In about 1980, I went in to a wrecking yard 100 miles south of here in North Dakota. Scouring the yard, I saw this car, looked in and was staring at the factory tach. I literally bolted the 1/4 mile or so back to the office and kept as good a stone face as I could while I asked the price of the tach. "$20????" "Sure, I think I can swing that!!!".
I pulled the tach, but by the time I was home realized I needed to call back and ask about the whole car. 66 2+2, 421, 4bbl, 3 speed manual floor shift, missing the buckets and one fender, hit in the quarter but a pretty solid car. "$200???". "Yup, I can do that." So back we went a few weeks later.
Kept it for many years and in a weak moment told a guy to come on out from Winnipeg and he could pull all he wanted off it for $300.........
He told me later the sum total of what he could find wrong was the engine had broken a valve spring. DOH!!!
Edited because I remembered more. I also found the build sheet in it. Kinda neat.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson at 00:00, 2008-09-04
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Wouldn't it be like 2 or 3 Toyotas?*L* Unless it was a Tundra i guess. Speaking of the rice rockets, my other car is a Corolla. Bought it new 8 years ago, my first new car. Its got over 250K on it and still manages a decent 600k on 3/4 of a tank. Better after an oil change and i've got to try some of that max life stuff to see if it makes much of a difference. Drove it over a 1000km over the weekend down to Ohio and back. Didn't trust the Pontiac to make the trip...more of a close to home cruiser in it's current condition. Would be nice someday to take it on a big road trip. For now i drive it the 80k round trip to work some days. Not for much longer though, it goes back off the road for winter at Thanksgiving.
We had an Echo in the other day with 1/2 million K's on it. Just does the reg maintenance. The Echo (now Yaris) are probably the most reliable Toyotas out there. Still made in Japan.
I had an 89 Caprice with 450,000 kms on it, sold it to a cab company ten years ago-its still on the road looking to run over that Echo-and I doubt it'll echo just splatt.
I had an 89 Caprice with 450,000 kms on it, sold it to a cab company ten years ago-its still on the road looking to run over that Echo-and I doubt it'll echo just splatt.
I've often thought of buying a pre-emissions 80's Parisienne or a Caprice as a family car. Maybe once the Corolla goes*L* Todd which Toyota dealership are you at?
I'm at ToyotaTown in London. 50000 square feet. I had shin splints for weeks. So much walking! I'll have to snap some photos. There's even a cafe... Apparently Yaris sales in Canada are up 127% over last year. 4 months wait to get a Prius, 12 weeks a Camry Hybrid. My boss is driving a Camry Hybrid as a demo. He said he can drive about 80% of his trip to work (across London) strictly on the electric motors. We had our quarterly meeting a couple of weeks ago. They put out a big spread of food, drinks, ice cream etc etc and told us that we are "bucking the trend" with continued growth in sales in service. I have to say it's the best dealership I have ever worked at.
I think GM is on the right track. I just hope there's enough time for them to turn things around. I am excited about the Volt and was surprised at the latest Cobalt MPG figures (50). I understand they are recalibrating PCM's for fuel economy and equipping some models with low resistance tires.
One of the most reliable and fun cars I ever owned was an 85 Corolla GTS. One of the "drift" cars. Mine was stock and only paid $400 for it. Drove th ever lovin' S**T out of it and sold it to a Kid in Edmonton for $1600 a year later. (this was last year) His Dad came with him and when he drove it back to Edmonton, he phoned and asked me if the engine was rebuilt, he couldn't believe how well it ran. It had 275,000 on it. The pics are my road trip to the Columbia Valley Car Show in Radium, BC. The speedo pic I took while slowing down, I'd hit 165KMH....
1960 Pontiac Strato Chief Safari 1960 Laurentian Safari 1960 Laurentian 4door(scrapped) 2001 Grand Am Traded on a '96 Suburban 2WD 2002 Hyundai Accent(SOLD) 1968 Grand Parisienne Scrapped and SOLD
We stopped for gas on the way home from the lake last weekend, and of course I had to browse through the collection of wrecks that had been towed in off the highway. We drive a Roadmaster sedan, and wouldn't you know there was a twin to our car, no visible damage, 504,000 km's on it!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I'm at ToyotaTown in London. 50000 square feet. I had shin splints for weeks. So much walking! I'll have to snap some photos. There's even a cafe...
I took my car there a couple times last year after moving to St. Thomas. I bought the Corolla new in Exeter and while living in Tillsonburg was driving way down to Simcoe to get it serviced. Now i'm just getting it done in St. Thomas, tired of driving all over It would be nice if St. Thomas had a dealer, but it's very much a Ford town. Come to think of it there's no foreign car dealers...and no Chev dealer either. I must say before ToyotaTown i hadn't seen such a large Toyota dealership!