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

roadburner

In late 1983 my girlfriend (now wife of 39 years) found a 1973 Bavaria. I sold my Arrow GT and bought the Bavaria- a car that I had wanted since I saw this ad in Car and Driver in 1971:

stickguy

when I lived in N. Jersey is when the Celica switched to FWD, because I remember going to the dealer up there to look at them. so that probably means it must have been for MY 1986.

kyfdx

I think the Corolla had both FWD and RWD models in the ‘84-‘86 period. They were still hanging on to the old RWD model, after introducing the new FWD model.

stickguy

they probably did because there were a bunch of Corolla variants back then.

fintail

stickguy said:

Somewhere around 1985 the celica and corolla both went FWD. I think just the Supra remodel carried on with RWD.

Celica went FWD for the 1986 model year - the half year 86 Supra is when the model really broke from its Celica roots. Corolla sedan went FWD for 1984, but the AE86 coupes remained RWD through 1987.

fintail

sda said:

andre1969 said:

sda, do you have any other pics of that '80 Mazda 626? I've always had a fascination with those small Japanese hardtop coupes from the late 70s/early 80s.

I thought it was pretty cool being a hardtop. The rear windows did roll all the way down which made for a nice profile. This is the only other picture I saved to my laptop. I was taking farewell pics of the Sunbird. I will see what I can find in my stack of car pictures. The 626 was a good car.

I know I have blabbed about it before, I have always liked those 626 coupes. A true hardtop, and the end of the line for both Japanese hardtops and RWD. Pretty rare today. I remember when I was a little kid, maybe 5 or so, a neighbor woman had a hot looking yellow fastback Fox Mustang, then a late model car, and I admired it. I remember she replaced it with a bronze colored (I think) 626 coupe, would probably have been 1982 by the house I associate with the memory.

stickguy

back in the late 80s I remember looking at a used one of those 626s. Private sale, in the big money town nearby (owner had a really nice house). Did not buy it. Had some issues, I seem to recall it ran like a threshing machine? Not sure if it smoked or not, but the engine, just did not seem healthy.

ab348

My brother had a 626 coupe for a couple of years. He got it as a company car (they covered the payment up to a monthly max). It was decent enough but tight on space for him and 2 kids. I remember him saying it was a bit of a slug and he wasn’t sad seeing it go.

ab348

When I got my MR2 in ‘85 I knew I wanted a Toyota and spent some time visiting the local dealer checking out the choices. My original target was a Celica and I liked the interior but they seemed pricey and I didn’t like the exterior design very much especially on the base model which was the one in my price range. I liked the FWD version much better that came out too late for me the following year. The RWD sporty Corollas were intriguing but were in short supply. I gather from hindsight they were rusters and not very robust. One day I visited and they had a MR2 in the showroom and once I got behind the wheel I had to have it. Fun car for a young guy.

stickguy

company car, so I assume it was an automatic. Much more spritely with a 5 speed.

kyfdx

I test drove one of those boxy RWD Corolla coupes in that time period (with a stick). Definitely peppier than the average econobox.

But, the MR2? Man, I wanted one of those. I took the salesman on the ride of his life.

laurasdada

sda said:

andre1969 said:

sda, do you have any other pics of that '80 Mazda 626? I've always had a fascination with those small Japanese hardtop coupes from the late 70s/early 80s.

I thought it was pretty cool being a hardtop. The rear windows did roll all the way down which made for a nice profile. This is the only other picture I saved to my laptop. I was taking farewell pics of the Sunbird. I will see what I can find in my stack of car pictures. The 626 was a good car.

I do have a fond? memory of the Sunbird. A pretty young lady I was trying to date drove one, I too thought it was a good-looking car. Not as pretty as the young lass, of course...
Anyway, we shared a moment as she gave me a ride home from a party, alas we would only remain "friends" after that brief moment in time.
I also have a memory of the passenger seat being quite uncomfortable!

roadburner

I rented a 1986 MR2 to take on a weekend trip to celebrate winning my first election. It was a great sports car.

jwm40517

i saw a yellow MR2 yesterday with top down and windows up. I hate to see windows up.

uplanderguy

Picked up my rental for my trip today.

I had gone in yesterday, thinking I wanted to rethink getting a 'compact', which they said would be something "a little bigger than that Spark right there". I had reserved the car a couple weeks ago and ordered satellite radio, which costs a bit extra--I'm thinking $5 a day.

I get there, they said, "We'll give you this new Highlander, you'd be the first renter....oh wait, it doesn't have Sirius". Huh? Then he says, "How about a new Tacoma? You'd be the first renter of that too". I said, "If a Highlander doesn't have it, what makes you think a Tacoma will?", LOL. He said, "Uh, right". So he calls the place ten miles away and says to me, "How about a Malibu, 10K miles with Sirius?". I said 'yes' and he drove me there and is taking 10% off my bill for the inconvenience. I'm OK with a Malibu--I like the size, think it looks okay, and lights/HVAC/radio controls are familiar to me. After driving a few miles, I can tell it's been smoked in at some point--not horrible, but it's there. Planning on using a lot of Febreze fabric on it today, LOL.

It's a greenish silver, light color of course, black interior.

I will say, the oil level was full, unlike the VW SUV (Atlas? Toureg?) I rented there a year ago. I got in and the "Service Soon" light was on and I checked the oil and it was a quart low. Is that my job? Yeesh. I also never got satellite to work in that vehicle, so they had to take it off at the end.

I'm looking forward to this trip and need it now. More later!

Sandman6472

I had a '88 Corolla FX and it was a pretty decent vehicle for what it was. $8K plus my '79 Datsun B-210 hatch and I hit the road. Not sure why I got another 2-door car as we already had 3 kids under 4, but thinking back, money was probably the reason. Really couldn't afford the car at the time, we had just bought the house in '87 and had our son, but we were gifted $7K so we only had to kick in the last thousand. Was a great little commuter vehicle for me and had it until the summer of '97 if I recall correctly.

imidazol97

@uplanderguy
Bon voyage.

andre1969

Hope you have a fun trip, Uplander! As for cars that were smoked in, my Dad smoked in his Regal pretty regularly. When I inherited it back in 2017, the cigarette smell was really strong. I Febreezed and Lysoled it a few times, cleaned it out the best I could, but I don't know if the smell every totally went away. I think I just got used to it. My uncle commented on it a few times, long after I could no longer smell it.

My maternal Granddad smoked, and I'm sure back in the day, their '85 LeSabre and '85 Silverado probably smelled of it at the time. It's just that I was used to it. Maybe not the LeSabre so much, since Granddad mainly drove the truck. Still, I remember the LeSabre having a cigarette burn on the driver's seat. Granddad died in 1990, and the LeSabre didn't get handed down to me until 1999. And the Silverado, late 2002. By that time, the cigarette smell was long gone.

I always find it interesting, how inconsistent the passage of time seems to be. Granddad had only been dead for just under 9 years when I got the LeSabre. He died in late April 1990, and I got the LeSabre in either Feb or Mar of 1999, when Grandmom couldn't pass the eye test anymore. And he'd only been dead about 12 1/2 years when the Silverado finally got passed down to me. Yet, at the time, it seemed like he died "a long time ago." Meanwhile, it's been over 25 years now since I got the LeSabre, and over 21 since I got the Silverado, yet sometimes it just seems like a couple years ago!

explorerx4

Yesterday, saw a dark blue Saa 900 S 2 door with MI plates.
Looked like it was in very good condition.

sda

I couldn't find my other pictures of the 80 626, only this.

andre1969

thanks for that pic, sda. Kinda cool seeing them side by side like that. And both good looking cars, in their own way.

fintail

sda said:

I couldn't find my other pictures of the 80 626, only this.

I always noticed the rear windshield of the 626 is a kind of complex shape - probably a tough replacement today (if anyone is actually doing such a job)

sda

Danger, I've been in my stack of car pictures. Apologies for the fair picture quality. 73 Grand Am 400 2bbl, Dweezel the black cat.

72 Toyota Corona Mark II in the background.

sda

A better car than most admit. 99 Cutlass GLS. The car my daughter came home from the hospital in.

sda

89 VW Jetta Wolfsburg. Note the GTI wheels that were standard and rare electric windows and locks. 5Sp, cruise, sunroof. Great car.

sda

71 Olds 98. Flip. While in college paid $250, sold $600. Cleaned up nice. The big girl would move, especially the gas gauge.

sda

92 Miata. Great weekend car.

kyfdx

I love the seats in the Jetta.

Will have to respectfully disagree with the Cutlass. Bought a used one for my M-I-L. Did not go well.

ab348

Here’s an oddball shot found on FB. The person posting says it was taken in 1975. Look closely.



Early prototypes no doubt.

andre1969

It's funny, but that Aeroback Salon looks better in that pic, with the front-end obscured. If you try to mentally blank out what it really is, it's easy for the mind to imagine something a bit more exotic overall than the real thing.

The actual product doesn't look bad from some angles, and a 442 with a wing on the rump, helps balance out that slope a bit.

Those taillights look like they're off of a later Vega wagon.

andre1969

As for those final Cutlasses, Lemko's wife had one, briefly. I remember Lemko saying that, despite his love for GM, that car made him see why so many people criticize the company. But to be fair, it was just a stopgap car, probably meant to fill the void left when the Cutlass Ciera and GM10 Cutlass Supreme were dropped, until the Alero and Intrigue could take over.

I thought it would have been better if they took a '97 Century and badge-engineered it into a Cutlass for those couple years, but perhaps Buick might have protested over that.

When I bought my 2000 Intrepid, I looked at a couple Malibus that were on the lot. This was a Chevy/Dodge/Isuzu dealer. It was sort of meh, in my opinion. Not a bad car, but it just didn't do anything for me. They also had a 2000 Stratus sedan on the lot, well-equipped with the V6, leather, and a sunroof, for about the same price as what my base Intrepid was. But, the Intrepid won me over, for being bigger, and a newer design. And, the financing. They were offering 0.9% on the Intrepid, but not the Stratus.

I did have a 2001 Malibu as a rental. It was one of those cars that initially, I was thinking, "this sucks," but the more I drove it, I either liked it more, or at least got used to it. Probably one of those types of cars where it's not the most cutting-edge or class leading, but still a decent value. And, like my Dad's '03 Regal, a good value as a slightly used car.

andre1969

That '71 Ninety-Eight is a majestic beast. Back when I was in college, I remember seeing a dark blue '76 Ninety-Eight 4-door hardtop on a used car lot. As much as I've always admired those big battlecruisers, I wonder if the novelty would have worn off, if I had to use it for a daily driver? At the time, I was driving either my 1980 Malibu coupe or 1969 Dart GT hardtop. My first "big" car was the 1957 DeSoto, but that wasn't a daily driver. And the Ninety-Eight was probably about a foot longer than the DeSoto!

tjc78

There was nothing wrong with that generation or Malibu and Cutlass … had many as rentals. Maybe they weren’t a Camry or Accord… but one/two year old ones were bargains and were pretty reliable.

sda

The 99 Cutlass had been a loaner at the Olds dealer. It was very reasonably priced, had low miles, all options, leather, except sunroof. After about a year I was pricing out having a sunroof installed and came across a dark blue Intrigue GL with sunroof and the new 3.5 shortstar V6. It, too, had been a loaner with low miles and I traded for it. I really liked the Intrigue. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of it as the film was lost at the film developer, one of those mail in companies. Remember those?

explorerx4

My Mom had a 2003 Malibu. It was ok except for the infamous ignition issue which fortunately failed while the car was not in motion.

fintail

I remember when those Jettas were new, I wanted my parents to get one for my mom's car, as that was around when the T-Bird was biting the dust, and I knew they were shopping. Those cars seemed very modern and European to my young eyes, and I knew they weren't insanely expensive. I even recall talking my way into visiting a dealer and I think getting a brochure, seeing a new car in the showroom. Probably outside of the budget, as mom would eventually end up in a Tempo - and maybe for the better as I suspect VW maintenance wouldn't have pleased my dad (as mentioned, the Tempo didn't hold up bad relative to its rep).

I still see a few of those Malibus around, and there's a Cutlass in the neighborhood.

uplanderguy

Those are '74-75 Vega non-wagon taillights on those "prototypes". I'm a doubter in general but I doubt the 1975 date, as I wouldn't think there would have been built 1978 prototypes that early. Wherever it was, somebody was still driving a '67 Impala.

I drove Malibus of the vintage discussed; don't remember them driving bad or being unreliable as rentals but the styling did absolutely, and I mean, absolutely, zero for me.

The Malibu rental I have now drove nicely. I hardly even notice the CVT, and I'll say, for the same engine, it seems quite peppier than our '19 Equinox with 6-speed. Often yesterday I'd look down and I'd have crept well into the eighties without realizing it.

One first-impression thing that I think is a downer, is that the instrument panel is similar to my old '17 Cruze, which had chrome on the cloth insert on the right part of the dash, and around the AC vents, but on this Malibu, they're painted flat silver, definitely bland.

No surprise here, but the shape and styling of the dash of that Jetta shown above, I think is so bland. Being German, it's high-function I'm sure.

I spent the night at Wildersville, TN, where the Parkers Crossroads Civil War battlefield is. Off in a bit for the last 100 miles to Graceland. Thanks for the good wishes! I drove past the Corvette plant yesterday. I had to laugh as just down the interstate on the same side was "World HQ of Fruit Of The Loom". The only place Corvettes are built, and world HQ of FOTL. There's a joke in there somewhere.

On a rural stretch of I-71 in KY yesterday, I passed a road sign that said "Site of Fatal Bus Crash May 14, 1988". I googled it last night and it was the drunk-driver, wrong-way accident where a guy hit a church bus and killed 27 people. I remember that story. Horrible.

ab348

uplanderguy said:

Those are '74-75 Vega non-wagon taillights on those "prototypes". I'm a doubter in general but I doubt the 1975 date, as I wouldn't think there would have been built 1978 prototypes that early. Wherever it was, somebody was still driving a '67 Impala.

The downsized A-bodies hit dealers in the fall of 1977 and I would not expect body tooling would have been available in 1975 so I agree the date is questionable. But who knows. Regardless of the exact date, it must have been a somewhat stunning site to see those shrunken cars in the wild.

ab348

My '90 GTI had pretty much the same dash. It was actually pretty good in practice. The main issue was that VW designed it in practical Germanic fashion to be versatile with all kinds of spots to accommodate various switches which a given model may or may not have. So in spots where it didn't have a particular switch it got a snap-in black plastic rectangle to fill the hole, which made it look a bit odd. That did let VW design various add-ons. In mine I negotiated a factory accessory cassette tape holder out of the dealer that fit below the dash ahead of the shifter that held a dozen or so tapes.

The boxy body had incredible room inside. The best feature was the rear seat bottom cushion was hinged at the lower front to let you flip it forward, which then allowed the rear seatback to fold all the way down to footwell level. That gave you an incredible amount of cargo space.

tjc78

@sda said:
The 99 Cutlass had been a loaner at the Olds dealer. It was very reasonably priced, had low miles, all options, leather, except sunroof. After about a year I was pricing out having a sunroof installed and came across a dark blue Intrigue GL with sunroof and the new 3.5 shortstar V6. It, too, had been a loaner with low miles and I traded for it. I really liked the Intrigue. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of it as the film was lost at the film developer, one of those mail in companies. Remember those?

I nearly bought an Intrigue once .. but the dealer offered too good a deal on an 88 so I ended up with that. Was a lemon 🍋 so didn’t have it long.

Always thought it was the best looking of the GM trio for that platform. Mine was a deep burgundy with very light beige leather. Having a tough time finding good pictures of one just like mine

ab348

I got on '02 Intrigue as a certified used car when it was a year old. Turned out it was an ex-Avis rental though they didn't tell me that. But it was in very fine condition so I didn't mind. Has about 20K miles on it. Tropic Teal over gray cloth. Nice car, roomy, lots of trunk space. The 3.5 Shortstar was a sweet engine.

Michaell

ab348 said:

I got on '02 Intrigue as a certified used car when it was a year old. Turned out it was an ex-Avis rental though they didn't tell me that. But it was in very fine condition so I didn't mind. Has about 20K miles on it. Tropic Teal over gray cloth. Nice car, roomy, lots of trunk space. The 3.5 Shortstar was a sweet engine.

I was always angling for an Intrigue when I rented from National in the late 90's. Got one in Boston when the wife and stepkids accompanied me on a business trip. Drove it from Boston to Gloucester and did some whale watching, then again from Boston to Mystic, CT and visited the aquarium there. Loved the room, and the power. Comfy ride.

tjc78

I used to get lots of Aleros, but not nearly as many Intrigues.

One thing that I always liked about Olds of that era is that they went to a true double din sized stereo like the imports rather than the 1.5 din GM and Chrysler used forever.

It made the cars feel more modern.

sda

2000 Jetta GLX VR-6. Probably VW at its best. Beautifully appointed interior. Real wood, memory seat, leather,auto climate, Moonsoon stereo. I especially liked the wood shift knob



. It had a solid feel of quality. The VR-6 was a gem. I sold it to my SIL soon after we found my wife was expecting and needed to pull in the purse strings. That is when the cheaper 99 Cutlass was purchased. My SIL loved that car and kept it until she bought a new 06 TL, which my daughter now drives.

sda

90 Passat GL.

sda

95 Jetta GLX VR-6, 5sp, leather. The BBS wheels were a pain to keep clean but looked great.

sda

87 VW Cabriolet Wolfsburg, triple white, 5sp, cruise, ac, leather. A pain to keep the white leather and white headliner clean but I did! One of the few cars I wish I kept. I traded it for the 89 Jetta Wolfsburg I shared previously.

sda

My stack of pictures. I apologize for the fair picture quality of these as I was taking pictures from my phone and glare was an issue due to the lighting. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed and I didn't overstay my welcome.

fintail

I wish my parents and myself would have documented our cars so thoroughly. Especially for parents' cars, I am happy just to find an old pic with the car in the background.

I remember admiring those Passats when they launched - around then my grandpa was thinking of a new car for grandma, and I recommended one of those. They have a rep for being pretty finicky and are quite rare today, so probably good for my cred that he held off and didn't go for it. (Grandma would later have her Ciera replaced by a Taurus then another Taurus at recommendation of my uncle - she was always more fond of the Ciera as it had a low trunk, and she had to back down a driveway.)

I recall the 4th gen Jetta launched when I was still a student, and was a very modern and somewhat upmarket car then - especially in that trim. A co-worker later had a new 2004 facelift model, diesel, it had some quirks but the diesel had enough desirability that he was able to part with it during the 2008 gas price hike and had some positive equity. While a student, a friend had a late model Jetta III - I remember the chime clearly.

And a white on white Cabrio, what a period piece. Makes me think of this classic:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jehJed3rZhU

kyfdx

I loved the GLX V6. Reminded me of a Saab with the torque steer