T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
My first car was a 1960 Pontiac Catalina sedan, similar to the one below. It was a hand-me-down from my father, after he bought a 1965 Pontiac Star Chief.
My Dad bought the car as a used vehicle, and he bought cars as cheaply as he could. The only concession to "luxury" he made is that it was a Pontiac instead of a Chevy. But that wasn't a concession because the car was actually cheaper than a Chevy when he bought it.
It did not have any added features other than automatic transmission and AM radio. No power steering. No power brakes. Basic V-6 plant. When my Dad bought the Star Chief, the Star Chief was six-inches wider and 18-omcjes longer. Barely fit in our garage. Yet it weighed about 25% less than the Catalina. The Catalina was a solid steel, and might have been a match on the battlefield for a Sherman tank if it didn't have rubber tires.
Watching me park one time, my best friend said I was silly for saying it didn't have power steering. It had name-brand power steering, made by Armstrong.
I remember trying to brake in an urgent situation. I would take my foot off the gas, put both feet on the brake pedal, wedge myself against the driver seat, and push against the brake pedal as hard as I could. And I couldn't lock the brakes. Actually, that was probably a good thing.
Sometimes when I would take off from a stop, the gas pedal would suddenly advance itself all the way to the floor board. I later deduced that was because of broken motor mounts. Lots of other stories of that car.
My next car was the Pontiac Star Chief my Dad had bought before when I received the Catalina (sample photo below). Another hand-me-down. I had that car when I relocated to California. To get it registered in California for smog control I had to disconnect the carburetor vacuum advance. That wasn't a problem until I relocated to San Bernardino after school, when I was working in San Bernardino and living near Lake Arrowhead. Which meant I was driving up and down the Highway 38 every work day, with close to a 4000 ft change in elevation. When the outside temp was over 90 °F, the car would inevitably overheat with the vacuum advance disabled during the ascent to Lake Arrowhead.
The first real car I bought on my own was a 1974 Toyota Land Cruiser (see below), which I bought while we were living in Lake Arrowhead. This was when Land Cruisers were more like Jeeps than SUVs. We bought that vehicle to be able to get around in the snow, to do some off-roading, and to be able to get up and down the mountain without overheating in the summer time. When DW was two weeks overdue with our first born, we did some off-roading on Forest Service roads to see if we could jar things loose. Might have have worked, as she went into the labor a few hours after one our jaunts.
At that time I did all of the routine vehicle maintenance. The Land Cruiser was by far the easiest vehicle to work on that I ever owned.
My Dad bought the car as a used vehicle, and he bought cars as cheaply as he could. The only concession to "luxury" he made is that it was a Pontiac instead of a Chevy. But that wasn't a concession because the car was actually cheaper than a Chevy when he bought it.
It did not have any added features other than automatic transmission and AM radio. No power steering. No power brakes. Basic V-6 plant. When my Dad bought the Star Chief, the Star Chief was six-inches wider and 18-omcjes longer. Barely fit in our garage. Yet it weighed about 25% less than the Catalina. The Catalina was a solid steel, and might have been a match on the battlefield for a Sherman tank if it didn't have rubber tires.
Watching me park one time, my best friend said I was silly for saying it didn't have power steering. It had name-brand power steering, made by Armstrong.
I remember trying to brake in an urgent situation. I would take my foot off the gas, put both feet on the brake pedal, wedge myself against the driver seat, and push against the brake pedal as hard as I could. And I couldn't lock the brakes. Actually, that was probably a good thing.
Sometimes when I would take off from a stop, the gas pedal would suddenly advance itself all the way to the floor board. I later deduced that was because of broken motor mounts. Lots of other stories of that car.
My next car was the Pontiac Star Chief my Dad had bought before when I received the Catalina (sample photo below). Another hand-me-down. I had that car when I relocated to California. To get it registered in California for smog control I had to disconnect the carburetor vacuum advance. That wasn't a problem until I relocated to San Bernardino after school, when I was working in San Bernardino and living near Lake Arrowhead. Which meant I was driving up and down the Highway 38 every work day, with close to a 4000 ft change in elevation. When the outside temp was over 90 °F, the car would inevitably overheat with the vacuum advance disabled during the ascent to Lake Arrowhead.
The first real car I bought on my own was a 1974 Toyota Land Cruiser (see below), which I bought while we were living in Lake Arrowhead. This was when Land Cruisers were more like Jeeps than SUVs. We bought that vehicle to be able to get around in the snow, to do some off-roading, and to be able to get up and down the mountain without overheating in the summer time. When DW was two weeks overdue with our first born, we did some off-roading on Forest Service roads to see if we could jar things loose. Might have have worked, as she went into the labor a few hours after one our jaunts.
At that time I did all of the routine vehicle maintenance. The Land Cruiser was by far the easiest vehicle to work on that I ever owned.
Last edited:
