When Dad was in the Army (‘60s) he drove a ‘59 Eldorado convertible. He met mom in ‘70, and at that time he owned a ‘57 Bel Air, while she had a ‘32 five-window deuce and a ‘70 Honda CB750. When I was born in ‘83, they had two Goldwings, a ‘68 Beetle, and mom was restoring a ‘57 Studebaker Golden Hawk. After my sister was born in ‘86, mom sold the studebaker and traded the beetle in for an Accord. Shortly after that, it was back to cool cars with a 302 powered Lincoln MkVII. Today, they have a ‘97 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe, a 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander, an ‘88 Goldwing, a 2001 Goldwing Trike, and a 1983 CB1000...
My dad had a pair of Honda N600's in College, one that ran and a parts car.
He rolled the running one coming back from school in upstate new york to where my grandparents lived north of Worchester, Mass.
Sold off the N600's after that and bought a VW Bus.
It would have been 78-79 at the time this happened.
The only cool car my folks intentionally purchased was a Covair; I don't remember the year but I do remember my uncle ran it into a tree on the belt parkway and my dad my comments about the car being cross eyed. My uncle speared the tree dead center.
They bought a used 1967 Impala SS fastback with the 327 & 300hp in 1976. They didn't take the car with us to Florida. When we were in Florida they bought a 65 Mustang.
Oddly enough my two favorites were the 72 Mazda 1200 wagon we had in Hawaii and the 73 Plymouth Scamp. They used the Mazda to take us all to the drive-in theater in it. We were supposed to go to sleep after the first movie because the second was a grown up movie, my parents would fold down the seats and I would cheat and stay awake. Having the middle spot in the back meant I could see the screen. The Scamp was an awful car to drive but tough as nails, they had it shipped back to the mainland and when we move to Vegas we'd drive it done various dirt tracks and it never missed a beat.
After 1977 they bought nothing but mundane driving appliances.
I wish I had pictures of it, but when I was an infant my parents drove from California to Virginia in a 67 Rambler wagon. My dad later cut the back off of the Rambler and made a pickup out of it. After he passed in 1985 it was given to a family friend and ended up being destroyed in a fire. I wish I had some pictures.
My dad had a grabber blue '70 boss 302. He turned down the boss 429 on the dealership lot because it had a white interior.
My mom had a either a pacer with a 390 or an AMX. My memory isn't great on that but it was a "big block" AMC product.
My parents would tell you the coolest car they owned was a 1968 Olds Cutlass S. Dad was always putting tires on it cause of all the burnouts. My favorite was the 91 Vette they bought a month before I got married and then a month after that my sis graduated college. It was a gift to themselves for being done raising us! :D I own it now as he gave it to me when I turned 50. He loves his 06 and 17 Mini Cooper S's more:P
Kreb said:
Volvo 544. Loved that car. But dad isn't a car guy. He does have over a hundred motorcycles though.
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me . We had a 544 also, which probably inspired me to buy one in high school.
When I was born, my parents had a ‘66 Triumph Spitfire and a ‘66 Mustang 289 Fastback. A few years later, a BMW 2002 and a Pontiac Can-Am w/455. By the late ‘70’s, a BMW Bavaria, VW Bus, and ‘69 Porsche 911 S.
After selling everything and trying to live on a 34’ sailboat in the Bahamas to close out the 70’s, the 80’s brought two Olds, a Regency 98 two door, and a Regency 88 four door, both diesels. There was a time my dad tried being a grey market importer of Mercedes, and the first ever car I drove on my own after getting my license was an ‘84 500 SL. He had an ‘83 500 SEL before that.
Pretty much vans and trucks after that, to haul boats and racecars around with. A TR4 and a P1800 for vintage racing being the most notable.
But the absolute BEST car he ever owned, was the BMW 3.0 CSL, despite it never ever moving under it’s iwn power during his ownership. He was partners in a German car repair business in South Texas, and one of his customers bought a tractor-trailer rig at a sheriffs auction for his grocery business. It contained the 3.0 CSL, which had been crashed at Road Atlanta in testing, and someone tried taking it to Mexico with no paperwork and chickened out, I guess. My dad bought it for $2500. My dad, even at his cost for parts, found out it would be well over $15k to get the parts to put it back on track, and ended up selling it to Alf Gebhardt, who was running a 3.0 CSL in Trans-Am at the time.
Not surprising how we all ended up on this forum considering what our parents drove. My ancestors owned a livery and started doing cars when the transition from horse drawn to cars occurred. My dad got trade ins at my grandfathers GM dealership so he had quite a few cool cars. I've got a stack of pics of some of them somewhere. By the time I was born in '58 dad was in a Simca and mom had a 54 Chevy. Mom got a new early 60's wagon with custom paint at the family dealership that had been taken over by his brother. Dad got a couple month old 64 Mustang manual, then mom a new Chevy wagon with an LT-1 in 69, dad got a year old '70 Challenger manual, Mom got a new '76 Chevy wagon custom paint with a 400, dad got a year old '77 Monza manual, mom got a 91 Cutlass, then dad bought his first new car for himself. a Saturn SC2 manual. Dad passed and mom got a Cavalier, then something I forget and her last two have been Rogues. Hard to pick the coolest for a lot of us, some of the cars my dad owned before I was around would be my favorites.
My Camaro & dads Challenger and a group shot late 70's with brothers van.
[URL=http://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/68%20Camaro/016.jpg.html][/URL]
[URL=http://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/68%20Camaro/006.jpg.html][/URL]
I bet I know what the inside of that van smelled like!
'68 Corvair Monza 110/4speed; 2nd best a '63 Corvair Monza 102/4 speed with the rare 3.08 final drive (later became my first car). Third best various BMW 2002s (they liked mine and bought three over the years).
pirate
HalfDork
12/15/19 8:07 a.m.
My parents really never had any cool cars. Mostly Ford two door sedans with few options. My dad did like cars though and always talked about buying a a nicer car especially after my mom passed. Just before he retired I encouraged him to do so and he did. That car was always spotless.
When I entered the Marine Corps in 1965 I had a brand new GTO. My mother used to tell me my dad kept the car well exercised because "it's not good for a car just to sit around"
It is hard for me to say.
Dad had a 32 ford convertible, a 2 stroke Saab
an Essex, a bugeye Sprite.
A 57 Caddy limo, a 61 double cab VW truck, a 55 chevy truck (many other mostly GM trucks, too.
Mom had a XJ-12
, a SuperSprite
various VWs, and some stuff I'm missing, I'm sure.
Note: these are not pictures of my parent's actual cars, but internet images chosen to strongly resemble the actual cars.