1975 - I didn't need a loan for my '71 Vega - $ 550. certified cash - top up the oil - lets go. < blue smoke be damned ! >
A sporty replacement for my '62 Comet. ... that said - 2 1/2 years fom a Vega - Win Win. John T.
My brother had a Vega and he moved from PA to CA and he asked me to drive it out. His other car was shipped. It was a fun trip but the car was never the same after that. I think he bought oil in 5 gallon pails after that.
I had a lot of cars I paid cash for. Ranged from $15 to $200.
Actually, in most cases, NO. Ford Credit or whoever provides the financing - and often "spiff"s the dealer for signing up the contract. The dealer makes money even on a zero% loan so they can't give you a discount for cash.
Generally the dealer makes $500 for signing up the loan - so no "discount for cash"
You un-lnowingly hit the nail on the head - but not the nail you were swinging for. It costs the FINANCE CO to handle the payments - not the dealer - and the finance co is not in on making in the deal. Now if you are buying a used car from a "Buy Here Finance Here" lot you can get a discount for cash - MAYBE. If the lot is not a money laundering operation that makes more money on the financing than on the sale.
I've only financed one car - the only new vehicle I've ever owned - and it was private financing (back in 1976). Paid for in under a year. If I can't afford to pay for it I don't drive it - - -
I think my lowest was $35 for a '51 Chevy. I had a lot of fun with that car. They bought salt by the cargo ship in upstate NY so you had to have some care where you put your feet. There was a cottage industry in repowering southern cars with tired engines with engines from rusted out northern hulks.
Oh man, car were fun back then.
The $15 was a '64 Karmann Ghia Convertible broken down on the side of the street. Same rust issue and the heat was gone as it was air cooled and heat wad air ducted from the engine. That was rusted out.
One day I was driving in heavy rain on the highway. Did not see the water collecting through the floorboard but when I came to a stop, it was a tidal wave from the back.
Best deal was a Pontiac Tempest. Paid $150 and drove it for a year. The lady I bought it from missed it and bought it back for the same price a year later. I tuned it up so she got some benefit.
My first car was a '62 Tempest with the slant 4 and the Corvair 3 speed manual transaxle . I think Dad paid like 75 bucks for it as a HS graduation present . Fun little car !
On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:37:28 -0500, Ed P snipped-for-privacy@snet.xxx wrote:
My first car was a $15 1957 Chevy 150 4 door.Black and white V8. Didn't look TOO bad from 20 feet but the back doors didn't open. I fixed the latches, and when I opened the rear doors both back fenders dropped ---. I slammed the doors, sold the hubcaps for $15 and then sold the radio for another 15 under the condition he took the whool car. That was in '68. I put a deposit on a '52 Pontiac straight 8 but the seller backed out at the last minute - one of "his guyd" said they wanted it. About 10 years later it went through the crusher - - - Then I paid $60 for the firdt car I was able to drive - a 1960 or 61 Morris Mini 850. Most dependable car I ever owned!!! (You could depend on it to break down at the WORST time!!!!) It didn't have mush rust, but what it did have was in the floor under the crossmember that held the front hinges of the front seats. It was a box section with a couple holes punched in it (no idea what for) and the rust hole in the floor acted like a scoop when I hit a water puddle, filling that crossmember and making a couple fountains inside the car. Driving down a wet road when I'd see a puddle coming up I'd give the command "THUMBS DOWN". The road from my then girlfriends house headed west, so there was a few miles of driving into the wind and driving rain, when it rained. With the distributor right out front and the grille usually not installed (due to the set of fog lights) there was many a time I backed most of the way from the "crowsfoot corner" through Winterbourne to Route 86 to keep the distributor and spark plugs dry!!! Until I broke down and rebuilt the engine it was a case of "check the gas and fill up the oil" - with almost 50MPG of gas and about the same to a quart of #50 Nugold fortified with a can or 2 of STP. To be fair - it was an 8 or 9 year old BRITISH car with 196000 miles on the clock. I tore it down one weekend at the garage where I was serving my apprenticeship and rebuilt it - standard bearings and ringd - NO meascureable wear!!!! That was at about 204000 and I got rid of it at about 216000 - and I only owned it for about 14 months - and had it on the road for about 10. I had to put new brakes all the way around, new lights, and different seats before I could drive it - Put in a set of fiberglass thin shell buckets out of a Datsun Fairlady
1600 Sport mounted about 6 inches back from stock to make room for my long legs - and still left room in the back for passengers. My record was 8 - all the way from Elmira to go swimming at the Elora Gorge and from there to Grand River Speedway for the stock car races - and back home. I should have let it burn that night (before the engine rebuild) when a couple cans of oil came in contact with the un-covered battery terminals in the trunk and a streem of burning oil was directed straight at the fuel tank. When Bill hollered "fire" all 7 passengers were out of the car before I came to a stop and Dave threw the burning oil cans out on the gravel Beaver Lumber parking lot - Laughing like a bunch of idiots we all climbed back in and headed for Elora - - - It was the only car I've ever owned that was faster in 3rd than in 4th. It would wind up to just under 60 in third but could not hold 50 with 4 people in it in 4th. - I drove it as if the accellerator pedal was a switch - 50 ir 55 MPH in third with the switch in the ON position and a full load ----- It WAS a bit better after the rebuild -- -
If I ever knew about that one I've forgotten it. I only remember the conventional second gen GTOs. Half a V8? Okay...
I remember a slant 6 but not a slant 4. Different companies?
Yep , it was basically the right half of a 389 . Cams , pistons , a lot of other parts fit .
Yes , the slant 6 was a Chrysler product , the 4 was half of a Pontiac
389 . Mine got over 30 MPG ...
Several slant 4s The "Honcho" - for Half Poncho was 2 years only? on the tempest only. Thr International Metro/Scout slant 4 was half of the international
392 V8. The Vauxhall 2 liter anf 2.3 liter were based on a stillborn 4/4.6 liter Opel/Vauxhall/Holden V8. (possibly the Opel DTM?) Then there was the Triumph / Saab slant 4 that was just that - a purpose designed slant 4 - and the Toyota K series. - and the mid/70's Peiugeot (which was a duel injected Hemi!!).Not to mention a whole fistfull of current transverse mounted front wheel drive poweplants that lay down on an angle.
Then there is the Toyota Previa TZ engine which was closer to half of a flat 8 and lay virtually flat under the seats - - -
I had no idea there were so many ! I only had direct contact with the Tempest and a S/6 in the 3 speed Chrysler produced small 4 door sedan that Driver Ed used at that time . Can't put a name on it but I could damn sure pick it out of a line-up !
The early Valiants were eye catchers :
And those examples look very much as I remember ...
I had two sedans and a Dodge pickup with the slant 6. I like straight sixes and the slant 6 was a keeper. The only oddity was the o-ring tube that enclosed the plugs.
The car I really liked was the first generation Valiant/Lancer. Exner did a good job with that one. Unfortunately with the '60 Plymouth I had he tried for the 'Biggest Fins' prize. The '62 Plymouth picked up styling from the Valiant and I thought that was good looking too. Then Chrysler lost their balls and went to boring 3 box designs.
My mother bought a Duster, '71 I think, that was a descendant of the Valiant line. Nice car but nothing outstanding in the styling. I had to convince her she could drive an AT. The woman had only been driving since
1921 but never had driven an automatic. She took to it like a duck to water, to say nothing of power steering and power brakes.I asked her about her new fondness for sporty designs. The method to her madness that with the difficult entry to the backseat she wouldn't be the taxi driver when her old friends wanted to go someplace.
I think that was one of the best designs Exner did although the'50s Chrysler 300s were good too. He died in '63 and Chrysler got boring.
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