Ugly American Cars (My Vanity Rant)

count-your-change | 9/9/2012 | count-your-change

[Sirius Lee]

I hope Cadillac makes the Ciel.

[golux]

Some folks have a problem with beauty, luxury, ride, acceleration, and road-handling performance.

I have owned many different cars and have only bought a "second" of one: the Jaguar XJ6. As my next will be.

I may have a few other problems, but I do not have those.

[count-your-change]

One of the most durable engines I've ever owned was a Dodge Slant Six. Two young neighbors bought an old Plymouth Valiant from a junk yard and put a used transmission in it and drove it couple of years before selling it to me. It had well over a hundred and fifty thousand miles on it then and I put another hundred thousand on it with only a valve job.
When the body just rotted down my dad took the head off the engine and used it on his car that had the same size engine. His old car eventually just fell apart on rough roads but the Slant Six was still hammering along at the time.

[Windflier]

1966 Buick Wildcat

I owned one of these in 1974 when I was 20. Got it from the old lady next door, who thought it was 'possessed'. Seems the car had accelerated out of control on her one day, and she smashed the front right quarter panel into another car.

Neither her son nor her husband could figure out what the cause was, so the car just sat. I offered her $150 for it, and she gave me the pink slip.

I quickly figured out that some knucklehead had turned the air cleaner housing the wrong way, which caused the throttle linkage to become stuck. Turned the air cleaner the right way, and bingo. No more 'demons' .. LOL. Paid a local shop to put a new front right quarter panel on it, and she was good as new.

It was a great car, until a drunk illegal plowed into it while it was parked.

[count-your-change]

I, on the other hand, would like to own one the British diesel taxi cabs.

[count-your-change]

Combine all those and good looks too. Now if only they could get the steering wheel on the proper side.

[smokingfrog]

455HO

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Judge Commercial

[Nowhere Man]

I love the big land yachts of the 1960's and 1970's. The "Malaise Era" cars are interesting too, 1973-83 and there is a website for them. I also like the Nissan cars like the 240Z to the 300 ZX. I think an overlooked era of classic cars is the 1980's and even some of the early 1990's.

[count-your-change]

It will be built...with a few changes. It will be the luxury version of the Chevy Spark. Leather seats and a hundred horse four cylinder power plant. And...and the cargo area will big enough for a tooth brush holder since owning one may leave a bad taste in ones mouth. What a concept!

[Nowhere Man]

Detroit it isn't that hard to figure out, just dust off the old blue prints and start upgrading technoogy...

I like how the Brazilians kept the Ford Galaxie line running up into the early 1980's, same we let the Galaxie die early here.

[Nowhere Man]

I always thought the Gremlin was cool.

[Caulkhead]

Here you go

http://www.taxi-mart.co.uk/taxis-for-sale/private/lti/fairway-driver/66139/

Cheap as chips and barely run in! :)

[count-your-change]

1974 was a bad year for engines as car makers rushed to put pollution control plumbing on the engines. The design was so bad that most cars had to have an “override” button because often after following the list of things to do necessary to start the car, it just wouldn't. So get out and raise the hood and press the “override” and get in quick for your one more try.

[Nowhere Man]

My idea of a good looking car would be a 3/4 ton van, Ford will do nicely, with a few windows in the cargo area. And skip the bucket seats that grab my behind. I’m not driving a race car.

I know a local man who delivers ice cream and he buys Ford vans of 1973 to 1977 vintage but lately he has gone a bit newer, he bought a couple of 1979 models. He likes the old Ford 300 6 cylinder. He really stuck his neck out and bought a 1990 Ford van but it was so problematic, he sold it and decided to add a 1971 model to the fleet instead.

[Nowhere Man]

1974 was a bad year for engines as car makers rushed to put pollution control plumbing on the engines. The design was so bad that most cars had to have an “override” button because often after following the list of things to do necessary to start the car, it just wouldn't. So get out and raise the hood and press the “override” and get in quick for your one more try.

I've also heard in 1974 that many cars had a safety feature where they will not start unless a sensor in the driver seat "felt" a driver sitting there. If you're a mechanic trying to diagnose the problem, you had to put something heavy on the seat to start it up. Some 1974 models also had airbags too, IIRC.

[Talisker]

Oh man, is that nice.

[Nowhere Man]

IIRC, I think you also had to buckle your seatbelt too to start the cars.

[count-your-change]

Or go to London Taxi Group. They export used cabs and parts.

Don’t know about prices.

[golux]

This one isn’t mine. The key is to find a very good diagnostician for when problems do arise. Mine is a 20+ year Jaguar mechanic based in the MD/DC/VA area. I think it’s fair to say that I spend half taking XJ6 cars to 200K than most folks do taking Ford Tauruses to 200K. And while most folks try to buy the “latest features,” my next daily driver will probably be a 70s or 80s XJ. They’re that great, and we only live once.

[count-your-change]

All of the above. And even if you did all that the car might not start.

In early 1974 I worked at a large airport and some debris from one of our customers was left on the runway. I call one of the airport police to take me out on the runway so I could pick up whatever was there.
We go out in his new ‘74 patrol car with lots of lights so the tower knows where we are, I pick up a piece of tire tread and he tells the tower we're heading off the runway.

Better hurry, says the controller, we have only a couple of minutes before a flight is due to land. The cop floors the gas and the car coughs and dies. He restarts it and gives it a bit of gas. It coughs and dies. Again and again.

By now the tower is telling us to clear the runway or pay the consequences. I see lights in the sky getting larger by the second and tart to bail out of the patrol car just as it starts and begins rolling into the grass.

A huge wing passed by at what seemed to me to be very close but wasn't really. I decided next time to drive our old company truck and just get an escort.