The Cars That Missed the Mark: Regrettable Rides of the 1960s by Dave Johnston
Sep 7, 2023 19:21:26 #
I bought a used Valient for a go-to-work car. It was the ugliest car I ever owned. Looked like a wart on wheels
Sep 7, 2023 20:15:52 #
sodapop wrote:
I bought a used Valient for a go-to-work car. It was the ugliest car I ever owned. Looked like a wart on wheels
I liked NOTHING about the 1960 Valiant. It rusted. The paint faded, despite waxing twice a year. The brakes were dangerous. Belts and hoses needed replacing every three or four years, or they failed (I've never replaced a hose on a Prius, or had one fail. The serpentine belts last 100K or more.)
The metal rod that held the Valiant's battery in place rusted through, snapped, and shorted out the entire wiring harness, killing the car and filling it with smoke. The two girls I was trying to impress at the time were NOT impressed. A month later, the car was fixed, with a new wiring harness.
The pin that held the pinion gear on the pinion shaft sheared off. That made the shaft spin inside the gear, so the car went nowhere. It stranded me at 1:00 AM in the middle of downtown, with every kid in town driving by on a Saturday night. Our mechanic used parts from a '63 Dodge Dart to repair it, and it roared and rumbled after that!
The seats were split and the foam deteriorated. Seat covers didn't really help... The car always smelled like mold. The windshield leaked into the dash. The right front door rattled. We found out why, when a lady backed into the side of the car and the repair shop found a Pepsi bottle lodged inside! We wondered why that window wouldn't go down all the way!
The engine knocked on regular gas. It wasn't supposed to need more octane. I got used to adding half a tank of premium and then half a tank of regular.
My Dad burned out the clutch in 1965, and it failed on me again in 1972.
They say you never forget your first car... I wish I could! That thing was excrement on wheels.
Sep 8, 2023 11:12:43 #
sodapop wrote:
I bought a used Valient for a go-to-work car. It was the ugliest car I ever owned. Looked like a wart on wheels
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Sep 8, 2023 13:20:28 #
Back to the Tempest again. The title of the thread is "Cars That Missed the Mark." Looking back, despite its Back to the Future Fame, the Delorean was Pontiac Motor's biggest flop. John DeLorean was Pontiac's Chief Engineer and he had long wanted to produce a sports car. While avant-garde and a head turner, it just didn't sell. It flopped, and DeLorean left the company to even sadder things. He should've stuck aroundto perfect the Firebird.
Sep 8, 2023 14:05:15 #
SteveR wrote:
Back to the Tempest again. The title of the thread is "Cars That Missed the Mark." Looking back, despite its Back to the Future Fame, the Delorean was Pontiac Motor's biggest flop. John DeLorean was Pontiac's Chief Engineer and he had long wanted to produce a sports car. While avant-garde and a head turner, it just didn't sell. It flopped, and DeLorean left the company to even sadder things. He should've stuck aroundto perfect the Firebird.
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