Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Both look raked.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
That roof treatment on the 89 is the exact one I had on my 89. Same opera lights and logo
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
I was more excited to think that someone stuck a set of Gabriel Hi Jackers on the town car and was driving it around butt high.
You old guys will remember those
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Before my time?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Haven’t seen any of those in decades, they weren’t that common even when new.
We called it a "poor man's hydraulics." People used to ask me if that car could "jump." Eventually one of the shocks blew out, and then I think the plastic air hose broke, and I decided it was time to grow up and put normal shocks back on it!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I'd probably try an online 442 Facebook page, if there's such a thing, and also a national Oldsmobile club website and/or their Facebook page. I actually located, for an acquaintance, her old 1963 Studebaker Avanti with serial number, on the AACA website. It took a year for the response though. She had traded it in in 1966.
I'd be curious if that one is still around, but I have a feeling it met a rough fate. I remember my Dad even telling me that he hit a guardrail with it in the rain. He was driving around with racing slicks on it! He would've been 19 years old when he bought it...probably not the best suited car for a 19 year old male! And it just seems like the kind of car that, back then, would keep losing value as it aged, ultimately fall into the wrong hands, and end up in a brutal crash, thanks to all that power.
After he got out of the Army, he bought a '65 Impala SS. He said it was a 396 with a 425 hp setup. Late one night, it threw a rod, and he just abandoned it on a lonely country road. He also had a '62 Corvette, which I only have the faintest memories of. I've seen pics of it, and it was pretty beat up. He also hit a taxi with it, and tore it up pretty good. And, he had a '64 GTO 2-door post. I vaguely remember him bringing that one home, following him with Mom driving our '64 Galaxie. I was afraid of that GTO, because the exhaust or something was dragging, and it kept showering sparks every time Dad hit a bump! I also remember him running out of gas, picking me up from nursery school, but we were only a few hundred feet from a Shell station.
So, while those other cars would probably be worth something nowadays, they were pretty ratted out, even back then, so I'm sure they ended up junked or parted out. But that '63 Impala SS might have had a fighting chance...provided whomever owned it afterward wasn't as hard on cars as my Dad was!
Man Andre, what a lineup!
In later years though, the cars definitely became more sedate. He got kind of lucky, in a morbid way, that Great Granddad died right about the time Mom and Dad split. Dad was technically car-less, as Mom had her '75 LeMans, and while we also had a '64 Galaxie, I think that was actually in my maternal Granddad's name. He got it for us, so that Dad would stop driving Mom's "good" car so much! And the GTO was gone by then.
Well, Great Granddad had a '71 Ford Torino 4-door sedan. Sort of a light sage green, with a 302. My Dad ended up getting that car, and that was what he had when he left for Florida in '78, after the divorce was final.
Eventually, it threw a rod, just like his old '65 Impala SS. And, just like that Impala, Dad simply abandoned it. When he was in Florida, he went through a procession of beaters. The last car he had, before losing his license for drinking and driving, around late 1986/early 1987, was a 1966 Pontiac Executive. IIRC it was a 4-door hardtop, and dark blue. I never saw it, but he told me about it. Now that's one car I would have LOVED to have seen!
He moved back up here in late 1987, and stayed with Grandmom and Granddad. He eventually got his license back, sometime in the late 90's I believe, but mainly depended on public transportation to get around. Then in late 2003, he bought the '03 Regal that I inherited from him. I remember him saying that, if he had bought something like that Regal, back in his younger days, it would have kept him out of a lot of trouble!
One memory I have, of that '71 Torino, was him leaving me in the car to run into the grocery store. Probably for a pack of smokes. Well, it was raining, and he left the keys in the car, and the wipers on. It stopped raining, and I didn't know how to turn the wipers off, so I asked a lady who was parked next to us, and she turned it off for me. I would've only been like 7 at the time. Back then, it seemed like no big deal, but I have a feeling they'd call child protective services on you for that, nowadays!
A '66 Pontiac Executive? One of my favorite '66 Pontiacs, due to its relative rarity (I know, it's a mainstream GM product, so how rare could it be?
On the child in car thing, I clearly remember it, Christmas 1981 - my brother got a rocking horse toy of some sort, fell off it and had a big cut, so my parents took him to the ER, and my little sister and I waited in the car (the big T-Bird) - alone, with the keys. I know this because I played with the power accessories until the battery drained
Price is rediculous but what caught my eye was how well the big rims seemed to fit the style of it.
https://www.iseecars.com/cars-for-sale?Year_min=1958&Year_max=1958&Make=Buick&Location=54017&_isccid=crt02nd_r&id=100685321284&utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=criteo&utm_campaign=criteo&criteo_campaign_id=358424&adsetid=399615&adid=1603647&utm_id=399615&cto_pld=EHoRxGAwAAAJG_aQbgSfLw#id=100685321284
I don't like the way it's been lowered. Several of the urban cars here are lowered like that yet otherwise I like the way they keep them authentic. Usually the rims and wheel sizes are ridiculous.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I'm sure it has an adjustable airbag suspension.
Ridetech custom air ride suspension
they did have a Nash Metropolitan that was interesting, but I think that was sold before I was born.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
In sightings, at the local Wally World parking lot saw a pristine W140 S420, it was black and the paint was immaculate - someone's baby was out for an errand before the weather got damp again. I wanted to take a pic but decided to do so when I was done shopping, hoping to catch the owner. Of course, it was gone.
Morning coffee. This beauty showed up. I have no idea the year.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Those were kinda neat cars. I didn't know that the cars were built into December '96, normally what would be the '97 model year.
Roadmasters and Fleetwoods were also built at Arlington.
GM decided they'd make more money by converting Arlington to SUV's, so that's what they did, handing off the full-size RWD market to Ford.
Of course, a few years later, Ford made a Marauder out of a Grand Marquis in much the same way GM made an Impala SS out of a Caprice.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2434544136881755
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The main reason GM dropped the B-body was most likely because the 4-door full-sized SUVs were a lot more profitable. However, I also heard that side impact standards had something to do with it. They got stricter for 1997, and the B-bodies, with those low beltlines, large windows, and bodies that protruded over the frame rails the way they did, would not pass the new standards without substantial revisions. I think fuel economy standards had a little to do with it was well. The LT-1 350 B-bodies were EPA-rated something like 17/26 at the time, which was good for a car of that size and power. But it still brought the corporate average for passenger cars down. However, a different standard applied to light trucks, and the Yukon/Tahoe, even though they weren't as efficient as a B-body, didn't sink the truck average.
I believe the A-body Century and Cutlass Ciera also wouldn't pass those new 1997 side impact standards, and that's why they were dropped after '96, even though they were still selling fairly well.
I'd heard of Pinky Randall before. Too lazy to check, but I think his business had been grocery-related. I remember he had either the last, or near-last, '69 Corvair Monza convertible, in a beautiful dark green. I would LOVE to own that car.
We had a '93 Caprice sedan and my wife liked woody wagons. We knew Caprices were going away and she gave me the OK to trade for a new Caprice wagon in '96! I remember seeing two of them in two different dealer inventories at the time, but now I wonder if they might've been '95 leftovers. I'm thinking at this point that neither were woodies. We had a two-year old and our second daughter arrived in June '97 so I decided it would've been a dumb use of money. In late '96 I did buy a new '97 Cavalier 4-door 5-speed that a nearby dealer actually had in stock. They had gotten it for a customer from another dealer, then the customer backed out.
I've read in a place or two over the decades, that taxi operators and some police departments liked those last few years of Caprices with the 350. I didn't love the '91-93 instrument panel, but I hate the '94-96 panel!
I do like that the '96 Impala SS finally got a floor shift and analog gauges.
Brochure photo here. Kind of a nice mix of retro and modern for the time. The Roadmaster absolutely had a better instrument panel, and I think had the glass in the roof, but had the body side moldings that always drooped off the chromed backing piece. That never got fixed the entire run.
I entertained the idea of buying a '96 Caprice, a few weeks before I ended up buying my 2000 Intrepid. It had the LT-1 350, and around 35000 miles, I think. I passed on it, because they wouldn't budge on the price. I think they were asking either $12,860 or $13,860 at the time. For some reason, the 860 sticks in my mind. At the end of the month they did call me, but I didn't answer the phone. They left a message saying they'd be willing to deal. But, I didn't get back to them until a few days later, and by then it was the beginning of the month, and they said I was too late and they wouldn't budge.
Sometimes I kinda wish I had bought it. But, I doubt if I'd still have it now. And if I did, it would be incredibly miled up. The Intrepid had about 150,000 miles on it when it got totaled. The damage to the Intrepid wasn't THAT bad, but because of the poor resale value it was enough to total it. I imagine the Caprice would have held up better if it had been the car that got smacked, but at the same time, being 4 model years older, and with 35,000 extra miles, it might still have been a total.
And even if it wasn't, I probably would have been looking at it as just an old car at that point, so it would have still been a daily driver, and not something I'd try to preserve. I wouldn't have had to buy my 2000 Park Ave when I did, but I ended up putting about 56,000 miles on that car. Plus maybe another 20,000 on the Ram, during the period I did most of my driving with it. So it would've been up to around 260,000 miles by the time I inherited my Dad's '03 Regal. I put about 40,000 miles on the Regal. So, if I had bought that Caprice, and it survived all those extra years, it would be over 300,000 miles easily by now!
I recall being in the cubby office waiting for the saleslady to talk to her GM on our offer and hearing the salesman in the next booth tell someone on the phone that his GM employee discount was about double the good sales pricing that Chevy was running at the time. This was 2014 Feb or March. GM needed to move a bunch of cars.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I'd like to just step into this little film.
https://www.facebook.com/mike.pasut.3/videos/565098883046251
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.