I’m always very heartened when I see this distinctive green Checker Marathon on the road. It’s being driven by its original owners, who bought it new in 1967. When they were forty years old. You do the math. I’ll give you a hint: they’re almost ninety, and they’re still tooling around town in the Checker. Which has a three-speed manual (on the column) and manual steering and brakes. So now you know why I never take a sighting of them in their Checker for granted.
Strictly speaking, only one of them is in the Checker, the husband. I’m hoping that’s just temporary.
I shot their wonderful car five years ago, when I ran into them at our local butcher shop. I wish I had taken pictures of them too. They told me about all of the wonderful journeys they’d made in the Marathon, all over the US, Canada and Mexico. I wrote it up here.
Sometimes it appears unexpectedly in my shots, like with this Fiat 1500 Cabriolet. I see it at least once every couple of months. I’d love to have that wagon, but I can’t bring myself to ask if it’s going to be for sale sometime soon, as that has such morbid implications. But I know it won’t be popping up that much longer.
Here in Florida you just don’t see older people with really old cars in daily use. You see a few with 1980s cars and more with 1990s, but I can’t remember the last older person that I saw with a 1970s or older car.
I think it’s probably combination of our climate wearing cars out sooner (rust and sun damage) and the specific challenge of our heat, rain and humidity. Air conditioning systems in old cars are unreliable and expensive to fix and so once an old car’s AC breaks, it usually is the beginning of the end. Living with a daily driver that has no air conditioning is probably just too much for all but the most hardy elderly person. My galaxie has no air and it is pretty miserable during the summer, especially when it rains.
With vast improvements in rust protection and overall improvements in reliability of the cars and important systems like HVAC, I wonder if we will see more elderly folks holding onto very old cars down here in the next couple of decades…
I like the way the rear wheel-wells don’t cut into passenger space on this, unlike most more modern sedans & wagons.
An elementary school classmate’s family had a 7-door Checker Aerobus. One doesn’t forget novelties like that.
Wonderful, we should all be so fortunate.
The kind of customer the automobile industry fears. And they could be broken as an industry if too many consumers developed the same attitude.
Why do I get the feeling they don’t read car blogs?
Repeating this feat is impossible with modern cars (electronics), unfortunately. A car like that Checker could live infinitely, if you can do the maintenance yourself…
The computer/software industry is no better; is it as easy to do basic diagnostics today as it was, say, 20 yrs. ago? And just like the car & fashion industries, Apple & Microsoft constantly change the look & feel of their GUIs, with no real gain in productivity for the average user.
The marathon Marathon! I love this car, and I love the story that goes with it.
+1 – all you need to say
That is a jaw-droppingly cool vehicle! Function and durability above all- I love it and have always wanted one. That example is a real find!
I can’t imagine what manual steering would be like on a car this heavy. I bet the taxi drivers who had to get around in tight cities stepped up to the power steering. After so many years of ownership and probably covering the same few roads, it may have become second nature and good low impact exercise.
Two things help compensate for a lack of power steering: A steering ratio that makes for many turns, lock to lock, and a larger diameter steering wheel than what you normally see today. But it’s still a bit of a workout at low speeds.
I can attest to having no power steering on a 3,700 pound car. It’s not that bad. Having radial tires helps as does a large steering wheel, but once moving you do not notice the difference.
If I had to identify a difference, it would be the unwinding of the steering wheel after making a turn; let go of the wheel and let ‘er spin.
LOL that reminds me of when I was younger and loved doing that. Just turn the corner and let the steering bring itself back in line as you come out of the corner.
The only time I really wasn’t thrilled with the armstrong steering in my 3900 lb C10 was parallel parking into (and getting out of) a tight space and trying to back my 32ft 5th wheel trailer into a spot that required lots of back and forth maneuvering. One car for 48 years and counting. Good for them. Hope they are able to (safely) make it to 50 years. A few months ago I talked with a man who was in the parking lot with his ’69 Mustang red with black interior convertible. It was original everything and he bought it new. His wife was at home, and it looked like he was probably around 40 when the car was purchased. I asked if it had a 302, and he proudly told me it had the 351.
Now I remember. He also told me he was 35 when he bought the Mustang.
Jason,
I think you’ve got it backwards on radial tires making it easier to steer. I actually put a set of brand new bias-ply tires on my $125 1968 Fury III back in the 1980s, as that was the least-expensive new tire that I could get. The contact patch for the bias ply tire is smaller which makes it easier to pivot in place.
This Checker would have originally had bias-ply tires on it (and probably 8-ply at that).
True I took the modern low profile wide radials off my Hillman and fitted the razor blade style original cross ply tyres as an experiment much smoother quieter ride and very light steering, amazing difference really, however handling and wet weather traction were almost non existant and not the best under brakes so the newer wheels went back on and it drives well for a 56 year old car. That Checker appears to have radial tyres.
I’m just comparing my Galaxie with bias-ply vs. radial tires. Huge difference.
Most cars from that era would have had the recirculating ball type of steering, which does have good self-centering action. Nearly all modern cars have a rack and pinion arrangement and you generally have to at least assist the steering back into a straight line. As others have said most cars from back then had bigger steering wheels to provide better leverage. My 1963 Plymouth still had the big wheel, even though it had the optional power steering. My 1965 Pontiac, by way of contrast, had a smaller wheel even though the power steering was an option. I don’t think I would be willing to drive a full-size car from the mid-sixties without the power steering.
And the 1974 Dodge Charger used a really small steering wheel. Perfect for power steering, a class-A bitch for manual. It didn’t help that there was so much hub and so little rim.
Do that on a driving test here and they fail you for not being in proper control of a motor vehicle. But Dad used to do it all the time!
I’ve never seen a Checker Marathon station wagon in person. I’ve heard of them, and I’ve seen pictures of them.
I love this car! Stories about long-term owners are always my favorites. Thanks for the update.
Well they used to be all over the place and they are one brand I was sorry to see go. When I looked up the definition of pragmatic there was the picture of a marathon. No power steering is sort of moot unless you have heavy city traffic. I wouldn’t be happy to drive it in Houston but I wouldn’t really be happy driving anything else there either. The big steering wheel does just fine unless it needs to be done quickly.
I would go bonkers for a Marathon wagon with the Perkins…
Until you have to drive it and realise there are some faster tractors
What a lovely Automobile and great back story to go with it .
-Nate
To echo others, love the car and the story. I’ve seen perhaps a handful of Marathon wagons in my lifetime. Thanks for posting this.
What struck me, though, was that the owners purchased this car when they were around my current age. I wonder what the new, modern-day equivalent would be of this cottage-industry Checker Marathon wagon.
Nothing.
Mitsubishi I-MiEV. Or, slightly less modern, Pontiac Aztek.
A Mazda of some sorts or a Morgan?
Agree with Phil B. If you want a car like that, get a… Checker or any car from the 40s-early 70s.
Nice wagon!.
An older gentleman a block away from me owns two Checker sedans, both non-taxis. Though I only see him driving one of the Checkers ,both vehicles are rust buckets with gaping holes in their sheet metal.
I saw a Marathon wagon in SE Portland a few weeks ago. Similar color if I recall correctly. I’m sure there is more than one in Oregon, but I wonder if it was this one from Eugene. Oh, and kiwibryce, I saw a Hillman Husky, on the freeway near home a few days ago. It’s been a good month for interesting wagon sightings.
Good to know about the Checker Wagon, I will keep an eye out for it.
A family friend in the Southern Tier still has their 1986 Hardbody which he uses Pine Tar to keep the frame from rusting and fixes it every year. No AC, a stick shift, and a four cylinder engine. She has Multiple Sclerosis, they live quite humbly, and they grow a lot of their own food because they cannot afford to spend much money. I think he no longer drives to Florida in the Summer and now goes at chillier times of the year. I hope they have many more happy decades together. Your Checker story made me think of that. Wonder how many times that Checked has been restored?
Hey Paul, I was wondering if you’ve given thought to presenting a long-form interview with these nice folks. They seem fascinating.
I hope they give you the car one day, tbh. It seems very much like it’s following you. 🙂