Thought you might enjoy seeing your first car ad. This is really cool. Find your first car or the one you drove to high school or college; hopefully your car brochure is available. This has to be one of the neatest web sites whether you have gasoline in your veins or not. This is a website featuring the original factory brochures for nearly every American car you have ever owned. Pick the manufacturer, the year and the model.So I went to the brochure site... and Walla! There it was, my old 1950 Buick Riviera, like this:
Other than the color (mine was yellow with a black top) everything looks exactly as I remember it. Here's the rest of the Buick Super line-up for 1950:
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Buick divided it's model range into three segments back in that day, with Roadmaster being the top o' the line, Super the mid range, and Special the bottom end. You can see the complete 1950 Buick brochure here, if'n you're interested.
The most distinguishing feature about my Riv is the fact it made me a little money. I was a senior in high school in 1963... the year I drove the Riv... and Buick had just released THE Riviera (the lineage of the Riviera name is described at the link). So... when people asked me what sort of car I drove I'd always answer "a Buick Riviera," which evoked a "Wow!" sort of reaction in most people my age. That reaction would change to "that's not a Riviera!" (or worse) when they actually SAW the car and that's when I'd lay the trap with this: "Ten bucks says it IS a Riv." You'd be surprised how many people took me up on that bet and how many people paid up when I showed them the factory data plate that clearly stated "Model: Riviera."
As I said, the money-making feature was the best thing about that car. Other than that it was slow, HUGE, and, due to its Dynaflow transmission, its sound never changed pitch when you were underway. The car sounded the same all the damned time; it made no difference if you were driving five or 55 mph. Oh, and one other thing: the back seat was just perfect for summer nights at the drive-in. PERFECT!
What was your first car, Gentle Reader?
1976 Chevy Vega Spirit of America Edition. Split the cost ($2000) with my Dad and paid him off that summer. Kept it through one engine change and Pilot Training. I liked it, but others MMV.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend in the wayback who had a Cosworth Vega and I LOVED that car. It could move and it could handle... there's not much better than that.
Delete1963 Corvair Spyder... $300...
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I had a friend who owned a Corvair Spyder, the one with the 150 hp turbo-charged motor. That boy damned near killed himself when he rolled the car on a SoCal mountain road, he was lucky to escape with his life.
Delete1971 Chevelle Malibu. Those were the days.
ReplyDeleteI had a Chevelle, too! My ol' '67 SS396 was one of the BEST cars I ever owned... period, end of report.
DeleteMy first car was a 57 Desoto, 4 door hardtop, and was the car to be in during lunch hour at school, because you could fit 6 people comfortable and still have arm room (unlike most airlines).
ReplyDeleteWe would compare all the dope we bought from various dealers and decide which bag kicked our ass. Then it was time for Gym class, as for some damned reason they had Gym class after lunch, and who the fuck wants to exercise after lunch??
I sold the car after enlisting, and when I was home on leave I saw it in the parking lot at school with 6 guys in it and the windows all rolled up.
I often wonder what happened to it... It had the Hemi motor, but only a 2 BBl carb, so was just a tank motor... P.S. I've never had sex in a car yet. I'm waiting for the right girl...
You never had sex in a car? How UN-American! ;-)
DeleteMy paternal grandfather had a '50 Buick.
ReplyDeleteIt was his last car.
I could tell ya if it was a Riviera or not.
I do remember it was a 4-door.
I'd have to go back to the well to know/understand if the '50 Rivieras came in a four-door configuration.
DeleteOh yeah... my first car: '57 Chevy Bel Air 2-door, post body.
DeleteBought it used in '64 for $400 when I got out of the Navy.
I'll bet you wish you had that '57 Chevy back. Just a guess, yanno?
Delete76 Plymouth station wagon bought for a grand in 1983.
ReplyDeleteThe diverting this is that your car is the same one my girl friend's parents gave her after they inherited it from his mother. Janet's twin sister died in a car crash and they wanted Janet to drive in something that inflicted enormous damage rather than take it. Janet and her dad were enormous car fanatics and they fitted that giant car with every safety device known to man before we all drove her to Birmingham, Alabama when she enrolled in UAB.
Auto engineering was different when solid steel was the crumple zone.
Auto engineering was different when solid steel was the crumple zone.
DeleteTHAT'S an understatement if I ever heard one. But, that said, I'm not sure I'd want to go back to the "good ol' days."
The roads or markets weren't full of cars back then that could take a licking and keep on ticking. We used to build dune buggies with serious crash controls and we used to rebuild large boats in the boatyard. We all used everything we knew to make that the safest car on the planet.
DeletePrior to the invention of airbags, that Buick was far and away the safest thing on the road. I worked with him and lived with her when my family left me behind the first time.
It was just the other night that we were talking about how my older sister was, 'inadvertently thrown out of the car' in the commissary at West Point in 1964. Oops. No seat belts.
Actually I didn't own my own car until the end of my soph year in college. My Aunt Elsie said if I made all "A"s for two straight years she would buy me a new car. I did and selected a 1964 Barracuda, loaded. If you go to that web site the gold one shown in the brochure is an exact match. Loaded with air (few had factory air in the north in those days) it costed out at around $3000+ big Hurst shifter and all.
ReplyDeleteIn HS I always drove the family "second car on dates and to play tennis tournaments out of town in the summers. The first was a four-door 1956 Chrysler hemi V-8 which would go like a bat out of hell when wound up with a steel chrome bumper thick enough to sheer off a utility pole with no damage to the car lol. The next was a 1958 4-speed shift-on-column 6-cyl Nash Rambler Station Wagon. I was embarrassed to drive it (uncool) but was very practical in carrying around tennis gear and clothes to tournaments. One cool thing? It was in days before radar was as common as it is today so I drove it@90mph everywhere confident that the cops would a) think the beast incapable of that speed, and/or b) that no one who drove such a car would have the sort of personality/mentality that would
ever drive that fast, lol. NEVER GOT A SINGLE TICKET!
The finest rides I ever had were the first two summers home from college when I didn't have a car. By then Dad had bought a white 57 T-Bird w. red leather seats and detachable top for his "second car." (By then Mom was driving the "family" car to the school where she taught every day--a 1963 Chrysler) I LOVED that car--drove it everywhere! Next year I returned to find he had traded it in for a new red 1963 MG Sprite convertible. Nice sporty little car to drive around town, but I STILL COULD'VE KILLED HIM!!! LOL! Have NEVER quite forgiven him...even in death. NO SLACK in the matter of classic "rides." :)
***No pic of 58 Rambler stat wagon, the 59 wagon brochure shows an almost exact duplicate..
Delete1949 Chevrolet. Called it the "Crop Duster" because it burned oil so bad. Paid $50.00 for it in 1960, but lasted until I got out of high school in '61, sold it for $150.00!
ReplyDeleteThe guy that bought it wanted the trans and rear end out of it. I'm sure it went to the crusher after that. Sure glad the back seat could not talk!
@ Curt: (Blogger is REALLY bein' a shit today and won't let me reply to yer comment) in re: Oops. No seat belts. My Ol' Man installed after-market seat belts in all of the family cars beginning sometime in the late '50s. They came in REAL handy sometime in the early '60s when a tie rod end let go on our old Plymouth Valiant at around 65 mph and we tore up a couple o' hundred yards o' SoCal desert as a result. No one in the car was hurt but we sure had a LOT o' dirt and sand all over us.
ReplyDelete@ Virgil: I would have been pissed at MY Ol' Man if he'd let that T-Bird go, too. And... a SPRITE? Aiiieee!
As for yer 'Cuda... did you have the 273 or the six in it? That 273 was one HELLA good motor; I had a '70 Dodge Dart with a 273 in it and that puppy would go like all Hell broke loose... and get all of about nine miles to the gallon.
@ Ed: You made out like a bandit on that Chevy.
The 273. (It came with the big-arse Hurst manual shifter--all the slant sixes used push-button auto) And YES.IT.DID! :) I also eventually put Dunlop "Gold Seal" tires on (softer rubber) for better cornering and rain performance but affected mileage by increasing rolling resistance. (and of course they also consequently wore out sooner (: ) Dunlops were the only foreign tire avail in those days that didn't cost an arm and a leg and one of the few brands avail at all..
ReplyDelete