This is one of the more fascinating vintage reviews from this mountain of old Road and Tracks in my closet. The Checker was of course designed to be a taxicab, back in 1955 as the Superba, which then evolved into the Marathon. In the early sixties, Checker decided to offer a civilian version, presumably in response to the growing dissatisfaction with the ever longer, lower, wider American cars. The Checker went against that grain with a vengeance, especially the lower part; it was essentially a pickup or utility truck (Travelall/Suburban) with a trunk. With its high ground clearance it was great for camping, but that’s not why they called it “America’s Ultimate Camp Automobile”.
The Checker was of course also the ultimate anti-Detroit-mobile, with its refusal to go along with planned obsolescence and trendy styling gimmicks.
Here’s a nice overlay of the Checker with a Toronado, just about the ultimate expression of wasted space (up to that point in time) despite its FWD. Power choices were Chevy’s 230 six, and the 307 and 327 V8s. A Perkins diesel was supposedly going to be available later in the year. I’m not aware of that actually happening.
The tested Marathon had the 200 hp 307 V8 teamed with a 3-speed Borg-Warner Model 8 automatic. Performance was “adequate” (0-60 in 13.9 seconds). Top speed was 103 mph. The brakes were somewhat disappointing, but probably adequate for typical use.
The dash full of genuine S-W gauges was very much against the grain, and quite appealing.
Despite its 62.8″ height, the Checker handled decently on its fat 8.15-15 tires and fairly firm springs and shocks: “Even at full song and sliding boldly sideways, you still retain the feeling that you’re in charge and the Marathon isn’t going to embarrass you by doing something unpredictable”.
The best part was the tall driving position, superb visibility, and most off all, the huge back seat with seemingly endless leg room. One walked into the rear compartment, something utterly outside of the realm of modern cars.
And the Checker had gobs of ground clearance, making it highly suitable for taking off paved roads. R&T wondered if Checker would let them have one to use as a press car to cover the off road Baja 1000 Rally.
Who bought Checkers, other than taxi owners? R&T’s local dealer in Alhambra also sold Mercedes, and the dealer told him that the two brands attracted similar customers: affluent, not a member of the professions (meaning a self-employed or “self-made” man), and they typically paid cash for their cars. The Checker wasn’t cheap, over $4500 for a decently equipped one, “but they have virtues offered by no other American car”.
FWIW, our neighbor in Towson owned a Checker sedan; in his case it was likely because he was seriously obese, and the Checker’s easy ingress and egress was a boon.
R&T goes on to describe the Checker as “America’s ultimate camp automobile”, and that’s not referring to its off-road prowess. “It’s square in both the literal and figurative sense…and should have tremendous appeal for those thousands of old faithful who can’t buy solid, square Studebakers anymore”.
Related reading:
Automotive History: An Illustrated History Of Checker Motors
Classic R/T writing at its peak. Straightforward reporting, with the tiniest hint of tongue-in-cheek if you know where to look.
In hindsight, I wish I had been on the lookout for a Checker back when they were at least a little bit common. Finding one of those rare privately-owned Marathons would have made for a unique driving experience, and a vehicle with so many of the features I prize in a car.
I remember a kid in my 6th grade class whose family owned a white Marathon wagon. I thought it was weird at the time, but as I got older I learned to embrace weird.
I could see that. And you can wear a hat in there and look perfectly natural.
Checker cabs were an extremely rare sighting in my childhood, and I don’t think I ever saw a civilian Checker.
It’s surprising that the retail-market package didn’t include a longer set of front seat tracks along with the woodgrain and the interior in color.
I too thought these were the perfect sedans.
My parents bought a Checker Marathon sedan in 1968 as our family car to augment and ultimately replace the 1959 Ford Zephyr. It had plenty of room for mom, dad, me and my three sisters. Ours had the 230 I6, manual transmission with overdrive, and unassisted brakes and steering. It was bog slow, but got 20 mpg city and 30 mpg cruising at 60 mph. The brakes were marginal as described in the article. It was fun to drive on country roads as it didn’t wallow the way many contemporary American cars did. It was also great in the snow. My Dad was an engineer, and previously drove a Studebaker and a Ford Consul before the Zephyr, so he fit the profile of a Checker buyer.
In the 1980s it became my daily driver doing yeoman duty hauling gear and people for my rock band. I do regret selling it in 1986 when the floor started rusting through.
Did your folks make sure the doors were locked to stop people jumping in at traffic lights expecting a trip home?.
My father, an engineer, bought one in 1968 too.
I remember that Checker dealer in Alhambra, I don’t recall them having Mercedes in the mid 1970’s .
There’s an elderly black lady who owns a black Checker sedan, she calls it her limousine .
Still looks cherry, I assume she garages it .
-Nate
Nate, my father bought a used 1967 Checker Marathon in 1968. Army green, mint green interior, 3 speed on the floor, no p/s or brakes. I hated that car. My aunt and uncle next door had a brand new 1968 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.
Mom totalled it in 1969 by flipping it on its roof.
Then Dad ordered a brand new 1970 Checker Marathom, with, believe it or not, power steering, power brakes, automatic trans, am/fm stereo and air conditioning and white sidewall tires. No power windows, unfortunately.
I wanted it in black so it would look like a limo. Mom loves blue so she got her blue interior.
There used to be a repair shop in Mountain View, California which used a Checker wagon as a customer shuttle. They had started as a VW shop in the air-cooled days but had broadened to cover all makes by 1990 or so, and we used them once or twice for some work on our Vanagon that I didn’t have time for. With their history, I would have expected them to use a VW bus but the Checker made a good rolling billboard. However I recall nothing memorable about the ride. I was probably worried about the bill as I was usually doing my own repairs then. The Vanagon wasn’t much fun to work on however.
12 to 15 miles per gallon of high-test gasoline with a Chev 307? Eek.
I’m tempted to call the test car a ’67, but I dimly recall Checker not adding side markers until 1/1/68, unlike most makers who put them on even those ’68 models built before that date.
“12 to 15 miles per gallon of high-test gasoline with a Chev 307? Eek. ”
And with a 3.31:1 axle and tall tires, no less!
I’m not sure why Checker specified high-octane gasoline, either. Best information I could find was that the early 307 had 9.0:1 compression ratio. Doesn’t seem like it should need premium.
I was thrown off similarly when looking at a 1970 model, which had just the circular reflectors associated with 1968-69 models… so it appears that they did the same thing there. From 1/1/70-up, they used the round rear side markers applied to a number of 1970 Buicks, sans any of the logos screened in the center of the lens for Buick models, and of course duplicated in amber (that quickly faded towards white when exposed to UV) for the front. Checker made a wiring revision around 1978? so that both front and rear side markers flashed with turn signals.
I also remember Checker switching to amber park/turn signal lenses partway through the 1962 model run, presumably due to using up their stock of clear ones. Not sure if this is adequate atonement for dragging their feet on the side marker front, but it’s a start.
I could be wrong, but I researchedly doubt they put amber front turn signals on any ’62 models.
It is mentioned on page 2, sixth image down from the top, in the lower left column of an article titled: “New Amber Turn Signals Causing Unexpected Turmoil”. Admittedly, I’ve only read about Checker’s early switchover in a couple of places, as I haven’t encountered but one or two early 1960’s A12’s in the flesh. I’m slightly more acquainted with late 60’s – end of production cars, though.
That was an excellent piece you did, by the way! I am of course a bit biased, as automotive lighting is one of my favorite subjects to nerd out on.
Uhhhh…oh yeah! Guess I lost track of all the contents of all the articles I used in that post.
(and thank you)
T.A. Cowen
We had a 1967 Checker Marathon, no side marker lights.
In 1968 they were federally mandated, but for 1968 and 1969, Checker had side marker reflectors. Ford did their rear side markers as reflectors also. 1970, Checker had side marker lights, big round things, like, as you said, Buick, but, Checker also had reflectors around the side marker lights.
Starting 1/1/68, the requirement was for front amber and rear red side marker lights and/or reflectors. Starting 1/1/70, the “or” was dropped; both lights and reflectors became mandatory.
My father’s new 1968 Checker, like the featured car in the article, had no side marker lamps, so both were built before January first, then?
Yup! (tho the Checkers built between 1/1/68 and 31/12/69 had side reflectors rather than lamps).
Hard to believe the weight of that beast is under 4k.
Looking at the driving position…could a tall guy even DRIVE it?! It’s a car for the passengers, the driver’s comfort is an afterthought.
And…how does the mundane 2bbl 307 need high-test gas?
I’m going to go a bit against the grain with this one, Checker may have configured the Marathon for cab work but the styling was firmly and painfully inline with 1957 Detroit design trends, as was the switch to quad headlights. It takes a savvy salesman to spin the 60s-80s years where it received meager to no updates as a virtuous “we’re not caving to Detroit trends, maaan”, rather than the company’s lack of money in the coffers to keep it up to date. I’m not falling for it. The Marathon has its appealing aspects but as a counterculture symbol? Nah, a contrarian symbol perhaps but that isn’t necessarily the same thing.
“R&T’s local dealer in Alhambra also sold Mercedes, and the dealer told him that the two brands attracted similar customers:”
tl;dr: Snobs.
Ok that’s a little harsh and mostly in jest, but I couldn’t resist, especially after reading ”Independent-minded enough to eschew a sex symbol or a mistress substitute instead of transportation.” Oh yeah, that’s the Mercedes demo alright! LOL Was that the sales pitch in the showrooms back then?
I can see a similar sort of buyer, both are anti-Detroit, but one is the anti-Cadillac and the other is the anti-Impala, on paper. In practice Mercedes has superb design engineering and materials though, it truly is a far better car in nearly every way, styling being the one subjective point at the time this was written, but while Mercedes used long-er cycles than Detroit the designs were generally kept up to date and in execution inherently low on fluff to really date them. Checker on the other hand is crude, its styling is blatantly 1950s Americana, it’s just as much of a yank tank as any other large V8 live axle body on frame car then-on the market down to its Chevy powertrains, the dash while functional is crudely presented, and the only truly unique merit is it’s tall space efficient stance that primarily benefits the passengers who don’t actually have their name on the title. And on top of that God forbid you drive it into an urban area people would be hailing you left and right! A low slung Impala doesn’t seem so bad.
I see your point about Mercedes dealers, but given it was 1968, I wonder if the Checker was the upsell for customers who loved the 220D, but found it was too small and slow, and though the w108 was too flashy and had too many bells and whistles to go wrong. I’d imagine the 240d and 300d and indeed even the 300SD were the final nails in that dealer’s Checker franchise. These Mercedes are where the Checker buyers probably moved to. Plus, don’t forget that most Mercedes dealers were former Studebaker-Packard dealers, and I’m sure there were more than a few really old school Packard buyers who wished they still made the 1951 Patrician.
An SUV platform with a sedan (or wagon) body over it is a good description of these. I used to wonder about how Checker magically got a flat floor in their cars, at least in back. A driveshaft hump that the center passenger had to straddle was a given in front engine/rear drive cars, save for the early Pontiac Tempest with the flexible rope-like driveshaft, but I knew the Checker didn’t utilize one of those. I eventually learned the whole floor was basically raised to top-of-driveshaft level, which wasn’t a problem due to the Marathon’s height.
It appears the Perkins diesel was indeed offered for several years; there certainly some out there, but there’s some question as to whether these were conversions or actually built that way by Checker. Online Checker clubs suggest the latter (http://www.icta.club/checker-diesels-whole-story), with most of them slated for the export market (especially Israel), but for the first year or two were sold domestically as well, selling a few hundred altogether. One was featured on Barnfinds.com (https://barnfinds.com/1969-checker-marathon). And here I thought the ’78 Oldsmobiles were the first American diesel cars (that GM diesel was also installed in some Checkers).
I don’t at all understand what R&T is getting at by designating the Marathon as “not a mistress-substitute” – a mistress is a person, and as such do not get how any car could be a substitute for her.
I would love a Marathon Wagon…even more a 7 door Aerobus, although that may be just a bit too much. But a regular 4 door Checker wagon? That’s been on the automobile fantasy list since I was too young to drive.
And I would have it painted to look exactly like this:
LOVE this!
Road and Track continues to thrill me!
I own 2 Checker Marathon Wagons. Checkers are just great!
Thank you for sharing this gem of an article!