(None of the pictures in this article are of the actual cars, but have been gleaned from the Internet using Google image search.)
Parents have a lot of influence over their children’s choices in life. I have found this to be true in the automotive arena as well. Most of my vehicles have been GM cars, in large part because those were the cars I grew up with. In addition to the numerous used/beater Cutlasses, Regals, Bonnevilles, Cutlass Cruisers and Le Sabres, my parents’ first brand new automobile purchase was a brown 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier sedan. Moreover, I passed my driving test in an ’86 Cavalier. Naturally, for me this started a fascination with J-cars that I had to quench at least three times.
Okay…confession time. Here is something I’ve never told anyone until now. I am embarrassed to say that when I was young, aside from the fact that I secretly liked some (not all) songs by The New Kids on the Block, I also drank the Kool Aid regarding the Cadillac Cimarron. Namely, that the Cimarron and by extension, all the J-cars–Cavalier, Firenza, Skyhawk, and Sunbird–were sports sedans. There, I said it. What’s more, I believed that my J-cars, all stock with at best the 2-liter pushrod four, were the equal of my cousin’s ’88 Plymouth Conquest TSI Turbo. Ah…the foolishness of youth!
After the ‘81 Skylark from last week’s COAL, bit the dust, I replaced it with an ’85 Chevy Cavalier station wagon, in metallic blue. The car had a dented left rear passenger door with some rust starting at the bottom. This was the only aesthetic imperfection. The car had the base 2.0 liter, four-cylinder engine rated at an optimistic 90 HP and had no options except the three-speed automatic transmission and a rear defroster. It did not have air conditioning.
However, compared with the “broughamness” of my Skylark, the Cavalier was European and sporty. In my eyes it came very close to my friend’s brand new Corsica. A deal was struck with the owner, a woman named Georgetta, and the car, which we subsequently also named Georgetta, came home with us.
Georgetta actually served us well. Its station wagon body with rear door and extra cargo space proved very useful to us. In time however, a few problems developed. First, one of the mounts for the driver’s seat came loose. This caused some interesting dynamics for whomever was driving the car. Upon acceleration or turning, the driver would at best hear a sudden squeaking noise and at worst the seat would pivot forward diagonally. You would eventually get used to it but it could be very annoying and disconcerting.
One day, as I was driving down the same steep hill where my Buick Century met its end, I looked down to see the red brake-warning light illuminated! You can imagine my fear that history would repeat itself with a head-on collision with a light pole. Except this time I would not be in a large six- passenger sedan but a small subcompact wagon. Thankfully, the brakes were just fine, and it quickly became evident that there was some kind of electrical issue causing the brake light to come on.
I could not stand driving it with that red light on so I took it to an “automotive electrician” — big mistake. When I got the car back, not only was the brake warning light still on but now the check engine light was on as well. This is where I learned one of my few automotive skills, the art of using black electrical tape to cover up annoying warning lights. By this time, the car would also make a strange burping and gurgling sound after shutting down after a long drive. These things, along with the lack of A/C, made me grow tired of Georgetta and I readily agreed to giving it to my Dad, who was essentially looking for a “work truck” in exchange for another vehicle.
That vehicle was a white 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier sedan. This time it was a CS or more luxury-trimmed model. The upholstery was a bit better; in addition to automatic transmission, it also had cruise and intermittent wipers, plus the factory cassette player had auto reverse and Dolby noise reduction.
The powerplant was the same 2-liter found in Georgetta. An issue was the car’s white paint, which was peeling and in terrible shape. What to do? In those days black cars, instead of being ubiquitous, were considered mysterious, cool, and sporty. I took the car to one of those $99 paint job places (do they exist anymore?) and asked them to paint it black. There were two problems: 1) They didn’t have black, and 2) It would cost much more to paint the car because the previous imperfections of the old paint would have to be removed in order for the new paint to adhere properly. My solution. 1) No black? No problem. Paint it the darkest shade of blue you can find 2) As for the imperfections…just paint over them…I’ll take my chances. After signing numerous disclaimers they agreed to paint the car and I got my black (er…midnight blue) sports sedan.
Despite the horrible paint job, I enjoyed living my delusion for a short time until the head gasket went, causing coolant contamination in the oil and rapid loss of compression. I still remember the sick feeling I had when I pulled the dipstick and was presented with the creamy, milky, goop that was coolant mixed with oil.
I soon began to complain about a radical loss of power, so my Mom asked to take the car to work one day to see if it was my imagination or if something really was amiss. To this day, almost 25 years later, she still maintains that was the worst and scariest car that she has ever driven. Two subsequent attempts to rebuild the engine ended in failure, and we eventually sold it and the Georgetta wagon to some auto tinkerers looking for cheap wheels. I think they gave us $300 for both cars.
Meanwhile, my Mom had a beige 53,000 mile ’84 Pontiac Sunbird wagon that I really wanted. My chance came when she said that she was looking for something sportier. I offered to help her find her new ride as long as I could have the Sunbird when she was done with it. After looking at a Mustang, a Camaro, and a 280 ZX, she eventually settled for a two-door Mazda 626 which left me we with the Sunbird “sports wagon.”
In my previous COAL, I mentioned that the Skylark looked like a smaller Regal. Well in this case, I thought the front of the Sunbird was made to look like a smaller Firebird.
Plus, the instrument panel lit up in red at night…just like a BMW! It even had an exotic engine…a 1.8-liter. This engine, sourced from GM of Brazil, is apparently still produced today. A turbo version, rated at 165 HP, was produced for the Sunbird but mine had the naturally aspirated version, rated at 85 HP. The badge on the fender read “OHC/FI”…just like a Honda Prelude (right)! In my mind I had a combination Firebird, BMW, and Prelude…plus it was a station wagon…perfection itself! My own “pocket rocket.” Again, the ignorance and foolishness of youth.
I began to “modify” it to fit in with my vision of it being a “sports wagon.” I tinted the glass, upgraded the sound system, and attached red “sporty-looking” stripes to it.
I even attached stickers that looked like pulses from an EKG meter (still highly embarrassed by this).
In addition, I had the timing advanced in an effort to improve acceleration. This was also the era when all kinds of fuel and oil additives were being sold claiming to improve vehicle performance. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker, and dumped them all into that vehicle.
Actually, that car served me pretty well. It was reliable and got me through most of college. I have fond memories of it being versatile, fun and, yes, reasonably sporty. The car endured so many indignities and downright abuse from yours truly, including regular “speed runs” to bury the needle of its 85 MPH speedometer, neutral drops at least once a week, a few off road excursions, and my attempts on the Garden State Parkway at imitating Cole Trickle from the newly released film Days of Thunder.
My Dad’s 1982 Pontiac Bonneville wagon had gone to its eternal reward, so my Dad needed another “work truck” again. After helping me move into my dorm room one more time, my Dad took over the Sunbird for another couple of years or so until it eventually died a natural death when the engine gave out after a little over 100,000 miles.
Cured of my J-body obsession for now (there would be more later), its replacement, which I’ll talk about next time, was a bit more crude and primitive.
Are you kidding Jerseryfred. My Dad had appalling tastes in cars and never owned a new car in his life. By the time he had done with them, they were at best fit for the scrapyard; at worst, left on the roadside for the rubbish men to take away.
I do have one thing in common with him though. I drive rubbish cars too!
What are some of the cars? Maybe we have a few in common.
As you will see later in the series, my Dad comes to my rescue more than once when my automotive and immature stupidity gets me in precarious situations.
My Dad would buy junkers for me to drive to college and then blame me when they broke. The only time I drove something new was Mom’s 80 Rabbit while ‘my’ car was getting yet another repair. It never broke. These are all stories from the mid-80s:
’76 Cougar w/ 80,000 miles – C-6 transmission failure? My fault. Given to a cousin who complained it wouldn’t pass California emissions. ’70 Karmann Ghia 90,000 miles – oil light goes on at idle. My fault. He cheaps out and only has the ‘lower end’ of the VW 1600 fixed. Three months later the infamous #3 exhaust valve goes. “You’ve been driving it too hard”. ’68 el Camino. That one was bought from a shade tree mechanic so it must have been good, right? No. Clutch AND transmission failure and a 300 mile per quart oil habit due to leaking gaskets. Friends would complain I’d left oil on their driveway. After a two year agitprop campaign, he takes it to a junkyard where they swap in a decent 250. And a few months later it falls over on it’s side because they didn’t replace the motor mounts. At least that one happened at home. A ’78 Cougar goes up in flames three months before I finish college in ’89. He couldn’t figure out a way to blame me for that one.
It wasn’t just me, he had a Subaru XT Turbo and one of the cylinder heads warped around 1998. That one was still parked at the mechanic’s a year later, I think he abandoned it.
Europe had its own J-Car: Opel Ascona which was a very very popular model. The engines were smaller than in the U.S./Canada. Automatic transmission was an option.
As well as the right side front door mirror was also an option. 🙂 I had got a 1980 Opel Kadett-D Series 1.2 Litre IL4 OHV with Solex simple throttle carburetor and 4-speed manual stickshift which also lacked the right side frontdoor mirror. The simpliest ever car that I’ve ever owned. Body rusting was “normal”. Otherwise it was very reliable. Quality and equipment of the Ascona Base and the Kadett was almost the same.
South-Americas had their Chevrolet badged Opel alike Monza…
It makes plenty of sense that the South American version of the Chevrolet Cavalier were called Chevrolet Monza because the FWD J-Body Chevrolet Cavalier replaced the old RWD H-Body Chevrolet Vega based Monza for 1982. There was no 1981 Chevrolet Monza but it was a 1980 carryover through 12/80 and were known as such.
We got embadged Camira by Holden and later as rebadged Isuzu Askas my dad bought one new in 83 I rode in it once. For the last week before we emigrated from Tassie I rented a bargain basement bomb wagon that was the criteria cheap and wagon to haul our stuff after I’d sold all my own cars, cheap and wagon was a blue JE Holden Camira with 2,0L single point injection and traumatic trans on the plus side it went ok and was roomy it had enough power to have torque steer issues or was that a need of an alignment, Anyway it lasted the required 5 days and got left at Hobart airport good riddance.
For starters: just a few days ago, a RED, late 80s Cimmaron passed me on the street going the opposite direction.
When the “J” cars first hit the market I thought it was the Vega all over again. The Cavaliers managed (just barely) to walk a VERY fine line between plain and attractive. Considering what was available in 1982, and still being a big booster of “domestic iron” I bought what I thought was my dream car…a Pontiac J2000, a medium blue metallic hatchback with a manual transmission. Like the writer, I imagined my little blue hatch was really a “right sized” Firebird.
While nothing monumentally went wrong with that car, the blue interior faded to light grey, trim “bits” broke off, and the exhaust manifold broke in two before the car hit 50,000 miles. When I needed the front struts replaced, the shop I chose gave the job to a “newbie” who badly botched the job. The car came back from the shop with tops of the struts hacked to pieces and the boots on the outer CV joints ripped open…none of which I could see until the car was lifted for an oil/filter change.
But the thing I’ll never forget…that car made an odd “threshing” noise from day 1.
Those sympthoms had been forgivable on euro J-car Opels. We had simply accepted those issues like “…that’s only an Opel…” or with the “Typical Opel illness” explanations. Who lost nerves to manage it, those folks had got rid of their Opel J-cars… Oil pan gasket and valve cover gasket had always leaked, weak breaks, etc.
In Britain we had the Vauxhall Cavalier (Mk.II). The less radical styling and FWD made it a popular choice against Ford’s new Sierra in the sector formerly dominated by the Cortina. Initially just saloons/sedans and hatches there was later an estate/wagon using parts sourced from Holden. The rear bumper section on this was part of the tailgate, giving a low loading height, so different to the US version.
http://s371.photobucket.com/user/gm-j-car/media/Vauxhall%20Cavalier%20Estate/Vauxhall%20Cavalier%20Estate%20MK2%20gold/_28_0560.jpg.html
Perhaps more surprising is the difference in the B pillar though. I hadn’t expected that!
Vauxhall first used the Cavalier name in 1975 on their modified version of the Opel Ascona when their own Viva replacement (HD) was cancelled. The other name they were considering for it was Chevelle.
Once very common they’re a rare sighting now.
I have tried to source a used Vauxhall Cavalier Estate Wagon BUT it was impossible.
Szilard, you probably will never find one! That Holden supplied tailgate was its Achilles heel – corrosion is not a big issue here and it was rust proofed to Australian standards. In Europe they just melted away!
Dear Bernard, is that Cavalier Estate on the Photobucket yours? Earlier I already saw those images while chasing a used one for sale…
No, not mine, sorry. Last time I encountered one of these in the tin was probably about a decade ago. It was just the closest match to the US version I found on Google.
A friend’s dad had the SRi, and was rather envied by the rest of us. It went pretty well, by English standards of the time.
Your story about the seat sliding around reminded me about time I drove a new (at the time) 2002 Toyota Camry. Every time I stopped too quickly the seat would slide forward. Another odd thing about the car was the drivers seat had power adjustment, while the passenger seat had manual adjustment.
Saw a J-car Vauxhall Cavalier hatch the other day. I think it was the first I’ve seen in at least 5 years.
I read that the DVLA once declared it the most scrapped or fastest scrapped car in British history, or something like that.
Boy, they sure put a lot of different engines in these J body cars.
Pontiac Sunbird with a 3.1 Litre V6 SEFI is intriguing! It could be bombastic! Light chassis ~160 bhp… I have a Lumina Sedan with this engine wich is heavier but it have enough torque for acceleration…
Ironicly or otherwise Holden used the same engine as the Vauxhall Vectra in its later versions and exported those engines to Daewoo for their knockoffs which stayed in production into the 21st century.
Ironically, Daewoo’s J-car was far from a knockoff, it was the only one to have it’s own unique body style, courtesy of Bertone.
My dad was also fond of buying odd-ball GM vehicles, like his diesel Olds Ciera… ANyway when my sister got to driving age, he found an 82 Chevy Cavalier, whatever the really decked-out trim level was called. THe interior was actuallly pretty nice, it had really nice upholstery (especially compared to lower-spec Cavs I’ve been in) It looked a lot like the black one in the top image, except in a weird silvery greenish-blue color. Big wide-whitewall tires and the fake wire wheel hubcaps, too. Anyway this Cav. was close to 10 yrs old when he bought it, it had obviously been in an accident (the back bumper was pushed in on one side, and the entire inside of the trunk was covered in that “bedliner” material… Hmmm.) It looked reasonably straight from the outside, though. It had the smallest engine in it,(1.6? 1.7? I remember being told it was a “one year only VW-sourced engine”) it was dog slow and always sounded like a can full of bolts in a paint shaker. The engine actually did throw a rod out the block a few months after he bought it. The county we lived in at the time, apparently had an emissions-related law that you could only replace a car’s engine with the EXACT SAME ENGINE, so everywhere my dad took it to (with the idea of replacing it with a 2.0 motor, but everywhere claimed they’d get in trouble with The Man if they did that swap. The car sat out on the street for many months, until he finally had it towed away. He did buy my sister another car-a newer Cavalier, a base-spec one that was “only” 6-7 years old. It promptly blew the heater core that first winter, burning my sister’s legs in the process… I remember having to go jumpstart it for her several times, and give her rides to the mechanic because it would break down on her. SHe ended up leaving it at the college she was going to, just abandoning it.
We had one of these, an ’85 Sunbird, bought used, which overheated, and overheated, and overheated . . . until it blew a head gasket. It did not last long. The J-cars, particularly in the Pontiac/Olds/Buick versions, were very nicely trimmed out and had attractive interiors, cloth door panels and tasteful dashes with quality vinyls, unlike today’s compacts. Cars have gotten better in many ways but interior quality I think is not one of them.
Re Bob’s Remark, out of all of the GM letter series, my guess is the W body probably had the largest number of different engines. I think the iron Duke was available, a 2.2, the quad 4, the 2.8, 3.1, 3400 ohv 6, the 3.4 dohc v6, a turbo Grand Prix of I forget what displacement, the 3.8, the 3.8 s/c, the 3.5 shortstar, a v8 in the later Impala/grand prix, the 3.6 . . . What do y’all think?
I don’t recall the 2.2 in a W-body, but the 2.5 Tech IV was the base engine in the Lumina for a couple of years, others got the 2.8 then the 3.1 MFI V6’s, there were base Quad OHC’s in the Grand Prix and Cutlass, along with the hotter Quad 4 in the Cutlass, the turbo 3.1 in the Grand Prix, the OHV and 3.4 DOHC, 3.8, Blown 3.8, Shortstar, 3.6 and finally the 5.3 V8 in the last performance versions of the W’s.
I just remembered a “feature” of my J2000 that I think, yet again, typifies the (muddled) thought processes at GM.
My car had a remote hatch release. A lot of Japanese cars had them in the early 80s, too. But at least Japanese cars put them where they would be REASONABLY accessible. Where was the remote hatch release in the J2000? In the upper right hand corner of ……the glovebox. I’m a tall guy with long arms but as small as that car was, I could not push that big yellow button from the driver’s seat. So it really was a remote release.
At least you were able to lock it.
That one’s common, and not just GM. The remote trunk release on the B-body sedans were in the glovebox. At least they were in the upper left, but the car was correspondingly much wider than a J, so still hard to reach!
My ’88 Volvo 780 has it in the same place, upper left glovebox. Plus on that car they chose not to give it an external trunk release, so your options are a lever in the driver’s door frame or the button. The cable on the lever in mine is broken. That little glovebox button is the only way i can even open the trunk!
My Fords that had during the 1980’s were like that, too. I think even my parent’s Mercurys from the 1970’s had the same thing.
The trunk release I liked the best were the ones that were on the floor, along side the driver’s seat, like many Italian, Japanese and some EEK Chrysler cars from the 1980’s. A simple cable to open the trunk (or hatch) in a very convenient place.
In March of 1987 my brand new CRX SI was rear ended by a housewife driving HER brand new from the dealer Nissan Maxima station wagon.
The best I could do for a rent-a-car was a 6K old 4 cylinder J car (cannot recall which boring brand it was).
After driving it for the day my car shopping parents happily purchased a new Mercury Sable.
Need I say more?
My first car was an 88 Celebrity Wagon with the 2.8 v6. I totaled it after running a stop sign. I ran the stop sign because it would stall if I stopped due to a blown head gasket.
Then an 84 Cavilear coup, manual.
An 84 Skylark Coup
84 Prelude
88 Z24 Cavilear
91 Corsica
2 x 91 S-10s. 1 with a 4.3 the other a 2.8
And a couple Grand Am coups mixed in as well.
All this was between 95 an 2002, when I graduated to a wife, a Dakota and a Neon, all 3 which left my life at the same time.
I also traded cars wayyyyyyy to frequently in my twenties and thirties.
My dad had a brand new 1982 Pontiac J2000, hatchback. He had to turn off the A/C before stopping at a red light or stop sign. That was so annoying for him and his wife….and the car was just 2-3 years old. He traded it in for a new 1986 Honda Accord and kept it until 2002. The Pontiac was a good looking car but the quality was an issue.
I had an 83 Buick Skyhawk with the 1.8 OHC FI engine and the Japanese 5 speed manual transmission. I would shut down the A/C compressor at stops to make starting off easier, but I had the automatic touch control A/C so all I needed to do was touch the economy button and the system would continue to run the fan through the vents. Then once moving again I could restart the compressor when needed.
Speaking of embarrassing things done in youth, I actually considered buying one of these new in 1985. I had ridden in a cousin’s Type 10 coupe with a stick and kind of liked it. I was rescued by the fact that even in a good sized city, there were none with a manual to be had for a test drive. 5 minutes in one with an automatic was like a smack on the head, and brought me to my senses though.
Funny how some of us follow our parents choices in cars and some of us rebel. Neither of my parents would touch a Mopar if they were wearing a hazmat suit. I was not a rebellious kid by nature, but I guess we all have to rebel over something.
My father was never very impressed by my car choices. The one time he rode in my J2000 he remarked that there sure were a LOT of circles in the dashboard. (Look at the top of this story for a shot of the Cavalier’s dashboard…the gauges are circles, four of them, but the A/C vents are rectangular. In a J2000 the rectangles were replaced with a PAIR of circular vents. For a total of 10 or 12 in the dashboard.)
My father never “got” the idea behind GM needing Pontiac and Oldsmobile…along with Chevrolet.
Since you brought the comparisons between the Cadillac Cimarron vs. the Chevrolet Cavalier, I will in about a few minutes bring their future/current successors.
These are now their future/current successors – 2014 version. The Chevrolet Cruze vs. the Cadillac ATS.
Is the ATS really the reincarnation of the Cimarron though? While it is within a couple inches of the Cruze in total length, it’s vastly different otherwise–longer wheelbase, completely different platform (RWD Alpha vs. FWD Delta II), different engines, to name a few points.
I almost see the ATS as the modern Seville. If you look at Cadillac’s 1980’s lineup, you have the Fleetwood Brougham, then the Sedan Deville, then the Seville, in size. While they don’t make anything nearly as big as the Brougham, today’s XTS is aimed at a similar buyer. The CTS is becoming the “mainstream” Cadillac like the Deville was then, even if it’s aiming for a younger and previously import-owning buyer. The smaller, more European-inspired ATS is reminiscent of what they were trying to do with the Seville at the time.
I think Cadillac would just like to pretend the Cimarron never occurred, and until they bring out a FWD Cadillac that shares architecture with the Cruze, I’m willing to let that happen. (If you want to be nit-picky, the ELR is actually Delta II based, but as a hybrid coupe that actually costs *more* than any other Cadillac, it’s a different animal.)
As far as the common compact size niche’ the ATS currently occupies, it is much more of a spiritual successor to the Cimarron since the Cruze at 181.0″ and the ATS at 182.8″ are within almost a couple of inches of each other. GM this time does not want to make the same mistake like what they had done with the Cimarron as a thinly disguised Cavalier so both cars these time around were based on entirely different platforms. The Cruze and its Buick counterpart were based on the same FWD platform twins. The ATS is strictly RWD. The CTS inmho would be closer to what Seville used to occupy. The ELR? only if Chevrolet offered the Cruze in five door hatchback but its much more closer to the Chevrolet Volt in terms of sharing identical architecture.
I think that the Cimarron was put into production as a result of some hurry up we need a small car for Cadillac demand from some source that is to me mysterious. Some say the car dealers demanded it. But other say that the dealers were horrified by it. Both could be true.
What is true is that the Cimarron was a J car (Cavalier) with upgrades.
The first generation (2003) CTS was Cadillac first real attempt at making a real sports sedan and was fairly successful. The CTS was a Cadillac sized BMW 3-series, meaning that it was bigger. The ATS was designed as a 3-series sized car, meaning a compact, and may out handle the current 3-series.
I think of the Cimarron and Catera as more of a LaSalle type of car, where they were not designed by Cadillac. The LaSalle was more of a Cadillac (but not called a Cadillac) than either of these two.
The Cimmaron was a reaction to the oil price shocks of the late 1970’s along with the dire predictions of $3/gallon gas by 1983. Due to CAFE standards, GM had to sell a bunch of small cars in order to keep pumping in the money from the sales of pickup trucks and bigger cars.
Luckily for us, it never happened that way. But we never thought gasoline would be as cheap as it was in the US in the later half of the 1980’s and most of the 1990’s. It sure looked scary from 1979’s viewpoint…
One of my best friends had an 82 Cimmaron & I had an 82 Nissan Stanza. The Caddy had nice seats, rode good, and nice Delco sound system & great a/c, I actually liked it. I even liked it more when Caddy put the 2.8 liter motor in them.
My sister purchased a new Pontiac Sunbird Turbo in 1985.
Dark maroon in color with what I though was a nicely done interior,
The car turned into a nightmare though when the cold Minnesota winter temperatures came. The turbo engine was VERY finicky to start when the temps dropped below 10degrees
When it failed to start(which was often) the procedure was then to have it towed to the dealership to have its gas contaminated oil drained ,and replaced.
The Sunbird seemed to take particular delight in stranding my sister ,when it was late on a weeknight ,after she had put in a long day at work ,
The headache of it not starting, combined with a mirad of other problems including headgasket replacement at 40,000 miles had my sister vowing to never buy anything GM again, a promise she has kept for the last 26 years or so.
It’s kind of funny that you maintained your loyalty to j-cars even after experiencing their poor quality. My experiences with GM vehicles put me off them for life. They definitely had the resources to make good vehicles but deliberately chose not to.
As “wonky” as my 82 J2000 was, I considered replacing it with a 88 or 89 Cavalier station wagon. It was possible to get the wagon with the V6 and if the manual transmission had also been available that would have sealed the deal. I figured that my “dream” wagon would be the best of all worlds: practical, fast, (somewhat) economical, and a bit of a sleeper. The closest Ford came to what I wanted in a car was an Escort GT, and I couldn’t get comfortable behind the wheel.
I finally decided to disregard my vow of no Japanese cars (after sitting in the driver’s seat of a Civic wagon) and wound up buying….eventually, a new 89 Civic sedan. I thought that car was perfect until I discovered it had the dreaded Civic cowl leak….a chronic problem that has afflicted millions(?) Of Civics.
“This was also the era when all kinds of fuel and oil additives were being sold claiming to improve vehicle performance. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker, and dumped them all into that vehicle.”
Hah! I remember this as well. I put “Slick-50” in my 89 Beretta – hoping for better performance or something!
I still think this stuff caused a head gasket to go.
My first brand new car was a 1984 Pontiac 2000 Sunbird hatchback. I feel you “J love”.
Your blue 85 wagon I would swear is mine. I had an 84, hand me down from my dad. Same blue, same wheels (I had thought all the 85s had the wheels with more smaller holes). Mine had a broken seat mount that would pivot like that. Mine would gurgle the coolant after a long drive. The AC was long since dead but turning on the switch forced the fan to run, helping the problem. The brake light would randomly come on, but sometimes the brakes would randomly not work too. The alternator would sometimes not charge, so the mechanic showed me how to short it with a screwdriver to force it to charge. Eventually I wired both ends of the screwdriver points to a pushbutton I installed in the dash. The thing would idle like it was ready for takeoff. It had power nothing, and an AM radio with only front speakers. I put in an FM and wired both rears to a bass amp enclosure which worked quite well actually. I drove that car everywhere.