# What type of family car did you grow up with? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412 "2021-09-27T01:42:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/61 "2021-09-27T20:59:39Z")
Dad worked for GM so he always bought GM products, but usually used. He could fix little problems with cars (he was a former shop owner) and American cars’ value sank like rocks so cars a few years old were dirt cheap. He’d keep them a little while and trade them, generally losing only a few hundred dollars for a year or two of ownership. The family cars were usually mid-size sedans (Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, Chevy Lumina). mid-size coupes (Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme), or the odd compact (Cadillac Cimarron, Chevy Citation, Chevy Chevette). Once, he had a Cadillac Eldorado. The leather seats seemed fancy but they weren’t that comfortable in the heat and the car itself was terrible. Eventually, he started buying new cars that he kept for a while. He settled on a Pontiac Grand Prix coupe replaced after eight or ten years with…a newer style Pontiac Grand Prix. During the new car phase, my mom went through a succession of nearly indistinguishable Pontiac Grand Ams, all with automatics and 6-cylinder engines. I think she had four in seven years. One went to my sister (who had also inherited my Dad’s long-serving Grand Prix), one was traded because it didn’t have traction control, and one was traded for no earthly reason on a car that was essentially identical. My dad must have gotten a very good deal from a dealer that wanted to move some iron at the end of the month. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/62 "2021-09-27T21:08:56Z")
I knew our family (and only) car when I was a kid was a Ford station wagon, but I wasn’t sure which year it was. Googling indicates it was a 1955. Forest Green. My dad kept cars a longish time, and my mom didn’t drive, so it was the car for most of my childhood. Next was a Plymouth Valiant with the pushbutton transmission. I inherited that one. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/63 "2021-09-27T21:13:17Z")
Ha! We had a Ford station wagon, too. I can’t be sure of the year, but when I look at images I google up, the 1958 model looks most like what I remember. It was brown and white. I climbed up on one of the fins once to balance-walk on it, and fell off and conked my head good on the asphalt driveway. Then we went to a Volkswagen camping van, in which we toured the American southwest. Four people camping in that van. Oy. Then we progressed to a harvest gold Chevy station wagon in the early 70s. Google images shows we must have bought a used 1968-ish model. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/64 "2021-09-27T21:19:25Z")
Various station wagons for me. I was the oldest, so I always got to ride in “the back-bak” on long trips. Tripler T’was either that, or the “roof-roof.” ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/65 "2021-09-27T22:17:00Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4F9AoKJGWis/hqdefault.jpg "tom waits the pontiac (all of it)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9AoKJGWis) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/66 "2021-09-27T22:18:57Z")
Everything. From Camero Trucks to sedans to Station Wagons, to a Pinto (YIKES) and even a Nash Rambler. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/67 "2021-09-27T22:33:50Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Shows how definitions have changed. The Plymouth Duster was [officially classified as a “compact.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Duster) There’s more than one definition, but if you define these classifications by interior volume, the switch to front wheel drive in the 1980s really made a big difference. That allowed for much more efficient use of space and enabled automakers to design cars that were just as roomy on the inside but with smaller external dimensions. Those old rear wheel drive cars seemed big on the outside, but had less space on the inside than you’d think. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/68 "2021-09-27T22:46:22Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > We had a Ford station wagon, too. I can’t be sure of the year, but when I look at images I google up, the 1958 model looks most like what I remember. It was brown and white. I climbed up on one of the fins once to balance-walk on it, and fell off and conked my head good on the asphalt driveway. I think that’s the year I started googling with, but I knew it was wrong because of the fins! Ours was much more rounded, with round headlights. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/69 "2021-09-27T23:05:19Z")
Man, I remember the crazy stuff\* I did in the family station wagon, a big ol’ '69 Chevy with fake wood on the sides. I had more fun in that behemoth than in any sports car, just because I was young and reckless and less concerned about consequences. . \*Like picking a friend up at midnight Saturday night, when he had the closing shift at McDonald’s. He’d be toting three garbage bags full of piping hot “surplus food” (that the employees would cook up at 11:50… “Oh, too bad, we have to throw all this good food out.”) The crazy part was that we had three station wagons with six or seven kids apiece, and we’d be speeding on the freeway, almost touching car door handles, as we passed Big Macs and cherry pies back and forth. (“Hey, we got pies, who’s got fries?”) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/70 "2021-09-27T23:21:14Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Then we got a Chevy Citation It’s fun seeing some of these old car names. This has got to be the worst car name ever. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/71 "2021-09-27T23:23:00Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Then we got a Chevy Citation I have very fond memories of a Chevy Citation that was owned by my first college girlfriend, especially the back seat. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/72 "2021-09-27T23:23:19Z")
It was a terrible car, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/73 "2021-09-28T00:22:53Z")
Citation wasn’t even the worst name for the GM X-cars. That would be the Oldsmobile Omega. Omega, as in the last, the end of the line. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/74 "2021-09-28T00:26:47Z")
Continuing the bad car name hijack, I always though the Ford Aspire was a terrible name. What, was the car aspiring to be a better car someday? Because it certainly wasn’t a car anyone aspired to own. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/75 "2021-09-28T03:17:24Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Those would have been considered mid-sized sedans, and maybe even compact cars. > A full-size sedan would have been the size of the Ford Galaxie/Chevrolet Impala, a mid-size sedan the size of the Ford Fairlane/Chevy II, and a compact car the size of the Ford Falcon/Chevrolet Corvair (although I have seen the Falcon and Corvair described as subcompacts - such were the perceptions of the time). A ‘65 Falcon is the first family car I remember, and even to a kid it didn’t seem very big. Of course, our neighbor had a station wagon, so i’m sure that seemed massive in comparison. Eventually we did move on to our own’s station wagon, a Chevy with backward-facing seats, which as far as I am concerned is still the greatest invention in the history of cars. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/76 "2021-09-28T10:37:25Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > Ermmm … the ‘wheelbase’ is a measurement - the distance between the centres of the front and back wheels. You may need to update your memories 😃 Sorry, I meant “chasis”. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/77 "2021-09-28T10:59:04Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Continuing the bad car name hijack, I always though the Ford Aspire was a terrible name. What, was the car aspiring to be a better car someday? Because it certainly wasn’t a car anyone aspired to own. The hosts of the NPR show “Car Talk” once made this very point - almost word for word with your first two sentences. Great minds think alike… They also had concerns with the Buick Limited, then had to explain how it was carried over from “Limited” trains. On the other hand, think of the name Taurus. Very little to recommend it, especially the AU diphthong. But the car’s styling and features were so far in advance of the competition that the name didn’t matter. I’m surprised that someone didn’t immediately bring up that old canard about the Chevrolet Nova. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/78 "2021-09-28T11:30:35Z")
In 1958, my father bought a used 1953 Ford. It survived two trips halfway across North America and many other shorter ones, until we got a brand new 1964 Rambler Classic 550, and then a 1968 Rambler. All the cars were black, since it was the easiest color to match for touch-ups, etc. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/79 "2021-09-28T11:53:14Z")
We had a station wagon twice, and in between we had a regular large car, and then my Mum had her own little pootling about car too. There were two parents and four kids, and briefly a dog, so we needed a goodly amount of space. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412/80 "2021-09-28T12:15:05Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > > [@WildaBeast](#): > > > > Continuing the bad car name hijack, I always though the Ford Aspire was a terrible name. What, was the car aspiring to be a better car someday? Because it certainly wasn’t a car anyone aspired to own. > > The hosts of the NPR show “Car Talk” once made this very point - almost word for word with your first two sentences. Great minds think alike… > > They also had concerns with the Buick Limited, then had to explain how it was carried over from “Limited” trains. > > On the other hand, think of the name Taurus. Very little to recommend it, especially the AU diphthong. But the car’s styling and features were so far in advance of the competition that the name didn’t matter. > > I’m surprised that someone didn’t immediately bring up that old canard about the Chevrolet Nova. The car names I like are the classic Cadillac ones (Fleetwood, El Dorado, Seville, DeVille). Or DeSoto (Chrysler). Also, various Chevrolet names: Impala, Chevelle, Malibu. Not the least of which are all the names associated with the various models of my favorite car, the Chevrolet El Camino/GMC Sprint and Caballero (El Camino, Caballero, Black/Royal Knight, Conquista, High Sierra, Diablo, etc.) As for names I don’t like? Hmmm…I’m mostly indifferent to many of them, but there is one that I feel was so bad that the maker was absolutely shooting itself in the foot by using it. EDSEL. For those who _don’t_ know, the Edsel was a separate line of cars produced by Ford for the 1958, 1959 and 1960 model years. It was very hyped up as a great new car, but ended up being a commercial failure. The name Edsel was actually Henry ford’s son’s name (he had apparently been named after a friend of Ford’s) and IMHO that was already a horrible name to bestow on two kids. Although the son of Edsel Ford objected to his father’s name being put on hubcaps that would be rolling all across the land, after an agency tasked to find a name for the line came up with an absurdly long list of suggestions, they settled “Edsel”. The car was a major flop for several reasons, one of which must have been that, besides the ugly name, the car itself was ugly as sin. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > We started with sedans, but in 1960, we got a station wagon. > > An Edsel. > > We had that for several years and eventually switched to a Pontiac station wagon that we used until I was in high school. Did you like the Edsel? > [@Twoflower](#): > > Over the years of my childhood he had a '52 Kaiser, a '58 Edsel. a '64 Ford Galaxie, and a '67 Dodge Monaco. Definitely all full-size sedans. And what about yourself? Did _you_ like the Edsel? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-family-car-did-you-grow-up-with/951412.md?page=5)