Perhaps not surprisingly, my mom’s favorite was the only one that she bought on my recommendation. All the rest were picked out by my father, who had a bit of a control issue. Well, come to think of it, maybe he let me recommend this 1990 Honda Civic sedan to her because he was driving the only car he’d ever bought based on my recommendation (a 1986 Taurus). Now that really was surprising, on both counts; that he would buy a car on my advice, and let my mom buy a Honda since he wouldn’t touch an import ever since he was disappointed by his 1965 Opel Kadett. And as much as they both loved these cars, he reverted to form and went back to picking their last two cars…ugh. But while she had it, Mom loved her “sporty little Civic”.
After her 1965 and 1973 Dodge Coronet wagons, Mom was ready for something smaller, as my younger brothers were past needing rides, mostly. So during this Ford phase (Dad was driving a Zephyr), he came up with an Escort wagon for her. They were like lot of folks at the time, trading in big cars during the second energy crunch years for little ones. It was wheezy, handled like it was perpetually tipsy, and the torque-split automatic shifted very oddly; like an old Mercedes-Benz autobox. But she really liked having a small car, even if it was a rather mediocre one.
When the Escort got on to close to ten years old, they decided it was time for a new car for her. And somehow I got into the conversation, even though we lived on the other coast. And my recommendation was easy and unequivocal: a Honda Civic.
I’m a huge fan of this generation Civic; in fact I consider it a true milestone car like the Mercedes W124. I had a coworker who had a fuel-injected EX stick shift sedan like this one, and we swapped cars once or twice and played hookie for an hour or two of back-road bombing in the hills south-east of San Jose, seeing if one of could lose the other. That little Civic was the shits; its gutsy 108 hp 1600cc four revved like crazy; the five speed stick was slicker than a politician, and it ate up the curves with an appetite that just seemed to never be satiated. If it hadn’t been that my 300E was a company car, and I’d have had to buy my own wheels, this is what it quite likely would have been. Just about the closest thing to a four-door sports car ever made.
Well, Mom’s Civic was a low-end DX automatic, which came with the 1500 cc mill with dual-point fuel injection and made 92 hp. But it was still a Civic, and enough of the intrinsic goodness that this generation Civic had to offer was still on tap, if in a more muted and motherly fashion. The visibility over the low, sloping hood was unparalleled; it was the closest thing to sitting in a go-kart that a sedan would ever be. The manual steering was light and tight, and the engine purred. The Honda automatic also shifted rather Benz-like but not nearly so abruptly as the Escort. In every way possible, the Civic was a giant step up from it.
The Civic gave splendid service for well over a decade. I used to look forward to taking it out for a spin on visits home. It led a pampered existence, garaged and not driven much anymore. It could and should have been Mom’s last car, and she loved it so.
My father had never bought a GM car except for that ’65 Kadett, but in the mid ’90s he suddenly decided to replace the Taurus with a… Buick Skylark. Highly unexpected, and not what I would have suggested. Ironically, I unwittingly did play some role in his decision. On a trip out to California in about 1983 or so, I let him borrow one of the four 1981 Buick Skylarks that our tv station then had in its fleet, and one of which was then my own company car. He always raved about that car, and how well its V6 handled the Sierras.
And then one day in 2007 or so, he took the keys to my mom’s Civic, drove off and returned later with a green Saturn Ion coupe, without her knowing anything about it. That did not go over well…and she held it against him for several years; rightfully so. She loved her Civic and was going to drive it to the end of her driving days. The Ion ended up doing that duty, in the process collecting several nasty scrapes on its bumpers (as can be seen here) and then it went to one of my nieces, who was still driving it last I heard.
And what car did your mother love the most?
My mother is still around, and still drives 80 miles to work each day. Her favorite car is definitely my 2001 Audi A6 Avant. We both like the station wagon practicality, and since she drove a 1993 Ford Escort for 15 years (80 miles per day), the luxury is a nice change.
My mama really liked her brand new 1995 Plymouth Voyager because it was quieter and smoother riding than her 1967-1972 Chevy C/10 which is good for the joints plus when she filled up the tank for $30 it took her much further. Unlike her 1970 Dodge Dart the Voyager had Power Steering, front Disc Brakes, 3rd Brake Light, Cruise Control, Air Conditioning, 3-point Safety Belts, Air Bags*, Side Impact Beams in the doors, no Carburetor, and no problem starting in the cold or warming up the interior. It also had a towing package with 5 or so leafsprings on either side so it could also do some hauling. That Voyager was such a blessing to have and I also thank my late grand am a for helping my folks buy it.
*Course we found out after hitting a Deer that the airbag could have killed me so I was to sit in the back seat the rest of the 1990s and early 2000s. Also could not utilize the 3-point Safety Belts in the back because I would get car sick so it was back to using a Lap Belt for me.
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air that she purchased from General Motors as a former administration pool car in 1958. Found out later it was painted 1958 color (a silver-blue iirc). She paid a hefty down payment and financed the rest over 2 years on her own after being told it was too much money for a young lady. Everyone back then feared the women would get married and stop working – have to raiseva family you know …….
My parents were both school teachers and they didn’t get their dream cars when they were raising children. Her dream was to have an MG-TD. I remember watching the TV show Eight is Enough where the mom had one named Cecily–she always commented about it when it showed up in a scene.
Later on, she thought their bright red Dodge Stealth (rebadged Mitsubishi 3000) was really cool–have a great pic of her in our house of her posing with it after they road tripped to MI in it.
My mom liked cars but only owned four in almost 60 years. A 1953 Hillman Minx, then three Volvos: a 1960 544, a 1964 122S wagon, and an ’86 DL wagon (not sure if that was still called a 245 or 240 by then). The Hillman was her first car and she always spoke,of it with nostalgia, though driving it 200 miles up to Lake Tahoe over Donner Pass (7000+ feet) with a family of four must have been challenging. She liked all three Volvos, but felt the two wagons were less fun and of lower quality than the 544, though we only had the 544 for four years and she drove the DL over 275K miles. I’m pretty sure the Hillman was a 3-on-the-tree with a flathead engine and of course drum brakes, while her last Volvo had the 4 speed with electric overdrive, overhead cam, fuel injection, and four wheel discs. But it still had roll up windows, which she regularly drove with open, even in winter, not “believing” in A/C (she never liked or owned automatic transmissions either). My dad never drove, so I suspect I inherited my interest in cars from her.
Here’s a 544 in the identical color as our’s that I saw last week on a trip to Ace hardware near my house. It’s interesting that the age difference between the Fox Mustang and the Volvo is about the same as the difference between the Mustang and the Cadillac, but the Mustang doesn’t seem old to me.
Your mother had great taste. My mother got her first job in 1963 after raising four kids. At college my best friend had a 1963 544 that we rallied, and one Sunday we drove 90 miles to my home for a visit on a beautiful Nova Scotia day, all small two laners in those far-off days, so good fun for a couple teenagers. My Mother drove a 1964 Ford Anglia Super my Dad had bought her to replace her 1960 Anglia which had rusted away. My friend let her drive his Volvo once he realized she could drive standard and showed interest.
A few months later, Mum showed up at university to drive me home after the end of a summer school in a brand new 1965 Volvo 544, all paid for herself. Proud as punch. Yes, she could row a 4 speed no problem, despite being all of 5 foot 2. In fact she was a damn good driver, and to this day, the best female driver I’ve ever met, period – she had a feel for cars. Far superior to Dad, she cornered with verve and skill. She taught me how to drive, for goodness sake!
Sadly she passed away a year ago at 93. I’ll always remember her booting that 544 along, her favourite car. To say she was an original would be an understatement. On Mother’s Day you remember these things.
My mother bought a brand new dark metallic green 1976 Ford Ranchero.
My mother (who is no longer with us) let my dad decide on what cars to look at, but he always wanted her approval before making a deal. He would have liked his last car to have been a Cadillac, but mom would not even consider looking at it. This was probably just as well as it was an 8-6-4, which I had doubts about at the time. So they ended up with a severely hailed on 84 Mercury Marquis with heavily padded roof. She drove this car to the end of her driving days (sometime in her 90’s, can’t say for sure just when, but before 95).
Dad liked Chryslers, but for mom a car was an appliance. She was happy with the Mercury and at the point when she might have replaced it, she probably should have stopped driving. A different car would have meant learning how it all worked.
1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera 4 door, she loved the 3300 V6’s performance and it was a good, reliable car that she kept for 12 years, my sister drives it now although it is now on its last legs.
What a good idea for a CC! My mother hasnt been able to drive since 2007 from a debilitating stroke, but we had many cars growing up. When we needed a car we usually were stuck whatever was cheap (<$1000) so we didnt have much choice. She loves boxy Japanese cars and her favorite model were the four Toyota Cressidas we had and a close second the 1985 Camry liftback she drove for a few months. Coincidentally we also had a 4th gen Civic as well, a 1989 LX sedan in the burgundy shown above. It was a splendid little car and was the last she drove. It ended up being used by my brother and I when we had to start driving at the age of 15. Her favorite car that I drove was my 91 Lexus ES250. She said it had an Italian flair after I added red/white TRD badges.
Happy mother's day!
Her current car, a 4 year old Toyota iQ. Dark purple metallic, with a fuel-sipping (Daihatsu) 1.0 liter 3 cylinder and a 5 speed manual. She bought it new, fully loaded. Leather upholstery, climate control, everything electric, on board sat nav, nice alloy rims.
Expensive little car ! But the thing is this: once you’re behind the wheel, and as long as you don’t look over your right shoulder, it seems like you’re driving a bigger car. It’s relatively wide, the sound insulation is very good, and it doesn’t have an El Cheapo, gray and toy-plastic interior (the kind of interiors her former cars had, a Toyota Aygo and a Suzuki Alto). On the freeway, doing 80 mph, it still feels perfectly safe and stable. Regardless (strong) side winds.
With the 2 (separate) rear seats folded down, there’s enough room for 2 average plastic grocery crates. And then it’s completely stuffed. With the engine it has, it is of course not exactly a hot hatch….not even close. You’ll have to rev it up, mainly in first and second gear, to pick up some speed. And don’t pay any attention to the little green arrow in the dash, telling you to upshift as soon as possible. You can just feel and hear that the little Daihatsu engine does NOT agree with the little green arrow….
All in all, it fits her needs perfectly. Hopping from town to town, short distances, nothing to carry around. Expensive to buy, yet cheap to run.
A 1986 Dodge class B mini-motorhome. Mom and her last husband bought it new to replace his VW camper van, that she hated to drive in the mountains due to lack of power. They made several trips across Canada and the US before he passed. She stopped driving several years ago but refuses sell it. So, “Gertrude” sits in the back yard.
Her ’72 Buick Skylark, a hand-me-down from Grandma, also sits, unused, in the garage, but I think I can get her to part with it. It should fetch a good price in today’s collector car market.
Mum’s favourites were a 6 cylinder Australian Valiant,Mk1 Ford Granada(dad’s old cars) and the only new car she bought a Mk1 Escort 1300E
Incidentally Paul my mothers favorite car was her 65 Coronet 440 station wagon. 318 nicely equipped , light blue, sans luggage rack. She liked the size of the car. Said it fit her. As she is a shorter lady I guess it was easier to see the end of the hood and maneuver/park and still haul our boomer gen family of seven.It was also one the few gently used cars my father bought in those yrs for mom.(she also had no input in the purchase other than to verify the check will clear).My depression raised father was no car guy and frugal to a fault.So he bought used ,sometimes over used cars preferring to help the local repair shop prosper in the last yrs of ownership rather than financing.Dad liked full size wagons but I don,t think he considered it when he saw the 9 pass Coronet. That was our first with 3 seats. The polar opposite to the Coronet was the 21ft. wood bedecked 69 Ply Sport Suburban.I’ll save all those stories for the next wagon week Yet I love them for their sacrifices to put 5 kids through private schools. I gotta go call my mom now .
Although she’s had her 2005 Prius for 10 years, which is the longest she’s had a car, I think her favorite is cut from almost identical cloth as your mom’s Paul. My mom truly loved the lightly used ’91 teal green Honda Civic DX hatch she bought in ’93. It replaced a disastrous ’88 Hyundai Excel GL hatch. My dad had been driving an ’84 Civic hatch for years and it had proven a much peppier and better car than the new Hyundai, even with high miles. So my mom went out and found the DX with something like 15K on the clock.
It was a 5 speed manual and is just as you describe your mom’s car. Smooth, peppy, handled great, 40 mpg highway, and just very reliable. I don’t think it needed a thing. When dad replaced his ’84 with a pickup truck, the ’91 Civic became the family car as well as her commuter.
She sold the ’91 around 1999. The only reason was that dad (6’3) and I (16 and on my way to my current 6’0), were not comfortable in the back. This had been fine when I was younger, but now the back was no longer pleasant for family trips. We joined the burgeoning ranks of 4 door Camry owners, and then my senior year at college, the Camry gave way to a new Prius which she is still driving.
I’ve never heard her refer to either as approvingly as she did when she called the Civic “fun”, though, and this is a person to whom driving is incident to other activity and not in itself a pleasure. Honda at its peak…
My mother’s favorite car is her current ride (and the only one she’s chosen without any recommendation or input from my father or me): a 2012 GTI. She likes it for its build quality, its luxury, its restrained style and its compactness.
She drives really hesitantly and slowly, and at low speeds, its lack of a torque converter makes the turbo engine bog, and its 18-inch wheels and firm suspension give it a choppy feel. Visibility leaves a LOT to be desired.
I didn’t like it until I drove it to DC from Columbus, going 95-105 nearly the whole way (I was lucky–I got a ticket driving back to Indiana from Columbus in my Civic). Going fast on the interstate through the Appalachians, the GTI comes alive and truly shines, but since my mom never drives it that way, I can’t see why she loves it so much. It’s dead at low speeds.
My mother hates cars, and neither she nor my father has ever had one of their own, although she generally took more of a role in choosing cars as my dad doesn’t really care about cars either.
He might veto something, usually for a random or bizarre reason, but otherwise wouldn’t expend any energy on it. They always bought new cars apart from a couple of hand-me-downs and my mother avoids technology like the plague, so no radio until ’91, no sunroof until ’93 and no electric windows or a/c until 2001, simply because the car wasn’t available without them.
My mother’s first car was a ’56 Chrysler Newport hardtop, inherited from my grandfather before I was born. She replaced it with a new Coronet 440 hardtop in 1966. When I was very small, my mother had a Plymouth Scamp. When I was about 8 years old, she replaced it with a Plymouth Horizon. This was our family car, by the way. Mom and Dad, Nana, my older sister, and I would pile into this hatchback for the 350 mile return trip when we brought grandmother to stay with us for the summer. She replaced it with a Porsche 924S when I was a teenager, as the days of all of us going anywhere were just about over. I enjoyed driving it quite a bit as a teen, and my father was jealous enough to trade his defective Dodge for a BMW. Mom’s next car was also a BMW, but by that time the nest was empty of kids. After the Germans stopped building cars that drove sharply enough to justify their lack of quality, my mother ditched their last BMW for a Honda CR-V. Finally! A typical mom-mobile, and just in time for my 20th college reunion!
Her favorites are the Honda and the Porsche, followed by the Horizon. She never cared for the BMW, and the earlier cars are remembered for their dependability and comfort failings, much like the BMW now that I think about it.
To this day, My Mom’s favorite car was her first, a White over Red ’65 Corvair Monza. The Corvair (named Corvy) meant that she didn’t have to share my Dad’s ’65 Falcon wagon or be stuck when he needed the car.
We kept the Corvair until it developed head gasket issues and was replaced with a ’71 Vega wagon. The Vega was terrible in the snow, it rusted away quickly and died in 1976 when the engine quit with 17 k on the odometer.It was replaced with a used ’75 Vega hatch that lasted to 1980 and was followed by a ’79 Chevette. Mom finally got a nice car when my Dad bought her an ’87 Nissan Maxima for her birthday (more than a decade after their divorce). The Max lasted until 2003 when it was traded for her current 2004 Hyundai Sonota LX.
Her 124. Then again, the only other car she’s ever owned was a Chevette.
Back in the 60’s, before I was born, my mom had a Dodge Polara that she named “Sam”. One day, without telling her, my dad traded it in for a Simca. My mom is still bitter about it 40 years later.
The Simca eventually had to be junked after it got into an accident and they couldn’t find parts for it. My dad failed to learn the lesson about French cars and bought a Renault Alliance 2 decades later.
My mom’s favorite car is her current car. Her 2007 Volvo V50 T5. She will drive this car until the mechanic says nothing can be done anymore. And it should last a long while yet!
Momma’s favorite car was any car that ran. If it needed any kind of repair it was time to trade it on a new one as far as she was concerned.But all she drove were Fords because Daddy was a Ford man. He picked the make and engine. She chose the color and options. All her cars were some shade of blue.
My mother always spoke fondly of her Studebakers – from a ’49 Champion that, being not powerful, was easy for her to learn to drive on, to her black and white ’57 President Classic that she thought was sharp to look at.
Years later, I gifted mother my ’93 Regal Gran Sport 4 door when I bought a new ’96 Monte Carlo LS. Today, on mother’s day, I am asking my 94 year old mother which was her all-time favorite car and this is her response:
“I loved my Studies, but they were not like the little white (’93 Regal GS) Buick. That car had such nice features and was easy for me to see out of and drive.”
Feeling thankful that I still have my mother on this day and that she is still very active and very much “with it” still…
Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC
My mom never drove much. Just to the grocery store and sometimes to her mother’s house. She was a stay at home mom until her kids were old enough to have cars of their own and drive themselves to school and to their own part time jobs. Then she worked part time in a jewelry store. She always talked fondly of her first car, a 1960 Ford Falcon which she did not acquire until she moved out of her parent’s house. Her dad was an auto mechanic and he picked it out for her and spiffed it up for her. She liked the compact size and the color, two tone red and white. I think her favorite car might be her current car because of its compact size…a 2009 Ford Focus. She was never very good at judging distances and parking a large car was difficult for her, especially a car with a long hood. When she owned a large car it always had dings and dents and scratches from parking difficulties.
My father was not into cars so the one car that my family had when I was growing up was always a well used example from the low priced three. I do know that the 1950 Ford was replaced fairly quickly by a 1954 Plymouth because my mother was tired of manually shifting gears and wanted an automatic. Unfortunately my mother died when I was still in high school so she never really got to have a car of her own. I suspect that if she had lived long enough she would have had some sort of minivan but who knows for sure. Not to be maudlin but if your mother is still alive be sure to tell her that you love her today.
My Mother learned to drive on a 53 Ford Custom. 3 speed on the column. Taught herself to drive it since my Dad was in another state to start a new job.
Next car for her was a 65 Corvair Monza two door, 4 speed.
Bought a baby blue 74 Mustang II Ghia with dark blue vinyl top. Sold it not long after with 600 miles on it when she quit working.
Dad bought her a cranberry red metallic 87 Coupe DeVille with white vinyl top and white leather interior which she called “that showboat’. It embarrassed her. Too flashy.
The final one was an 02 silver Ford Focus four door, which my little brother now drives.
” I finally feel like I’ve got control of a car”, she said. I’d say it was her favorite. 42,000 miles on it when she passed in July 2014.
Miss ya, Mom.
Thanks, Mr. N. What a great idea for an article.
Mom’s 1979 AMC Concord. Bought in February, 1979, after we moved her in with us after dad died the previous October. Sold it to a guy down the street who bought all our cars in September, 1990, when she had to stop driving. I’ll have to find a photo and scan it for further postings.
For my mom’s favorite car…that’s a tough call. She’d have something good to say about all of them, especially her string of Mopars from an ’87 Plymouth Sundance Turbo to an ’03 Dodge Caravan. Currently (at 86) she’s driving a 2010 Honda CRV that she bought new after my dad passed away. She’s quite happy with it, and she’s recently asked me if my wife and I would want it. Maybe. We could do worse.
Mom’s cars? Full sized Chevrolet station wagons. Started with a 1959 Brookwood, which was the only one she ever owned that wasn’t the top of the line model. After that, a Kingswood or whatever the Impala/Caprice equivalent until dad left the dealership in the fall of ’65. Then a ’66 Caprice, followed by a ’70 Caprice. The ’70’s get shady, but after that I remember an early ’80’s Buick LeSabre diesel (by this point, dad was doing all the driving, he just kept mom’s love for station wagons going, followed by the final car, an ’85 Buick Century Estate Wagon with all the broughamy stuff: fake wire wheels covers, fake wood, red velour interior, third seat option.
I ‘inherited’ that damned car at my father’s insistance (he claimed mom wanted me to have it – sounds like something she’d do to me), being forced to give up a well liked ’82 Escort GT TRX that I’d started hopping up over the previous couple of years. I hated that damned wagon, but it was also one of the most reliable cars I’d ever owned, so I ended up keeping it for about four years until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
My Mom’s favorite car (so far) was her 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, with the “Iron Duke” 4-cyilnder. My Dad bought it used for her in 1990 or ’91 from an older gentleman. She drove it until 2000, when the rust got to be a major issue (big problem here in Chicago). Before the Ciera, her first car was a 1982 Chevy Citation. After the Ciera, she had an ’88 Volvo 740 (also used, bought by my Dad). After the Volvo was a ’98 Toyota Camry. Then an ’01 Chrysler PT Cruiser after the Camry was totaled in a rear-end crash. The PT Cruiser was a pretty big disappointment, and was replaced by a brand-new Kia Sportage in 2010. My Mom says she really likes the Sportage, but the Ciera is still her favorite since they were able to pay cash for it (she took out a 6-year loan to get the Sportage, not a good situation…)
My dad bid farewell to his late ’60s Trabant that he bought used in the mid ’80s and spent his hard earned socialist savings on a bright red three door Daihatsu Charade soon after Germany’s reunification in 1990. A short while later however he was able to move on in his career and got a company car, so the Daihatsu was passed on to my mother who didn’t have a car up until that point and quickly became her beloved little runabout (in ’93 or so). Due to no fault of her own or the car’s it was however totaled a few years later and my grandpa, who was looking to buy a new car right around the same time, gave his used Renault 19 to her (around ’00). She drove that one for another few years (’07-ish?) but managed to get several dings and scratches into it and ultimately decided to stop driving altogether and bicycle to work instead. To this day the Daihatsu remains her favorite of the two cars she has ever owned because – and I quote her on this – the visibility was so good and you could easily guess both ends of the car. (Picture not hers but identical apart from the RHD.)
My Mother had 2 favorite cars. I think the 63 Grand Prix in Marimba Red was her favorite. Named “Lola”, she picked it over a blue convertible Bonneville that I wanted her to purchase instead, as her 4 year old son who played with my Matchbox cars on the Morrokide Black viynl.
The Black 73 Tbird had no name, and was after all her compromise for a more expensive Mark IV
In 1977 when my Dad retired, he went from driving his company car as a juice salesman; a 77 Royal Monaco Brougham 3 seat wagon, to a 69 Buick Skylark he bought cheap in the interim for a car while building his next house, When this proved unreliable, ? No kidding! He bought a Strippo 77 Blue Pinto pony trunk back. and would replace with another strippo car ever few years at the local Ford dealer until; he died, Eventually sky blue Escorts would do. He was strictly an A to B appliance driver.
My mom’s favorite? 1965 Rambler Marlin just like this one. Parts unavailability put an end to that car, pre-internet.
I know that of the succession of Chevies that we had from the 50s into the 80s, her favorite was my avatar, a ’55 210 Delray Club Coupe. That was the car we should have kept, but who knew back then? After moving from GM to a 1993 Mercury Sable and then a 2004 Toyota Camry XLE, I would say the Camry was up there with the old ’55. Unfortunately, she totaled the Camry after someone waved her out of shopping center entrance without her noticing that a car coming from the opposite direction had no intention of stopping. Oops! At least there were no injuries, Her replacement car was (and is) a 2011 Camry LE, which has some demerits compared to the ’04.
She always takes my advice for car purchasing, but that is about it!
My mother absolutely loved her “Little Red Car” – a 1997 Holden Astra I later inherited (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/cars-of-a-lifetime-1-1997-holden-astra-first-love/). She certainly didn’t mind the Commodores that preceded it or the Nubira that came after, but she’s never really spoken overly fondly about them. That Astra though, she loved. It was peppy, had a nice interior and a great manual transmission. She drove manuals for years before finally deciding to get an auto: a 2013 Hyundai i45 (Sonata)
She’s had three, and the first one might be surprising – a bronze 74 Matador coupe
Other one was her first brand new car – a first generation white Wolfsburg Rabbit, which she affectionately refers to as her bunny.
Current one is her 09 Focus SE which she refers to as lipstick due to the color
A fire-engine red 1985 Volvo 240 sedan. To this day she bemoans its loss, an insurance write-off after a relatively minor bingle (car was valued at <$3k at the time). I, on the other hand, love squirting around the suburbs in her base model 06 Corolla hatch when I get the chance. She keeps talking about getting an Alfa, but I'm doing my best to dissuade her. The Corolla is too plain jane for her, but it'll never be beaten for utility and reliability.
Grand Prixs. Mom loved her Grand Prixs. And always in a shade of blue. First was a new 63,in dark Blue with steel blue interior, and loaded. Following that as they entered the market was a 65, then 67 followed by 69. then a 4 year skip to 73. a change to a Buick Regal in 78, then back to a GP in 81, then an 86. she kept that car until she stopped driving in 96. letting my dad do the driving until he passed in 98. She kept his 91 Buick and was driven , Miss daisy style by her teen age Grandsons, in turn. That Lesabre came to me upon her passing in 2009 and sits next to my 87 Lesabre T-Type out in the back. sheltered by a carport erected for that purpose.
My mom’s favorite car, by far was her ’60 Chrysler New Yorker, all in black and chrome. Like this one.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/1960_Chrysler_New_Yorker_2_Door_Hardtop_Coupe.jpg
Her second favorite was the last car she owned, a ’77 Chevy Impala. A stripper pretty much, A/C, but manual windows, etc. She quit driving about 1986 or so, at about 61, when she had major back issues, and her already hilariously bad navigation skills began to get even worse. It was funny, but until the end, at 87 years old, she could rattle off phone numbers and addresses she hadn’t seen in years without a miss, but asking her how to get home, in a town she lived in for almost 70 years, was like asking her how warp drive worked.
My late mother was pretty indifferent to cars, as long as they did what she wanted them to do, to wit: get her through her errands as a mother of seven; haul home many bags of groceries every week; and not break down on her or strand her. Dad bought the family cars, and he favored your large GM models–Buicks and Oldsmobiles, always bought used. He didn’t like station wagons, despite the family size he was dealing with (no trunk) so we never had one, and we were all grown up well before the age of the minivan came along. Mom seldom complained about anything, so we never heard her express any dissatisfaction with any car we had, except for the 1960 Olds, which had every doodad and gewgaw GM could think up, and they all died, one by one: the search-and-seek radio, the power antenna, the power seats. She wasn’t particularly upset when somebody stole it out of the supermarket parking lot, except that she had to call a neighbor to come and fetch her home. As for the only car she ever truly loved: that would be the cream-colored Toyota Avalon she bought (new!) after Dad’s passing. So comfortable, so easy to drive. Dad would never have gone Japanese, but Mom had no such qualms. My sister now has the Avalon, and she loves it too.
Probably the 1935 Austin Seven Ruby that had been my dad’s first car in 1958 and which she took over when he bought a new Mini in 1962. It remained in daily use until she stopped work when expecting me in 1965, by which time Sevens were no longer a common sight on British roads, most having been KO’d by the MoT (roadworthiness) tests after 1961. By then my 5-year-old cousin had taken to calling it “Auntie Ann’s funny old car” – though as my sales-rep uncle always had new cars with the job (an Imp at that time) she can be forgiven.
It has been off the road for a good many years now but remains jacked up in her garage along with the Morris Minor, thus making her probably the only 78-year-old still owning their first car.
After we moved from London to a village in Suffolk, she followed the mandatory progress for second cars there, i.e. from a Morris Minor to a Morris 1300, which was nowhere near as good a car (everyone who followed this path said that, and hers behaved in manner that made John Cleese/Basil Fawlty thrashing his with a tree branch seem quite restrained).
Then three Renault 6TLs, the second one of which was the favourite – it was the car I learned on, though a tall car with slightly odd handling, a dashboard gearlever and an umbrella handle handbrake had odd effects on my technique and probably helped me to take four goes to pass my test. Like all 70s cars it was finished off by spectacular rust.
Then one of the original 1981 Fiat Pandas. She kept it for ten years but was always on the point of changing it – it was beset by minor faults, compounded by Fiat’s not-very-good spares backup – every component could be had in two types and they always ordered the wrong one. After this she returned to being a Renault loyalist.
A 1990 5 Campus, a 1997 Clio (both driven into the ground) and now a 2003 Clio automatic with every gadget known to man at the time. Which I suspect will probably see her out.
Back in 1972, I decided I wanted to “join the club” and buy a new Vega as several cousins had bought 71 Vegas and liked them.
My Mom never drove my Vega but I think it was one of her favorite cars because she liked to ride in it whenever my Dad took it out for “exercise”. (My Vega was a pumpkin orange Panel Express….very unusual, especially in our rural Pennsylvania small town.) I think she took delight in riding in something so unusual, something that really stood out. My folks often drove to church in it.
Paul…if your mother’s car was indeed a DX with automatic, it probably had power steering as Honda added power steering when you went with automatic. I’m not sure when Honda started adding power steering to Civics, whether it was the 88-91 generation or the 84-87. My 89 Civic DX sedan had manual steering due to being a manual transmissioned car.
My mother’s fave would come down to two, and I’m not sure she could break the tie. First was the dark green 64 Olds Cutlass hardtop with buckets and a console. She loved the performance of that 4 bbl 330, and it was virtually trouble-free for the whole 8 years she owned it.
The second was the dark cranberry 93 Crown Vic that she owned for 12 years. It is now 22 years old and still in my driveway. She loved the power and the smooth, quiet ride.
My mother loved her two convertibles, a ’50 Olds 88 and a ’58 Impala, and her ’68 Mustang hardtop. But I asked her once what was her favorite, and she said it was her ’61 Corvair 700 sedan. She just found it so easy to drive and to park. It had its problems, of course. It threw fanbelts, the pushrod tube seals were made of chewing gum, and it once dropped the muffler and tailpipe on a busy street – they just fell slam off. But Ma was pretty unflappable. She didn’t drive a great deal, though. When she finally wearied of the Corvair in 1968, it only had 27,000 miles on it. Then she got the Mustang, which she kept until 1991.
1977 Charger SE…she compared every car she ever had to it. The only one she liked as well was the 2000 Buick Century Limited….and even then she lamented it’s boring styling.
My mom was always a reluctant driver until my Dad passed, since then she drives everywhere including to the West Coast from Colorado…Her first car that she picked out by herself was a white 2002 Ford Focus 3-door. I was all set to spend a whole weekend looking with her, she wanted to look at the Focus first, and then insisted it was the one. OK.
Then, after moving from CA to CO, she figured out that she wanted something with more ground clearance and awd for her frequent hikes in the boonies with her lady friends and dogs, not to mention her boyfriend who loves five miles up a dirt road that frequently gets over a foot of snow and no plowing, so she picked out a new 2008 Outback in Blue over Silver (since the base models only came in that color and a few non-colors.). She loves that car but professed to quite liking my ’14 OB when I still had it, I can see her replacing this one with a newer model when the time comes.
My mother is German, but her automotive taste were pretty much the opposite of the senior Niedermeyers when it came to cars. When I was a boy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I remember her saying that her dream car was a Pontiac Bonneville Safari with woodgrain trim and air conditioning. Those were the days when the Pontiac name still carried clout, and having an air-conditioned car was a big deal (in small-town Pennsylvania, at least). Pontiacs made our 1965 Chevrolet Bel Air wagon look painfully plain.
My parents bought a neighbor’s mint, lightly used, metallic tan 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Holiday sedan in 1972, and from that point, both of my parents favored Oldsmobiles almost up until the bitter end (for the division – they are both still around and healthy, fortunately). She loved that Oldsmobile, along with a 1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale sedan in light jade metallic with a dark green velour interior. It was reliable, comfortable, well-built and just the right size. She did say, however, that the 1982 Olds lacked the pep of that ’67 Delmont.
My Mom has been gone for nine years. The last car my parents bought together was a 1979 AMC Concord 2 dr, a very attractive light gray with burgundy padded half roof and the square opera windows in the back. The interior was dark red cloth with very comfortable seats and rich looking finish. The car even had a CB radio built in. She did like driving it but traded it for an 84 Toyota Corolla after her sister totaled the Concord by rear ending another car. By then my dad was in a nursing home 60 miles distant so the Toyota was a good choice for reliability and gas saving. She must have liked the Corolla because in 89 she bought a new one and in 94 she bought a third new one. When she bought the 94 I bought the 89 for my daughter who was in college. The 94 was sold to Mom’s next door neighbor when Mom and her sister went in to assisted living.
I believe my moms were her ’63 Corvette Stingray, which went away after I was born in ’66, they could squeeze my older brother who was born in ’64 when he was little, but not 2 of us. Then her next favorite car was her 1975 Coupe De Ville, which unfortunately she totalled in 1983. My mom suddenly and unexectedly passed in 2009 at age 67, at that time she had a 1999 Camaro SS. I miss my mom! She had some cool cars in her life, and she always got to choose what she drove!
Mom’s favorite is her current car, a Cashmere Beige 1998 BMW 528i. That car surely feels quicker than its 190hp 6-cylinder suggests. She has about 78,000 miles on it and said she will keep it forever. It has been a great car for her, too. Repairs have been few and far between. 17 years later it still drives like a dream and is really built like a tank.
Probably her current 2004 Mercedes E320 4MATIC with over 180K miles. It is getting up there in age and mileage, so she will probably replace it with a gently used E-Class or the new C-Class.
Moms favorite car to this day was the 1982 light green Cutlass Supreme we brought home to show her with but 30K original miles on it in immaculate condition. The moment we pulled into the driveway with that car she told dad it was ours. That was in 1986 and she drove that car for 10 years even in the Winter months. That car never left her stranded and aside from a carb rebuild, tuneup and normal maintenance items was very reliable despite having the Buick 231 V6. Hers luckily had the stout THM 350 transmission too!
Hands down, it was her 1970 Mercury Monterey Custom Coupe. 429 four-barrel. Bought new when she was 48 years old, kept in immaculate condition over 18 years and 95,000 miles when she traded it for (on my recommendation) a new 1988 Honda Accord LX because she no longer trusted the Merc on long roadtrips (she probably could have). I learned to drive on that car. It was wonderful.
My mom’s favorite car is probably her current one: 2006 Lexus LS430. She always says how lucky she is to have such a nice car.
When my mom was learning how to drive, her dad had a brand new 1963 Thunderbird, and I always love when she talks about taking it out with her friends and cousins and cruising around…even before she had her license.
Her dark blue ’57 Olds 88 Super 2 door was her favorite when I was around. She got it in 1968 and it still looked like it was brand new. She called it her “Blue Baron”. Runner up was her ’62 Mercury Monterey. Although it was beige she called it her “white knight”. That one was purchased in 1971, and it too still looked almost brand new. She was not happy when dad sold it and replaced it with a puke green ’67 Monterey 4 door, which could hardly move with it’s 390 2bbl. After a not needed valve job and transmission, it was discovered the muffler had collapsed internally and the plugged up exhaust was the real problem after all the other repairs. After muffler replacement it finally ran ok. She would often talk about her Studebaker she owned before I was born (1956). She really liked the overdrive it had, wondered why more cars didn’t come with it. She died in 2010 of alzheimers in 2010 at age 81.
A little off topic, but I was once pulled over in my ’63 Beetle in front of our house for a non working tail lamp that worked perfectly when I checked it out with them. I was told it wasn’t working a minute ago. Right. I left my wallet at home and the asshole cops would not allow me to get it from the house. They were going to take me to jail. Mom saw us and came out and I asked her to bring my wallet, they were going to take me to jail for no ID. She read them the riot act, what do you mean you wouldn’t let him get his licence, etc. They were so nice to her and so nasty to me. Police dept actually sent her a letter of apology. I miss her.
My Mom would say that her most favorite car ever is an XKE, but she’s never owned one. Of those she’s owned, her favorite car is her current one, a 2000 Mercury Cougar V6, ordered new and fairly loaded. It handles well, gets good mileage, and can swallow a surprising amount of stuff. More importantly to her, it’s a racy little hatchback.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, even though my dad was basically a Ford guy, Mom’s favorite was the 1962 Olds Dynamic 88 wagon that all of us kids grew up with. The three oldest of us even got to drive it some as teenagers. They owned the car twice starting when it was new and pulled a camper and took us on vacations all over the place. It was also used as a truck to haul lumber for my dad’s numerous remodeling projects and as a first and then second car. This took place over a period of 20 or so years. Mom and Dad have been gone for a few years but my 3 siblings and I have many fond memories of them and the car.
1951Studebaker Commander with a V8. She said it was the first car she could drive Minneapolis to Bozeman averaging over 60 the whole way. She liked her baby blue country squire wagon that my brother totaled. She was thrilled when the line of station wagons ended with her 79? Subaru GF coupe. She is desperately trying to find an excuse to replace the Toyota van that my step dad left her, Despite saying she wanted a Jag as her signing bonus when she married him, but thinks it will be her last car because it’s tall enough for her to easily get in and out of and is paid for. She has said that if she hadn’t been av RN she should have been a long haul trucker because she loves driving cross country. With 3 Accords over the years since ’86 I think Honda is her current favorite manufacturer, but the one car she always mentions when the ghosts of autos past come up is that old Studie.
My mother has only had 4 cars, getting a Chrysler (Mitsubishi) Galant (1.6L 4-sp) a little before I was born, followed by a Mazda 929 wagon (2.0L 5-sp), a Ford Telstar TX5 hatch (626 clone, 2.0L 5-sp) and her current Mazda6 hatch (2.5L 5-sp auto), so about 10 years per car. I think one of the latter two would be her favourite, she likes that size and the convenience of the liftback for golf clubs. Not many midsize hatchbacks left, so I’m not sure what she will get next, the Mazda only has around 80k miles on it so should have plenty of life yet, it helps that it had <5k when she bought it.
My mother’s fave was a red 1967 Ford Galaxie 2 door fastback hardtop. Probably because it was the only car my father ever bought that wasn’t a cheapo bargain of some sort. Well, it was used and no doubt a cheapo bargain, but it didn’t look like it.
This one is actually from a CC article, as it turns out, from 2013.
My Mom was always an GM person, would have good things to say abut each of her cars. The cars I remember she had through my lifetime. 1971 Chevy Nova, 1979 Pontiac Phoenix, 1986 Pontiac Grand Am, 1994 Pontiac Sunbird and current 2007 Pontiac Wave. Her favorites were the Grand Am and the Sunbird both fully loaded models with V6 engines. She loves her little Wave (rebadged Daewoo) as well, love how she can park anywhere and haul almost anything in it. She is talking about replacing the Wave with a Buick Encore.