First and foremost, Happy Birthday to my (i)ncomparable niece! For the next year her age will be the square of an integer.

Second, despite not really being forecast we did receive a light rain yesterday for 5-10 minutes. As I have written before, living in the desert has made me a rain watcher and rain fan. Late afternoon the skies to our north and northeast turned quite dark and the weather radar did indicate heavy rain in those areas. As most of the precipitation here is not the product of a front creating lift, the movement of rain, or lack thereof, can be difficult to predict. The movement of this precipitation did seem to be headed our way and, lo and behold, we had rain.

We also had quite a lot of wind, which opened the lid of the recycle bin in the backyard and blew my wonderful wife’s pool floatee quite a distance. Anyway, below are three pictures. One that is supposed to show raindrops on the window in the second floor bonus room and two that show the aftermath of the rain.

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So, what was significant about 1983 in the US automobile industry? Well, the convertible returned to the marketplace. The 1976 Cadillac Eldorado had been the “last” American ragtop, but once again history is replete with examples of the folly of human beings trying to predict the future. Ford offered a convertible Mustang and sold about 23,000 of them. However, the ragtop I want to show is not a favorite of mine, per se, but has significance to me, anyway. From The American Auto by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide®:

Yes, production was a “scant” 1,750 units, but at $24,960 this model was $9,000 more than Buick’s next most expensive offering. It was also more expensive than any non-limousine Cadillac or Lincoln. I don’t have the patience to calculate a production/sales weighted average price for 1983 Buicks, but most of the Skyhawk and Skylark models could be purchased in the $7,500 neighborhood.

The base engine for the Riviera ragtop produced 125 HP/205 LB-FT of torque and the car weighed about 3,900 pounds. Obviously, my association with Buick, a major factor in the recent purchase of my Buick Cascada convertible, led me to show this car in this post. A note: the Cascada has been criticized for being underpowered, but has 75 more horsepower than the ’83 Riviera and similar torque at a similar weight. Besides, these automobiles are cruisers, not sports cars.

About 9.2 million cars were sold in the US in 1983 and 6.8 million of those were built in North America, some by foreign manufacturers. Speaking of foreign automakers, those from Japan agreed to a fourth consecutive year of import restrictions.

General Motors took the top three spots among domestic car companies in production/sales in 1983. Chevrolet was first and the only make to surpass one million (1.175 million). Oldsmobile was second at about 917,000 units and Buick was third with 808,000. What was the best-selling Chevy model that year?

Keeping with the theme of the re-entry of ragtops in the US auto market, here is a picture of a 1983 Chevrolet Cavalier CS convertible. Chevrolet produced approximately 218,500 Cavaliers, of which only 627 were convertibles. These cars had an MSRP of $10,990; the rest of the Cavalier line sold for between $5,900 and $6,600. As far as I can tell, this model was available with only one engine: a 121 cubic-inch inline-4 cylinder that produced 88 HP/110 LB-FT of torque. They’re not ugly cars to me, but I have no desire to run out and to buy an ’83 Cavalier ragtop.

For the first time, the average price of a new car sold in the US reached five figures at $10,700. JD Power reported that buyers of new domestic cars had a median age of 49.5 and an annual income of $34,790. Perhaps not surprisingly, buyers of imports were younger, but somewhat surprisingly had a higher average income. Age and income are positively correlated, at least until people reach their 60s. A sign of the inflation rampant in the US economy then (sound familiar?), the 1983 average price was 54 percent higher than the price from just four years earlier.

Chrysler Corporation paid off its $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans–seven years early. The K-Car platform, while reviled today, saved the company, at least until the first decade of the 21st century.

Of course, there were no 1983 model year Corvettes although Vettes were built in calendar year 1983. Mercedes-Benz used this technicality to claim that its SL models were the longest-running car line built in the world, until it stopped making that model after the 2020 model year. Ironically, M-B has brought back the car after a one-year hiatus as a limited-production automobile all with the AMG designation. From the Corvette Black Book:

“The 1984 Corvette was introduced in March 1983. Because of its late introduction and since it met all 1984 federal requirements, Chevrolet General Manager Robert Stemple decided to skip the 1983 model year.”

The 1984 Corvette would be the first of the fourth generation Vette or C4. That generation was produced through the 1996 model year.

That’s all for today, folks. Just three more posts remain in the Threes And Sevens series.

#ThreesAndSevens

#1983

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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An old adage states, “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.” Therefore, I will present this as a challenge instead of as a threat. When the next installment of Hall of Very Good Cars is posted (probably on Thursday the 7th), please do all you can to make sure it has more views than the first edition. The number I have in mind is that its views on the day of publication should be greater than or equal to the combined number of views the first post had on the day of publication and the day after. Thanks.

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For me, 1977 is the Seinfeld of years in the US automobile industry: nothing happened. Well, nothing exciting, anyway.

A tangent: I believe the whole “Seinfeld was the show about nothing” axiom arose from the Season 2 episode, The Chinese Restaurant. The episode takes place in only one locale, a Chinese restaurant (duh). I’m not sure if it was after he read the script or after he saw the produced but unaired episode, but then-NBC President Warren Littlefield commented, “Jerry, isn’t something supposed to happen on the show? Nothing happened.” Many upper-level NBC executives did not want the show produced after they had read the script and most of them did not wanted the show broadcast. Eventually, of course, the show aired and was one of the landmark episodes, one very different from standard sitcom fare at the time.

Back to 1977 in the US automobile industry: by this time, foreign manufacturers had made significant inroads in the US market. For example, in 1967 Toyota sold about 38,000 vehicles in the US. By 1977 that figure had grown to 439,000. Sales of imported cars in the US reached the two million mark for the first time. I guess that event was of some importance, but the foreign car “invasion” began long before 1977.

US manufacturers produced 9.1 million cars for the 1977 model year. That represented a healthy increase of about a million from 1976, but was not substantially higher than the 8.8 million for 1965.

Chevrolet led all domestic manufacturers with production of 2.54 million cars. Ford was second with 1.84 million and Oldsmobile–now defunct, sadly–finished third at 1.14 million. General Motors continued to dominate domestic car production/sales as Pontiac (also sadly defunct, of course) and Buick finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Perhaps the fact that GM beat its Big Three competitors to the market with downsizing of their full-sized models led to its market share exceeding 60 percent, excluding foreign makes. I would love to write a book on the history of the US automobile industry, but very little in the 21st century interests me and no one would buy it, anyway.

After a long run of dominance, the Impala was not Chevrolet’s best-selling model in 1977. Anyone want to guess what was? Here it is:

This is a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The Landau coupe is shown here even though the S coupe was more popular that year. I couldn’t find a good photo of an S spec.

Monte Carlo production reached 411,000 in 1977, of which the S spec was about 55 percent. Combined, the Monte Carlo, the Caprice and the Nova had production/sales of 1.12 million units.

What else happened in 1977? Do you care that American Motors introduced a Pacer wagon, which–not surprisingly–did not help Pacer sales? Neither do I. Do you care that Chevrolet added the Concours model as sort of an upscale Nova? Neither do I. Like I wrote, 1977 was basically a year when nothing of note happened in the US automobile industry.

As always, I welcome thoughtful comments.

#ThreesAndSevens

#1977

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Once again, age-related memory issues have cost me the non-automotive content with which I had intended to begin this post. I KNEW I should have written it down, but did not.

1967 will be the last Threes And Sevens post before the US automobile industry entered the Dark Ages. I am, of course, referring to the government regulations and insurance practices that ended the first muscle car era in the early 1970s.

For me, 1967 will always be a special year because my first car was a 1967 Pontiac GTO.

This is not the first time these photos have been shown in Disaffected Musings. I have been asked quite often if I want to own another one of these cars. Too many people, frankly, assume the answer is “yes.”

My affinity for Corvettes has manifest itself in the fact that I have owned three, one from each of three different generations. In general, I am not a fan of buying a “been there, done that” car. Buying a stock first-gen GTO would be doing just that. Given my recent experience with my Z06–which is still not 100% and will not be until a stock exhaust is installed–I don’t think I would want to restomod a ’67 (or ’65) GTO and I wouldn’t want to own/drive a stock example. The only way I might buy one of these cars is if my wonderful wife and I won A LOT of money in the lottery. That’s about a one in three hundred million chance.

Still, I will always think fondly about my ’67 Goat. I am sure that if my first car had been something more pedestrian I would not be the car aficionado I am today, even though my interest in cars predates the GTO.

For the second consecutive year, US car production declined after 1965’s then record output of 8.8 million cars. The figure for 1967 was 7.6 million. Chevrolet topped Ford, building about 1.9 million cars for model year 1967 to Ford’s 1.7 million. For calendar year 1967, Chevrolet produced about 2 million to Ford’s 1.7 million. Once again, the Impala was Chevy’s best-seller at about 650,000 units, including 74,000 SS models. Below, hopefully, is a picture of a ’67 Impala SS:

1967 was, of course, the first model year for another celebrated Chevrolet, the Camaro. Pontiac joined the ponycar market with its own F-body model, the Firebird. Mercury introduced the Cougar and Plymouth the GTX although the latter was not its own model in 1967, but a Belvedere variant. What the hell, here are pics of all of these cars.

The standard GTX engine had the largest displacement of any “performance” engine at 440 cubic inches. (The Lincoln Continental motor displaced 462 cubic inches.) The Chrysler/Plymouth Magnum V-8 was rated at 375 HP/480 LB-FT of torque. The 426 Hemi was available as well.

One of my all-time favorite cars, an entry in my Ultimate Garage 2.0, was introduced for the 1967 model year, the striking Cadillac Eldorado.

A dual-circuit braking system was made standard on all US model year 1967 automobiles. That’s one change I would make to any car no matter that it wasn’t stock.

38 percent of US cars were equipped with air conditioning. I was not able to ascertain the percentage of cars sold with an automatic transmission. Given that percentage was about 75 percent in 1963 and the trend has been upward since then I think it’s safe to conclude the number approached 80 percent.

General Motors, Ford and American Motors adopted a 5-year/50,000 mile, whichever comes first, powertrain warranty. With a minor change to 60,000 miles that is still the standard powertrain warranty for US vehicles today.

Once again, I very much welcome thoughtful comments. Thanks.

#ThreesAndSevens

#1967

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Thanks to Philip Maynard, JS and Josh for sending thoughtful comments and for encouraging me to continue writing the blog. Your kind words have more impact than you can know.

Once again, if you enjoy reading Disaffected Musings, then PLEASE let as many friends know as you can and encourage them to sign up to follow the blog. Not only has readership declined by more than 30%, but no one has signed up to follow the blog in months. The blog used to add 5-15 new followers a month.

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Conflict is an inevitable part of life. By the way, I am not talking about armed or violent conflict (although, sadly, that also seems to be inevitable), but about when people “butt heads.” Although I think some/many people seek conflict, by extension some/many avoid it at all costs, even when that path is not optimal.

I have written that some people try to avoid bad change by avoiding all change; the latter is impossible as change is a constant. By the same token, sometimes a person has to stand up for themselves even if that act is uncomfortable.

Believe it or not, my innate nature–no doubt inherited from my marvelous mom–is to avoid conflict. However, I have learned that, at times, diving into the fray is a more optimal path.

For example and this might not be totally applicable, after my first year working full-time for the Baltimore Orioles (1988), my net worth–such as it was–declined compared to before I began working there. I decided that was unacceptable. I calculated how much more I needed to earn and also figured my worth to the team given my positive impact on player salary negotiations, both in terms of outcome and how much I had saved the team in legal fees.

Remember that my first year as a full-time baseball operations employee the Orioles lost their first 21 games, a dubious record, and finished with the worst record in baseball. (Attendance was surprisingly good in spite of the poor performance, though.) In addition, owner Edward Bennett Williams died during the season after a long bout with cancer, but not before committing the team to Baltimore by signing a lease that paved the way for the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He knew he would not live to see the new ballpark.

Anyway…I asked for a big raise, about 25 percent. After some initial push-back I stood my ground and received the raise I had asked for. It would have been easier if I had modified my original request, but I knew my value to the team. Of course, some might say I had undersold myself since the team ultimately agreed to my request, but I had never earned as much before as I earned in 1989.

I don’t know why I am compelled to write about this today, and as “part” of a Threes And Sevens post, no less. I guess it’s another way of expressing my strong belief that no behavioral paradigm is always appropriate. That is one of the toughest parts about being human, knowing when to deviate from one’s usual, and hopefully at least semi-considerate, MO.

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1963 might be my favorite of all US automotive years. In this post, written almost two years ago (!), I recounted how during a Mecum Auction broadcast Stephen Cox asked the crew if they could have any three cars given to them for free, but they all had to be from the same model year, what cars and what year would they choose.

For me, 1963 was the obvious choice and here are the three cars:

1963 was, of course, the first model year for the celebrated C2, or mid-year, Corvette and was the only year for the legendary Split-Window coupe. It was also the first model year for two of my all-time favorites, the Buick Riviera and the Studebaker Avanti.

I have to admit that I could not have conceived of the Threes And Sevens series if it weren’t for my affinity for the 1963 model year. By the way, as this is the 8th of what should be 15 posts in the series this could be considered the “hump” post like Wednesday is hump day.

Other events from 1963:

Industry output increased about 10 percent compared to 1962 and 1955’s record was finally broken as 1963 saw production of about 7.3 million cars.

It might be hard to fathom today, but General Motors management worried about anti-trust action as it had a 54 percent market share in the 1963 model year. Chevrolet easily led all makes at 2.24 million units. That accounted for 57 percent of GM’s output (and a 31 percent overall market share), but Pontiac was third with about 8 percent of total industry production and Oldsmobile was fifth at about 6.5%. Rumors abounded that GM would be forced to spin off Chevrolet as a separate company. The most popular Chevrolet model was one of the most successful cars in US history, the Impala, with production of almost 833,000 units. By itself, the Impala outsold every make except Chevrolet and Ford. Below, hopefully, is a picture of a 1963 Impala SS coupe:

Studebaker became the first US company to offer front disc brakes, which were standard on the Avanti but available on all models. That didn’t stop Studebaker sales from plummeting by 22 percent compared to 1962 and in an up year for the industry as a whole. Studebaker ceased production at its long-time facility in South Bend, Indiana in December, 1963.

Half of all US model year 1963 cars had power steering, three-quarters had automatic transmissions, two-thirds had V-8 engines and about one-seventh had air conditioning.

Positive crankcase ventilation–PCV–systems were installed on all cars in 1963 to reduce pollution. However, trucks escaped this mandate, at least for awhile.

In 1963 almost nine million US households had more than one car, more than double the number from just nine years prior. In case you’re interested, or even if you’re not, that meant that about one-sixth of US households had more than one car in 1963, compared to about nine percent in 1954.

I see by the little word counter that I am approaching my unofficial limit of 1,000 words. I will stop here. Once again, I appreciate my loyal readers, but ask that you spread the word about this blog. Thanks.

#ThreesAndSevens

#1963

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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First…I actually had a dream that was neither disturbing nor frightening. My wonderful wife and I were in a giant antiques store, but warehouse is probably a more appropriate description. Along with the furniture, coins, clothes, knickknacks and old advertising this establishment also sold older cars. Some of the cars were sitting on huge shelves many feet off the ground. (Shades of Carvana towers?)

I noticed one such vehicle and was immediately in the company of a store employee who proceeded to tell me all about the car, called the Comet. I don’t think it was a Mercury Comet, though, as my recollection was that the name was a make unto itself. The employee somehow knew of my preference for an automatic transmission and tried to sell me on the favorable power-to-weight ratio. Oddly, I could not see all of the car from my vantage point, only the front two-thirds as the car was on a shelf. I didn’t buy the car and then I woke up.

I have always been able to remember some of my dreams, but writing them down in the blog has increased my retention. Perhaps, my brain knows I use dreams as content so it somehow stores them for me. Maybe that’s a crock.

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1957 was, in many ways, two years in one for the US automobile industry. It was a year of innovation and sales that increased–albeit slightly–from 1956, but it was also a year when a sharp recession that hit in late summer devastated the industry. Sales declined by a third from 1957 to 1958. This recession played a major role in the demise of makes like DeSoto and Edsel and led to the increase in imports of cars like Volkswagen.

Sales reached 6.4 million cars in 1957. Ford, with new models and new styling, beat Chevrolet selling 1.67 million cars to the Bow Tie’s 1.5 million. Note that the two big dogs had about a 50% market share combined. One Ford model was quite the innovation: the Skyliner retractable hardtop:

Obviously from RM Sotheby’s is a picture of the Ford Fairline Skyliner. The car was introduced very late in model year 1957, April of ’57. In its advertising Ford claimed, “Ford’s sensational “Hide-Away” (Retractable) Hardtop is the most revolutionary idea in automotive design since the development of the closed car 40 years ago!”

The Skyliner was produced for three model years becoming part of the Galaxie line in 1959. The car was not a huge hit with total sales of 48,394 during its run. It was the first American car with a retractable hardtop (the Peugeot 402 was introduced in 1938) and first in the world to reach 10,000 in total production/sales.

General Motors also introduced an innovation for 1957, mechanical fuel injection. While this system is best known for its use in Corvettes, it was also used in this car:

This is a 1957 Pontiac Bonneville. All 630 of these were powered by a fuel-injected 347 cubic-inch V8 that produced 310 HP/375 LB-FT of torque. (Some sources state that the Bonneville was available with a Tri-Power setup, but most claim the car was only available with a fuel-injected engine.) These cars were not cheap with a list price of $5,782, $2,000+ more than Pontiac’s next most expensive model, the Star Chief Custom Safari wagon. While I don’t know who would service such a vehicle, the ’57 Bonneville is a car I would very much like to own.

Speaking of expensive cars, 1957 was the second and last year for the beautiful Continental Mark II, priced at $10,000, but the 1957 model year saw the introduction of an American car even more expensive:

This is a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. This is another car I would love to own, but these are not cheap just like they weren’t cheap when they were introduced. Their price when new was $13,074. Two Cadillac models were available for less than $5,000 that year. The average price of a 1957 Cadillac, not counting bare chassis and weighted for number of sales by model (yes, I have OCD), was about $5,200. Not surprisingly, even Cadillac buyers consider(ed) price; the two models priced under $5,000 were the two best sellers accounting for 40 percent of the make’s sales.

The Brougham was also a car of innovation. It had self-leveling air suspension; however, this system didn’t really work and many owners replaced the system with coil springs. It also had the first automatic two-position “memory” power seats in addition to low-profile tires, automatic trunk opener, cruise control, high-pressure cooling system, electric antenna, automatic-release parking brake, electric door locks and a dual heating system.

Only 704 of these were produced during its run in model years 1957 and 1958. Perhaps these cars were also a victim of the 1957-58 recession.

Other notable events for 1957:

Both Nash (founded in 1916) and Hudson (1909) were discontinued after the 1957 model year. American Motors, the product of the merger between Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson in 1954, decided to cast its lot with the Rambler, a strategy that ultimately proved successful.

The Automobile Manufacturers Association formally banned factory-sponsored racing. Of course, that didn’t stop “wildcat” racers with surreptitious help from car companies from racing.

Chrysler Corporation introduced torsion-bar suspension in its models. Of course, Packard had introduced its Torsion-Level suspension system in 1955, but that was far too late to save the company. Chrysler used its system until 1992.

Speaking of Packard, while the name survived, the 1957 model year was the first of two in which the cars were just badge-engineered Studebakers. Only 4,497 “57th Series” Packards were produced.

I could write much more, but will stop here. As always, I welcome thoughtful comments.

#ThreesAndSevens

#1957

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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