(first posted 7/10/2016) In late 1986, I had a Manhattan co-op near Union Square, an Irish princess wife, no car, no pool, no pets, and soon no job due to Sony buying my employer Columbia Pictures from Coca-Cola.
I was only 42. I still felt that there was a lot I could do in my chosen industry somewhere.
But where?
My manager Catherine at Columbia Pictures went to work with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) where her husband was in sales. She told me DEC wanted to compete in the business/commercial side of technology and was looking for IBM oriented users and technical sales support personnel to help them in that effort.
DEC was big in the technology computing field where most of its customers knew more about DEC hardware and software than, well, than the DEC sales people. The DEC sales people were more like order-takers than sales personnel. But to sell to business/commercial computer users, DEC needed an IBM-like approach to both sales and technical sales support.
That’s where I came in; two interviews later a start date was set. I was a technical sales support person who knew little to nothing about DEC’s technology. But I had been on both sides of the sales effort in business/commercial technology and I could write and deliver presentations to potential customers who were doing the same things in their work that I did at Columbia Pictures and at Grumman.
The first thing I noticed at Digital was a little thing called DECnet. Digital had offices all over the globe and although the “Internet” was years from being introduced to the technical world, a Digital employee anywhere could communicate to any other Digital employee anywhere instantly. Why was this a big deal to me? Wasn’t e-mail starting to become common in most corporations?
When I say instantly, I mean INSTANTLY.
DECnet is described at here .
Today’s and yesterday’s email systems are almost all store and forward. Hit send and you message will be processed, digested, broken up into packets here and there, and later reassembled, and then arrive at its destination. Fast, but not immediately.
With the 1987 version of DECnet, there was no store; there was just forward. Using a Digital dumb VT terminal and talking to a co-worker in Singapore on the phone, I would say “here it comes”, press Send, and almost immediately on the phone I would hear a beep on my DEC co-worker’s Singapore terminal; my file had arrived.
Speed was important. As someone writing sales proposals and needing technical input from, and questions answered by, co-workers all over the globe, I could get information, ask questions, develop drafts, make revisions, and get the final documents completed more quickly and easily than using a regular PC email system.
Digital’s internal corporate DECnet network reached over 10,000 nodes by late 1986, making it one of the largest computer networks in the world at that time.
This appreciation of office automation technologies came in handy very soon. In the summer of 1988 my first big solo assignment was to help The Port Authority of NY and NJ IT department justify to their management the starting of the second phase of a Digital office automation implementation.
The PA offices were located in the North Tower (the one with the antennae) on floors in the mid to high 60s. DEC had wired these floors with DECnet Ethernet cables and networking hardware and implemented phase I of the full PA Office Automation project.
Ethernet is described here .
The Port Authority wanted Digital to do a detailed cost justification before starting Phase II. PA management weren’t sure how much the office automation system was saving them in time and money, and how much it was helping to increase worker productivity.
Today the answer to that concern would be obvious; back in 1988 people still weren’t too sure.
I had full access to anyone I wanted to speak with and I spoke with a lot of PA people. This was a real “Consulting” assignment with a capital “C” and having a chance to do it was a joy. Although I had the title of “Consultant”, most of my work had been tech sales support or systems design. It took me most of two months, often walking directly to the North Tower from my home on 16th street in the mornings and meeting my wife TIP (The Irish Princess) for lunch at the PA lunchroom in the sky 60+ stories overlooking NY Harbor.
There were PA sponsored concerts on the ground level plaza between the twin towers at lunch time; I even saw Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow) and the Four Tops there. For readers not at or near retirement age, ask someone older and wiser who Cousin Brucie is, or go to here.
PA management accepted my report and the subsequent oral presentation, funded Phase II of the OA project, and requested a second report from me on recommended future uses of the OA system.
During the same summer in 1988 I joined the one year old Manhattan Yacht Club (MYC) (now called the Manhattan Sailing Club – a much more accurate name). Back then the MYC had twelve J24 sail boats docked at the South Street Seaport on the East River between the museum’s two tall ships The Wavertree and The Peking.
The MYC was a way for New York City folks to race J24 sailboats in NY Harbor on weekday evenings, and take out boats for pleasure sails almost any time.
As a newbie I was initially relegated to the position of rail potato, but quickly qualified to captain a boat myself with just TIP and me. TIP was fearless on the water; I was not. Falling into the rapid currents of the East and North (Hudson) rivers could overwhelm even the strongest swimmer. We always wore life vests.
It was kind of neat to sail under the twin towers just an hour after working 67 stories up in the North Tower. Our three race buoy markers were usually set just west of the Twin Towers, east of the Colgate sign in Jersey City, and north of Liberty Island.
My racing mates were very competitive; many were from Wall Street and they wanted to win at all costs. There were a few incidents of over powered sails, an accidental-gybe, and one collision that de-masted two boats at the starting line as J24 “captains” jostled for position just after the one minute cannon signal.
This was competitive sailing; I usually came home from races covered in bruises slamming onto the deck to avoid swinging booms. While it was interesting and mostly fun, one summer of the MYC was enough. I clearly was not the competitive type that the MYC attracted.
Besides, TIP was pregnant.
After the PA study my biggest sale ever, and it was a team effort as I was just one member of the proposal team, was to the New York City Department of Correction (no “s” at the end of Correction).
The DOC put out an RFP (request for proposals) for an inmate telephone and commissary management system for NYC jails, including the 10 jails on Rikers Island and the smaller jails in each of the City’s boroughs.
It was a long and complicated technical proposal and sales effort.
The final competition came down to DEC, IBM, and one of the big Bell companies, I think Southwest Bell. These were exactly the companies DEC hired people like me to compete against.
No one thought we could win the business. Certainly not against IBM and SW Bell.
We won the business.
It wasn’t an easy or a fast win. We had to wait almost a year while the new NYC mayor David Dinkins took office and reviewed all pending contracts awards and announcements. My management was so concerned about the prolonged wait that I tried to avoid them in the hallways because they always asked me “Plaut; the DOC; we need this business; you need this business; what’s going on; we really need this business… “.
While we waited for Mayor Dinkins’ advisors and commissioners to approve the contract, TIP gave birth to a boy; we named him William after a Catholic priest that was an important influence in TIP’s life.
I was there at the birth and have some observations from that experience:
- If men had to give birth, humans would have died out as a species a long time ago.
- Delivery rooms are really cold.
- Umbilical cords are really strong.
When we brought William home in the back of a yellow cab TIP cried. She explained “I’m crying because we’re bringing William home now, but someday he’ll grow up and leave home forever.” It made sense to me and I too started to worry about it.
After looking at larger apartments in New York City we decided that maybe a move to the suburbs was in order. TIP did not have a driver’s license; she had spent her adult life in NYC and never had the need to get one. If we were going to move to the “country” she would need to learn how to drive.
TIP started taking driving lessons. Each Saturday morning she would eagerly wait in the lobby of our building and take a full hour of lessons on the quiet weekend morning square grid streets of Manhattan. She always returned from the lessons excited. TIP must have been a natural because she got her NY State driver’s license rather quickly.
To celebrate, we reserved a car to drive to Long Island for a family get-together. With William securely belted in a car seat in the back, I had the tolls ready and would be the navigator. TIP said she said she could handle the Queens Midtown Tunnel, which I thought would be the hardest part, but we left early anyway to avoid traffic.
TIP handles the tunnel just fine. We paid the toll, and then came a long gentle rising six lane sweep to the left and up of the start of the Long Island Expressway (LIE). TIP seemed to freeze, white knuckled the steering wheel, and went straight starting a right drift out of our lane. I gentle nudged the wheel to the left keeping the car heading in that gentle left arc and again the drifting of the car to the right. Adjust, drift, adjust, drift …
“You OK?” I asked. “Want to pull over and switch seats” (not a good idea on the LIE but traffic was light).
Then she relaxed. “Gentle turns” TIP said. “I never did gentle turns; all the turns I did were right and left 90 degree turns around corners.” “Wow. What will they think of next? I think I got it now. OK. I got it.”
All of her driver’s training was on the square street grid of Manhattan; all the turns she practiced were 90 degrees.
From that point on, the only fears I had regarding TIP’s driving was her penchant for speed, fast acceleration at green lights, and ignoring the gas gauge.
We looked in Westchester and Long Island for a “country” home but nothing struck us as what we wanted. Then a co-worker recommended his town of Basking Ridge in NJ. “If you don’t mind that some of the high school kids will drive better cars than you will ever own, it’s a nice town, almost bucolic.” He gave us the name of a real estate agent and we drove an Avis Tempo/Topaz out there to see for ourselves. I missed the older Avis 302 Fairmonts.
The town of Basking Ridge looked like something from Martha’s Vineyard, where we had honeymooned. This is where we wanted to live. After a few weekends of looking we found an expanded three bedroom, three bath cape on two thirds of an acre.
We hired “Shleppers” to move us from NYC to NJ. Our other choices were “Nice Jewish Boy With Truck” and “Mother Truckers”. It would appear NYC moving businesses are not without a sense humor. “Shleppers” did the job nicely.
Before the move date I called the local Toyota dealer and said I wanted to test drive and buy a Camry station wagon; we made an appointment to meet a sales person there on the day of the closing. I had done my research and the Camry was the car of choice. I even called to confirm the appointment.
On the appointed day and at the appointed time we drove our wine red Dodge Dynasty rental (a really nice car btw) to the Toyota dealer. They we busy, no one was expecting us, and they had a hard time finding a demo station wagon. Finally we got our test drive and I mentioned to the salesman that the car seemed a little rough and noisy and dirty. “Maybe it needs a tune up or some kind of service – not sure which” he answered. Anyone who knows cars knows that relatively new cars almost never need “tune ups”. This guy did not know cars; I suppose many car sales persons do not know much about cars.
Then he looked at the Dynasty parked near the door and said with a sneer “You’re complaining about this Toyota and you came in that?”
TIP was holding one year old William who was getting fidgety and I was feeling that we were not going to buy a Toyota wagon from this guy. We left that dealership. went to a diner for lunch, called our real estate agent and asked her from whom she bought her cars. She gave me the name and location of a Mercury dealer and said she would call her friend there and tell him we were looking for a station wagon.
When we arrived at the Mercury dealer a few hours later, we were welcomed like family, and shown to a washed and ready brand new Sable wagon. It was perfect, smooth, quiet, and roomier than the Toyota. He said it was basically a Taurus which were very sturdy and reliable cars, but the Sable was a bit nicer, and we would love their service department.
The next day we dropped off the Dynasty rental near our new home and were picked up by an employee of the Mercury dealership in a service car. Our new Sable wagon was shinning and waiting.
The Sable had an interesting tailgate. Turn the key one way and the glass back light opened up. Turn the key the other way and the entire rear, tailgate and window together opened up.
The Sable also had the backward facing third row so it was technically an eight seater. This photo is of a later model year, but that backwards facing seat hadn’t changed.
The front drive Sable had the 3.0 liter fuel injected overhead valve Vulcan V6 and a four speed AXOD automatic transmission. The Vulcan developed 140 horsepower at 4,800 rpm and 160 lb. ft. of torque at 3,000 rpm. The Sable weighed about 3,250 pounds.
The optional 3.8 Essex V6 was much more powerful torque-wise but that engine was plagued with head gasket issues and as a result I learned to appreciate the sturdy, reliable, and pedestrian Vulcan.
I noticed that the valve covers were plastic and wondered when that came about.
While Taurus and Sable sedans had struts at the front and rear, Taurus and Sable wagons had struts at the front and regular springs and shock absorbers at the rear to provide more floor and cargo space in the cargo area.
Cargo capacity was 45.7 cubic feet with the 60/40 split rear seat up, and 81.1 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down.
Our Sable also had a very visible rear anti-sway bar. For a large-ish station wagon, it handled very well.
Laurence Jones wrote up an earlier version of the Sable here.
Brendan Saur wrote up a 1990 Sable wagon here.
Jim Grey wrote up a 1990 Taurus wagon sister ship here.
The sable had a light bar between the headlights that went on with the parking lights and stayed on with the headlights. For some reason the little bulbs for the light bar were more expensive than one would think and hard to find outside of a dealership. I always made sure all four lights in the light bar were working. I thought it looked nice with just the parking lights on (upper left photo).
The Sable had a power driver’s seat and was as comfortable as any car I had previously driven. I tried sitting in the backwards facing third row just for kicks, but given a choice, I would prefer to walk than ride back there. Of course I would have no problem with my Irish in-laws and relatives sitting back there.
These Taurus and Sable wagons were all over Basking Ridge so we felt we had made a good choice because other people had made the same choice. Either that or we all made the same bad choice.
I had taken off three weeks for the move and was going to be walking to the train station to make the commute back to Manhattan and TIP needed to make a few solo runs in the Sable to get herself comfortable. William and I watched her pull out of the driveway and proceed up the road at a crawl as she got used to the car that was a bit larger than the cars we had previously rented.
Suddenly, I saw a gold Taurus/Sable wagon crest the hill in front of the house getting light on the wheels at a frightening speed and swoosh past the house going 30 or 35 mph on the narrow country road and heading for the road’s end and an “T” intersection less than a quarter of a mile away.
Widower-hood with a one year old child and a home in the suburbs flashed in my mind.
Then TIP’s gold Sable slowly appeared at the same hill going all of 10 mph, maybe not even 10; it was hard to tell. I remember the relief I felt seeing her smiling face as she pulled into the driveway.
“There’s another car in this neighborhood just like ours. Did you see it?”
“We saw it”.
The other car was a gold Taurus wagon.
TIP and Will went all over the state of NJ and beyond in the 1990 Sable Wagon. For the first three or four years it was fine. I occasionally had DEC company cars which were always Ford Taurus sedans and I noticed DEC did not keep them more than three years.
As nice as the Sable was, four years on it had started having issues with the A/C, the power steering pump, and some of the AXOD down shifts, especially the 2 to 1 going around corners were becoming long and rough. I would have been happy to keep it a long time as our primary vehicle if these issues were not regularly popping up.
Then DEC eliminated the company car plan as part of their “industry standards” cut backs, so I made plans to use the Sable for work and TIP went looking for a reliable and safe faster and sexier car.
It didn’t take long. One day she said to me “I found our next car; I already drove it. It’s really fast!”
“Oh goody” I replied, seeing more visions of widower-hood.
To the infinity and beyond!
Although belated, congratulations! This story keeps getting better every week.
That lightbar looks awesome. Holden did something similar here with the VP Calais, however I don’t know if it lights up. Don or someone from the local team will know for sure.
The last factory I worked at, had DEC terminals. Could not believe my eyes! Still working perfectly, the space for the data showed got “burned” into the monochrome CRT screen.
Does the LH ‘tiptronic’ shifter works moving the lever side to side?
Lightbar does look great. Taurusable not so much. Don’t think the Calais ‘grille blank’ lit up, but you’ve got me thinking about a fully sick aftermarket idea.
We can always discuss around a cuppa.
Motorclassica’s coming up. Gonna do a callout soonish.
I love the light bar GMH did something similar but it didnt lightup, Virtually the only Mercury Sable that model in this country lives locally and Ive seen it at night lit up looks cool, its driver told me it had been subject to a transmission recall before it emigrated but drives fine still.
That’d be a weird look coming toward you at night, if you weren’t expecting it!
Kinda used to unusual light displays on trucks at night I thought it was just a custom feature someone had fitted at first like the neons under boyracer ricers.
In 1990, the all new 4 door Grand Prix had a similar light bar design.
I had a coworker in 1994 who drove a 1st generation Taurus wagon. That was when I noticed that it had been a while since I’d seen a 1st generation Taurus or Sable. In 1990, they were everywhere. It was a design that appealed to practically anyone that could afford a new car. Hopefully, they could afford another new car before the Taurus was paid off.
As I recall, when Consumer Reports surveyed their readers about car dealerships many years ago, Toyota ranked near the bottom. Good cars but lousy dealers. I guess some figured the cars were so good, they could treat the customers like dirt, and they’d buy the car anyway. Another nasty practice that helped cure me of ‘new-car-fever’ was the ADP or ‘aftermarket adjustment’ dealers added to the list prices of many Japanese makes back then.
I remember shopping for a new Toyota pickup to replace my ailing Audi wagon. I was interested in the $5995 base model. NOT the fully loaded 4wd version, which was $13995, plus a $500 ADP. Well the base model ADP was an extra $1000!
So I decided I’d put $1000 into my Audi before I’d ever give a Toyota dealer 2 cents!
The only Fords I’ve ever owned were a ’68 Cortina GT and a ’77 Pinto – both stick-shifts.
Unfortunately, the Taurus/Sable cars were plagued with automatic tranny problems for years.
Happy Motoring, Mark
“I found our next car; I already drove it. It’s really fast!”
Reminds me of when my wife Stacey and I were dating. I was stuck in the passenger seat of her Vibe and she asked me to get her something out of the glove box. I saw that in the glove box there was an Escort radar detector with its power cord and windshield bracket nicely tucked away in there.
“What’s the story on the radar detector?”
“Oh my sister Brandy gave that to me when she moved to Chicago and gave up car ownership.”
“Why don’t you use it?” (She had been pulled over and warned for speeding just the week before.)
“When I don’t use it I drive 75 to 85. When I do use it I drive 100.”
“The glove box is a good place for it.”
Vibe GT?
Nope the Vibe “base” with the good old 1.8 ltr Corolla motor connected to a 5-speed manual. Not sure if that model is limited by anything other than drag vs hp when it comes to top speed.
I just wondered. If it were a GT she would probably using “lift” quite a bit. In the upper rpm ranges the GT camshaft goes into a high lift mode for extra power.
Ooh, I had the 1.8L mated to the 5 speed on my first Matrix. I never tried to find out its top end.
And my second Matrix is the XRS with that special cam. Unfortunately, I got one with an automatic, which is a terrible transmission to mate to that engine.
…”Then he looked at the Dynasty parked near the door and said with a sneer “You’re complaining about this Toyota and you came in that?”
Unfortunately this customer/salesperson interaction happens far too often in the auto sales world. Possibly it’s part of their sales training to belittle and insult the customers, and the real sad part is far too many customers take this abuse and buy the product anyways.
Kudos to you for walking away from this poor excuse for a sales rep.
If the salesman said that to me, he’d have a few nice come-backs. Anyway, it was probably his last day and he had had it with cheapskate buyers thinking they can literally get cars for free (short men with the Napolean Complex were the worst) and a salesman of any product or service is uneducated scum of the earth even though they themselves may be a high school teacher in a failing school district or maybe even own their own massage parlor. Anyway, the auto sales business has a very, very, very high turnover rate. I did a short stint in new car sales. And here’s another reason he may have been like that (I never slammed my competition in any field) – it starts at the top. The salesperson has to take a series of online “training” in order to be “certified” to sell any particular make of car. Nobody learns about the product/car by watching videos and hearing snarky remarks about the competition, I don’t anyway. Honda, for example, makes a big to-do that their Fit has “finished” caps on the end of their metal seat track whereas, say, the Ford Focus doesn’t. This is supposed to be a big selling point. I guess if I was looking for something under my seat and gashed my forehead on the edge of that metal track, I might buy the car over the competitor but the chance of that happening is slim to none. The chance of me snagging my pants on it is slim as well. This is just one example of the childishness……from the top. I could give you about 78 more.
This is a very extreme case of “abuse” by a salesperson and I’m sure where I worked you would have been fired but there probably aren’t too may places outside of the U.S. where you can simply drive 3 miles up the road and buy somewhere else because you didn’t like the salesmans shoes or wanted a black salesperson, or a female salesperson, or they didn’t give you any free popcorn and a pedicure before your test drive. We have a lot of choices here. In hind site, before selling cars, I’m sure I was considered what they call a “laydown” (i.e. I never really argued back and forth for 2 hours or even 2 days about a $250 price difference) and realize that the business and salesperson have to make a living too. After selling cars, I make every person trying to make a living KMA and prove to me why I should buy from them, why you’re a better doctor than the dude down the street, justify their nickel more in price and work them like a dog just because they’re trying to make a meager mortgage payment, just like me.
I like the trajectory your life is taking here.
I always liked the Taurus/Sable even though I never owned one. They have such nice interiors and give a very good ride / handling combination. Unfortunately “Quality is Job # 1” took a long time to go from slogan to tangible results.
In my memory the local popularity of Mercurys were directly proportional to the quality of the local dealer. Sounds like you had a good one that moved plenty of Mercs.
Your continuing saga has been the highlight of my Sunday reading. I look forward to the next chapter featuring the Eagle Vision if that interior picture is correct.
On the automation presentations you made to govt agencies while at Digital. I know such things are a necessary box to be checked as part of the spending process. I have even been on the receiving end of a few as part of my service on a citizens advisory committee locally. Do you think the claims that were made proved out once the money was spent and the systems installed? In my experience the process drags out so long the technology is out of date by the time it is installed.
On liking your rental Dynasty and of course having it sneered at by the Toyota dealer. I know the Dynasty is controversial, boxy when zaftig was in style, but what kind of idiot sneers at a car a customer drives in.
I am enjoying your COALs
The kind of salesman that doesn’t want to make a sale, and isn’t long for that line of work.
I miss this generation of the Mercury Sable. Besides the overall body styling (both the sedan and wagon), I love the light-up grille that was common on the Sable. My dad had two Sable wagons.
When I was 9, my parents test drove an ’89 Sable wagon. They really liked the way it looked and thought they were going to buy it, but they also decided to test drive a Plymouth Voyager, since that newfangled minivan was all the rage. They ended up not liking the Sable or the Mercury dealer, and really liking the Voyager and the Chrysler/Plymouth dealer.
About 15 years later, with their youngest – me – about to graduate college – they considered that they didn’t need a minivan and looked at a Chrysler 300M. They ended up buying a Town and Country.
My first experiences using the internet for anything were through a DEC VAX system and VT510 terminals. Most had amber screens, but a few were paper white. The font that VAX terminals used were usually very readable. Surfing the web through the Lynx browser wasn’t a huge sacrifice then, in fact it was still novel just to be able to surf the www, even if only text. Digital’s stuff all seemed built to last, too. My university still had quite a few operable DEC Rainbows in 1995, but used them mostly to emulate VAX terminals by that point.
The university I work at finally retired our DEC VAX sometime in the early 2000’s. We still had one faculty member after that who would regularly call and complain that the statistical analysis he was doing was way easier when we had the VAX than when Microsoft took over everything – he was convinced that if an application ran on Windows, it was a Microsoft product.
The university where I worked for the first 10 years of my career were running their library card catalog system on a VAX system until probably 2006 or 2007. By that time they had a way to access it on the web as well (not sure if that was a parallel system or if it hooked into the same database) but the base system was still on the VAX. By that time they’d had to resort to ordering spare used parts off ebay to keep it running since there was no other way to get them!
There were amber-screen VT420 terminals all over the place to access it. Going back further, when I was a kid in elementary school, our local library had green-screen Digital VT terminals set up to access the card catalog system.
I graduated college in 1982, and they were running a DEC 10 mainframe. I still remember doing punchcards for a small data project that I did for a class. There was nothing worse than hoofing it all the way across campus to use THE COMPUTER and seeing the sign on the door indicating that “the computer is down.” My but we have come a long way. Or my but JPC is old. Pick one.
My employer used to run a VAX shop back in the ’80s, which replaced earlier 60-bit CDC Cybers. I concluded that VAX/VMS was the Mercedes of systems, not terribly fast but stable & reliable. Furthermore the IT people knew their stuff, unlike today with Linux. I don’t think they’re paid enough & they’re overworked.
I’m ex-DEC also. It was a great place to work despite problems like having clueless sales people and being management-heavy. In the 1980s DEC’s engineering network, the “Easynet,” really was wonderful. We had over 30 years ago what people marvel at today – minus the pretty pictures of course since it was all done in text with VT-100 (and its successors) terminals.
PBS even did a documentary about DEC and its founder/CEO, Ken Olsen:
http://video.wfyi.org/video/2282149336/
I don’t think there will ever be a company like that ever again.
Know this isn’t a computer forum, but as it is part of the COAL, wanted to comment.
DEC was of course at one time the 2nd biggest computer company around…now there are (younger) people who I’ve worked with that don’t have any experience with DEC (nor Data General)…when I bring it up, they usually look annoyed and say something like “Why are you telling me this?” Guess I’ve become one of the old-timers. We had a Xerox mainframe at my school when I was an undergraduate, but I also used a DEC PDP/8 entering the bootstrap program on the switch registers that allowed you to load a program from paper tape, which ultimately let you access your program stored on digital cassette tape..no “firmware” back then, unless you consider the manually entered bootstrap code as firmware…ROMS came a bit later.
I’m sure DECnet was great, but I briefly worked for Datapoint Corp, which still exists in some semblance in the UK, but came up with the first local area network (not to be confused with internet) installed at Chase Manhattan in 1977 with their ARCnet token ring, even before Xerox’s Ethernet. Unfortunately it was kind of like Betamax, it was kept pretty much proprietary (there were a few other companies that made ARCnet cards but very few) and a corporate takeover in the mid 80’s pretty much did them in the rest of the way. I worked on Datapoint’s (private) local area network , connecting file servers, printers and other workstations more than a decade before I ever got on the internet. Few people know that the instruction set for Intel’s original 8008 processor actually came from the Datapoint 2200, which ironically never used it (Datapoint commisioned Intel to develop it, but the schedules didn’t work out, Intel sold it to other companies after that….Datapoint pretty much used bit-slice processors or one product I worked on used the Zilog Z80…I made a really ignorant comment when I was working there, something like “wow, Datapoint’s processors program just like Intel” when it was more chronologically right to say that Intel programmed like Datapoint. Few programmers realize (or probably care) about this…probably mirrors the car world…sometimes it is the innovators that are forgotten.
Going from DEC to Mercury (and continuing the thread of talking about now obsolete companies) , around this time my Dad was in his Sable phase, owning 3 of them in a row (1989, 1994, and 1996…2 were leased, so he got them more frequently than even he normally would ), though all were sedans.
In 2001, he switched over to Chevrolet and bought 2 Impalas (2001, 2006) in a row, my sister now owns the 2006. I liked the Sables, I think my favorite was the one he kept the shortest, the 1994. Two of them had the 3.0, the last one had the 3.8, but he didn’t keep them long enough to have problems with the head gasket. My Dad would wake up in the morning, decide he wanted a different car, go shopping, and have the car bought before he went to bed that day, and he didn’t wait too long before buying them, though of course the leased ones kind of forced the schedule, he had to either get something else or buy the lease once it was through. Not exactly sure why he changed from Sable to Impala other than just to try something different. Anyhow, I’m glad at least that Chevrolet is still around…otherwise I’d start to really feel like an old timer…now let me go to my favorite restaurant…whoops, darn, it’s gone out of business on me too now.
“Faster and sexier” in the next installment?
Eagle Vision…Yup.
My 1987 Sable wagon, purchased used, developed a slow 3-2 downshift at high mileage…with a flare and then a hard grab if the throttle was manipulated “just wrong.” I figured it would cost no more to fix it if/when it failed altogether so I kept driving it for another 45,000 miles until it was rear-ended by a gravel truck at 175,000 miles total. Those cars’ transmission issues finally settled down when the transmission controls were updated from hydraulic-governor to electronic, and front gearset lubrication was improved. Both were done by MY1992, the beginning of the second-generation Taurus/Sable. The transmission, renamed from AXOD-E (for “electronic”) to AX4S, remained into the next generations of Taurus/Sable.
Those little bulbs in the Sable light bar WERE expensive. They were mini-halogens. I got a cheap stash under an industrial part number from an electronic surplus store…lucked out. The light bar in the 1986-87 Sables didn’t look quite as cool, because it had a dark dividing bar in the middle, which meant the Sable logo wasn’t silhouetted.
Great Sunday morning read. My late brother worked in system sales for your competition, IBM during that same time period. He did quite well with them. In 1987, he and his wife, also an IBM sales associate, bought a Mercedes Benz 300E which they kept for 20 years. They passed the Benz on to me and I still drive it on a semi-regular basis. My 11 year old grandson has put dibs on the car when I’m ready to pass it on.
I bought new 88 Camry and the dealer experience was pretty much what you described. Today, the local Toyota dealerships have taken customer care over the top. Customer lounges with mini theatres, free food and drinks while your car is being serviced, courtesy pick up and drop off etc.
The perrenial problem of American cars of the era: they grenade right after warranty.
Perhaps it wasn’t just this era. My wife’s Taurus grenaded at nine years and 85,000 km. What a piece of crap that car was.
There are far more American cars holding well and lasting much longer than other cars ( parts sharing has the advantage ) but choosing wisely is very important.
Here in Canada anyway, I never found common or garden variety Honda or Toyota stuff cost any more than GM and Mopar stuff. The Civic is the perrenial favourite here, and there is loads of aftermarket support for them.
As for “far more American cars holding well,” I think that has something to do with where you are. Where I live, there are loads, I mean loads, of old, and I mean REALLY old, Japanese stuff running around. That is because there was loads of Japanese stuff sold here then. However, I do not see many 30 year old American cars anywhere and there were loads of them sold, too.
Choosing is indeed wise. I sprained my left ankle yesterday, so I am driving my 17 year old TL in order not to push the clutch. The car runs flawlessly.
“Then he looked at the Dynasty parked near the door and said with a sneer “You’re complaining about this Toyota and you came in that?”
What the actual F? I try to keep reasonably calm with sales reps even when they’re being… difficult… but I would’ve absolutely lost it. I’m surprised you didn’t do everything you could to get him fired before leaving. Even if you arrived in a rusty, dented Pinto (let alone a BRAND NEW RENTAL CAR that isn’t even yours), in what world is that supposed to secure a sale with a customer?
Unless it’s a specialty dealership I just assume salespeople know as much about cars as they do about ancient Cambodian pottery. I met one who could yap on about unnecessary financing for an hour but kept confusing new Camrys and Corollas on the lot because they “looked really similar”.
As a matter of interest, Basking Ridge, NJ, is home to the oldest (600+ years) white oak tree in the United States. Sadly, it may be nearing its end:
http://sn.im/baskingridgeoak
When I hear Basking Ridge, AT&T and Bell Laboratories immediately come to mind (though I think Bell Labs was in Holmdel).
Another great Sunday morning read, now with a much happier and drama free family life.
Looking forward to next Sunday!
We had a well-used 1989 Mercury Sable sedan (with a rebuilt 3.8 litre, so never any head gasket troubles).
It was a great car, especially on the highway! We ended up selling it to another family member, who drove it until the transmission died at about 175,000 miles.
“AXOD down shifts, especially the 2 to 1 going around corners were becoming long and rough”
Ah the old 1 to 2 or 2 to 1 bang shift. A lot of techs and trans shops will tell you that the car needs a new transmission but the real truth is that is simply needed a new Vehicle Speed Sensor(VSS) which is a $40 part that takes 10 mins to replace(bolts onto the top of the trans)
I have fixed 3 Taurus/Sables with that issue by replacing that part.
When I went to the junk yard this morning to get some parts, there was a nice condition 1991 Sable GS with shiny paint, immaculate interior. It looked new. It had the Vulcan 3.0 V6 so it ether was dumped because the car’s owner died and the heirs did not want it OR it went in because of a supposed transmission issue. This is probably the most likely reason as most likely a trans shop told the owner it needed a new trans and it was junked(all for a $40 part)
My folks love Taurus/Sables and have had/still have 3 of them. Their 93 Taurus was traded in for a 2009 Taurus. The 93 gave no trouble.
As for the Toyota dealer. They are arrogant a** Holes. The dealership experiences (dealing with the 3 local Toyota Dealers) I got with my 1 year old 12,000 mile Scion XB pertaining to warranty work was the reason I turned around and dumped that car(the only time I ever lost money on a car and was happy about it) and vowed to never buy another Toyota product ever again. Heck if it came down to having to choose to buy a Toyota or ride the bus, I will be buying a bus pass
I hear you about Toyota. I have tried to buy cars of them several times, and they seem unwilling to part with their product, since I may not be worthy of said Toyota. When I was shopping for a new car in 2006, the local Toyota dealer was just awful and basically ignored me. When I was shopping in 2008, they would not sell me the car I wanted, and in 2015, they didn’t have a car I wanted.
I have had mixed experiences with the Toyota dealer here. Some years ago we were looking to buy a Highlander for my wife to use as her daily driver; to make a long story short the local dealer refused to make any kind of reasonable deal. We saved over $2000 by driving to Louisville, a couple of hours away. On the other hand the service department here has always been cooperative, perhaps because my wife taught the service manager when he was in high school.
+1. It’s a shame to see a car in great condition in a junk yard, especially when it’s a model you’re familiar with.
Srsly? I must have been lucky. I’ve bought two cars at Toyota dealers and the experiences were fine.
It all depends on the dealership and directions from the management. The dealer 5 minutes away is a hack where the sales hawks attack you as you get out of your car. The one I’ve steered many sales to and our extended family has bought 8 cars at is 20 minutes away and worth every minute of travel. Good people, reasonable about the trade in, and doesn’t force feed the “mandatory” port add-ones down your throat.
Ive tried to get parts from Toyota and that was bad enough, first the part I had was only fitted to NZ new cars but they didnt have one in country, it would have to come in from Japan that would take a week and cost $1,000, I thanked them and left, at a spares wrecking yard I got the cold start throttle controller from a 2.0 ex JDM Camry $20 it worked fine.
Kiwibryce, I would appreciate your not writing Jap when you mean Japanese. It is considered very insulting by me and all Japanese in the US. I am sure you don’t mean it to be insulting, and I don’t take it personally. Thank you for your understanding.
I’ve told him that for years, and gone in and edited them or deleted them, but sometimes I’m not around. He rarely responds to comments, unfortunately.
It’s difficult for me to go back to older comments to edit them. I’ll see what I can do.
I often wonder what it would be like to ride in the rear facing jumpseat in these as an adult, as a kid I had an absolute blast in the carpool, it was the only car of our parents that I didn’t anxiously try to call shotgun – I wanted that seat, I didn’t want to leave that seat! Now it looks like a torture chamber.
Love the lightbar on the Sable as well. That was one of those things that Mercury should have fully embraced as a defining brand feature, but instead it was treated it as a gimmick and phased out with no defining trait for the 96. Same thing happened with the original Cougar’s electric razor grille – and I like the 71s personally, but they went from instant identifiability to looking like another Ford.
Another good read. When you were describing the runup to TIP getting her drivers license, I was happy to see that there would be no repeat of bringing home a stick shift that she would have to learn how to drive. We do learn our lessons as we get older, don’t we. 🙂
Your experience with your Toyota dealer was much like my experience with a local Honda dealer in 1985. I walked around the showroom looking at cars for perhaps 30 minutes. Not one soul came out of his or her office to ask if they could help me. I made up my mind that I would not be buying a car there. And I have not to this day. But in their defense, they were selling everything they could get their hands on for markups on top of sticker. In contrast, a Mercury dealer needed to know how to sell something.
Just using your comment as a springboard, no idea how you rolled then.
I always tell guys-suit up. That isn’t a reference to How I Met Your Mother, it’s just solid life advice. I always car shop in suits, regardless of what sort of dealership it is. Even though it isn’t totally accurate, a suit tells people subconsciously that you are mature, serious, and are probably a white collar professional pulling in enough scratch to afford what you are looking at. Might not be true, but a suit still has that cultural credit.
Just make sure it isn’t overly big or small and you aren’t making obvious faux pas like wearing the wrong color belt with shoes or obviously cheap shoes. Dressing up opens tons of doors that “being comfortable” does not.
I dunno. Suits are so…1980s. I haven’t worn a suit once since moving to Eugene in 1993, except as a costume in a play I was in. If you wear a suit here, everyone’s going to think you’re a Mormon missionary. 🙂
East coast vs. west coast.
http://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences5/suit
Personally a suit seems overdressed, but if I’m heading to car dealership I do dress at least as nicely as I would for work. (Slacks and a dress shirt/button-down.) Don’t want to get ignored because I don’t look like I’m worth their time.
Whoa, the gray Sable GS with Georgia plate was originally sold new in my hometown, Seekonk, MA! Tasca is still around (the original Seekonk Lincoln-Mercury location now sells Ford and Mazda), but the larger location is in Cranston.
At least you still have your legend. When Don Yenko retired, the kids took up Honda and dumped Chevy. The franchise is now Sun Chevrolet.
Cousin Brucie…WABC nighttime legend, now on Sirius XM.
Have to admit, while I respect him, I was more of a Dan Ingram fan, used to listen to his show on WABC every afternoon on my way home from work.
Really enjoying this series…can’t wait ’til next week.
Dan Ingram truly is a radio legend, the airchecks of him that are out there are amazing. He has a style that many tried to emulate (such as Bob Cruz who was also at WABC for a time) but he really is one of a kind
Dan’s biggest fan has to be Jon Wolfert from Jam Creative Production. He’s done several jingle package demos for Jam (even ones not related to WABC) and he’s just as entertaining on those.
Wow, what a great reading! I had ‘privilige’ of workimg with DEC terminals during my summer job at credit reporting and background investigation service in the late 1980s.
What impressed me the most was how fast the data was entered locally in Dallas and processed remotely in Atlanta without any hitch. My supervisor could call up any report that was entered elsewhere instantly. I thought that was really greatest thing for the 1980s technology when we had to make do with dial-up modems and slow connections. I had worked with similar data-processing systems at other companies and had unfortunately developed low tolerance for technical glitch or software issues with the systems. With DEC, I had yet to experience that.
Thanks for bringing the memories of my old summer jobs back. Keep those stories coming!
My first real exposure to the TaurusSable was my sister’s new ’87. Here was a car that drove heavy, solid, well screwed together, much like my older Audi 5000. But as parts started to fail and the reliability obviously wasn’t there, it was gone by ’89 for Crown Victoria.
Fast forward a few years when my dad suddenly died and my mom started driving again after taking a break from it for 20 years. We had to find her a reasonably priced low mileage car; my sister found her a 2 year old Sable with 10k miles on it in Elderly Gray. Alas although my mom loved her car and drove all over like a maniac, it showed us that Ford hadn’t learned many lessons since the ’87 – AC system went out, ABS had severe maladies, rotors all warped….all by 50k miles and 4 years old.
Imagine if Ford had gotten it right?
The original Sable wagons were, in my personal opinion, one of the best-looking longroofs ever. They really just nailed the design. Shame the reliability wasn’t up to par, especially given your experiences. (The few 1st-gen Taurii I see anymore all look like they’ve been through a war and I can’t remember the last time I saw a 1g Sable.)
Also, again, these entries are just a pleasure to read–your skill at describing the work and personal aspects of your life, while relating all these details to your choices in cars, quite impressive! Looking forward to next week.
Sorry, I just thought those were plain silly. I remember the first time I saw one thinking…..uh, maybe when we’re wearing space suits and bubbles around our heads…..and the sight of a senior citizen driving one! Anyway, I was right. Car design still really hasn’t mocked the Jupiter II flying saucer yet and they’re still on round rubber tires too. It’s peculiar and ironic how dated this silly “modern” concept looks on this particular day in time.
A gifted writer is always enjoyable to read .
.
These car related life stories are terrific .
.
-Nate
Ahhh Cousin Goose Grease, as Dan Ingram would say! Those were the CBS-FM 101.1 lunchtime oldies summer concerts – completely off topic, but brought back great memories of CBS-FM from when I was a kid listening not too far from Basking Ridge in Manville NJ (at least the same county).
A school chum of mine had parents that loved 1st gen Taurii/Sables – they had sedans from 86 & 87, fully loaded with leather and power goodies. They must have been religious about maintenance because they never had a bad thing to say about them even with them being over a decade old.
IMO this is the best COAL series ever written.
It’s very well written, entertaining and above all, one can tell this stories have a lot of soul in it.
RLPlaut, congrats, I hope someday you can give us an update on it. Or do any other stuff on CC.
Many thanks for the enjoyment and for the inspiration mate.
As for the car, in my opinion it still looks modern and elegant.
And +1 who think It’s a shame they killed the wagons.
A blacktopped 8-watt, 132-lumen halogen bulb called the 2040, with a wedge base smaller than that on the (50-lumen, 5-watt, much less expensive and more available) 168, which could be crammed into the 2040 socket with some determination. As your picture showed, the lower light output was very noticeable.
I hated those 2040 bulbs — always burning out and a pain to get to. I called them ornamental but the place where I got the car inspected annually disagreed, so I had no choice but to replace them. I didn’t know about the 168 bulbs sort of fitting, and I bet they wouldn’t have passed inspection despite the lower output.
With a 500-hour lifespan rating, they were a poor choice given their intended usage—lit whenever the headlamps were on. “Any light present on the car must work” is fairly common among those few US states where vehicles are inspected. 168s probably would’ve passed just fine.
(For less than what Ford spent on that silly ornamental light bar, they could’ve installed real rear turn signals and side repeaters)
But… but-but… amber rear turn signals are un-‘Murrican! Side repeaters are for commies! In not the red stripe in the side trim on your Eurosport Celebrity enough to satiate your European desires?
*Is* not the…
-thwarted by the autocorrect butchering device yet again. TC
Everyone has a story, eh? I enjoyed this one wondering what daily life could be like in a city like New York.
Sometimes I miss the 87 Taurus wagon we had. Great car, even when the tranny smoked itself travelling from central British Columbia back to Edmonton. That was the only serious issue during the time we had the car which when new was someone’s company vehicle. That person also had a minor tranny issue. Yes, the first generation Taurus and Sable had some issues but they were groundbreaking. Our 96 Sable LS sedan served us well for a decade before we sold it to a young couple.
I am surprised I didn’t comment on this 6 years ago. We had a 1990 Mercury Sable sedan purchased new. We kept it for 10 years and 135,000 miles but in hindsight, we should have moved on after 4 years. All the usual problems (except no head gasket issue with the Vulcan engine). It’s a tossup as to which car was more unreliable — the 1975 VW Rabbit or the Sable; certainly the Sable cost us much more.
One thing about those transmissions back then was to definitely change the fluid every 30,000 miles. Not 60,000, not 80,000, not 50,000, but every 30,000, and to change it all which is quite a lot. My 98 Sable wagon sits in the garage as it needs me to pull out the block and bring it to the machine shop. Has an out of the blue rod knock. A standard crank, resized rods, all the Ford bearings, gasket set, head bolt set, camshaft, oil pump, timing set and water pump are present in the garage. Shop to determine overbore, machine, press pistons, and give it back to me for assembly. It will live on.
THIS comment right here. My aunt gave me her 1992 Sable LS station wagon last year, and my uncle did just this, changed the fluid and filter on the transmission every 30,000 or so miles and 200,000 plus miles it still has it’s factory AXOD-E. Never died, never been replaced, never had to be fixed. People who think you can go to 100,000 miles on an AXOD without maintenance on it in a Taurus or Sable are nuts.
I don’t know if you are reading these comments, Mr. Plaut, as your story is making it’s second trip around. I don’t believe I read it in 2016. I just wanted to say that I casually started reading this last night and got sucked in. I then went and read all the upcoming articles in the series and was well rewarded.
Mr. Plaut, as before, your writing is excellent. Thank you.
Paul,
thank you for your understanding and action. I will do my best to more on top of the Curbside Classic Comments! I have encountered your writing elsewhere and enjoyed it greatly, along with that of Ateupbymotor. Best to you on this cloudy cold Saturday morning from San Francisco.
jiro