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I remember it well....one of my early-co-workers got one, brand new. Well-assembled for the standards of the time, economical, and reliable, but the sheet metal was paper-thin, it was cramped for American-sized adults, and the ride would let you feel a cigarette butt in the road if you drove over it LOL.
On the big wagons, did your folks trade the '68 for the '74?....see my earlier question above.
Yes my folks traded the Chevy for the Plymouth. The Cheney had cancer bad in just that short time. The Plymouth body held up much better. We went to yellow stone on vacation in the Datsun. Four of us in it. A long trip from Michigan.
1982 Chevy Citation. in 1986, my folks got an 83 Renault Alliance And my dad bought a 1986 Nissan Pulsar NX to drive to work. As I got older, and then my little brother came along, they needed a new vehicle. The Renault threw a rod, and was thousands to fix, and the Nissan was totaled in an accident that nearly killed my dad. Our 1986 Chevy Astro CS was just like this, but it was dark brown metallic with a single gold pinstripe. The single most reliable vehicle we ever owned, we put 286,000 miles on this van from 1988 to 1998. We drove it from VA to AK in 1992, and had many memories over the years. During my childhood, my dad had a few rides. The 1987 GMC S15 was one. He had a 1996 Geo Tracker 4x4 5 speed with a white soft top. It was fun. Then dad got a 1994 Dakota. with a 318 and a 5 speed. Shortly after that, the Astro van died, and mom got: a 2002 Chrysler Concorde Limited My dad eventually replaced the Dakota with a 2000 Ram 1500 4x4 with a 360 c.i. V8, after a few years of problems with the chrysler, my mom traded for a toyota. she didn't want to pay for repairs so she dumped the Concorde right as the warranty was up. Dad also suffered from the Daimler Chrysler blues, and dumped his Ram 1500 just inside the end of the warranty period for an 02 F150 XLT V6 mom got an 05 GMC Envoy, which I hated but she loved. Thing was a pile of junk in every sense...except for the Inline 6 and Auto trans. they couldnt be killed. Dad replaced his aging 02 with a newer and nicer 2009 King Ranch, which he still has today. Mom dumped the envoy for a 2015 Explorer Limited which she still has today.
Don't have any photos, but one of the first cars I drove after getting my license in '66 was my dad's '65 two-door Buick Riviera, with the clamshell headlights, long hood, and tiny trunk. The powertrain was amazing--I could hear the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts, of course, but could never feel them in my rear end. Amazing continuous acceleration, courtesy of the gigantic engine. And about 10mpg, as I recall.
We also had a '62 black Lincoln Continental, just like the Kennedy limo. Drove like a boat, which of course it was. Had suicide rear doors. Met an untimely end when my mom opened the driver's door without checking for passing traffic on a slow street. A low-speed crunch, but crunch nonetheless.
Don't have any photos, but one of the first cars I drove after getting my license in '66 was my dad's '65 two-door Buick Riviera, with the clamshell headlights, long hood, and tiny trunk. The powertrain was amazing--I could hear the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts, of course, but could never feel them in my rear end. Amazing continuous acceleration, courtesy of the gigantic engine. And about 10mpg, as I recall.
You dad had good taste.
I had the same transmission in the '65 Electra I had in college....though the Electra came with the standard 401 "Nailhead" V8 instead of the Riviera's 425. The transmission you speak of was Buick's Super Turbine 400, which was somewhat different in design and operation from the other Hydra-Matics at GM used in the Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, and Cadillac full-sized cars. With Buick's ST400, great care was taken in the design and operating characteristics to make it arguably the smoothest-shifting automatic transmission in the world in that time. Driving one was, as you noted, like guiding a locomotive through pure whipped-cream.
08-20-17, 06:19 PM
