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Thinking of the cars in my family when I was growing up - leviathan T-Bird, Horizon, Blazer, Ciera, Tempo, Tauri, Caravan, etc - nothing I want to revisit.
Of that bunch, I think one of those big T-birds might not be bad, although I'd much prefer the Mark IV. And for some twisted reason, I kinda have a soft spot for the Ciera. I think it was my favorite of those FWD A-bodies. But, I dunno if I'd want one. Maybe if some family member had a nice one they wanted to give away, or unload cheap, and I needed a car?
In a sort of way, I've almost revisited the first two brand-new cars my Mom owned. Her first new car was a '66 Catalina convertible, and her second was a '75 LeMans coupe. I ended up with almost the same thing, just a year later ('67 and 76).
Mom's very first car was a 1957 Plymouth, so I guess with my '57 DeSoto, I've come close to revisiting that, too. Her second car was a pink and black 1959 Rambler wagon, and I refuse to go down that road. :P
My grandparents' had a plum '67 Impala Sport Coupe that I was pretty fond of. Unfortunately, they got rid of it to buy the first new Vega (a sedan, no less) our dealer got in!
My Dad's youngest sister had a new navy blue '65 Corvair Monza hardtop coupe, powerglide with the 95 (ugh) hp engine though. Looked nice even with blackwalls and full wheel covers.
My older sister and husband lived in our town and I can remember them having a white over light turquoise 4-door '65 Dodge Coronet 440, '69 Chevelle Malibu, bright red, a new '73 Chevelle Deluxe 6-cyl. wagon (dark brown), a used '73 International Travelall and used '74 Pontiac Catalina, a new '75 Buick Century Special coupe with the Buick road wheels (bought from the parts dept.), a new Dayglo orange '76 Vega Kammback (I liked it), and after that... I can't remember. I was in college.
My brother-in-law's parents, also from our town, I remember having a '61 Pontiac Bonneville 4-door, white; a white over maroon '64 Catalina 2-door hardtop, and a black vinyl top over maroon '65 Grand Prix, which I just loved to death. Then, they had a dark green '70 LeSabre coupe, Buick road wheels, and a '74 LeSabre coupe, just wheel covers but a copper color, and after that, I can't remember.
My mom had her coolest cars (61 Impala convertible, Ford retractable, Beetle with a Porsche engine) before I was born. Same for my dad with a couple of Crown Vics, 58 and 60 Pontiacs, 67 Galaxie convertible, etc.
My maternal grandparents had a few midrange Chrysler and Olds cars, and my grandfather still worked then, company cars usually Toyota. My paternal grandparents always had a small fleet - a car, van/motorhome, and truck - all mostly GM, but my grandmother did have a Pinto which I vaguely remember. Coolest relatives cars I recall were an aunt and uncle who had a T-top Fox Mustang, and the aunt won a "Comutacar" in a contest, I thought it was amazing, when I was about 5 years old.
Yeah, same with my parents. Mom had the '57 Plymouth, '59 Rambler, and '66 Catalina convertible before I was born. She still had the convertible after I was born, but got rid of it when I was about two years old, so I don't remember it. The earliest I can remember is the '68 Impala 4-door hardtop my grandparents swapped her for the Catalina, and then they traded it on a new '72 Impala 4-door hardtop.
Then came the '75 LeMans, which I thought was ugly. Then her '80 Malibu, which I liked a lot, and it became my first car. Then, her '86 Monte Carlo, which also got handed down to me, and the last car that was really "hers". After that, she and my stepdad started carpooling together, so instead of his and hers cars, it would just be "theirs".
As for my Dad, his first was a '64 Galaxie 500 hardtop with a 390. Then a '63 Impala SS409 with the 425 hp setup. He sold that when he got drafted. When he got out, he got a '65 Impala SS396 with the 425 hp. That threw a rod on a lonely country road in 1971, and he just left it, abandoned. The first car I can remember him having was a 1962 Corvette that was pretty trashy. That followed with a '64 GTO that was also ratty. Then a '64 Galaxie 4-door that my Granddad got for him to use, so he'd quit driving my Mom's cars and leaving her stuck with a stick shift she couldn't drive.
It is kinda sad how, as the years went by, the cars just got less and less exciting.
Classic Ford Thunderbird Is Darling of Car Thieves
Right there holds just about every automotive styling cliche of the 70's:
T Tops
Landau Roof
Opera Windows
Pin Stripes
Rally Wheels
White Stripe Tires
Side Vents
Hood Ornament
Hood long enough to sleep on
Trunk big enough for 3 dead mobsters
Ah the good old days.....
My mother's car was virtually identical to this - probably not much theft risk there:
If anything, these lists show how much better cars age nowadays. It's still hard for me to imagine cars worn out at 10 years old or less.
I remember a fellow I worked with (pre-airbag days) telling me he liked long hoods.... The longer, the better.
He would say that, in a head-on collision, you could watch the hood crumpling up accordion-style and had time to step out of the passenger compartment before the damage got that far back...
They're showing it at the Detroit Auto Show.
Maybe a Barrett Jackson Trailer Queen being bid on by two drunken multi millionaires with more money than brains.
Actually a Chevy like that would bring more than that Continental. They don't have that strong of a following and weren't really all that great mechanically.
And they were very complex and parts would be VERY hard to find.
Me, I would take the Chevy!
I once read that the 56-57 Continentals were the darling of a lot of Movie Stars at the time.
They were good looking but troublesome.
Then 1958 rolled along and things REALLY went downhill!
I think my Mom's 1986 Monte Carlo was about $14.5K, out the door. It was a base sport coupe, with crank windows, but at least had the 305, a/c, two-tone paint, nice stereo, etc.
On the surface, it sounds like you don't get much for your money nowadays, but I bet that $14.5K in 1986, adjusting for inflation, would be around $30K today! :surprise:
My Dad's '84 Monte, 305, 55/45 front seat, AC, cruise, tilt, AM-FM, rear speaker, rally wheels, monotone paint stickered at the bottom at $11,409.00. I remember that distinctly. It was built in Arlington, TX. It was what I'd have called 'firethorn', but by then I think Chevy was just calling it "light maroon" or something like that. Matching interior in cloth.
In my memory, nobody paid sticker back then, and I know Chevy trades brought more than they often do now.
Well, now that I think about it, my Dad did pay sticker, but was allowed $5,300 for his 1980 Monte Carlo, six, no air, 26K miles. My sister and her husband wanted it but couldn't pay that much so Dad traded it in and a guy about six blocks away bought it, and he had it for several years after we did. He also had a '79 or '80 El Camino as I recall.
Dad always dealt at Dart Chevrolet-Cadillac, 15 S. Water St., Greenville, PA. The '84 would have been his sixth new car (bought one used there too many years before). I bought two new cars there myself--my first two new ones. They closed in '91 after 55 years--well, they sold out then. Now, the only dealers in town are a Ford dealer and a Chrysler-Dodge dealer.
It also had the tilt wheel and cruise, and the stereo had the little 5-band equalizer. Oh, and it had pinstripes. Dunno if they were standard when you got 2-tone paint or not.
It was a pretty sharp looking car in its day, but I don't think anyone ever thought to take a picture of it when it was newer. I don't think I ever took a picture of it directly, although after it got wrecked, I had my grandmother take a picture of it with me hanging out the window, fake blood spilling down the side, like I was dead. She protested, but took it anyway. It was a pretty bad pic, but I'll have to see if I can dig it up.
I'm late posting this, but your Dad had a '62 Corvette and a '65 Impala SS? Two of my very favorite '60's Chevrolets, for absolute certain!
Dad had more than a few cool cars; 1965, 1967, and 1970 Mustangs, a 1970 Torino GT(with shaker hood and Laser Stripes), and a 1986 Mark VII LSC.
As for nostalgia and cars, sometimes the memories do match up with the actual experience. My wife and I like driving my 1975 2002 as much if not more than her 2009 328i. The only thing that keeps us from driving it more than we already do is its lack of A/C.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
The frequency of complaints went way down. Sure they exist but there are far fewer complaints than Dodge, for example.
It was me and I'd agree. Don't know if those issues are corrected with the new Accord, but the previous v6 models with VCM can develop oil burning issues as my dad's has. He basically blew an engine at 80K miles. Honda covered it for him, but it appears it's still burning oil. (He's not the type to check the oil, so he basically let it run out. Plus it had plug fouling issues prior to the engine failure).
From the research I've done. The oil burning issue with Honda's 3.5 seems to affect the Accord more than any other vehicle and then it seems to be those cars that are driven in a manor where the VCM is most active (my dad drive nearly 30k/yr). The general theory seems to be the minivans and SUVs simply can't run with the cylinders shut down as often.
Basically we're still talking small numbers of problems as most Accords (80% or so) don't have the v6.
I just don't believe an Edmund's forum is an accurate sample of data. Okay 2000 posts which are likely from a few hundred different posters on a vehicle that's sold probably 700+k since '05 and has over 48k posts overall. I doubt GM has a vehicle with anywhere near that many posts.
Here's some scientific data for you;)
Odyssey: 2400 trans posts out of 48,699 total posts or basically 5%
GMC Acadia: 449 trans problem posts of 3449 total or 13%. I guess the Acadia has a higher percentage of trans problems;)
I think over 2K posts about a problem can't be sloughed off, either, though.
I was told here I shouldn't slough off 78 comments.
I know what I posted is meaningless, that was my point.
Two things...
First, the Dodge threads are also over 2k comments for trans issues.
Second, 2003 and prior Odys indeed had a high frequency of problems, and I bet the majority of those posts are for older vans.
They're not perfect, but they're much better than before.
The problem now is different - they're ugly!
This flaw (which, if I recall correctly, involved insufficient lubrication of a key component), was corrected after 2004. But 2005-07 Odysseys did have problems with the torque converter, which can be solved with a software reflash.
The oil consumption issues are with the variable-displacement V-6s. It is my understanding that there was a flaw in the castings for the cylinders that leads to high oil consumption.
And the Odyssey is good at being what it's suppose to be, am minivan. If only GM or Ford could have made a minivan remotely as nice. Ford's last minivan wasn't reliable, wasn't good looking, and was nasty on the inside too.
GM hasn't been much better. The parents of my daughter's best friend have an 08 or so Uplander and I've been in it and see it all the time. YUCK! Only one reason to buy one of those is price IMO. Probably why they're not made anymore.
GM built the Lambdas instead, a strong effort. Not a van, but at least a good vehicle resulted.
True, I read originally GM considered a minivan variant off the lambda platform.
Yeah, I know someone that had a Windstar under the rear axle/frame rust recall. His was so bad Ford bought the van from him instead of trying to fix it.
Yet you (or somebody here) is always citing "how many" posts there are about Hondas.
So are we all agreeing once and for all that the number of complaint posts on any vehicle is not really evidence of much?
Well my Acura TL was built in 2004 and is at 130K with no transmission problems. But it is an '05 model.
I've driven a Traverse as a rental. I'm sure it wasn't a very high line model, but I was unimpressed. It was large yet seemed not to have a ton of storage for its size (perhaps I'm used to our older Odyssey). The dash and door plastics were chintzy.
My buddy just got an Enclave and it's a real nice ride for its class.
Can't believe that Chrysler is trying to redefine a signature feature of the minivan.
"Chrysler Group LLC says it will continue to produce "people carriers" for the Dodge and Chrysler brands at its minivan factory in Windsor, but CEO Sergio Marchionne said only one will have sliding doors.
"We're going to be present with both brands in the people-carrier business. (But) we're only going to have one with a set of sliding doors," he told reporters at the North American International Auto Show. "Both of them will come out of Windsor."
Chrysler to tweak minivan design (Detroit News)
I don't care how stunning gull-wings doors are. They won't work in my garage. :P
Power sliding doors are a gift from above. They're my favorite feature by far, and you'd have to give that up.
SUVs have really marginalized minivans. GM and Ford completely exited the segment, Hyundai and Kia are half out now. Toyota and Honda still build them but I don't see them marketed much. And Nissan...well, they're Nissan.
There's actually 4 major competitors, even though the Mazda5 is smaller...and they don't market it much either, sales of that here are just gravy.
I agree, cannot imagine anyone buying a mini-van without them. I did not realize they still built mini-vans that do not have sliding doors.
It's actually Dodge's best selling car by a long shot (excluding pickups, which are now Rams anyway).
Town & Country is #2 for Chrysler.
They'd be crazy to mess with them too much.
Yeah...so? What's your point? :shades: