Ford Full Sized

In 1959 the Ford Custom begat the Ford Galaxie.

In 1965 the Galaxie begat the LTD, which begat the LTD Crown Victoria in 1983.

In 1991 the LTD Crown Victoria begat the Crown Victoria, and the line died out completely in 2012.

Is that a car, or a spare?

 Smart Cars.  Tiny little things that look more like they should be in the trunk of my LTD than on their own.  But for some reason this one looked kind of cool to me.. Maybe it was having a stomach full of Olive Garden food that made me content enough to see the cuteness in it.  Maybe it was the combination of red, black trim and the fake wood paneling that struck an old Country Squire chord in my memory.  Or maybe it was the sense of humor the owner showed in their personalized license plate “HALFKAR”.

Who knows, but it’s the best one of these half-cars on the road.

Worse than no image.

I have a pet peeve about car ads with no picture of the car.  Digital cameras are everywhere, and like my favorite site, most online classifieds have no charge for images.

So, the question always begs “Why made you decide a picture was not a good idea?”  Whatever the answer, even when I am actually looking to buy a car, those ads I just skip.

So I’m on KSL.com checking out what’s new for sale there as I often do when I have some spare time, and I see an ad for a old 70’s Chevy truck, and the picture they chose to be the main picture is not of the truck.  Instead it’s a scantily clad woman in lace panties adorned with a gun and shotgun shells.  Classy.  Super classy. 

But, I have to admit, it does fit the persona of the type of person I remember driving Chevy trucks (and Camaro) back in my high school days.

Glad you didn’t let me down, bud.

Can we get the year right?

So I’m a regular of KSL.com automotive classifieds.  It’s amazing how many ‘65 - ‘78 cars there are for sale in the Utah/Idaho/Wyoming area.  Today there were 1,582.  So I come across this ad:

The Gearheads may be able to tell me from this picture what’s wrong with this ad.  More of you may, but since this blog has had only about a dozen visits over the past month, I doubt anyone else who does will see this.

The problem with this ad is that there was a major remodel of the Ford Galaxie/LTD line for the 1969 model year, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is a 1969 Ford Galaxie.

1969 is the only year that sported these tail lights.  The picture below shows the back end of a ‘68.

The front end of the ‘68 and the ‘69 are a lot closer, although they still have their differences.  The ‘69 is the top picture, the ‘68 below it.

I’m not sure how people get the year wrong of the car they are selling, one would assume (bad word) that you know the year of your car, or at least checked the title before putting it up for sale.  But I see this quite often, and considering all the other cars for sale that I don’t know as well as the Galaxie/LTD, I know there are some wrong years that even I missed.

Cardboard and aluminum foil.

I was watching a video on YouTube showing slides of ugly car modifications.  Some of they were uh-uh-glee, and most of them made me think “You spent money on that?”  This one made me laugh.  Most likely meant as a joke, or at least temporary, they certainly spent time but very little money on it.  I’ll bet they got some great looks from people as they drove down the street.  I wonder what top speed is before things start to fly off?

No, and Yes.

 Both Old Blue and the Battlecruiser are due for their registration this month.  The Convertible was last month, but with the transmission issues and the fact that I had to salvage the wiper switch out of it for Old Blue, I’m going to put it off until I have things working correctly. 

I brought in the other two cars today.  Battlecruiser went first, and if the picture hasn’t given it away yet, it didn’t pass.  Did great on the inspection, but failed emissions.  Hopefully it just needs a good tune up, oil change and maybe a new air filter.  Hopefully.

 If you didn’t pay attention to the title, this picture should give away how Old Blue fared.  Passed with flying colors.

The fun thing about bringing the cars in for inspection and emissions is all the attention they get from the mechanics there.  While I was paying for Battlecruiser, a couple of them were out checking out Old Blue as it waited in the queue.  Done with the paperwork, as I was walking out to drive Battlecuriser home, one of the mechanics asked if I was going to be bringing in the third car. (They are as of yet unaware of LTD #4)  He seemed a little let down when I told him that it wasn’t ready for inspection, like he was looking forward to seeing all three in one day.  C’est la vie.

Both the Subaru and Big Green are up for renewal in October.  Then they will be introduced to the fourth.

Are you kidding?

So, you know those window cleaner thingies most gas stations have?  The ones that have a squeegee on one side and a sponge on the other side.  A sponge that is covered in a netting designed to scratch those pesky bugs off your windshield.  Yeah, that’s the thing.

I’ve seen a few people actually wash their cars with those.  Most of the time it’s an old beater with a less than perfect paint job anyway.

Not today.  This relatively new, $60,000 Mercedes SUV is being washed with the windshield squeegee.  The whole thing.  First I thought if I guy can shell out $60,000 for a car, you’d think he could afford 8 bucks every month or so for one of our touchless carwashes.  Then I realized what he was doing was even worse for the vehicle than not washing it in the first place.

So, NOTE TO GENERAL PUBLIC:  Do not wash your vehicle with the window squeegee at the gas station.  They are designed for scrubbing bugs off glass, which is a hell of a lot harder to scratch than your paint.

Thanks.  Now I have fulfilled my FCC Public Service Announcement quota for this year.