Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
Options
I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Here's a few snapshots...
I think I first saw this early 70's Camaro back around 1985 or 1986. Believe it or not, back then it was in a field! Amazing how fast trees can grow! Here's another angle of it.
Here's a 1971-72 Plymouth Satellite. I don't remember it from when I was a kid, but judging from the trees and such, it's probably been here for awhile.
Parked close by is this 1973-74 Chevy Nova 2-door. This is another one that I don't remember as a kid, but both this and the Satellite were only about a hundred feet, if that, from the Camaro, and this was a field back then, so chances are they were dumped here later, like maybe late 80's/early 90's? Here's another view of it.
I believe this lovely is a 1967 Ford Galaxie. I remember when we kids found this sucker, maybe in late 1981. It was parked next to an old barn. The barn was taken down in the early 90's, when Glenn Dale moved their fire dept nearby, and the car is maybe 100 feet from the back of their parking lot. Here's a frontal view of it. I'm actually a bit ashamed here, because back in 1981 or whatever, when we kids stumbled upon it, we tore the hell out of it. Oh, it had been abandoned, beat up, shot up, etc, but I do recall we still did some considerable damage to it. 24 years ago, it might have been salvageable. Even today, I'm shocked at how well it's been able to hold off rust. You really can't see it too well in this pic, but it looks like it's just starting to form the slightest bit of rust at the very bottom of the rear quarter. Also, this was a bucket seat model, and the engine appears to be a big block. So maybe it was a Galaxie 500 XL or whatever they called it?
It had probably been 10 years, maybe more, since I wandered back through this area. Today though, I discovered that someone has been adding to this collection of woodland wonders. Here's a 1982-83 Cavalier coupe that I think the Fire Dept used to practice on. From the tall trees in the pic, it looks like it might have been back here for ages, but it's actually right off of a clearing for a sewer right-of-way. And the trees growing up around it are locust, poplar, and those damn flowering pears with the thorns, all trees that grow very quickly. Here's another picture of it. And yet another. This one has the sporty rims, bucket seats, and a floor shift, so I'm guessing that it's an ultra-desireable high-performance model!
Oh yeah, I have no idea what this thing is, but I'm guessing it's some kind of farm equipment like a plow or something. Here's another shot of it. I'm guessing the upturned bathtub sitting on it was not standard equipment! :shades:
I think the DeSoto needs wider whitewalls. It sure has style though.
Cool pics of those old wrecks. Way beyond parts cars even, although there could be a bit here and there on that Galaxie.
It looks like it has a tongue at the front to connect to a tractor to pull it. Because the rear metal wheels have treads on them for grip, I would suspect they were required to grip so they could turn mechanical parts of the equipment. Need a shot close to the rear past some of the saplings growing up through it. One thought was a manure spreader because they required quite a bit of force to move the conveyor and turn the "tossers." But that doesn't seem to have the snowblower-like manure tosser parts at the rear.
I'd really like to see more views of that. It's like an old history lesson from my early days on the farm!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The whole area used to be a farm at one time. I remember around 1981-82, the county started cutting through this area to build a new 4-lane road. There was an old farmhouse that probably dated to the 1860's, which the fire dept practiced on. I also remember an old barn that had a Benz fintail in it. This was a different barn from the one that was beside the old Galaxie. I think this barn was right in the right-of-way of the road.
As a kid I also remember some old gravestones up in there, but I think it was a pet cemetery. I never buried anything there to see if it would come back to life, though! :surprise:
But, the next time I'm out that way, I'll be sure to snap some pics of the thing!
However, I do think the styling of those old bricks is pretty homogenous and clean. But I've always liked them, so others might not feel the same. I still remember the first time I saw a 124...I thought it was so modern and smooth.
Oh, today I spotted a power blue oval window Beetle.
Granted, there wasn't much competition... but, they made amazingly reliable transportation.. They made their reputation on those cars... Although the gulf between them and even the domestic makes has narrowed considerably since, most people still consider Honda as the most reliable car (whether it is true or not).
Edmunds Price Checker
Edmunds Lease Calculator
Did you get a good deal? Be sure to come back and share!
Edmunds Moderator
but the econoboxes that Honda and Datsun were then had little to go wrong. They were selling what Detroit had been too obstinant to design or sell, cheap transportation that was small but got great gas mileage with a small 4-cylinder engine and manual transmission. No power steering, no power brakes?, at least on the cars people with whom I worked owned. When there's not much to break, they are more dependable. Our 1950 Studebaker was very reliable. No power steering, no power windows, no fancy radio, no auto dimmer headlights, no ...
OTOH. I often gave coworkers rides to work when their cars wouldn't start. Especially bad was the VW Rabbit someone had who lived near me in Union Twp area near Beechmont. I used to enjoy tooting at the cars stalled around the area in cold snaps. Were the Audi Foxes and some Rabbits diesel? I recall lots of them stalled along Columbia Parkway when the temps hit zero and below.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
For instance, my buddy's Accord had a nice dash layout with a tach and a temp gauge. In comparison, I'd imagine most domestic small cars were lacking there, or it was optional equipment (maybe it was on the Accord, too). It also had these really cool defroster ducts that routed into the doors, so that the vent was right at the base of the window. That way, it defrosted your door windows as it defrosted your windshield. I don't think most cars today even do that. They have the little vents in the top of the dash that deflect air towards your door windows, but it's still not as direct.
It also had a little coin/junk tray built into the top of the dash, which was actually shaped to keep objects in it, so that things wouldn't slosh out in hard cornering. In contrast, I've seen cars where they put a depression in the top of the dash that resembles a little tray, but you'd better not put anything in it if you want it to stay there!
Then there were the fabrics. The seats and door panels were done up in a type of velour that would be more at home in an Electra, Ninety Eight, Bonneville Brougham, etc. It also had thick carpeting which carried over to the door panels. As for cheap, hard plastic, there was actually very little. Most of it was either vinyl or that padded type soft stuff that looks nice when new, but cracks with use/exposure to the sun.
Now, reliability was a whole different story. That car never made it to 100,000 miles. I think it died around the 85-90,000 mile mark, when the second tranny gave out. It was also on its second engine. It had a/c, but it didn't work. That pretty velour interior was shredding fast, and the dash was cracked in many places. The vinyl portions of the interior were wrinkling, cracking, etc. And let's not even get started on rust!
0-60 came up in around 30 seconds with 3 people on board. It had an automatic tranny though, which no doubt hurt performance immensely. With a stick shift, and probably without air conditioning, and just the driver, one of these cars would've done 0-60 in around 15 seconds, according to CR.
Now I know this is just a sample of one, but if every 1980 Malibu was as reliable/durable as mine, and if every 1980 Accord was as bad as this one, chances are the Japanese would've packed it up and left our shores years ago.
But the sad truth is that they weren't. There were Malibus and Accords that ran the gamut from ultra-reliable to ultra-crap. Now a Malibu was one of the more reliable domestics out at the time, so it would've actually compared pretty favorably to a Japanese car, but back then nobody would've cross-shopped a Malibu with an Accord. The only thing the domestics offered in that size range were Chevettes, Pintos, Vegas, Monzas, Omni/Horizons, and the Escort. And by and large, these domestics were pretty basic and crude. Probably the nicest small domestic car by 1980 would've been a Skylark or Omega in the top trim level, but even something like that would've been in an entirely different size class from an Accord. And being on the ill-fated X-car chassis, "reliable" was not a word to be used with them!
I predict that next they'll do a "cheap wheels" feature on the '73-77 LeMans! :P
Still, it was a cool article. And let's face it, cars from the 70's are starting to show up at shows and swap meets much more frequently now, so obviously somebody's interested in them! Sure, they'll never be as desireable as a Hemi Roadrunner or Yenko Camaro, but if that's all the old car magazines wrote about, they would've run out of source material decades ago!
I can relate to that. When I was a kid my Dad had a 1965 Datsun (Bluebird?) Station Wagon that was bad about not starting on good mornings (Houston, Texas). I can still remember the neighbors teasing my Dad about that! Evidentally Datsun must have fixed the problem because he traded it on a 1967 (same car) and it gave him no trouble.
My Dad may he RIP always liked the "oddball" cars! He had a Simca in 1958 or so. He almost bought a 1970 Vega, but bought a Pinto (1970?) instead, then a Gremlin for my mom 6 months latter. During the time he had the Pinto it never exploded! Even when he got hit from behind once. The Gremlin (1971) was a great car. I guess he dodge a bullet since he didn't buy the Vega!
However, that's really not a slam against the Japanese...it's just that they had a relative lack of experience in those things. The domestics had only been building automatic trannies since 1939, when GM started putting them in Oldsmobiles. And automotive air conditioning was around since the late 30's Packards, I believe. Traditionally, the buyers of Japanese cars didn't go for automatics or a/c, so they were just late in developing them and getting the kinks out.
They caught on pretty quickly though. I was impressed that you could get a 4-speed automatic in a Corolla as early as 1985 (maybe earlier) It was optional, but available. Just for comparison, you couldn't get a 4-speeed auto in a small Mopar (Omni/Horizon/Neon type of class) until 2002!
What they meant is that they hadn't had time to reverse engineer the thing and build their version...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Mostly I think Honda got very lucky, having the *perfect* car for the 1979 gasoline crisis. So they kind of backed into a real gravy train.
Probably my major complaint about 70s and 80s Japanese cars was the incredibly flimsy sheet metal. You could exhale and dent one of those cars :P I remember my very large (and very stupid) labrador retriever careening into my Toyota pickup truck and putting a dent in it the size of a manhole cover (or labrador head).
When I went car shopping in the 80s and 90s I'd walk through the Toy and Honda and Datsun lots and tap on the cars as I went. They were like popcorn cans in metal thickness compared to American brands then.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I think where Japanese cars excelled back then was quality control on the assembly line and good "basic" engineering (with some glaring exceptions). American cars weren't prepped well at the factory or dealership and so fell prey to really unnecessary warranty repairs. Some basic quality control would have done the domestics wonders. That's why the survivors run so much better than the originals. People got them squared away.
As for domestic engineering, it was often "make do" and not terribly well thought out. The customer got to do a lot of the R&D, which didn't sit well.
I have to give credit to the Japanese for 'doing their homework' and 'learning their lessons'. You rarely saw a Japanese car that repeated the same defect year after year but the domestics did that time and time again. (still do on some cars).
I had an '86 at one time...when I first got it I leaned up against the driver's door, and when I backed away there was a dent the size of a half dollar coin on it.
I agree. It makes me wonder why I keep reading in discussions about Odysseys and Accords and Pilots having transmission problems from 90s on. They just seem more failure prone. But it also sounds like they only carry 3-4 quarts of fluid. It seems to me there is more needed to handle the heat generated by the duty of the torque converter and operating parts. Rattles in Accord seems another problem that they would have fixed after 03.
I noticed the door opening sizes at the Buick Pontiac dealer today as I browsed the LaCrosse, Lucerne, and G6. They are much narrower. Although that doesn't make the door seal any better, it is an indication of build quality and control! It makes the car appear better built.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Car seemed to run very well, however. Maybe new shocks springs tires ball joints sway bar tie rods & steering box might help. It was not in the best of shape externally but not too bad either. It would be worth a few thousands bucks to make it more pleasant to drive.
-Jason
I'm not fond of Square Birds either, they look especially awkward when seen from behind but for a '58 design (one of the worst years for car styling) they don't look all that bad due to the relatively restrained use of chrome.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Oh, and when someone hit the rear quarter panel of said Malibu in the high school parking lot, I just popped the trunk and banged it back out with my fist.
They've only gotten flimsier since then, too. I remember in '02 going with my Mom, stepdad, and uncle to look at Toyotas. My uncle was looking for an Echo (ultimately got an early '03 Corolla) and my Mom & stepdad were thinking about a Camry (ultimately stuck it out with their '99 Altima, which has around 190,000 miles on it now). Well, we drove up to the dealer in my Grandma's '85 LeSabre. I swear, every single car on that lot felt so...tinny's not even the right word...what's a step or two below "tinny"? :P Especially if you'd take your knuckles and rap on the sides of the new cars, and then compare to our old hulk of a LeSabre.
But, on the bright side, one reason sheetmetal's so flimsy these days is because what's underneath it, the structure of the car, has been beefed up. As a result, today's cars don't have to depend on thick sheetmetal to protect you from an accident, as they're reinforced with crumple zones, better reinforcements around the passenger cabin, etc. It sucks when a parking lot bump that, back in the day, you wouldn't have even noticed suddenly costs several thousand bucks to fix, but then it's nice when you get into the big one, which might have killed you in an older car, and you walk away from it.
Now, I realize that stronger steel makes the car heavier, but when I rode in their car last summer, I was pretty amazed at how "vault-like" it was.
-remove the gasoline engine, gas tank, etc.
-replace the trunk with 12 volt batteries, and put a 12 volt DC motor up fron, using the existing 4 speed tranny.
I'm told these cars were pretty good for their day-he claimed they had about a 50 mile range 9less if you used the radio). But, like all small bsuiness trying to make it in the cuthroat world of autos, he ultimately went belly up.
I wonder what he did with the renault gas engines he removed-probably sold them to Lecar owners with blown engines.
Renault is a paradox-they do make some excellent cars, but ones that (apparently) do not travel well. I've always wondered why Quebec (rabidly French nationalistic) never imported the french cars-their market would be worthwhile.
If you owned a Renault in the 1970s, you would KNOW why they did not succeed. The cars were not very good and the parts availablity of the French models was non-existent.
I had a friend who had to wait three weeks for a part to be shipped from France on a Reanault 18i.
I don't know if this is urban legend or not, but I heard that the reason Studes started going to Mercedes style grilles was because back then Benzes were sold through Stude dealerships, and they made the Studes look that way to give them a family resemblance to the Benzes, in the hopes that the public would be more accepting of Benz products.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93