RabidKoala's channel

If only......

If they hadn't had production issues with the fiberglass bodies, if the Avanti could have saved Studebaker as Sherwood Egbert had hoped...

They are such beautiful cars, and the design still looks as good today. I have never owned one, but have seen many including the Avanti room a...

WANT......

One of their best years!

The coupe was beautiful, the sedan, well not quite so much.......

@Milkman26789Z Snoopy is going to have the squirts, eh?

@peeweecee It failed because it totally missed the market. The Edsel was the product of market research, but by the time it was ready for sale the market was moving toward compact cars. Also, there was a lot of model overlap between Ford, Mercury and Edsel cars. A similar situation existed with ...

Thanks for posting this, and please try to avoid rear ending that Pinto,

I thought the 67-68-69 Americans were nice cars, easily as nice or nicer than their peers.

I actually used to drink that crap.

Be sure to tow an oil tanker behind you, by 74 the gas mileage was horrible thanks to the lousy emission control stuff, and even worse in CA.

@OsbornTramain I liked the Hornet Sportabout in the early 70's, it was at least as good or better than its peers. I wasn't really crazy about the larger AMC's, I thought those were better looking in the late 60's. I also really liked the late 60's Americans as well, they were simple and well pro...

The Volvos were really well designed, but when something broke.....look out wallet!

TCM runs this every so often.

I had a 74 wagon, I bought it without great expectations and drove it as a second beater car. It was underpowered, sure, but overall it was reliable and served me well for quite a few years. It was simple to fix as well. No complaints!

This building originally opened as Bullock's in 1975.

I used to ride these in the 60's as a kid, back when the building was MAY CO. The buttons were clear and mushroom shaped, with incandescent backlights. They used to have the basement open to the public back then, as well as a large restaurant on the southeast corner of the second floor.

@stealthstahl As I understood it the piston was telescoping, so they didn't have to drill 15 floors underground. It had never been done before. Many years ago I spoke to an older man who had worked on the project, he said they had terrible problems with the elevator shuddering at first.

I think...

@elevatortimes The service elevator was located in the northwest corner of the building. I believe it was replaced in 1984 when the building was first renovated. They also had a sidewalk to basement elevator, we used to load material to the basement and then take it upstairs on the old freight e...

Oh that's too bad.....I loved the old original elevators in the Grant. The first time I rode one in about 1981 it was kind of scary at first, noisy with great G forces. They at least sounded fast.

I was also able to score a ride in one of the non-automatic elevators on the west side of the lobby...

@OsbornTramain The Edsel was Ford's DeSoto? Maybe that isn't so far fetched. I think in 59 they tried to bring it down market a bit, the economy wasn't so hot at the time, and the 58's didn't exactly fly off the lots. In bringing it down market, they were competing against themselves, and the 59 ...

@kkenbb That is definitely a valid point, another issue is the rubber hose that connects the filler neck to the fuel tank. The fuel tank doubles as the trunk floor. Don't get rear ended in a Mustang!

Despite that, I love old Mustangs.

@TheIkkap Ford has gotten rid of Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover. They never owned Saab, GM did.

Of course, when you see the 59's...........

Did someone say "planned obsolescence"?

@whiteribbonman1 There were some legitimate issues with the Corvair, but that media whore Nader started a career that never should have existed.

@rever65 The Riv was supposed to be a Caddy originally, or a reintroduction of the LaSalle as a sub line of Cadillac. Apparently, Caddy changed their mind and Buick got it instead.

@bostonterrierfan1 I am unsure if it was a running model or not. The only photo I have seen is the one in Patrick Foster's book about American Motors. AMC was not without their problems, but I wish they could have lived on as an independent without the involvement of Renault (yuck) or Chrysler. A...

WAY better looking than the Gremlin!

@antony700 Don't forget that British Leyland was a government run automaker, like governments can do anything at all right, we all know they can't!

I bet Ford wished that they hadn't pissed Lee Iacocca off and forced him to Chrysler.

Come back a couple of years later.......compression is lowered, spark is retarded, vacuum advance is only in use while cruising, EGR is introduced, and you have the most horrific time in history for cars.

@OldcarsNmusic

The only quality problems I can recall with AMC is that a lot of them seemed to have shredded seats. Mechanically they were conservative and proven, they didn't have a lot of money to invest in strange technology. While they occasionally had some seriously funky styling, the 69 A...

@OsbornTramain

Zsa Zsa should have arrived in a Studebaker Lark, or at least an Avanti since she advertised them.

@DAMMIDESIGN

Habba babba?