mndsm wrote:
Half ton diesel? That's an odd bird without all the other crap.
Yeah I did a double take when I read the description on CL, has the 6 lugs and everything. Picked it up for $2600, this was after selling my Nissan 720 4x4 for $2400. I think the $200 was worth the upgrade.
I "dated" a girl who's family had a powder blue Ford Fairmont wagon. 5.0, manual.
Every time she was in town from college I told her dad to let me know if they were ever going to sell it. Left my number, reminded him 10 times.
You know how this ended.
Knurled
PowerDork
12/8/13 11:51 a.m.
93gsxturbo wrote:
A kid in school had a 90 Talon TSi AWD 5 speed with manual windows, no rear wiper, no rear defrost, manual mirrors, no sunroof, etc. Pretty unusual.
No way. I thought all DSMs better than 1.8 SOHC turdbox had the power sunroof that ate further into what little headroom those cars had.
Regarding Mopars, a friend's neighbor has a Rumble Bee with, apparently, a V10's rearend in it. Even the dealer gets the wrong diff parts when they order by VIN, and he's owned the truck since new. Weird...
In reply to Knurled:
I'm pretty sure Chrysler was just installing axles based on what they had at the time. I once helped rebuild a late 90s XJ rear, turned out it had a factory Chrysler rear end in it. That was fun to figure out.
I had an '88 S-Jimmy 2wd and 5spd. The odd part was the top of the line "Gypsy" interior paired with manual windows and locks. No Cruise or tilt. Did have A/C, probably standard.
The other is my 89 1/2 ton Chevy. 350 2wd w/4spd manual. Tilt, Criuse, and A/C, but no radio, power accessories or carpet.
I miss the days when you could pick options one by one, not a couple different huge packages and a few colors.
My 2000 M5 was a "base" (using this word loosely as they are pretty loaded as standard) car with a rear spoiler delete. Somebody really wanted a low-key Q-ship. I have also been told that it was originally owned by one of the owners of the Philadelphia Flyers.
My 1996 318ti has the sport package and premium speakers. It's odd that it wasn't ordered with a sunroof like 90% of all other BMW's. The person missed the LSD rear end though.
Wally
MegaDork
12/8/13 1:40 p.m.
We had a customer with a 3 speed in a 68 corvette. He was trying to sell it and didn't understand why rare doesn't equal valuable. My Monte SS has every option except power looks. Luckily I held onto the stick my grandmother had in her 76 Monte. It looks like a paint stirrer with a slot in the end to reach across and pull up the button.
mndsm
UltimaDork
12/8/13 1:44 p.m.
Gearheadotaku wrote:
I had an '88 S-Jimmy 2wd and 5spd. The odd part was the top of the line "Gypsy" interior paired with manual windows and locks. No Cruise or tilt. Did have A/C, probably standard.
The other is my 89 1/2 ton Chevy. 350 2wd w/4spd manual. Tilt, Criuse, and A/C, but no radio, power accessories or carpet.
I miss the days when you could pick options one by one, not a couple different huge packages and a few colors.
I remember that interior- god it was pretty.
My brother knew a guy in school who drove a K-car wagon that was some ex-fleet vehicle that had a floor-shift manual transmission.
The shop where I worked after graduating had an interesting truck, too. This is from memory, but I want to say it was a 1972 Chevy pickup with the long step-side bed, 283/Powerglide and super-low final drive. The one big option was power steering. Around town, it was awesome. Above 60 mph, it was less than awesome.
Duke
UltimaDork
12/8/13 3:07 p.m.
stuart in mn wrote:
Duke wrote:
My high school buddy had a '70 Catalina wagon with a 400 and factory 3-on-the-tree manual.
That was a rare car...they only built 113 Catalina wagons that year with manual transmissions.
Frankly, I am amazed they built that many.
I'll add my '76 c10 short bed to the list. 454/th400, 3.73 gear. a/c. big10 package, which included heavier springs, brakes and a 6600gvwr. if you were over 6500 gvwr in the '70's you didn't need catylitic converters. also has tilt steering, but I can't find an RPO that lists it, so I suspect it was added later. However, the original crimson ride has been painted over, as well as many other mods.
btp76
Reader
12/8/13 3:34 p.m.
When I was a kid my dad drove a 77 Olds 88 coupe without a single option. No pwr windows, locks, tilt, cruise... Strange for an Olds.
I presently have an 83 fox body mercury marquis with no options. 2.3, no tilt, no cruise, no power anything, bench seat and 43k right miles.
Dad had an 87 GN no option car.
All of these are weird as they're the higher end models but devoid of options.
I had a 74 Pontiac Ventura, red on two tone red and white bucket seat interior, 350, 4 speed, power steering, disk brakes, and air, but it wasn't a GTO.
My favorite was a 69 L78 (375 hp 396) Nova. Triple black, bench seat, column shift, th400. The only options were the highest horse motor and an am / fm, 8 track, stereo. Clearly the original owner had his priorities in order.
I've owned many base vehicles because I'm cheap and less options equals more speed.
Anyway, I once owned an '82 Trans Am with an auto, and the WS6 package, am/fm radio no T-roof but it did have A/C and pwr windows. Base seats as well.
My other rare base car was my '02 Honda Civic dx coupe. No A/C, no tach, wind up windows, 5 speed and am/fm radio. They had to find one when I bought it.
Streetwiseguy wrote:
I had a Neon with power windows, locks, sunroof, alloy wheels, and no A/C or cruise.
My 1999 Neon Autocross car (which I bought new in 1999) was a bare bones car. It has the base suspension, crank windows, AM/FM radio no casset and it has A/C. However, It has the DOHC engine and 5-speed.
The story is: The dealer ordered a coupe with the SOHC engine and an automatic, nicely optioned, for another customer. My car is what came in. I bought it in May 1999 (near the end of the model year) for $11,000. The sticker was for just over $13,000.
David S. Wallens wrote:
My brother knew a guy in school who drove a K-car wagon that was some ex-fleet vehicle that had a floor-shift manual transmission.
There were factory-built turbo K wagons. Until about 15 years ago, there was a K-based Town and Country turbo wagon in a town 5 miles from me. I was a daily driven car. I never saw it for sale, but one day it was gone. I would have loved to own it.
Of the 157,555 1980 Pontiac Sunbirds. 10,941 had F41 handling packages, 9,925 came with wheel moulding, 5,667 came with rocker mounding, 3,123 came with Formula Steering wheels, 2,315 came with Posi rears. All things that I would expect to be standard in the Formula we bought. It is one of 1,987 Sunbird Formulas made in 1980. So, what is odd about it???? No power brakes. Something that 72,458 other 1980 Sunbirds did have.
Two oddballs that have stuck in the memory banks since the high school days (mid '70s). My buddy had a '67 or '68 Firebird in that unflattering gold color with a 6 cylinder, 3 speed stick, manual steering and drum brakes, dog dish caps; effectively a stripper except for a folding rear seat and factory am/fm radio. Always struck me as odd that those were the two options added. The other belonged to our shop teacher---a '66 or '67 Rambler American 4 door in refrigerator white with black vinyl taxicab grade bench seat interior; again everything about it screamed bargain basement stripper model except the drivetrain---- 290 V8 and 4 speed trans.
Woody
MegaDork
12/8/13 5:57 p.m.
I remember back in the 70's, my dad mentioned that a guy at work bought a Pacer with every available option, including a TV. He also said the the guy never, ever changed his oil. He would just add a quart when it was low.
Vigo
UberDork
12/8/13 7:04 p.m.
I like this thread a lot, i hope it lives for a long while.
I'm sure i've owned some really strangely optioned stuff but i have to dig through some brain files to remember any of it.
I did just buy a 1999 Dodge Stratus with a manual. Pretty rare option that changes the whole car.
tb
Reader
12/8/13 7:22 p.m.
I am not sure if it is actually unique or terribly unusual but I like the options on my current car and I imagine they are not a typical combo. 1989 BMW 325i with base seats, manual crank sunroof and automatic transmission... with a factory 4.10 lsd.
It actually gets off the line with some small amount of authority, and as I learned today has no trouble with 6" of snow.
Oh... forgot about my daily driver.
1990 MX6 GT.
Fully loaded.
NO ABS.
Saw one during the recent car show season - early C4 Vette, bronze with cloth bronze interior. Haven't consulted the Corvette Black Book, but bronze cloth couldn't be too common. It was not the prettiest car I've laid eyes on.
i had an '88 BMW 325 coupe. SuperETA motor. 5sp. Sport interior. Sunroof.