sometimes I pick the '66 Fleetwood Brougham as that), and I can also admire the leather interior in the '74 Fleetwood Talisman....so completely over-the-top, LOL.

sda

In the late spring of 71, I just turned 12, I had the joy of getting braces. When mom took me to the orthodontist for my first visit there was a new, temp tags and window sticker in place, 71 midnight blue, white top and interior Eldorado convertible parked next to the stairs that led up to the office. I think I recall seeing the price on the window sticker around $12k. Who knew it was my orthodontist's! About 4 years later, we had moved from New Orleans but were visiting and mom had a follow up appointment to see if I could get a permanent retainer removed, nope, wisdom teeth needed to come out first, he was driving a Rolls Royce Corniche!

uplanderguy

I didn't know you were a car guy- I had a Sunbeam Alpine I gave to my nephew but I would have given it to you if I had known."

Astonishingly to me, my late friend, the Studebaker dealer in my small hometown, sold Sunbeams alongside Simcas in the mid-to-late sixties. I can't say as a kid then that I remember seeing a single one in town.

explorerx4

If Andre wants to treat himself to some luxury.
https://www.bricknermotors.net/used/Chrysler/1982-Chrysler-New+Yorker-wausau-marathon-wi-a6b188010a0e0a922f9eeb1c5e76ce17.htm

fintail

sda said:

In the late spring of 71, I just turned 12, I had the joy of getting braces. When mom took me to the orthodontist for my first visit there was a new, temp tags and window sticker in place, 71 midnight blue, white top and interior Eldorado convertible parked next to the stairs that led up to the office. I think I recall seeing the price on the window sticker around $12k. Who knew it was my orthodontist's! About 4 years later, we had moved from New Orleans but were visiting and mom had a follow up appointment to see if I could get a permanent retainer removed, nope, wisdom teeth needed to come out first, he was driving a Rolls Royce Corniche!

I bet the price of that orthodontia explained the cars lol.

There was a dentist's office across from my prior residence, he drove an R8 and RS7.

tjc78

@explorerx4 said:
If Andre wants to treat himself to some luxury.
https://www.bricknermotors.net/used/Chrysler/1982-Chrysler-New+Yorker-wausau-marathon-wi-a6b188010a0e0a922f9eeb1c5e76ce17.htm

That’s in beautiful shape. They were pretty good cars for the times.

uplanderguy

Saw this '69 Corvair Monza on FB and I was smitten. I love the styling and shape...and normally I don't care for either silver or blue interior on cars.

If I wasn't into Studebakers as old cars, this is the next old car I'd want to own.

I like the looks, flat floor, and engineering. Like a Cosworth Vega, which I also like, I of course realize you can do better for power in a good ol' domestic V8 car of the period, but I admire the engineering being apart from the crowd.

I do think I'd have a harder time getting one worked on than even my Studebaker, these days.

Michaell

I know the original Maverick doesn't get a lot of love here, but I saw this picture and had to post it. Obviously not factory, but still a good looking car.

stickguy

looks better as a convertible. rare for a chop job.

similar color to what my incoming Maverick is I think.

explorerx4

That Mav has a 5(edit) lug conversion with 03/04 Mach1 wheels.

texases

explorerx4 said:

That Mav has a 4 lug conversion with 03/04 Mach1 wheels.

Might it be a V8? It has the 'Grabber' hood. Friend in high school drove one, orange.

ab348

Our ‘74 Mav had 5-lug wheels.

I cannot imagine how big of a flexible flyer that must be with the roof structure removed.

explorerx4

@ab348,
in 74, it looks like the Maverick did get 5 lugs.

fintail

Wheels on the Maverick look like vintage Hot Wheels. Looks well done - those cars looked a lot better before the railroad tie bumpers and thicker trim. I was thinking the same thing, I would wonder about structural reinforcement.

explorerx4

Adam of RCC, just added a 66 Toronado. Great looking car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmyhqK1NqY

ab348

It is a fine example although very sparsely equipped. Crank windows, no A/C and just an AM radio. The airplane-inspired steering wheel on the '66 always intrigued me (not sure if I like it or not but it is unique). Lousy brakes on the '66 and they eat front tires for breakfast. But it's not like he is driving it very much.

sda

I saw this at the VW dealership today. Paging @fintail. It had 177k, looks like it could be fixed up rather easily. I didn't see any obvious dents or rust though the windshield and back light rubber gasket was rotted and an attempt to reseal it with clear caulk was messy.

Michaell

sda said:

I saw this at the VW dealership today. Paging @fintail. It had 177k, looks like it could be fixed up rather easily. I didn't see any obvious dents or rust though the windshield and back light rubber gasket was rotted and an attempt to reseal it with clear caulk was messy.

That would be a fun weekend cruiser...

kyfdx

I love that body style in a coupe

fintail

Period colors for sure. This style was sold here from 78-85, 81-85 if badged as a turbo - I believe an earlier car as it appears to have an older style radio head unit. MBs of the era can suffer from failed windshield seals and glass delamination. These are mildly collectible now, and that one looks like it might not be hard to save.

andre1969

I gotta say, I'm liking that chopped Maverick a lot more than I ever thought I would. I'm pretty sure it was simply chopped, with no top of any sort that retracts, as I've never seen an aftermarket convertible where the top would stow away so completely. Usually they's stick up quite a bit. And even on a lot of factory convertibles, they don't always stow totally out of the way.

I wonder though, if whomever did that conversion made some sort of removable roof that could at least be attached, so you could drive it in bad weather if you needed to?

sda

I was wondering the same about the Maverick. It is surprisingly good looking as a convertible, nicely done. Love the color.

explorerx4

The Maverick does have a soft tonneau cover around the back seat area and the top of the windshield has the same material.

andre1969

Years ago (okay, decades at this point) I saw a Colonade-era Cutlass 4 door sedan that was topless, at one of the Carlisle PA swap meets. From a distance, I thought someone had actually gone through the effort to turn it into a convertible. But, when I saw it close up, they had simply cut the roof off, and covered over all the cut areas with vinyl. As for the back door windows, which went down about 3/4 of the way, they simply took the window glass out, to complete the "convertible" look.

It was being marketed as some sort of fair weather "parade" car. It was kinda cool, and definitely an attention getter, but I guess I just felt let down when I discovered that it really wasn't a convertible, and not really useful for anything other than fair weather driving. And they wanted something like $5,000 for this thing, and that was back around 1997 or so!

fintail

Colonnade convertible:



convertible conversion talk reminds me of one I shared several years ago. Spotted this at a park that was local to me, looked well done:

ab348

Apparently GM planned a convertible Monte for ‘70 and nixed it at the last minute.

uplanderguy

Yep. This drawing was in the 1970 Accessories Brochure, which I had scooped up with all the individual series brochures that year. I think the first-gen would've made a handsome convertible.

I also normally dislike skirts, but these cars look almost natural with them.

andre1969

I like the actual Monte that Fintail posted, but with that illustration above, the artist accentuated the bodyside creases a bit too much, I think. It looks chunkier in that illustration, like it's trying to be a little brother to the '71 Eldorado, or something.

I wonder how well it would have sold, if it had actually been built? I checked my auto encyclopedia for production figures to see if I could make a rough guess, based on Chevelle convertible production, but my book doesn't break out production of the midsized cars by body style. I guess that by then, they knew convertibles were slowly on their way out of fashion. And maybe they thought having a Monte convertible would have stolen some sales from both the Chevelle, and the Impala convertibles, rather than bring in new sales?

uplanderguy

I wonder if there had been any thought of moving the convertible from the Chevelle Malibu series to the new Monte Carlo, similar to Cadillac dropping the deVille convertible for 1971 and moving the convertible upmarket to the Eldorado series.

My guess is that the original thought was to keep the Chevelle Malibu convert and add the Monte, but someone decided that three different series of convertibles in the lineup might be a bit much, and that the Grand Prix didn't have a convertible when it came out in '69.

fintail

This car that is becoming more obscure has appeared in the ad for a local estate sale being held in a quirky old mansion this week. The company running the sale is working as hard as that line of business usually does when it comes to cars, and provided a detailed description of "1989 Mercedes Benz 560 SEL" (and not a word more), but it looks pretty nice in the pic. Must resist temptation:

kyfdx

@fintail Didn't you already have one of those?

andre1969

On the subject of classic Benzes, I spotted this out in the wild the other day...Wonder how they got that tag past the DMV?
Okay, so I really spotted it "out in the wild" on "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Part 2"

explorerx4

Walk around of early gen Accords(and new).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhueYsCcOs

kyfdx

Looks like a Gen I, pre-1982. I had an '82 hatch

Michaell

kyfdx said:

Looks like a Gen I, pre-1982. I had an '82 hatch

And I had an '85 Hatch, and a '92 and '93 sedan

texases

From what I can find, a 1981 Accord was a bit under $8000, which is not quite $27,000 in today's dollars. Guess what the cheapest 2023 Accord I found was...$26,890!

Michaell

texases said:

From what I can find, a 1981 Accord was a bit under $8000, which is not quite $27,000 in today's dollars. Guess what the cheapest 2023 Accord I found was...$26,890!

I paid $8650 for my one year old '85 Hatch with 17,000 miles on it. Not sure what the original MSRP was, but I picked mine up at a Toyota dealer.

kyfdx

'82 Accord hatch with stick and no A/C stickered about $7200, IIRC

texases

In Dallas in '82 the Honda dealers were putting $1500 ADM stickers on the cars, demand was CRAZY high. Friend tried to talk them out of it, they showed him the door.

tjc78

@Michaell said:
And I had an '85 Hatch, and a '92 and '93 sedan

That 92 (fourth gen) was such a nice car. Just about perfect styling and interior.

kyfdx

texases said:

In Dallas in '82 the Honda dealers were putting $1500 ADM stickers on the cars, demand was CRAZY high. Friend tried to talk them out of it, they showed him the door.

There was about $800 added to the sticker of mine.. eventually, bought it right at MSRP.

The year before, my friend was shopping the new '81 Civic hatch. $6300 MSRP and they wouldn't take less than $7K. They would let you add dealer options to that amount, though. I wouldn't have done it, but she bought it.

Michaell

tjc78 said:

@Michaell said:

And I had an '85 Hatch, and a '92 and '93 sedan

That 92 (fourth gen) was such a nice car. Just about perfect styling and interior.

The '92 was an LX - we paid, I think, $13K and change for it (one only at this price). Total OTD was $16,500.

The '93 was a DX, and I leased it after I moved to Colorado.

fintail

kyfdx said:

@fintail Didn't you already have one of those?

I had a same year car, my DD 20+ years ago. Mine was a 300SE, the smallest engine/body S-class, where that 560 of course was the top of the line.

Pic is 20 years old too:



For Accords, I have always thought 90-93 was the pinnacle.

roadburner

texases said:

In Dallas in '82 the Honda dealers were putting $1500 ADM stickers on the cars, demand was CRAZY high. Friend tried to talk them out of it, they showed him the door.

My girlfriend(now wife) wanted a new Accord hatch in 1984; every Cincinnati dealer played all sorts of slimy games. It left such a bad taste in her mouth that she has never considered a Honda again.