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

kyfdx

andre1969 said:

According to my auto encyclopedia, the base MSRP for a 1978 Malibu Classic Landau coupe was $4684 with the V6, and $4874 with the V8. In those high-inflation years, I think they raised the MSRP several times per year, so my book is probably quoting the MSRP of when the car was first released. So I could totally see the base MSRP of the V8 creeping up to $5,023 later in the year.

Or, the $5,023 could have just been the $4874 base price, plus shipping.

As for a '76 Lincoln Continental sedan, my book lists its base price at $9,293, so the one Fintail posted was definitely with options. My book doesn't list a Vega GT. Unfortunately, the GT was an option package, rather than a separate model of the Vega, so my book doesn't break it down like that. But, a Vega 2-door started at $2894, while the hatchback was $3099. A Cosworth started at $5066.

My mother and stepfather purchased identical '76 Lincoln coupes (except for color). IIRC (which is asking a lot), they both stickered for $10,200. Not "Town" and not sedans, and not Marks.

explorerx4

@fintail,
One of my kids is trying to buy a condo in the Madison WI area.
They don't last long. All cash offers are not uncommon.

sda

77 Olds Regency. Mom had a 78 Regency coupe with the Astro roof, leather, 403. She loved that car.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

I am disillusioned with TPIR ever since I saw the light blue with white top and interior, '78 Malibu Classic Landau Coupe; shows the 50/50 front seat, special instrumentation, A/C, power windows, Sport wheel covers, and more, and said the price, I think I remember, was $5,023. Absolutely, positively, not the car they showed. That was a $7K Malibu Classic all day long. I know, I was a student of those cars, about lived at a Chevy dealer, plus a friend's parents bought a new four-door '78 Classic and it was $6,600 sticker without some of the stuff that Landau had.

Jeepers, man, after seeing how that show was put together behind the scenes they were lucky to proclaim it correctly as a Chevy Malibu and not a Buick Regal! 😃

explorerx4

5K was the 'Right Price' for that car.

andre1969

I wonder how far back in time you would've had to go to get a Malibu Classic coupe, equipped as well as that '78, for $5K? My Mom's '75 LeMans coupe was about $5K, as equipped, with its 350-2bbl, automatic, power steering/brakes, whitewalls, windshield tine, a/c, am/fm radio. I can't remember if it had a rear window defroster. According to my old car book, that car base priced for $3590. A '75 Malibu Classic coupe was something like $3698. So, equipped like my Mom's car, that would push it to maybe $5100 or so? But you'd still need to add power windows/locks, and other upgrades.

texases

Saw one of these during this morning's commute, looked like it had been hot rodded a bit (wheels only):

uplanderguy

andre, I bet even a '74 Malibu Classic Landau, the first model year, would be that $5K amount or even slightly more, equipped as that '78 was.

Michaell

Not that I haven't enjoyed the 70's Malibu discussion, but I saw a couple of, well, not classic cars, but certainly birds of a feather from the early oughts.

First was a 1st generation Chrysler Pacifica. Massive paint fade, but otherwise not bad condition.

Second was a Taurus X (or Freestyle) - looked in good shape, parked on the curb in my neighborhood.

I remember when these were all the rage for the folks who refused to own an SUV.

tjc78

We had a Pacifica at my office years ago. I had a good bit of seat time in it. We miled it up to around 100K with little to no issues. I do remember feeling like the transmission was a little iffy from around 50k or so but it never failed. The shifts were pretty sloppy and on full throttle it wasn’t pretty.

Overall though not a bad ride for the times. It was comfortable and decent power.

Michaell

tjc78 said:

We had a Pacifica at my office years ago. I had a good bit of seat time in it. We miled it up to around 100K with little to no issues. I do remember feeling like the transmission was a little iffy from around 50k or so but it never failed. The shifts were pretty sloppy and on full throttle it wasn’t pretty.

Overall though not a bad ride for the times. It was comfortable and decent power.

I remember the wife and I looking at the Pacifica when it was new. I think we were driving either the Expedition or the Explorer at the time, and it was pretty luxurious inside, compared to the Fords.

sda

IIRC mom's 72 Cutlass Supreme listed for around $5200. It was well equipped with most options including CC, AC, PS, PB, front discs, AM/FM stereo, factory underdash mounted 8 track, optional wheel covers, remote trunk release, clock, vinyl roof, bumper guards. It was a demonstrator mom was given to drive while her 69 98 was being worked on. She like the Cutlass so much she convinced dad it was a must have. It had 3k mi on it and I think dad paid around $4k for it. At least that is what dad shared with me years ago.

fintail

explorerx4 said:

@fintail,
One of my kids is trying to buy a condo in the Madison WI area.
They don't last long. All cash offers are not uncommon.

Locally anything realistically priced or a desirable house/location goes pending fast, and still countless sales at above list. Spokane is still hip I guess. Overall prices may be down a little from early 2022, but not nearly to the level predicted from doubled interest rates. I've noticed a number of "time warp" houses on the market too, oldsters downsizing all at once maybe.

And speaking of cars in listing photos, found another - surprised this is looking neglected as these are desirable cars (house went pending in 2 days):

uplanderguy

That '64 really shows off a styling trait of those days that seems odd to me today--just how long the deck was. Longer than the hood.

andre, back to a '74 Malibu Classic for a second....

When they first came out, I really was wowed by the interior trim. Much-nicer seating than available in '73, and color-keyed instrument cluster with bright outlining, a minor but nice improvement.

BUT....Even though the front bumper was made to look less than a railroad tie, I was not a fan of the grille and new "Chevelle" nameplates (which were actually the script '70-72 version), nor the taillights nor 5mph rear bumper.

Here's the brochure page showing the interior, and you can clearly see the piece they used to turn the triangular quarter window into the small opera window. 'Til Jan., you had to get a vinyl top on the cars. Same with Pontiac Luxury LeMans. After Jan. or so, the interior piece around the quarter window looked 'normal', not like this.

From '74 to '77, I always wished I could've gotten the triangular quarter window on the Malibu Classic and been able to delete the hood ornament for credit, but not to be.

andre1969

Most cars today are designed to look like a hatchback, so I don't think the idea of any sort of rear deck at all is beginning to look a bit alien, to modern eyes. And a long rear deck certainly wouldn't work well with current styling trends. To be fair though, that '64 Impala in the pic above, is horribly distorted. Those types of digital pictures often distort things towards the edges.

And yeah, that '74 Malibu Classic interior does look nice. I just wish they used the nicer lower door panels, the ones where you had a little spear molded into the forward part of it, and the carpeting glued on the lower edge. That front seat actually showcases why I like the seats in my '76 LeMans so much. The way the base cushion bulges a bit towards the front, and the backrest has that extra padding down low, both support my body in just the right places. Only problem is, those headrests, even if you move them fully up, are nowhere near the back of my skull. So if I got rear-ended, the back of my head would hit the headrest, eventually, so they're better than nothing. But I'd still probably end up with whiplash or something!

And, the way the door opening actually exposes about 3-4" of the back seat cushion, shows that they might have actually been thinking back seat entry/exit when they designed these cars. Of course, that probably made the door longer, and heavier. I'd be curious, as to how much longer/heavier the door is of a Colonade coupe, versus a '68-72.

uplanderguy

I like the cloth on the door panels, high up where you can see and feel it. I like the buttons too.

I still like cloth on door panels in newer cars. My Cruze has it; the Equinox does not, sigh.

As you know, those Colonnade coupe doors are heavy! My friend's petite mother had trouble closing the doors on their '74 Monte Carlo.

andre1969

Finally, today I got to see something old/obscure, out in the wild, and not just on an old tv show! Running out to pick up a prescription, I spotted this 1981 El Camino...

Usually these things are hopped-up and customized, so it was odd seeing one looking mostly stock, just like a typical used car. I don't think that's a stock paint color though. Although, with the El Camino technically being a "truck", maybe they offered colors on it that you couldn't get on a Malibu? But, it just looks too bright to be something offered on a Malibu by that time.

I wonder if the '78+ El Camino might be about the only instance where a downsized car actually got an increase in wheelbase? It wasn't much, something like 116" to 117", but still.

texases

Saw one of my favorites - a BMW 5-er, E12, maybe a 528i. I looked at buying a used one in '88 or so, couldn't find a clean one in Anchorage. Probably for the best.

fintail

Another unusual spot in a real estate listing:

explorerx4

Nice garage!

uplanderguy

andre, that El Camino is not a factory color. I seem to recall the pickups offering the same colors as the Malibus, and I think they were built in the same plants. The Conquista option offered some two-tones different than the Malibu cars though.

I remember thinking at the time it was odd that the pickup wheelbase went up an inch for '78, when all the other body styles went down several inches. But then, with a pickup bed, I guess it's understandable.

I never really wanted an El Camino, but I think that last gen is proportionally handsome.

stickguy

I always liked this generation. Actually the 1970ish ones too. But the downsized ones are nice. A gentle restomod. Crate 350, 5 or 6 speed trans, upgraded brakes, seats, steering and suspension. A fun toy that can also do practical things.

stickguy

speaking of practical toys, passed (driving) an early 70s vintage F series PU. Looked very clean, obviously restored.

stickguy

Parked at an upholstery shop, a 1971ish challenger. Medium blue with white vinyl roof. Looked like a luxury not sporty model.

And a real oddball our driving. A hot rod slant nose Vega. Large hood hi riser and large rear tires. So I assume a V8 conversion.

laurasdada

Mini road trip in the M today, going to a local Classic Car Show in the old hood.
Let's see what we shall see!

uplanderguy

I can't see a Pacifica without being reminded of two things. One, my B-I-L was looking at one when he bought his new 300-C instead (he still has it), and secondly, very sadly, my high-school classmate who was murdered in a home invasion in CT with her two daughters was driving a Pacifica when the perps made her go to the bank and withdraw money before the murders.

andre1969

Wow, that second story is a tragic one to have to remember! I hope they caught the criminals and threw the book at them!

I wanted to like the Pacifica when it came out. I think it got a lot of criticism for being too minivan-ish, and perhaps chunky looking from some angles, but I thought it was one of the better looking crossovers out there. I think the biggest problem with it was the drivetrain.

I'm too lazy to look it up this morning, but I think initially they used the old 3.8 pushrod V6 for the base engine, and the 3.5 OHC for the optional. Eventually a 4.0 version of the OHC came out. I don't think it had much more peak hp or torque than the 3.5 did, but it had a broader power range.

The 3.8 was actually a good engine, just underpowered for something this size. And the 3.5, while not as rugged, was still pretty good by this time. But again, not exactly class-leading when it came to performance. Unfortunately the transmission was the big achilles heel. It was the same unit that dated to the old Ultradrive 604 or whatever it was called, that debuted for the 1989 Dynasty/New Yorker. While that transmission was improved constantly over its run, I don't think they ever really got all the bugs worked out. In later years, it wasn't too bad in lighter cars with smaller engines. My old 2000 Intrepid with its 2.7 V6 was probably pushing the upper limits of its range. It seemed to be more troublesome in heavier vehicles such as the minivans (and Pacifica), and with the larger/torquier engines.

I think towards the end, they were using a 6-speed automatic, but I don't know much about it. I also seem to remember seeing a lot of them in a pale silvery bluish-green that made me think of the light Jadestone on my old '82 Cutlass Supreme.

uplanderguy

It was a national news story for probably about a year. Both perps are in prison. There's more to the story but it's so revolting I can't even write it.

explorerx4

The kids went to Miss Porter's right across the street from where my kids went to elementary school.
Unfortunately, I remember it very well.
The husband drove a Buick Park Avenue Ultra last time I saw him many years ago at a memorial fund raiser. Never actually met him though.

sda

uplanderguy said:

It was a national news story for probably about a year. Both perps are in prison. There's more to the story but it's so revolting I can't even write it.

How long ago was that? I assume you are referring to the first gen Pacifica and not the current Pacifica minivan. My wife and I looked at the first gen Pacifica and liked it. To get the sunroof, leather, and other extras it was limited to the bucket like seats for the middle row and we needed a bench middle row. Only the lower trim had a bench seat and it was cloth. With a toddler, not great. No sunroof or upgraded audio available. I do remember it having a huge blind spot in the rear. A back up camera and blindspot monitoring would have been a big plus.

fintail

Saw a maroon 66 Mercury convertible this morning, top dow - not exactly sure of the model, full size car.

uplanderguy

explorer, I know that you and I have communicated here about this once before.

Mrs. Petit was a beautiful young woman in high school. Like a model....or at least looked like a college girl.

I saw her the year before at our 30th high school reunion. I like to think she'd remember my name--this was a small town, not a suburb, and our class was 201, largest 'til that time. I regret not at least saying 'hello'.

The murders happened in 2007.

Another of my classmates was my hometown's Chief of Police. He is a good guy. He was fielding media calls from around the country and asked online for assistance from us classmates in describing her to the media.

Mrs. Petit's father had been the pastor of the United Methodist Church in our hometown of Greenville, PA.

I was in Baltimore with work when I got an email from another classmate about the news. When I returned home, I was stunned to see the story and pics of the family on Bill O'Reilly.

The car was the original iteration of Pacifica, by the way.

stickguy

another oddball driving around today. I am sure it was a glass body kit, but a low slung, fast sounding, yellow deuce coupe. Chop top, no side panels on the hood. Very low and quite cool.

fintail

Something about the original Pacifica that always bugged me was the rear/rear 3/4 angle. Somewhat like a PT Cruiser to me, it seemed from some angles that the back was too high, the PT Cruiser "cat with its butt in the air" syndrome.

andre1969

fintail said:

Something about the original Pacifica that always bugged me was the rear/rear 3/4 angle. Somewhat like a PT Cruiser to me, it seemed from some angles that the back was too high, the PT Cruiser "cat with its butt in the air" syndrome.

In the animal kingdom, I believe they call that "Presenting" But yeah, that is a particularly bad angle, from a stylistic standpoint.

andre1969

Not exactly magazine-ad quality, but I caught a shot of this '73 Caprice convertible about a mile from my house, on the commute home yesterday: I'm pretty sure I've seen it before, a couple weeks ago in a parking lot. Unless, by some freak of nature, there are two blue Caprice convertibles living in close proximity! I don't know if it's just an optical illusion because of the unevenness in the road, but from this angle it looks like it's riding a bit high to me.

Oh, I also got the Catalina fired up, for the first time this year. I had a feeling it might need to be charged up, but the battery still seemed strong. I had disconnected the negative cable late last year. It did crank for a bit, but fired up on the third try. Also stalled out a couple times, but eventually it stayed running. So here's a few shots of the car's first trip outdoors this year...
It's going off to the mechanic in a few days, for its annual pre-car show inspection. Hopefully nothing too bad pops up!

tjc78

What’s the full story on the Catalina? I’m sure you’ve told it before, but did you ever have it repainted, etc

Photographs well.

kyfdx

I love the Catalina.. You should post some pictures with the top down.

uplanderguy

Looks great, andre!

I haven't even broken my Stude out yet. It's been very wet and rainy here the past few weeks. I'll admit that online I've been looking a lot at a C8 Facebook page, LOL.

I am going to a swap meet in South Bend the first of June. I'm staying at "The Avanti House", basically an airbnb right across the street from the Studebaker National Museum. I've got a room with two beds, private bath and shower, for two nights, for a total of $139. Being able to walk across the street to the museum is a small plus. There's Avanti memorabilia throughout the house. I have been through it once. On their site, there's a pic of Jay Leno in front of it, from apparently when he visited the museum across the street.

I could walk to Tippecanoe Place, the upper-end restaurant that was Clement Studebaker's mansion as it's probably a block away, but not sure I want to walk even a block in old-town South Bend!

Tour of the old Studebaker Administration Building too. Not sure how many more of those there'll be.

ab348

No pictures, unfortunately, but spotted an unusual car this aft. I was coming home after a 300-mile round trip to the Province of New Brunswick and just as I was approaching town, up ahead some distance I saw a car on an entrance ramp to the expressway I was on merge into the traffic ahead. I thought "That looks like a Volvo 544" but I was not 100% sure because it seemed to corner like it was on rails and also seemed really fast, as it shot ahead of a line of traffic.

As we all approached a large suburban retail park I decided I should get some gas there before going straight home. Turns out I saw the 544 take the same exit that I would need to use so I thought great, I'll be able to see it better. I was able to catch up a bit as other traffic on the ramp to the retail area slowed him down, and it was indeed a 544. But again, the minute he got on the multi-lane, he just zipped away from the pack. The last I saw of him he was making a turn to a side street that contains, appropriately enough, an Ikea. Hope I get to see it up close sometime.

stickguy

A PV544? I don't think I have ever seen one in the wild. If it was zipping around I wonder if someone restomodded it. I imagine it would be easy to swap in later Volvo components (drivetrain and suspension) since that stuff likely did not change much from the 544 to 120 to 140 series.

kyfdx

From 2018, in Sonoma (where I met Shifty for a beer!)

ab348

stickguy said:

A PV544? I don't think I have ever seen one in the wild. If it was zipping around I wonder if someone restomodded it. I imagine it would be easy to swap in later Volvo components (drivetrain and suspension) since that stuff likely did not change much from the 544 to 120 to 140 series.

From the performance he demonstrated, it had to be highly modded.

andre1969

Thanks, guys. Here's a little back story on my Catalina. I've always had a thing for the big '67 Pontiacs, ever since I was a little kid. I think it's because the front makes me think a bit of the Batmobile. One day in April of 1994, I took the DeSoto to a Mopar show that was being held at a dealership a bit north of Baltimore. One of my friends, who had a 1950 DeSoto Custom 4 door and then a 1955 Fireflite Coronado, was also there. As the afternoon wore on, we got a bit bored with the show, and my friend said "you know what? I've never actually ridden in your car. Could we go for a spin?"

So, we went for a drive, heading north, where it got kind of rural pretty quickly. I was paying more attention to my driving than my surroundings, when my friend says, casually, "There's a '67 Pontiac". That caught my attention and I perked up and said "Really, Where?!" He said it was at a little car lot we just passed. So, we turned around and went back look at it. I remember they also had a '65-69 Corvair convertible, as well as a '69 or '70 DeVille convertible. Well, the next Wednesday, I went back up there and bought it! I'll always remember the date, because it's 4/20...Hitler's birthday! The main reason I remember that, is because it was also the birthday of a good friend of mine, and I always joked about getting the car as a present for myself, on his birthday!

The odometer read something like 44,000 miles, but it had a freshly rebuilt engine and transmission, so I'm thinking it was more like 144,000. It had been repainted, at some point before I bought it. There is some bondo here and there, and if you look closely you can see the flaws, but fortunately that Montego Cream is a very forgiving color when it comes to body flaws. FWIW, it often gets confused with the color "Butternut", which is Chevy market-speak, and slightly darker. Pontiac called it "Mayfair Maize,", while Chevy called their version of my car's color "Capri Cream". Seems kinda odd, that they'd use Mercury names for that color. Anyway, the difference between the Montego/Capri and Butternut/Mayfair Maize isn't all that noticeable, unless you see them side by side.

Anyway, the car's been with me ever since. I bought the Rally 2 wheels for it at one of the car shows in Carlisle, PA in the summer of 2008. And in the winter of 2008/2009, I had a bunch of work done on it. New top, new windshield (the old one had cracked way back in 1995), some body work at the base of the windshield where there had been some rust), got the top motor operational. I had been putting it up and down by hand. New tires mounted on the 15" Rally wheels. The car has also been garaged most of the time I've had it, so that's probably helped preserve that paint. And the bondo! I think the odometer is currently reading around 65,000 miles, so I've put around 21,000 miles or so on it since I've had it.

andre1969

On that Volvo 544, I remember seeing one regularly, back in the late 80s/early 90's, in one of the faculty parking lots at the University of Maryland, back in college.

uplanderguy

I use to see those Volvos occasionally when I was a kid, even where I lived. Amazingly, there was a Volvo dealer, New Motor Co., about 15 miles north of Greenville.

fintail

I have seen a number of 544s over the years too, maybe a function of this region. Seattle, with its strong Scandinavian component, has long been Volvo-friendly. When I was a student, there was a Duett (wagon) in the area, that's a rare one.

tjc78

@andre1969 said:
Thanks, guys. Here's a little back story on my Catalina. I've always had a thing for the big '67 Pontiacs, ever since I was a little kid. I think it's because the front makes me think a bit of the Batmobile. One day in April of 1994, I took the DeSoto to a Mopar show that was being held at a dealership a bit north of Baltimore. One of my friends, who had a 1950 DeSoto Custom 4 door and then a 1955 Fireflite Coronado, was also there. As the afternoon wore on, we got a bit bored with the show, and my friend said "you know what? I've never actually ridden in your car. Could we go for a spin?"

So, we went for a drive, heading north, where it got kind of rural pretty quickly. I was paying more attention to my driving than my surroundings, when my friend says, casually, "There's a '67 Pontiac". That caught my attention and I perked up and said "Really, Where?!" He said it was at a little car lot we just passed. So, we turned around and went back look at it. I remember they also had a '65-69 Corvair convertible, as well as a '69 or '70 DeVille convertible. Well, the next Wednesday, I went back up there and bought it! I'll always remember the date, because it's 4/20...Hitler's birthday! The main reason I remember that, is because it was also the birthday of a good friend of mine, and I always joked about getting the car as a present for myself, on his birthday!

The odometer read something like 44,000 miles, but it had a freshly rebuilt engine and transmission, so I'm thinking it was more like 144,000. It had been repainted, at some point before I bought it. There is some bondo here and there, and if you look closely you can see the flaws, but fortunately that Montego Cream is a very forgiving color when it comes to body flaws. FWIW, it often gets confused with the color "Butternut", which is Chevy market-speak, and slightly darker. Pontiac called it "Mayfair Maize,", while Chevy called their version of my car's color "Capri Cream". Seems kinda odd, that they'd use Mercury names for that color. Anyway, the difference between the Montego/Capri and Butternut/Mayfair Maize isn't all that noticeable, unless you see them side by side.

Anyway, the car's been with me ever since. I bought the Rally 2 wheels for it at one of the car shows in Carlisle, PA in the summer of 2008. And in the winter of 2008/2009, I had a bunch of work done on it. New top, new windshield (the old one had cracked way back in 1995), some body work at the base of the windshield where there had been some rust), got the top motor operational. I had been putting it up and down by hand. New tires mounted on the 15" Rally wheels. The car has also been garaged most of the time I've had it, so that's probably helped preserve that paint. And the bondo! I think the odometer is currently reading around 65,000 miles, so I've put around 21,000 miles or so on it since I've had it.

Great write up! Didn’t realize you had it that long.

fintail

Another Impala in a real estate listing:

fintail

Out in the early taste of summer weather, spotted a Brat, a Thing, 77-79 T-Bird, BMW E30, a maybe 65 NYer, the same custom 84-88 Toyota pickup I see now and then with a custom cab extension.