(first posted 5/11/2018) CC reader Peter N. sent me these shots of a Canadian Mercury pickup, which would be a ’65 if its grille is consistent with the US Ford version. I need to convert my ’66 into one of these, to really confuse folks down here.
(first posted 8/1/2013) Eighteen years ago, when John Gallo was all of fifteen and only had a learner’s permit, he saw this ’66 Monaco 500 hardtop with a For Sale sign sitting on the street near San Jose. It was love at first sight, and he just had to have it. Can you blame him? And after being in storage in California for the last fifteen years or so since John moved to Eugene, he and his first love are finally reunited again. We should all hide away our first teenage loves–cars or otherwise– for our later years, especially if they’ve been chosen as well as this one. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s revisit the theme of female drivers in the past. As I told in the first installment of this series, it’s a topic of particular interest to me since at my home Mom was the sole driver in the family. A curious, but probably far from unique situation.
Photos from the Cohort by robadr.
Let’s pay a brief visit to Canadian Mopars with this find from the Cohort by robadr. A 1962 Chrysler Saratoga, a model that has appeared at CC before thanks to another robadr find. Rather than trying to reword what Paul wrote for that entry, I’ll repeat that the Saratoga was Canada’s mid-line Chrysler, carrying a nameplate that had disappeared from the US marketplace in 1960:
Illustration from the web.
By mid-1977, I had secured steady (“permanent temporary”) employment and had begun to develop my design skills on real-world auto-industry projects as a Product Adaptation Specialist at Volvo of America Corporation. Still living at home with my dad, I took over his mid-1960s mortgage payment, utility bills, and most other miscellaneous expenses. By then, I also enjoyed the benefit of a Volvo daily driver (the “handicap car” referred to in last week’s COAL) as my commuting vehicle.
Not only that, since I had a daily round-trip commute of about 100 miles, –longer than many of my colleagues– I was asked to provide fuel-economy records which were compiled by Volvo’s Technical Center, a group of mostly Swedish engineers located nearby Northvale, New Jersey. They were tasked with reporting quality-related issues (and proposed solutions) back to the mother ship in Gothenburg. As Volvo was paying for my gasoline, I was glad to oblige.
The point of all that preamble is merely to say that with a full-time job and relatively low expenses, I was fortunate enough to have saved a bit of money. How does a confirmed car enthusiast turn a small bank account into an even smaller bank account? Read on.
(first posted 5/10/2018) I had tried on many different hats, sometimes simultaneously, when I was becoming a young adult. It was fun to shapeshift and discover ways in which I was more than just my parents’ kid. Even today, I tend to defy those who would try to put me in some sort of narrow box. A strong sense of individuality and fluidity has been important to me ever since having been subjected to wearing matching (off-brand) Members Only jackets with my younger brother as a kid.
In many ways and after its near-death experience at the end of the 1970s, Chrysler Corporation had very much reinvented itself in the ’80s. Out went the old, RWD, inefficient, indifferent mindset, and in came some new thinking. With the introduction of the K-Car platform and its subsequent variations, Chrysler’s image had pulled almost a full one-eighty by the time our featured car was introduced – a period when Chrysler seemed like it was on such a roll in doing more with less.
(first posted 5/11/2018) Back in 1966, General Motors was riding high, and one of the drivers of that success was the effectiveness of the corporation’s upmarket brands like Buick, which was able to charge premium prices while maintaining strong volumes. Perched at the top of Buick’s range was the Electra 225, a series that whispered “money” and was a “quieter” luxury alternative to the flashier Cadillac. Like the car itself, marketing and press coverage was understated and on-target. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time for some more armchair traveling. Or is it ‘armchair lodging’ on this occasion? After all, today’s postcards feature hotels and motels from the ’50s and ’60s, with a smidgen of the ’70s. As normal for the times, the cars are colorful and the buildings even more so. Our first image is from the Cabana Lodge in Sacramento, CA.
Quite a few of us at CC have done posts with outtakes from a particular neighborhood, and it’s pretty much a site staple by now. In my case, I haven’t done many such entries, but I think I can compensate for that with a different take on the theme. After all, I live in a city that still has enough vintage cars that every so often, one comes to my street. So instead of me finding the cars, the cars find me.
This should really be listed as a FILOAL for Father In Law Of A Lifetime.
I’ve talked about my father in law Paul a few times, but he’s now in an assisted living facility and not doing well. So I wanted to talk a bit about him and his love for cars.
(first posted 5/11/2018) Once upon a time, there was a luxury car brand with an almost magical ability to spin profits for its maker. Cadillac, the flagship division of General Motors, had clearly mastered the formula for appealing to wealthy Americans (and those wanting to appear wealthy) in the 1960s. Like clockwork for 1969, Cadillac refreshed its core Calais/DeVille/Fleetwood with “better-than-ever” benefits to keep buyers coming back for more. So, let’s turn to Road Test Magazine from May 1969 to get behind the wheel of a Coupe DeVille to see Cadillac’s alchemy up close.
(First posted 5/10/2018)
(how is it that in almost ten years we’ve never covered this car?)
In 1965, the Ford LTD launched The Great Brougham Epoch. And those iconic three letters—whose true origins or meaning will never be divined because they are of an occult nature—came to stand for all the symbology of that era: big, heavy, wallowing, boxy sedans sitting on frames and topped with poofy vinyl wigs, interiors upholstered in “panty-cloth” or tufted velour upholstery and slathered with faux wood, and commonly sporting Pep Boys-grade fake wire wheel covers. Yet in 1983, the LTD moniker was suddenly kidnapped from that dying dinosaur and grafted onto something altogether different: a rather compact, lithe and decidedly Euro-inspired unibody sedan with very obvious aerodynamic aspirations.
Why?
Let’s just say the winds of change were blowing, all the way to Dearborn.
This post will be a second serving of vintage shots with cars and people from the ’60s and ’70s. In this series, the cars are obviously of interest, but the fashions are too. After all, they truly highlight how life went from serious and formal to laid-back and casual. Attire and attitudes on these range widely, from the traditional to the outgoing. It is quite a mixed selection.
Just perfect! An 18 years old, battle-scarred dump truck, parked between two immaculate showstoppers. Dump trucks don’t have it easy, you know. They’re always carrying very heavy loads, under less than ideal road conditions. If there is a paved road at all.
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