Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!

Strange Cars from the past...

13»

Comments

  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    ...but I think my high school's driver's ed car was a beige 1981 Chevrolet Malibu Classic.
  • bhill2bhill2 Member Posts: 2,471
    When I was in high school in the mid '60s our school decided that it should teach students who were interested how to drive those 'new' 4-on-the-floor transmissions. The local Ford dealer supplied a brand-new Fairlane sport coupe with a 289 and a 4-speed. Sweet Jesus that car was fun to drive. It would have been even more fun if we could have jettisoned the teacher, but he was actually a pretty good guy.

    2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])

  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    ...was a 1978 Dodge Aspen sedan.

    My father took me out for driving lessons in his 1973 AMC Gremlin.

    The late 1970s were not a good time, automotive wise.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,140
    My drivers ed car was a brand new 1993 Dodge Spirit, it had like 1000 miles on it. My school had another drivers ed car as well, a ca. 1980 Ford Fairmont, power blue, and a rep for stalling. I was very glad I got to drive the new car!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    ...but I think my high school's driver's ed car was a beige 1981 Chevrolet Malibu Classic

    Lemko, you're not getting your past mixed up with that movie "Moving Violation", are you? :P They used beige '81 Malibu sedans as the driver's ed cars in that movie. As I recall, one of them got stalled out at a railroad crossing on the tracks, with a train coming. The students got it pushed off the tracks just in time, only to roll it out into an intersection where it got smacked by a semi...

    As for me, I took driver's ed in a 1986 Cutlass Ciera sedan. I remember making a comment that they should have given us '72 Impalas so that it wouldn't matter as much when we banged them up. My instructor was not amused. :P
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,707
    Our were '74 era 4-door LeSabres - talk about a boat!
    image
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,140
    Moving Violations...hilarious.

    That movie is now on DVD, under $10. It's a good laugh, with lots of interesting old cars in it.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,140
    That's a drivers ed car from lemko-land.

    Around here there is a drivers school with a fleet of new Jettas, and another with xBs. I think school-sponsored programs are less common than in my day
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    those outsided '71-76 Buicks are my favorites of the big cars from that mastodon era. I think part of it may be that some cheaper cars, like Fords, Mercurys, Chevie Pontiacs, and even those Royal Monacos with the hidden headlights were just too pretentious, pretending to be something they really weren't, while the Buicks just had a clean, smooth, understated look to them, and almost a bit sporty, for such a big car. In contrast, an Oldsmobile was a bit too conservative, while something like a Cadillac, Lincoln, or Chrysler/Imperial was almost too pompous and in-your-face with its opulence and status.

    I guess I like the fact that the Buicks were upscale and luxurious, but didn't scream "LOOK AT ME!".

    As for Driver's Ed, I've heard that they dropped the school sponsored programs around these parts years ago. I think I got through it just in time. I remember our instructor was some over-the-hill bodybuilder/gym teacher who was just starting to get man-boobs, and looked like he had been left out in the sun too long.

    One thing I'll never forget in Driver's Ed, was coming up to the stop sign at the exit to our school's parking lot. It let out onto a fairly major road, and the first thing I said was something I picked up from my mother... "Is it clear yet?". Mom tended to say that if she needed to pull out onto a road where she was at a bad angle, where I as a passenger could see better than she could. He just looked at me, a bit perturbed, and said "You tell me!"
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,707
    Jettas and xBs - quite a change. Our teacher's favorite thing with the Buick was to get us on a narrow, winding 2 lane, just to see how we'd do. His claim to fame, other than being the metal/woodshop teacher, was that he went to high school with Pete Rose, back when that was something to brag about...
  • kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 236,826
    Western Hills High in Cincinnati... Don Zimmer also went there..

    I'm full of useless information.. :surprise:

    Edmunds Price Checker
    Edmunds Lease Calculator
    Did you get a good deal? Be sure to come back and share!

    Edmunds Moderator

  • fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    Driver Ed. car - a 68 full size Ford.

    I don't remember as much as I might about that car if for no other reason I had been driving for a year already. The only reason I was taking driver ed was to lower the insurance rates. I figured my folks were footing the car and insurance at that point so it was the least that I could do.
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    I remember looking through my Mom's old high school yearbook and they had a 1962 Chevrolet Impala as a driver's ed car. Imagine if it was an SS with a 409! Anyway, Grandpop taught her to drive on a 1961 Plymouth Valiant. The car in which my Dad taught me to drive was his 1978 Ford Granada coupe with the mighty 250-cid inline six.
  • fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    My older brother learned on a 61 Valiant! Wagon.

    I learned on a 67 Pontiac Tempest wagon.
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
  • toomanyfumestoomanyfumes Member Posts: 1,019
    Was "Moving Violations" that movie with Bill... No Brian-Doyle...No John Murray in probably his only movie? If that's it I saw it on cable the other night and the kids and I were cracking up.

    I took driver's ed in around 1982. We had all Chevy's. Chevette(yuck), Malibu's, and Caprice Classics. The Caprice's were nice.
    2012 Mustang Premium, 2013 Lincoln MKX Elite, 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,140
    Yep, John Murray - I don't think I have seen him in anything else either. Really, an underrated and pretty harmless movie, with a few really hilarious scenes.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    For some reason, the only name I remember from that movie was Sally Kellerman. She was a "bad guy", either a crooked cop or judge or something like that.

    Oh, and Clara Peller. I loved that scene towards the beginning where her old lady friend who could barely see picked her up from the airport, somehow ends up out on the runway behind a big jet, and starts laying into the horn and hollering about "those damn buses!"

    There was another movie named "Moving Violation", too, that was a more serious movie about a drifter and a waitress who witness the crooked sherriff kill one of his deputies who wanted a bigger part of the graft. The thing was one car chase/smashup after another, and directed by Roger Corman, so it wasn't THAT serious.

    Interestingly, it had some of the same stunts done in Smokey and the Bandit, right down to a copcar running under a tractor trailer and losing its roof, and a '74 or '75 Delta 88 hardtop with an airbag crashing. The scene looked like it was set up specifically TO deploy the airbags, and it worked. In Smokey and the Bandit, they weren't successful. There, they ran a '74 Delta hardtop into a '77 LeMans, and about all it did was turn the LeMans into a pap smear, while the Delta might've gotten a scratch on its bumper! I read that sometime later, that same Delta was used in a crash test video, which DID deploy its airbags.

    I guess a Delta with airbags must've been pretty rare. I thought it was mainly the more expensive cars that used them, like 98's, Electras, and cars further up the totem pole? I wonder if any LeSabres ever got airbags?
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,140
    Yeah she was a crooked judge, in cahoots with a crooked cop (something Keach) who were plotting to auction the driving school students cars and keep the money. The movie also had Nedra Volz (the old lady friend), Jennifer Tilly and the sister from Back to the Future (cast as a hypochondriac who drove a Pinto), among others I can't immediately recall.

    If you recall, the old lady (Volz) drove an immaculate looking '67 Impala 4 door HT, the airport scene is pretty funny - "damn buses, always in the way" as she honks at a jetliner. There's a scene that takes place in an impound lot that is full of weird cars.

    Those airbag cars seem to be kind of haphazard....were they available on all large cars?
  • 210delray210delray Member Posts: 4,721
    Here are the '74-'76 GM cars with optional frontal airbags:

    Buick LeSabre, Electra, Riviera
    Olds 88, 98, Toronado
    Cadillac Deville, Fleetwood, Eldorado

    These were dual airbags that were designed to protect all 3 front seat occupants (the passenger airbag was huge). The cars did not have shoulder belts, just lap belts. It was thought at the time that airbags could replace shoulder belts.

    IIRC, about 10K cars were equipped with the option -- not a huge number, and you're probably correct in that the more expensive cars were more likely to have them.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    I was in a junkyard in the late seventies when some guys who were trying to remove something from the dash of a wrecked Buick of that vintage accidently set off the air bag.

    These guys had never heard of airbags, and they ran from the car screaming obcenities and shaking their heads which were full of white powder.

    I thought I knew every filthy word in spanish but I heard some new ones that day!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Vasco de Gama!
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Como?

    Ah...those weren't some of the words or phrases that day.

    Actually, it was pretty funny to watch and listen to!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    ¡Dios maldice, acabo de soplar del pinga!
  • la4meadla4mead Member Posts: 347
    Cool little wagons!
  • boinzboinz Member Posts: 1
    I had the privilige of owning this car for a while in AZ. It was supposedly Willy May's originally. This vehicle was a true grand touring 2 + 2. Made in England but powered by a Dodge 440 Magnum with a 4 barrel.

    Fortunately it also had unreal brakes with large swept area... saved my life once.

    In AZ at the time I had trouble getting it serviced... only one shop that specialized in these British cars. But out of the 60 or so cars I have owned... the Interceptor sticks out as the most unusual and dramatic to drive.

    -Bernie
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    edited September 2010
    It's still a car you can buy quite cheap these days. They have a very lukewarm reputation given them by most collectors, for various reasons. The huge heavy engine kills any pretense of being a sports car, ---but that American iron block and transmission means they are easy to maintain. British electrics are, well, British electrics, so you'll have to live with it. Gas consumption is utterly enormous, and bodywork, if needed, is very difficult due to extremely tight or non-existent access to interior panels. Styling is, at best, quirky. You'd think they would be blindingly fast, but they weren't, due to their weight. Good you mentioned those brakes--the car really needed them. Perhaps 0-60 in 7.5 or so, and a top speed of maybe 125. Not a supercar, but actually very well built---good quality.

    For the price of a used Hyundai, you could do a lot worse than this "classic" British-American "hybrid"**

    **"Hybrids" is what we used to call them back in the day. The AC Cobra, Sunbeam Tiger, Pantera, etc. were all regarded as such. Only the Cobra really achieved any kind of prestige or big-buck status.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Sorry but you can't sell anything in the Forums, so I had to remove your post. I'd suggest, for a car like yours, an ad in Hemmings Motor News would be a perfect place.

    But please come in and share your interests and expertise. Just no ads, thanks.

    Mr Shiftright
    Forums Host
This discussion has been closed.

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles