What cars did your parents schlep you around in as a kid?

[wings&wheels]

Originally Posted by Win
Originally Posted by MCompact
Originally Posted by Win
My Turbo Coupe was the only one I ever saw, not common around here. I special ordered mine. Fun factoid - when the order book was opened, the turbo coupe could only be purchased with a five speed manual, might have stayed that way for all of the '83 model year.

I haven't seen a Merkur in at least three decades, but I do recall the LM dealer having an XR4 in the showroom for sale. Best I recall, the Merkur had an intercooler that the Turbo Coupe lacked.


My 1984 Turbo Coupe was a manual.


Did yours have the multi articulating Recaro seats?

Mine had them, but I can't recall if I ordered it that way, or if the Recaro's were standard on all of the early turbo coupes.


Part of a 'sport' package IIRC from Dad's.....maybe also included a black highlighted grill and Goodyear Eagles??? I think I remember red velour on the front seats. Going way back to the memory banks here.

 

[NewEnglander]

Brought home from the hospital in a 1984 Subaru GL wagon. Loved that car. Always has been a Subaru in the family since then.

Spent time in the later years in a 1990ish Dodge Caravan, 1988 Dodge Caravan, 1987 Subaru DL wagon, 1988 Subaru Leone, 1999 Subaru Impreza.

 

[PandaBear]

No car, we were using public transit, usually those double decker buses or subway.

When I was a teen living with another family I rode in their VW bus or their VW bug. Not the most comfortable thing but good enough to go around.

 

[Number_35]

What a great thread! Agreed, the answers certainly date some of us ...

Dad's first car was a '49 Mercury Monarch that he bought in '55. It was black, and he spent $600 to have the engine rebuilt - that was a lot of money back then! When I was a little guy, we'd be on the highway, and the hood would pop up partway every time a big truck passed us going the other way. Dad would pull over and slam the hood down again, and it would be good until the next time.

Grandpa stopped driving around that time, and Dad took over his '49 Plymouth. Mum quit driving at some point, so we had these two old cars for one driver.

In '64 Dad sold or traded in both of the '49ers on a '61 Pontiac Tempest. It was a 4-door, automatic, and had a 4-banger - half a Buick V8 if I'm correct. It was weird in that the transmission was under the trunk. A flexible "torque tube" ran back from the engine to the tranny. A friend and I were talking about this recently, and he postulated that the torque tube must have spun at engine RPMs, not being geared down by the tranny first. Weird!

In '68 Dad traded the Tempest in on a '63 Biscayne wagon - 3-on-the-tree, power nothing. He was offered nothing when he tried to trade it in, so it lived in the garage for a couple of years until I got my license.

In '72 Dad bought a '67 Chrysler Newport, 4-door sedan with 383 and TorqueFlite automatic. That was his best car - he kept it into the mid- to late-'80s, and it still ran well at the end with close to 200,000 miles on it. I took my road test in that car. He was not good about maintaining his cars, and drove in binary fashion (full on the gas, or full on the brakes) and it's incredible the abuse that car took. Never used any oil.

After that I had my own cars, so was no longer 'shlepped around', but Dad also later owned a '68 Newport (another 383), a '69 Imperial (440), and a '75 Dodge Royal Monaco (400). The Imperial was the first car with air (which didn't work often), and the Monaco, his last car, was actually the first car he'd ever owned with reliable AC.

I highly recommend a book my sister got me, "My Dad Had That Car".

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/my-dad-had-that-car/9780316430913-item.html

 

[CR94]

Originally Posted by Number_35
... In '64 Dad sold or traded in both of the '49ers on a '61 Pontiac Tempest. It was a 4-door, automatic, and had a 4-banger - half a Buick V8 if I'm correct. It was weird in that the transmission was under the trunk. A flexible "torque tube" ran back from the engine to the tranny. A friend and I were talking about this recently, and he postulated that the torque tube must have spun at engine RPMs, not being geared down by the tranny first. Weird! ...
That was half a Pontiac 389 V8. My aunt's family had one, which I rode when it was nearly new. The "weird" speedometer-cable driveshaft supposedly offered the advantage of more equal weight distribution, with the weight of the transmission in the rear. That idea didn't last long.

 

[CR94]

Originally Posted by Win
... Paternal grandfather - can picture it, but don't know what it was, some kind of van like thing, maybe a nomad
Paternal grandmother - Pontiac Catalina, also with the rocket style tail fins, white, a '60 or '61 probably, simply called "the Pontiac"
Maternal grandfather - Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. ...
As long as we're into grandparents ...
Neither of my grandmothers ever attempted to drive, as far as I know.

My paternal grandfather barely did. Even though he wasn't particularly old at the time, he gave up and never tried driving again after the Model T someone loaned him failed to stop when he yelled "Whoa!".

My maternal grandfather was a notoriously fast driver, in a series of Straight-8 Pontiacs before my time.
Then a '54 Chevy he didn't like. (Too slow?)
Then a '57 Ford which took a lot of abuse, was the first car I ever rode with air conditioning, and was the only one of his cars in which I rode much. It had a rear-window sticker from the factory (or dealer?) which proudly proclaimed "Made in Texas by Texans."
In later years, a used '60 Chevy, a '65 Chevy, a '69(?) Dodge Coronet 318, and a circa '73 intermediate Mercury of some sort.

 

[wander2039]

Came home in a Granda, after that was a Econoline 85 conversion van .. would get stuck on wet grass!.. Plymouth Aries station wagon and last was a Plymouth Voyager. Dad had a 77 GMC, 88 Dakota and 86 F150 during that time.

Great grandma had 72 Torino.. loved that car. Grandparents had a variety of Dodge-Plymouth vans from full to mini. Grandpa had Datsun, Plymouth, Ranger then the rest was Dakotas.. I have his last.

Other grandparents was everything from Chevettes to Olds. Quite a variety but none was junk. So far I've broke the record on the longest kept vehicles in the family.

 

[Number_35]

Originally Posted by CR94
Originally Posted by Number_35
... In '64 Dad sold or traded in both of the '49ers on a '61 Pontiac Tempest. It was a 4-door, automatic, and had a 4-banger - half a Buick V8 if I'm correct. It was weird in that the transmission was under the trunk. A flexible "torque tube" ran back from the engine to the tranny. A friend and I were talking about this recently, and he postulated that the torque tube must have spun at engine RPMs, not being geared down by the tranny first. Weird! ...
That was half a Pontiac 389 V8. My aunt's family had one, which I rode when it was nearly new. The "weird" speedometer-cable driveshaft supposedly offered the advantage of more equal weight distribution, with the weight of the transmission in the rear. That idea didn't last long.
Yes, half a Pontiac (rather than a Buick) V8 - makes sense - so this inline-4 was a "195" more or less, NOT to be confused with the Chevy 194 inline-6. Correct regarding weight distribution - check out the linked ad from the day - "Perfect Balance". Oh, and that engine was a "Trophy 4"!
http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/memb...s/9990381612615/1961_Tempest_Ad_1_sm.pdf

We were on an epic family holiday (Regina, in western Canada, all the way to Montreal to take in Expo '67) and Dad was concerned with the car. He said that it was only running on three cylinders. I asked how many it had and he replied four. I said something like "Three out of four ... that's 75%. That's a "B" - not too bad." He was quite annoyed at me. (Dad was pretty much helpless mechanically, and I was too at 10. Not too many years later I was doing significant car repairs in the driveway to Dad's amazement, and later worked for a time in a tune-up shop, and by that time probably could have troubleshot and repaired the Tempest on the road. A 1961 4-banger missing on one cylinder - pretty much had to be a bad contact on the distributor cap, a bad plug, or a bad plug wire.) No doubt we stopped somewhere with our out-of-province plates and Dad got sold a complete tune-up and some additional work.

 

[kstanf150]

I was born in ‘60 came home in a ‘56 Chevy and the first car I remember my dad owning was a 1965 Buick Wildcat
Traded it for 1967 Skylark traded that for a 1972 LaSabre
And the last car he bought before he died was a 1977 Buick Regal
As you can see he loved his Buick's !!!ðŸ‘

 

[super20dan]

56 dodge coronet conv-56 opel kadett-59 opelkadett-61 dodge dart wagon-64 ford custom-65 ford country squire-68 ford galaxie 390!-68 dodge polara -68 jeep wagoner-72 lford ltd 429! 76 jeep wagoneer-72 olds delta 88-455!

 

[cadfaeltex]

Earliest car I remember my mom having was an X1/9. My grandad had a ranchero and my grandmother had a ‘69 Midnight purple T-bird then a ‘76 Cougar followed by a sting of Tauruses (Taurai). There was a bit when my family had a an alarming number of Pinos.

 

[Elkins45]

I was born in 63. Mom had a 57 Chevy two-ten. Dad had a 57 Chevy Bel Air. In 67 Dad bought a new Impala and in 71 Mom bought a Dodge Dart. Both kept their 57's. I learned to drive on the Dart and the Impala. Neither had AC and the Impala did''t have power steering. You needed muscles like a lumberjack to park that thing.

 

[Tahoe4Life]

Ford Fairlane 500 and Chevy Bel air...In 1962 they traded the Fairlane 500 for a 1962 Oldsmobile 98 with Factory air which was awesome at that time. All were good vehicles.

 

[Rmay635703]

1985 Yugo
1960's ? Renault
1979 Chevy Diesel

 

[javacontour]

Let's see, mom had the following until I started to drive:

1960s Corvair, probably 66 or 67, but give me a break, I was really young
1970s Dodge Demon
1973 or 74 Dodge Dart Swinger
1975 Chrysler Cordoba
1978 Mercury Zephyr Wagon
1985 Chevrolet Cavalier -- I was driving and in college by then, so that's about it.

I think she's only had a couple more cars during my life, a 1987 Buick Sommerset T-Type and her current 2000ish Chevy Cavalier that she still has.

 

[cecil56]

1961 Chevy Impala. I was born in 1956, so this is the first one I remember. Black with a white stripe down the side.
I called it the "skunk"

 

[Broo]

I was born in 1977. At that time, my parents had a mid 60s Ford Falcon. I have no memories of it.

Then in 1980 they got a new Toyota Corona 5 door liftback. I remember it.

In 1985 they bought a brand new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera with the fuel injected 3.8L. My father had to wait 5 months after ordering to get that engine. My father liked the car, but was p***ed off by the dealer's service. That experience sent him back to Toyota in 1992 and he's been faithful since then.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by Broo
I was born in 1977. At that time, my parents had a mid 60s Ford Falcon. I have no memories of it.

Then in 1980 they got a new Toyota Corona 5 door liftback. I remember it.

In 1985 they bought a brand new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera with the fuel injected 3.8L. My father had to wait 5 months after ordering to get that engine. My father liked the car, but was p***ed off by the dealer's service. That experience sent him back to Toyota in 1992 and he's been faithful since then.


What was the Toyota corona like? My parents got a 77 Corolla for cheap from friends at work when I was a kid. It was a piece of junk but it was already well over 14 years old. The rear springs came through the trunk and that was the end of it. It got replaced by an $800 79 Impala wagon which lasted 6 years after that with very few repairs.

I remember the Corolla having the alternator fail twice (both times replaced by a junkyard unit - not sure how they found one because there was literally no other 70s Corollas on the road by that time), random carburetor issues, ignition issues (regular maintenance) and it wouldn't start in extreme cold weather. Really it wasn't the worst car mechanically but it rusted out so fast we didn't have the chance to find out in the long run.
I remember one winter our nearly new 1990 Ford Taurus wouldn't start, my grandad's 89 Mitsubishi Dodge truck wouldn't start, only the 79 Impala started up and spent the rest of the day driving mom to work an hour away and then trying to boost all the other vehicles. The Mitsubishi stated with a boost but the Taurus didn't for a couple days.

 

[Petethedog]

1956 Chevrolet
1962 Chevrolet Bel Air, first car to have a radio
1964 Nash Rambler, brown, engine had about 75 horsepower
1963 Ford Falcon, stick shift on the column
1968 Chevrolet Bel Air, seat belts !
1972 Chevrolet Malibu, V-8, that car would really go !

 

[jimbrewer]

The big Chrysler Newport wagon. Largest wagon made at the time. Had a distinctive Chrysler sound on start up.