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

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    Other than the too-small roof, I like that car and color. The wide rockers made any other trim seem unnecessary to me on those cars; plus I liked the nameplates up on the C-panel, not too-often done then. On this car, I HATE how the "Impala" nameplates are the '77 and later style. That would just slap me in the face every single time I got in the car. Everything else looks so nice on the car, including original or at worst, correct upholstery. I wonder why someone felt the need to replace the original script nameplates?

    The seller would probably doubt me on that, but I can say with confidence that I'm a lifelong student of that era Chevrolet, LOL.

    I was looking at a used '72 Impala convertible in a Chevy dealer showroom sometime in the early '80's. They were touting the car as "all original". It had pull straps added to the interior door panels. I mentioned that to the slimy salesman there. He said "nuh-uh". I said "Even the Caprice didn't have pull straps that year". "Nuh-uh".

    Hitting-head-on-wall moment, LOL.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    RE.: The wheelbase differences between Chevy and the others in '71 and later...I wonder if the Chevy suffered in some legroom dimensions, or trunk capacity, or if the extra length in the P-O-B was just wasted space.

    To my eyes, the '73 is the worst-looking Chevy of the '71-76 iteration (I hate the side moldings above the front wheel openings), lamest full wheelcovers, and the pic is the worst '73 color (Chamois). All just MHO of course. :)
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    Couldn't find a Sea Aqua Impala Custom Coupe, but did find this dark green one. I think these are elegant for an Impala. The Caprice, with its skirts and other frou-frou trim, I don't even like as well as the Impala. Seems like very nice originals of these cars aren't seen often for sale, for such a popular car when new. Most you see have been "donked" it seems.


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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    Small authenticity item on that light blue '71 Impala Sport Coupe (besides the 'Impala' nameplates and the outside mirror)--black wheels behind the wheelcovers. That is the only year that Chevy painted its wheels silver on the full-sizes, whether you got full wheelcovers or dog-dish caps. I liked that. The dog dishes looked better than they would have with body-colored wheels, which is the taxicab/police car look to me.
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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    edited March 2021
    Nice trunk vents on that 71 Impala coupe, is that a rear-engined car? B)

    Too bad those nice blues faded in popularity in the 70s, replaced by earthtones. Browns and golds work on the right car, but I'd rather have blue.

    This showed up in my YT suggestions, maybe relevant to some here:

    https://youtu.be/7KH91XR-heU
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    Beautiful interiors; a bit too much external decoration for me. But at least it doesn't also have the pinstripe around the top of the front wheel openings, as some did.
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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023

    RE.: The wheelbase differences between Chevy and the others in '71 and later...I wonder if the Chevy suffered in some legroom dimensions, or trunk capacity, or if the extra length in the P-O-B was just wasted space.

    To my eyes, the '73 is the worst-looking Chevy of the '71-76 iteration (I hate the side moldings above the front wheel openings), lamest full wheelcovers, and the pic is the worst '73 color (Chamois). All just MHO of course. :)

    It was all wasted space. Worse, I believe they tended to add the length ahead of the cowl, so you didn't even get the benefit of a bigger trunk. The '72 Pontiac brochure is pretty detailed with interior specs. Every full-sized model is listed at 42.6" of legroom up front. In the back seat, all 4-door models, as well as the Grand Ville coupe, are listed at 38.5". The convertibles, and the Catalina/Bonneville hardtops, are listed at 35.5".

    The '72 Chevy brochure doesn't list interior specs, but the '73 brochure lists them, for the 4-door sedan. They list the front seat at 42.5", and the back at 38.8".

    Now, if you went to a C-body, which actually had a larger passenger cabin, in a '71 Electra, at least, you got 42.6" up front for both models. The 4-door hardtop had 40.3" in the back, while the hardtop coupe had 39.3"

    So with the B-bodies, at least, the only body style that really got any benefit from its larger size was the Grand Ville hardtop coupe. And that advantage was because of the more formal, upright roof that allowed them to put the seat further back.

    At least, back in '67 for example, when they made the Executive and Bonneville bigger than the Catalina, they added all the extra wheelbase, and length, in the back. You didn't get any extra passenger room, but the trunk was bigger.

    Y'know with the '71-76 Chevy, the '73 is my least favorite, too. I think every other year looks good, and while there are some I like more than others ('72 is actually my favorite grille), the '73 is the only one that I really don't like. There's just something about the way the headlights, in their separated bezels, just seem to "hang" in the pattern of the fussy grille. And the first year of those hulking 5 mph bumpers was rarely something to be proud of. For '74, when they went to a taller, more formal grille, I thought it looked a lot better, because I guess the bigger grille helped balance out that bulky bumper.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    RE.: Trunk vents--all the '71 new GM big cars had them; part of their flow-through ventilation system (gee, my '66 Stude has that, LOL). There were water leakage issues I think I read, as mid-year the number of vent openings was decreased, and then they were totally gone for '72.
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  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    fintail said:

    Nice trunk vents on that 71 Impala coupe, is that a rear-engined car? B)

    Too bad those nice blues faded in popularity in the 70s, replaced by earthtones. Browns and golds work on the right car, but I'd rather have blue.

    This showed up in my YT suggestions, maybe relevant to some here:

    https://youtu.be/7KH91XR-heU

    I watched that video last night. I get amused by Bill and all his complaining about birds, cats, goats. I like that Bonneville, looks really clean and would be a great weekend cruiser, the 301 a little disappointing but at this point not a deal breaker.

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  • omarmanomarman Member Posts: 2,702
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H8TNFykJTc&t=56s
    Maybe others had flow thru vents before Detroit but smoke bomb nanny tech was job #1 at GM.
    You could either ask, "please don't smoke in my car," or just turn the key.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    Well andre, I guess one benefit of the added wheelbase other than panache, was a smoother ride perhaps.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    The guy in the commercial reminds me of Peter Jennings, although I know it's not him.
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  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    Those exhaust vents on the trunk lid were one year only 71. Dad's 71 Catalina had them. From what I've read there were complaints of the vents creating drafts in the car and they leaked water, thus discontinued. I don't recall any leakage in dad's, though his ac condensation line clogged more than once flooding the passenger floor. It always smelled musty after that.

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  • texasestexases Member Posts: 11,107
    I wonder how those '71 trunk vents handled, say, 10" of melting snow...
  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,283
    I like that '78 Bonneville though I would prefer other colors inside and out. The problem with these cars today is of course how cheap the interior materials were and so did not hold up well over the longer term, especially in certain colors (red being the worst). Too bad the video narrator took 9 minutes to get into the info about the car. He seemed pretty knowledgeable although he went off track when he stated the car had leaf springs in the back.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    Fin's joke about the vents in the decklid remind me quite clearly of Vega introduction date at our dealer's. My grandparents bought the very first Vega the dealer got in. Theirs was in the showroom, and a more-deluxe, lime green hatchback with Torque Drive transmission. Vegas had the vents on the decklid as well. I remember one customer trying to open the decklid, thinking it was the hood like a Corvair. The salesman said, "No, no, the engine's in front".
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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    edited March 2021
    Yeah, I think the main advantage of a longer wheelbase is a smoother ride. The further you can get the axles away from the passenger compartment, the less bouncing. Once upon a time, the California Highway Patrol had a requirement that all cars be on at least a 120" wheelbase. The rationale was that a longer wheelbase gave you better stability and handling. I'm not sure when they relaxed that requirement, but they would have had to do something once downsizing was looming on the horizon.

    As for that Bonneville, I want to like it, but I always hated the way the landau roofs on these cars looked. It just looks too thick, ill-fitting, and makes the car look top-heavy. And I think it's a shame, because the regular Catalina/Bonneville/LeSabre roof, with the large, triangular shaped quarter window, is very attractive in my opinion. And, yeah, I know I've hated on the 301 in the past, but these days, I figure if the car looks like it's been well taken care of, the chances are that engine has a lot of life left in it. And I'm not buying a car like that to go auto-crossing!

    I just watched a little of the video. Just a nitpick, but none of these ever got Chevy 350's, at least they weren't supposed to. Pontiac quit making its own 350 after '77, so for '78 you got a Buick 350, which was a bit torquier, but less hp. In California and high altitude areas, they substituted an Olds 350. Sometimes an Olds 350 would make it into a 49-state car.

    The 403 was also a replacement for the Pontiac 400, in California/high altitude areas. I don't know if it ever made it into 49-state cars, like the Olds 350 did, though. I imagine with the engine roulette games they were playing back then, it was quite possible.
  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579

    Fin's joke about the vents in the decklid remind me quite clearly of Vega introduction date at our dealer's. My grandparents bought the very first Vega the dealer got in. Theirs was in the showroom, and a more-deluxe, lime green hatchback with Torque Drive transmission. Vegas had the vents on the decklid as well. I remember one customer trying to open the decklid, thinking it was the hood like a Corvair. The salesman said, "No, no, the engine's in front".

    Wasn't the Torque Drive a 2 sp semi-automatic? Can you say SLOW? I don't think Chevy sold many of those in the Vega. I remember reading a C&D review of the 71 Vega GT. They said it was one of the few small cars that would cruise comfortably at highway speeds. That car had the 4sp manual.

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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    edited March 2021
    I too dislike the vinyl top on that Bonneville - too thick, and to me it makes the car resemble the lesser in stature intermediates. I'd pay extra to not have a vinyl top.

    image

    Without it, these were objectively handsome cars. Looks a bit thick with the skirted style, but good colors and cool wheels, and a big angular greenhouse with thin pillars.

    No skirts on the Catalina:

    image

    The Buicks were nice too. In the small town where I lived when I was younger, there was an elderly man several blocks over who had a beautiful old house and a LeSabre coupe of that style, he kept the car and house pristine - seemed like a classy setup. I want to say it was silver and grey or black two tone, but it has been 25+ years since I saw it, memory has faded. Looks best on rally wheels:

    image



  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    I don't care for the skirts on the Bonneville, and I'm all for rocker moldings, just not a third of the way up the side of the car! That blue two-tone is nice and the snowflake wheels are sharp, and I like the '79-81 bucket seats and console interior you could get, which Chevy never got.

    My favorite B is still a '77 Caprice Classic Coupe, no vinyl top, no optional body side moldings, the Sport wheel covers (scooped-out plastic spoked cover), F-41 suspension which required the bigger tires with the pinstripe whitewalls....and I'd also want the optional upper-body pinstriping.

    Car and Driver tested a sedan that looked like this, but I can count on one hand the number of coupes I ever saw that looked like that. I bet 90 percent-plus had the bodyside moldings.

    We had a new '77 Impala, and a friend's parents got a new Caprice Classic sedan, which had more soundproofing. I remember thinking theirs was as silent as a vault on the highway. I had never been in such a quiet car before. Too bad that totally whisper-quiet is passe today.

    I just saw this '77 Caprice Classic that had been sold. I like the car, although the wire wheel covers have been added at some point as they were not available in '77 except for the mid-year Landau coupe. This car originally would have had the full wheel covers or the Sport wheel covers I prefer. If I bought the car, I'd find them and put them on.

    As usual, body side moldings, but I guess I can't order a new one today without them.

    In profile, Mitchell's 'sheer look' is apparent.



    I just noticed the larger gap at the front of the door than the rear. Left side is like that as well. I think some of it is the car has door edge guards at the rear, but as we know, that kind of fit was probably A-OK then.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    andre--did the 'snowflake' wheels as on that '78 blue Bonneville have a trim ring or not? I'm thinking I remember seeing a bit more shine than the wheels on that car in the pic. Maybe the wheels are just, well, over 40 years old now.

    The way Pontiac did the two-tone on those cars was a perfect two-toning point IMHO.

    P.S. I still want that triple-black '67 2+2 hardtop, in spite of what I said about door panels, LOL.
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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    The Snowflake wheel didn't have a trim ring, but the ones I've seen usually had more of a contrast than that. They were aluminum wheels, with the inner parts usually painted gray, or body color. The ones on that two-tone blue Bonneville do like they're kind of washed out, but it's possible it could be the way the sun is hitting it.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    edited March 2021
    I like those Chevy sport coupes with the unique rear window, too. That's another memory going back to when I was really little. Our neighbor had one of those, I clearly remember being interested in the rear window design. I have a vague memory the owner was "old" (probably like 50 B) ) , this was maybe 1981. We lived in a cul de sac, and I can recall the cars of maybe every house in the cul de sac - my favorite belonged to the family across from us, who had a white RX-7, also had a white Blazer and a Vega wagon (which I think was also white).

    I was 0 years old when the downsized cars debuted so I don't recall how they were received, but I have to imagine it was like looking at something from the future.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    I remember lots of talk about "Will they sell?", but they sold like crazy.

    Mitchell used to talk about the sheer look, with something I never quite understood about doing the design in wire and draping a sheet over it with wind and the sheet would fall into perfect place over the wire (???)--but I took it to mean the one gentle arch from front to back at the top of the sides. I dunno.

    The Chevy to me looks simpler, maybe younger, than the others, but in a way I think it also looks more feminine than the others, LOL.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    Vega Torque-Drive--was also offered on Novas at the time. Semi-automatic--one shift of the lever required but no clutch IIRC.
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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    edited March 2021
    For whatever reason, I really didn't pay much attention to new car launches when I was a young kid. I would've been 6 when the '77's came out, in the fall of '76, but I don't really remember much about it.

    In general though, they were a smash hit. Although in reading the automotive history books and seeing old sales statistics and such, the downsized Pontiacs were a bit of a disappointment. The Catalina especially was disappointing. In '76, they sold 10,248 wagons, 15,262 hardtop coupes, and 47,235 pillared sedans. Pontiac had dropped hardtop sedans from the Catalina line after 1974. For '76, they sold 13,058 wagons, a slight increase, but only 14,752 coupes and 46,926 sedans.

    The Bonneville did pretty well, but I've read that overall, Pontiac was expecting these cars to be more successful. However, it should have been encouraging that the most popular Bonneville was the Brougham sedan, with 47,465 built, compared to only 13,697 of the base sedan. So that showed a buyer preference trending towards more profitable, expensive cars. In contrast, for '76, the Bonneville sold 14,942 base hardtop sedans and 20,236 Brougham hardtop sedans. And, just as they had dropped the hardtop sedan from the Catalina in '75, they dropped the pillared sedan from the Bonneville in '75. That year they moved the Bonneville to the Grand Ville roofline, rather than the generic B-body roof.

    Pontiac had a similar problem in '78 when they downsized the LeMans. The '77 had only sold about 80,000 units, and the '78 saw an improvement, to about 120,000. If you use percentage increase as a metric, the LeMans did quite well. That's about a 50% increase. In contrast, Chevy sold about 327,000 '77 Malibus, and 355,000 '78's, so their increase wasn't nearly as great. And in the Buick/Olds ranks, sales of the Century and Salon actually fell, compared to their '77 counterparts. Still, I think Pontiac management was hoping for more. I think it's a bit hard to directly compare the midsized Buicks and Oldsmobiles, too. In '77, you could still get a Century coupe, or a base Cutlass coupe, that looked really good, so they were still reasonably popular. Once they were replaced by Aerobacks, that just made a lot of the coupe buyers move up to a Regal or Cutlass Supreme notchback coupe.

    In general, Pontiac's mid- and full-sized cars just never seemed to recover from the first Arab oil embargo and ensuing recession the way the other divisions did. The Grand Prix did well for awhile, but once downsized it never saw the same popularity of its siblings at other divisions.
  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,283
    I was 20 when the downsized B/C-body cars debuted so I remember that time well. There was a lot of discussion before introduction day about whether they would hit or flop given the significant shrinkage (though in today's context they are still huge vehicles). But the driving experience was outstanding, the interior room equivalent to the dinosaurs if not better, and the styling modern. They made everything else look obsolete. There was a bit of advertising from Ford and Chrysler about the advantages of their bigger cars, but that didn't work for most people. With time, we have seen how the interior plastics and other trim components were not the best and that GM had cheapened them in certain aspects, but that wasn't as bad with these as it was with the A-bodies the next year.

    I think what hurt Pontiac the most was that even more of the design and engineering was taken away from the division and they were mostly corporate cars. While for the first 3 years the engines were a mix of divisional designs and corporate substitutes, really all they had to differentiate themselves was interior and exterior styling. Pontiac didn't do a bad job of that but apparently it wasn't enough given the competition from the other GM divisions at similar price points.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    andre, I chuckled about your comment about car launches. Man, I looked forward to the new model year for a couple months beforehand, even riding my bike down to sneak a peak out back. Great fun--at least through the late '70's, LOL.
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  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    We were not close to any dealerships for me to get to on my own, so I anxiously waited for my Motor Trend magazine to be in the mailbox with the highlights of the new model year. Seeing a new model year vehicle in the wild was a thrill.

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  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    edited March 2021
    One of my biggest thrills when I was 12 was going with dad to multiple Pontiac dealers to pick out his company car. It was the first time he selected his company car, typically he was just issued one without any input from him. That year he selected a rather sporty looking 71 Catalina 2dr hardtop, Rallye II wheels, 350, ac, am radio, dark metallic brown, dark brown vinyl top.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    edited March 2021
    Our town's Chevy/Cadillac dealer was walking distance from the Pontiac dealer. And both were bike-riding distance from my house, after about age 11 or so.

    My Dad and grandfather would get an invitation to new-car introduction night at the Chevy dealer, which was a big deal. Cider, donuts, scoop up all the brochures (one per model line at Chevy), register for the door prizes. And there'd be a lot of people there. My Dad and grandfather, and I, would go even if we'd bought a new car in the summer. Most everybody just wanted to see the changes. I know it's called 'planned obsolescence', but it built excitement, even though almost always in hindsight, the first year of a new style is typically the best IMHO, and subsequent years get changed with styling that wasn't the first choice, LOL.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    One of my biggest thrills when I was 12 was going with dad to multiple Pontiac dealers to pick out his company car. It was the first time he selected his company car, typically he was just issued one without any input from him. That year he selected a rather sport looking 71 Catalina 2dr hardtop, Rallye II wheels, 350, ac, am radio, dark metallic brown, dark brown vinyl top.

    In the early '70's, our Pontiac dealer always had a very large wall hanging behind clear plastic, that showed each series' seating availability and styles, with color drawings of the various choices and details about color and what the upholstery was called. There I remember seeing interiors I'd never seen on a real car at the time--like early '70's Grand Prix bench seats; Ventura and Executive cloth seats, etc.
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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023

    andre, I chuckled about your comment about car launches. Man, I looked forward to the new model year for a couple months beforehand, even riding my bike down to sneak a peak out back. Great fun--at least through the late '70's, LOL.

    I think my problem is that, unfortunately, I grew up in an era where the attitude was "how much is the new model going to suck compared to the one it replaced?" which sadly, sums up a lot of the 70's and 80's. My Dad was a car guy, but he was into older cars, which is where I probably get a lot of my automotive tastes from. My Mom really isn't into cars either, although she did like Pontiacs back in the day, so she was at least cognizant enough of them to have a preference. My paternal Granddad wasn't much of a car guy, but had a preference towards Fords...I think that's why Dad hated them so much, probably to rebel! My maternal Granddad was into them, and worked on them a lot, but once they started getting heavy into emissions controls, and then downsizing, he started losing interest, but a lot of that was from a maintenance perspective. The later cars were simply more complicated, and harder to work on yourself. And then in '78, Granddad bought a '53 DeSoto from his brother in law, with the plan of fixing it up to use as a spare car, in the hopes of making their '72 Impala last longer, so they could delay having to buy a new car.

    So a lot of my car fascination, as a kid, had more to do with the older ones, and less with the latest ones. I think the first new car introduction I can remember being a big deal, was the 1980 Citation. "The First New Car of the 1980's" the ads proclaimed, and at the time, it certainly seemed like something out of the future. I also remember being enamored by, don't laugh, the 1980 T-bird. Mainly because, in the commercials, they showed the digital display, and that was the first time I had seen something like that.

    I do remember, when Mom was thinking about a new car to replace her '75 LeMans, seeing a fairly new Caprice or Impala in a parking lot, and it caught Mom's eye. And that was probably the first time I really noticed them, and I liked it alot. When she bought her 1980 Malibu coupe to replace the LeMans, I liked it a lot better than the LeMans. Part of that though, was that I liked its medium blue color a lot better than the persimmon/bronze-ish color of the '75. I also thought the '75 was ugly. But when it came to stuff like modernization and space efficiency, I don't think I noticed it. Mom is only 5'8", so either car was plenty big enough for her. And I was only 9 when she bought the Malibu, so I wasn't really cognizant of how much more legroom the Malibu had in back. I do remember thinking the Malibu's dash seemed much more futuristic, and I did like the squared-off, angular look of it compared to the curviness of the LeMans. The main thing I remember Mom being pleased with was that it could easily get mpg in the lower 20's on the highway, whereas about the best she could get with the LeMans was 15. And with gasoline consistently staying above $1/gal, that was a big deal! Especially since in those days, 24 hour gas stations were a rarity. Many were closed on Sundays. And they did occasionally run out of fuel, during those Oil Embargo days.

    I can also remember Mom taking me with her one day, when she went with one of her friends who wanted a new car. This was in the 1981 model year. We went to a Pontiac/Dodge dealership. I was enamored with a St. Regis, and a Bonneville, that they had in the showroom. My Mom's friend ended up getting an Aries wagon, which I thought kinda sucked.

    Also, where we lived, there weren't any dealerships that were really close by, so it's not like I could walk or hop on my bike and ride up to one. The nearest new-car dealer back then was probably that Pontiac-Dodge dealer, and that was about 6 miles away, and to get there you had to get on some pretty busy roads. I would've got my butt whooped if I went out there by myself!

    Now, when I got to driving age, I enjoyed going out to various dealerships to look at cars. But usually it was the used cars that caught my eye, not the new ones. When I was in college, especially, I hit the used car lots a lot. I went to the University of Maryland in College Park, which is on US Route 1. In those days, there were all sorts of shady little used car lots all up and down Route 1, and even a couple of junkyards. I started college in 1988, and even by then, there were plenty of cars from the 70's and early 80's that I liked. I can still remember one day, in 1989, stopping at a little lot just north of Laurel, that had this gorgeous 1976 Ninety-Eight 4-door hardtop, in a medium blue as I recall, for about $1500. I fell in love, but that was a lot of money for a college kid in those days.

    Now that I think back on it, there was this one little lot, near the funeral home that's buried most of my family over the years that would sometimes get some interesting stuff in. Often it was total junk. I remember once looking in the Sunday paper and seeing they had both a '77 Catalina and a '76 LeMans listed. The Catalina was only $295, and the LeMans was even cheaper, at $195. I went up there one night, after they were closed, and looked around. The LeMans was nowhere to be seen. But the Catalina was there, and unlocked. It almost looked like it had been in a demolition derby! I don't think it had a straight body panel left on it, except maybe the roof. And the interior was trashed. I called them a day or two later, out of curiosity. They said that they were unable to sell the Catalina (probably worried it was a lawsuit waiting to happen!). And the LeMans was "no longer available". Probably junked already.

    I remember going by that lot again in 1992, after my '69 Dart got totaled and I needed a replacement. They had a 1980 Mirada with a 318, for $1500. But it was pretty ratted out. I found a 1980 Olds Ninety-Eight coupe, black, with an Olds 350, at a more reputable dealer, also for around $1500...in retrospect I should've bought that one! But, I ended up getting a '68 Dart 270 with a rebuilt 318 under the hood that looked a bit ratty, but also a bit evil, in primer black.

    I just looked up that old used car lot on Google maps. There's nothing but a fenced-off, empty lot there now, although it looks like there's a little used car lot just to the left.
    https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9468129,-76.941226,3a,75y,243.66h,73.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXqbJHPy9WpbM51aZhwlneQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 18,325
    After about 1974 I lost interest in new car launches, primarily because new cars were usually slower than therir predecessors and I was more focused on imports, which generally didn't have a big fall launch schedule. I became interested again with the intro of the 5.0 Mustang and 3rd. Generation Camaro Z28(which alas, was no faster than my Arrow GT 2.6).

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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    edited March 2021
    I am of an age where local dealer model launches are few and far between, and few care. Only event I have attended was the local dealer unveiling the W212 E-Class in the summer of 2009, which coincided with the opening of a new showroom. I recall other cars being "new" on the lot or showroom - exciting things like the SSR, Crossfire, PT Cruiser (all had big ADMs), SN95 Mustang, ovoid Taurus. I recall when I was a kid and the Corsica/Beretta debuted, I think the small town local dealer had Corsica first. Oldest "all new" showroom attraction I recall might be the 85 Jetta - I liked the look, and wanted my dad to look at one for a family car, this would have been before we got the Tempo, but when the T-Bird was either fading or out of commission. He was leery (and I think well-equipped it was pricey), probably for the better as the eventual Tempo actually aged well.

    I still recall my "first" sightings - Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, special Porsches, etc. Also recall the first MB W124 I saw, sticks with me for some reason.
  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    edited March 2021
    I am told I was born knowing how to drive with cars in my veins. Unfortunately my maternal grandfather passed very young at 47 a year before I was born. He loved cars too. He was in sales, I understand he sold Oldsmobiles for a while and then was a successful salesman for RCA Victor calculators. This was in the mid 50s. He liked Buick and bought a new one every 2 years. I have shared
    this story before but I think it’s funny. One evening he came home all upset and grumpy. Asked what was wrong he said he had just scuffed the whitewall on the curb. After mom entered the garage ‘hot’ in the Buick and bumped the washer and dryer her dad quickly bought her a used, well worn 51 Olds 88.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,861
    Furthest-back I can remember looking at new models with my Dad was seeing a new light green metallic '67 Bel Air wagon parked way out back at our local dealer. It looked so different to my eyes. I remember it plainly. Dad in the spring of '67 bought a new Chevelle there.
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  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,283
    edited March 2021
    Someone on FB posted a bunch of 1960 Ford pics taken in-period. Most of these I have not seen before so I thought I would put them up here.




    ^^^ Nasty corrosion happening above the taillight. I guess quality wasn't Job One at Ford back then.






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  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,283
    More '60 Fords:







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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    edited March 2021
    The other week, in watching some old tv shows, I managed to see three '60 Fords, all within a couple days of each other. Although admittedly, one was shown twice. There was one in the old sci-fi 60's show, "The Invaders". I started watching that one a few months ago. If you can get past the cheesy special effects, it's not bad. Sort of "The Fugitive" but with aliens, and a music score done by the guy who did the first season of "The Outer Limits". Actually, '60 Fords have shown up every once in awhile, but this one caught my eye because it went out of control and got slightly wrecked.

    The other one was a black one that went over an embankment in an episode of "Barnaby Jones" and blew up. The clip of it crashing and blowing up also showed up in an episode of "The Night Gallery" looking like stock footage. Oddly, the "Night Gallery" episode was older than the "Barnaby Jones" episode. But in "Barnaby Jones" the car was more worked into the plot. You saw a character driving it, and then later knocked out by someone else, and then the crash was staged. In "The Night Gallery", it was just a quick clip of the car crashing.

    I wonder if the actual crash was stock footage from something earlier than both shows, and it's just that "Barnaby Jones" went through the effort to find a black one for new footage. They did that on an episode of "The Incredible Hulk" where they cribbed a bunch of stock footage from "Duel", but then found a similar-year Valiant, painted it orangish-red, and used it for new footage.

    I guess another possibility is that they actually wrecked the car for "Barnaby Jones", and then slipped the footage into "The Night Gallery", sometime later in syndication. "The Night Gallery" was originally an hour long for its first two seasons, and each episode had 2-3 stories. In syndication, it was cut to 1/2 hour, but the original stories weren't always a good fit for that format. Sometimes I think a longer story would get trimmed down, but in other instances, I think they found a way to pad a shorter story, with stock footage.


  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    edited March 2021
    image

    With a white top, this would be a twin to my dad's car. I remember the upholstery design. It also had dog dish hubcaps (while being a moderately equipped Country Sedan), but had thick trim rings which effectively covered the wheel.

    I like the pic of the old couple with the black Starliner. To people who likely grew up before cars were really common, that must have been like a spaceship.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    Thinking of 60s from TV/film, first that comes to mind is from It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World - this one is really a twin to my dad's car. I had this on VHS back in the day, and we got a laugh at the similarity:

    image

    Carl Reiner's car in The Russians are Coming the Russians are Coming was a black 60 Galaxie, this is another fun one kind of in the same vein of IAMMMMW that I enjoyed:

    image

    On TV, as Dennis the Menace was Ford-sponsored, there are some good shots, I recall these (I wonder about the color combo of that wagon, I imagine it being two tone blue):

    image

    image

    image

    Also in Lassie, I remember seeing this when in syndication around 1990:

    image
  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    It still amazes me that simple safety features that cost very little were still optional late into the 60s. Back up lights, outside review mirror, electric wipers are a few examples. AMC used the miserable vacuum wipers to around 1970. Seat belts front and rear may have been more costly but were often absent as well. Mom had driver and passenger seat belts installed in her 63 Olds Dynamic 88, none for the kiddies in the rear. The 63 Olds lacked back up lights, outside rearview mirror and windshield washers but it did have one speed electric wipers.

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  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    I remember the first time I looked for the switch for the hazard lights on my '57 DeSoto, it took a few minutes to figure out wait, it didn't have them! Did they even have hazard lights, even as an option, in those days? I do seem to recall an advertisement for the 1960 DeSoto, bragging about hazard lights being standard equipment. I thought it was odd that something so minor, would be worth mentioning in an ad!

    Last year, "Collectible Automobile" did a pretty good spread on the '57-59 DeSoto Firesweep, which was DeSoto's attempt to move downmarket a bit, into Dodge territory. It mentioned that some of the cost cutting moves were to make backup lights optional, and give it one-speed windshield wipers instead of two-speed. Stuff like that seems so trivial to me, almost to the point of being petty. I'm not sure, but in the 4-door sedan I think they also made carpeting optional...standard you just got a rubber mat. Stuff like that just seems like really cheaping out to me. I could understand having a rubber mat in a really low-end car, like a stripper Chevy, Ford or Plymouth. But you'd think on a mid-range car, like a DeSoto, carpeting would be expected.

    But, maybe I'm just looking at it through modern eyes, and my own personal experience. For instance, I tend to think of air conditioning as mandatory equipment, as in you ordered it even if it was optional, but power windows were a luxury thing. When I was a kid, that's more or less how it was. But these young-uns today, if they see a car with a window crank get on Twitter and post a meme about it!
  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    I had to laugh, my daughter who is 19 rode in a friend's Ford Fiesta, base model. She said "dad to roll down the window you have to use a crank on the door panel!" All of the cars we have owned, including dad's 95 Cutlass Ciera SL had power windows, locks, a/c, cruise.

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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,415
    Options and standard features are funny. My dad's 60 had the big engine, factory radio, but vacuum wipers, no reverse lights, dog dish hubcaps. I don't think MBs had hazards until they were mandated - maybe for 1968. Fintail certainly doesn't have them - when going on a club drive with a friend who has a 240D, he wanted me to follow behind him on a mountain pass, with my hazards on - I laughed and told him my car isn't that new (and even the fintail is like a V8 car compared to a 4cyl diesel).
  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,283
    4-way hazard flashers were made mandatory in the US market as part of the first wave of federal safety standards applied to 1967 models. Prior to that model year some makes may have had them standard but starting in the 1950s they were a popular accessory add-on. The GM accessory kits from the 1960s are being reproduced today and sell for over $200.

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  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,675
    fintail said:

    Options and standard features are funny. My dad's 60 had the big engine, factory radio, but vacuum wipers, no reverse lights, dog dish hubcaps. I don't think MBs had hazards until they were mandated - maybe for 1968. Fintail certainly doesn't have them - when going on a club drive with a friend who has a 240D, he wanted me to follow behind him on a mountain pass, with my hazards on - I laughed and told him my car isn't that new (and even the fintail is like a V8 car compared to a 4cyl diesel).

    I can't find anything to verify this, but I believe the wipers were vacuum supplemented by the fuel pump which contained an accessory pump to keep vacuum present when the engine intake manifold vacuum dropped. So there was an effort at keeping the wipers going during acceleration.

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  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,579
    I remember mom’s 55 Chevy 6 cylinder 3 sp manual. When mom would accelerate the wipers would almost stall and barely move. Once cruising speed was reached they would flap back and fork quickly. Perhaps there was something wrong with her car, a vacuum leak perhaps?

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  • omarmanomarman Member Posts: 2,702
    Sounds like your Mom's '55 Chevy wipers worked as intended ported to the intake manifold. Just like my Mom's '50 Chevy.
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