It’s moving season, and one certainly wouldn’t leave one’s 1968 Valiant behind. This one, with California plates and followed closely by a more recent Volvo with a female driver, was being towed over McKenzie Pass heading east. And the U-Haul truck’s slogan Built-In Value! would have been as good of an advertising slogan for these Valiant as any ad agency ever came up with.
Here’s a more in-depth CC look at an almost identical Valiant, right down to the paint color. Or for contrast, a nicer white Signet two-door. Take your pick.
Renting a U-Haul to move your furniture and tow your classic car is actually a very cost-effective alternative to hiring a moving company and paying to have a car shipped. So long as you don’t mind driving a box truck towing a trailer.
The only way to beat it would be to actually just own a classic box truck. Kill two birds with one stone. GM Futurama, anyone?
Given my own experience with U Haul trucks, it would not surprise me if the Valiant on the trailer was part of the rental so that the customer will have some way of towing the rental truck to the nearest repair facility when something fails. It is so much less expensive than dispatching a tow truck. Built-in value, indeed.
Hmm, I drove a Penske rental from Minneapolis to the west coast. We had two of these with 20 ft boxes. Mine had household stuff and the other was full of “house plants”. No problems with either truck. At the boarder I was stopped and asked about the “house plants”. I said they were in the truck behind me. The person with the paperwork for the bonsai plants arrived shortly after. When they took one look at the truck the inspector decided to accept the paper work saying that the plants would probably not cause catastrophic damage to CA’s plant life. It helped that it was about 5:00 PM and time for a shift change.
There’s the difference. Penske sells their trucks after a few years. U-Haul is notorious for keeping theirs 15-20 years or more. They seem to get a new batch of trucks every time there’s another accident-related lawsuit or TV news expose about the decrepit condition of their fleet.
” U-Haul is notorious for keeping theirs 15-20 years or more. They seem to get a new batch of trucks every time there’s another accident-related lawsuit or TV news expose about the decrepit condition of their fleet.” Some of the U-Hauls here in N.E. Ohio have trucks they only rent for short distance use. Not exactly confidence inspiring…
So its sort of like my high school drivers ed class?
Penske must be more like my driver’s ed class. If you grew up in the Houston area in the ’80s, you probably learned to drive in a brand new Oldsmobile. Each semester a new batch would show up at the school and the old ones returned to the dealer that provided them and sold at a nice discount.
We actually had county supplied stripper Tempos that were in various shapes of heapdom, and one nice car that we were never allowed to touch, it was the one they showed the inspector….
Ours were all Cavaliers and Sunbirds, probably about five years old when I took the class but they appeared to still be using the same fleet a couple years later. With one exception–the instructor I had actually used her personal car (fitted with the passenger-side brake bar). ’91 or so Mustang notchback coupe, though with the 4 cylinder. Even had chrome wheels on it. I haven’t the faintest idea why someone would want to subject their personal car to the rigors of training a bunch of high schoolers…tax write-off maybe?
As to the U-Hauls, it depends on your luck. Had one in 2001, based on a tired GMC TopKick, that required service twice in the 24 hours we had it. Didn’t want to fire back up once shut down. Thank goodness we were only going across town.. A couple others have been fine.
I was waiting at the local ford dealership for an oil change on my car last year and I watched a guy drive up in a ford tow truck towing a Mazda 3. I figured the Mazda had the problem and it was being dropped off at the dealer because it was bought there.
But as i observed closer I saw the guy off load the mazda and leave the truck for repair driving off with the mazda. I thought that is pretty cool as you don’t need a ride to or from the dealer and when the truck is repaired you drive up in the Mazda and load it back up and drive off.
I used to own a ’93 F-150. When it needed service, I’d load my motorcycle in the back and unload it in the parking lot, then ride it home.
I put the bike in the minivan, dropped the van off at the shop and rode the other 1.5 miles to work and picked the van up after 5.
I can do the same with the Pontiac Vibe and a bike rack strapped to the back.
Way back in 1967 we were on a 1000 mile mile trip and the U Haul truck threw a recap that was on the front.(in those days rear only, front was a big no-no). It took out the wiring to the turnsignal headlamp area and shorted out the trucks electrical system. In 1996 a family member rented one for a 500 mile trip, the diesel engine locked up at the top of the grapevine. They were headed to San Jose and U Haul wanted to bring another truck which would have had to have been loaded from the other truck. They screamed bloody murder and U haul eventually towed the still loaded truck to where they were moving. Another family member moved from Florida to Washington in a Penske truck this year, no problems at all. And they were also towing their Nissan Altima on a tow dolly.
Perhaps U-Haul has changed its system, but the way they were set up into the 90s was that any truck or trailer that required repair had to be taken by a franchise owner to a regional repair facility, which could be quite a distance away. The local franchise would then be stuck 1) for the cost of transporting the unit for repair and 2) the lost revenue because the unit in for repair would not be replaced. There may have been some sort of delayed partial reimbursement by U-Haul, but I do not recall one way or the other. This set up an incentive for a local operator to play “hot potato” and rent the truck out to someone who would turn it in somewhere else, making it the next guy’s problem.
Paul, it is a nice change to see you actually passing someone as I assume a fully loaded UHaul with a Valiant in tow would not be “Passing You On The Right”
Yes, that’s why we bought the TSX; I got tired of being passed on the right all time. No more!
Oh look, more Californians moving to Oregon.
Sometimes you can buy a used U-Haul with none of the graphics painted over which is kind of cool. Either that or you buy an old one where the logos are bleeding through the cover up paint.
I wonder where they are headed. McKenzie Pass eastbound seems like a very random way to get anywhere if you started out in CA.
I wondered that too. If I had to guess, the came up I-5 and are headed to Bend. And they didn’t know that 97 is a much better way to do that. Or maybe they stopped to visit friends or family in Eugene?
That’s what I was surmising as well. A fairly miserable drive compared to the alternative. If they were moving to Bend I would take 97, unload and then visit the friends next weekend. It’s a lot of extra mileage charges on the U-Haul otherwise. Hey, maybe they were looking for you in Eugene but you were on vacation! Either way, they got their rig featured on CC so all’s well that ends well.
I’ve noticed that a lot of folks will take interstates and avoid two-lane highways, even if it’s a longer (and much less scenic) route. For instance, many here in Eugene heading to Boise and points east will take I-5 up to Portland and then head east on I-84, when going over McKenzie Pass and taking 20 to Boise is not only quicker, but more scenic (Columbia Gorge notwithstanding).
I like the 2 lane roads as much as most others here, but the seemingly endless parade of Mario Andretti wanna-be types crowding my back bumper no matter how much I exceed the speed limit is tiring. Ugh, just give me the interstate.
Used U-Haul? I’d have more confidence in a 2005 model anything that originated at a New Orleans area dealership!
The only thing worse than owning an old U-Haul truck would be owning two old U-Haul trucks. It would about like buying toilet bowls aged out of a highway rest area, and both have been treated about the same.
I have long thought of this generation of Valiant to be attractive. Simple and clean, make mine a slanty and a 3 speed of course.
After all of a long life in California, I hope it is not going to Pennsylvania where it would be doomed to becoming rusty brown flakes in very short order.
Agreed on that Valiant body’s looks. It is clean, almost formal.
The old timers I’ve known who have owned Valiants new seemed to like them much better as good honest transportation than the cars they owned after.
Is “Built in Value” U-Haul’s new slogan? IIRC they used to say “Adventure in Moving”; as if adventure was what you wanted when driving a rental truck. Many years ago I rented a U-Haul truck to move my sister’s belongings for her. It was speed limited to 58 MPH, which was fair enough I suppose as this was when 55 was still the law of the land. However, they accomplished this limit with a simple rpm governor; the poor truck (I think it was a Ford) struggled up to the rev limiter in low, shifted to second and struggled some more, and then shifted into high. It made for a long, slow trip in the middle of the night. I suppose that experience might qualify as an “Adventure in Moving”.
I drove one of the largest gas models U-haul had across country in 2002 from Detroit, MI to Gallup, NM. It was equipped with the HD 350 V8 and three speed auto. Every downgrade would cause the “engine over-rev” light to flash although minus a tachometer it was impossible to tell what RPM was dangerous.
I enjoy driving, I enjoy seeing the country, but this is not an experience I would like to repeat.
Am I the only guy with bad U-Haul experiences? When my mother moved across the state in the late 90s, the U-Haul we got was a big Ford truck from the Carter Administration. My brother in law drove it and was livid at the mechanical condition that it was in, and he was a guy used to driving older heavy trucks. It was really ratty looking and at least ran all the way, but had brake issues crop up on the drive.
You aren’t alone on bad U-Haul experiences. I had the good fortune of being in a 26′ U-Haul while being subjected to an attempted push start by their mechanic all around an upscale neighborhood in Kansas City. My skin still crawls every time I see one.
Nope, same here, never a good UHaul experience. That’s why I made a total of four trips over a course of a few months in three Penske 26footers and a Penske Cube van when we moved ourselves from CA to CO. Every one of the Penskes was clean, new or newish, and a pleasant rental counter experience on both ends. The only time I now rent U-Hauls is when I clean out a foreclosure or crappy property to fix up and have at least one truckload for the dump in a place where a city-delivered dumpster would not be practical or cost effective.
I used to like to rent from Ryder when they were still around before Penske got really established. Ryder was pretty good. I tried Budget a couple of times but they were pretty bad as well.
Penske will usually call you within a day or two of abandoning a reservation online (as long as you get past the screen where you leave your phone number) and offer you at least 10% off the rate of the abandoned quote. This adds up when moving a long distance.
And as always, it is frightening to see that a mere mortal with nothing more than a regular driver’s license is allowed to pilot a fully laden 26-foot truck (with trailer if desired) around the highways and neighborhoods of America.
“And as always, it is frightening to see that a mere mortal with nothing more than a regular driver’s license is allowed to pilot a fully laden 26-foot truck (with trailer if desired) around the highways and neighborhoods of America.”
I just had a flashback to the piece on Africa a few days back. It’s all relative.
I had a few U-Haul adventures in the 1990’s, luckily just local moves. The trucks at the time were late 1970’s Fords with manual transmissions. They were all in execrable condition.
I did get a couple of panicky calls from friends asking me to help them move because they’d gone to pick up the truck and couldn’t drive a standard.
You used to see those ex-U-Haul Fords around town, but they are all gone now. Someone should find one and do a CC…
That’s why I chose to simply sell/donate all my furniture and load my Versa to the roof when I moved to Vancouver. It was a more peasant drive and I don’t mind shopping for ‘new’ furniture at the thrift shops. I’ve had only one good U-Haul experience and that was a local only move.
Over the last year or 2 I rented a U-Haul for a few cross town moves and only had one, remotely bad experience, a small box truck that shimmied at speeds over 40-45 mph. That said, I couldn’t believe the poor gas mileage these small (er) trucks got…in the high single digits.
I owned a 69 Valiant Signet 2 door in the late 70s. I bought it at less than 10 years old for $700. Slant six with automatic, power steering and 4 wheel drum brakes. That car took a fair amount of punishment with hardly a whimper. Sold it on to a female co-worker who was happy to get such a simple and rugged vehicle. Mine? That medium/dark metallic geeen 50% of Mopar products were painted in late 60s to early-mid 70s with 2 bucket type seats in front. Interior was white.
Towing cars must be done by competent crew operators. In the picture we can not know if the Valiant have an automatic or synchromesh gear box, ???
Towing a rear-drive-auto in that way result for totally damage for the gear train
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they removed the drive shaft?
I was hoping it was a Slant 6 with a three-on-the-tree! If it’s a TorqueFlite, and they didn’t disconnect the driveshaft, it’ll be time for a new transmission REALLY soon.
My Versa’s owners manual specifies using a front-dolly when towing for the automatic/CVT. For the manual transmission like mine, it says to stop every 500 miles, start the engine and let it idle for a bit, then repeat after the next 500 miles. I’m guessing to get some oil lubrication somewhere in the innards of the tranny?
Some new automatics can theoretically be towed. I’m not sure I’d trust doing it, though. I think there was an issue with the Ford Escape’s automatic being one that could supposedly be towed, but Ford might have ended up repairing a bunch of them when it turned out early versions didn’t completely have the towing bugs worked out.
Just noticed…that Valiant has the 1968 side marker lights and 1970-1973 taillights.
The 1968 had three-segment divided tail light lenses that seemed appropriate for the Signet models but not the lower series. With chrome upper door trim it is probably a Signet.
Good catch. It’s odd since the bumper doesn’t have the backup lights from the ’70 on cars. If it had been rear-ended and repaired, you’d think they’d have replaced the rear bumper with the newer one, too. I can only guess that maybe one of the original taillights was broken and they found a pair of ’70 taillights for cheap, so just replaced them both.
If it had been a car from just a few years earlier, I’d have said it was just the bottom model since it wasn’t too many years before backup lights were omitted on the really base cars.
I’d agree it’s probably a Signet, too, since you can barely make out the chrome emblem on the leading edge of the front fender.
Those old Valiants are about as honest an old car as you can get.
After a long and mostly uneventful career as Regional Sales Manager with Consolidated Wax & Paper Los Angeles office, Mr. David Mann retires to Oregon, always vigilant not to pass any tanker trucks on the way up….
I saw a lot on route 1 North of Boston where they were selling old Uhaul trucks