Cars I Have Owned – Part #2

As indicated previously, when I started to put this together, I had no idea how long it would take or the length of the post, because of the amount of content. Therefore, I  decided to break into separate posts. This is part #2. If you haven’t seen part# 1, please click here and read it first.

6-1958-Oldsmobile-98 Convertible

My wife’s parents felt we needed a bigger car after our near fatal accident, so they got us a car like this. Ours was green though. What a boat! It was a fun car to drive  and definitely very big. Gas was cheap then, so MPG was not an issue. We would just pull into the gas station, get ten gallons, and receive one of those glasses they used to give you. Some of you may remember them, they usually had depictions of old cars on them.

7-1953-Mercury-Customline

This was our first “second car.” I bought it for $50.00. The outside looked horrible, with some peeling paint, but the inside was very nice. It ran perfectly and we never had any trouble with it. My wife drove it to work at Household Finance, where she was a bookkeeper. I worked part time while going to college.

8-1958-Volkswagen-Beetle

We bought a car just like this one from a Volkswagen dealer in Van Nuys and sold the Olds. I don’t recall what we paid for it, except that we paid cash as with all of our cars to this point. It was a small car, but ran great. I remember it being so quite and smooth that I would sometime try to start it and then realize it was already running.

9-1966-Volkswagen-Beetle

Finally, our first brand new car. We bought it from Georgia’s uncle in Santa Cruz, CA. We flew north on Air California and they picked us up at the San Jose airport. We then spent the night with them and drove back home the next day.

I remember being on the road for a short time when we decided to turn on the heater. There was a knob you twisted to allow air into the cabin  from a  system using engine heat. Nobody told us that they put oil in  system to keep it from rusting while being shipped across the ocean from Germany. Anyway, the car filled with smoke very quickly. We had to open the windows and drive for quite a distance before it burned away. It was fine after that.

This was a great car, but didn’t run as smoothly or a quiet as our ’58 Beetle. It had much more power though. This is the first car that we made payments on.

10-1965-Chevy-Impala

The VW was a good car, but too small for a growing family. We found a beautiful, low mileage, Impala at our local Chevrolet dealer and traded in the VW. This car was wonderful, with bucket seats and a center shifter/console. It even had air conditioning, and was truly a joy to drive. Although Chevrolet offered their big 409ci engine in the model year, this one was equipped with a 327ci V-8. Actually, I think they had one like that on the lot. But that would not be a good car for a young family.

Here is a photo of me holding our first daughter, Michelle, with the Chevy in the background. As you can see, I am already getting a little thin on the top.

Click Here For Part #3

Tags: Cars