Saturday, November 24, 2007

 

Now THAT was a car!

For reasons I don't fully understand, IPLawGuy mailed me the Washington Post's "Auto" section from January 16, 1971. It is awesome.

The best ad of all is for the 1971 Gremlin produced by the American Motors Corporation. It was one of a trio (along with the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega) of the crappiest cars ever made. The move to smaller cars was motivated by rising gas prices and new Japanese competition. The Gremlin sold for $1899, and you got a free 12" black and white television. Whooo! Here is the ad copy for the Gremlin:

America's newest and lowest priced car! It outweighs Pinto and Vega-- it's [sic] standard 232 cubic inch, six engine outpowers them all. Wider stance gives more stability in handling!

# posted by Mark Osler @ 4:27 PM
Comments:
Hehe. But what about the El Camino? The bastard child of a one night stand between a car and a truck? And why were they always brown?

And a later crappy car, the Ford Festiva? My friend called hers the HamsterMobile, because it was only big enough for a hamster to drive.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 4:50 PM
 
Hey! We had a 1971 Gremlin AND a B&W TV! You are completely rewriting my personal history here...
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:47 PM
 
It was lime green. It had an aluminum block. It had a crappy am radio. It had a standard three speed transmission whose top speed was 60 mph going down hill. It burned a lot of oil. It was my first car. It was a Chevy Vega.
# posted by Blogger The Medievalist : 1:03 AM
 
"Wider stance," hehe. No one would put that in an advertisement after Larry Craig!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 10:07 AM
 
Oh, yes, I remember them all . . . the El Camino was just awful looking, and usually the back wheels were jacked up, a real cruise-mobile . . . I always remember the Gremlins as beat-up and rusted. Maybe they got that way fast.

I dimly remember either me or someone in my family owning a Pinto for a brief time . . . I think it was my mother. But something went really wrong with it fast and we had to sell it . . .
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 10:29 AM
 
When I was in junior high, my older brother had a 6'6" friend that drove a Yugo. I always got a laugh as he would drive down the street with his knees hitting his chin.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:03 PM
 
Remember when you got a free Yugo if you bought a Volkswagen??? I think I would have preferred a 12' B&W television!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8:40 PM
 
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