XP715

Took a 160-mile ride this morning out to the western part of the state and saw all sorts of stuff..... -1932 Ford five-window coupe (hot rodded) -1975 Oldsmobile Delta 88 four-door sedan -1967 Buick Riviera -1973 Buick Riviera -1974 Pontiac Grand Am -1961 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe -1965 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe -1970 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe -1965 Chevrolet Chevy II Nova -1965 Ford F-100 -1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray -1968 Pontiac Firebird -about a dozen old B and L-model Macks in one guy's yard -1960's Brockway dump truck still working hard

You're absolutely right. People should always always ALWAYS buy what they like, above all else. But we're not talking about what people like. People said they wanted to buy this POS Cimarron not because they liked it, but to have as a "collector car," meaning for its perceived value on the open market. When people toss out the phrase "collector car," they are not just simply buying what they like: they are looking at said automobile as an investment for themselves just as much if not more as they are looking at it as a source of enjoyment for themselves. They buy it with the intention of using it carefully and sparingly, and selling it when the market swings in their favor to do so in order to turn a profit. So if one is looking to buy something as a "collector car," they should seriously evaluate its actual collectibility before doing so. I know this concept is hard for some people on here to wrap their heads around, but some vehicles are rare simply because they sucked and nobody wanted them. That's why they are currently worthless and will continue to be worthless any way you slice it. They are not just simply underappreciated by those not "in the know," they will never become not underappreciated, you have not stumbled upon a great secret that the rest of the automotive world has yet to uncover, and you are not smart or ahead of the curve for wanting to buy one. You're just an idiot who can't look at something for what it is. Rare does not automatically equal valuable now or in the future. Face it. Every piece of $h! "special edition" that rolled off an assembly line in the 80's and beyond with an emblem or sticker or a weird set of foglights and fifty extra pounds of $h!ty plastic ground effects that was different from the normal cars for the sole purpose of boning somebody for an extra thousand bucks at the dealership when new will be worth no more than their equally worthless normal counterparts, because that's all they are: the normal car with an extra piece of crap glued to it. Remove said piece of crap from one car, glue it to an identical normal example, and suddenly, like magic, you cannot tell which was which. People fail to see the difference between legitimately special older vehicles and "special" newer vehicles. Believe it or not, the legitimate added value of a "performance package" one could purchase for a car in the 60's that consisted of things like special suspension, brakes, wheels and tires, funky fuel/air induction setups, and big nasty rat motors that would snap your f@#king neck DOES NOT and WILL NOT EVER EQUAL a "performance package" one could purchase in the late 80's and beyond that consisted of such RACE-INSPIRED FEATURES (!) like headrest embroidery, a different sticker for your trunk lid, and a retarded-looking exhaust tip. Be serious. Once again, a tarted-up Cadillac Cavalier will never be anything more unless it's still got the plastic on the seats and a certificate of origin in an envelope in the glovebox. If anybody honestly believes that a $h!box J-body with a Cadillac crest glued to it will ever be "collectible" and is looking into one as such, then I know where you can get a slammin' deal on some oceanfront property in Kansas.

Not a bad choice, all things considered. I know a guy in our area that has a '74. It's gold with a white top and he drives it often in good weather; you'll see it sooner or later, DF. If you ever run into him, talk to him; he's a cool guy and likes talking cars. He knows a lot, and doesn't make you feel stupid if you don't know everything he does.

An automagic Jetta?! LAME! May the car gods have mercy on your soul for buying that thing given your previous automotive luck. I'd get used to seeing this if I were you: Remember: It's a Way of Life. :AH-HA_wink: But Volkswagen gremlins aside (and there are many), I will definitely give you a thumbs up for its condition because that's honest to God one of the cleanest Jettas I've ever seen. Ever. Inside and out. Can't remember the last time I saw one of that vintage around that you couldn't stick a few fingers through the quarter panels or filled to the door handles with clothes and shoes and garbage of some spaceshot daddy's girl. I wish you the best of luck with her, dude. Keep oil in it and be gentle to it and hopefully you'll get some good years of faithful service out of it while you save up some cash to get something cooler. We all want to see you in a 300ZX or something you feel is of equal coolness in the not too distant future; you seem to be getting your $h! in one sock and deserve a fine set of wheels to show for it. And don't be a loser. Keep the Cutlass as a backup car. Maybe you won't hate it as much now that it's not required of daily service anymore. There's nothing wrong with having a beater, especially when it's a G-body beater!

Sorry to hear about you cracking up such a fine machine again. But seriously cut the $h! about the thing being cursed. Flybrianna's Aurora is cursed; your truck is definitely not. Stick with it; it's a beauty!

-beat to death 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood hearse -beat to death 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine Saw these two cars at two seperate places in two seperate towns on two seperate days, VERY weird. ALSO: -1936 Packard 120 touring sedan -1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible -1970 Cadillac Sedan DeVille -1933 Ford 3-window coupe (hot rodded) -1973 Ford Mustang -1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport

Hmmmmm, okay..... I guess if there's any one brand I'm attracted to, it would be Cadillac. Of the fifteen vehicles I've owned thusfar, eight of them have been Cadillacs. None of them built in the last almost thirty years with the exception of the body on frame stuff they built into '96 (Coupe/Sedan DeVilles and later just Fleetwood Broughams) or the bustleback Sevilles of '80-'85 really excite me, but the ones from before that time when they were still truly the "Standard of the World" have always grabbed me because of their size, style, feel, and attention to detail put into their construction. I must say, however, that the latest CTS in both sedan and coupe version as well as the XLR are an incredible exception to my no new vehicles rule and look forward to the day when I have enough dough to make at least one a member of my fleet before I die. For what it is, the SRX is an interesting and good-looking vehicle too. What got me into Cadillacs? Well, let's see. I believe I was about four when my mother traded in her 1979 Monte Carlo in on a gently-used, extremely low miles triple Colonial Yellow 1985 Eldorado. Being a young and impressionable tyke, I took a liking to the big yellow car almost immediately, and this was only reinforced when I looked around and began to realize that it was unique, and also when I'd get dropped off for school and the other kids would comment on it and tell me how cool it was. What is also interesting to note is that the Achilles' heel of Eldorados like my mom's, the dreaded HT4100, inadvertently got me interested in the Cadillacs I like today. This is so because the aluminum block/iron head construction of this engine required that the car periodically be given a special "tablet" in its cooling system to ensure that the dissimilar metals would heat up evenly to prevent the engine from pulling its own head bolts out. My parents always explained it to me as the car needing to take its medicine. This meant trips to the local Cadillac dealership every so often; in our case it was Woodworth Motors in Andover, Massachusetts, which one of the most affluent towns in the state. Woodworth is a dealership whose clientele is primarily older people that come from old money who don't go anywhere and always garage their vehicles, and in the early 90's it was still a common sight to see pristine mid 70's and older Cadillacs in their service departments and on their trade-in lots, and always in the bottom floor corner showroom windows where all their "specialty" vehicles are kept. And to a little kid who thought his mom's '85 Eldorado was a big, bold car, you can only imagine what I must've thought walking around 60's and 70's DeVilles in Firemist pastels with brocade interiors and the giant, stately Fleetwoods with their elk grain vinyl tops and plush leather. Those memories on Woodworth's property waiting for my mother's Eldorado to take its medicine stick with me to this day and probably did the most in terms of shaping my taste in cars.

Great photographs! It almost looks as though the Malibu is being surrounded and looked over by the old cars while they decide if they approve of the new addition to the fleet or not. I bet they will :AH-HA_wink:

Brand meaning one specific marque like Chevrolet, Pontiac, etc., or brand in the broader sense like GM or FoMoCo or Mopar?

Couldn't you also pay Native Americans a couple bucks to ferry it across for you in some cases? Man, it's been forever since I played Oregon Trail. I just had a flashback of me in my Catholic school uniform as a young kid, sitting in the basement computer room of St. Margaret's School basking in the green glow of a state-of-the-art Apple IIe as I blazed a trail across the uncharted West. Good times.

Doesn't mean that everybody's idea is right, or will ever be right. The term "collector car" implies that it will have a value in the future beyond that of simply a cheap used car. A vehicle that has even a tiny margin of restorability. Something that has a widespread appeal but not everybody can have, making it a case of supply and demand. Something that will be sought after by people looking for a vehicle to be an investment just as much as they want it to be a toy. A tarted-up Cadillac Cavalier will never be anything more unless it's one of those rare examples that has ridiculously low miles on it and has survived in factory-fresh condition; nobody will ever ground-up restore one. They would be retarded to; the only way I would ever see it happening is if it belonged to a loved one or had some other sort of irreplaceable sentimental value to its owner, at which point the car's real value would be out the window for those incredibly few special cases. They have ZERO margin of restorability and NEVER will, because their restoration costs will ALWAYS far eclipse the purchase price of a mint example. Vehicles made in the 80's and beyond largely have zero substance and zero style, and were not even built with the types of materials that are conducive to saving (plastics that turn to dust if you look at them the wrong way), and thus aren't at all and won't be at all unless they are the aforementioned ultra low-miles examples, something that has a good aftermarket because their popularity never waned (G-bodies, F-bodies, fox body Mustangs, etc.), something that was exclusive and low-production and therefore "collectible" from the moment it rolled off the assembly line (Grand Nationals, Corvettes, etc.), something whose parts are continuously hoarded by a small but dedicated and well-connected group of hardcore enthusiasts, or any combination of those. Nobody that remembers cars from the malaise era and beyond will yearn for the cars of their childhood save for a select few examples (as mentioned before) because they all suck. Every single one of them. Do you honestly think for even half a second anybody will EVER have a tear come to their eye and pine away for JUST ONE MORE RIDE in a f@#king ugly ballsless plastic-laden front wheel drive Lumina Z34 or Escort coupe like their moms had in the same way that men our fathers age yearn for one more ride in a fire-breathing four-speed big block Super Sport Chevelle or Boss Mustang just like the one their friend or cousin or older brother brought home right before they shipped out to Vietnam? Sorry, but it ain't like it used to be, plain and simple. All of those who think the mundane $h!boxes currently polluting the roads are "collectible" need to seriously put things into perspective. NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY will ever get rich by sitting on a warehouse full of J-bodies and Taurus SHO's in the way that people have by hanging onto pre-war Packards, fat-fendered Fords, big-finned Cadillac convertibles, big block Mopars, and Corvette Stingrays. The golden age of automobiles sadly ended long ago, and anybody who says different is lying to themselves.

Mustang- here's a local landmark from my area that thankfully still stands to this day: Haskins Oldsmobile on 469 Washington Street in Wellesley, Massachusetts may have shut its doors years ago, but the dealership that now owns it keeps its used inventory there and has made the conscious decision to leave the Oldsmobile sign up. And, as you can see in my photograph, the used inventory gets moved off-site and it becomes an Oldsmobile dealership once again for a Sunday every spring when the Eastern Massachusetts GMO chapter hosts their annual Oldsmobile-only Spring Dust-Off. Very cool.

Congratulations, dude!

Only way I'd pay anything over $100 for one of those piles is if it were one of the very few that got out the door with a five speed. A few months back a local automobile museum had one such equipped for sale in their lot of cars that were donated by members that had 80 something thousand on it and just needed a brake line (supposedly), and for short money, too. I considered it for half a second. But I'll stick with the REAL Cadillacs I've been buying all along.

I personally know a guy that lives two miles from my house that has one sitting in his side yard, sunk into the ground almost up to the rocker panels and almost completely covered in pine needles and sap and moss and $h!. Hasn't moved in five years. And that's AFTER he completely redid the car after buying it as a burned out hulk in 1996. He removed the interior WITH A SHOVEL (!) and had another DeLorean that had been in a nasty accident shipped up here from Texas to make one good car out of two. He has a ton of spare parts and even kept the VIN tags and title for his parts car, so he technically has two of them on paper. Wouldn't even dream of selling it. DeLorean people are often about as strange as they come when it comes to parting with their "babies." Good luck to you!

240 SX or an Altima/Maxima?

Very cool and unique, but not the fastest grocery getter around. I think that honor still belongs to Tommy Ivo's four-engine Buick SportWagon: If I ever win the lottery I WILL buy it; gas prices be damned!

Were they really? Jeez, I almost want to find one now just because I've never ever seen one!

Happy birthday, bro!

1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus, in primer with everything else done, waiting for paint.

Last week, in passing, the girl mentioned how nice it would be to have a backup car since her car needs a little work. Well, she didn't have to tell me twice! She likes the big blue Caddy and looks forward to it being spiffed up a little bit as much as I do! So you can blame her (sort of) on this one

A convoy of red Ford hot rods on the highway: '33 3-window followed by a '32 Vicky followed by a '56 F-100. Also a '70 Super Bee and a '69 Chevelle SS. Both in immaculate condition.

Here's a link to the craigslist ad for a few crappy pics until Sixty8 puts up his: http://nh.craigslist.org/car/676557735.html

Hardtop, dude; only way to fly! ...... literally. I think the Fleetwoods were the only ones that had a post in '70.

So..... what are you going to do with it?