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

texases

I remember a number of that era Fords coming in the gas station for oil change and front end lube jobs, with holes cut out of the fenderwells to permit installing zerk fittings on the control arms, seems that the 'never lube' joints started squeaking at a pretty young age.

roadburner

uplanderguy said:

Sorry so large.

That's what SHE said!

fintail

I don't recall the 60 and 66 in our family having front end issues (this was in the 90s, maybe problems had been addressed?), but I do recall a shock breaking on the 68 Fairlane when we were on a road trip, around 300 miles from home. My dad took it as a fun challenge, and installed new shocks like someone might change a tire.

uplanderguy

fin, I'm going to assume you're aware of this car in downtown Tacoma. Next to it is a '59 Lark, rough, for sale that's being discussed on a Stude FB page.

fintail

Yep I remember that place, it would advertise quirky old cars on CL back in the day, and I could see that car in the background. It was visible on Google street view for 8 years, but finally vanished in the latest view. The Lark is still there in the latest view, here's a 2016 view with both cars still there:

uplanderguy

OK, it's gone apparently. The one poster did say 'here's a Google street view'.

uplanderguy

1970 Monte Carlo SS454 sold at auction for $100,100, yeesh. I still like the Grand Prix of the same year more, but I like these original Montes more and more as years go by. The subtle SS454 badging is great--over a decade later, the SS trim had to be stripes and big graphics, yuck.

I can't say I remember this color in '70; I'll have to investigate.

I always liked a wide rocker molding with black accent--not 1/3 of the way up the car or anything, but noticeable in profile.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0121-444819/1970-chevrolet-monte-carlo-ss/

fintail

Must be roughly the best 70 Monte in the world - you don't see many cars with those show/judging credentials. Cool car, but maybe a little too nice - I'd feel bad actually driving it.

I recall back around 1999-2000, when my friend bought his 85 SS, I tried to get him to look at a first gen SS, but the 80s ones were a childhood fixation for him. At that time, you could get decent looking ones for well under 20K all day long.

texases

fintail said:

Must be roughly the best 70 Monte in the world - you don't see many cars with those show/judging credentials. Cool car, but maybe a little too nice - I'd feel bad actually driving it.

I'd feel bad SITTING in it!

ab348

It's a shame that a 1970 model, built when colors were actually a thing, is painted and trimmed like a modern-day greymobile.

xwesx

ab348 said:

It's a shame that a 1970 model, built when colors were actually a thing, is painted and trimmed like a modern-day greymobile.

It looks quite homely from the outside. I would never suspect it of having sporting pretenses at all unless I spotted those SS454 badges on the rocker trim.

tjc78

ab348 said:

It's a shame that a 1970 model, built when colors were actually a thing, is painted and trimmed like a modern-day greymobile.

True, but it wears it well.

uplanderguy

Although the Mecum car is a '70, I always liked the brochure '71 SS454 photo in this color:



I'd like the front end better with four headlights, but I'd still take one.

Chevy had a '70 color called "Black Cherry" I always liked, and there was also a light metallic turquoise I always liked that year, but a Monte Carlo to my eyes looks best in a dark color.

fintail

I think I'd pick this color - image is from a 2008 B-J auction, proportions might be off, seems kind of tall:

uplanderguy

Geez, is that a 4WD?

The first Monte Carlo I ever saw outside our town's dealer was that color with the wheelcovers with the band of the same color on them. I was with my Dad. It was a Sunday morning. When we were looking at it, somebody came out of the Service Department and drove it inside. That was back when the new cars were supposed to be a secret until introduction day.

roadburner

I would have gone with the Z06 and the Grand Prix SJ...
6 slick bargains from the 2021 January Auctions

uplanderguy

I like the GP other than what appears to be oversize tires. I'd probably call the '67 Eldorado best-buy of the lot and wondered what it might've brought had someone bothered to clean the whitewalls and remove the crooked front license plate.

ab348

We were discussing Chrysler's Forward Look cars here the other day. I have long been fascinated by this - a restored color videotape from 1958, the first color videotape network program ever produced, "An Evening With Fred Astaire". Chrysler Corporation was the sole sponsor, and their ads were integrated into the show. The spokesman is Art Gilmore. It shows the "spare tire in the fender" feature on the wagons Andre mentioned, the swivel seats, and is just wonderful to watch.

https://youtu.be/GA51okFc33U

fintail

I was thinking the same about the Eldo, really poor presentation there. Spend $500 with a good detail guy, and they probably could have had a 500% return on that investment,.

uplanderguy said:

I like the GP other than what appears to be oversize tires. I'd probably call the '67 Eldorado best-buy of the lot and wondered what it might've brought had someone bothered to clean the whitewalls and remove the crooked front license plate.

uplanderguy

If you haven't seen this, it's pretty funny....about car names.

https://www.facebook.com/erick.morin.3/videos/3934832339869032

andre1969

I know it's not much of a milestone in this day of digital odometers that go to six characters. But, on Tuesday, my '03 Regal finally hit the 100,000 mile mark. I didn't notice it that day, because the display is messed up and really dim. Sometimes it's brighter, but sometimes I can barely see it. Often I have to take a picture of it with my cell phone, to even see the numbers!

xwesx

Nice! About time... Isn't that your daily driver? If you take a 4,000 mile road trip starting this weekend, you will have more miles than I have on my 2014 Q7.

andre1969

Yeah...if I can call anything a "daily driver" these days, with working from home and not a whole lot of places to go, and such. According to the sticker in the door jamb, it was built in June 2002, so it's an early '03. It had about 19,500 miles when my Dad bought it in September 2003. I started driving it in June 2017, when I inherited it, and even then, it only had about 66,500 miles on it.

I wasn't really putting a huge amount of miles on it, until I moved in late 2018. The old house was only around 2 miles from work. The current place is either 18 or 23, depending on which way I'd go. In the evenings, if I stayed late enough, the longer route was actually quicker because it was mostly highway. I was doing about 300 miles per week, until COVID hit. That's really not a lot compared to a lot of people, but after living so close to work for most of my career, it was definitely a change.

I was up to around 97,500 by March of 2020, just before they started having us work from home. At the time, I had this little fantasy, of treating myself to another car once it hit 100,000 miles. Not a dream-car type of thing, like a Hemi Charger, but just something newer, and lower mileage, to use as a commuter until I retired. And as a bonus, the stock market was being pretty cooperative back then...at least until late February!

If I hadn't started working from home, I would've hit 100K in May of last year. So, I guess one advantage to COVID is that it saved me some money on the automotive front. Every once in awhile, I see something that catches my eye, and get a bit tempted, but then think, why? No sense in buying a newer car, just to let it sit!

stickguy

not having anywhere to go, and having a really nice new car in the garage when I do need one, is why I have stuck to just having one.

fintail

My wagon (2019 model) is still around 15K - as the last year has mostly been trips to the supermarket other than several Seattle-Spokane journeys and a couple other western WA trips. Seems like a shame, but when there's nowhere to go, and home seems like an oasis.

explorerx4

I've been driving my new Explorer around just putting some miles on it help it break in before its' first rad trip.
Found some good roads, although probably better in something more sporty than an Explorer.
The other day, I went up Ledge Rd in the next town over.
It's narrow and twisty with lots of elevation changes and has some drop offs on one side with no guardrails
Today, I found a road the has a 10% grade and found it going on the downhill.

fintail

Another fun sighting on an episode of The Price Is Right, this one from 1990. A Mark VII LSC, MSRP ~31K, options noted were Traction-Lok and JBL Sound. Nice colors (excuse the image quality, they showed the entire car for a split second, and this is no doubt from old VHS). Nice colors, grey or blue interior?





Contestant guessed something like 12K for it, Bob just about lost it, replying along the lines of "you can't get a Lincoln Mark VII for that" or similar.

kyfdx

My aunt's '85 LSC stickered for $28,XXX

andre1969

Heck, my stepdad's '84 Tempo was around $10-11,000! I think the last time a Mark- anything was $12,000 was around 1977-78. And then, probably a pretty basic model.

stickguy

I often watch PisR when doing a morning workout on the elliptical, and have realized that very few people have the faintest clue what cars cost. Last week, there was a new Supra in the showcase (not sure which model), along with some other stuff (trip and game room maybe). The contestant guessed about $34,000. Only missed by about $28,000 (total was over $62k)

I made fun of the other person that went first and bid about $24k for a package with a more normal car and some other stuff that ran about $38k total. At least she was a lock to not go over!

fintail

I think my mom's 85 Tempo GLX had an MSRP in the 12s, a high option car - not sure what she got it for.

Every now and then I get into watching old episodes of TPiR. Haven't watched the current series in awhile, the old ones can be fun for the cars, funny styles, guessing the old prices etc. I liked the show when I was a kid.

imidazol97

I wish I'd kept some of the Edmund's price books from the 70s and 80s when I was car buying.

stickguy

I used to buy those. I remember you had to buy separate new and used books. Man, it was a different world back then. Remember shopping used cars by buying the newspaper, and circling ads then making phone calls? Could you imagine trying that today?

uplanderguy

My parents' '84 Monte Carlo, 305 4-barrel V8, A/C, cruise control, tinted glass, AM/FM radio with rear seat speaker, sport mirrors, body side moldings, whitewalls, Rally Wheels, 60/40 front seat, stickered at the bottom with destination, at $11,409.

fintail

Thinking back, my mom's 93 Taurus GL might have been around 16K? But they carried incentives then, nobody paid sticker. Probably the same for the Tempo, as it was a late production model (I want to say August or September build date, it actually had some MY 86 details) and already a leftover when new.

Old classified car ads can be fun to read - many newspapers are in online archives, and now and then I'll pick out a local issue at a random date and read the ads. I'll wince and cringe at housing that was once much more affordable for normal people, then look at the now-rare cars that were just unwanted old used cars - aging imports in the 60s-70s and muscle cars in the late 70s were especially prone to this, along with out of fashion late 50s cars in the late 60s.

Watched TPiR again yesterday evening, this one from 1992 and again a couple of nice cars (some early 80s episodes had a lot of economy cars, as maybe that was the style of the time - like a GLC and an Escort etc, not as exciting). First off a Porsche 968, MRSP 45K (options listed leather, CD player, lojack (!) etc) - contestant was hysterical upon seeing the car and actually won it and a bunch of other stuff:



And a Buick Century woody, MRSP in the upper 16K range:



I saw a 1978 episode some time ago, where the star car appears in the video thumbnail so I could find it again - a MB 280E, the seldom-seen gas W123, contestant was again hysterical but didn't win and no MSRP was stated, but probably close to 20K then. Described as "beige with bamboo interior", very period color combo for a 123:



Same episode had a Monza, maybe moderately optioned with a $4700 MSRP :



One last thing, showed up in a thumbnail so I had to click - 1980, MSRP almost 16K:

uplanderguy

Some time back, fin, you posted a pic of white top over light blue metallic '78 Malibu Classic Landau, white interior, I think because you know I am infatuated with those cars. I want to say the price was like $4,800 or something which no way in hell could've been the car they showed....I can guarantee you the car as displayed was about a $7,000 MSRP. I never knew them to do that, which to me is misleading. When 'Johnny' read the description, he just said "Malibu" not "Malibu Classic" and the extras were very few.

fintail

I think I remember that, I wouldn't expect that kind of bait and switch thing either. I'd imagine maybe someone just gave him the spec sheet for the car, showing the base price, and they didn't use the data of the car on display. I always assumed the car on display was the one a person received, if they won the game.

The white Caddy is also a relatively basic model I suspect, with that price and the hubcaps.

uplanderguy said:

Some time back, fin, you posted a pic of white top over light blue metallic '78 Malibu Classic Landau, white interior, I think because you know I am infatuated with those cars. I want to say the price was like $4,800 or something which no way in hell could've been the car they showed....I can guarantee you the car as displayed was about a $7,000 MSRP. I never knew them to do that, which to me is misleading. When 'Johnny' read the description, he just said "Malibu" not "Malibu Classic" and the extras were very few.

uplanderguy

At the time, I would've mocked the Caddy for not having wire caps, but those full wheelcovers look better to me now than ever.

I used to just generally not care for the '80's reskinning of the GM big cars, but for some reason, lately they're not looking bad to me. I saw an '81 Bonneville coupe on a FB page, no side moldings (thankfully) and the rocker trim 1/3 of the way up the side, which I'd normally goof on, but it had a leather or leather-like interior and the whole package was appealing to me. Too bad the engine choices for '80 and later were so lame in GM big cars.

fintail

I don't mind the updated front ends for MY 80. Caddy still had the big engines that year, right? That wouldn't be bad, and I'd even gamble with an 8-6-4 just for fun, but after that, not so much.

I assume the wheeltrim hierarchy was hubcap - wire cap - wire wheel, I agree the hubcap looks best, wires usually look tacky and are a maintenance headache.

sda

The 80 Cadillac had the 368 which was based off the 425. The 81 had the V8-6-4. On dad's 78 Deville and 79 Eldorado, if they didn't have the Cadillac wire wheel covers he wasn't interested. Those wheel covers, especially on his Eldorado were heavy. When he bought the Eldorado used some of the spokes were bent or broken. I bought replacement spokes from the dealer and repaired them on mom's kitchen counter, lol.

uplanderguy

GM, even Chevys, had the best wire caps IMHO--small centers, long spokes and lots of them. Some others looked like J.C. Whitney in comparison. That said, when they ended up all the way down the line on RWD cars, the exclusivity was lost IMHO. Same thing when Corvette five-slot Rally Wheels became available even on Novas, LOL.

fintail

Was the 368 a bad engine?

Those cheaper accessory caps could look really bad - I remember even into the 90s some people would "dress up" a car with those.

I remember my grandma had an Olds in the 80s where the wire caps made a clicking noise that it seemed only I could hear, and it drove me insane. Someone suggested it was a rock stuck in the hubcap, but was later determined to be the center emblems.

ab348

fintail said:

Was the 368 a bad engine?

Those cheaper accessory caps could look really bad - I remember even into the 90s some people would "dress up" a car with those.

I remember my grandma had an Olds in the 80s where the wire caps made a clicking noise that it seemed only I could hear, and it drove me insane. Someone suggested it was a rock stuck in the hubcap, but was later determined to be the center emblems.

When I picked up the ‘78 Delta in 1997, it had a set of aftermarket wire covers on it. I remember the first few days that I had it and parked it in the underground garage of my apartment building, I could hear that same clicking noise. Drove me crazy and I didn’t like them anyway, so I visited my favorite local junkyard and got a set of proper Olds wheel covers.

I put the wires in a corner of the garage and forgot about them until a couple of years ago. I washed the 20 years of dust off them and they looked pretty good so I posted them on Kijiji and a guy with a late ‘40s Dodge wanted them to my amazement. He complained that you couldn’t buy them nowadays. He gave me $80 for them.

sda

I haven’t heard anything bad about the 368. The 425 was no powerhouse in the DeVille so I imagine the 368 was even less so. I guess it got marginally better mpg. I remember the clicking wire wheel covers well. On the Eldorado the Cadillac emblem on the center cap came off so you could access the wheel cover lock. That emblem tended to get loose over time but never fell off.

fintail

They'd look terrible on a 40s car, but to each his own, nice profit.

One thing I can say, I've never seen a MB with fake wire wheel covers. Probably because people seem to love the color coded MB hubcaps, and almost all USDM MBs of the past 40 years have painted/alloy wheels rather than wheel covers.

ab348 said:

When I picked up the ‘78 Delta in 1997, it had a set of aftermarket wire covers on it. I remember the first few days that I had it and parked it in the underground garage of my apartment building, I could hear that same clicking noise. Drove me crazy and I didn’t like them anyway, so I visited my favorite local junkyard and got a set of proper Olds wheel covers.

I put the wires in a corner of the garage and forgot about them until a couple of years ago. I washed the 20 years of dust off them and they looked pretty good so I posted them on Kijiji and a guy with a late ‘40s Dodge wanted them to my amazement. He complained that you couldn’t buy them nowadays. He gave me $80 for them.

fintail

I recall on the Olds, I could touch the emblem and make it move just a little. I recall that car ended up getting hit by a MB of all things, at a fairly low mileage, and was replaced by a 91 Taurus.

In the days of 55 mph, and slow economy cars everywhere, I bet a torquey if not low output V8 still felt adequate.

sda said:

I haven’t heard anything bad about the 368. The 425 was no powerhouse in the DeVille so I imagine the 368 was even less so. I guess it got marginally better mpg. I remember the clicking wire wheel covers well. On the Eldorado the Cadillac emblem on the center cap came off so you could access the wheel cover lock. That emblem tended to get loose over time but never fell off.

andre1969

Either C&D or Motortrend did a comparison test of a 1980 Seville, Mark VI, and 5th Avenue, and all things considered, the Seville accelerated pretty well... 0-60 in 10.5 seconds. Oddly, quicker than the more coveted first-gen. I found a '76 that did 0-60 in 12.8, and a '77 that did it in 13.6.

I also saw a 0-60 time of a '78 Coupe DeVille, at 10.6 seconds.

There were all listed at: https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicle-make/cadillac-0-60-mph-times/ and there's not a lot of detailed info, such as the original tester, which axle ratio they had, etc. I just happened to remember the 1980 Seville test, and googled it.

I think the biggest problem in those days was those ridiculously tall axle ratios they used. According to Automobile Catalog, the 1980 Seville used a tall 2.19:1 axle. It also mentions the transmission being something called a THM-325. I figured it was some version of the THM-350 modified for FWD use, but they list same gear ratios (2.74:1, 1.57:1 for first and second) as the lightweight THM-200. As far as I know, the THM-350 was always 2.52:1 and 1.52:1 for first and second.

I'd imagine a 1980 DeVille should be similar in acceleration to the Seville? Even though it was a bigger car, it was probably a similar weight. According to Automobile Catalogue, they were still using the beefy THM-400, which had a 2.48;1 first and 1.48:1 second. The standard axle was a 2.28:1, with a 2.56:1 optional.

sda

I remember dad’s 78 DeVille being disappointingly slow, 13.6 to 60 sounds about right. It took effort to keep the thing driving 65 if the road was anything but flat. Yes that was speeding in 55 America. Mom’s 78 Olds 98 with the 403 felt considerably quicker, was as quiet and smooth. It must have had a tall rear axle as it would shift 1-2 when floored around 50, 2nd would peg the 85 speedometer. Shame on me for knowing that.

fintail

That DeVille 0-60 is no faster than the fintail, maybe even fractionally slower. I wonder how my mom's 460 Thunderbird would have fared in acceleration - a smogged de-tuned engine and a heavy car, but torque. Dad's Horizon was probably relatively "zippy" for the era - and I recall it could reach the upper ranges of its speedometer without any apparent drama, my dad would do it for fun.

Watched/listened to TPiR while doing some other tasks last night, this episode is February 1980. 2 cars - first this early X Skylark, not too loaded but not stripped (looks good without the body side molding), MSRP in the $6100 range:



And this beauty - I must have watched Seinfeld too much in the 90s, as the first thing I think when I see one is "Le George". And the contestant kind of reminded me of Costanza, especially when he saw the car, kind of a funny expression. He didn't win it, and he seemed fine with that. Johnny pronounced it "Renalt". MSRP in the $4200 range:

ab348

The only thing appealing about that Renault is Ms. Parkinson perched on the hood.