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

andre1969

Yeah, Uplander hit me up a couple days ago. He still can't get online.

fintail

Out on the damp melting snow roads today, a white 75-76 Sedan DeVille.

explorerx4

Has anyone been to this car museum?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO6EoGnrW-8

uplanderguy

I’m back on after about a couple weeks.

I was at that Dayton Packard museum probably 25 years ago. I enjoyed it. There are two national Packard clubs, and two Packard museums in Ohio. I’ve been at the one in Warren more often.

uplanderguy

fin, you may have guessed, I was chomping at the bit when you posted the pic of the Seville door, to be a smart-*** and say, "Looks like a '63 Studebaker Lark door to me!". LOL

If anyone here might be remotedly interested, I posted a pic on the 'Postwar Studebakers' page just now, of a '56 Packard Caribbean that was sold new at my hometown dealer, and also posted pics of the "CARL E. FILER CO." signage from the building as it survives in the loft of the barn of their former home. The current owner had me over to see it last Monday.

uplanderguy

RE.: Packard museums and clubs--seems I'd heard years ago that the one club broke off from the other for some reason. The combined memberships didn't equal the Studebaker Drivers' Club, although of course for reasons well-known, that club's membership has fallen from a high of 13K to less than 10K. It had been the largest single-marque car club. We are lucky to have the Archives, which includes Packard items like blueprints for periods much-before the Packard buyout. I could spend days in the Archives at South Bend, although going there without a specific thing to research is frowned upon for obvious reasons, LOL.

imidazol97

20 plus years old. No flaws on the car. Rims, gas door area, rocker all looked great. Black was only offered one year iirc. 2001 or 2002.

andre1969

I saw a final-gen LeSabre as well this morning, while out running errands. It was a fairly base model ("Custom?") with plastic hubcaps, but looked lovingly preserved.

thebean

Welcome back @uplanderguy!

uplanderguy

Thanks ‘bean, appreciated!

tjc78

@imidazol97 said:
20 plus years old. No flaws on the car. Rims, gas door area, rocker all looked great. Black was only offered one year iirc. 2001 or 2002.

I don’t think I ever realized the LeSabre didn’t come in black.

tjc78

For the GM guys … Legit Street Cars obtained a 1992 Cutlass International Series with the 3400 / 5 spd.

Very rare car. Cool videos to watch.

That was a really nice car. I had a ton of seat time in my buddies essential identical Grand Prix GTP although his was an auto. It was a very quick car for the times also.

The Olds version to me just has something over the Grand Prix.

Check out the videos if you get a chance

uplanderguy

When they came out, I liked the '88 Cutlass Supreme SL a lot. Weirdo me, I liked that it could be had with a 55/45 (60/40?) front bench seat with folding center armrest, and column shift. I liked the fastback styling and large quarter windows.

That reminds me....my best high-school buddy and his wife had the sedan version of that era Cutlass Supreme....followed by a Grand Prix sedan...followed by two of the last-generation Impalas. They joke that if they bought it, it will be discontinued. (They have a '23 Traverse now.)

Michaell

Spotted today … a pale yellow E-Type roadster, with the top down.

(Almost 70 here today)

stickguy

we almost hit 20! Just another day in paradise, where the wind speeds were higher than the ambient temp!

imidazol97

@stickguy said:
we almost hit 20! Just another day in paradise, where the wind speeds were higher than the ambient temp!

Sympathy. Spring is on the way.

stickguy

Prove it. I’m skeptical.

andre1969

It's in the 40s here today, and I think for the most part, our really cold weather is behind us. At least, nothing major on the 15 day forecast. Isn't the Midwest supposed to get slammed with another major snow storm soon, though?

tjc78

Cool pic.

texases

A bit surprised how few colors there are, lots of white, gold/beige, some black, not much else.

explorerx4

In the back row, fourth car from the right doesn't appear to be a Cadillac.

andre1969

I think that non-Cadillac is a '63 Oldsmobile Starfire.

explorerx4

@andre1969,
I think you nailed it. Thx.

texases

Just ran across this, good display:

tjc78

The high rate of green in the mid 90s is 100% on point. Hunter Green over Beige with gold lettering was everywhere. Mopar did it the best IMO.

fintail

I recall a friend's mom bought a new 96 Civic in green with gold emblems/badges - always amused me as it seemed to be pretending to be an Acura or Lexus. MB dealers could do the gold badging too, although I suspect most often maybe limited to some cities or regions.

kyfdx

We leased a '97 Accord, and the gold badges came in a dealer installed package that included a rear spoiler. But, the badges were in the trunk, and we asked them not to put them on. Oh, yeah, the color was eucalyptus.

laurasdada

My (company car) Dodge Intrepid was green, a common color back in that day for the model. No gold, other than the 6lbs of chains around my neck.

andre1969

When I bought my 2000 Intrepid, they offered two greens. I forget what they were called, but one was a really attractive dark forest/emerald type green. The other was a washed-out light green that almost looked gray, depending on how the light hit it.

I tried to get the dealer to locate a dark green one for me, but they could not find a single one in stock, in the area. They did find one of the light grayish-green ones though, about an hour away in Virginia. But I was like meh on it. So, I just took the silver one that I had test-driven, and got them to throw in a 12-disc CD changer.

explorerx4

Back in the late 90's/early 2K's, I used ot see a lot of Camry's with gold badging.

fintail

It was a huge Lexus thing, might be hard to find some models around 1995 without it.

texases

Fortunately my '96 ES300 was pretty base, no gold, no sunroof, but did have the CD changer and leather.

fintail

I remember even the early LS could be had without leather, I have only seen a couple cars with cloth.

andre1969

That's one thing I miss in cars, the option of getting an upscale, luxury cloth/velour fabric, rather than just defaulting to leather. And nowadays, the standard fabric in many cars often looks like the same stuff they'd use on outdoor lawn furniture.

uplanderguy

Not to mention, andre, choice of a bench seat and column shifter, with fold-down center armrest. Those usually felt better to me than a console lid, and I like the sensation of roominess without your knee hitting a console. I also like the ability to slide out the right door, the ability of the front passenger being able to hit the pedals in case of an emergency with the driver (think more of that now that I'm gettin' old!), and in a crunch, literally, the ability to put a third passenger there, even if for a short ride. Even those last Rivieras offered cloth and a bench seat if you wanted it--not that many did.

fintail

Out on the road late this morning I saw a NUMMI Nova in decent shape, and an Achieva.

fintail

andre1969 said:

That's one thing I miss in cars, the option of getting an upscale, luxury cloth/velour fabric, rather than just defaulting to leather. And nowadays, the standard fabric in many cars often looks like the same stuff they'd use on outdoor lawn furniture.

That makes me think of my uncle's 86 Taurus L - a now very unusual early car. I recall it had a cloth interior that wasn't as plush as many in the era, definitely plainer than our Tempo GLX. It was a very low pile cloth, which might have been a sign of things to come, to match the rest of the car. At the time it made the car seem more "modern" vs typical cloth interiors of the period, which generally were a high quality feeling velour, or crossing the line into bordello territory.

Modern cloth interiors are even a step plainer than that Taurus, as you mention, almost seeming kind of coarse. I recall that car for its spec - disc wheelcovers reminiscent of a basic Euro W126, no AC, manual windows, but V6 and had at least the midgrade stereo (cassette). I was pretty impressed with it at the time, it seemed so modern.

uplanderguy

On the "Low Miles, No Miles" FB page, 41K miles...'94 Lumina. There's something about the cut of the rear door I never liked, and at the time to not have an airbag was a negative, but in hindsight, at least it doesn't have the stupid-looking steering wheels those early airbag cars had. I would really like this car in coupe version now.

Nice bench seat. I used to not be crazy about the instrument panels in these, but I do like that they avoided the digital instrumentation that was so prevalent then.

I liked the traditional Chevy three taillights on each side, and that you could delete the spoiler for credit, which I would've done. A friend always called that spoiler "the upside-down Frisbee", LOL.

Like I said, if this were a coupe, I'd like it better. As I always say, I think 'simple' ages best.

andre1969

I had sort of a love-hate relationship with that generation of Lumina sedan. On one hand, I loved it because it was a bit bigger than the Celebrity it was supposed to replace. But I hated that some of the details seemed a bit awkward, and I swear the interior packaging wasn't as good. For instance, I always found these to be tight on legroom up front. And I think they managed to lose a bit of trunk volume, compared to the Celebrity.

I also loved the generous use of glass. But I think they went a bit too far, making the side windows look almost TOO tall in relation to the rest of the car. And I liked the 3 taillights, but there's just something about the way the outboard taillight curves around that makes it look awkward to me. My old '80 Malibu had the outboard taillight curve around to the side as well, but I think it worked better, because it was more squared off.

Also, on my Malibu, all three taillights were the same width, or at least appeared to be at a quick glance. On the Lumina, when you view it from the rear, the outer lights almost look more like a side marker light than a true taillight.

I think it looks okay when you view it from the back, as well as the side, but at an angle, it just looks awkward to me.

But, like many things, my attitude has softened in my older years, and I think I like that car more now, than I did when it was newer. I used to hate the interior, but now looking at it, I don't mind it. It still looks cramped for legroom though, and with the way the front wheel wells intrude, there's not much foot space. It's also interesting that, for a FWD car, that center hump seems pretty big.

uplanderguy

I've got stubby legs with long torso. I remember the Lumina coupe seeming a bit tight on headroom, and sitting in the back seat, I felt it had pretty good legroom for a coupe but the seats were low. I was reminded of sitting on cushions on a bleacher in high school.

This car was for sale in 2019 down the road from me. I absolutely loathe the wheel covers, but like that it's a Euro and has spoiler-delete option. I remember it had 117K miles but no price noted. It's a '90.



I bought a new '89 Beretta GT, but wish I'd have waited for the Lumina coupe. I like the size much-better.

uplanderguy

Back to early Taurus...I remember when I first rented one. The styling did nothing for me, and I think it was probably the first larger domestic to go with lack of brightwork inside (sigh). That said, I remember being impressed with the rear-seat room, and that it had a rear-seat center armrest, one of the things back-in-my-youth that meant 'luxurious'.

texases

Those big windows remind me of this-era Accord, LOTS of visibility:

kyfdx

That was the best Accord. 1990-1993

Michaell

kyfdx said:

That was the best Accord. 1990-1993

I had a '93 Accord, and I concur. Though, mine was a DX trim and minimally equipped.

Had a stick shift, however.

uplanderguy

That rear-door cutout is similar, for sure.

Seems the Accord isn't as large as a Lumina, be that good or bad.

Michaell

uplanderguy said:

That rear-door cutout is similar, for sure.

Seems the Accord isn't as large as a Lumina, be that good or bad.

It's not, but it was big enough for my needs.

andre1969

I seem to recall the '90-93 Accord having a front seat position that was pretty low, but it had really good fore-aft travel, so it could accommodate a wide variety driver heights. The down side, I guess, is that with the seat all the way back, the back seat would be almost useless, but I always figured the driver's comfort is the most important. My '03 Regal was a bit like that, too.

I even remember the '85 era Accord having good legroom up front. Back in college, one of my friends had one, and I remember riding as a front seat passenger, I could stretch my legs out almost straight.

Even though I tend to prefer bigger cars, I'd also consider the '90-93 to be "Peak Accord." There was a guy at work who had a '94-97 generation Accord, and rode in it alot. I didn't think it was all that comfortable. If I'm remembering right, I think the seating position was higher, but didn't go back as far, so I couldn't really stretch out. I seem to recall the seat cushion being a little short, too.

fintail

I like the Lumina now more than I did when new, maybe as I like the tall greenhouse. I know I have told the story, back in the day when they were new/late model, a friend down the street had one, and I don't think was in love with it. He made a remark that it was the kind of car that all the neighborhood dogs barked at when he drove down the street, which amused me greatly. I recall the raspy period GM exhaust note on those cars. My brother had a 93 Euro sedan in the early 00s, I forget what happened to it, I think hit when parked. I want to say it was replaced by a 93 Sundance Duster. He had that stage where he replaced a car about once a year, mostly bad luck. Some now pretty rare, like the Duster and a 93 Legacy Turbo (stolen).

I like the 4th gen Accord even more now than when new too, and I appreciated them at the time. Peak Accord, nice ergonomics and form follows function styling, I have seen big mileages on those cars, but I think they can rust in harsh environments.

fintail

uplanderguy said:

Back to early Taurus...I remember when I first rented one. The styling did nothing for me, and I think it was probably the first larger domestic to go with lack of brightwork inside (sigh). That said, I remember being impressed with the rear-seat room, and that it had a rear-seat center armrest, one of the things back-in-my-youth that meant 'luxurious'.

When I was a kid, I was really into Euro cars, and most new American cars seemed boring and old to me (but I liked the bustleback Seville even then). My uncle's car had these wheelcovers - I don't know about the blackout slatted grille in this pic, maybe a prepro thing:



I think those wheelcovers were maybe an 86 only thing. Here's a W126 with similar, MB started using a similar wheelcover around 1980 and it lasted into the 90s as a base wheel trim item (never offered in the USDM):

explorerx4

Back in the late 90's, 2 of my neighbors across the street had light green 90-93 Accord station wagons.
They also each had a Golden Retriever.