Half-Century

Drive Time

Here’s an interesting question posed by Jalopnik (no link, fuck ’em, the woke assholes):

We’re talking (say) 1970-1974 here, and no extensions either way.  Fortunately, the average age of my Readers being 75+, the early ’70s should be easily remembered, assuming of course that we can actually remember that time and not have lapsed into total senility (like me).

Early 70s… oh yeah,in my case that would be the last two years of high school and the first two years of college failure.  Easy-peasy.

And if you can’t remember what cars were available back then, here’s a little list which might help.  (Remember: cut-off date is 1974.)

Remember:  “daily drive” means it can’t fall to pieces after 10 miles (which should rule out most Fiats, Alfa Romeos and pretty much all British Leyland cars).  Assume they’re brand new off the showroom floor, in the standard configuration of the time, unmodified.  And to make things more interesting, you get to pick three:  one for you, one for your wife and a weekend / “date” car.  (Yeah, I’ve bent the rules a little.  Whatever.)

Here are mine:

1973 BMW 3.0 CSI

…because it’s quite possibly the best-looking Beemer ever made that wasn’t a sports car.

And for New Wife:

1970 Mercedes 280SL

…no-brainer.  As much as she loved her MGB GT, she had to get rid of it because British Leyland and .

Weekender:

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet

…because she thinks the BMW CSL is “hideous” and wouldn’t be seen dead in it.  She likes this Merc, though.  (“Much better”)

No U.S. cars were even considered because the early 70s saw, easily, the ugliest cars ever produced by the hand of Man out of Detroit.

38 comments

  1. The Daily Driver spec eliminates all three of your choices. Obviously it was tongue in cheek fingers crossed. Out of the box the 2002tii had style, performance, reliability, roadholding and modest drinking habits. The last is particularly important in a Daily Driver. I have owned a couple of German Heavy Metals and my god the fuel consumption of about 12mpg on a good day.

  2. 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a 429 cobra-jet engine. It’s the only year of that body style that wasn’t neutered for emissions regulations.

  3. I would choose the same car that I had as a daily driver back then. My Silver 2.4 liter 911 S. Although given a blank checkbook per Kim’s rules I would upgrade to a 74 2.7 RS. Wait a minute you say, that’s a thinly disguised Porsche Race Car. You can’t drive that on the street. Maybe – but that’s what we did. The Senior Partner in the engineering firm had a Dino as his Daily Driver. Denver was still a small city and the traffic wasn’t bad. It was 15 minutes to the office, Enough time to get the oil up to temp. In the winter time I had a set of 4 studded tires for weekend trips to Vail. In the Summer I had a small 2 wheel utility trailer that fit a set of race tires, a floor jack and the straight pipes. Wait…. you can add a trailer ball to a 911 ? Yes, you can, It just has to be engineered to make the engine serviceable. I didn’t say it was practical solution, just a necessary one.

    We didn’t know what these cars would be worth in 50 years ….. and we didn’t care it was the 70’s. I sold the 911 to buy a house.

    My soon to be wife drove a VW Squareback because it worked for her quick print business. Given her choice she would have been driving a 450 SL.

  4. In 1971 at age 16 I was driving a 1966 Mustang convertible with the 289 hi-po and auto transmission, dark green metallic and black top and interior. I wish I still had it.

    But in early 1974 I traded it for a 1970 Camaro SS 396 with a 4 speed, blue with blue interior. I wish I still had it too.

    Both cars were in excellent shape when I bought them used and I paid $1000 for the Mustang and $1900 for the Camaro. Seems like a dream dudn’t it? Yeah, gas was about 30 cents.

    1. Damn ghostsniper, you were one of the cool kids! My high school drive was my grandma’s hand me down ford Fairlane with no reverse but still light enough to push back out the parking spot by myself. Of course I also was a tuba player, so there was no chance I was a “cool kid” 🙂

      I used to think I would love to have a mustang, then I ended up working for / with a particularly odious PhD (spit here is redundant) who was a mustang enthusiast whose general attitude and oily personality (again spit here is redundant) completely turned me off to Mustangs altogether.

      The Camaro? Yes (but) as I recall the Camaro was the “cool chick” car at my high school and the Corvette or TransAm (i.e. Firebird) was the “cool guy” alternative. So again, I don’t think I could mentally adjust to the Camaro.. not that it isn’t totally worthy.

      In fact, now that i’m past caring what other people think or needing to care about commuting much, I am thinking about selling my reliable and sensible Jeep Patriot with about 130k miles on it and buying a totally impracticable late model Corvette with similar miles. However, since I still love creature comforts, it would have to have a working A/C.. hummm…

      1. LOL, seems like I had it made, eh? I’ll have you know that my dad was a concrete contractor in southwest Florida and I busted my ass hard out in that blazing sun to have what I had.

        There was no free lunch.

        That was the male mindset during that time – work hard, spend a lot of money on cars and working on them in my spare time. In the absence of all the silly distractions these days it would be easy to go back to that sort of lifestyle. It was exciting!

  5. Of course some wiseass is gonna push the outside of the envelope. Je sui wiseass. In 1972, I was sometimes driving my landlady’s 65-1/2 white Mustang convertible with a red leather interior. Choice. I’d like to nominate that car, despite its being pre-’70.

  6. Daily, 1972 Chevy Cheyenne Super 4×4 C10 pickup. I’ve been driving a pickup as a daily driver for most of my life, might as well keep up the tradition. I’d be just as happy with a Ford or Dodge, but the Chevy that years looks very nice. And the 350 V8 is one hell of an engine.

    Wife’s car – largely irrelevant. Her driving style is aggressive indifference, in that she has a heavy foot but rarely pays attention to anything outside the windshield. So something sturdy yet luxurious. Maybe one of the big Buicks. Really couldn’t care less. Oh yeah, she hates old cars, so again, largely irrelevant.

    Weekend car – forget a date car, whichever car I pick is sure to be one she’ll hate. Dodge and Plymouth were still stuffing Hemi’s in their cars in 1971, so probably the Hemi Cuda, fully optioned with a 4-speed. Would also take the Coronet R/T from 1970 (didn’t really care for the body style change in 71).

  7. I’ll go with practical and truly weird. Since I’m a Medicare card carrying member of your audience I’ll go for an early 70s F150 pickup as my daily driver. 300 six, stick shift. I would opt for the higher end trim level for a nicer interior and some chrome. Those old pickups were absolutely bullet proof and if I’d bought the truck 50 years ago I guarantee that I’d still be driving it today with only minimal regular maintenance.

    Now for the weird car. My weekend ride would be a Citroen DS. They were the most advanced and well engineered car of the day. Mud fence ugly in my opinion, but incredibly comfortable. I can’t speak to their reliability as I’ve never owned or even driven one but they seem to go down a different path than the Mustang and Corvettes we all lusted after.

    1. +1 on the DS. Drove my Father in Laws DS from Paris to Monaco and Back in the early 80’s Once you get past the weird steering wheel and the indecipherable Hydropneumatic suspension it was a great highway cruiser. Exteremly comfortable ride over roads that seemed to be still recovering from Tank Damage. No Idea what our milage was since were buying fuel in liters with French multicolored monopoly money . but now, good luck trying to find parts and someone who can reverse engineer French hydraulics and electrics, must have been all that wine at lunch.

  8. In the first half of the ’70s, I was driving a Dodge Power Wagon ambulance for Uncle Sam. They weren’t fast. They weren’t pretty. They were unstoppable.

    1. My step-dad got a surplus PGE ’72 Power Wagon (4 spd and 1st year 360 available) crew cab new.
      We had it gone through at the nearby Auto Tech program and drove it to the World’s Expo in New Orleans towing a trailer in 1984.

      It was later replaced with a ’90 Ford f-350 Crew cab long bed 2wd. It got stuck at it’s first outing with the trailer, and I was driven back home to get the Dodge to pull it out. We passed each other when I was a half hour out from the camp where it was stuck.

      My mom later said, after selling the Dodge, that if we knew the issue we had with it was the ballast resistor, we’d have NEVER sold it. I miss that truck and lovingly gaze at the listing for a similar vintage Dodge when one pops up on BAT.

  9. Kim,
    Solid picks. I’d have to replace one with a Toyota Land Cruiser but they probably weren’t imported into the US at that time so I’ll have to pick some sort of pick up truck. Gotta get my gear to the range.

    The 1971 Dodge Hemi Charger Super Bee sure does look nice

    JQ

    1. According to Wikipedia – and we know that’s always right – Toyota started to build Land Cruisers in the 1950s. I owned a cruiser that I bought new in 76. A very tough vehicle but extremely primitive even for that time. Solid lifters, manually adjusting drum brakes, no soundproofing, and maybe 14 mpg down hill with a tail wind. It would have been great as a second or third car, but I tried to use it as a daily driver and chose unwisely.

  12. I am not in my 70s, but did drive a 1972 VW Super Beetle in HS in the mid 80s. It worked.

    It worked, but was down right uncomfortable compared to more modern cars.

    I think if I had to pick one now, I would go with a Porsche 911 S. That would be a lot of fun even if slower and smaller than my current ride. I would need a truck or SUV too though.

    1. Without reading through the comments yet.
      For me: a Ford OR Chevy half ton pickup. Sure, they weren’t as powerful as modern trucks, but far easier to work on, and short of anything requiring an engine hoist, I can do just about all maintenance with the tools I already have.
      For the wife: nothing she picks matches the date range, but I’ll go with what is closest and get her another pickup, with similar conditions to mine.
      For the family: Ford or Chevy station wagon. No ChryslaDodgePlymouth crap.

  13. Daily Driver – 1970 Pontiac GTO with the 455 HO engine.

    Wife’s Car- 1971 BMW 2002

    Weekend/Date Car – 1973 Ferrari Daytona.

  15. I’ll stick with my ’74 VW Bus (with pop-up camper top). And my ’74 Datsun pick-up. For everything.

  18. My car all through high school was a ’67 Nova SS. I joined the Navy the day after graduation and while I was in boot camp/corps school, my Dad sold it when he found out I was going to the Marines. I, like all new recruits with a few months of savings, blew it all on a 1970 AMC Javelin with a 390 motor and 4-speed. Like all new recruits, I let one of my “shipmates” borrow it on a Friday night and it came back with a blown tranny on the back of a flatbed. I think I owned it all of 3 months. Sold it for 1/3 of what I paid for it.

    I’d love to have the Nova back, but if we’re limited to those four years, then that AMC Javelin was a real panty dropper in South California back in the Long Ago. It was unique, loud and moderately fast, which back then was an Easy Access Pass.

  19. In 1973, I bought a used (one owner) ’69 BMW 2002. After my Army hitch in West Germany, I installed a Weber carb, a header, 320I take-off rims and tires to match, suspension coil springs, and Bilstein shocks. Such fond memories pull me towards the “Out of the box the 2002tii…”. That said, the first time I saw a BMW 3.0 CSI I couldn’t stop drooling, so….

    Weekend rig. What he said, “Je sui wiseass.”. A WWII military jeep like the one I learned to drive on our ranch at age 8, but fully restored with the canvas top.

  20. My Daily Driver, a VW Westphalia like the old Sarge’s
    “Wife’s” Car (as someone in WW2 said, I’m single — which is to say I am sober.” a Ford F-100 Ranger from 1970 or thereabouts. Two wheel drive, three on the tree. No smog, nothing that isn’t still available somewhere for not much. I had one waaaaay back when. and have fond memories.
    Weekend/date car, 1970-73 240Z.

  21. Without reading through the comments yet.
    For me: a Ford OR Chevy half ton pickup. Sure, they weren’t as powerful as modern trucks, but far easier to work on, and short of anything requiring an engine hoist, I can do just about all maintenance with the tools I already have.
    For the wife: nothing she picks matches the date range, but I’ll go with what is closest and get her another pickup, with similar conditions to mine.
    For the family: Ford or Chevy station wagon. No ChryslaDodgePlymouth crap.

  22. 70-74 I wasn’t old enough to drive. My parents were in their mid 40’s and it wasn’t Dad who had the mid-life crisis sportscar, but Mom! It was her turn to get a new car and when she got inside the Chrysler-Plymouth showroom (Dad was a Chrysler guy, throuh-and-through), she fell in love with the (regular, not superbird) Road Runner. Riding with her in the Road Runner it was a regular occurence to have some highschool kid in his beater sportscar pull up beside her and rev his engine. Mom didn’t try, all she had to do was tap the gas a little and shoot out ahead of the poor dumb kid. Wish I could’ve been in the driver’s seat. So that’s my pick.

  23. I’m a bit younger in the crowd, but I can answer for my father, because he actually owned a date car: a mid-70s MG B. (It may not have been a 70-74, but there weren’t a huge number of differences with them, and we’ll pretend it was in the range.)

    It was everything famous about MGs: cranky as hell, hard to keep on the road, and pretty. Then he needed a septic tank for the house. Friends asked him for years if he was still crapping in his MG.

    Considering my first car in 1989 (got it just before my license) was a 1950 Ford F1, I have always been a bit eccentric. I would probably go with a Ford or Dodge panel van (my mom’s dad had a Dodge I remember from the late 70s), a VW Microbus (the crumple zone is your legs), or a 1973-74 Ford F100.

    I know people who still restore 70s and 80s F100 and F150s to drive regularly. I appreciate the idea, but it’s insane to put thousands into a car, and then get hit and get $2000 and the truck totaled out.

  24. My daily – 1970 Camaro SS/RS 350 V8, Hurst 4 spd, AC, electric windows, best sound system (Cadillac 8-track) available. I had one – wonderful quick, comfortable, reliable car, unless driven in the Great Salt Belt from Minneapolis around the Lakes to New England. Then it’s a rusted out goner in ~ 3 years.
    Wife’s daily – 1970 Chevy Kingswood wagon w/ AC, electric windows. Had one as a company gofer car for jobsites.
    Utility – 1974 Chevy K10 (4WD)pickup – big six, auto trans, or 350 V8, AC
    All three vehicles were simple, reliable, fairly comfortable even by today’s standards, but like almost all cars from the time, prone to rapid rust out in areas that used a lot of road salt in winter.
    That 1970 Mercedes 280SL was a delightful road car with great seats – a friend had one – but it’s only two seats, and I’d reluctantly have to go for my Camaro with its occasional back seat capability for a fun car.

  26. The cars I owned in the early seventies were all from the sixties: ’63 Studebaker Lark (garbage), ’64 Rambler American, ’65 Chevy Impala convertible, ’65 Chev 3/4 ton PU, ’65 Mustang. The early ’70s cars I owned were later in the decade or even in the eighties: ’71 Toyota Corolla, ’73 Opel GT, ’73 Chevy Impala, ’74 VW Fastback, ’74 Dodge 3/4 ton PU.

    The early seventies were not a great time for American cars, but it was nearly the end of the proper American family car. I do have fond memories of the Opel GT, so that would be either my daily driver or the weekend car. I also remember riding in a Toyota FJ land Cruiser in some nasty winter conditions, so that would join the GT as a daily driver/weekend car depending on season and weather. A Wife’s/Family car from the early seventies has to be a station wagon. Anything else would just seem wrong. The Impala Wagon gets the nod there.

  27. Not sure. First vehicle was a 53 3100 Chevy. Drove that till 73 when I replaced with a 61 sedan. Brother totaled that one and next was a 67 impala with a 275 horse 327 motor. Did I say I paid 150 for the truck, nothing for the 61 and 50 for the 67. Had to fix something on all of them but I was happy.

    1970 CK CST model half ton 4×4 would do for a daily driver. Probably a chevelle for the weekends.

  28. 1971 Mercedes Benz 450 SL for me
    1974 BMW 2002 for the wife
    1973 Corvette roadster w/4speed &. 454

  29. I’m a singleton, so don’t need to cater for a spouse:

    Range Rover for the daily drive.
    Rolls Royce Silver Shadow for the weekend.
    Morgan Plus 8 for fun.

  30. My daily driver was a 1970 Chevy Camaro , 350 V8 in what maybe politely called Pickle Green paint.
    I called it the Gherkin.

  31. Volvo 140 series; the specific one would depend on what I needed. Probably the 145 – the wagon – because of needing space for a wheelchair. I’m a mediocre driver, so a performance car would be wasted on me. And I’m convinced that somewhere in the files of the Swedish military are plans for fitting those cars with small gun turrets. They are TANKS.

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