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I think back to the cars I've owned, the one I've regretted selling more than any other was my old 1991 Cadillac Brougham D'Elegance. Man that was one hell of a car, you were a ****ing rolling parade going down the street in that car. Yeah it was slow, yeah the quality was hit or miss(lots of cool *** chrome,, great quality leather, indifferently assembled plastic parts on the interior), but damn that car was a total throwback to the 1970's, but it was fuel injected, had ABS brakes, all the modern stuff that made it a great hassle free driver. Rode like a cloud, handled pretty damn good(better than any similar 80's/90's era Ford product I've drove).
Anybody else miss their old land yatch???? I've had faster cars, nicer cars, but nothing that made you feel so relaxed and gave you such a sense of ownership of the road. Yeah I'm ****ing bigger than you, fancier than you, get the hell out of my way lol.
BTW for those that like to ***** on GM, when they get it right, man they get it right. Drove this car from 100k to 130k over 4 years, from 2008 till I sold it in 2012. In that time it needed a new headliner, new front brakes(repacked the front bearings with fresh grease at the same time), a new rear axle seal, replaced the broken CD/tape factory radio(wish I had it rebuilt rather than done aftermarket), flushed the coolant, did the oil changes, greased all those nipples on the front end, replaced the fan blower motor(super easy, took 10 minutes and $20 dollars). Seriously this was the cheapest car I ever owned in terms of running costs and maintenance.
GM was still using the old grease-nipples in the 1990s? That one, I didn't remember.
Totally agree with you about the pillow-cloud way older American luxury cars rode......especially those from GM and Ford with coil-springing all around. The big Chrysler full-size cars, with the torsion front/leaf rear suspension, were just a hair stiffer (with slightly more road noise), but that paid off in a little less fuss while cornering.
I think you and I are in a minority today among those who appreciate (or still appreciate) the comfort of cars like this. Unfortunately, in areas with very dense traffic like the D.C. suburbs where I live, and with today's smaller parking spaces, these cars just aren't practical any more....more or less like trying to dock a battleship among a sea of rowboats. I pity those who have to deal with even today's stretched-limos in those tight spaces.
indifferently assembled plastic parts on the interior
Oh....and you're right that much of the hardware and trim on these cars felt like it was attached with chewing gum LOL.
haha 1991 is for old timers....OUCH. (haven't there been threads here where people stated they've been driving 60 or 57 years?)
Let's just say that in 1993 I was a struggling college graduate, who was about to enter B school, and I was given a 1970 Pontiac LeMans Sport, 250 I-6 2 speed auto, for free. And I drove it.
It was my GTO. And believe it or not, girls liked it at that time. Do I miss it? Not really, saw a mint 8 cyl. LeMans Sport at an auto show last year, or was it this year, and sure it's nice, but besides being collectable, it drives poorly...
GM was still using the old grease-nipples in the 1990s? That one, I didn't remember.
Totally agree with you about the pillow-cloud way older American luxury cars rode......especially those from GM and Ford with coil-springing all around. The big Chrysler full-size cars, with the torsion front/leaf rear suspension, were just a hair stiffer (with slightly more road noise), but that paid off in a little less fuss while cornering.
I think you and I are in a minority today among those who appreciate (or still appreciate) the comfort cars like this. Unfortunately, in areas with very dense traffic like the D.C. suburbs where I live, and with today's smaller parking spaces, these cars just aren't practical any more....more or less like trying to dock a battleship among a sea of rowboats. I pity those who have to deal with even today's stretched-limos in those tight spaces.
Oh....and you're right that much of the hardware and trim on these cars felt like it was attached with chewing gum LOL.
A 2006 LS430 is a yacht. It handles poorly. To inject some reality, with 17" rims, it gets .73 on the skidpad. But can you imagine a 2006 LS430 compared to a 1994 Roadmaster? Pretty sure the LS would handle circles around it, so with the way that folks aggressively drive today, it'd be a real disadvantage to be in a 1990's GM....but they look good, don't get me wrong.....
edit: this car may have been over $40k in 2006 adjusted for inflation, checking on the Fleetwood
p.s. here's what I was thinking, a 1996 Brougham is the equivalent of $56,100 in 2006, so it may fall just shy of a LS430 in 2006 dollars, but it was a relatively expensive car in '96, esp. given that people didn't generally lease back then...
I'm probably older than most here and don't really miss the old land yachts. I enjoyed and appreciated them in their heyday and still really like some of them from a nostalgic perspective. But I'll take the improved driving dynamics, performance, fuel efficiency, build quality, space efficiency of modern cars. Plus, I enjoy getting new cars...
I'm probably older than most here and don't really miss the old land yachts. I enjoyed and appreciated them in their heyday and still really like some of them from a nostalgic perspective. But I'll take the improved driving dynamics, performance, fuel efficiency, build quality, space efficiency of modern cars. Plus, I enjoy getting new cars...
I agree. I don't miss them very much. What I do sort of miss is the unique offerings to each segment. There were estate wagons, giant coupes. Convertibles under such brands as Oldsmobile. I miss the 2 door offers from GM. I miss things like rear mounted gas tank openings. I miss the plush carpeting, vinyl roofs, etc etc. All the brands had cool stuff in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The MR2, a mid engine from TOYOTA. The Pontiac Fiero. I miss some of the cool features. Buick Reatta, the Cutlass Supreme by Olds. The Aurora. The Ford 2 door Thunderbirds and the Lincoln rebadge. The only brand today that comes to mind that caters to so many unique tastes is Mercedes Benz IMO.
I think I can predict where the responses in this thread are going....
A 2006 LS430 is a yacht. It handles poorly. To inject some reality, with 17" rims, it gets .73 on the skidpad. But can you imagine a 2006 LS430 compared to a 1994 Roadmaster? Pretty sure the LS would handle circles around it, so with the way that folks aggressively drive today, it'd be a real disadvantage to be in a 1990's GM....but they look good, don't get me wrong.....
whether a 1994 buick roadmaster or aron's 1991 Cadillac Brougham D'Elegance, they were worse in every objective way to a 2006 LS430, but subjectively, the look of those old GM barges was pretty cool... a client of mine has an old cadillac coupe convertible that's gigantic and awesome.
A 2006 LS430 is a yacht. It handles poorly. To inject some reality, with 17" rims, it gets .73 on the skidpad. But can you imagine a 2006 LS430 compared to a 1994 Roadmaster? Pretty sure the LS would handle circles around it, so with the way that folks aggressively drive today, it'd be a real disadvantage to be in a 1990's GM....but they look good, don't get me wrong.....
Well, two things. Number one, most LS owners are comfort-oriented, and don't buy them to carve corners like a Miata.....so .73G on the skidpad is probably a lot more than the typical LS will ever actually see on the road. Two, on a nationwide basis, it begs the question of why Lexus even bothered to offer an F-Sport package for the LS....though there may admittedly be some interest or demand for that package among enthusiasts and in car-forums like this one.
Looking back in time, I really don't regret selling or trading most of the vehicles I owned, as I look upon the experience of a new (or newer used vehicle) as a chance to learn and get more ownership-experience with more different vehicles....and different types of vehicles. That has also helped me with my auto reviews, as it has shown me things to look for in evaluating a vehicle.
But there have been a few exceptions when, yes, I really wish I had kept what I had. First, I never forgot my old land-yacht Buick Electra 225 in college...it was old and worn out, but I loved it (it drove like a cloud). I sold it when I was 19...to the guy who had been the best man at my father's wedding (they were in the Army together). His son, who I was friends with, was a newly-hired vehicle-mechanic for the phone company, and could address any mechanical problems that old car had (there were several..the worst being a worn engine and oil-consumption). Selling that car haunted me for years.....I wished I'd kept it and simply put money into a full-restoration, though it later became impractical for the increasingly dense traffic and parking in the D.C. area. Second, some years later, during the late-70s gas-crunch, when I was driving a Plymouth Slant-Six/Torqueflite, one of the most durable drivetrains of the era (in fact, I had first learned to drive on an earlier Slant-Six when I was 16 years old), I fell, hook, line, and sinker, for the hoopla of the first smaller FWD American vehicles of the time from Chrysler and GM......which turned out to be some of the most poorly-built vehicles in American history. They did indeed give better gas mileage and winter traction than I was used to from the older RWD cars, but, for me, turned out to be incredibly bad ownership experiences. I owned a series of them from 1978 till about 1984.....Plymouth Horizon, Chevy Citation, and two Chrysler K-Cars). Each one either as bad or worse than the one preceding it. I truly wished I had kept that RWD Duster Slant-Six, but, by then, it had gone out of production, and I was so sick and tired of American-designed FWD lemons (and had probably wasted money on them) that, like millions of other Americans at the time, I completely gave up and switched to Japanese cars (Mazdas). Up until my recent Buicks, I did not buy another new American-badge vehicle at all, except for a plastic-body Saturn SL-2 in the 1990s, which I liked...and Saturn, at the time, had excellent customer-friendly policies.
(Sorry for the long rant, folks, but it's difficult for me to adequately describe car-experiences in short statements LOL)
I wish wish I had never gotten rid of my 1985 Buick Rivera. It was still body on frame, thick heavy gage steel. It was comfortable as heck. The only thing I hated about it was the computer controlled carburetor. Automatic climate control and the color was perfect.
10-15-17, 01:49 AM
The car you most regret selling
That one, I didn't remember.
the comfort of cars like this. Unfortunately, in areas with very dense traffic like the D.C. suburbs where I live, and with today's smaller parking spaces, these cars just aren't practical any more....more or less like trying to dock a battleship among a sea of rowboats. I pity those who have to deal with even today's stretched-limos in those tight spaces.
