I haven’t seen one of the originals (1981) in a long time either. I’ve seen more Pacers in the past 10 years than K-cars.
Funny, I was just coming in here to see if anyone had mentioned the K car. And yes, I actually saw one the other day. I stopped behind one at a red light and was so surprised to see one that I startled my wife by practically shouting “Holy Crap! A K-car!”
I had forgotten just how big the “K” was on the back. And how ugly they were. I hadn’t seen one of those babies in years.
I went car shopping in 1986. Looked at a Yugo.
The salesman put me off right away; he didn’t seem greedy, he seemed desperate. He pointed out that the car came with its own tool set, as well as a free warranty that covered the thing for more than two years.
That scared the hell out of me. The fact that the car required special tools was bad enough, but a free two year warranty plan? Man, if they’d have thrown in free insurance, I’d have been convinced the thing would blow up as I was driving it off the lot.
From what I understand, none of them actually exploded during a test drive, but most of my other concerns turned out to be pretty real…
Dude, my first car was a 1971 Chrysler Newport with a 383, and the only time it handled as bad as you describe was when the powersteering went out on me. Man, I’d give my left nut to have another one!
I haven’t seen a Mustang II in I don’t know how long.
[QUOTE=kniz]
[ul][li] DeSota[/li][li]Packard[/li][li]Henry J[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
Uh, you meant DeSoto, right? I’ve never heard of a Desota.
Perhaps I was just intimidated by the beast, but I seem to recall making a turn and having the car respond within the hour.
I haven’t seen a Mustang II in a long time either. Not that that’s a bad thing. 
Must have been, because I could just tap the wheel and cut across six lanes, no sweat.
This thread has had me thinking about old cars all day! Remember when the Cougar came out with the “hideaway headlights”? It looked like a solid grille all the way across the front, until you turned on the lights, then the doors would come up. When I was a kid, I thought that was so cool!. Then, not long afterwards, you’d see them with one broken headlight door that was always up, or halfway down. A good idea that went for a crap. I’ll bet I haven’t seen one of those since 1971.
About the K cars, a friend of mine’s dad had one, and said friend would drive it at dusk, while wearing a captain’s hat, for fun. What you need to know about this is that the police force bought a whole fleet of K cars, and some of them were used as unmarked police cars. So he took me out for a ride one evening, but I had to wear a similar hat. You would not believe how many other drivers slowed down when they saw us coming!
I was thinking about K-cars too. I haven’t seen any outside of the Buffalo area in about two years. Before then, I saw them just about everywhere. Maybe all the old owners died; they did have a reputation as an old person’s car, much like the Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant in the 1970s.
Go to Buffalo, though, and they’re still around; they were EXTREMELY popular, especially in powder blue, among older Polish-Americans in the eastern suburbs, who traditionally favored Chrysler products for some reason unknown.
The Reliant on eBay looks like it’s in great shape.
A few other “they seemed to disappear overnight” cars …
- Ford Festiva
- Chevrolet Citation
- Pontiac LeMans (built in Korea)
- Peugeots, at least in the States – The remaining models all seemed to go “poof!” in 2000
At this point America had only been building FWD cars for less than ten years, and still hadn’t gotten the bugs out yet.
Anybody remember torque-steer?
Anyway, cars with Macpherson Strut suspensions just don’t last as long as double-a arm tech.
It’s no wonder. How many K-cars has Red Green “modified” over the years? Are there any left at all?
With the possible exceptions of the Sterling, Merkur and Passat, these and many of the other vehicles mentioned in this thread were low-priced, basic economy cars that were uninteresting to drive and built from poor-quality materials. The reason they are rarely seen any more, IMO, is because a) they’ve all pretty much fallen to pieces b) hardly anyone considers one worthy of a full restoration. This situation may change eventually; I was gobsmacked to find out recently that there are people who actually seek out and maintain Renault Dauphines, from personal experience by far the worst car anyone in our family has ever owned.
That said, during a week-long sojourn to the Rust Belt last week, I saw a Merkur, a couple of exceedingly ropey-looking Foxes, and, most amazingly, two fairly well-maintained Chevettes in the same driveway. Down here in Houston, Suzuki Samurais are not unknown.
Anyway, for my contribution I nominate the truly dire Chevrolet Vega, and its ‘sporty’ variant, the Monza. I remember when these wheeled turds were common as Cavaliers are today, but the fact that they were apparently built from pre-rusted sheet metal, and an aluminum engine that usually started burning oil within 10K mile from new, means that finding one still running is a bit of a challenge.
I haven’t seen a CHECKER MARATHON (remember those old Checker cabs) in years!
Regarding AMC: they never made really good cars…they were just cheap, reliable transportation. However, the 1970 AMC JAVELIN was quite a nice-looking car.
PACKARD: I recently saw a 1956 Packard Clipper sedan for sale: immaculate! However, it weighed in at 4200 lbs…and NO power brakes! Can you imagine trying to stop this car??
Take a trip to Dearborn, MI if you want to see some Merkurs.
Seems like there used to be a bunch of Fieros on the road but one day, like the Opal GT, they all just disappeared. I imagine shame had something to do with it.
I know this is way out there, but the thread title made me think of it…on my way to the Allentown airport the other day, we saw an Edsel stationwagon. Turquoise over white. Dear Og, what an ugly car.
2002 Ford Escort:
http://a137.g.akamai.net/n/137/3538/20030722121710/www.cars.com/stock/270x180/228152.jpg
Drove one into work this morning … though it has less than 100,000 miles and comes from a loving home.