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

sda

The Aztek had a lot of neat features such as the tent option, portable cooler, audio, etc. The interior was quite comfortable and versatile. It looked menacing in black.

tjc78

I’ve probably told this story before….

Years ago at my old company we took over a small chain of stores in Richmond, VA. I went down to assess everything and lay plans for the conversion process.

I met with one of the high ups. An older well put together southern woman. I offer to take her to lunch and she offers to drive. We are walking out to the lot and way off in the distance is a bright orange Aztec. Pretty new then. I pointed to it and said “wow, that’s a bright color”. She said yeah I just love it! Insert foot in mouth moment for sure!

texases

My main problem with the Aztek was the 'double nose' (two pairs of openings). I had the same problem when they did it to the Firebird:

ab348

I remember not too long after they were introduced but after they proved unsalable and forced GM to dump them into rental fleets that I got one from Avis. It actually drove quite well and the interior was fine because you didn’t have to look at the exterior. I remember sitting in stop and go traffic the first morning and seeing kids in adjacent cars gawking at the thing.

uplanderguy

I hate the double-nose/'nostril' thing too.

fintail

1982: Poltergeist, ET, and TRON were in the theaters. Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs were on TV. Pac Man and Ms Pac Man were married during the Superbowl halftime show. Locally, housing was cheap as chips, but interest rates added pain. On that note, a few fun newspaper ad spots from October of that year:

Rental returns or diesels?:


Quite a few diesels here:


Luxury was defined differently, I suppose these did have a lot of standard equipment:


LeGeorge:


A "high technology" engine or a diesel, take your pick:


Foxes galore:


Some random deals:


I'll take a 12% LN-7 or maybe a Continental, but is that at the bargain 11.9% or the normal 18.25%? Now I see why my parents tried to always pay cash for cars back in the day:

uplanderguy

"The All New 1983 Cadillac"--not a single line was 'all new' then, LOL.

I felt '81 and '82 were low points in general at GM for engine availability, primarily--still feeling their way with "Computer Command Control". I always personally felt things got a lot better in the '83 model year.

fintail

What do you mean? They moved an emblem 3" and added an extra grille bar = new car!

Spotted this bullet with a large dog as a passenger while out today:

stickguy

at Walmart Saturday, an in person 1963ish Falcon. 4 door. Don't see them out and about as a DD very often.

sda

Medium metallic blue 70 Cutlass SX convertible enjoying a beautiful Carolina afternoon.

uplanderguy

Had mine out Saturday; will again today. Will probably tuck it away for winter later this week.

Friend recognized the location, online, as the Kent McDonald's, LOL. It is.

Couple things bugging me about this 27.6K mile car. Got a noise around my knees, on bumps, that I can't find. Wonder if it's in the steering column. The car was tapped in the LF, you can tell by looking at the bumper, plus a body brace near the LF door looks like a frown on the bottom part only. Either ran over something or jacked wrong at some point. Plus, has squeaky, no-doubt-old-rubber control arm bushings that squeak at low speeds.

I wish I could put the factory wire wheelcovers on it but they make sounds after a few miles that sound like 'loose' noises. Each one weighs a ton. These are NOS '66 full wheelcovers I bought from a friend who worked at a Stude dealer in Akron.

It has the factory spare still. I can't force myself to replace that though I know I should.

I do love that I never see another one out-and-about. I do believe the mileage all day long.

andre1969

Here's a screaming bargain...
Running the numbers, I'm estimating that to get at $76.93 with $589 down looks like $1700 financed for two years, at 8.05%. Adjusting for inflation, that's like $6499 down, and $848.83 per month, for two years.

And, that particular DeSoto is about as cheap as you got that year...6-cyl "Powermaster" 2-door sedan. This was the last year DeSoto offered a 2-door post, or a 6-cyl. My great-uncle's mother had a '53 Firedome 4-door sedan, base MSRP of $2643, but the way it was equipped was more like $3500. It was about the equivalent of a Buick Super, or around $100 less than an Olds Ninety-Eight.

I think this shows how, back in the older days, a more expensive new car really WAS a status symbol, because it was harder to afford it in the first place. If you didn't pay cash, you had to come up with a pretty big down payment, and since they didn't offer long financing terms in those days, any monthly payments were relatively high, as well.

uplanderguy

I never cared for two-door sedans that looked like four-doors but without the rear doors. Studebaker did it in '53-55, Mopar did it as above and as late as '59 I think, and AMC did it as late as their '62 cars.

My widowed aunt (one that had the '58 Ford Fairlane), earlier had a burgundy DeSoto of that vintage, but a four-door. She didn't have it long. My grandfather bought it for her from his elderly neighbors up the street, the MacDonalds. I don't remember much about it other than the color, that toothy chrome grille, that it had full wheelcovers with blackwalls, and I think, but can't be sure, that "Fire...." was in the model name on the car, but that might be too early for that name. 'Firedome' maybe? Or am I thinking of the Mad Max movie?!

uplanderguy

These are the factory instructions for the wire wheelcovers my Stude was built with. I hear people pay $1K for a set of four, and I've got five, but sheesh, who came up with the idea that you can't check the air in the tire without pulling that part of the wheelcover away from the wheel? And my car came with none of those clips. Owner before me attached Chevy Rally Wheel trim ring clips to the covers, but not sufficient IMHO.

I'm told there's a two-seat Thunderbird vendor who sells clips that will work as those cars' factory wire covers were similar in concept, but not worth it, LOL. I figure I'll put the wires on if I ever have it judged at a national Stude show, then take them off.

uplanderguy

Put about twenty nice, sunny fall-day miles on it today. OK, not a Tri-Star, but a hood ornament from a related company (I guess not by Nov. '65 when mine was built).

xwesx

I still have the original spare for my '69 C20. Like you, I should clearly replace it, but.... naw!

stickguy

uplanderguy said:

These are the factory instructions for the wire wheelcovers my Stude was built with. I hear people pay $1K for a set of four, and I've got five, but sheesh, who came up with the idea that you can't check the air in the tire without pulling that part of the wheelcover away from the wheel? And my car came with none of those clips. Owner before me attached Chevy Rally Wheel trim ring clips to the covers, but not sufficient IMHO.

I'm told there's a two-seat Thunderbird vendor who sells clips that will work as those cars' factory wire covers were similar in concept, but not worth it, LOL. I figure I'll put the wires on if I ever have it judged at a national Stude show, then take them off.

For a grand, I’d probably sell them if I wasn’t using them.

texases

Two very different 'classic' cars on the way to work. First, the latest version NSX, I see so few of them I thought it might be a C8 Corvette as it headed towards me. They probably could have sold more if they ditched the complex hybrid system and cut $50k off the price, but then it wouldn't have be a tech demonstrator.

Second, and MUCH rarer, a 1st gen Barracuda with the huge rear window, looked like it had the resto-mod treatment. Wish I could have gotten a closer look. I can't remember ever having seen one on the road.

stickguy

Last week I saw a 1st gen NSX bopping along on the thruway.

uplanderguy

I always liked those Gen 1 Barracudas, especially '64-65 with the round front wheel openings. What a change in style from a Valiant, and they even called the first ones "Valiant Barracuda". I really like the huge rear window.

Not at all rare when new--126,000 '64-66 Barracudas built, although rare to see one today for sure.

There was a red Formula S '65 around town here in Kent maybe a decade or so ago but I gotta believe it's left the area as I used to see it semi-regularly and I haven't for several years. I like those wheel covers (I think they're covers; not really sure) that looked like a chrome-reverse wheel.

The '67 re-do never did much for me--especially the regular coupe version with the squashed-down looking roof.

sda

Rare Classic Cars did a video on the 73 Grand Am. In that Adam mentioned both the Grand Am and 73 Cutlass Salon, for a domestic, introduced the high beam dimmer switch on the turn signal stalk. Of interest to me was the 73 production figures of about 44k Grand Ams overall, only about 8k for the 4dr sedan, which we had. Production numbers fell significantly for the two subsequent years after which the original Grand Am was discontinued.

fintail

Saw a classic of classics today, a later Celebrity with the "2.5" badge, a car I see street parked now and then, just a couple blocks from a street parked Topaz, as this area sometimes seems stuck in around 1990.

uplanderguy

I don't believe I've ever seen a four-door Grand Am in the flesh. I think I've seen a four-door Cutlass Salon in the flesh. The Pontiac's interior wins for me all day long, but I gotta admit to liking two things a lot about Cutlass Salons then--corduroy upholstery, and I like the row of little flags under the nameplate.

Generally, I was never a fan of the rear-door/rear quarter area of four-door Colonnades. I think it's clear the cars were designed as coupes, and the stretched sedans were done later. Not a moan, but I always remember the four-door Colonnades had pretty stiff door hold-open detents, and the doors closed with a very unique sound. I think I could identify one by sound.

I think we talked about this before--when introduced, wasn't the Cutlass Salon only a four-door? I think I remember seeing someone say a coupe was introduced in the spring, but I'm not sure.

andre1969

Not a moan, but I always remember the four-door Colonnades had pretty stiff door hold-open detents, and the doors closed with a very unique sound. I think I could identify one by sound.

Well, it's not the sedan, but if you ever get nostalgic for the sound of a Colonade door being closed, it's around the minute mark on this video I did last year, when I brought the LeMans over from the old house...
https://youtu.be/8M_LycUYqD0
It actually sounds surprisingly high-quality and solid in this video. I wonder if I subconsciously used my hand to pinch the top of the door when I closed it, so it woudn't rattle so badly

sda

I like the quad rectangular headlamp set up on the LeMans. It is clean yet purposeful looking and maintains the Pontiac beak.

uplanderguy

Funny, that's not what I remembered, but on the other hand, I found this 17K mile four-door Cutlass for sale and the sound of the door shutting at 1:40 in this video isn't what I remembered either, LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkP-6D0FMc

andre1969

That one sounded like he was gentle, and didn't close it all the way. On the coupes at least, if you close the door hard, with the window up, about the best way I can describe about it is hitting a glass table with a coffee mug, but not hard enough to break anything. On that video, he also closes a back door around the 3 minute mark, but it sounds higher quality than I was expecting.

Back around 2015, it seemed like the "cold start" challenge was sort of the in thing, and someone asked me to do one of those for YouTube. Here's that video...
https://youtu.be/hxPGzxXL2NQ
On this one, around the 35 second mark you can hear the door close, and it has sort of that sound I tend to associate with them. But even after I closed the door, I could hear something else clunking around, so I'm not sure I closed it tight. I don't know what else it could have been though...it wasn't me shifting into reverse, because you can definitely hear that, and the change in the idle. That microphone is sensitive, too! I notice it even picked up my breathing, and making me sound out of breath!

One thing I noticed about that Cutlass S that I thought was a nice touch...even though that was the cheapest Cutlass, you still got fairly nice door panels, and they were the style with the upgraded lower part, where you got carpeting glued on. As far as I know, you didn't get that with any Chevelle, not even the Malibu Classic, and with Pontiac you had to go the Grand LeMans if you wanted carpeted lower doors. So it looks like GM was still trying to maintain some degree of brand hierarchy, in giving you a nicer car, as you moved up through the ranks.

Another slight oddity, it looks like the GVWR on this car is 5350 lb. My Grand LeMans is something like 5622. While that's not a huge difference, I figured that since they're similar cars, and both have 350s, that the difference would be marginal. I wonder if wheels/tires might be what makes the difference? I'd imagine those steel rims on the Cutlass are just a 15x6, while my LeMans has 15x7 Rally wheels. So, perhaps the LeMans, equipped with those wheels, had bigger tires, that could carry more weight?

sda

The heavily sculpted lower doors on the Cutlass was never my favorite styling design. On our 76 Cutlass Supreme wagon they were very prone to road rash and chips.

texases

I'd hate to think of the mud/snow/ice they'd have collected up in Anchorage, had we driven one there.

uplanderguy

I like a wide rocker molding on cars in general, and it seems those sculpted panels somewhat precluded that.

andre, I've got to hand it to you....you are up on things like torque, axle ratios, GVWR, etc., all things I never knew. I always compared engines by horsepower, I guess because it was almost always in the brochure and even on the air cleaner sticker.

Never being mechanically inclined, I alway seemed to absorb the detail minutiae of trim levels, etc., and I do have what I think is a somewhat useful skill of knowing on most GM cars of a certain era, what is factory, etc. I'm a total fussbutt on that kind of stuff. Under the hood, less so.

andre1969

Oh, I gotta confess...sometimes I have to look that stuff up But, sometimes, there are useless details that do stick in my mind. However, I was off a bit with my LeMans...just went out to the garage and checked. It's 5643 lb GVWR. I think it might have been my old '85 Silverado that was 5622. At least, I remember them both being very close, with the LeMans being slightly higher. I always thought it was amusing that a 70's intermediate coupe, that really wasn't much good at hauling around more than two big adults with any degree of comfort, had a higher GVWR than a full-sized pickup truck!

If I ever do lay my eyes on another GM classic, and it falls within the right era, maybe I'd better bring you along, to pick out any inconsistencies in trim and such (missing pieces, stuff put back on in the wrong place after a repaint, etc). I don't always pick up on stuff like that, right away!

sda

I haven't seen this car out in a while. It's a 92 LX 5.0. Not sure if they bought it new but they owned it when
we moved here in 2004.

stickguy

I would not mind at all having one of those.

roadburner

I almost bought an LX 5.0 convertable in 1992 when I thought I'd have opposition in the 1993 election. I couldn't find a manual and the automatics were slower than my wife's Volvo 740 Turbo. I ended up with an M6 and no opposition...

andre1969

It's funny how your tastes can change over the years. I didn't like that era of Mustang at all, when they were newer, and all over the place. I just didn't like those big composite headlights, and preferred the older quad headlight look.

But now, when I see one, I think they're cool. And on the off chance I see one of the older ones, they just look odd to me. And, I never noticed it at the time, but now when I see a Dodge Daytona from that era, or a Plymouth Duster, I see a really strong resemblance to those quad headlight Mustangs.

fintail

I've never minded those GTs, as they were a "cool" thing when I was in jr high/high school. But they have funny associations for me. Composite light models make me think of the Bundys:



This car randomly appears in a couple episodes, Peggy won it in a game show three seasons earlier:



And of course Vanilla Ice:



The four eye models make me think of Troy:



And Missy...I mean, mom:

explorerx4

I get the Vanilla Ice comments once in a while.

stickguy

Parked in a driveway a charger Ute conversion. The one where they cut the back of the first gen 4 door. Wrench every day just built one.

stickguy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CNxbJAog3ZQ

uplanderguy

In that general era of Mustang I like the four headlights better, but not by much of a margin. I always liked the notchback coupe version best, with the big back window it seemed, and I remember seeing them with "5.0" on the front fenders.

Speaking of single lights on each side in that general era, my friend used to comment that Volvo 240's headlights looked like airport landing lights, LOL.

ab348

I preferred the Mercury Capri versions of that Fox body Mustang generally, especially the bubble-glass hatchback. I liked the upright front end better than the slant-nose Ford version.

texases

I always like the LX 5.0:

Michaell

texases said:

I always like the LX 5.0:

CHP had a few of these as pursuit cars back in the day.

tjc78

@texases said:
I always like the LX 5.0:

Fun fact. Properly equipped they were lighter and faster than the GT.

andre1969

I wasn't a huge fan of that bubble window on the Capri, but I tended to have an aversion to hatchbacks in general, back in those days. I don't mind it now, though. But the front-end, I definitely preferred to the Mustang. Not only was it more upright and a bit more muscular looking, in my opinion, but the headlights looked like they were spaced a bit further apart. I don't know if that was an optical illusion or not, but I thought it made the car look a bit bigger, and more well-proportioned, from the front.

uplanderguy

Did they make the Capri in the notchback body style?

Ironically, my buddy whose Seville burned up, has a bright-orange, rodded-up '79 Capri 302. The interiors never did much for me.

Michaell

uplanderguy said:

Did they make the Capri in the notchback body style?

I don't think they did. Hatchback only.

roadburner

I looked at a new Capri Turbo RS back in 1980- orange with green stripes(from the factory(!). I would have bought it but it didn't have A/C.

laurasdada

My first car, '78 VW Scirocco, didn't have AC. Just roll down the window, thought I. Same thing. Summer proved me wrong.

kyfdx

laurasdada said:

My first car, '78 VW Scirocco, didn't have AC. Just roll down the window, thought I. Same thing. Summer proved me wrong.

Got my first car in '76. Didn't have one with A/C until 1990.