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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Best Cars For Cruising


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Perhaps hearing Dinah Shore and some clean-cut friends sing the praises of driving the 1959 Chevy will help ease the pain of indignation.

 

 

Jim,

 

It did!!!

 

And did you note the "eyebrows" on that beauty.....No! No! the car, not Dinah!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Yes, Dinah sold a lot of cars.

another Dinah ad for the '59 but this time Pat Boone's helping her. I don't know how effective the subliminal stuff was but it's a reminder of another bit of Americana that's been lost -- the synchronized introduction. Once upon a time, in every American city, the first deliveries of a new model year were covered in brown paper and unwrapped on the same day nationwide. There really was some suspense in the general population over just what the new Chevys & Fords were going to look like and they really did look different each year. Yeah, I know. Evil planned obsolescence and all that but it was an annual event that I kind of miss.

 

Jim, I felt no indignation over you comments. A twinge of sympathy perhaps, :D but no anger. I realize that the '59's lines aren't appreciated by everyone. Besides, in my heart, I know that the Impala convertible Dinah and I have praised would still be real chick magnet today. ;) Of course, those chicks would all be Dinah's age. She'd be 92 this year and would actually get to celebrate her birthday (Feb 29).

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Once upon a time, in every American city, the first deliveries of a new model year were covered in brown paper and unwrapped on the same day nationwide. There really was some suspense in the general population over just what the new Chevys & Fords were going to look like and they really did look different each year.

 

 

Denny,

 

Right! I think the Fall unveiling of the new cars was almost as popular as Christmas morning and the 4th of July fireworks.

 

After WWII there were lots of huge searchlights available, and you could spot the dealerships in the LA basin from on top Mt Wilson or at home by the clusters of those mighty lights on unveiling evening. I bet they would have been visible from Mars....hey, maybe we attracted tooooo much attention!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Jim, I felt no indignation over you comments. A twinge of sympathy perhaps, :D but no anger. I realize that the '59's lines aren't appreciated by everyone. Besides, in my heart, I know that the Impala convertible Dinah and I have praised would still be real chick magnet today.

 

I love Chevys! My Chevy history and personal ownership:

 

Two '55 coupes

One '56 sedan

One '61 wagon

One '65 sedan

One '71 Vega (not as bad as the hype made it out to be)

One '77 Monte

One '79 Vette

One '87 Monte

One '04 Monte

 

Borrowed a '49 from Dad and drove it about a year, borrowed Dad's new '59 Impala for my first date with Mary Sue - wife of 47 years now, borrowed Dad's new '60 Biscayne for honeymoon trip to the Ozarks, and tore up my first tranny in a hot '56. Unfortunately, the car belonged to Dad....Bliss

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One '71 Vega (not as bad as the hype made it out to be)
Ahhh, another Vega owner. I owned a Kammback and I think it was also a '71. I bought it used and, thanks mostly to the previous owner, was able to experience both of the standard Vega misbehaviors: cracked head & warped block. Even so, I really liked the car and enjoyed driving it. Then, shortly after putting a sleeved block under the previously replaced head, I tried climbing a light pole. That sharp vertical turn at the bottom got me.
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Ahhh, another Vega owner. I owned a Kammback and I think it was also a '71. I bought it used and, thanks mostly to the previous owner, was able to experience both of the standard Vega misbehaviors: cracked head & warped block. Even so, I really liked the car and enjoyed driving it. Then, shortly after putting a sleeved block under the previously replaced head, I tried climbing a light pole. That sharp vertical turn at the bottom got me.

 

 

Was the Kammback the 2-door wagon style? That's what we had and I thought it looked cool, especially with the chrome roof rack. Didn't have any engine problems; lucky, I guess. Our older son, 16 at the time, totaled the car by running into a police chief one Saturday night. Kid wasn't hurt - just his feelings....Bliss

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...totaled the car by running into a police chief...
:o Man!! You guys have some really tough cops out there!

 

Yep, the Kammback was the wagon style body. I really liked the looks, too, although mine didn't have a roof rack. Dark green, white letter Uni-Royal Tiger Paws (I bet Bliss remembers ;) ), and 4-on-the-floor (4-under-the-hood, too). I once drove it to Long Island with most of the trip back being on US-22.

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:Yep, the Kammback was the wagon style body. I really liked the looks, too, although mine didn't have a roof rack. Dark green, white letter Uni-Royal Tiger Paws (I bet Bliss remembers ;) ), and 4-on-the-floor (4-under-the-hood, too).

 

Ours was dark green also with some rust and had "regular" whitewalls. (I preferred these at the time - now I can't even find white-letter tires to fit our '04 Monte.) Had auto tranny that our dog once shifted into neutral while we were cruisin' at highway speed. RPMs skyrocketed.....Bliss

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  • 1 month later...

Somehow I managed to miss this thread, but what the heck it's never too late to get in on something as important as defining the best car for cruising.

 

I have six cars that are used or will be used for nostalgic cruising. Those include '56 Cadillac Eldorado Seville, '57 Cadillac Eldorado Seville, '58 Mercury Montclair, two '62 Oldsmobile Starfires, and a '76 Lincoln Mark IV. The '50s cars get a lot of attention, ride fairly well, but are the epitome of a gas hog (especially the Caddys at around 8 mpg). The Starfires are great all the way around one of the best cars ever put on the road. But my all time favorite road car has to be the '76 Lincoln Mark IV. Big, roomy, floats down the road in quiet comfort and believe it or not gets 20+ mpg with the cruise set at 70 though it weighs a hefty 6,000 lbs with a full fuel tank.

 

 

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I too had the Kammback, but two years and 60,000 miles was all it lasted. Kept knocking off the oil drain plug on man hole covers...

 

I enjoyed my 75 Scirocco, my 70 Datsun 240-Z and my 98 Ford Contour SVT for travel as well. Now I do most of my long distance driving in a 04 Acura TSX and it is very nicely mannered and a decent drive, but I wish it had a stick. And when I am just bopping around the back roads locally, nothing beats the 62 Triumph TR3B (I am sure there others that I would enjoy as much or even more, but that is what I have to play with). I do keep looking at the Caddy CTS for a replacement for the TSX when that day comes.

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Here's the third of this body style I've owned - my 1976 Chrysler Cordoba "Sasquatch." Also had a '78 Cordoba and my favorite was a '76 Dodge Charger.

 

Big, gas-hog, lots of wasted space, heavy, and beautiful! I bought this one on eBay unseen except for a set of pictures. I drove it, my son drove it to high school, he even raced it at the local drag strip once, and I sold it last fall. Both of us miss it a lot.

 

I won't be surprised if another Cordoba ends up in my garage again some day.

post-4332-1207966661_thumb.jpg

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Here's the third of this body style I've owned - my 1976 Chrysler Cordoba "Sasquatch." Also had a '78 Cordoba and my favorite was a '76 Dodge Charger.

 

Big, gas-hog, lots of wasted space, heavy, and beautiful! I bought this one on eBay unseen except for a set of pictures. I drove it, my son drove it to high school, he even raced it at the local drag strip once, and I sold it last fall. Both of us miss it a lot.

 

I won't be surprised if another Cordoba ends up in my garage again some day.

 

One of my many vehicles over the past 20 years was also a '78 Cordoba I bought off one of my brothers. To this day, it was one of the best cars I've ever had. It had the 400ci plant in it......cream exterior with saddle interior. Drove and rode like a dream. I traded it in on an '87 Z24 Cavalier in 1990, which I drove for 8 years and logged 160K plus miles on the odometer. Conversely, the worst car I ever owned was an '81 Cordoba that I bought in the late 80's. It had something like a 262ci 6 in it. Biggest piece of you-know-what! Was never fun those times when the throttle stuck open. :angry2: I always credit Chrysler's downfall to that car.

 

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For fast road trips in relative comfort and 25-27 mpg the '97 Caddy I have is a good road car, for the interstates - which it was designed for. It's a little bit much on narrower roads, such as two lane older roads, but still it's comfortable if you don't push it to fast.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

 

25-27 mpg from a '97 Cadillac? Me thinks that was the small Cadillac......am I correct, Alex? :P

 

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25-27 mpg from a '97 Cadillac? Me thinks that was the small Cadillac......am I correct, Alex? :P

 

 

 

I love the ride of my '94 Dodge Intrepid. Very nimble and responsive and a pretty soft ride to boot. Only kind of sorry the mileage is not better than Alex's Cadillac....high 20's on flat highways at 65-70 mph. Guess you can't expect excellent highway mileage at those speeds.

 

Matt Smallwood

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