Cars your parents and grandparents drove

My father had about 4 of these. They were an embarrassment to me...cars in England were small then, so they really stood out.

R1, that’s cute but looks like it was a rough ride.

My grandparents had a 1977 Chrysler Cordoba.

My grandmother drove a Vauxhall.

Ford Galaxie 500

My father had a Lincoln Continental, white with a powder blue roof and a moonroof.

My parents loved Caddies my favorite was the 1965 Caddies shown here, my parents had this one in the same color.

My Grandma drove that too, R4

Later on, she drove one of these.

My mother had one of these in England in the 60s

My grandpa had a pink 57 Chevy Bel Air - and my brother still has it...

I love OP's father's car. No wonder he wants to show it off.

My Grandmother had this 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, same color scheme, too. It was back in the 60s, when she picked us up on Saturdays to go blackberry picking or a festival or to see an auction. It was never a dull moment, and I learned a lot. We made so many visits to her friends from the 30s and 40s they always made cookies for us. These people were born in the 1880s to the 1910s. My perspective on America was greatly influenced by them.

My Goodness, R10, your response was posted as I was writing this!

R12: my family (including my grandpa) called his car The Pink Titty

My aunt drove a 1981 Mercury Lynx. The nicer version of a Ford Escort.

My parents (and later, my mother) bounced around on car styles and brands - the first one I remember was a Mercury Comet (like the one at the link, but white and black instead of red and black), but there were a couple of station wagons, a Ford Fairmont and a Toyota Echo in the mix, too.

Their parents were more consistent - big Fords on the paternal side (Ford LTD Crown Victorias until they were discontinued), fairly big GM cars on the maternal side.

My grandfather was a Buick man. 1961 Buick LeSabre, 1967 Buick Lesabre, 1971 Buick LeSabre, 1982 Buick Skylark, 1989 Buick LeSabre, and inherited a 1967 Buick Skylark that was my grand uncle's main ride. The 61 was the first one I remembered, but he also had Buicks before that one. My dad also had a few Buicks in the late 80's and early 90s. I resisted getting any type of Buick the family suggested I buy.

Oh yeah, we also had lots of Oldsmobiles as well, which were really at the same level as Buicks in the GM family. GM was pretty much making the same cars for five divisions with different trim levels.

1962 Chevy Impala.

Dad: Corvair, Buick, Volvo

Mom: Mazda

My grandfather had a ‘59 Coupe de Ville. One of the most outrageously enormous cars ever made.

R8, my grandmother’s last car was a white Camaro. I kid you not.

^^ Oops, meant to say I’m R4.

My Dad drove one of these. It was a small car, and one year on vacation, two parents, two grandparents, my sister and I piled into it and drove from Cincinnati to Pompano Beach, Florida and back, with no air conditioning. Some of you young folks would die under these conditions. It was perfectly normal for an American family to do this.

My father had a 1963 Ford Falcon. He bought the particular color car (blue/teal) because it matched my eyes

Our family had a brand new 1980 Buick LeSabre. It had a lovely vinyl roof and two large bench seats. The car seemed to float on the highway during our family vacations ti the Grand Canyon. Fuel economy was very much a consideration in those days. There was a setting on the speedometer you could manually adjust to a selected speed such as 55 mph. When you exceeded that speed there would be a rattly electronic buzzer that would alert you to slow down. It was the first car that we owned that had electric windows. We felt very modern.

what is that, R23? nice!

R26, a Chevy Corvair. Look up Ralph Nader for more info.

Grandpa had a mustard-colored Dodge Dart w/vinyl top, iirc.

My father was an aerospace engineer, so cars in my family were all about design and performance and engineering, not style, so both my parents had identical Mercedes at a time when most Americans didn’t even know what one was. When I turned 16, I got one also...identical. Not really the sports car I imagined, but it was freedom so I was very grateful.

I love that car R23.

What was it called?

I forgot to add the car in R23 was a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair. As you see, I'm getting up there in age...

R23. My father was an engineer as well, and we had Mercedes from the late 60’s forward. My dad’s father drove caddy’s- a new one every two years. My mother’s father passed away right after I was born, and I believe he always drove,chevy’s.

R1- In the USA in the 1970's a Rolls Royce was a bit smaller than the average medium sized American car.

I'd forgotten how ugly the boxie US sedans were in the 70s.

my grandfahter had the cool cars like the Buick LeSbre and Pontiac Bonneville circa 1960's . My dad on the other hand picked up used pieces of junk like Hillman Minx and a Kaiser and Sstudebaker's. He did inherit a Rambler Classic from 1961, push button ignition

My Grandma had a convertible Corvair.

Pops had a cutlass like this. But it wasn’t “restored” it was modernized. The seats would swing 90 degrees To let you outa d make it easier for back seat passengers as well

My mother, who was wrong about everything, predicted that all cars would look ike our Mercury Monterrey.

Mom had a white MGB Midget ragtop from the 60s which she finally sold in the early 80s. It was freezing cold in the winter and I’m not sure it had heat. It was darling and we all cried. But the man she sold it to refurbished it and we got to see Nellie all fixed up.

My grandparents always had Cadillacs, giant boat cars.

Dad had this boat. Got 8 miles to the gallon. Some drunk ran into it one night when it was parked on the street. Nothing a little duct tape couldn’t fix.

R3's grandparents were into leather. Soft [italic]Corinthian[/italic] leather.

R36, I'm pretty sure you mean push button gear selector, not push button ignition.

R46, I think you mean Corrrrrrrrinthian leather.

R43 right I meant transmission

The 1960 Plymouth Valiant had taillights which I thought looked like male nipples.

So did the 1963 Ford Thunderbird. I thought a lot of taillights looked like male nipples back in the 60s.

My Father's Mercury Montclair. 1961? '63? '64? I took my driver's license test in that.

I can’t imagine driving these cars from the ‘60s. I’d have one of these land yachts wrapped around a utility pole.

[quote][R1]- In the USA in the 1970's a Rolls Royce was a bit smaller than the average medium sized American car.

This is probably the reason those cars looked much more elegant when I saw them in the USA in the 70s. In England, they just looked over-sized and expensive.

Great big fins and painted steel

Man it looked just like the Batmobile

With my old man behind the wheel

Well you could hardly even see him

In all of that chrome

That's an amazing looking car, R51

My mom had one of these. My father bought it for her to replace the 1965 Toyota Corona she drove. It was enormous and we took several road trips in it.

My father drove a Toyota Corona Mark II wagon. He decided he needed a sportier car “for his image,” so he bought a 1976 Ford Mustang II, which he promptly gave to my sister because he was too tall to drive it. He then bought a used Audi 100ls, in dark green. That car was beautiful until my other sister ruined the paint by trying to wax it and leaving the wax to bake on the paint in the broiling sun. Eventually that was replaced by a 1982 Buick Century.

My Irish grandfather drove a maroon Triumph Herald Estate, it was gorgeous when we visited.

My grandfather in Texas alternated between his cheap, basic Ford Maverick (no AC, vinyl seats) and a Buck Lesabre. It was terrifying driving with him because he refused to give up his license. He almost drove it over a bridge with my aunt in the passenger seat and he still refused to stop driving.

[quote]That car was beautiful until my other sister ruined the paint by trying to wax it and leaving the wax to bake on the paint in the broiling sun.

LOL

Grandmother on my dad's side had a blue Ford Elite, looked just like this one. God, I miss that car....

Ha! So did mine OP (maybe it was a year or two older actually)-- it was his first car when he was in high school. He kept it for close to 15 years.

My father had a 1971 avocado green Ford Maverick, manual shift. Few years later, he gave it to me yo use my senior year high school then college. Left it totaled in the middle of the highway one Sunday returning to college from home. Big ol’ mattress truck on side street slid through stop sign across my path. Due to the harder steel in cars back then, my spinning the wheel to right like a drunken pirate ship and hitting back end rather than going under truck, and my seat belt, I walked away with hood and other parts in the highway. We had lost my brother previous year in car wreck, so first thing out of my mouth when called home from pay phone was, “Mom, I’m all right.” Then told her what happened.

My family had a couple of these Oldsmobile Cutlass cars. Also, a Buick LeSabre and a Regal, IIRC. (Not all at the same time.) Loyal to a fault to these American cars. Why, I do not know. At some point, my mom dumped her Olds & got an Acura.

Dad had a Corvair, not sure of the year but it was around 1967, rear engine. It was the car I learned to drive in, we had a huge back yard and I drove that car all over the back yard.

Mom had a Cadillac Eldorado, front wheel drive at a time when very few cars had front wheel drive, that thing could plow through snow drifts like you wouldn't believe.

Funny story, I was sitting her Cadillac Eldorado while she ran into the grocery store. Some random guy walks up to the side of the car and goes "What year is it?" I am thinking, oh great some nut case that doesn't know what year it is. Only thing I could think to say was "What?" He again says, "What year is it?" I just looked at him with a blank stare and then he finally says, "What year is the car?"

My mum drove a white Vauxhall Cavalier.

And my dad drove this monstrosity, amongst others.

My mother had one of these for a few years. I saw one recently in a car park, you couldn't fit a miniature poodle in the back - that's how she felt about having three children over the age of ten, stupid idiot and it was a real sports car which she couldn't really drive or maintain, it used to backfire when she turned the ignition.

My dad had a 1967 olive green Ford Mustang with a black vinyl roof. Total bitchin' car. I was hoping I would get to drive it when I turned 16 - but he sold it to a neighbor.

....

That’s hilarious, r60!

I laughed quite a bit.

Came here to see a grandpa Córdoba, was not disappointed. Thank you R3.

Growing up we had a Volvo 240 wagon. It mostly sat in the garage in our building in Manhattan, but in summers we'd use it out east and to visit my grandparents in Maryland and/or Delaware (same grandparents, different season)

My grandfather always drove Pontiacs. But more interesting was my grandmother. She drove a Datsun 210 wagon with a manual transmission and drove that thing like she stole it. Every stop light I swear she would floor it. Our parents didn’t like us riding with her very much - too afraid of us getting whiplash we think. It was just crazy, this old lady with gray helmet teased hair, polyester pantsuit that LOOKED like denim, tearing around town in a little station wagon.

It says that’s a 510 but that’s the only one I could find that sort of looked like mama’s.

I’m loving this thread. Not only for the cars but for the stories associated with them.

Seagreen chevy laguna hatchback. My first car. May have been corny, but I loved it. Drove it ten years and then it predictably fell apart as factory specified!

When I turned 17, may grandparents gave me their two-year old car--they always got a new one-year old model every two years on the theory that people who turned in a car after a year were only interested in having a brand new car and thus they were not getting a lemon.

We kept it out at the beach (there was a garage at the house) and I had it my last year of college and for another five years after.

While a 7-series BMW is not a 17 year old boy's dream car, my parents and grandparents were all about how safe it was and so I gladly took it.

It did handle well and it could fit three or four people in the back seat, so that was a plus. Even if it did look like I was driving my grandfather's car.

R69, your grandma sounds fun.

[quote] and it could fit three or four people in the back seat,

Slut.

R49, We had to parallel park those boats before we could get our driver's licenses. Here's a 1977 Lincoln Continental. Our fathers made us practice parallel parking for hours and pass THEIR tests before we even thought about applying for a driver's license.

I had to take my driving test in a 77 Caddy I passed every test except parallel parking.