Originally Posted by eljefino
My dad's dad leased huge ford station wagons through/ for his business. Dad wound up with the off-lease used cars at a friendly deal.
Eventually he ordered, sight unseen, a new ford fairmont station wagon. I was about 4 years old when this awful, awful thing showed up.
I wanted to be like my dad, so when he rolled his window down, he'd rest his elbow on the door sill. I could do this in the land barges but the Fairmont's rear window only went 2/3 down.
Dad special ordered it with the 200-6 but a 4 speed OD transmission. No AC, vinyl seating. No radio, so he put in a blister pack spark-o-matic from K-mart. This radio would stop playing randomly so he'd turn it off then back on again. Sometimes dozens of times until it "took". If we were driving out-of-state and he'd see a billboard for some easy listening station, I'd get religion and pray that he missed it. Open to the power of suggestion, though, he'd find that station.
He even listened to a demo tape, "Ford presents the stereo sounds of the 80s".
The transmission was not really meant for the motor-- they were mismatched. 25 mph was too fast for 2nd but too slow for 3rd. The car pinged whenever it was in the wrong gear.
Dad changed the oil and filter using castrol 10w40 until he found a mechanic he could bark orders at as to how to do work properly. Guy was the next town over but dad would jump in the car and drive over there on saturday to buy gas.
Dumb car had plastic shift forks in the tranny that kept breaking. He'd have them replaced one at a time, not learning from his previous cheapness.
After 150k and 12 years it wouldn't shift into 1st unless you turned the car off at stop lights. I had my learners permit and wanted to drive anything, and he'd have let me drive this junker. But I knew better than to operate something so dangerous that I couldn't get out of my own way using the controls provided. He sold it for $60 to some toothless hick who had an impressive front yard full of paint spattered ladders and junk cars.
Very funny and sad I feel your pain. My dad brought home a 1977 pinto with black vinyl interior no ac. We rode around in Yakima Wa. The Palm Springs of Wa. (hot summers) searing skin. That car was really reliable until Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980 and the ash got in the ventilation system, when that blew it was dark at noon pretty creepy. Dad brought home a 1983 LTD station wagon wood paneling, I'd sit in the very back fold up seats facing each other (10 passenger) did I mention we had 4 people in our family? Good times, Dairy Queen on the weekends, twist cones, simple times. Hated it at the time, miss it now.