My daily driver old man car. Rear wheel drive, and diesel.
Posted on 05/10/2006 4:48:01 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Jabari Bryant didn't go to a car dealership to buy his new car last fall. The 28-year-old went to a retirement community in Tybee Island, Ga., where for $2,000 he bought a navy blue 1988 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Brougham from a man who was "at least 83."
The seller said "his eyesight was going and he had no use for the car," recalls Mr. Bryant, an automobile glass installer from Savannah.
Young people today don't want their father's Oldsmobile -- they want their grandfather's. Some of the hippest wheels for under-30 drivers today are models commonly identified with seniors: Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Chevrolets and Cadillacs from the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
From Collins Ave. in Miami Beach's South Beach neighborhood to International Blvd. in Oakland, Calif., teens and young adults are cruising in "grandpa" and "grandma" cars that they have painted bright colors like lime green, outfitted with fancy sound systems and propped up on monster-truck-style wheels. They're sweet-talking their grandparents into giving up old cars and offering to buy them on the spot from strangers.
Television shows, such as MTV's "Pimp My Ride," and rappers, including Snoop Dogg, are helping to drive the craze. There's even a new magazine, Donk, Box & Bubble, dedicated to the tricked-out-oldie-car culture.
For U.S. car makers, struggling to lift sales, it's a painful irony that the models striking a chord with young buyers aren't those rolling off the assembly lines today but rather ones made decades ago. Detroit's marketers are trying to figure out how to ride the trend without ruining it.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
My daily driver old man car. Rear wheel drive, and diesel.
My very first car was the Corvair. Where to begin? The time my muffler fell off and a CHP was right behind me and ran over it? Or the time the brakes failed as I was attempting to exit the I-10 at 65 mph? That was traumatic. I did manage to survive, and that car went right to the junk yard.
Ha ha...what are the odds? Back to back W123 action!
Not really. I know Matadors are crap, but I saw one drive by a few months ago -- an old, rusty tan one with a old hippie driving -- and it looked so bizarre and out of place in this modular/prefab age that it definitely registered on the cool meter.
Mint it out, throw some modern rims on it... definitely cool. Didn't they come with an 8, too?
I recently sold a 1967 Pontiac full-size sedan to a 20 year-old kid, so I guess this is true.
Clearly you're a man of intelligence, elegance and taste.
Same back at ya! ;-)
that was one of the toughest car's I've ever owned. the only problem it ever had was with the fuel pump.
I used to drive home down a really bumpy dirt road going like 60 mph. I was too young to care if it ruined it. It held up really nice. I finally sold it once the cd player went out. All in all that car stayed in my family for over 10 years.
In college, I drove my friend's older brother's car. She had it on loan, but hated it. I wanted to buy it, but the brother's b*tchy fiance sold it at auction for about 1/4 what I was willing to pay, me and the other interested party. It was a 1971 (or poss '70) Challenger with the 340. It was great to drive.
YEAH BABY! Now we're talking.... Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors. My Dad bought one around '73-74 -- maroon with the black vinyl roof, black leather interior... the pride of our block.
Buddy of mine, somewhere in the late '80's- early '90's, bought a beat-up orange one with no roof -- he would put a tarp over it in the driveway. On sunny days we'd take it out to Jones Beach, or just cruise around. We called it "JFK", for obvious reasons. Good times.
I have an 86 looks like the picture, has 68,000 miles on it, first owner bought got sick and spent several years in a rest home, bought it off of his son when he passed. But then I have 66 Mustang also.
What surprised me, as a kid I'd always thought those real old-timey cars looked fragile and spindly, with the skinny tires and speeded up silent films. Truth is, they used real good steel springs and axles and were rugged as hell!
Not so good on the kidneys though..
OK (bragging a bit)
Two door XL, Graphic Red, Chrome Reversed 15", built 390 w C6, used original inserts when reupholstered, replaced dash pad; I'm third owner after my father who bought it in '67 and only the Ford god knows how many times it's turned 100,000.
11 MPG on good behavior, which should explain the '89 parking lot T-Bird.
(But it are fast)
LOL, I'm not as up on all the details (gee, really?), but I knew there was a reason my son liked it. And my uncle, too! Thanks!
They certainly were available with an V8. You don't happen to live in Columbia MD, because you just described the one parked near Snowden River Pkwy and Carved Stone.
I hate you.
(Can I take it for a spin?)
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