Some cars of the 1970s (this week’s featured decade) were a little more glamorous — like this 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale. Landing right around the middle of the full-size Olds lineup, the Royale came standard with Olds’ Rocket 350 V8 with a 2-bbl carburetor. If you felt that was too puny to move a 4,300-pound car, you could opt for the Rocket 455 V8 and a set of dual exhaust
Cars in the 1970s, which we’ll be featuring all this week, didn’t get much more basic than this 1973 Plymouth Valiant. Standard equipment was Chrysler’s famous 198-cu. in. Slant Six engine and a column-mounted three-speed manual transmission (for a little extra you could get it on the floor). This one, seen last week in Tonawanda, is a little fancier with the Custom Exterior Grou
There’s not much more that can be said about a 1966 Chevrolet Impala that you haven’t already heard. Over 800,000 were produced, meaning that if you, your parents, or your grandparents didn’t own one, you probably grew up in another country! Available in all the full-size body styles except two-door sedan (reserved for Bel Air and Biscayne only), in six- or eight-cylinder models,
This 1948 Chrysler’s styling pretty much dated back to 1942, when sales were curtailed due to America’s entry into World War II. When the war ended, people were hungry for new cars and most manufacturers went back to their old lineups until new models could be tooled-up and production started. For some car companies it was a longer process than for others. Chrysler didn’t get any
See? Not every M-bodied Mopar was a police car/taxi cab. Some were honest, family chariots, like this 1979 Chrysler LeBaron. This body style rode one of Chrysler’s last rear-wheel-drive automobile platforms, and was shared with the Dodge Diplomat and (in Canada) the Plymouth Caravelle. Initially offered in both two- and four-door sedans and a four-door station wagon, the LeBaron would eventu
Came across quite a few cars lately that you rarely see on the road anymore. We’ll start today with this 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 four-door sedan, which was the Ford Division’s second-best seller for 1964 (198,805 units produced), behind only the Galaxie 500 two-door hardtop (206,998). (Those sales numbers would be shattered by the 1965 Mustang, which arrived in showrooms halfway through
Magazine ads of the day told us that the new 1951 Ford F-1 pickup cost only 2-1/2¢ a mile to run. They don’t really come out and say it in the ad which I viewed, but I’m guessing that the farmer who is quoted here had Ford’s 101-hp Cost Clipper Six under the hood, even though the one in the ad is wearing a V-8 badge above the grille, just like this red example seen a couple
This 1973 Ford Maverick is all original, and was bought new by the father of the current owner. Believe it or not, it just turned over 30K miles! The compact Maverick was the successor to Ford’s highly popular Falcon, both of which were early sales successes for Ford, with the Falcon selling over 435,000 units in its inaugural year, while the Maverick numbers totaled almost 579,000 for MY 19
Don’t need no stinkin’ crossovers when there’s a 1994 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon parked in the driveway! Buick was advertising the Roadmaster as "Spacious luxury in a superior full-size car." Can’t argue with the full-size part! This one looks a lot different from the ones we often see driving around town in that: a) it looks pretty much rust free; b) the plastic trim al
When this 1977 Ford LTD hit the showroom, the main competition, Chevrolet, had just undergone a major downsizing. I guess it was a good news/bad news thing for Ford. They could steal some Chevy customers who still wanted a big full-sized car, but they might lose some customers to Chevy who wanted a smaller full-sized car. Here’s the final figures: Chevy 661,661 produced, and Ford 445,126 pro