OK, I'll play. Way back when, Dad bought a brand new, 1959 Opel station wagon- model was called a Rekord Caravan. Drove Mom & me from NE TX to Philmont Scout Ranch & back in that car! For much of my childhood, I remember gas station attendants walking around it, looking at it sideways,& asking,"Whut kinda car *Is* that?"
4-cyl inline, ~50 HP, larger inside than outside, looked a little like a 55-56 Chevy that shrunk in the rain. Began coming apart around 40,000 miles.
Fast forward to a couple of years after getting rid of it- Dad got another Opel, a Rekord sedan, *cheap*, had been sitting up a couple of years somewhere. Since by then he was pretty good at workin' on 'em, put it right & Mom drove it 100 miles a day for 2 semesters when she went back to get her degree. Still had it when I got my license- I remember driving it in one of our semi-rare snowfalls, on *slick*(& I mean really bald & rounded!) wide whitewall tires! Great fun. It died after about a year.
About a year after Opel sedan died- you guessed it- *another Opel, a wagon, showed up & he bought that- Dad wouldn't say so, but he bought it mainly so ther'd be something I could drive. We had that about a year, a burnt-orange Opel wagon. Sevral stories of things we shouldn't have done in our high school days go with the little "UT" wagon, but I won't tell any of them here.
I never had a Falcon or Chevy II or Valiant/Dart, but for a fewmonths I did own a ~59 Studebaker Lark V-8- you guessed it- station wagon. Bought it for something like $75, drove it a few months, sold it for $75, still smoking like crazy & killing evry mosquito within a half-mile. It was kida small sized, but burned gas like a big car, even though it had a manual trans(3-on-the-tree, of course!) with an honest to goodness overdrive.
A few years later, at age 21, I bought my first new car- a 74 Pinto station wagon. Big mistake! I married into a VW bug, & we later bought a Maverick, cheap, from her brother. About the end of 1975, bought the Volvo 122S 4-dr. I kept it after the divorce, & didn't sell it until ~Sept of 1997!
Why did I sell the Volvo in fall 97? Because that summer I bought a new- Dodge Neon! And I still have the Neon, it's my onlycar.
So you could say I have something of a history with small cars.
I even think I've forgoten at least one- AHA! For about 1year I had- another Opel! this one was an Opel Rallye 2-dr sedan, silver with flat black hood, about a 1971 model. A year or two later, they called that body style the Opel Manta. Had that car just before the Pinto wagon. This was the little sport coupe, not the Opel GT that looked like a tiny baby Corvette.
Wrecked it, got it fixed, sold it. Also, then-wife & I had, for a short time, a sweet little Audi 100 LS- that was probably in 1977-78. See, I forgot Two- I won't be surprised if I should remember another one or more!
If I were in the market for another car, would it be another small one? Maybe- but I sure do like that big Crown Vic.
