..... In Chi-town ... we have 45k, we have that green thing going on, LX 3.3, rear breeze, power slide .... you know the deal by now, no hurricanes, no floods, no terrorist attacks .. sounds like the mid $7's, might maybe see the low low low $8's at the auction, miles save this one .......................
In other words, if you went out and were to buy the car at retail, you'd see a retail of maybe $12,500 but they would let it go around $9,000-9,500. Let me know if you have any questions.
=========================================
The guy bought the vehicle from the leasing company at $10.2k versus the original offer of $13.8k. Needless to say, he's a happy camper as he wanted to stay in that vehicle.
oddly enough I replaced it with a 2005 Toyota Tacoma. Extended cab, 4cyl, 5-speed manual, just 2WD. Kind of out of the ordinary for me, but it will come in handy for some of my upcoming projects. Plus I really missed driving a stick. The only mistake I made when I bought that Focus was getting an automatic.
The Jag is a 3.4 liter 1967 model. One of the last of the Mk II's before the switchover to the 240/340 version.
I actually thought of a Tacoma (after reading the recent MT TOY article), although I'm not in the market right now. A 4 door short bed 4 cyl stick could be a handly tool.
Plus, it would then require me to buy a toy car to go with it!
Guy I work with just mentioned he is in the process of selling a '62 Galaxie 390. Not something you see every day (although I've never seen it). Said his BIL has a "NASCAR' 427 version.
I can't picture what a '62 would look like, but I think it might be one of the styles that didn't wow me. Some of the mid and late 60's Galaxies though I really liked.
Ford was still enamored with that upright, formal Thunderbird look in '62, which resulted in mainly clean, conservative cars with massive C-pillars. I think there was a '62 hardtop that had a much faster roofline, although I didn't see it pictured in this brochure.
One of my relatives down in Lynchburg, VA, has a '61 or '62 Ford Galaxie. I think it's a 4-door hardtop, though. I haven't been down there since 1996, but I he had it then, and it was in gorgeous condition. At least, I guess he still has it.
I think my cousin's '62 is black with red interior! Although it's been so long at this point that my mind might just be making up things, trying to fill in blanks.
I do remember that my uncle John down there had a '56 Plymouth Savoy 4-door, in kind of a dark red with a white roof and stripe. We went down to see them about a month before my 16th birthday, and when I saw that thing I wanted it SOOOO bad! In retrospect it was a rustbucket that hadn't been started in years, but try telling that to a 15 year old in lust!
That Jag looks good. It and the fintail would get along.
Too bad most Jags from 1970-1995 were horrible, or you could try to get a daily driver to match the old Jag. That's what I have...my 'normal' car is what I call a modern fintail equivalent.
IIRC, the 427 was first offered by Ford in 63. Largest engine in 62 should be a 406, which might have had a 3 carb option. My first car was a 66 Galaxie with a 390 and dual carbs...it would spin the tires awesomely, but it sure burned gas. When I was a teenager my dad rescued a 30K mile original 60 Ford Country Sedan, in the perfect combination of red and white. It had a 352.
When I was very young my mom had a c.76 T-Bird that would have been similar to that 72. It was white on white, and I remember it as being a big whale of a car.
I saw a rare one today...a 6.3 which was either a very nice original or a restoration. It was a light grey with bundt wheels and whitewalls. It was parked at the MB dealer in the lot where broken down cars waiting for repairs sit. Not a good sign.
Fintail, love that color on yours. Really an unusual and good looking color for that car. Used to seeing them in only "formal" colors and that blue really changes how it looks. I like it.
I must say though...I think that color is about the best one I have seen on a fintail as well. There were a few pastel colors, "period colors" which really come out of 1960, that suit the car well...but that blue beats them all. I am partial to blue as well (like my 126, which is also a light blue and has received compliments on the color, and my Galaxie was also blue) so that might have something to do with it.
Seminole, you should do a side-by-side portrait with a new Jag S-Type.
There's a car like yours in my area...I dunno if it is a 3.4 or 3.8...it's British racing green and just gorgeous.
Thanks for the detailed information on your car and fintails in general a few posts back. I've been involved in hot discussion in the mpg vs. horsepower thread, so I haven't had time to respond sooner.
I'm fond of blue also; both of my current rides are blue.
I will take a closer look at the local fintail I mentioned. It definitely has four headlights and appears to have a modest amount of chrome.
BTW, the fastback Ford Galaxie was introduced as a '63 1/2 model. I liked that particular year and style, with the large, finless, high-mounted round taillights and the neat concave grille.
is probably my favorite year for the '60's Fords. I just like everything about it, from the handsome concave grille, the clean lines with their absence of clutter, and that line on the fender that swoops forward from the top of the wheel opening forward, giving it a sleek, forward thrust.
One thing that just hit me, though. Is it just me, or does this car seem to have just a hint of '61-62 Cadillac in its "face"? I had always thought those Caddies were a bit Ford-ish up front, themselves.
...but it had a convex, not concave grille. The '61 Cadillacs were downsized from the '59-'60 models and were criticized for their styling being too "Chevy-like." The car was made to look more substantial for '62.
Personally, I like the 1965 full-sized Fords for all of the '60s Fords. My girlfriend had a blue 1966 Ford Galaxie when she was in high school.
One thing that just hit me, though. Is it just me, or does this car seem to have just a hint of '61-62 Cadillac in its "face"?.
From the late '40s thru about the mid-60's Caddy was the trend-setter for styling, both American and even for many foreign makes (the fins on Fin's Fintail were pioneered by Cadillac). [Try to say that fast, LOL]
My dad is a Ford guy, so I too have a little experience with these things.
When I was about 14 (c.1991) I had noticed a 63 Galaxie 500XL convert sitting in a garage a few blocks from my house. It rarely moved. I (along with my father) asked the owner what he was going to do with it...the old guy didn't really know. I gave up on it and bought my 66...and a couple years later I heard he sold it for like $2500. It was in decent, not perfect shape, in burgundy. I really like how that car looked, better than the 64s.
There were a few others similar...there was a neat 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint hardtop with a 260 V8 in very nice condition that I really liked, languishing in an old mans carport. Another one where the guy wouldn't budge...he passed away several years later, and the car just vanished one day. There was an immaculate 62 500XL hardtop I could have bought for $2500. I remember running into a guy with a 67 500XL which I believe had a 428....it was a 40K mile car and was pristine...I thought the guy was way out for wanting $6500 for it. And then there was the decent 64 Impala SS with a 327/4 speed that the guy wanted $3500 for, but my dad balked, thinking it wasn't worth that. How times change.
I ended up with a 66 Galaxie 2 door hardtop, 390, no special options, in midnight blue that looked good from 10 feet. I paid $1000 for it, I thought it was a good deal, and my dad approved. It ended up getting hit a few months after I started driving...a Caravan going about 35mph struck it pretty much head on. The car was a total loss, but I was uninjured.
Out of 60s Fords, I like the 60, 62-63, and 65-66. They seem to be for the most part clean underrated designs, especially compared to their flashier GM counterparts. The 1960 wagon my dad had was a really cool car, I like the fender lines of the 1960 models, I think they really hint at the 61 Continental and T-Bird and are also similar to early 60s Euro Fords...I think the same person influenced both. The sedans of that time are pretty upright and formal, but some coupes like the Galaxie fastbacks and the Starliner, esp. the purer 1960 model, are really nice designs.
I've always thought the fins on the fintail are 57 Chevy knockoffs. The way they swoop up under the rear side window (without the dip in the glass of course) and remain level to the end.
There's a '63 Galaxie 'fire chief' sedan (red, white top, numbers and lettering) near me for sale, in pretty good shape. I don't know if it's original or redone for a movie or something; the (white vinyl) interior does have what appears to be a period Motorola two-way radio and working red strobe lights on top. I think it has a 390, nice straight body, all four full wheel covers. I don't know how much they're asking, though.
after a community meeting (we're being re-zoned, and I have a feeling the county's in bed with someone, while trying to screw over someone else), I saw a pristine light blue 1978 Malibu sedan pulling out of the parking lot, driven by an elderly couple.
I started feeling sentimental, because my first car was a light blue 1980 Malibu coupe. I got a sudden urge to run up to them and give them my phone #, and ask them to give me first shot at it if they ever wanted to sell it.
Now logically, I know that doesn't make much sense. After all, it's just an old late 70's 4-door, from an era where they were trying to purge every extra pound and horsepower in the name of fuel efficiency and cost cutting. Heck, on these cars they even ditched the window lift mechanisms in the back doors, to save a few pounds and bucks here and there! And driving it would probably be torture with the standard 3.3 V-6, and not much better with the 4.4 or 5.0 V-8.
But still, the thing did pull at my heart a bit. Even if the logic portion of my brain shut down for a moment. Well then again, maybe not, because I didn't run after them! ;-)
It's interesting though, how sometimes you see pristine example of some of the most mundane, un-exciting cars from days gone by. Probably because that's mainly what older people bought. Too bad more of them didn't buy muscle cars and pony cars...maybe they would've had a better survival rate then!
Well it's interesting that you guys like sedans that were new before your time, in fact they're cars from when I came of age and I'm 30 years older than youse! It's nice to see cars like that are still admired.
LOL yeah I'll say you're the youngest MkII owner I've ever seen...and I must be one of the youngest fintail owners out there too. Heck, I am in the young range for 126s as well I am sure.
I admire many cars from that era. It was such a good time for interesting cars.
...I saw an imaculate black 1964 Plymouth Valiant two-door sedan a few blocks from my house. This car has a red vinyl interior, blackwall tires, and dog dish hubcaps.
as I say that about the fast and furious crowd, they're pimping out a 1967 Jag 340 (basically a Mk II) on Spike TV. Neon pink. I think I'm going to cry now.
I was sitting in a restaurant having breakfast about eight years ago and this guy pulled up in a 1965 Dodge Polara sedan, the first car I ever drove.
I looked it over from the table and asked him about it. He offered me a ride. I took it.
I realized that I would *never* get a car like this. No seatbelts, no padding, no last 30 years of safety devices.
I talked to my father the next day and was he laughing. "Don't you remember the transmission that would not always go into reverse (which meant that we had to push it out of parking spots), the complete rusting out of the back panels, and the gas tank leask that necessitated parking the car with the backend up the driveway ...
I guess memories are often better than reality.
And I would not drive the stripper '80 Malibu either ...
so that '65 Polara had no seatbelts at all? I thought cars were required to at least have front lap belts in 1965?
Back in '92, I used to work part time at a department store, and sometimes I'd drive one of my co-workers home, an 18 year old kid that didn't have a car yet. He lived in an apartment complex near the DC line. I remember there used to be a '65 full-sized Dodge 2-door hardtop, white with a red interior, in that parking lot all the time. Don't remember if it was a Polara or Monaco, though. It was a good looking car, and on a few occasions I'd thought about seeing if the owner wanted to sell it. Of course, at the time I was driving a '68 Dart, so going back another 3 years wouldn't have seemed like much of a shock to me! Although one notable difference would be that my Dart has a collapsible steering column, where that '65 didn't. The Dart has shoulder straps, too, although they're separate and, to be truthful, I probably only used them about half the time.
I remember there was also a '71-72 Coupe DeVille that was always parked out on the road, at the curb. It was kind of a pale goldish color. One day when I gave my buddy a ride home, I remember seeing that poor beast with its rear-end brutally smashed in. Sadly, that seems to be a common fate for cars that are parked at the curb.
By 1965, domestic cars had two front lep belts. The manufacturers voluntarily agreed to install them beginning 1/1/64, after several states had already mandated their installation. The federal government had yet to be involved in regulating the auto industry.
Domestic 1966 and 1967 cars had four lap belts - two front and two rear. Beginning with the 1968 model year (or possibly 1/1/68), lap belts were mandated by the federal gov't for all seating positions, plus shoulder belts for the driver and right front passenger (convertibles were exempt from having shoulder belts).
However, with the lap belts of the time, it was easy to bury them in the crack between the seat back and seat cushion.
Fiat 500s can bring big bucks but they have to be nice and they have to be rust free. I'm kind of surprised that one is bidding so high too but they are fun hobby cars and you can work on them in your living room
Mercedes 420 Pickup Truck -- well you can write that Benz off. "The nice thing about bad taste is that you don't know you have it"
Mercedes 111 coupe -- Actually that's pretty decent money for those old boats. They are a very heavy-feeling car unfortunately and not really all that much fun to drive. I guess many people find the coupe style and aircraft-carrier handling and performance to be somewhat of a paradox. And the gearshift will drive you nuts.
But still handsome in its own way and probably worth around $8,000 given its needs. The word "surface rust" makes my hair stand on end, though. These cars were notorious rotters for some reason, especially a European car of that era now over here. You'd need to have a car like this inspected before you bid or you could end up with a real shocker.
My fintail has seatbelts only in the front - perfectly acceptable for when it was made. But I've had people refuse to ride in the back because of it. I'd want to crash in a fintail before a lot of cars.
My MkII was modified to 3 points for the front by a previous owner (originally lap belts, but the mounting points were there from the factory) and eventually I'll probably put lap belts in the rear (again the mounting points are there from the factory). Of course they are not pre-tensioned or anything "fancy". You tighten them down and when the car stops, you stop. No give ;-)
The fintail has mounting points for shoulder belts hidden in the B-pillar, but I am sure I will never bother with them. They'd just look weird. It also has old school belts, simply a piece of thick cloth that you tighten, no inertia reel or any mechanical tension. I am pretty certain they are original to the car, and probably should be replaced sometime due to rot and age.
My 66 Galaxie had similar belts IIRC....when it got hit they saved me from going forward, and left a nice sore spot at my waist.
sure that could be done and I don't know about specifically for the fintail, but there are plenty of kits to do the same thing as well.....but it wouldn't look right to me. That boxy fitting has to go somewhere in the interior and it isn't going to look right. Especially as my sedan is fairly small to begin with.
I don't drive it a lot of miles with the Mk II so it isn't critical to me to have them.
those old, rigid seatbelts would hurt the occupants in an accident is because they were usually worn improperly. The lap belt was supposed to be worn tightly across the waist, and the shoulder belt was supposed to be tight enough that you could only make a fist and squeeze it sideways between your chest and the belt itself.
Now, as you can imagine, that doesn't make for a very comfortable ride! And unless you have long arms like me, it's going to put a lot of the controls out of your reach! As a result, people usually didn't wear those separate shoulder belts. I'll admit that half the time in my Darts I wouldn't even wear it! And in my '69 Bonneville, which had a more contrived system than my Darts, I don't think I ever wore it, except maybe once to prove the point to one of my friends that the auto makers made these things obnoxious on purpose, to self-fulfill their prophecy that "the public will never wear them!"
Well, if you wore these seatbelts correctly, you might still get bruised but they'd hold you in place. However, wear them too losely and you'd actually get bruised worse. Instead of stopping at the same rate as the car and the seatbelt, you'd instead get thrown forward into the seatbelt, which would hurt you even worse. And then, depending on how loose you were wearing it, you might come into contact with other parts of the car like the steering wheel, dashboard, A-pillar, etc.
Seatbelts did get a lot better once they made them one-piece with the intertia reels. I'm not sure when that first started, but I think my Mom's '75 LeMans had them. I don't remember my grandparent's '72 Impala, but we never wore seatbelts in that car, anyway! However, sometime in the '80's, I think they started screwing with the design of them. I remember that it started becoming much more common that they'd let you pitch forward too far, and you'd end up smacking the dashboard and other parts of the car.
Then again, maybe that also coincided with increasing obesity in America, and those designs that held the typical 70's or early 80's driver back just fine simply weren't enough for the much heavier, more obese 80's driver? ;-)
Another factor might have been that as the cars got downsized, often the distance between the dashboard and the front seat was reduced? One example of this is my '79 NYer versus my '00 Intrepid. The dashboard feels like it's about 4-5 inches closer to my right knee in the Intrepid than the NYer. And while the base of the 'Treps' windshield is about 3 miles further away than the NYer's (okay, that's an exaggeration!), the top of the NYer's windshield feels like it's further away.
While pickup trucks and vans also had to have lap belts for all seating positions like cars as of 1968, pickups and SUVs with fixed roofs weren't required to have shoulder belts until 1/1/76, and so-called forward control vans (like the GM and Dodge vans of the time), weren't required to have shoulder belts until the 1982 model year.
The 1975+ Ford Econoline, where the driver sat farther back in the vehicle, was required to have shoulder belts, probably at the same time pickups had to have them.
The 3-point lap/shoulder belts (where the lap and shoulder belts are one unit, with a retractor for the shoulder belt) were required as of the 1974 model year for cars. When pickups, SUVs, and vans were required to have shoulder belts, they also had to have the 3-point belts.
Comments
Location: Chicago, IL (Western Suburbs) Year/Make/Model: 2001 Chrysler Town & Country LX
Body Style: Mini Van
Engine: 3.5 liter, 6 cylinder, auto
Driveline: Front Wheel Drive
Mileage: 46,000
Color: Forest Green Metalic (ext)/ Gray (int)
Major Options: CD player, rear air, power sliding side door (p/s) and tailgate
Condition: Good
Details of interior and exterior, including dings, scratches etc.- 3 typical door dings, interior is in good shape, carpets need a shampoo job
Tires - 50 % worn
Brakes- New
Maintenance- Good mechanical condiition
Other: Indicate prior damage/insurance claims, repaints, etc.- None
..... In Chi-town ... we have 45k, we have that green thing going on, LX 3.3, rear breeze, power slide .... you know the deal by now, no hurricanes, no floods, no terrorist attacks .. sounds like the mid $7's, might maybe see the low low low $8's at the auction, miles save this one .......................
In other words, if you went out and were to buy the car at retail, you'd see a retail of maybe $12,500 but they would let it go around $9,000-9,500. Let me know if you have any questions.
=========================================
The guy bought the vehicle from the leasing company at $10.2k versus the original offer of $13.8k. Needless to say, he's a happy camper as he wanted to stay in that vehicle.
Thnks for your help.
Also what year is the Jag?
The Jag is a 3.4 liter 1967 model. One of the last of the Mk II's before the switchover to the 240/340 version.
Plus, it would then require me to buy a toy car to go with it!
Guy I work with just mentioned he is in the process of selling a '62 Galaxie 390. Not something you see every day (although I've never seen it). Said his BIL has a "NASCAR' 427 version.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
http://www.tocmp.com/brochures/Ford/1962/index.htm
Ford was still enamored with that upright, formal Thunderbird look in '62, which resulted in mainly clean, conservative cars with massive C-pillars. I think there was a '62 hardtop that had a much faster roofline, although I didn't see it pictured in this brochure.
One of my relatives down in Lynchburg, VA, has a '61 or '62 Ford Galaxie. I think it's a 4-door hardtop, though. I haven't been down there since 1996, but I he had it then, and it was in gorgeous condition. At least, I guess he still has it.
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I do remember that my uncle John down there had a '56 Plymouth Savoy 4-door, in kind of a dark red with a white roof and stripe. We went down to see them about a month before my 16th birthday, and when I saw that thing I wanted it SOOOO bad! In retrospect it was a rustbucket that hadn't been started in years, but try telling that to a 15 year old in lust!
Too bad most Jags from 1970-1995 were horrible, or you could try to get a daily driver to match the old Jag. That's what I have...my 'normal' car is what I call a modern fintail equivalent.
IIRC, the 427 was first offered by Ford in 63. Largest engine in 62 should be a 406, which might have had a 3 carb option. My first car was a 66 Galaxie with a 390 and dual carbs...it would spin the tires awesomely, but it sure burned gas. When I was a teenager my dad rescued a 30K mile original 60 Ford Country Sedan, in the perfect combination of red and white. It had a 352.
When I was very young my mom had a c.76 T-Bird that would have been similar to that 72. It was white on white, and I remember it as being a big whale of a car.
I must say though...I think that color is about the best one I have seen on a fintail as well. There were a few pastel colors, "period colors" which really come out of 1960, that suit the car well...but that blue beats them all. I am partial to blue as well (like my 126, which is also a light blue and has received compliments on the color, and my Galaxie was also blue) so that might have something to do with it.
Seminole, you should do a side-by-side portrait with a new Jag S-Type.
There's a car like yours in my area...I dunno if it is a 3.4 or 3.8...it's British racing green and just gorgeous.
I'm fond of blue also; both of my current rides are blue.
I will take a closer look at the local fintail I mentioned. It definitely has four headlights and appears to have a modest amount of chrome.
BTW, the fastback Ford Galaxie was introduced as a '63 1/2 model. I liked that particular year and style, with the large, finless, high-mounted round taillights and the neat concave grille.
Here's a pic of one I found on the web:
http://www.trainweb.org/mhrr/vehicles/ford/63ford.jpg
One thing that just hit me, though. Is it just me, or does this car seem to have just a hint of '61-62 Cadillac in its "face"? I had always thought those Caddies were a bit Ford-ish up front, themselves.
Personally, I like the 1965 full-sized Fords for all of the '60s Fords. My girlfriend had a blue 1966 Ford Galaxie when she was in high school.
From the late '40s thru about the mid-60's Caddy was the trend-setter for styling, both American and even for many foreign makes (the fins on Fin's Fintail were pioneered by Cadillac). [Try to say that fast, LOL]
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
When I was about 14 (c.1991) I had noticed a 63 Galaxie 500XL convert sitting in a garage a few blocks from my house. It rarely moved. I (along with my father) asked the owner what he was going to do with it...the old guy didn't really know. I gave up on it and bought my 66...and a couple years later I heard he sold it for like $2500. It was in decent, not perfect shape, in burgundy. I really like how that car looked, better than the 64s.
There were a few others similar...there was a neat 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint hardtop with a 260 V8 in very nice condition that I really liked, languishing in an old mans carport. Another one where the guy wouldn't budge...he passed away several years later, and the car just vanished one day. There was an immaculate 62 500XL hardtop I could have bought for $2500. I remember running into a guy with a 67 500XL which I believe had a 428....it was a 40K mile car and was pristine...I thought the guy was way out for wanting $6500 for it. And then there was the decent 64 Impala SS with a 327/4 speed that the guy wanted $3500 for, but my dad balked, thinking it wasn't worth that. How times change.
I ended up with a 66 Galaxie 2 door hardtop, 390, no special options, in midnight blue that looked good from 10 feet. I paid $1000 for it, I thought it was a good deal, and my dad approved. It ended up getting hit a few months after I started driving...a Caravan going about 35mph struck it pretty much head on. The car was a total loss, but I was uninjured.
Out of 60s Fords, I like the 60, 62-63, and 65-66. They seem to be for the most part clean underrated designs, especially compared to their flashier GM counterparts. The 1960 wagon my dad had was a really cool car, I like the fender lines of the 1960 models, I think they really hint at the 61 Continental and T-Bird and are also similar to early 60s Euro Fords...I think the same person influenced both. The sedans of that time are pretty upright and formal, but some coupes like the Galaxie fastbacks and the Starliner, esp. the purer 1960 model, are really nice designs.
I've always thought the fins on the fintail are 57 Chevy knockoffs. The way they swoop up under the rear side window (without the dip in the glass of course) and remain level to the end.
I started feeling sentimental, because my first car was a light blue 1980 Malibu coupe. I got a sudden urge to run up to them and give them my phone #, and ask them to give me first shot at it if they ever wanted to sell it.
Now logically, I know that doesn't make much sense. After all, it's just an old late 70's 4-door, from an era where they were trying to purge every extra pound and horsepower in the name of fuel efficiency and cost cutting. Heck, on these cars they even ditched the window lift mechanisms in the back doors, to save a few pounds and bucks here and there! And driving it would probably be torture with the standard 3.3 V-6, and not much better with the 4.4 or 5.0 V-8.
But still, the thing did pull at my heart a bit. Even if the logic portion of my brain shut down for a moment. Well then again, maybe not, because I didn't run after them! ;-)
It's interesting though, how sometimes you see pristine example of some of the most mundane, un-exciting cars from days gone by. Probably because that's mainly what older people bought. Too bad more of them didn't buy muscle cars and pony cars...maybe they would've had a better survival rate then!
Here's a site full of obscure cars and some with fun stories. Beware though, some of the images may make one cry, or be sick
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I admire many cars from that era. It was such a good time for interesting cars.
I looked it over from the table and asked him about it. He offered me a ride. I took it.
I realized that I would *never* get a car like this. No seatbelts, no padding, no last 30 years of safety devices.
I talked to my father the next day and was he laughing. "Don't you remember the transmission that would not always go into reverse (which meant that we had to push it out of parking spots), the complete rusting out of the back panels, and the gas tank leask that necessitated parking the car with the backend up the driveway ...
I guess memories are often better than reality.
And I would not drive the stripper '80 Malibu either ...
Ebay time:
This is an unusual little thing
Shifty-mobile
Another Shifty-mobile
Geez all the freaks are coming out to play
A fool and his money
Don't see many of these bathtubs around
Too bad this isn't closer...I think I'd drive it
Possibly the nicest of these left...and still worth nothing
Surprised this has the bids it does
DeSoto Seville
Shows how little a nice 111 high grille coupe brings...wheel trim is painfully wrong though, cries out for trim rings
Looks like some diesel people like to hallucinate
All I can say is...why? And look at the valve covers...wow
Back in '92, I used to work part time at a department store, and sometimes I'd drive one of my co-workers home, an 18 year old kid that didn't have a car yet. He lived in an apartment complex near the DC line. I remember there used to be a '65 full-sized Dodge 2-door hardtop, white with a red interior, in that parking lot all the time. Don't remember if it was a Polara or Monaco, though. It was a good looking car, and on a few occasions I'd thought about seeing if the owner wanted to sell it. Of course, at the time I was driving a '68 Dart, so going back another 3 years wouldn't have seemed like much of a shock to me! Although one notable difference would be that my Dart has a collapsible steering column, where that '65 didn't. The Dart has shoulder straps, too, although they're separate and, to be truthful, I probably only used them about half the time.
I remember there was also a '71-72 Coupe DeVille that was always parked out on the road, at the curb. It was kind of a pale goldish color. One day when I gave my buddy a ride home, I remember seeing that poor beast with its rear-end brutally smashed in. Sadly, that seems to be a common fate for cars that are parked at the curb.
Domestic 1966 and 1967 cars had four lap belts - two front and two rear. Beginning with the 1968 model year (or possibly 1/1/68), lap belts were mandated by the federal gov't for all seating positions, plus shoulder belts for the driver and right front passenger (convertibles were exempt from having shoulder belts).
However, with the lap belts of the time, it was easy to bury them in the crack between the seat back and seat cushion.
Fiat 500s can bring big bucks but they have to be nice and they have to be rust free. I'm kind of surprised that one is bidding so high too but they are fun hobby cars and you can work on them in your living room
Mercedes 420 Pickup Truck -- well you can write that Benz off. "The nice thing about bad taste is that you don't know you have it"
Mercedes 111 coupe -- Actually that's pretty decent money for those old boats. They are a very heavy-feeling car unfortunately and not really all that much fun to drive. I guess many people find the coupe style and aircraft-carrier handling and performance to be somewhat of a paradox. And the gearshift will drive you nuts.
But still handsome in its own way and probably worth around $8,000 given its needs. The word "surface rust" makes my hair stand on end, though. These cars were notorious rotters for some reason, especially a European car of that era now over here. You'd need to have a car like this inspected before you bid or you could end up with a real shocker.
Oh, and that '75 looked and drive pretty much the same as the early 90's models. Long model run...
My 66 Galaxie had similar belts IIRC....when it got hit they saved me from going forward, and left a nice sore spot at my waist.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I don't drive it a lot of miles with the Mk II so it isn't critical to me to have them.
Now, as you can imagine, that doesn't make for a very comfortable ride! And unless you have long arms like me, it's going to put a lot of the controls out of your reach! As a result, people usually didn't wear those separate shoulder belts. I'll admit that half the time in my Darts I wouldn't even wear it! And in my '69 Bonneville, which had a more contrived system than my Darts, I don't think I ever wore it, except maybe once to prove the point to one of my friends that the auto makers made these things obnoxious on purpose, to self-fulfill their prophecy that "the public will never wear them!"
Well, if you wore these seatbelts correctly, you might still get bruised but they'd hold you in place. However, wear them too losely and you'd actually get bruised worse. Instead of stopping at the same rate as the car and the seatbelt, you'd instead get thrown forward into the seatbelt, which would hurt you even worse. And then, depending on how loose you were wearing it, you might come into contact with other parts of the car like the steering wheel, dashboard, A-pillar, etc.
Seatbelts did get a lot better once they made them one-piece with the intertia reels. I'm not sure when that first started, but I think my Mom's '75 LeMans had them. I don't remember my grandparent's '72 Impala, but we never wore seatbelts in that car, anyway! However, sometime in the '80's, I think they started screwing with the design of them. I remember that it started becoming much more common that they'd let you pitch forward too far, and you'd end up smacking the dashboard and other parts of the car.
Then again, maybe that also coincided with increasing obesity in America, and those designs that held the typical 70's or early 80's driver back just fine simply weren't enough for the much heavier, more obese 80's driver? ;-)
Another factor might have been that as the cars got downsized, often the distance between the dashboard and the front seat was reduced? One example of this is my '79 NYer versus my '00 Intrepid. The dashboard feels like it's about 4-5 inches closer to my right knee in the Intrepid than the NYer. And while the base of the 'Treps' windshield is about 3 miles further away than the NYer's (okay, that's an exaggeration!), the top of the NYer's windshield feels like it's further away.
The 1975+ Ford Econoline, where the driver sat farther back in the vehicle, was required to have shoulder belts, probably at the same time pickups had to have them.
The 3-point lap/shoulder belts (where the lap and shoulder belts are one unit, with a retractor for the shoulder belt) were required as of the 1974 model year for cars. When pickups, SUVs, and vans were required to have shoulder belts, they also had to have the 3-point belts.