Text by Patrick Bell.
There is always something interesting to see in suburban neighborhoods, and we have a nice variety of vintage driveways to view today. Join us as we take a cruise and check them out.
A young man was washing a close to new 1977 Chevrolet Malibu Coupe in the driveway while his helpers were taking a break. This was the entry level Malibu for that year, and was the last year of the Colonnade generation. It was dressed up a bit with the optional Exterior Decor Package (roof drip and wheel opening moldings), body side moldings, full wheel covers, white stripe tires, and was wearing an Indiana license plate. In the garage was a 1971 or 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire wagon.
Here in the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico) was an adobe house with a swamp cooler on the roof and a 1959 Buick LeSabre 4 door hardtop in the driveway. It was the second most popular body style for the year, with number one going to the LeSabre 4 door sedan. There was a bumper sticker on the right, and possibly a parking permit on the left to go with the red dealer tag, and license plate registered in Bernalillo County where the seat is Albuquerque.
We now are in a warm climate, with a tidy house whose shades were partially down to block the sun, and a window unit air conditioner was installed. In the yard were some pink flamingos, and in the driveway was a 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible.
A 1965 Chevrolet Chevy II Nova Sport Coupe was in the driveway of this house where the flowers were blooming and the young tree next to the driveway was full as well. I see no engine callout so it likely was equipped with the Hi-Thrift 194 6 cylinder that was standard on the Nova models. It was missing one hub cap and appeared to have a New Jersey license plate.
This was an example of the ranch style homes that were/are popular across the country. It had a small stone accent fascia and new trees in the yard.
In the driveway was a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 4 door with the standard hub caps and what looks like clothes hanging on a rack in the back seat. In the garage may have been a 1957 or 1958 Dodge.
And here was a picture of a man taking a picture on a early spring day. Behind him was a 1966 Dodge Dart 4 door sedan. This was the entry level and most popular series in the Dart lineup that year. With no engine badge it likely had one of the two available slant sixes for power. A radio and tinted windshield were the only options I see.
A larger house was shown here, with three levels, a nice front stairway/porch entrance, and two decks on the back. Parked out front was a 1965 Dodge Coronet 440 4 door sedan. Even though this was the top trim available on a 4 door, it did not stand out due to the basic beige and blackwall tires.
We have another ranch style home, this one with a Spanish tile looking roof. In the driveway was a 1966 Plymouth Fury III 2 door hardtop with a Louisiana license plate issued in New Orleans. It had a State Farm decal on the bumper and a dealer tag on the deck lid.
This house had a well kept yard and a California look. In the driveway was a 1971 or 1972 Capri with what appeared to be an Oregon license plate, and in the garage was a 1973-1979 Datsun 620 pickup. Two Chevrolet Bel Air’s were at the curb; on the left was a 1966 wagon with a California plate, and to the right a 1969 4 door sedan. And in the lower left corner was a 1978 or 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
A lady was posing with a 1970 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Holiday Sedan (4 door hardtop) and a new house that was pretty well dried in. The Delta 88 sedans were offered in two flavors that year, the base model and the Custom. This one was the base model which was the second most popular full size Oldsmobile after the Delta 88 4 door Town Sedan, and was the least expensive as well. The featured car had a vinyl roof and a Washington state license plate.
This warmly dressed couple seemed to be having fun as they paused for a picture in front of a 1972 Buick Riviera from Rhode Island. In the driveway to the left looks like a 1973 Toyota Corolla with a 1973 or 1974 Plymouth Satellite Sebring in front of it. The far right driveway had a 1965 Chevrolet Impala parked by the house. And in the street were a red 1969 Plymouth Fury III 2 door hardtop and a white 1965 Chrysler 300 4 door hardtop.
Here was a nice brick home that benefited from the work of someone with a green thumb. Parked in the driveway was a 1974 Buick Century 350 2 door Hardtop Coupe. The “350” did refer to the standard V8, as 6 cylinders were not available in the Century line at that time. This was the entry level intermediate size Buick, and was equipped with full wheel covers, whitewalls, and possibly an Ontario license plate.
From the looks of the neighboring driveways, this one in the foreground may have been a second driveway for a second car. Either way the car was a 1974 or 1975 Chevrolet Vega Hatchback. The hatchback was by far the most popular Vega body style throughout its existence. This one definitely had an Ontario license plate, but no visible options. It may have had a custom paint job with a darker shade faded in the side. And someone got creative with a roll of stripe tape. Across the street was a 1976-1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
Another Vega was in the circular driveway of this house, a 1974-1977 Kammback Wagon with a droopy door side molding. And in the street was a 1975-1978 Plymouth Fury sedan that looked like an unmarked police car, with an two way radio type of antenna on the left quarter panel. Plus there was a youngster leaning against it.
Our final stop was a two story, brick faced home with a nice lawn and a new tree. The driveway was occupied by a 1977 or 1978 Buick Skyhawk with a Virginia license plate. All Skyhawk’s were V6 powered, which was Buick’s widely used economy engine that was brought back to life in the 1970’s.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Boy the seventies had some butt ugly cars
That is why people desire these bad 70’s cars and clothes. I lived the 70’s as a kid and saw so many bad clothes, (powder blue, groovy orange, sunshine yellow, lime green, harvest gold and cherry red tuxes) just like those car colors. Then Disco came (Rock music lover) and this was icing on the cake for the bad taste designers had then. Full circle and those 70’s will be back again but not the cars. Too much metal involved.
I don’t think they looked so bad. I was a teen then.
Not when compared to most 2026 cars??
But such variety. Unlike now where every car looks the same ….
The 1st picture reminded me of the days when a number of coupes were available to buyers at a reasonable price. That Malibu is a nice-looking car even in base trim. Cutlasses, Torinos, Satellites, Novas, Dusters were all nice-looking coupes that with the check of a few appearance option upgrades looked great! No coupes today, sadly.
Some very nice pictures of the cars and houses. In the 1960s I earned my allowance cleaning the family Thunderbirds weekly and I was meticulous then and now keeping my cars spotless. My other task was to mow the lawn and when I left home at 18, I have never mowed grass again. In the 1960s, my family new home had mature pine trees next to the driveway. Fifteen minutes parked under one of those trees, sap and pine needles. I have a love / hate relationship with trees and cars. I now live in an HOA community that is heavily forested, developed in the 1980s to be close to nature and houses have to blend in with nature. Thankfully no lawns. The developers must have hated cars as driveways only allow for two parked cars, can be extremely steep, and in this wooded environment no garages or carports allowed. I have to use car covers on my autos at all times which is a pain each time I want to make a quick run to a store. Sweep off the cover, put it somewhere, run a 15-min errand, put the car cover back on again. Like I said I keep my cars clean and other than using a spray detailer I only have to wash my cars about twice a year. In this compulsive HOA you need permission from an arborist and HOA approval to trim a tree. Last year a four-foot branch broke off and pierced my housemates windshield. Mother Natures tree trimming service.
I have garage envy. I see some of these pictures of people with homes and garages and as I remember it people actually parked in their garages. Today, many people use their garages to hoard stuff, and leave their $60,000-$100,000 autos out in the weather, or leave their cars on driveway display for car thieves.
Apologize for my rant about clean cars and my garage envy.
I hear you about garages. I have managed to keep my cars garaged since I moved back to Canada in 2004. It really does cut down on UV damage, especially on headlight covers. I can’t imagine filling a garage with random junk. It was built to protect your investment, not sort useless stuff.
I knew before even reading that the last pic was from somewhere in the DC area. Those colonial-style houses, often with 2-car garages, are everywhere in VA and MD. Known by architects and others as “5, 4, and a door” referring to the standard window/door layout. Ranch houses not very common locally.
Yes – definitely. My first thought was the Mt. Vernon area of Fairfax County. This 1975 ad shows a very similar house (though there’s tons of houses that look vaguely like this, that single window on the side next to the chimney is pretty unique).
When is that ad from? Split-levels and split-foyers were very popular with builders around here in the ’50s and ’60s, but you’d be hard pressed to find a new one built after 1975. The existing stock of such houses are nonetheless still popular with resale-house buyers, realtors tell me.
Interesting, around here it was the rambler that dominated the 50’s and early60’s. The split level and split entry were in their heydays throughout the 70’s and early 80’s around here. Personally I own a 1977 split level but not the typical side/side tri-level. Mine is a front/back to take advantage of the sloping lot and has 5 levels though the original plan was a tri.
Thanks to both the county-coded license plate and the address visible in the shot, we can find the location of Picture #2 (1959 Buick in Albuquerque).
Here’s a then-and-now image of the same house. Google StreetView link below:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qA3w7nk3FRHSJ7Cu6
Interesting. Have to say the house looks better in white, with no wheelie bin clutter, and no bars on the window. And a ’59 Buick instead of a bro-dozer. :/
What’s a “swamp cooler”?
Another name for an evaporative cooler. Basically a box with a squirrel cage blower inside it that exhausts either out one side (side draft) or through the bottom (bottom draft). A reservoir in the bottom holds water circulated by a pump to pads held in frames attached to the sides of the box. Air is pulled through the wet pads and cooled by evaporation (as much as 30 degrees F.). They’re mostly found in dry desert areas, because that’s where they work best. Arizona and New Mexico experience a dry late spring and early summer when coolers work really well (we can bring our house down to the low 70s at night, and it will go up only to about 78 in the late afternoon, with outdoor highs over 100). Then in mid to late June, the winds change, and our monsoon summer rains begin, pulling moist air up from Mexico. Humidity rises, and the coolers don’t work so well. If we have both A/C and evap on the house, it’s time for the A/C for most of the rest of the summer.
These are all so fun. I would buy a(nother) picture book of images like this. That extra money for the decor package on the ’77 Malibu was well-spent, no matter what the cost. And gimme the brown Capri. Please.
Wide lapels and neck ties, polyester flare pants, acetate and nylon shirts, muppet hair with mutton chops, wire rim glasses, tight pants, stacked heels, canned Chinese food, shag carpets, paneling, popcorn ceilings, tri-level houses, avocado kitchen appliances, 5mph bumpers, Disco, Gremlins/Pintos/Vegas, bordello interiors, hood ornaments, vinyl roofs, Watergate, inflation, Stovetop Stuffing, neck chains, Captain & Tennille, Love Canal, Eve cigarettes, John Denver, and Afternoon Delight.
It all so sucked until Punk, MTV, Apple, Walkman and Honda.
There was some good industrial design in the ’70s too, though. It was the golden age of home stereo equipment for example (in both appearance and sound), stuff like Marantz receivers and JBL Century speakers, the ones in the famous Maxell man-in-chair advert. Cameras and photographic equipment from the decade were handsome. Basic stuff like clock radios looked good.
The “good ole days”, for sure.
Here is a picture of our family home in the just barely middle class suburb of Airline Park, 12 miles west of New Orleans, LA, USA, around 1971, showing Mom’s 1966 Ford Country Sedan station wagon and Dad’s 1963 Falcon Sprint.
The lighter colored slate roof shingles are replacements after hurricane Camille visited the area two years before.
Long term, sharp eyed readers here may recognize this picture from my past postings here.
At the time I thought we were “near rich”; but really just living normally for the time period. One income, only a Sears credit card, “stay at home” Mom, one or two road trip vacations per year, new console color television in the den, huge Amana radar range microwave oven on a roll around cart in the kitchen.
“Eating out” was us going to Burger King in Mom’s suburban status symbol “June Cleaver” station wagon that Dad and I applied a “Blue Coral” wax job on twice a year.
Sorry about the quality of this image. It is a cell phone capture of a fading Polaroid image.
Hello. Awesome pics. Just one slight correction. The Vega picture with the Ontario plate is in the 1980s. My dad’s 79 Granada purchased in 1980 the license plate started with a P. My brother’s used Valliant bought in 1982 started with sn R. The R series plates wouldn’t have come out until 1981. Quick Google search confirms
Those are the days when only man was working and woman stay home.
And on one income he was able to pay mortgage ,support family and put kids thrue college. Think about it Elbows
I’m afraid your memory is way off base. In 1970, 43.3% of adult women worked outside the home. Even in 1950, it was 33.9%.
Not so amazing ;
My 48 Y.O. son is doing this now ~ his wife takes full time care of his two children and he works a 10 hour shift @ L.A.P.D., he’s buying two houses, one in Arizona for retirement .
He doesn’t smoke or otherwise waste $ .
I lied, he loves his 4X4’s and dirt bikes =8-) .
-Nate
My memories of early 70s driveways was a bit different perhaps because of where I lived. It was late 50s split level houses and a mix of newish Detroit iron and imports with a few outliers, like the Corvair Monza up the street and the Rover P6 3500. Our driveway was an outlier with an old Mercedes 250S and a newer BMW 2000. In an early CC effect a teacher at my school had a BMW 2000 sedan the same color as ours but with an automatic and while a 2002 was a common sight those were the only 2000s in the area.