'67 Squire Wagon, '85 Caprice Wagon

[JOD]

I'm an admitted wagon geek, so I'm always on the lookout for something I can't live without. When I saw "27 bids, 10K" on a '67 Squire wagon, I figured something had to be up?? link

wow...

Even stranger is an '85 Caprice Wagon with a claimed odometer reading of 6,015 miles on it? I really would like to hear the story on that one.

I'm fascinated by time capsules like these cars, particularly when they're mundane (for their time) wagons.

 

[sciphi]

I rode around in my grandfather's '87 Caprice Estate wagon as a kid. That thing was a beast!

 

[HM12460]

That '67 is quite a beast. I like wagons too, had a '72 Country Squire way back in the day.

 

[cchase]

The engine doesn't look like it has only 6k miles on it, for some reason.

 

[BGK]

Ah the good old days of big wagons; no handling, brakes, lots of rattles, weak a/c, sloppy steering, non supportive seats and little real crash safety!

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: BGK
Ah the good old days of big wagons; no handling, brakes, lots of rattles, weak a/c, sloppy steering, non supportive seats and little real crash safety!


My Uncle had a 67 Squire Wagon..He bought it used [50K miles on it] off a gas station on Route 4 in New Jersey..He drove across the USA in it.

It handled just fine,good brakes,no rattles,awesome ice cold a/c..The seats could have had more support but was good enough for 1967..I drove it few time and loved it..When he finally sold the car it had 175K miles on it..He kept it for 10 years.

 

[FXjohn]

Originally Posted By: BGK
Ah the good old days of big wagons; no handling, brakes, lots of rattles, weak a/c, sloppy steering, non supportive seats and little real crash safety!


wow. how are those sour grapes?

 

[simple_gifts]

Those Squire way back seats are way cool.

 

[Turk]

They're boats!

 

[Lead Shoes]

Those are in the oldies but goodies category for sure, not bad prices either...

 

[synthetic_crazy]

Neat cars!!

 

[mrsilv04]

That '85 Caprice Wagon, if it were in Dark Blue, would be a copy of the driver's ed car that our school used to teach us to drive in.

Oh, no. No little car like a Cavalier sedan for us. We had to learn how to drive in a tank. And the brakes went from 0 to 100% within the first inch of pressing on the brake pedal. It made for some interesting experiences.

One bonus was that the same car was also used by the office staff, so it didn't have the goofy sign on the roof, and signs on the doors. We learned to drive incognito.

 

[rslifkin]

^ The touchy brakes are definitely a Caprice thing. I drove a friend's '86 Caprice sedan a couple weeks ago, and it feels about the same, not much difference in effort from gentle to hard braking.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I almost bought an '85 Caprice wagon with a 305 when I was in college. I was looking for a beater car to drive so I didn't have to drive my '84 Cutlass in the snow or rain. I never did buy it, but I wanted to...and put some Classic II wheels on it and roll around town.

I love wagons also. My mom had an '85 Cutlass Ciera wagon (called the Cutlass Cruiser), with the 3.8L. I think that was the first year for the EFI 3.8L, at least in the Ciera. It had a ton of electrical glitches in it (Oldsmobile kept putting ECUs in the car), and it died on our move out east from California (died in South Dakota). A replacement ECU from a local dealership got it running again. But mom loved that wagon.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I almost bought an '85 Caprice wagon with a 305 when I was in college. I was looking for a beater car to drive so I didn't have to drive my '84 Cutlass in the snow or rain. I never did buy it, but I wanted to...and put some Classic II wheels on it and roll around town.

I love wagons also. My mom had an '85 Cutlass Ciera wagon (called the Cutlass Cruiser), with the 3.8L. I think that was the first year for the EFI 3.8L, at least in the Ciera. It had a ton of electrical glitches in it (Oldsmobile kept putting ECUs in the car), and it died on our move out east from California (died in South Dakota). A replacement ECU from a local dealership got it running again. But mom loved that wagon.

What rotten luck. Back in 1985 you could buy a Nissan Maxima wagon with an EFI V6, and not worry about the CEL.

Too bad those Maxima wagons were hastily executed FWD cars, which negated the savings.

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I almost bought an '85 Caprice wagon with a 305 when I was in college. I was looking for a beater car to drive so I didn't have to drive my '84 Cutlass in the snow or rain. I never did buy it, but I wanted to...and put some Classic II wheels on it and roll around town.

I love wagons also. My mom had an '85 Cutlass Ciera wagon (called the Cutlass Cruiser), with the 3.8L. I think that was the first year for the EFI 3.8L, at least in the Ciera. It had a ton of electrical glitches in it (Oldsmobile kept putting ECUs in the car), and it died on our move out east from California (died in South Dakota). A replacement ECU from a local dealership got it running again. But mom loved that wagon.

What rotten luck. Back in 1985 you could buy a Nissan Maxima wagon with an EFI V6, and not worry about the CEL.

Too bad those Maxima wagons were hastily executed FWD cars, which negated the savings.


And yet I still see tons of those old Cutlass Ciera wagons out on the road here in the "rust belt" but I've never even heard of a 1985 Maxima wagon.

 

[JOD]

Speaking of time capsule wagons, here's my favorite car of all time--with 90 miles on it!

http://www.exoticclassics.com/detail-1973-volvo-p_1800_es-leather_interior-used-7427358.html

 

[andrewg]

My Dad used to drive a '67 Ford Squire wagon. Before that it was a '62. Those wagons were great vehicles. Sort of like an early SUV of the day. I recall the few times we moved and having to hook up a huge U-haul trailer to the back of the '67. I have no idea just how heavy it was but I know that today you'd never see any passenger car being able to handle the load that old Squire did. I remember it having a 390 and being plenty fast for it's day. Rode as comfortable as any luxury car does today.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
What rotten luck. Back in 1985 you could buy a Nissan Maxima wagon with an EFI V6, and not worry about the CEL.


It was horrible luck. I remember mom flying through the neighborhood at 40-50 MPH because you had to keep the revs up or it wouldn't stay running. Sometimes (like in South Dakota), it'd just die completely. Then drain the battery trying to crank it. Who knows what the (obviously uncommon and isolated) problem really was...because they kept putting new computers in it.

I liked those earlier Maximas, the ones with the "4DSC" decal in the back window. I guess I was about 8 at the time, and they always looked sharp to me. I didn't know they made them in wagons.

 

[rslifkin]

They were certainly real cars. One of the last of the breed were the early 90s Cadillac Fleetwoods with the LT1. They were big and beefy enough that they're rated to tow more than my Jeep!