In the first mini tour we saw a classic Cadillac, a Mercedes diesel, a fat Datsun, a Dodge trucklet and an elderly Acura. This time around we’ve got another random grab bag of vehicles. Highlights include a time capsule Ford, a Canadian cheapskate special, some blatant badge engineering, and a foxy German.
Again we will start at the complete vehicles for sale as you enter the yard. The only other interesting car besides the Mercedes was this 1978 Ford Mustang II. A 302cid V8 car with an automatic transmission probably isn’t a bad start for a Mustang II restoration. The tires have good tread, the interior isn’t too awful and it doesn’t appear to be an obvious rust bucket. The black paint had been cheaply re-done in the past suggesting it had been someone’s beater before being scrapped. If that was the case, I’d suspect there would a be some minor mechanical malady to sort out as well as a significant amount of deferred maintenance to catch up on.
A first generation Ford Escort with the seamed beam headlights is a rare sight these days. We know this one isn’t a first year model since it has (or more accurately had) a blue oval badge in the grill. The station wagon body doesn’t look rusty but has a well worn, used up look to it.
The revised interior pegs this car as either a 1984 or early 1985 model. I neglected to check the VIN to verify. A manual transmission would make the most of the modest output from the CVH four cylinder engine.
Looks like someone stuffed this little Escort full of extra scrap before calling the wrecker. One last use for the practical wagon body style.
Still in the Ford section, but this time a little older, we have a time capsule condition 1976 Ford Granada. This sort of car would have been a common sight twenty years ago. It looks totally complete from the outside with even the missing hubcap lying on the ground. I wonder if this was an older person’s last car that their estate decided to scrap rather than revive.
Unusually, it was even fairly clean inside. The wood grain on the dashboard and the Ghia badge mark this one as a higher trim level. The mechanical clock gives the passenger something nice to look at, and nothing says late seventies luxury like red velour.
There is a V8 underneath that mess somewhere. Either a 302cid or 351cid hooked to a three speed automatic transmission. The grill came from a nearby Ford Focus.
Around back we finally see some rust but just a spec of it in the rear wheel arch.
Leaving the Fords, we come to the import section where we’ll take a closer look at the Jaguar featured in the lead photo. The year was not labelled but it is a later model than Keith’s XJ6. The interior still looks inviting even in its partially stripped state.
The inline six still resides in the big cat’s engine bay but oddly enough, all the caps and dipsticks have been removed. Perhaps the yard staff neglected to re-fit them after draining the various fluids.
The rear view shows the beginnings of some nasty rust as well as a decent sized dent.
The Volkswagen Fox has never developed the same following as other 1980s Volkswagens for some reason. I always liked them, especially the funky three door wagon. My father test drove one of these back in early 1989 but instead settled on a leftover 1988 Ford Tempo. He was afraid of the high cost of replacement parts on imported vehicles and, combined with the Tempo’s lower price, it was enough to swing him over to the Blue Oval.
The interior has held up rather well on this Fox. It wouldn’t take much more than a quick shampoo of the seats and replacement of that dangling switch to look close to new again.
Longitudinal placement of the engine leads to this unconventional radiator positioning. The engine itself is a 80hp 1.8L four cylinder fitted with Bosch CIS-E fuel injection. These were quite basic cars even by late 1980s standards with the base transmission still being a four speed manual and power steering unavailable even as an option. A five speed manual was optional but perhaps because of its Brazilian roots, there wasn’t an automatic available.
The open rear trunk shows how faded the red paint is.
Here is another interesting Canadian market quirk, a 1992 Eagle 2000 GTX. It was sold as the Mitsubishi Galant in the US, but with Canada lacking Mitsubishi dealers until the early 2000s, it was sold under the Eagle catch-all banner.
The interior on this GTX was in like-new condition and even features three pedals and a five speed manual transmission. The turbo charged engines were unavailable in Canada, so engine options were limited to either a 105hp SOHC 2.0L four or 135hp DOHC 2.0L four cylinder.
This GTX sports some rather nice looking aftermarket alloy wheels but true to the junkyarding 101 rules, there were only tree of them.
Shall we end with another Canadian market variation? This 1986 Plymouth Caravelle is based off the Dodge Diplomat. The yard has it labelled as a Plymouth Fury which is somewhat understandable as they went by this name in the US market. This was a previously clean looking car whose life was obviously ended by some major front end damage.
Most of these Caravelles had a very basic equipment level. They were intended as a cheap way for frugal Canadian consumers to have a traditional, rear wheel drive car.
These were most popular with an older demographic as well as with small town taxi drivers, so there are still roadworthy examples to be found.
Just a few cars down was another Caravelle but this time without any obvious cause for scrapping.
But wait! We can’t end this tour without anything for the die hard GM fan, so how about this twenty seven year old Chevrolet Nova? Alright, I’ll admit, it is a few badges away from a Corolla, so this beauty probably should have ended up in the import section.
Again, an interior in dusty but otherwise reasonable condition.
The hatch shows off an awkward design with too much metal between the tail lights and the bottom of the rear window glass.
Here is a real Chevrolet, a 1984 Chevrolet Citation, just the thing to get a Chevy fan’s pulse up. This hatchback looks a little rough at the front but is otherwise not too bad for a thirty year old car.
Rather dusty inside which probably means this car sat for a while before making its way into the yard.
And with this hatchback salute, we end the tour.
Nice tour. If anybody buys that Mustang 2, I hope they don’t mind 14 MPG (US). All the filler caps are gone from the VW as well. Maybe standard pratice in that yard so they can keep track of fluid removal.
Paint that Citation red and give it a stick and that’s my family’s car during the early-mid 1980s. The dimpled vinyl seats used to leave quite the pattern on our legs when we wore shorts. With no A/C and my mother’s continued advancement through the ranks of the DOD meant that it gave way to a cloth-upholstered Cavalier A/C-equipped station wagon. I was hoping that she would hold onto the Citation long enough for me to get it but she let it rot, and then the clutch disintegrated from lack of use so it was scrapped.
My one and only brand new car was an 84 Citation four cylinder four speed. I put 225 k on and the guy I sold it to ran it up to 300k.
You sir belong in a museum with that Citation.
The interior shot of the Escort takes me back to my childhood. My mom drove an ’84 Escort 2 door, silver but with that same red interior. Her’s was a 4-speed manual. She used to let me shift the gears when she drove.
As far as the Fox. It wasn’t a bad car. It was crude compared to the Golf and Jetta but wasn’t bad. A friend of mine had one and I drove it a few times. I certainly prefer a Golf or Jetta but as far as just a daily beater it was alright. It’s major downfall here in the US was that it was not offered with an automatic. Volkswagen does some goofy stuff to foul themselves up sometimes. Wait, make that most of the time.
I bought an identical wagon to this one to repair & flip. Ended up driving it for 4-5 years until it was totaled. Swapped the interior into an 86 model w/ 5 speed & 1.9 engine, added Lynx wheels and rear tailgate spoiler, as well as other “up level” Lynx bits. Quite the sharp ride (for a NON FORD/WAGON guy! LOL!) Drove this one 4-5 years and sold it (to my later regret) because I simply didn’t want to deal w/ emissions issues! 🙂
I bought a Fox wagon new in 1988, loved it until it was T-boned and totaled in 2004. Solid, simple, versatile, reliable. Had a quick-n-easy gutter-mount roof rack for it and could carry canoes, a picnic table upside-down, enough plywood and lumber for a small shed, etc. 5-spd would have been nice, but the 4spd did fine, 34mpg highway all day long. Great visibility, comfy seats. Wish I could buy something like that these days. My ’86 turbo Saab 900 hatchback is pretty close on all counts.
Ah, another great junkyard tour.
What always intrigued me about the Fox was the two door wagon they sold. How about a Fox-body Mustang GT drivetrain under that econo-mobile body? The Citation brought to mind an unappreciated(?) X car – the Pontiac Phoenix SJ. With the 4 speed and all boxes checked, it was a very decent driver for 1982. What did the HO V6 put out? I recall a whopping 130. That’s my dim memory, anyway. The big six in the Jag is a very formidable looking engine. Who doesn’t like the look and sound of a big six cylinder? The yard looks like one I have visited off the Deerfoot out southeast.
That Phoenix SJ sounds like the Chevrolet Citation X11. Apparently pretty decent auto-x cars in there day.
That is the yard.
I haven’t seen good old junk yards (as in heaping up complete cars) in a long time now, all about strict regulations etc. All I see are companies that dismantle a car completely after arrival and then stock all the usable parts in a warehouse and register them in the computer. And then you can buy whatever you want, at the warehouse or online. Mostly these companies specialize in one brand or group of brands, like PSA and VAG.
Thank you for the M-bodies. I’ve owned two of them; outstanding vehicles and easy to work on them on the rare occasion they actually needed work.
That Granada looks amazingly clean. IIRC, the 351 was only available in 1975 and 76. After that, the 302 was the only V8 (the smaller 200 cid six was cut also, leaving the 250 cid unit as the only six).
Tough choice between the Granada and one of the Plymouth Caravelles for me. I have always wanted an M body Mopar. When they were cheap and plentiful, I could never convince myself to accept crummy gas mileage in a smaller package than was available in the more common Panthers and GM B bodies. However, I have had several of each of those and never an M. Someday?
The Granada still has the plastic gas filler cover in place, which is amazing. They almost all broke off.
Yes! Two gas lids broke on my 75 Monarch before I said the heck with it (or words to that effect). One of many things about that car that made it the least favorite of any car I’ve had. That car had no redeeming qualities.
Now, drop in a later model 225 hp 302/5 speed, find stouter u-joints (one blew out on mine at less than 3 years old even with the extra-wimpy 1975 302, uprate the suspension and tires, and you’d be on to something. The rear seat and trunk would still suck, but at least it would have a fun to drive factor going for it, and would get way better gas mileage too.
But nah, that’s way too much effort to put into that car.
Nice tour. A shame about the Granada, it looks to have been in excellent condition. I also like the M-bodies.
Actually, I also like that Mustang II (ducks flying beer bottles). Just the thing to take to the cruise night to annoy Mach 1 and GT owners!
I’m with you. I’ve always had a soft spot in my head for Mustang Deuces.
My wife owned a Granada when we first got hitched. Was a manual, two door. I kinda liked it, but it really got chewed up by our slightly unhinged appenzeller sennenhund. He ripped the headliner out and made the steering wheel very rough. When I went to the local wreckers to scout for part for my ’72 westfalia the yard would throw in any parts for the Granada for free.
That manual transmission sure felt like it belonged in a truck. Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t the snick-snick shift feeling that I expected a sedan to have.
Alistair
You might well consider it to be a truck transmission. Ford made several versions of a three speed + overdrive 4th in the seventies and they were widely used in light trucks. Not sure why Ford would put this transmission into a Granada unless it was to improve highway mileage; I’m sure they didn’t sell many of them.
Great tour! Memories in that Escort…..
I would hazard a guess that the 4th will for the 2000GTX is in the trunk of the adjoining Dynasty whilst someone went home to get $$$.
On a Fox note: As the VW Gol in its Brazilian home market it was paired with the old air cooled flat-4 engines, thus explaining the I-4 placement
IIRC the Plymouth Caravelle/Dodge Diplomat twins were also popular with police departments too.
Love how the Escort uses the same MK3 Cortina rims I have in the backyard Ford sure got their mileage out of that stamping
At first I thought maybe the white Plymouth Caravelle was a retired fleet (read: police) car, retired after many hard miles. But it has the chrome trim on the wheel arch, so probably not.
Note that the blue Plymouth Caravelle is surrounded on both sides by much newer cars: 1998+ Dodge (or Chrysler) Intrepids. Perhaps doomed by sludge-ridden 2.7L engines that jumped their timing chains and bent all the valves? Those were such nice looking, comfortable cars, but the vast majority came with that engine, and had owners who didn’t care to maintain them.
This is great stuff. I love junkyarding. Favorite thing is to go through the glove compartments and see what kind of treasures I can find. I enjoy trying to piece together the story that each car lived. I also take a peek at the odometers – some long-lived, others fewer than 100,000. Thanks for sharing these pics. Loved that old Nova, haha.
Hola, I need parts for my ford granada 1976, where it is this place this where deposited this one Granada, to contact myself to acquire parts.
Hi, I need parts for my ford granada 1976, where it is this place this where deposited this one Granada, me gustaria to contact myself to acquire parts.
It’s in calgary, I have a dashboard if you are still looking for parts