“When accountants buy cars dude.” My brother said to me with a mild undertone of disgust.
We were looking through old photos of my dad and the cars of his past ownership. I thought I would share with you some of the strange, obscure, but mostly terrible cars my dad has owned.
His first car wasn’t so strange or terrible. It was a 1966 Beetle. He thoroughly enjoyed this car. The simplicity of the mechanics is what turned him into the fearless do-it yourself mechanic he is today. I can’t recall how many times he has reminisced about how a perfectly tuned air-cooled VW engine will have a unique whistle to it.
He later owned a 1966 Triumph Spitfire. Unfortunately there are no photographs of this car. He spotted the Spitfire sitting in the back lot of a car service shop when he was driving to high school. It looked like the car had been sitting for quite a while. One night a friend and my dad climbed the fence to the back lot and rigged up the car to start. The motor fired up just fine. They even sneaked it out of the lot and drove it around the block to see if it would move under its own power.
They parked it back where they found it and the next day made an offer to the mechanic for $300. The mechanic told my dad he couldn’t remember the last time the Spitfire ran so he accepted the offer. The stories I remember most of this car were of dad and his brother reminiscing how that Triumph tried to kill both of them multiple times. Once when the driver door flung open during a high speed turn and one time when the bald tires randomly let go, leading to an unexpected 360 degree spin while turning through a busy intersection.
He owned the Spitfire and VW during his last couple years of high school and throughout his college career. After college he sold both to acquire needed cash. He found a good paying job soon after graduation and started to save more. He picked up his aunt’s Ford Falcon and drove it for a short amount of time until he was able to purchase his first brand new car…
A Datsun F-10.
I am unsure of the year of this car. He fondly remembers the Datsun. Being the odd person he is he bought it because the F-10 was the first front wheel drive, five speed on the market. Something truly unique he thought. He drove this car all over the country, helping his friends move, road trips, to see the girlfriend every night. But unfortunately, the corrosive Midwest climate annihilated the minimally protected body of the F-10 in short time.
The girlfriend turned into the fiancée, then wife. My dad was a newlywed, things were moving fast and the F-10 was falling apart from rust. A new job allowed him the opportunity to upgrade his ride and he chose…
A 1980 ‘Dodge Challenger’
I actually do have some faint memories of this car. But I was very young when it was sold. I remember my father talking about constant fiddling with the carburetor. (Something about the intake metal being too soft causing fuel issues?) I also remember sitting in the back seat, windows down, muffler rusted into oblivion, the engine bellowing down a country road as my mom drove to do grocery shopping.
The last I saw of the Challenger was when my Dad sold it at a neighborhood garage sale. My last memory of that car was it leaving our driveway, near death, covered in rust, driven away by a man sporting a healthy mullet and complementing cut off jorts.
But I am getting ahead of myself. There is one other car, bought and sold before I was born, during the same time my dad was driving the Challenger. My older brother was getting bigger and I would soon be accompanying the family. My dad started searching for a competent vehicle for hauling around this growing family. Unfortunately he listened to the ONE person to recommend a diesel Chevrolet Caprice wagon. How he missed a conversation opportunity with a co-worker, a neighbor, anyone who saw the light of quality Japanese imports is beyond me.
But no, he listened to a delusional neighbor who owned two of these dreadful wagons. The story the neighbor told my dad that ultimately sold him on a diesel GM was about a time he rigged up a second fuel tank on one of his wagons.
“We were driving across the U.S from the East Coast. It was when we got through St. Louis I then realized the needle on the fuel gauge finally budged from full…” He claimed.
I am not sure how that claim resonated so well within the brain of my Dad (I blame it on his lifelong career as a penny-pinching accountant), but like all owners of 80’s GM diesels the purchase was soon filled with regret. Nicknamed ‘The Mothership’ the only redeeming quality my dad recalls was the brutal punishment he could bestow upon tailgaters. Flooring the throttle released a think black cloud of smoke so powerful it would block out the headlights shining from the victim behind. Other than that, it was an unreliable, slow, noisy, smelly piece of crap. A new 1987 Chevrolet Astro soon replaced The Mothership.
At this point the purchasing of cars ceased as financial priorities shifted towards raising a family. The Astro hauled my siblings and I around until the early 2000’s when it was replaced by a second hand 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette that perpetually smelled of hot coolant and suffered chronic transmission issues. We also had to clean the HVAC ducts once a season or else when first turning on the A/C an awful, pungent, sweaty sock smell would emit from the cabin vents.
My dad was driving a fifth or sixth hand Acura Legend at the time. He later sold it for a 1997 Buick LeSabre. The car all the kids learned to drive with. A car which suffered such unbelievably numb steering and idiotic transmission tuning that every vehicle I have driven since then I have secretly mumbled to myself “Oh, so this is how a car is supposed to drive.”
Lately, his car purchases have been getting better. As the family got older, the oldest moving off to college, myself getting ready to graduate high school, the youngest not far behind me, we started to downsize. First to go was the minivan, replaced with a 2006 Mazda 3 hatchback for my Dad. Then the LeSabre was replaced by a 2012 Fusion for my Mom to drive.
A Datsun F-10, 1980 Dodge Challenger, and a diesel Caprice; sometimes I am very happy car taste is not genetic. Then again, I am still young, and we have the internet classifieds now. A place we all know is a hive of terrible choices waiting for us to whip out the checkbook. Luring us in with pixelated .jpgs and cryptic vehicle descriptions. A siren song I know I will inevitably fall victim too.
What a collection. I’d forgotten how ugly the F-10 was, haven’t seen one in years.
I think the F must have stood for fugly
I saw one of those Chapparos once, at the nurnursing home my mom worked at back around 2000, it was dark red and always parked next to a Volare/Aspen of the color, both suprisingly devoid of rust.
I’m with you on this. My dad has a weird, awful list of previous vehicles as well, mostly due to the times, but kinda because he refused to go with imports.
’68 Plymouth Satellite (rusted into oblivion.)
’74 Ford Mustang II (Ghia with stick) (bought new, also rusted into oblivion.)
’79 Ford Pinto Wagon (4 cyl, stick)
’86 Dodge Aries Wagon (met an untimely end with a garbage truck, thankfully)
’87 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
’98 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo (I guess the ’90s SUV craze caught up with him)
’08 Impala SS (Scary in turns)
Never seen a man so off the maps when it comes to preference in cars. I certainly didn’t inherit that trait lol
My folks had a 1986 Aries wagon. It met its end with a blown headgasket happily
Did you mean to spell obscure as ‘obsecure’?
I sincerely doubt it. And I didn’t catch the typo. Fixed now.
Thank you!
You can fix the typos and wrong model years all you want…but the URL remembers…the URL ALWAYS remembers!
Nope; easily fixed too. I was too lazy the first time. 🙂
That first picture says it all- your Dad proudly in his Challenger, the Corvette sitting across the street reminding us of what he could have had, and the little kid turning around and thinking “what is that funny looking thing?”
I actually really like the styling of those Challengers. Good-looking in a very late 70’s Japanese way. The choice of name is unfortunate, as it has nothing in common with previous or later iterations of Challenger.
And no one would be cross-shopping it with a ‘Vette unless said ‘Vette was quite a few years old. And even then, someone who bought a Mitsu-based Challenger was probably thinking at least a little bit about gas mileage.
Count me in as a fan of the Challenger. It was the beginning of the recovery in Japanese car design after that bizarre detour in the mid-70s. Even though the differences were limited to minor trim I always felt the Challenger looked much more sporty than the Plymouth Sapporo. Trim is so important!
These cars introduced the 2.6L “silent shaft” engine to the US market. As a kid that technology amazed me and I wondered why more car companies didn’t use it. Later I learned about the royalty that would have to be paid to Mitsubishi, unless the design was modified which took time for the others to do. A brilliant engineering breakthrough if there ever was one.
Porsche used the balance shafts on the 2.5-3.0L 944/968 engine!
From How Stuff Works…
“The balancer idea was novel but hardly new, dating from 1911 and Frederick W. Lanchester in England. Moreover, Mitsubishi of Japan had recently resurrected it — with a patent. Porsche tried to avoid infringement by running its balancers in three bearings each instead of Mitsubishi’s two but ultimately decided to pay a royalty estimated at $8 per car. As one Porsche executive said at the time, ‘There’s no need to reinvent the motorcar.'”
Companies that put a balance shaft low in the block were able to avoid paying the royalty but those came later to market than Porsche wanted to with the 944.
I thought that the Challenger was one of the better looking cars of the 80’s. Unfortunately, the drivetrain didn’t live up to the looks, and the inability to hold off rust ensured that they’re rarer than a Ferrari today.
My Dad started out weird, but settled down once the family got started:
Hillman Husky (unknown vintage)
’59 Beetle (new)
’60 Chevrolet Biscayne (used)
Rambler American (used, early ’60s vintage)
Then he got the ’69 F-100 and ’68 Country Squire LTD.
A ’71 Vega eventually followed as his DD, which was subsequently followed by two more Vega Kammbacks.
Well, maybe he didn’t settle down quite so much after all…
And in a “Like Father, Like Son” way, I got the ’71 Vega as my first car and later bought the ’69 F-100 from him when we moved to the farm. And I’ve owned an air-cooled VW since before I got married…
Calling Bryce….calling Bryce….. Hillman alert! ….Hillman alert!!!! 🙂
Does the Corvette across the street in the Challenger shot have wire wheel covers?
My grandfather had a Dodge Challenger (aka Mitsubishi Sapporo) in those exact colours, complete with the rear quarter window louvres and side stripes. It was purchased new at Christmas in 1979, and racked up somewhere north of 480,000 miles over the next 20 years. I remember going with him to collect the car from the dealer and noticing the wraparound rear window – nothing else on the lot looked like it, and it seemed like a cool replacement for the Scirocco he’d had previously that was totalled while parked by a drunk.
Apart from the A/C going south somewhere in the early ’90s, it was an incredibly unkillable car. The twin joysticks and overhead console with digital clock, eyeball map light, and pushbuttons for the dome light controls were some of the most futuristic things I remember seeing in a car as a small child.
Sadly, the family member that it had been passed down to racked up an ungodly amount of parking tickets that eventually led to it being towed, impounded, and presumably sold at auction. A rather ignominious end for a car that seemed to have a lifespan dictated by the elements rather than any real mechanical shortcomings.
480,000 miles is incredible! I’ll have to check with my dad and see what miles his Challenger had when he sold it. It was pretty used up.
I was wondering what the original Mitsubishi name was for this. Sapporo, good to know!
I was wondering what the original Mitsubishi name was for this. Sapporo, good to know!
In some European markets it was known as that; the Japanese name for the car was Galant Λ (Lambda). Mitsubishi never directly sold these in North America. Australia knew these as the Scorpion, as either a Chrysler or a Mitsubishi.
My memory is saying this was also sold as a Plymouth Sapporo?
My dad had some odd rigs as well. His list is this.
1967 AMC Rebel
1972 Maverick
1933 Plymouth
1959 Edsel Sedan
1974 Mustang II
1977 Ford Granada
1979 Mustang Ghia
1984? Mercury Topaz
1976 Corvette
1988 Mercury Topaz
1995 Dodge Stratus
1996 Monte Carlo
1998 Monte Carlo
2000 Monte Carlo
2003 Monte Carlo
2013 VW Jetta Sport Wagen
He buys just to buy most of the time. He always wandered into the showroom and just bought a new car, not because he needed it, just because he wanted something different. Except in the case of the Granada. It was hit many times in less than a year. My Dad would say “People would come from all over town just to run into me!!” The ’84 Topaz my older brother smashed the oil pan and siezed up the engine. So since it was already at the Mercury dealer for possible repairs, my Dad traded it for a new ’88. The stratus was my Dad’s first and last modern Chrysler product.
That was wonderful and illustrates the allure of this site. A picture of a Datsun F-10 is just a picture of a Datsun F-10 UNTIL there is a story and a context attached to it. Your Dad appears to be the first of the Coal-Rollers, I will think of this every time I see it happen now…
Thanks for sharing a great and personal perspective. I’m sure your Dad enjoyed reading it as well.
Coal-rollers. Hmmm. My dad did that at times in his 1961 Mercedes 190Db that he bought in 1966. The only thing that could have surpassed it in slugliness would have been a 180D.
Dad could lay down quite the smoke screen in that 190D! And what a clatter that thing made, too!
My Dad’s cars
Ford model Y(free from Uncle Larry Dad’s elder brother)
51ish Ford Consul Mk1(around 1955 ish later became Mum’s first car and big brother,me & little sister all came home from hospital in it in 55,57 & 59)
Standard Ensign(he thinks,it was a 6 cylinder)(1960 -62)
Ford Zephyr Mk2 1959 (62 – 65)
Ford Zephyr Mk3 1964(65 – 66 wrecked by a drunk driver shunting it into a lamp post fortunately with no one in it))
Ford Falcon(62 6cylinder) (66 – 69)
Ford Falcon (64 6 cylinder)()69 -71
Australian 66 Valiant ( 6 cylinder 71 – 72 later owned by Mum)
Dodge Dart 68(6 cylinder 72 – 73)
Austin Allegro(73 for 6 weeks)
Vauxhall Viva 73(73 – 75)
Vauxhall Ventora 72 he thinks (75 – 80)
Toyota Starlet 80(80 – 88)
Honda Civic 88(88 -93)
Neat story. It’s interesting to list out the cars my Dad has had over the years:
1967 Plymouth Valiant signet 2dr
1973 Datsun 240Z
1979 Dodge D-50
1986 Isuzu Trooper II 2 dr
1995 Ford Econoline conversion van ( I learned to drive in this! )
*a succession of company cars from 1995-2012, nearly all prisms/corollas*
2005 Acura TL A-spec
2013 VW Beetle turbo
The Beetle was one hell of a surprise when he told me he had bought it! He loves that car..
My dad had also made some questionable vehicle choices before becoming a full-time Mopar man.
I won’t argue with his first ever car though, I believe a ’64 Tempest. I might need to ask him more about it and the year may not be accurate.
He also owned a ’74 AMC Matador and a dreadful Chevette before buying a brand-new ’84 Voyager. After that, we had a ’88 Reliant K wagon and now he drives an ’06 Town and Country. He’s done with Mopar and now looking at his first-ever import (he wants a Nissant Frontier). Lest I forget, he had a ’97 Ranger that he babied before passing it off to my (highly irresponsible) older brother and then myself.
I think that I am the first in my family to actually embrace imports, having owned a VW, Hyundai, Subaru and now a Honda. Of all 4, only the VW and Honda have been anything close to reliable. This was before Hyundai and Subaru (sort-of) acquired the kind of status that they enjoy today.
My dad’s cars were:
1972 Morris 1300
1978 Peugeot 504
1982 Toyota Cressida (that became my first car)
1995 Daewoo Cielo
My parental transport was mostly “normal” with moments of cool and early adoption.
When I was born:
1964 Valiant noteworthy for factory AC
1966 Mercedes 250S nice when it worked, threw a rod while running my sister’s nursery school carpool.
1970 BMW 2000 (not a typo we had the 4 door) cool car, replaced because of spreading rust and my mother didn’t like the heavy clutch
1974 Volvo 164E ran until 86 when junked with terminal rust
1977 Honda Accord (we were early adopters)
1984 Audi 4000 Quattro
1984 Honda Accord (the 77 was rusty, the 84 had air conditioning and was still 5 speed)
1982 Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible (mom’s car, replaced the 84 Accord)
Parents split in 91
Mom got Red 91 Mazda Protege w/ 16V engine and 5 speed
Dad kept 4000 Quattro until rust and fuel injection woes killed it, then
Audi 4000CS, Dad’s last car.
Mom got a loaded 94 Saturn when her Mazda was rear ended, then
2000 VW Passat GLS turbo
2003 Acura TLX
2013 Honda Accord V6 (cheaper than another Acura and she hates the “beak”)
I have a friend whose youthful collection form the late 60s-mid70s is much more eccentric:
Volvo Duett
Saab 95 2-stroke
Citroen ID19
and he currently has 2 electric cars (Nissan Leaf, Think City) and a Subaru Impreza.
That Datsun {Nissan} F 10-that IS strange.Conservative American car tastes thought my `77 Citroen was strange, but what do they know?
My grandpa was a total mopar man, born around 1920…but oddly he also liked VW/Audi – so his list (which i cant recall) would alternate from enormous barges to VW karmann ghia, beetle, transport, and a terrible brown Audi fox I distinctly remember.
My father was straight cheap, and for my upbringing he tried to be a Chevy man.
Cars during my lifetime –
71? chevy wagon 400v8 no options
76 toyota corolla no options, cheapest sticker car on the market apparently
78 Suburban 350 v8 almost no options
82 Chevy cavalier – FIRST CAR WITH A RADIO! AND CLOTH SEATS!!!! i was in heaven
86 Chevy (suzuki sprint) 4 door – awesome little buggy, cloth and radio
88 Chevy pickup – LOADED with air, top stereo etc. retirement treat
92 Suburban (carry around grandkids) loaded to gills
2000 Hundai Tuscon, loaded. unexplainable jump to Korean car
2008 Chevy Equinox current ride, totally loaded
“86 Chevy (suzuki sprint) 4 door – awesome little buggy, cloth and radio”
Awesome indeed. Here’s my old ’84 Suzuki. Still on the road.
Mark have you ever been in a gathering of adults who are getting ready to attend a class, workshop or seminar together? I have and like the technique some moderators use to break the ice which is to go around the room and ask each person to tell the group something interesting or surprising about themselves. I can’t image a better answer than “my father used to own a Datsun F-10”.
No elaboration would be needed because the car oriented types will immediately understand and want to talk to you. You could even leave out the word Datsun. A few of the more curious (and brave) may ask you during the break what’s so special about a F-10 and you could have a picture ready on your phone.
Nice article and I’m sure more than a few of us would like to talk to your Dad about that Datsun.
PS — The 3/4 rear shot from that low perspective shows off the tailpipe beautifully, another hugely interesting aspect of the car.
I noticed the tailpipe too. So tiny! Looks like a dime could plug it.
Don’t know what Dad had in high school. A model T before he was too old and had an uncle with a whippet. I do know that I owned the very 66 vw that your Dad did. Sea blue with white “leatherette” upholstery. It was my first new car and still holds a very special place in my memories. I took a 7k mile vacation in it when it was about 3 months old. It would be very hot but I would love to do that again.
Diesel farting tailgaters was one of the joys of driving my ’83 Suburban, I had plenty of them since it wouldn’t go faster than 60-65 without overheating. My nominal cruising speed where it would stay in OD was 60 or 55 uphill. Anything faster and it would downshift and create plenty of sturm & drang, but no more motion. GM had terrible diesels back then. It would get 20-23 mpg at 60 and had a 40 gallon tank. BY the time the fuel ran out, you were ready for a hotel. I shudder to think of what it would have been like on the Colorado and Wyoming passes I crossed this summer.
Very interesting collection Mark. I like these kinds of posts that show the role cars have played in our lives and those of our families. I’ve never had the fortune of a 2-parent family, so only I’ve only experienced my mother’s jumping around from one car to another. This post makes me want to share some of her cars. Time to start digging for pictures.
Great story. I wouldn’t be so hard on your Dad about the Challenger – there were a lot of worse choices out there in the late 70s – particularly the other cars in that Dodge dealer’s lot. 🙂 The F-10, however, . . . . .
My father was quite conventional in his cars, always choosing fairly popular models. I think that the 58-59 Ford Anglia might have been his only questionable choice over the years.
Thanks for this post, kind of reminds me of my dad, except instead of buying weird cars he would bring home weird cars on test drives to gauge family reaction.
As I recall we kids generally liked the weird ones, and my mother would be infuriated which we kids also enjoyed.
Now I’m wondering if he did this on purpose….
My father never owned anything particularly oddball, being as this is the Midwest, but I think it’s notable that coming from a Ford family (F-250, Galaxie, LTD, F-150, L-700 grain truck, etc.), he wasn’t anything other than a Mopar man until 1987. And it was entirely accidental, too; it wasn’t like he was rebelling against his parents. I think the only thing my dad ever did to rebel was refuse to grow any sideburns like what his old man had from about 1970 to 1990.
Dad’s cars (he was born in 1911):
____ Marmon–I don’t remember the year; I heard about the car, but it was decades before I was born.
1929 (I think) Buick
1936 Chevy (his most fondly remembered car, and the one he and his wife brought to Tucson in 1948)
1941 Chevy (the car I drove in high school, until crashing it graduation night….)
1947 Cadillac Fleetwood
1952 Cadillac Series 62
1966 Mercedes-Benz 190Db–I learned how to drive in this one.
1980 Ford Fiesta
1974 Chevy Cheyenne (I think–it was the top series) crew-cab camper-special pickup–he traded the Fiesta to my brother in exchange for the pickup. This pickup became quite the work vehicle for Dad in his volunteer work with the local trolley restoration group. It was stalwart, with its 454 V-8.
The Chevy pickup was Dad’s last car; he gave up driving when he was about 80 years old as macular degeneration set in.
Lots of interesting parental cars here. My Dad has been far less imaginative:
-1962 Bel Air 4-door
-1966 Impala 2-door hardtop
-1972 Nova 2-door hardtop (this is the only one on the list bought new)
-1975-ish Dart 4-door
-1979 Fairmont 2-door sedan
-1983 Escort 5-door hatch
-1986 Audi 5000S 4-door
-1984 Honda Accord 4-door
-1991 Honda Accord 4-door
-1997 Ford Crown Victoria (shared with Mom as they went single car)
-2010 Mercury Grand Marquis (also shared)
-2010 Toyota Corolla
The only interesting one on the list would be the Audi, and that one was my idea. He would probably refer to it as “my fault”. Bought used and cost a LOT in repairs in the 4 years we had it. I was the one who noticed it on the lot and asked the salesman about it (at age 13 no less).
Neither of you are to blame for the ’86 Audi 5000. The car magazines soiled themselves writing about that car and many of us were fooled, including me. I had an ’86 5-speed that I bought as a three year old car for $7,000. I felt downright smug over that purchase but grew to hate the car, not for any reliability reasons, but because of the horrible way it drove and this mind you was a low-mile one-owner car. I didn’t keep it long enough for the notorious electrical issues to develop.
The bubble 5000 was a stretched and pulled Dasher underneath. It sat on a very narrow track appropriate for a skinny VW or Audi but wimpy looking on the new wide body. The brake dive was ridiculous which shouldn’t have been a surprise considering the way-forward engine and soft suspension. The 5000 underpinnings were far too primitive to give a smooth ride and good handling like the Mercedes 190E, its contemporary.
Why these tragic flaws were never mentioned by the buff books was a mystery until I realized they, like the rest of us, can fall for a pretty face and good PR. They mostly tested the Turbos and Quattros which cost a bundle more money and looked better.
Only later would the reliability issues surface although a warning sign on the Turbos should have been how hot the engines would run — those damn electric fans were always roaring away to cool that tiny radiator over in the corner of the engine compartment, away from air flow. I knew enough not to stretch to get into a Turbo plus the 3-speed A/T sucked.
I should have test drove the car longer and harder but was worried someone would buy it out from under me. Lots of life lessons with that purchase.
The interesting thing about that is, to my memory, the 5000 drove quite well (we still had it when I was 16 and got my license). But the only things I had to compare it to at the time were an A-body Malibu, B-body Parisienne, and two driver’s ed cars (4cyl Mustang and J-body Sunbird). So in comparison to any of those the handling was actually quite good and the ride not bad. Maybe you were used to something better…
The track was oddly narrow but other than that I thought it was good-looking too. Nice interior, when everything worked, which was…pretty much never. Oddly it all worked when we bought the car, things started croaking a few months later. Honestly my memories of that car aren’t too bad, because I wasn’t the one paying for repairs, I think my Dad felt a bit differently! He’ll never buy another German car, that’s for sure.
I like the looks too that’s why I had to admit being fooled by its pretty face. Oddly it wasn’t until after I bought the car that I noticed how narrow the track looked. Around the time I got mine was when they went to the wide track 100 and that made the older cars look like crap. Kind of like when Porsche put the flares on the 944, suddenly the 924, which I always liked, looked wimpy. After owning the car the narrow track manifested itself in other ways, like the “tippy” handling feel.
Coming out of the cars your dad did, the 5000 must have felt great but so would a ’74 Dasher. I was coming out of a 280Z and before that a Fiesta “S” and before that a Scirocco. Though it handled pretty well I hated the 280Z for its heavy, truck-like steering and rough, oil burning engine. That was another car that failed to live up to my lofty exceptions and suffered by comparison to the Fiesta and Scirocco which all cars did.
It’s all relative as they say.
Another fact was age. I was in my 20s when I had that 5000 and it made me feel like an old man. Your dad being a bit older was probably OK driving it. Certainly it would have felt like grandpa’s car to anyone after a Fiesta, which I kept far longer than the Z.
The press made a big deal out of the new galvanized body and that led me to think THIS Audi would be different than all the rest, because Audi had changed. I even tricked myself into thinking how bad could it be since so many of the parts were designed and supplied by the same groups that did my Scirocco, which was flawless in reliability.
Yep. Definitely sounds like the cars you had previously would give you somewhat higher expectations… And you may also be right about the age. He was 43 at the time, and had only owned American cars. He also had a lot of seat time in VWs from driving deliveries for a pharmacy in his college years, but while that would qualify as “different” I don’t know if it’s necessarily “better” especially in the case of the vans.
Maybe the previous experience is part of it feeling like an older man’s car also. To me as a 16 and 17 year old, and again compared to the other cars in the family, I felt pretty good when I was able to drive it. Even drew some admiring comments from friends despite being ~7 years old at the time. But I can imagine that, as someone in his 20’s coming from two coupes and a small hatch, it probably felt different in a not necessarily good way to be driving a large sedan all of a sudden.
I realize I only listed the cars driven primarily by my Dad, while he had a hand in many of Mom’s car choices and they would both drive most of them (exceptions being the Escort and the ’84 Accord, both manuals which Mom could not drive). Plus for the past ten years or so they’ve intermittently only owned one car between the two of them So for completeness’ sake, her cars:
-1960-61 Valiant 4-door
-1972 Chevelle 4-door
-1969 Impala 2-door hardtop
-1968 Impala 2-door hardtop
-1979 Malibu 4-door
-1986 Pontiac Parisienne 4-door
-1991 Honda Accord 4-door (shared with Dad briefly until they bought the Crown Vic)
-1997 Ford Crown Victoria (shared with Dad briefly after the Honda was totaled)
-2010 Mercury Grand Marquis (shared with Dad for quite a while untll he bought the Toyota
All but two of them large cars, and five of them full-size. Slightly ironic considering she is a very small woman!
Whenever I read comments about the Audi 100/5000 by North American readers I am amazed by the difference between the reputation these cars had on your market and ours (Europe). My 1988 100 2.3E was the best car I ever had. Got it after the cambelt snapped – the owner junked it and just for a laugh we fitted a new belt, tensioner and water pump (all driven by the belt). Gave it a couple of turns on the starter and it jumped into life with that typical 5 cyl growl. Somehow the valves did not touch the pistons. Thereafter followed a happy ownership – yes, there was ongoing maintenance but that was to be expected from a car with more than 160,000 miles on the clock. I don’t remember any strange handling traits, in fact for its size it was very agile and pulled well as long as the (136 hp) engine was wound up. Never any electrical problem. I drove a 190 Benz and it was nothing special in comparison. I have to assume Audi messed with the specs on US-bound cars to somehow rob them of their European feel and make them unreliable…
Cars were just transportation appliances to my father; he tended to buy whatever he could get for not much money. Never really bought anything cool but it would be great to have some of these cars today. A list, at least as I can remember it.
1939 Chevy – purchased after he got home from WWII. I don’t actually remember this one as it was gone before I arrived but have seen pictures of him and my mom beside it.
1947 Plymouth – purchased just before I was born in 1951. I can vaguely remember this car for its huge back seat and suicide rear doors.
1950 Ford – I do remember this one, I almost knocked down the back wall of the garage with it. Who knew the starter button was “live” even without the key.
1954 Plymouth – The Ford must have been problematic because it only stayed in the family for a couple of years. The Plymouth came along about the time I started school and was our first car with an automatic transmission.
1960 Ford – This was the car I learned to drive in. About two months after I got my license I managed to total it in a wreck. Considering my father had spent a considerable sum of money having the engine rebuilt six months before, this did not improve my popularity at home.
1962 Pontiac wagon – A $300 beater purchased after I killed the Ford. This car had been in at least one previous wreck (it sloped down from the right rear to the left front) but proved pretty reliable. Was driven for several years with little maintenance.
1965 Malibu – This replaced the Pontiac which died in a wreck. The Malibu was virtually indestructible, which was a good thing given the way it got treated. My brother rolled it all the way over one night after missing a turn on a country road. It landed on its wheels and was still driveable after replacing the battery. It actually wasn’t dented too badly as it was spring and the ground was soft from the rain. The ‘bu soldiered on as the “extra” car in the family and lasted well up into the mid-eighties.
Early seventies GMC pickup – I do know that this replaced the Malibu, my memories get pretty hazy after this because I was in the Air Force and was 2200 miles away. I know that my dad drove the GMC until he finally purchased his first new vehicle.
1985 Dodge pickup – Yep, the first time my dad was willing to spring for a new car. He bought this about six months before he retired and kept it literally forever. He still owned it when he died in 2000 and it did not have that many miles on it, less than 70,000 I think. A couple of years after he retired my dad and step-mom bought a motor home and used that for any road trips. This meant the Dodge only got used for around town errands, so low miles. My step-brother bought the Dodge from his mother and drove it until the body rotted away.
Since my parents got married in 1969 they have had
1966?Chevy Nova
1969 AMC Rambler
1973?AMC Gremlin
1976 Plymouth Volare
1982 Toyota Corolla Tercel
1986 Toyota Camry
1993 Toyota T100
1996 Toyota Camry
2003 Toyota Corolla
2006 Toyota Tacoma
2011 Hyundai Sonata
My dad was pretty much a GM guy until quite recently
-80 Chevrolet Citation 2.8 V6 ( He loved that car … somehow. he bought it new. He also told me that it was un a very bad shape at the end of his ownership 4 years later. When he got to the dealer to trade it, he made sure the engine was at temperature because it ran baddly when it was cold.)
-84 (ishhh) Pontiac Bonneville (bought new, I don’t know the exact model but he liked it like no other car he ever owned. It was even shipped to germany when he lived there and then back to canada when he returned)
-91 (ishh) Chevrolet Cavalier Station Wagon ( crashed after a year or two)
-94 (ishh… again) Chevrolet Lumina APV ( lasted for a year )
-96 Saturn SL (bought new, it was gray with black bumper. That car as only 3 option: AC, automatic Transmission and the tape deck)
-94 Toyota Tercel ( Bought used, the second familly car. It was crashed a year later)
-03 Mazda Protégé SE ( Bought New, automatic with AC, it began to be a rust bucket early in is life. That car ate through wheel bering and brake like crazy. It was after passed down to me at 249k kms.)
-09 Hyundai Elantra ( Bought New, his current car and still going stong)
Why did he go back to GM after the citation his beyond me.
I thought those Challengers were really cool, especially the plaid seats, an early forerunner of the GTI. It handled well and had some low end zip. Mitsubishi was serving Chrysler well back then with product that was better than what was coming out of Detroit. I think this was a contemporary of the Chrysler Conquest, one of the better 944 rip offs of the day.
Interesting, as a guy in his 20’s back then I rejected the Sapporo because I thought the name was goofy.
The Conquest was a badge-engineered version of the Mitsubishi Starion (literally the badge was the only difference in the cars). Those came a bit later, maybe 1983-84? Might be a 944 rip-off in concept but they had all their own look. I think they are even better-looking than a narrow-body 944 and the equal of a widebody. But that’s just my opinion…
Let’s see…
’55 Ford
’62 Corvair Monza (driven off an embankment by an Air Force buddy. Fortunately the injuries were minor)
’62 Chevy Impala sedan
’67 Ford LTD coupe
’72 Ford LTD coupe
’74 Ford Courier
’78 Chevy Malibu Classic coupe
’83 Ford Ranger
’91 Ford Ranger Supercab (4.0L/5 speed – nice little truck!)
’97 Chevy Tahoe (the “Aggie Wagon” – it was maroon)
’03 Chevy Impala (180K in five years – damn tough car)
’95? Pontiac Grand Am – bought as a cheap work car for the last couple of years before he retired for good. Sold upon retirement
Finally, his two current vehicles…
’04 Chevy Avalanche Z71 (stepmom totaled the Tahoe)
’08 Chevy Impala 50th Anniversary Package
Then there were the couple of interlopers –
’63 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500 fastback – Mom’s car when they first got married. Grandpa bought it for her brand new)
’90 Jeep Cherokee (stepmom’s vehicle when they got together – 4.0/5 spd/4wd)
wow, my da left a lot O inneresting stuff in his car wake, already mentioned the family cars in that A/C post, so let’s now concentrate on ‘his’ cars, the ones he drove to work while leaving the fam car for mum and the kiddies-
now let me say this one thing- my dad was the last generation before the explosion of jap cars, they were around but not taking 9 spots on everyone’s ‘drive ten and buy one’ list- it was around 83 i noticed everyone doing up a list and not one US car on there-
😉
I remember he had this Fiat 600, this dumpy grey thing, it was so small the door on the side took up the whole side, you could not fit to make it a four-door! it’s the one the new 500 retro cute marketing toy today is based upon that, and methinks it really was 600, as in 600 cc, so small and it whined!
then, he figgered as a shit hot pilot aviator he should have something macho and sexy, he bought from a friend an old 1959 Alpha spyder roadster, they were before 5 sp, it had 4 on the floor and i think a 1600, it was hot, and cool, and sexy, and handled flat, you could rally these and win, it was a lot like that car in Day of the Jackel he drove on up to Paris in that, remember? that’s the first of his cars i remember riding in it, très impressed
we moved, he sold, I should shoot him, wait, dont shoot yer father, but still-
😉 I could really use that sexy thing now and drool over people offering me 95000 for it, and I loudly say No-
we had that Mustang I mentioned in the air AC post, he later traded, i canNOT believe he traded that in! I could shoot, wait, dont shoot yer father, but still- this 1965 Mustang notch coupe in forest green, with lighter green inside, and original Pony interior with those ponies galloping along the seats, highly desirable in demand now, I could laugh when people loudly so everyone can hear, offer me 95000 for that car, and i just grin and loudly say No- anyway, it was this green sexy thang, 289 small block v8 with the Torque flight auto, a T bar on the drive hump with buckets, first T bar i ever saw, i was tiny but later realized when older how important that car was, and it was ours, mum drove it with the kids but da shared for a year without a commuter, til-
he bought used this old Chevy 2 , like a nova but it didnt say nova, wagon, to commute and leave the fam car for mum, and I got in this and bumped my knee under the dash, on this chrome honking thing- he rolled down his window, so did I, we took off, I asked him what’s this I banged my knee on it, he said A/C- first add-on under the dash i ever saw, so i asked why dont we, and he said it needs repair, no freon, so we just went on, and i never in two years saw that thing on, we just rolled down and roll….
Til-
Da figgered once more, i’m a shit hot pilot, I need to get sexy, so he bought this brand new Beaujolais awesomeness called a 124 Spyder roadster, i felt like a million bucks riding with him in that thing; my brother grew up, took it over and took it to uni and it died many years later from rust and he gave it for scrap, but, before that- a few shining moments of Italian road-racing bliss, it was like a bargain Ferrari Dino and we felt like Magnum in Honolulu….
And dad bought a Datsun, the last Datsun before the name went away, 200 SX hatchback with 5 sp and louvers and velvet and plastic buttons that do power stuff, and a sing-song chime , bing-bang-bong, if you open the door before taking the key out, or leave the lights on, it was like a commuter coupe of a Maxima, or a Derringer of a 300zx- and the world changed, and stuff like that Alpha, and that Mustang, and that 124 Spyder, were just memories in the dusty trails, Happy Trails to you, oh all you ole fashion sexy thangs you.
😉
Later he traded that used-up pocket knife for a Range Rover and he joined the silver haired foxes with memories, just memories, youthful days gone by with wind in your hair and Tach meters hitting red.
If you’d inherited your dad’s bad taste, you wouldn’t know it was bad!
Some very interesting entries here as well as a few predictable ones. Since my parents were married in 1968, they have had:
1962 Chevy II: Factory four-banger with powerglide; my mother purchased it. It threw a rod they day they got married.
1965 Ford Fairlane: 289, 3 speed.
1969 Ford Fairlane: 302 and automatic. Purchased instead of the ’69 Charger with a 383 pop also test drove.
1970 F-100: 240 straight six with a 3 speed. Same color as Paul’s ’66 F-100. Kept until 1985 when the body fell in on the frame, putting the shift linkage in a bind. Pop propped up the body with some shims and swapped it off.
1973 Ford Torino: 302 automatic. 12 mpg regardless of how it was driven and always driven like they hated it. Sold with 123,000 trouble-free miles.
1978 Plymouth Volare coupe: 225/auto. After the catalytic converters evaporated one day, it was trouble free except for a spot of rust the size of a quarter on the trunk lid. Traded off at 111,000 miles.
1981 Dodge Omni: 1.6, 4 speed. Trouble free commuter; swapped off at 120,000
1983 Plymouth Reliant: 2.2/auto. Only problem was a few wheel bearing in the rear and an aspirator tube. Swapped off at 115,000 miles or so.
1984 Ford F-150: 300 straight six, 4 speed. Infrequent issues with the carburetor. Drank fuel and made no power. Good driving pickup, just don’t get in any sort of a hurry with it. Traded at 50,000 miles in 1998.
1985 Ford LTD Crown Victoria: 302/auto. Great car until it hit 50,000 when the pollution control devices kept going south with increasingly higher price tags. Swapped off at 75,000 miles.
1988 Ford Tempo: 2.3/5 speed. Another commuter car. In 155,000 the only issues were a electric coolant fan that expired and the linkage for the vents went awry.
1991 Dodge Dynasty: 3.3 liter. One sensor went bad at 90,000 miles that would shut the engine off after running for 3 seconds. Never any issues with the Ultradrive automatic, but then the fluid was never changed, either. Sold at 135,000 miles.
1995 Mercury Cougar: 3.8 liter. Commuter car for my mother. Never any issues and traded at 80,000 miles as she didn’t like the seats.
1997 Ford Crown Victoria: Base model. Kept until 100,000. Again, no issues.
1998 Dodge Ram 1500: 360/auto. They still have it. Have had recurrent issues with the intake plenum. Unlike many of its cohorts, the dash is intact, but it has always been garaged and driven infrequently. Currently at 125,000 miles.
2000 Mercury Grand Marquis: 4.6. Likely the best overall car they’ve ever had as it only ever needed tires and fuel. Traded at 135,000 miles.
2007 Ford 500: They still have it. It is a dreary little machine and the a/c crapped out over the summer. Currently at 125,000 miles.
Only to imagine what my young-one will one day say about what I drive…
My dad’s cars over a half-century – this is what an airline pilot drove in Canada.
1951 Austin A40 Somerset
1958 Morris Minor Tourer (convertible)
1959 Dodge station wagon
1957 Ford station wagon
1968 Datsun 1600 (510)
1970? VW window van
1970 Rover 2000TC
1968 Rover 2000TC
1975 Honda Civic
1983 Toyota Corolla
1984 Nissan Micra
1990? Suzuki Grand Vitara
1993? Ford Taurus wagon
1990? Nissan pickup
2008? Honda Element… but he’s now in his 80s and doesn’t drive any more.
Well, let’s see. My dad, a career Soldier, didn’t even own a car until his 40’s. Only bought six, starting in the late 1950’s:
1. Kaiser, year unknown.
2. Second Generation Rambler American
3. Third Generation Rambler American
4. 66 Buick Wildcat
5. 70 Dodge Challenger
5. 74 Dodge Magnum
These are the ones he had mentioned or I remember, there were many others that were before my time. Crosley year unknown, 54 Chevy, 57 Olds 88 Super, 59 Galaxie, 59 Cadillac, 61 Biscayne Wagon, 62 Mercury Monterey, 63 Cadillac, 65 Chevy Impala Wagon, 65 Chevy C10 pickup, 66 VW Beetle, 66 VW Fastback, 67 Continental, 67 Mercury Monterey, 68 VW Beetle, 72 Winniebago Brave, 72 Pinto, 74 Duster, 75 Dodge Van, 78 Mercury Monarch, 79 Dodge Aspen, 83 S10 Pickup, 84 Jeep Cherokee, 85 Jetta GLI, 87 Ford Ranger, 89 Mercury Cougar, 93 Buick Le Sabre. After the 79 Aspen, all his cars were purchased used. The others are a mix of new and used.
Forgot the one Japanese car he owned, 85 Nissan Stanza.
The last American car my dad owned was a Studebaker. In 1958 he set off on his import promotion (all FWD). Started with a Lloyd which at least was a 4 stroke, albeit a 2 cylinder. Followed by the first car I remember, a DKW Junior (3 cylinder 2 stroke). Next up SAAB 96 (V4). Started going mainstream with inline 4s after that, but not quite, a Subaru 4X4 wagon. After it sank into the salty MN roads a Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD soldiered on eventually replaced by his last car, A used SAAB 5 door turbo 9000. All in all an eclectic, yet durable, group. Other then the Lloyd and DKW that combined for 10 years they all put in at least 10 years.
By the way we spent summers road tripping. We had a ’59 VW Westphalia that blew engines in 3 different states. I guess it wasn’t meant to by lead footed with 2 adults, 4 kids and gear for 2 weeks in it.
My dad’s cars (1911-1987)
’35 Chevy sloper (Aussie body, new – pic of a similar one below)
’28 Essex (post-war)
’50 Morris Oxford (new)
’55 Morris Oxford (new – first one I remember)
’62 Falcon
’67 Falcon
Never could afford another car after that.
God I have been waiting for a chance to list my Dad’s vehicles somewhere…actually ,anywhere!
Dad was a mechanic at a variety of service stations over the years as I was growing up.
He didn’t change cars weekly, but it seemed so.
Buy em cheap, fixem up, get tired of them ,then sell and buy another one.
So in order starting about 1961 with one of the earliest cars I can remember here goes.
1) 1958 Chev Nomad wagon (don’t think he liked it much)
2) 1955 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe (one of my favorites)
3) 1955 2 dr Ford station wagon ( beater car)
4) 1954 Chev Belair ( nice car ,again he didn’t keep it long)
5) 1958 Plymouth Custom Suburban 9 passenger wagon (another of my favorites)
6) 1957 Pontiac Cheftain Wagon
7) 1948 Ford F-1 ( at 12 years old I would sneak drive it on our property
8) 1964 Chev Belair Wagon (nice low miles car , started rusting like crazy)
9) 1960 Plymouth Wagon (slant 6 indestructible)
10 1960 Plymouth Wagon( yup someone gave it to Dad, same color combo as the one we owned. 9 passenger 318- manual transmission, not indestructible)
11) 58 Pontiac Cheftain? 2dr ( strange car no power steering or brakes ,but automatic transmission)
12 ) 1963 Ford Thunderbird (NICE car, I was lucky to drive it as I had my learners permit by then)
13) 1967 Dodge Polara (383 auto , he liked the car, I didn’t)
Whew , enough for now.
Cars my parents owned that I know of:
– ’52 Chevy (car, body unknown)
– ’56 Ford truck (probably an F100).
-’58/59 Rambler Classic sedan
-’66 Chevelle 4 door post (first one I remember)
-’68/69 Chevy window van
-c. 1970 BMW 2002; Really dad’s business partner’s but he didn’t like it(!) – it had been a wedding present from his inlaws (used) and his tastes were more Broughamy.
-1974 GMC C2500 Custom (“The Green Truck”)
-1979 GMC C1500 Sierra (“The Blue Truck”)
-1986 Plymouth Horizon (first one I got to drive and the one I got to drive the most)
-1995 Plymouth Neon
-2005 Kia Rio
Love these COALs and nice write-up! I laughed out loud several times. Funny how your dad’s pragmatic character trait resulted in such a rotten plethora of cars. It seemed that his taste got a bit better in later years.
Hmm… Dad’s cars…Not a long list..
56 Ford Custom sedan
65 Comet (shared with Mom)
69 Chevelle (shared with mom till 1976)
76 Chevelle (he got it after mom retired it from her DD duties in 1984)
84 Olds 88 (replaced the 76 Chevelle as his DD in 1992.. I got the 76 as my first car then)
87 Dodge Dakota 4×4 (replaced the POS B-body Olds in 1996, never ever used the 4wd feature)
94 Dodge Dakota extended cab 2wd (replaced the 87 in 2000) It managed to equal the Olds in decreptitude
07 GMC Canyon – traded the 94 in for it, will probably be the last vehicle he owns at age 73. At 7 years old it has 30,000 miles on it.
He tells stories of a 48 Ford sedan, and a old F-1 truck of his dads, but I think those were his parents cars, since he didn’t personally get a car till 1961 when he was in college.
My Dads Cars:
1949 Chevy Fleetline 2dr. Bought used in 51 or 52. His first car while in seminary. Picture of him and mom dating in it on the Frig at his house. My first car ride.
1954 Chevy Belair 2dr sedan. Bought slightly used in 55 shortly after I was born. One of his favorites. Got scars from an accident in 58 when he rear ended someone and I hit the windshield. One of my first memories.
1960 Plymouth Savoy 4 dr. 6 purchased used in 1961. Plain jane car with only the automatic.
1963 Plymouth Savoy 2dr.6 his first new car. A stripper with only the Auto. My sister was born shortly before and he and mom were afraid of a 4 door car with a baby.
1959 Plymouth Savoy 4dr. Stripper with a V8 and automatic. Gift from my Granddad to make us a 2 car family. It used a lot of gas and oil and was sold a couple of years later and we went back to one car.
1967 Plymouth Fury II. Bought new but with no ac which living in Nashville, TN. was kind of tough. It did have Power Steering and a v8. I started driving with this car.
1965 Plymouth Valiant 200 2 dr.. Back to 2 cars in 71. My Brother and I hooned it quite a bit. Gift from my Grandmother when she bought a new 71 Valiant.
1973 Chevy Impala 4dr Hardtop. First car with AC and bought new. One of the favorite cars in the family.
1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite. I sold it to him after he had an accident in it to replace the 65 Valiant which my brother had wrecked.
1974 Chevy Impala 4 dr Sedan bought used in about 78 to replace the Satellite. Even though it was lower mileage than the 73 it never drove as good. Mom always got the newer car but that one was the odd ball. She got the 73 back.
1976 VW Rabbit. Bought used in 79 to replace the 73 Impala in OPEC 2. No AC and in Mobile AL was miserable. Fun car but probably one of the worst he owned.
1980 Chevy Citation 5 dr. bought in 1981 used. 2.8 6 with 5 sp. Another clunker.
1984 Plymouth Horizon. AC with 5sp to replace the Rabid Rabbit. Bought new.
1986 Ford Taurus 4 Cyl. Bought used in 1987. Probably the worst car he ever had. Replaced the Citation.
1989 Pontiac 6000 bought used in 90 to replace the Citation. Probably my moms favorite car.
1987 Dodge Omni. I had bought new. Replaced the 84 Horizon. Sold it to him in 1992 because it had working AC and was red and mom was terminal with Cancer and always wanted a red car. She probably only rode in it one or two times.
1992 Olds Cutlass Supreme 4dr. Red. Bought used in 1994. Replaced the 6000. Dad sold the Omni about a year after Mom passed away and did not replace.
2000 Chevy Impala. Bought in late 1999 as a demo. Pretty well loaded.
2008 Saturn Aura. Bought slightly used from a friend of mine in 2009 with only 10000 miles. Loaded completely with sunroof and probably his last car.
Our neighbor replaced his ’75 Caprice coupe with a 4 cyl. Taurus. I always wondered who bought the other one Ford built, and now I know. He was usually a Chevy guy known for hanging on to his cars. He replaced that Taurus rather quickly with a V6 Lumina. Strange fact, the Caprice, Taurus and Lumina were all the same cream color, spanning a dozen years and some very different cars.
Dad’s Taurus was an ex fleet car. I had a couple of bosses that also had 4 cyl. Taurus. One I remember going through 6 or 7 transmissions in a little over 2 years or 60000 miles. The lenght of time the company kept a car then.
Nerdy accountant or technology early adopter. Apparently a finer line than I might have assumed?
Neat story.
I have to laugh, a friend’s dad who was probably similar to yours with a general penchant for smaller cars bought brand new a Caprice diesel wagon in the early ’80s. His one nod to his very large family, and likely one of the greatest regrets of his life.
Couldve done a LOT worse than that Challenger. Granted, it was an abysmal place for that name to land but not because the car itself was ‘bad’…just way out of character. Many would say the same about the Shelby Charger, but at the same time it WAS capable of kicking ass and taking names in its own way.
My dad hasn’t owned too many ‘unusual’ or ‘oddball’ vehicles. Maybe for the area we lived in: small town in West TN. Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Chevys were the most common. Ponchos and Caddys were in sizeable numbers but much less so. Even Fords were on down in the pecking order, and that’s even with a decent sized Ford dealership known for good service. Mopars, AMC/Jeep, and imports made up the few and far betweens in our area. So with that in mind, here was the lineup. My parents switch hit between vehicles, but one was always a little more his or hers:
-’59 Pontiac Catalina
-’67 Buick GranSport
-’71 Barracuda
(married, later had me)
-70 Maverick (D)
-’66 Fairlane (M)
-’69 Jeep CJ-5 (D)
-’74 Dodge Coronet wagon (M)
-Ford Elite..76-ish (M)
-’78 F150 Supercab 4×4 (D)
-’79 Olds 98 2-dr (M)
-’79 F250 4×4 singlecab (D)
-’79 GMC VanDura (D)
-’85 Bronco XLT (D)
-’88 Bronco Eddie Bauer (M)
-’84 Dodge Power Ram (Dad later me, back to Dad til present day)
-91 GMC Safari (M)
-’97 Mercury Cougar (M)
-’01 Explorer (M)
-’03 Expedition (M then D)
-’97 Taurus (M)
-’10 F-150 SuperCrew 4×4
Several company owned vehicles have come and gone. Caprices and Crown Vics at first, then they FINALLY pulled their heads out of their asses and realized that 800 lbs of tools and gear on questionable roads are better handled by trucks, so a string of F-150s. These of course weren’t ‘chosen’ but rather were there for company use so don’t really count them as ‘his’.
Of course, my dad is a sworn Ford guy, but I refuse to let him down about how the ‘best’ vehicles he’s had are Mopars (the Ram a 24 year affair) a Jeep and a Buick. I had a soft spot for the ’85 Bronco too!
Dad’s cars that I remember:
’60 Comet 2 door Silver/Red
’63 Ford Falcon Squire with bucket seats and console option, Black/Red
’65 Ford Falcon Deluxe wagon Blue/Blue
’67 Chevy Bel Air wagon Maroon/Black
’68 Chevy Bel Air wagon Blue/Blue
’70 Chevy Townsman wagon Aqua/Black – first car with A/C
’73 Chevy Bel Air wagon Beige/Brown
’74 Chevy Laguna S-3 White/Maroon
’76 Mercury Monarch 4 door with buckets and console
’77 Chevy Caprice 4 door Green/Black
’79 Chevy Caprice 4 door two tone Silver and Gray/Red
’82 Chevy Caprice 4 door Blue/Blue
’88 Ford Crown Vic 4 door Blue/Blue
’91 Lincoln Town car Gray/Gray
’02 Mercury Grand Marquis Black/Gray.
Mom’s cars:
’65 Chevy Corvair Monza 2 door White/Red
’71 Chevy Vega wagon Red/Black
’75 Chevy Vega hatchback Rust/Tan
’82 Chevette 4 door Blue/Blue
’88 Nissan Maxima Blue/Blue
’04 Hyundai Sonota Silver/Black
Here’s something from the “fewer is better” school of automobile ownership:
-1948 Nash Ambassador- new postwar acquisition, a major investment
-1956 Rambler- used
-1961 Rambler Classic wagon- “not a real Nash”, back up lights only accessory.
-1965 Buick Sportwagon Rear axle housing leaked when new. Front then smashed when someone spun out from behind an approaching truck.
-1973 Volvo Trying to get “with it”, only to encounter a bad camshaft, shredding upholstery and lousy Goodyear radials.
1983 Toyota Cressida wagon- Finally!
199? Another one. Two rear wipers-cool.
1999 Toyota Avalon- too briefly
Seven cars in 50 years. The older I get, the smarter it seems.
My parents never drove anything really strange, except for some very bad color choices, they drove “Older guy with some money” cars. Almost every car my dad had was modded in some way for more power, a couple of these cars were real “sleepers”, the Imperial being the best sounding, by far.
I don’t remember anything before the 1960 New Yorker.
Dad-1958 Olds Dynamic 88, pretty much like this one:
http://www.popsclassychassis.com/CompletedProjects/58OldsPic02.JPG
Mom-1956 Chrysler New Yorker, in a sad green two tone:
http://www.hobbycar.com/932007BRHomeSm.jpg
Dad-1961 T-Bird, Strike one against Ford. Spent so much time in the shop, I barely remember it:
http://alamedarides.com/images/ford-thunderbird1961/Ford-Thunderbird-1961b.jpg
Dad-1963 T-Bird, strlike two, the car that never saw a head gasket it liked.
Dad-1965 T-Bird, and strike three for Ford. My dad never set foot into a Ford dealership again. He did crack and go into a Lincoln dealer in 1969, but kept the thing less than a month!
Mom-1963 New Yorker, an ugly car, in a really ugly shade of green. Mom denied this car existed for decades until I showed her the pic I took of it when I was 7. Soon it was gone.
Mom-1964 Cadillac, in baby blue. I liked the car, hated the color. I remember seeing it the first time, and asking my mom, “Why did you get that color?”. She claimed she liked it better on the color chart than in real life, This one is as close as I could find:
http://www.clcsocal.com/images/member_cars/1964gsr.jpg
Dad-1966 Toronado, in a kind of dull silver, again, “Why that color?”, One of the very first ones in the Toledo area, my uncles had the other two.
Dad-1968 Imperial, Bronze with black vinyl top, 440 had a cam and headers, was very fast and had a nice Mopar choppy idle. Was quiet until opened up. Had never ending AC issues, it was getting stuck on Max all the time.
Dad-1969-Lincoln MKIII, Avacado green, and he hated it so much that about three weeks after he got it, it was traded to my uncle for an avacado green Caddy Sedan De Ville, his last car.
1969 Cadillac, wrecked in March ’73, when my dad passed out, and hit a power pole, knocking out power to a large chunk of the South end of town. He came out with a couple of loose teeth and a broken nose. I got my license the next morning, so I could drive him to work. Dad died on Labor day ’73.
Mom- 1966 Cadillac; Another color scheme I hated:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/1966_Cadillac_Sedan_Deville.jpg
Mom-1969 Cutlass Supreme, in “misty blue”, again, I asked, “Why this awful color?”
Mom-1972 Cutlass Supreme, in RED (Yay!), with a white (Aw c’mon!”)vinyl top, and black interior. So close to getting it right. This would be my first real car, I used, and wrecked my sister’s ’71 Cutlass and was given the ’72 when my mom and sister both got very ugly Colon-Aid ’73 Cutlasses. Mom’s was that awful misty blue and my sister’s was new penny bronze. Awful. The first of many bad color choices my sister has made over the last 40 years.
Well, given I’m the age of most of the parents being referenced here, here goes – the list is a little long as it includes 28 years of military moves……;
– 1964 Ford Fairlane
– 1969 Olds Delta 88
– 1972 Pontiac Firebird
– 1974 Dodge Charger
– 1976 Plymouth Arrow
– 1979 Subaru Wagon
– 1980 Buick Skylark
– 1981 Olds Cutlass diesel
– 1974 Toyota Crown (JDM)
– 1976 Mazda Cosmo (JDM)
– 1976 Nissan Fairlady (JDM)
– 1976 Toyota Crown (JDM)
– 1986 Ford Escort GT
– 1982 Toyota Cresta (JDM)
– 1988 Toyota Cresta (JDM)
– 1999 Chrysler LHS
– 1996 Toyota Crown (JDM)
– 2002 Toyota Mark II (JDM)
– 2012 Volvo C30 T5
There were also a couple Toyota Previa Vans and two Lincoln Town Coupe classics; a 1966 and 1978.
Best day-to-day car – I loved the 76 Fairlady, a 2.0 litre version of the 240Z – it felt just like driving an E Type Jag, but without the hassles. Never had one problem with it.
Worst day-to-day car – the 80 Buick Skylark – a typical X car fiasco. The 86 Escort was not far behind. Surprisingly, the Cutlass diesel didn’t give me any problems..
60 or 61 Beetle
65 Volvo
70 Dodge Coronet 440
1975 Simca (as an errand runner…he loved the modernity of it)
77 Dodge Charger SE
82 Ford F-150 (After the Dodge Aspen he bought for my sister, he swore off ChryCo)
84 Thunderbird (his last car)
(When he passed away he was looking for a car for my Mom, and had decided on a Mazda 626…she bought it and we’ve been a Japanese car family since)
As I’ve probably said before, my father only owned two cars in his lifetime, a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda notchback w/the 318 & a 1973 Ford T-Bird. They were both bought new and had relatively low miles (the T-Bird had 24K when he passed away in 2009).
My father’s cars… not a huge list (he likes to drive ’em to the ground, usually 2nd hand):
195x Renault 4CV
196x Opel Kadett
1974 Peugeot 504 Diesel (bought new)
1976 Peugeot 604
1986 Pontiac 6000 SE wagon
1996 VW Golf TDI (also bought new)
2011 Peugeot 308
I think the Golf was the one he liked most. It certainly was a change from the Pontiac…
I took a few minutes to freshen up those images, so that they could be a bit closer to how fresh those cars are in your memories!
Thanks. I’ve replaced them all with yours. Any chance I could ask you to do this again if we ever have faded old pics like this? It makes a big difference.
Sure. Some may be beyond redemption with the relatively rudimentary software I have (not going to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop!)
But I can always try!
They look great! Thanks.
Glad to help!
How many noticed that Mark himself is in the photo of the Diesel Caprice Wagon?
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Dad’s cars were all frugal ones… He had absolutely no interest in a car other than as a tool.
– WWII Jeep assembled from a number of ex-British Royal Army wrecks
– 1938 Fiat 1100
– 1949 Austin A40 Devon
– 1953 Chevy 150
– 1957 Canadian Plodge (which we for some reason got in Israel instead of the “real” item)
– 1964 Ford Fairlane
– 1971 Dodge Dart
– 1976 Ford Cortina
– 1980 Chevy Citation
– 1984 Peugeot 505
– 1988 Mitsubishi Lancer
– 1993 Peugeot 405
– 1999 Toyota Avensis
– 2009 Toyota Avensis
All (apart from the last three) base engine models and all covered high mileage and sold when they started developing problems not economically repairable. Oh: all were 4 door sedans (other than the Jeep, which I suppose was the only sports car he ever had).
Dad’s cars
1976 GMC Sierra, stayed with us for 28 years
1977 Ford Maverick 2 doors, sold to my uncle who crashed it
1977 Pontiac Grand LeMans sedan, transmission broke
1983 Pontiac 6000, rear axle broke
1987 Buick LeSabre, engine problems + rust
1986 VW Golf diesel, rust killed it
1986 Ford Ranger, sold
1991 Chevrolet Silverado, sold
1992 VW Golf GTI, the only fun car of the bunch, same fate as the ’86
2006 Chevrolet Cobalt LS, current car still going strong
49 Buick Super sedan, pastel green. Tough car. My mom drove it until 61 when the brakes failed on her. Bought new.
61 Rambler Classic wagon, New. white. Very dependable and very boring car. My mom drove it unitl the summer of 69 when we returned to the states from the Canal Zone of Panama.
55 Chevy sedan, Used. rattle can black, very rusty. Dad’s “go to work” car.
61 MGA, Used. red and rusty. Dad’s “go to work” car until 1968. Yes, this car was shipped to Panama. Dad liked it!
6? Vespa scooter! Very used. Spent alot of time in the carport.
69 VW bus. New. It was sold the same year. Mom couldn’t reach the pedals!
69 MB 230S, New. Pretty black car. My Mom drove it while my Dad was in Vietnam. Lots of non-starting issues.
68 Ford Torino Squire wagon. Very used. This one was driven to the end of it’s life. Driver’s door and tailgate would no longer open and were missing the interior panels. Checking the oil every time the car was started was a requirement.
76 Honda Accord. Driven until it failed VA state inspection from rusty floors.
78 Accord bought in 84. Driven up to 178,000 miles and traded on a used 97 Accord EX. That’s it. Dad passed in 2006 and Mom July 12th.
My Dad had no interest in cars other than a form of transport. Nor did he ever have much cash to spend on them and I believe the Austin A40 was the only car that he ever bought new. To the best of my recollection, these are all the cars he has ever owned.
60s’ Ford Consol
60’s Austin Mayflower
60’s Austin A40
Fiat 850 Coupe
Mazda thingy from the early 70s
Renault 12
Lancia Beta Saloon
Ford Fiesta
Honda Jazz
I do believe that the Datsun B12 was called the ‘Cherry’ in the UK. A friend had to trade in his Lancia Beta coupe for one of these so that his wife could have something sensible to learn to drive in. He was not impressed.