THE one car model that 'haunted' your young life

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addyguy

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I know lots of people's families and friends had all different types of cars growing up. But what one type or model of car just seemed to keep showing up, no matter hwere you went?

For me, it's GM's 1978-1987 G-Bodied cars - Malibu, Cutlass, LeMans, Regal...

-My dad had a 1978 Malibu wagon.
-Neighbour across the street had a LeMans sedan, neighbour down the street had a Regal sedan.
-Step-father had a 1979 Old cutlass wagon.
-Friends mother had a LeMans sedan, it actually looked the exact same as the one that was across the street when I was young
-Other friends dad had a Malibu wagon when he was younger, and his grandfather had a 1978 Olds Cutlass 2-door that my buddy used to drive for a bit after he got his permit.
-Guy I went to school with, I used to deliver papers to his house, his dad had a 1983 Malibu sedan.
-Friends of the family had a 1983 Malibu sedan as well..

I could go on, and it is simple to explain, the time period I grew up in, these cars were popular...but it's still weird - this one model of car was everyhwere!

So how about you, what cars models in your life just kept turning up?
 
With me it was the 1958-61 Chevrolets. My mother drove a gorgeous silver blue '58 Impala convertible. My father and my brother both drove '59 Biscaynes, six cylinders with three on the tree. A friend's father had a '58 Delray wagon. Other friends' families had 1960 Chevy wagons. My father, in his business, had a '60 Bel Air sedan, and later a handsome '61 Bel Air in dark red. Great cars, all of them.
 
For me it was just about any car made in 1995. For some reason, 1995 cars popped up everywhere. I have a 95 Grand Prix, a 95 Lexus SC, I've had a 95 Grand Am and a 95 Olds Delta 88 (oh, the college years!), a friend had a 95 Camaro and a 95 Mustang, and I helped a friend buy at 95 Oldsmobile.
 
Tan or "light brown" painted 1966 oldmobile dynamic or delta 88. Everybodys Uncle drove one. Not to mention Ford Country Squire - the minivan of the 60's and 70's.
 
Ford LTD IIs. Most cars (on the road) were grey/silver in 1985. We're back to that point.

Omnis.

Fairmonts.

K-cars.

Celebrities.

They were all CARS! Minivans were just coming out. Japanese cars were all the same shape brown hatchbacks.

Oddly the last RWD cars like the Malibu or the Volare weren't on my radar. If I didn't see them in current magazine advertising I had no idea what they were. Just a generic car with X number of sealed beam headlights in X shape.

I remember as a kindergartener (1981) seeing a cool (ten plus year old) Tempest/GTO type car with stacked round headlights from my school bus. I thought the high beams should be on top... because they're high, you know? But I had no idea what kind of car it was until much later.
 
Mustangs.

Really bad ones.

My best friend in high school had a 1980 Fairmont Futura Turbo Coupe. A rare example of a good carbureted Ford 2.3 turbo. I was so impressed with his Fox-bodied turbo Ford that I traded my 20R Celica for a '79 Mustang Turbo. It was a complete piece of junk and spent most of it's time leaking various fluids on my dad's driveway under a tarp.

Dad finally put his foot down. Had to trade my old Suzuki TM125 dirtbike and the '79 Turbo for a brown 1980 Mustang L 2.3. No options. Ugly steel wheels with black plastic center caps. AM Radio. 4-speed manual. No A/C....it was actually almost as much fun as my Celica to drive though and except for puking an occasional alternator (warranteed everytime by Chief Auto Supply), it was reliable.

But I wanted more, so foolishly I blew my savings and traded for a '72 Mustang. Options included automatic and power steering. That's all. No power brakes. 250 6 cylinder. It was big, slow and didn't handle particularly well but it was dead reliable.

I wanted an LX 5.0 so I got an LX 5.0....possibly the worst model. CFI (TBI) automatic '85.

Later I got a '96 4.6 Mustang GT. Low miles. Cheap. Had cooling system problems from day one. Got all those ironed out. It was not fast but it played the part well. It would roast the tires and make all the right noises...as anything with an LT-1 would walk away from it.
 
Those gorgeous station wagons with faux wood paneling on the sides! They were everywhere. Ugh.

I'm ashamed to admit that I owned one for awhile in the late 80s. That is, until I used starting fluid on it one night and ended up calling the fire department to put out what turned into quite the inferno.
 
I wouldn't say I've had any cars haunt me... But I have now owned 3 Saturns and am looking for a clean first generation coupe with popup headlights.
 
33.gif
I forgot about my worst Mustang!

1976 MustangII. Somebody else's project. It had a 351M shoehorned in. Made no real power and the brake master cylinder was so close to the manifold that it would boil the brake fluid in a short amount of time.

Start car, brakes. Drive car a mile or so, no brakes.

The engine was so heavy that it made the front frame buckle inwards. Front end was cambered out permanantly. So it handled bad and had no brakes.

Broke even selling it at least.
 
The car the haunted me in a good way (i.e. I wanted one so badly I could taste it, but could never afford one) were the 67-68 Camaros. I had an assortment of other cars from that period that most people now would consider equally valuable, but the Camaro was super-special to me.

In a negative way, it was all the bloated, shapeless cars of the mid to late seventies. LTDs, Impalas, Imperials, etc - didn't really matter the details, they were all about the same. The Chevy Chase "family truckster" station wagon is a perfect lampooning example. A very depressing trend to watch, with no sign it would ever reverse.
 
Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels

In a negative way, it was all the bloated, shapeless cars of the mid to late seventies. LTDs, Impalas, Imperials, etc - didn't really matter the details, they were all about the same. The Chevy Chase "family truckster" station wagon is a perfect lampooning example. A very depressing trend to watch, with no sign it would ever reverse.


Agreed. I got my license in 1973 and it looked like cars would only get slower and uglier. I lusted after a BMW 2002tii or Bavaria3.0- as well as an Alfa GTV. Within a year of working in the private sector I bought a 1973 Bavaria and never looked back.
 
The original Chrysler 300 of 1955 and the 300B of 1956. Arguably the start of the factory musclecar era that continued right up until emission cotrols killed it abouut 1971. FWIW--Oldtommy
 
I traded a very reliable (and very boring) Chevy Citation (not possible to get a speed violation in it...) for a 1978 Triumph Spitfire. I loved being able to drop the top without lifting myself out of the front seat. But of course, it broke down every two weeks or so. I was also a pizza delivery guy at the time, so that was an adventure.
 
for my dad it was sationwagons 1. 1955 chevy nomad 1 year old. 2. 1960 plymouth new. 3. 1964 dodge 880 new. the 60 ply was 10 times the car the chevy was. the 64 dodge was the big body, "c" same as a chrysler body.
 
My family is from Birmingham, AL. It seems like everyone I know there who was driving in the 1980s had some kind of G-Body coupe...either a Cutlass, Monte Carlo, or Regal. Apparently B-ham was filled with these cars in the 80s.

Ford pickups have been pretty much an everyday part of my life since I was born. My parents have owned Rangers, and my other relatives have had dozens of Ford trucks. I've followed suit, owning nothing but Ford pickups and an SUV so far. It just seems like there's always a Ford truck in the driveway.
 
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