I thought it was about time we had a place to discuss the best and worst of USA tin.
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dodge1.PNG (609.96 KiB) Viewed 5760 times
1987 Dodge Caravan. My boy was conceived in one of these. I bought it 13 years ago and the ex loved it. 2.5 petrol with a 3 speed auto mounted on the column where it should be. I was running a 2.5 diesel automatic Metrocab at the time as well and the Dodge was both faster and more economical. With the Dodge being American it had a few quirks, the radio would only pick up stations with even numbers, the seats didn't recline and unusually for an American car of this era it lacked head restraints. Living on a steep hill caused problems too as the parking brake was utter wank and due to the gradient if I left it in park the parking pawl in the gearbox would be under so much strain it wouldn't shift out of park meaning I had to either kerb lock it or better still, leave it nudging the bollards at the bottom of the road.
Sadly it's demise came due to a seized water pump stripping the timing belt, literally five minutes after me saying to the family that the car owed us nothing and we shouldn't complain if it died tomorrow.
When it did shit itself the AA sent out a specialist HGV recovery truck thinking that it was some sort of huge American RV!
So I've owned a Dodge Caravan, Toyota Townace and a Renault Espace so I have completed the set for all the claimants of the "first ever MPV" award and I must say the Dodge is the only one I'd own again. Funnily enough, the first Yank I ever drove was a 1978 Dodge Aspen station wagon (with fake wood on the side) around an auction ring.
Let's rewind our Betamax minds back to 1984. Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was topping the charts, Ghostbusters had just been released and a 14 year old WTC was was spending 9 months in Vancouver Canada. Behold our daily driver!
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The 1979 Chrysler Cordoba!
Ignore what that prick from Fantasy Island said in the advert about Coreeeenthiiiian Leather, this had beige velour which Claim_Mother managed to spill rib sauce over within six hours. A great way to travel to Seattle and back to watch The Seahawks play every Sunday but apparently somewhat scary in the wet on it's Bridgestone (how the fuck do I remember that?) tyres. Chrome knurled electric window switches were a nice touch along with a fake wood band in the steering wheel. Made a nice noise too being a V8. A malaise era Yank you could live with.
Now still keeping it 1984 let's move on with my tale.
Cindy was 16 and her family were mutual friends so being roughly my age we were thrown together as a way of keeping us both amused while the adults did grown up things. Now Cindy was/maybe still is an utterly stunning to look at lady if only she'd manage to control her overactive appetite. A real shame as she'd be a real looker if she was half the size. Now British Columbia had a minimum driving age of 16 and Cindy owned a car. Not just any car but one of these...
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A 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge. Complete with a non-functioning bonnet mounted tacho. As well as being about a size 22 Cindy had clearly drunk the Kool-Aid at her drivers ed class and insisted that I always wore a seat belt in case we were stopped, fair enough but this GTO had somewhat unusual seat belt arrangements, you could either wear the lap belt or unfold the (static) diagonal belt that was neatly stowed in the headlining above the grad handles. Needless to say we both wore lap belts.
I scored very low on the autie test. I’m cheerful, happy, confident, like meeting new people, chatty and largely sociable. What the fuck am I doing on this forum?
I saw some late 1950's American cars at a show, and they are not as big as they seem to modern eyes. Of course they're still big, but the effect has worn off as modern cars grew. Interior space is no more generous than large British and Continental models.
Yank tin questions ok here too? If not I'm sure* a mod can rename the thread.....
Anyway I fancy a change from my mk2 lwb transit as a work van for a while, whatever I get needs to be petrol because of the LEZ, what are Econoline tradesmans vans like? Remember this is going to be a used and abused vehicle, I need to be able to easily get 8x4 sheets and 3m lengths of timber in the rear as well as carting my tools about.
