if I could have any car right now it would be Martys Delorean to get back in time and grab some of these
Bought my first car in 1976 for $450. 1963 Impala SS with a lowly 283. It was surprising how well that small cube V8 would push that beast.
My sister sold her '68 SS396 Chevelle 4 speed for $250 in 1972... And I sold my '69 SS396 Chevelle 4 speed for $5400 in 1990...
Mine was $42/mo. on my 66 Gran Sport. But I worked full time in high school and made about $65 a week. Never ran out of beer or gas.
Yeah, that is nuts for $150! I wonder how much a new top cost back then? The 50s Caddys are a little "too much" for me, the '60 model year is where it's at as far as my taste goes
69 subaru in portland? Must have been one of the first places in the country they were available. I'd rather have the other American cars.
My friend Bob said he sold his 67 427/435 Corvette convertible during the gas crisis. What was that? 1973? He bought it brand new. He said he couldn't sell it. Finally someone offered him $2k on it and was basically thanking the guy.
Yes. In 1973 gas went up from about 0.45 to 1.45 and there was a shortage with long gas lines. Everyone was saying that you should get rid of those gas guzzler cars.
Boy, that pic of the paper with the car ads brings back memories.. Those little two line ads.. How I bought my first 70GS.. Ad said "70GS 350 auto runs good $400 612 xxx xxxx Belonged to a college student living in So, Mpls.. Was totally complete, had all the parts I needed to finish my GSX clone convert.. Buckets, console, 3.23 posi perfect hood.. which was lucky because the rest of the car was rusty.. I remember driving it home, it started misfiring badly when you opened the secondaries.. A set of plugs cured that.. The guy I bought it from had just graduated from the U, and was going to grad school out east.. did not need the car anymore. I should have kept the motor, but back then, who wants a 350?.. there were Big blocks everywhere for $200-$300 bucks, with 50-100 K miles on them, complete and running. I still have a number of the parts, the 3.23 is under my 68.. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have bought out the entire Buick row of 455's at Auto Parts City in Ham Lake MN.. It's a housing development and snooty golf club now, but back then it was parts heaven,, rows and rows of 50's-70's cars All arranged by make, and every one of them up off the ground, sitting on "jackestands" made of two full size steel rims welded together, one flat, and the other upright.. Got the cars a good 18" off the ground or more.. I bet he had 60 455's in the Mid 80's, when I was prowling around there.. Good ol' days indeed. JW
Ya Jim, IF we had only known.................... We could have stocked up on any big block of any make for little $$. Of course we would have needed the space to store them for a long time.
I was trying to wrap my head around the '69 Mach 1 428 for $1995 and the '70 Karmann Ghia for $1795, then I remembered the '73 gas crisis. The 428 'stang would have been regarded as a fuel pig and the little Karmann as an economy queen. 'Splains the prices. I saw a cherry '68 Cadillac ragtop go for $500 in late '73. You couldn't give big cars away at that time.
Was always under the impression that fuel roughly doubled in the late '73 - '74 "crisis", going from roughly 35 - 40 cents a gallon to 80 - 85 cents a gallon. Guess it was more on the west coast. Sticking it to the little guy, even then.
On the East coast - or at least in New England, the prices went from the 35-40 cents per gallon to about 65-70 cents. Price wasn't the big issue; waiting in gas lines was. Economy cars saved you hours of waiting as they didn't need gas as often.
That's the way I remember it in South Carolina. The price increase sucked but the real problem was the long lines. I was in high school then and only had a Honda Enduro bike. I would sit in line for an hour or more just to buy 1 gallon or maybe 1 1/2 gallons of gas. My bike only held 1.7 gallons of gas!
