My grandfather (not pictured above, that’s a stock-photo gentleman) drove a gold 1972 Chevelle. I know it was a base model, because it had the wheel covers seen in the topshot (which we exclusively called hubcaps back then), and I recall my Dad talking about how it had a V8, not the six-cylinder, so there was a 307 under the hood. I don’t know how Papa wound up with the Chevelle (which he almost certainly purchased used), and he was never one to talk cars much. He once noticed a crack in a tire’s sidewall and “repaired” it with duct tape, so suffice it to say, he was not a wrench.
My grandmother drove some kind of large early-70s Buick sedan, I want to say a LeSabre. All I recall of this car is that it had a green vinyl interior (all the better to stick one’s thighs to) and air conditioning – a delight in the humid summers of New England – but she never turned it on, because it “ruined the engine.” I’ve heard of planned obsolescence, but installing a Ruin Engine button right in the dash was a bold move for GM.
In case you missed it, “What did your grandparents drive?” is the question I extend to you. Some of the gang obliged with their own answers:
Antti Kautonen
I’ve mentioned my granddad’s white Corolla, but he traded it in for a very, very grey Ford Escort 1.6 Zetec in the early 2000s, with grey velour seats. Somehow it was a car that was even more invisible than a basic white Corolla with unpainted bumpers. Eventually when he gave up driving and the Escort wouldn’t pass roadworthiness inspection, I helped him sell it instead of wanting to get it for myself as a hand-me-down car.
It’s also why I like the first-gen Focus so much, because it actually showed so much design and engineering intent compared to the Escort, which was “just there.”
The Bishop
Are you over fifty years old? Then, by law, your grandparents owned a Dodge Dart or a Plymouth Valiant with a Leaning Tower of Power Slant 6 and an automatic. In most cases they were dark metallic green with a black vinyl top; my own grandparents had a two-door “Swinger” model, despite the fact that they were very much not swingers. I’m not sure they even knew the meaning of the word.
Your parents probably inherited it in the eighties as a “third car,” which meant you were not getting a new (145 horsepower) Z-28 for your sixteenth birthday.
Thank you, Antti and Bish! Your turn, gang: what did Mee-maw and Pee-paw get around in?
Top graphic images: GM; DepositPhotos.com
I know my one grandfather drove Chevs that he bought new from the same dealership in the center of town; the last one he bought was a ’67 Impala that we inherited when he passed (looked good in the driveway next to mom’s ’68 Camaro.)
I clearly remember watching my grandfather roll, light and smoke a cigarette with only his right hand while driving the Impala; I was in the middle of the back seat and saw the whole thing.
My grandmothers (both of them) never had driver’s licenses, or jobs with paychecks (oh, but they worked hard every day of the week!) The other grandfather passed away before I was born; not sure what he drove.
Grandpa Tucker was a Plymouth man, for the most part. He favored slant sixes, though he also had a couple of Volvo 164s, and his last car was a long- bed Dakota.
Grandpa Briggs bought a new Buick Skylark every time they changed the body style, and wouldn’t touch anything else.
As far as I know, neither one of my grandmothers had driver’s licenses, though Grandpa Tucker’s second wife had a Sunbird convertible.
The last car I remember my Grandfather driving was a circa-1988 Caprice Classic back around 1998. He was still driving at 89 years old. Then he was diagnosed with colon cancer and passed shortly thereafter.
Kind of like this one.
My maternal grandparents had a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 diesel and 1978 Dodge Omni, they gave my parents the Omni when they bought a 1988 Dodge Caravan. The Oldsmobile was traded in on a 1995 Crown Victoria LX that I later inherited. My fraternal grandparents had an 80’s Econoline conversion van that they later replaced with a 90’s Dodge conversion van that ultimately was replaced by a Dodge Sprinter conversion van. Grandma had a Jeep Wrangler that they drove when home from road trips, they lived in Key West and traveled during the summer in the van. After my grandmother passed away the van was sold and Granpa bought a Chevy Impala that he drove until he decided to give up his license in 2020.
My Grandpa on my dad’s side raced an MGA in the 1960s until my dad was born, then owned a hodgepodge of European and Japanese economy cars until his death in 1999. Notable highlights are an Audi Fox, Volvo 242s, Mazda 626 (RWD) and Mazda 323. According to my dad, the man never owned a manual and dreamed of getting a NA Miata. My dad and I both have NAs set up for track days and autocross. We had the race team logo my grandpa used to use made up as stickers for our helmets. My grandparents on dad’s side of the family shared a car.
On my mom’s side Grandpa has always had a Corvette until recently. He bought a new one every other year from 1966 until 1986, then got a C5, C6 Z06, skipped C7 and got one of the first C8s. However age snuck up on him, and it was not comfortable to get in or out of, so it was sold for a new 2023 AMG GLE63s Coupe. My Grandma didn’t have anything super cool or notable, she also passed in 1999.
Let’s start with my paternal grandparents – my Grandmother was into status symbols, and fell firmly into the GM hierarchy of affluency. I vaguely remember her having a 1971 or 72 Pontiac Lemans sedan. Then she moved up to a late 70’s Oldsmobile that turned me off of Oldsmobiles for a very long time. I hated riding in it because the dashboard jutted up and out so far I couldn’t see out the windshield and the cushy ride made me nauseous. My grandfather stuck with an early 80’s boxy Skylark, which he drove until he passed away. We just liked it because he had a CB radio.
Once he was gone, my grandmother took the big step up to Cadillac with a mid 80’s Sedan de Ville. She traded up to what I think was a 1989 Sedan de Ville. I remember driving it once and it weirded me out because when I went over a bump the rear suspension would bounce up, and instead of bouncing back down it would stop and slowly level itself.
My maternal grandmother, on the other hand, had some interesting choices. I remember when she was car shopping seeing her pull up in a VW Rabbit she was considering, but it was just too small for her… even though she was tiny. She had to sit on a cushion to drive. She opted for a 1983 Mercury Cougar. It was banana yellow. When it got older and she was ready to trade in, she wanted something similar and (to my surprise) went for a 1992 Thunderbird LX with a 5.0. It was awesome. I didn’t want her going anywhere any time soon, but I for sure had my eyes on that car. And she totaled it. Ended up with a 2000 Ford Taurus as her final car. Oh well. She was awesome, though.
Hooo boy, buckle in. My maternal grandfather is the source of my car gene. They brought my mom home from the hospital in an MG TF. They moved from Iowa to California in 1960 in an Opel Rekord station wagon. There was a Kadett wagon, too, in the late ’60s, and my grandmother had an Opel GT for most of the ’70s and into the early ’80s. They had a ’59 Volkswagen camper (with double doors on both sides) and a ’70 Transporter that my mom drove across the country during the summer of the Bicentennial after she graduated from high school. My grandfather’s grandfather had been a Hudson dealer, so there were some latent AMC loyalties; there was a Rambler Classic convertible at one point, a Hudson Jet parked on the driveway for a couple of years that never ran, and my grandfather steered two of his daughters into Renault LeCars in 1980. There was a Renault Dauphine, which was wrecked in the mid-’60s and replaced by a Lancia Flaminia. They tried to recapture the Lancia magic with a ’79 Beta, but that one wasn’t quite as special, though it was also pretty rare—one of about 300 sedans sold in the US that year. There was a Fiat 600 bodyshell in the garage at one point; it never went anywhere, but a cat gave birth in it. There was a ’65 Ranchero, which my grandfather traded to his youngest daughter for her ’63 Volvo P1800, which he then kept for nearly the rest of his life. When my great-grandfather died in 1979, they inherited the Mustang he had bought new in 1964; that got traded in (!) for a Honda CRX HF in 1988. In their “collector car” period, which started in the late ’70s, I guess, they had a ’57 Studebaker Scotsman, a 1960 Bentley S2 LWB (originally owned by Sir William Carr, at that time the publisher of The News of the World), and the 1946 Lincoln Continental Club Coupe that had been used in the filming of the movie “Bugsy.” Within my lifetime, my grandmother had a first-gen Cadillac Seville, which was replaced by a fully-loaded ’86 Taurus LX, which gave way to a ’91 Sedan deVille, followed by a 2000 Acura TL. Then I sold them my 2001 BMW 525iT, and that was finally replaced by their last car, which was…a Mazda CX-5. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
My paternal grandfather was a Buick man, except for the two years or so when he went wild and bought an Isuzu Trooper.
My grandparents drove a Volvo PV544. My grandfather never once changed the oil – he only ever changed the filter. “Oil doesn’t get old, it gets dirty” he said.
I’m the youngest so never knew my grandparents, but my mother had a Corvair when she was young, and my father raced BSA motorcycles. They were far less cool by the time I came to be. (JK mom and dad, you’re still cool, just drive boring things in your eighties).
Grandaddy always had white GMs.
Bel-Air in the 50’s, Buicks after that. Probably 5 or 6 Park Avenues. Definitely had the Northstar when it became available, and drove them 20 mph everywhere, to the dismay of other drivers (and his passengers).
The “sportiest” car he ever owned was a 2005 Impala – he was like 93 at the time. He gave me that one.
And every single one was white, with a white interior.
On my mom’s side, I only met my grnadfather once. He was into Porsches, and took us for a ride in his 944 (he had a 911 and a 356 previously).
Among the more interesting cars they owned..
Grandma on my dad’s side had a Buick LeSabre T-Type Coupe for most of my life. I rarely saw another T-Type. Grandpa drove a 7th gen Riviera. He may have had an 8th as well for a bit, but my memory is foggy on that one.
On my mom’s side Grandma had a final gen Toyota Cressida, followed by a 4th gen Nissan Maxima that later became mine in college. It was a GLE trim that came with tinted windows and a spoiler. Grandpa’s most interesting car was probably a 1st gen Isuzu Rodeo.
Other than that, dad’s side Grandpa had a 2nd gen Toyota Avalon and a Buick Encore. Mom’s side grandpa had a 1st gen S-10 Blazer, a 1st gen Explorer, and a couple 2nd gen Pathfinders. Mom’s side grandma had an Olds Cutlass Ciera before the Cressida and then a 5th gen Sonata and a 1st and 3rd gen Santa Fe.
Paternal grandparents, from what I remember, drove an early 70’s Ford wagon, probably a Ranch Wagon, all white with no fake woodgrain, and a falcon-based Ranchero, one of the later ones, probably a ’65. My dad had it painted a nice two-tone blue and white. They eventually replaced the wagon with a Ford Tempo (or was it a Mercury Topaz?).
I don’t remember what my maternal grandparents drove, other than a 75-76 Ford Granada, blue. I’m obviously from a Ford family, but after 4 Fords since entering the workforce full time, I now have a Volvo, Mini, and Mazda CX-5.
I won’t be 50 for another month or so, and it wasn’t a Valiant, but my paternal grandfather did in fact drive a ‘76 Volare sedan with the slant-6 and a column-shift automatic. His was that ballsack beige color, with nicotine-stained windows from an endless succession of stogies (and my Nana’s Marlboro 120s) smoked with the windows up.
I have distinct memories of that car parked on a sunbaked driveway in the Oklahoma summer, the old man in the driver’s seat with the door open. He’d sit out there and listen to Harry Caray call ballgames (he was a Connecticut Yankee but loved to hate the Cubs), puffing on the stub of an El Verso and taking pulls off a bottle of Jim Beam in the classic brown paper bag. He thought ballgames just sounded better coming out of that out single-speaker AM radio, and I suppose it kept him out of my Nana’s hair.
My maternal grandfather lived in New Hampshire, so I didn’t get to see him nearly as often, but I recall him driving a brown disco Nova sedan well into the early 90s. It seemed to have a fresh whiskey dent every time we went up for a visit, apparently due to the fact the “garage foundation kept shifting” and nothing at all to do with the fact that he would’ve been pushing 90 by that point. He also had an old blue Ford “bumpside” pickup that I recall bombing around in as an elementary schooler.
Good memories. I miss them both.
I was amazed to find out, from my Euro-loving father, that my grandfather owned a ’57 Chrysler 300C back in the day. Mandatory hemi V8, baby.
Dad’s side not sure, Mom’s side Olds 88’s.
Fathers side was Grandpa drove is 53 Chevy pickup until he passed in 02 and Grandma drove a Gremlin then moved onto a Buick Somerset.
Mothers side Grandma did not drive and Grandpa got a new Cadillac every other year. In the 60’s he would flu from SFO to Detroit and pick up his Caddy as it got rid of destination fee and was cheaper. I think he just wanted to be away from his family.
Here in the UK, Grandad had an underwhelming red Hillman Imp
Woefully underpowered standard model. I think the thing was probably held together by static electricity rather than any engineered fastenings.
Here’s a 1968 ad
https://youtu.be/wkit-r1fp04?is=I0_h80cBzCFBmsTs
My grandparents on my father’s side drove a ’72 Vega until it’s third engine, then bought a 1977 Nova, who my grandmother eventually wrecked and I got the carcass with only 15K miles – I then stuffed the V8/TH200/8.5″ differential into a Mazda pickup which became my parts truck after I got the CARB referee station to sign off on the swap. Of course, once it was OK’d, I did a cam/intake on it and it was fun to race SS454 pickups and stomp them in a greasy old pickup with no outside clues that it was a bit faster than stock. Quiet exhaust, too.
My grandmother on my mother’s side drove a 1980 Granada she bought from Avis and I ended up with that one too, it was a perfectly cromulant freeway cruiser and had phenomenal air conditioning. I then sold it to one of my employees who had a 160lb Englidh Mastiff and he drove it for years with the dog taking up semi-permanent residence in the back seat.
I got a call one morning from him, he wasn’t coming into work that day, as the dog ate something that disagreed with it and proceeded to evacuate his digestive tract from both ends in the car and my guy was going to Pick-Your-Part to buy a new seat, carpet and door panels. Car ended up fine, he drove it for years afterward. I miss the dog though, he was a Good Boy.
Your truck sounds awesome!
My grandfather (1927-2011) nursed a 1963 Ford Galaxie along until 1985, when he replaced it with a Renault Alliance.
After that came a mid- 90’s Cutlass, followed by an Accord. His brother-in-law wouldn’t talk to him for months after he got the Accord because it was a “Jap car.”
On my mom’s side, my grandfather loved French cars, so I recall a Renault 18 (assembled in Australia) followed by a Peugeot 405 SRDT, which a cousin proceeded to embed in a hedge.
My dad’s side was a bit more traditional, so they ended up with a Holden (I think) LX Sunbird sedan, which after my grandfather’s passing, my grandmother kept for decades; I remember being baffled by the radial-tuned suspension badges when I saw them in the 1990s.
Uhhhh, wow, genuinely no idea. Neither of my grandmothers ever learned to drive. One grandfather died when I was 2 and the other I didn’t have a whole lot of exposure to? I guess I’d have to ask my parents to get this information. But hey, potential fun convo there.
My grampa passed away recently. RIP.
Of all the vehicles he owned during the time I was alive, the one I still picture him driving was a silver, 3 door late 90s Fiat Uno.
My grandfather had a late 80s Cadillac Brougham that had what seemed like acres of red leather. I recall burning my ass on the metal buckles and red leather on more than one hot summer day. My grandmother had driven an automatic early 70s Buick Grand Sport for years, only to sell it for an early 90s Lexus GS.
My paternal grandpa drove Chevy vans for his business and Oldsmobiles for his personal cars (Grandma rarely drove, even to this day she doesn’t like to).
My maternal grandpa had Chrysler cars and grandpa-spec Ford single cab trucks. Grandma drove both after he died (she had learned to drive on a Model T and a stick shift didn’t bother her).
No Valiants or Darts, but the Slant Six D150 is and was a staple at the farm for Gramps. but he really like the Avalon once he retired and bought new cars annually.
Grandma had an LS Cordoba with a fake convertible top. Not Vinyl really, more of a fiberglass top designed to look like a real convertible. I did kind of like and want that as a kid, but my cousin destroyed that.