The last “good” year was 1974, assuming you’re not in California. However, if you live in a place that’s never had smog tests, the chances of all that smog equipment actually still being connected all these years later is probably pretty slim.
If wrenching on and old carburated car isn’t part of the appeal, I’d suggest maybe shooting for one of the very late 70’s and early 80’s Cadillac or Lincoln models that had fuel injection. They’re sort of the primordial version of the FI systems that eventually spread to all the GM and Ford models, so they’re not too difficult for any mechanic to work on, and parts are pretty cheap. They also drive better and are vastly more reliable than the smog carburetor models that preceded them, but they still have that whole 70’s “whorehouse on wheels” feel.
Another one questioning why 76-84? I’d go before 72 to avoid the smog. Also, really easy to work on yourself.
Style is a personal taste - mine tends to lean towards 60s-early 70s. You could score a cheap Delta, 225, LeSabre - whatever. Not to mention something really cool like a Riv.
People say they are unsafe, but you’d be running into anything with a couple of tons of steel and 10’ between you and the other guy. The most important safety things to look for are shoulder belts, head rests, and collapsible steering column.
My second car was am 82 Cutlass. Kind of a mini limo. As I recall, it was reasonably reliable. Other than that, I don’t know squat about late 70s-80s full-sized domestics.
First - buy some oil company stock. And measure your garage!
I have an old Nissan pickup - before it became a ‘Pathfinder’ - it has the stretched cab, the longest bed made (6’) and the step bumper.
I can park it so there is a walkway either in front of or behind the truck; not both at the same time.
And this house was built in 1979 - while those monsters were still in production.
If you look at '76 Caddies: this was the last year of the convertible - a lot of fools believed that the safety regs meant that the US would never see another rag top - so some of these were put up on blocks, drained and fogged - as investments - they were certain that the car would be worth fabulous amounts.
One just went by in an estate sale - no idea what it brought - mint red with white top and leather interior, 60,000 miles (which, for a '76 meant it was near junk mechanically).
Always a temptation and I have a lot of friends among the hearse crowd. But -------- boy do those things guzzle gas! A friend has a 84 with a V6 and even on the highway all he gets is like 14mpg or so.
And with the 58s they deserve the reputation. In 58 they pushed every “new cutting edge technology” into it that they could. Most of that can be worked around except for the shifting motors. Park on a bad hill or forget to set the emergency brake HARD every time you park and you burn out the motor. And unlike the other push button cars, the WHOLE system is electric - there is no little linkage you can reach and tickle while someone sits inside with their foot on the brake. And changing the motor? About like brain surgery with like 90 electrical connections; all of which have to be right.
Now the 59s — those really were great cars. A little smaller than the 58s but great daily drivers. Even the big V8s gave like 16 and 28mpg and the things were solid; really solid. A lady ripped the bumper off her 1980s Monte Carlo (if memory serves me right) on my wagon and my damage was a small dent in the flare of the wheel well. Frikkin steel. When I got rid of my wagon the mileage was over 350k lifetime and while it had one major rebuild all over I don’t consider that bad. And I didn’t treat it like a classic car - I used it for the station wagon it was.
My vote would go to a 1974-1979 Chrysler Imperial/New Yorker. I’d stick to the 74-76 models, in 1977 Chrysler introduced the LeanBurn system, which can be problematic.
What isn’t to love about this car? Four door full sized pillar-less hard top with vent windows.
From the list you gave, I’d go with a Buick LeSabre or the Chevrolet Caprice. Maybe a mid-1980’s Plymouth Gran Fury.
Although cars have been getting bigger again over the last couple decades. Sure, the real land yachts like your Fleetwoods or Continentals are still pretty unique in their enormity, but the other more mundane full-size cars on the OP’s list aren’t all that much bigger than a typical full size family sedan these days, and a lot of SUV’s and minivans are actually significantly bigger.
Im still reading this thread and I took all your points into consideration, keep em coming
Well reason I thought for a late 70s is that it will guzzle less fuel than a 50s 60s car? And has better safety features? The problem I thought about 79 and plus is their engines start to get weak unless you get a police package(impossible to find at this point in a decent condition I’d assume)
Heck no. As we’re being reminded by the current VW scandal, the goals of fuel economy and emissions reduction are often at odds and that was very true with cars in the 70’s. The post-'74 smog equipment robbed fuel economy just as much as it robbed power. There were some attempts at improving efficiency in big cars like the Chrysler lean burn ignition system, or the Cadillac 8-6-4 cylinder deactivation scheme and the terrible diesels, but those pretty much all flopped. People mostly responded to the energy crises by buying smaller cars (for example the Nova-based Cadillac Seville sold very well in the late 70’s and early 80’s) but the really big luxo-barges stayed big and stayed thirsty.
Safety-wise, the only really major game changer during the 70’s was disc brakes which definitely did make bringing those big old barges to a stop much easier. But even late 60’s/early 70’s luxury cars will have those. If you’re looking near the end of your timeframe, you might also find things like driver’s airbags and early ABS systems on higher end models.
Oh, and even the smog-era police packages were horribly underpowered. There were lots of pre-smog cars that could be bought cheap that would have no trouble outrunning the late-70’s era smogged police cars, much to the chagrin of cops at the time.
I’m no car expert, but I do like me some old cars. You are focussing on a period that I never hear people reminiscing about. If you want performance or safety, your cheapest modern econobox will vastly out perform them. If you want reliability and or ease of self maintenance, earlier cars were much simpler.
During the late 70s-80s, manufacturers were trying all kinds of new things - many of which did not work, and for which you will have trouble finding spare parts and knowledgeable service today. By contrast, you pick some GM sedan from the late 60s, much of the mechanicals will be the same as what GM put into 10s of millions of cars over the preceding decades, and can still be bought inexpensively at your local NAPA.
If you want to tweak an old car, you can do all kinds of things like adding disc brakes, bolt-on fuel injection, etc. But on the whole, you aren’t buying a big old car if safety and economy are your top priorities.
The flip side is that if you got into a collision at any reasonable road speed, all that “frikkin steel” would just fold up randomly and turn you into cherry pie.
The ONLY reason to get a late 70’s vehicle, land yacht or other, is if that is your sweet spot - you like the looks, the ride, the size. If it’s not your dream vehicle then I agree with the others who said $4k could be better spent.
Sometimes, depending on the crash and the exact car, but not always. Most times you could (just could, not will) be safer than the average modern car if you add four-point restraints and anchor them to the mainframe areas and not just the body panels. What really made the 50s cars risky in crashes was having no restraints or even worse just a lap belt that would fold you in half head-first into the dash. Crumple zones are needed today because of how thin and light car metal is; with heavy metal its just different.
And the dash was made of steel and aimed right at your face, and the steering column was a solid shaft of steel aimed right at your chest. And, culturally, seat belts were for old ladies and pansies - a good driver wouldn’t need them, and anyway it was safer to be thrown clear than to be caught in the crash.
Had a friend who had known a girl whose father owned one of those. (So basically this ia hearsay.)
So a group of teenagers started pestering him asking how fast it would go, and he kept saying “I don’t know”. They pressed that surely he’d tried to find the top speed on the highway at some point, and eventually he allowed, “I don’t know how fast it will go, but I can tell you from experience that at 130mph the wind will tear the roof clean off the car.”
