Cars

Cars We Have Driven

1956 Metro Delivery Van

John's very first vehicle was ahead of its time. Purchased in 1963 after 100k miles delivering bread, he converted it to a RV - before RV's were invented. He lived in it as well during an abortive year in school at Union College and a winter as a ski bum. It finally ended up being scrapped in 1965 to our trash collectors pig farm.

1959 Studebaker Lark
John's second vehicle was purchased in 1964 for $100 from our good friend, Father DeMille. It did yeoman's duty for 2 years commuting to Hudson Valley Community College, Skidmore and 2 summers home from Michigan. It was finally sold to a fellow construction worker friend for $25.

1965 Saab

John was given this car by his Father for such good academic work at school. It was transportation for John's last year in college, provided Jo-Ann a car to take a driving test as well as take them on their honeymoon in 1967. It was relegated to a work commute car in New Jersey and finally gave up the ghost about 1973. It was this pea soup green!

1968 Mustang 289

Best care we ever owned! We purchased it new in Ann Arbor in 1967 as newlyweds where it establish a credit history for us. When we went to NJ, it even helped us move from our first apartment to new home. We just piled everything on the open back seat. But alas, with the arrival of Peter in 1972, it was just too small for a family of 4. We traded it in on ....

1972 Pinto Club Squire

A lot more room, but how dorky. It made many camping trips and was relegated to John's work car until 1986 when it was scrapped with a tear in John's eye for its many years as a faithful servant. Well, maybe not after 4 starters.

1962 Tempest Wagon

A work car after the Saab died. John purchased it from his Carpool buddy when Mike got a new car. It had an enormous gas tank and when you could get gas, he filled it up and used it as a tanker during the '73 oil embargo. He gave it to cousin CJ Daly who trashed it by spilling battery acid on the radiator when rounding a corner too fast.

1965 Ford Fairlane

A work car for few years until the Pinto was relegated to a work car. A great V-8 and comfy ride. To be honest, I don't recall why or how it departed the family.

1980 Chevy Citation

The '72 Pinto was wearing out and John was smitten by this first every modern era front wheel drive car. It even had an 8-track player! It proved to be very unreliable. It was traded in when the brakes failed!

1985 Toyota Camry Hatchback

Jo spotted this car when waiting for John to come get her after the brake failure. It stayed with us until 2000 as a primary and work car when it was donated and replace by the Honda Accord. It was a great car until a fuel injector problem led to unreliability that perplexed all Toyota Mechanics.

1976 Fiat

This was Catharine's first car and was always in a state of needing repairs. She got another Fiat and this became John's work car for about a year. It went to the wreckers when ..

1978 VW Rabbit

John inherited Peter's first car. It was unremarkable and the only memory was that the brake was not set properly and it rolled into the creek one night. We towed it out and it was fine!

1981 VW Cabriolet

Catharine purchased this car from soon to be Aunt Kate. It was purple! When Cath got a new Mitsubishi, it was relegated to John's work car. It provided reliable transportation for a few years when we used it as a trade in for Peter's new car. John started using the Camry as a work car.

1996 Mitsubishi Galant

Jo-Ann loved this car and it served us very well. It was the most unremarkable car we owned and in preparing this Web summary, John even forgot to include it. When we got the Mustang, we donated it for a tax write off.

2001 Accord

John purchased this car after his retirement with the thought of using the Galant as 'his' car. But Jo-Ann thought it was too big and only drove it when hard pressed - staying with the Galant. It served us well and John sold it to our Housekeeper, Zoila, in 2013 for $100.

2004 Ford Mustang

Jo-Ann still remembers the infamous trade-in back in 1972. So to right a wrong, we purchased essentially the same car with a big V-8. But, it had an electrical problem that baffled all Ford mechanics and we traded it in on the Subaru wagon - so Jo had more room for the Grandchildren's things. It was Déjà vu all over again!

2012 Subaru Outback

Still going strong. Jo had to adjust from the big V-8 so we got this with a flat 6 and lots of torque. Still has low miles, it has gotten Jo-Ann back and forth to her volunteering activities for 7 years now.

2013 Ford Cmax

Looking closely, you see that is not an ExxonMobil filling station nor is it a gas hose which John is holding. Yes, he purchased a Plug-in Electric Hybrid. It gets about 20 miles to an “electrical fill-up” and then turns into a conventional Gas/Electric Hybrid at about 45 miles per gallon. After an exhaustive economic study, John figures this takes about 24.2 years to pay out in fuel savings. But the WOW factor is priceless.

2019 Subaru Outback

Deja Vu all over again. The old Subaru is transferred to Peter to replace his failing Subaru. This model is a lot like the 2012 model .. except it has all the bells and whistles to keep it from crashing. And important feature for those over 75.

TBD

Back to top