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

fintail

This was on another forum I read, I found it interesrting: Car show in Germany - not a big Techno Classic event, just a gathering of old cars. The photographer posted what he found interesting - surprising amount of Detroit iron.

I saw a W211 E63 wagon yesterday, that's obscure - sales under 100 units per year in the US, IIRC. Also saw a decent looking 75-79 Corolla, an obviously restored 70s Beetle, and a pimped out early 80s Fleetwood coupe on wire wheels.

texases

But I found a BMW hub cap on a moring walk by the side of the road. Looks like one of those on 2002 steel wheels. What's the odds of that? How many steel wheels are still on those 2002s? How many 2002s drive by my area, and lose a hubcap on a straight, level street??

Odd...

hpmctorque

What finally caused its demise, and what has he or will he replace it with?

ab348

Regulars here know that i am a nut for the fuselage Chryslers of '69-'72. Here is one that ought to be eminently pass-worthy yet I am intrigued by it:

'70 L.A. Polara

Now the seller says the paint is new and of that I have no doubt. It does not look like a factory shade and appears way too bright. I hate the color. Yet when you see the color on the underside of the trunklid it is the typical early '70s metallic green, so I fail to understand why the exterior looks so off.

In any event I am intrigued by this car, and apparently so are a few other folks judging by the number of bids. Maybe it is the unique '69-'70 dashboard, maybe it is the wedge taillights, maybe it is the two-tone interior, but I really, really like this car. Thoughts?

Mr_Shiftright

multiple wounds I think. He bought a new Lexus LS.

andre1969

I think they just did a quickie paintjob on that Polara, and missed the doorjambs, under the hood, trunk area, etc. Looks like it was originally kind of a light silvery green, but the repaint has a bit too much avodaco or lime or something in it.

Other than the mismatched paint though, it doesn't look like a bad car. I like it.

hpmctorque

The Lexus isn't as engaging to drive as the old 7-Series, but excessively high-cost-to-own gets old, fast.

Mr_Shiftright

You got that right. The Lexus is totally numb compared to the 7 Series---but it is a nice car in its own way.

stickguy

in the space of about 20 minutes today (in south Jersey).

a '67 Firebird, nothing fancy, in driver condition. A customized late 50s GMC pickup (seemed to have metalic flake purple paint, but actually looked nice on the road). And a baby blue '65ish Falcon.

fintail

Out in the rain today, a red on red 62 Galaxie 2 door HT, couldn't read the engine badge, looked like a decent original car. Noticed that it had "clap hands"/opposing direction wipers, these were fading away by then I think.

Also saw a little old lady in a brown Citation, original owner I'd wager.

ab348

I am beginning to think all '71 Polaras were painted green. Here's another one:

A 440 under the hood

This one is a bit suspect in spite of the description - the panel between the taillights should be argent silver, and whenever I see an Edelbrock decal on a car like this I get suspicious. The 440 could offset a number of sins, but the interior (the dash in particular) looks tired.

I liked the 4-door Polara hardtop from a couple of months ago better than this one.

fintail

Back around 1972 my grandpa bought a big Chrysler 4 door HT, to replace his aging beloved 65 (he had instant buyers remorse as the new car was nowhere as solid or reliable as the old one). It was a similar green, with a green interior. Chrysler must have bought out a huge stock of similarly shaded green.

berri

I think green had its heyday in the early 70's. I recall a lot of green cars from all of the manufacturers. These included Nova's, Electra's, Monte Carlo's and LTD's to name a few more.

berri

I think green had its heyday in the early 70's. I recall a lot of green cars from all of the manufacturers. These included Nova's, Electra's, Monte Carlo's and LTD's to name a few more. Brown was the next color to get popular in the 70's.

andre1969

My grandparents' 72 Impala was a shade of forest green that I believe GM called "Sequoia", with a white vinyl top. Very attractive color, IMO. I remember some members at their church having a '72 Impala that was a lighter green. According to this 1972 Chevy color chart, it would've been "gulf green" or "oasis green".

I used to like mainly the forest/emerald type greens, or the ones that had a bit of blue mixed in, but lately I've found myself tolerant of more shades of it, unless it's just TOO drab/olive. And sometimes, it just depends on the car.

For some reason, I've even found myself more tolerant of certain browns, as long as they're a lighter, more caramel color, or have a bit of red in them.

tjc78

I think green had its heyday in the early 70's. I recall a lot of green cars from all of the manufacturers. These included Nova's, Electra's, Monte Carlo's and LTD's to name a few more. Brown was the next color to get popular in the 70's.

The greens got really popular again in the 90s (I think 1 out of 3 Chrysler products were hunter green) and now it seems to me that brown is coming back a bit.

andre1969

The greens got really popular again in the 90s (I think 1 out of 3 Chrysler products were hunter green) and now it seems to me that brown is coming back a bit.

I remember when I bought my 2000 Intrepid, they offered two greens on it. One was a pale greenish gray that was really washed out, but not too bad, and the other was more of a forest green. I really wanted the forest green, but the dealer didn't have any in stock, so I got them to cut me a slightly better deal on the silver one I ended up getting.

A few years later, they came out with a light silvery blue called "Butane Blue" (I dunno if it's a good idea to name a car color after something that can blow up!), that I thought was really sweet. It was almost enough to make me want to trade my silver one in on a new one!

dieselone

The greens got really popular again in the 90s

True, I can still see hunter green/ tan Eddie Bauer Explorers running around everywhere.

tjc78

A few years later, they came out with a light silvery blue called "Butane Blue

I like colors like that. It reminds me of my 2003 Avalon.

Here is a pic (not my car but a twin)

fintail

I found some early 70s Chrysler color stuff in a google search...my grandpa's car was definitely "Avocado". Better than brown anyway, and the white on white T-Bird my mother had wasn't really any better.

Production breakdown by color, lots of green

Brown is staging a comeback, but it is mostly a lot more tasteful than the poopy 70s shades.

omarman

Hudson Motors really got the log rolling with a stream of brown output passing through the 50s. The seller of this 1955 Hudson Hornet alternately labels the color as "beige" or tan-white. According to the color charts it corresponds to Palomino Brown/Snowberry White. :lemon:

merckx

All this talk has got me to wondering about the Plymouth Acclaim/Dodge Spirit twins. I almost bought one in 1993 instead of a new Taurus.
How have these cars faired? Were the good cars? there was something about the styling that I thought was very pleasing.

tjc78

My brother had a 94 Spirit with the 3.0 Mitsu engine. Wasn't a bad car. He beat it to death and smashed it a few times. By 100K it was smoking a little like all the 3.0s did, but don't ever remember it being a problem child. It blew a radiator hose in the drive-through once. That was amusing.

I like a lot of the early 90s Chryslers (Imperial, New Yorker, etc) they were super boxy, but I like that.

I would think the most troublesome part of these cars would be the 4spd auto if not maintained properly. I believe its the same unit from the minivans. I still see quite a few Spirits/Acclaims floating around so they can't be that bad. If the 4cyl models used the old 3 speed, they are probably a bit better than the V6/4speeds.

andre1969

I like a lot of the early 90s Chryslers (Imperial, New Yorker, etc) they were super boxy, but I like that.

I kinda like 'em, too. Being based on the K-car, they're all way too narrow to even attempt being a full-sized car, but some models like the 5th Ave and Imperial certainly made up for it in legroom! They had really plush interiors for the time, too.

Every once in awhile, I'll see a Dynasty, NYer, et al show up at the various Carlisle PA swap meets, and they're usually in nice shape and fairly low-priced. I wonder if one of them would be worth the risk, given the vulnerability of that 4-speed tranny of the era?

I always liked the Spirit/Acclaim, too. And going back a bit further, I liked the Lancer and LeBaron GTS.

lemko

Heck, just think of it as a shrunken R-body! :P

lemko

The Imperial would look more like a shrunken R-Body New Yorker/Fifth Avenue if you consider the back end:

ab348

My dad's last car was a Dynasty, and I also had one as a rental for a week in Florida, replacing a Taurus that hit a road snake on the Interstate between Orlando and Tampa and ruptured a gas line (now there's a story).

Driving it back to back with the Taurus, it definitely came out second-best. Dad's was the same - soft, floaty, no fun at all to drive. I have driven some bad cars in my day and this was right up there witht he worst of them in terms of dynamics.

I had a few Spirits as rentals back then and my recollection is that they weren't all that bad - sort of a K-car refined and grown up.

andre1969

Driving it back to back with the Taurus, it definitely came out second-best. Dad's was the same - soft, floaty, no fun at all to drive. I have driven some bad cars in my day and this was right up there witht he worst of them in terms of dynamics.

I wonder if that comes from them trying to engineer a big-car feel into a small-ish car, something that rarely, if ever works? Ford tried that with the Granada/Monarch in '75, and supposedly the result put car handling back a good 20 years. And GM has tried it with various versions of the FWD C/H/G body. I remember the first time I drove my grandmother's cousin's '89 Coupe DeVille, my first thought was, if they're gonna make it handle worse and float more than the mastodons it replaced, what was the sense in downsizing?

Back in the early 90's, I remember test driving a used '87 Cutlass Supreme sedan, a Dodge Dynasty, and an Eagle Premier. I liked the Cutlass for its 307 V-8, full-frame construction, and throwback simplicity, but of the three, I liked the way the Premier handled, and the comfort of the interior the best. I really don't remember much about the Dynasty, except that it gave roughly the feel of the Cutlass, with a bit less shoulder room, and probably worse reliability/durability.

but in the end, I didn't think any of them were good enough to get me out of my '68 Dart!

hpmctorque

Road snake? Never heard of that species of reptile.

ab348

A strip of tread that detached from a truck tire.

hpmctorque

Thanks for explaining. I may be the only one on Edmunds that hadn't heard that referred to as a "road snake," but the good news is that I learned new term.

lemko

...dark blue 1970 Chevelle SS convertible with white stripes, top, and Ralleye wheels on Rising Sun Avenue near Comly in NE Philly.

fintail

Early crossover

Cheapskate's car

Not "Lexus"

Some people over-detail their cars for sale, and then others...

"Elegant Survivor"

Cheaper than anything else with this claim

Kind of heavy handed wagon

Andre-mobile getting bids

Sport Wagon

The 80s

Barn find...look at that AC unit

Overdone

"Hemi"

"Sporty"

Lemko-mobile

Wacky

Pricey early muscle

Malaise muscle

Kinda cute

It'll eat you alive

Woody

French style, and now legal

Mr_Shiftright

$4500 for an AMC Concord? :surprise:

Well just scrape my jaw right offa that floor!!

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75 Cadillac Eldo --- whoa, WHOA! Let's back up here a bit, Jethro. Now yer sayin' that Elvis buys 14 Cadillacs in one day, and this is one of them, and then he gives this very car to his father Vernon in late 1975.

Okay. Now Vernon dies in 1979 and Elvis dies in 1977. But....the car has 52,000 miles on it......AND you have no title for it.

So run this by me again, slowly. How exactly does this become "Elvis's car?"

----------------------------------------------------

1955 Rolls -- you know, corrosion blisters on a coach-built aluminum body might be a little more than Miracle Auto Body is willing to tackle. And really, aside from the fact that the paint is micro-blistered, the heater doesn't work, the interior has a mysterious foul odor in it, and it doesn't start when cold, and the left fender is dented and it leaks oil----hey, she's ready to roll.

Too bad---1955 was when Rolls was...well, not a GOOD car...but a swell car.

-------------------------------------------------------

andre1969

nice crop of cars there, and I'm seeing a lot that I wouldn't mind having. I like both that '75 Delta 88 and the '76 LeSabre coupe. A lot of people probably find that '74-76 hardtop roofline to be awkward, but somehow I think it manages to work.

I really like that '59 Pontiac ambulance. I saw a '61 similar to it in the junkyard back in the early 90's, and thought wow, that would be a cool car to have! I bet it would cost a fortune to restore!

And that '79 5th Ave is really nice. I think if a really nice R-body NY'er or 5th Ave ever pops up for sale locally, or at the Carlisle shows, I might go ahead and buy it...provided the price is not TOO unreasonable. It'd be cheaper in the long run than trying to fix up either one that I have right now! There's no way either of mine could be made to look that nice for $6250! But then, at the same time, if anything happened to either of mine, I wouldn't cry too much. But I'd have a fit if I had one that nice, and something happened to it!

As for that cheapskate Concorde, I'll say! With only 17K miles, the original owner was too cheap to even drive it! And if the current owner really got 26 mpg out of it, he must have been hyper-miling like crazy, drafting tractor trailers, etc... That car just looks like a punishment to me. It's the type of car that if a relative offered to give it to me, I'd probably politely decline. Someone did offer to give me a '75-76 Hornet wagon back in the early 90's, and I refused. I helped them get it to the junkyard though, where they got $90 for it!

lemko

The Olds Ninety-Eight is exactly the kind of car I would go for. It even has the 403 V-8 I want. I also like the 1976 Buick LeSabre and the 1959 Pontiac Ambulance would be a cool project for somebody who really has the money and isn't expecting any return on it.

Those Cadillac wagons were built by the same companies that build hearses and ambulances: S&S, Hess & Eisenhardt, Miller-Meteor, etc. That wagon looks like they somehow grafted the back end of a contemporary Chevrolet-Pontiac-Olds-Buick wagon onto a Cadillac Deville and somehow mounted the taillamp pods onto the flat surface of the GM wagon. That wagon would look a lot nicer if one ditched the skirts.

oregonboy

That poor red and white fintail looks like it ran away from home to join the circus and raised by a family of clowns. :surprise:

ab348

Between the '76 Lesabre and the '75 Delta 88 coupes, I like the Olds better if only for the engine - you need a 455 in a big boat like that, and the Buick 350 was overmatched in '76 even in their lighter cars. I also find the white interior in the Buick odd in that only the seats are white, and everything else, even the door panels, is black. Strange. The red inside the Olds is a bit much, but appropriate for the period.

I like that R-body New Yorker too but I think you wouldn't be able to drive it much before it started to deteriorate. Those cars weren't known for their quality materials and robust build quality. That is as nice a one as I've seen in a long time.

The '77 98 is reminiscent of many past cars that I've owned ('78 Delta 88 and '79 Electra) or test-driven -- I tried several 98s of that era back about 10 years ago, including one in that exact color. Good cars, though again, they don't generally hold up well in terms of things like interior trim.

andre1969

Between the '76 Lesabre and the '75 Delta 88 coupes, I like the Olds better if only for the engine

If the cars were equipped identically and the same color, I would've gone for the Buick in heartbeat, as I love the dash, and the overall style of the front-end and rear. I drove a '75 or '76 LeSabre with a 350 about 20 years ago, and it seemed fine, but I didn't have much to compare it to! I'm sure my opinion would be different today! Plus, I know what a '76 LeMans is like with a 350, and a '79 NY'er with a 360. Neither one is much to write home about, and I imagine that LeSAbre is around 400-500 lb heaiver. IIRC, the base weight of my '76 LeMans was 3870 lb, and the NYer is 3850. I guess I could get three passengers to pile into the LeMans or the NYer, and see what it does to performance, and that might be a rough approximation of that 350 LeSabre!

I like the white/burgundy combo on that Olds alot, plus the fact the interior is cloth. And, I also think that Buick's interior is odd, with the white-only seats and black everything else. That's not the first time I've seen that on cars with white seats though, so I guess that's how they did it? And the 455 is the icing on the cake, so yeah, if forced to choose between those two, I'd take the Olds, hands-down!

I like that R-body New Yorker too but I think you wouldn't be able to drive it much before it started to deteriorate. Those cars weren't known for their quality materials and robust build quality. That is as nice a one as I've seen in a long time.

I've had my '79 5th Ave about 9 years now, and put around 11,000 miles on it. It had around 85K when I bought it, and up to around 96K now. It actually hasn't deteriorated too much in that time. The leather in the driver's seat is a bit more cracked, and the plastic covering for one of the courtesy lights in the door fell off. And the badge that says "New Yorker" over the trunk lid fell off a few years back.

It has three rusty areas, but they haven't spread much. One thing that's really starting to look bad though, is the landau roof. I might look into getting that replaced soon. And I'm sure you're right, that if I bought that pristine '79 5th Ave, it wouldn't be long before something fell off.

I know this is kind of an odd thing to notice, but on that '77 Olds 98, it looks like the back windows roll down a bit further than they did on the '80 and up C-bodies. Lemko, could you confirm or deny that? I know the back windows on the B-bodies didn't go down quite as far as the C-, and I think their travel was reduced a bit for '80, as well. Overall it's probably not a huge difference, I'd guess maybe an inch at most, between the best of them and the worst.

fintail

I didn't think of it that way, good one! I like the tires though, I think after I get the cooling system issue on my car solved, new tires will be coming. It's been more than 10 years, I can justify it.

Regarding the old land yachts I posted, I have to say I like that 98 the most too. Right engine, period but inoffensive colors.

lemko

Well, comparing my 1989 Cadillac Brougham to the 1979 Buick Park Ave and 1979 Olds Ninety-Eight, I believe the older cars' rear windows did go down further. That's going back over 20 years, so my memory is a little hazy.

andre1969

maybe we'll see some nice 70's barges tomorrow at Carlisle!

ab348

I agree with your reasoning on the Buick vs. Olds question - the Buick is better styled inside and out and I like the look much better, but I drove a '76 Regal with that engine and couldn't believe how gutless it was.

The same seller has a number of other interesting cars for sale down there in Lakeland. I encountered this one last week and fell in love with it:

'67 Pontiac Executive

The only thing that would make it better for me would be if it had a different color interior than black. Beautiful car though.

texases

...three guesses where they got this logo (it's good, btw):

fintail

Saw a few oddities lately. Mint highline 67 Camaro convertible, black on black, early MGB with wire wheels and hardtop, ca. 1980 Corolla 2 door sedan. MB C126, 2x W126, red 560SL

stickguy

looks like the screaming chicken off the hood of a '70s trans Am

Mr_Shiftright

A really clean Datsun 510 coupe, one of my very favorite cars and a very rare sight---as most have either rusted away or been smashed up racing in SCCA, where they were (are?) very popular cars to track. It was billed as the "poor man's BMW" which has now become ironic, since a clean one would cost you about the same as a clean 2002.

texases

Yep, just add hops:

kyfdx

'86-'89 model.... in the parking lot at work.. Dark gray... WOW!

uplanderguy

I am certain that '67 Executive was for sale at Hershey in 2009 for $14K. It's a beautiful car, and I like that you really don't see Executives nearly as often as Catalinas or Bonnevilles, but that long wheelbase of the Executive adds an ungainly look to the car. The Ventura option on the Catalina had the identical interior and external trim (and I mean identical), but was on the shorter Catalina wheelbase so to me looked better-proportioned.