And the 1/4 mile times didn't match the speeds. They'd have a 15 flat car going like 82MPH just as an example.

 

I love these retro Motorweek Vids...

 

My dad was in commercial paper sales, and he would drive around from printer to printer and such, spent a lot of time in his car. Before car phones he would have to stop all the time at pay phones and such to return pages. So the car phone, however expensive was a real time saver for him.

The service was SO expensive too. His bills were like $300 a month, which back then again was a LOT of money.

First factory built in phone he ever had was in his 98 LS400. Which of course was useless in about 3 years because CDMA came out and everybody had small portable phones. It was like $3k I think. I remember when we got our 95 Explorer I wanted him to get the built in phone because it flipped out of the center console and was cool but it was too expensive, so instead he had one bolted onto the side of the console from Cellular One lol.

 

I bought my first cellular (not "car phone") in about 1995. It was $30 a month for 30 minutes. Roaming, which was pretty widespread, was $1 a minute. I can't remember how much long distance was, but it was also quite expensive. Crazy how the prices and service have progressed so far.

 

In LA in the mid-80s you could get a cellular car phone but it would cost you $45 a month and $0.45 a minute. Adjusted for inflation, that'd be over a buck a minute today.

The coil antenna was a status item. You could buy a fake antenna for mounting on your rear glass for $19.95. Oh, and unscrew the antenna before you go through the car wash.

 

I saw the YouTube video of the Miata. I've always loved the look of those cars.

If I wanted to buy a Miata for weekend fun, which model year is considered the best? Perhaps from an appreciation point of view I should buy the original.

I think I'd asked this same question here several years ago, but never got a definitive answer.