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
When I was growing up, my grandfather, Wally, had the most stereotypical old person car for a daily driver, a gold 2003 Buick LeSabre, which was the last of a long line of GM sedans and station wagons. More interestingly though, he also had a 1990-ish GMC Trans Van class B RV, which I loved hanging out in when I was a kid. My grandparents would drive all over the country in it, often dragging the Buick behind it. After Wally passed away last year, I tried to track down who he sold the Trans Van to a decade ago to buy it back, but alas, I had no luck finding it. Here’s a photo of Wally with the Trans Van when it was new:
https://www.mwjwphoto.com/Galleries/Family/Old-Walker-Family-Pics/1990/i-Jp7HGWJ/A
My grandfather (RIP) last drove a ’72 Olds Toronado which replaced a ’65 Olds 98 Luxury Sedan. He was an Olds guy even before that. Neither of those cars were lacking for power by the standards of that era. He liked his big V8s.
On my father’s side, neither of my grandparents drove, to my knowledge. They both came here from Italy after WWII once my grandfather returned from the war. My grandfather worked as a cobbler within walking distance from his house and my grandmother stayed home to take care of my dad, and there was a small grocery store next to my grandfather’s shop, so neither really needed to drive. If they had to go somewhere, they got a ride from other friends and family, like my uncle and my dad when he became of driving age.
On my mom’s side, my grandmother didn’t drive, but my grandfather certainly did. He was a full sized athletic build prototypical American at well over 6ft with full sized American car needs; he had a 70’s Buick Electra 225 when I was born, and later migrated over to the Ford Panther platform with a couple of different Lincoln Town Cars. His brother also owned a car dealership that specialized in used luxury cars, so I am assuming that’s where he got a number of them over the years. The last one he had was the last of the boxy ones (1989, I believe) and it was gray with a carriage top, because nothing was classier than a carriage top in 1989, let me tell you!
When I was a kid, he liked to to take me to get pizza, and the road from his house to the pizza place was a secluded-but-especially curvy downhill road on Cape Cod. He loved messing around when he was driving to make me laugh, and his favorite thing was to “make the road straight” on that curvy road by just going straight down the middle of the apexes. That Lincoln just floated like a cloud down that hill like it was immune to the curves, all caution (and the rules of the road) be damned.
Wait Peter how’d you know??? I’m 58 (so I guess that tracks).
My maternal grandpa drove a 1976 Plymouth Valiant that was Sky Blue with a tarmac tearing 100 hp Slant 6. Grandpa said it had “plenty of pep”. He traded in his 12 year old VW beetle for it.
Paternal grandfather had a 1968 Mercedes Benz SE with a 158 hp inline 6 and 4sp manual transmission. He put 330,000+ miles on it. It was the first stick shift car I ever drove and I didn’t do it well at all. He lived near San Francisco and drove us the hills in it. Scared the crap out of my mother with a 70 + y/o man with poor eyesight driving a stick shift down Lombard St. (when you could still drive it). Ah yes. Good ole days.
My grandpa’s last 3 cars were the only ones I interacted with and all 3 were a New Yorker bought every few years brand new.
A blue 1984 with the talking dash
A burgundy 1988 with the flip up headlights and landau top
A burgundy 1993 which was the LHS with the bench seat
Those New Yorkers rode so impossibly smooth. I always thought Chryslers were dripping with luxury when I was growing up.
I don’t consider myself that old in my 50s but I’m pretty sure my grandparents didn’t drive, which is probably not an outlier for those my age with immigrant parents. I knew my grandmothers as Cantonese-speaking (dad’s mom) and Mandarin speaking old ladies who lived in Taiwan and then the US who never drove.
I met my grandfather on my dad’s side only a couple times (in 1976 and 1983) when he lived in a literal shack on the outskirts of Taipei. At the time, he was known as the athletic old (70s) guy who did pull ups and played basketball with kids but had started to have dementia by then. Sad car-related story is that my dad’s little sister (he also has two brothers) got hit by a taxi and died when she was young (in the 1940s) when they were living in Hong Kong after fleeing China during the war. The earliest photos I’ve seen, the family was living in some kind of shack, maybe the same one I saw later. I think the land it was on worth a lot by the time Taipei grew up around it later.
My mom’s dad died when she was only 10, so 1950ish, and I think my mom’s mom was his second wife, so he was old already and probably born in 1800s China. My mom’s family was supposedly upper class/wealthy but that was pre-WWII (during which my mom was born) and before the family fled to Taiwan. Really don’t know the history of cars in pre-war China or Taiwan, but I’d say the odds are low that he drove anything.
Grandpa V drove a ’66 Continental with the suicide doors. Grandpa R had a Mark III. When Grandpa V replaced it with a new ’77 Sedan DeVille, Grandma came running up to him complaining a “n****r pimp” had parked a yellow Cadillac in the driveway.
A hundred years ago, Grandpa R had a Model T speedster.https://ibb.co/cSVyZ40W
When I was a kid it was Buicks/Oldsmobiles/Cadillacs. Standard middle class grandparent stuff. But they had some pretty cool cars in their past.
When they got married in 1949 they bought a ’49 Mercury convertible (and bought a small house on the beach in San Diego for $10,000!). That wasn’t their last drop top either. My mom learned to drive in Grandma’s ’68 Mustang convertible, in Highland Green. My uncle totaled that by pulling in front of a turnip truck, and it was replaced by a ’74 Camaro (which my Uncle also destroyed, this time swerving off the road to miss a family of racoons). In that same era my grandfather daily drove ’70 Chrysler 300 Hurst edition. He kept that until 1978 when he got a Delta 88 as a company car, and traded “The Monster” as they called it for a new Chrysler New Yorker for grandma. Thus starting the era of them exclusively driving full sized cars until they both passed away.
On my mom’s side: as a kid, my grandpa, a CAT retiree, had a Chevy conversion van, then a Chevy S10 with the 4.3, which he had many years, alongside a boat of a sedan of one kind or another, with an early ’90s Crown Vic LX followed by a succession of Buicks. He’s still around and still has one. Grandma on that side never drove. Also, he had the Model T my Father now has and the ’51 Chrysler my brother now owns, as well as the first stick I ever drove: a ’31 Model A.
On my dad’s side: Grandpa on this side of the family was a preacher, and had a succession of Volkswagens for many years. I distinctly remember a Rabbit Pickup Diesel, A Meyers Manx (clone?), and a New Beetle TDi. There was also a ’51 Chevy with its original straight six and 3-on-the-tree. Then he and Grandma switched to Hyundai SUVs for awhile, and the last car they got before he passed was a new Honda Passport, which she still has.
My grandpa drove a late 20s Ford Model A in 1953 when my mom was a newborn, she was a baby sitting on her older sister lap on the outdoor seats the car had in the back. What a time to be alive.
Paternal Grandfather passed away before I was born.
Maternal Grandfather drove:
A faded Green Maverick replaced by a blue Mercury Monarch before buying the brand new Taurus and never deviating from them again. After his first Taurus he started leasing them and had a new one every few years until he passed away in 2004.
Neither of my Grandmothers drove.
Strangely enough, both sets of grandparents drove basically the same car!
Grandfather 1: 1973 Chevy Malibu Coupe
Grandfather 2: 1973 Chevy Laguna Coupe
What’s even weirder, both were the same dark metallic brown color. The Laguna was certainly more luxe, though…as a kid, I thought the swivel bucket seats were super cool.
There’s a big generational thing. My dad was 45 when I was born, so I really didn’t know my grandparents. The only one I even vaguely remember had lost her ability to drive before I was born. With this being said, the stories are:
Mom’s parents. They got a 1927 Chevy in the mid-30s for free and her father got it running. That was their car until both died around 1950.
Dad’s parents. Grandpa had a Model T pickup which he didn’t like driving. Most of the time, he used a mule. The mule lived for stank ever and grandpa still rode it occasionally into the mid-50s while he lived in a classic suburban home with the white picket fence. Grandma got a Model A in the mid-30s that grandpa fixed up for her. He did a good job because it was still running well into the mid-60s when grandma was no-longer allowed to drive because of dementia. I vaguely remember something about Grandpa having a 60s F-100, but the Model A and the Mule were the big stories growing up.
My paternal grandfather drove the car I drove to the doctors today, I was picking up three folk who had appointments, mind, my grandfather had exquisite taste. So my answer is……………… ?
White Model L steam car? I don’t think it’s the bare-chassis Hispano Suiza you have sitting in your living room, and a traction engine would probably be too slow and not road legal.
The J12 is up and running, it was fun to make a sort of body shape from plywood and amazon boxes, it is now in Italy, I am working on the presumption that I will live to see it done. The traction engine ( it now has a near twin) is oddly earning it’s keep.
White Steam car? A man of taste and lunacy.
Sadly, the question was ” What did your grandparents drive?” Not ” are you still driving what your grandparents drove”
Tell me more of the Model L .
Please.
1970 Ford Escort mk1 2 door sedan brown metallic
I have only ever been aware of cars my grandparents drove in the early 1980s. Dad’s side – they had a pair of VW Rabbits, grandmother’s in school bus yellow with a diesel and square headlights, grandfather’s in dark blue with a gas engine and round lights with a manual sunroof, and both had manual transmissions. My mom’s side had a 1980 Corolla hatchback in silver that I think they shared. It was a good enough car that my mom bought a ’83 Camry after having a VW Dasher that was a total POS.
My grandfather drove a 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, which had no power anything because he was a cheapskate which also meant that my grandmother and mom could not drive it because you better not have skipped leg day if you wanted to stop the thing, especially downhill. I remember my mom ended up driving it once and basically could not stop on a hill near our house, ended up blowing a couple stop signs before she could get it stopped where the road levelled out.
My grandmother drove one of those malaised Malibus that didn’t have opening windows in the back.
I loved the tail-gunner seats in the Vista Cruiser, and also the vent windows on those occasions when I could ride up front.
I don’t know much about my Dad’s Father since he died before I was born – but I heard a story about how there was a car accident in their Ford Customline where my Dad was standing on the hump peering over the bench seat. Dad was tossed around back, but Grandmother was thrown from the car and scraped her head pretty badly. Then a Studebaker Commander Coupe replaced it – and a Ford Fairlane replaced that…
After my Grandfather died my Grandmother did not drive, so my Aunt got the Ford to drive to her job at the Bank – and there were stories about how she completely disregarded it’s maintenance and fuel needs despite my Uncle setting her up with an account at the local Gas Station while he was away with the Navy….
…to the point where he returned home from deployment, jumped in the car to go see friends, and the Ford made it not even a block away and ran out of fuel.
Now my Mother’s family always had Fords. Of course she grew up in Ford County, Illinois.
When I was really small, he had a white LTD hardtop sedan with a black roof and a black interior – I believe it was a ’65 or ’66? Which he later traded in for a 1971 LTD Brougham – Same color combo – with the 429.
He called them his “LadyBird”s (Was the reference to having a Thunderbird engine? Or to Ladybird Johnson. We’ll never know)
There was a model car in the house of a 1960 Ford Country Sedan which I liked to play with when I visited. I heard stories about that car from when my Mother and her Brothers were younger – so that might have preceded the first LTD. Knowing him, I bet it was white with a black interior….
Later he bought a 1972 Pinto Wagon – White w/ Black interior, natch. I remember riding with him in it once and nearly choking to death on his cigar smoke.
He used the LTDs to tow his ’69 29′ Airstream Ambassador trailer. I believe there was a Bambi before that one which he towed with the old LTD. He was the President of the area Wally Byam Airstream club back in the early-mid 70’s.
Later he bought a brown Ford pickup to tow the Airstream – it would have been a mid-late 70’s model, likely an F150 Ranger. It had orange stripes. I think that’s what replaced the Pinto.
The LTD and Pickup were the vehicles he had when he passed away of Emphysema around the time I joined the USAF.
My Grandmother didn’t drive so the Airstream, Truck and LadyBird LTD were eventually sold off.
My mother’s mother did indeed briefly drive a Dodge Dart–a ’72, I think, when it was about ten years old. Neither she nor my grandfather drove anything particularly exciting, with the possible exception of Brunnhilde, the Model A Ford they had when my mother was small. My father’s father didn’t think of cars as anything but basic transportation and only broke out of the stodgy mold once, when after a campaign of ceaseless badgering by his law firm partners he got a new Sting Ray in 1963. Alas, he crashed it avoiding another driver–bits of fiberglass everywhere…when he and my grandmother married in 1928, she had a 1927 Cadillac double-cowl phaeton. When they moved from New York to rural Virginia in 1932 he sold the Cadillac and bought two Plymouths on the grounds that they wouldn’t look ostentatious in their new home (no doubt true, but consulting her beforehand would have been good). After they split in 1946 she had a succession of Chrysler Windsors until they stopped making them, then drove a blue 1967 Chrysler Newport with a 413 for nearly 20 years (she didn’t like anything they were selling in the 70s). She drove and then was driven in a series of middle-of-the-road American sedans into her late 90s.
my maternal grandfather had VAZ-21043 wagon in white with black interior and he also had RAF-2203 sitting in the driveway after someone left it as a payment for the owed money.
so that VAZ-21043 was the first car I learned to drive, poor thing was already quite tired but my 7 or 8 years old self didn’t care.
he also was a farmer and me and my cousin would just drive around dirt roads and on the field after all watermelons were harvested…. once we got stuck so we just left the car in the middle of the filed and walked back to the trailer… good memories…
I was 8 and my cousin as 6….. I can’t believe he would just let us do this…. we had so much freedom, kids today have a fracture of this
My maternal grandfather left my grandmother while she was pregnant with her 7th child. My paternal grandfather died prematurely in 1956 when I was 1. Neither of my grandmothers drove.
Having said that, my parents were 39 and 40 when I was born, so they could have been my grandparents. My mother didn’t drive, and the first car I remember is the 1951 Chevy they brought me home from the hospital when I was born in 1955.
My father had a succession of new Ramblers when the Chevy salesperson dissed him in 1962 when he went to trade in the 1951: 1962, 1965, 1968 (I learned to drive on this one ), and a 1971 Hornet Sportabout (handed down to me in 1978), all bought new.
After the Hornet, Dad went used and indeed had a Swinger. The last car was the senior special 1988 Mercury Marquis.
Believe it or not, but they didn’t. GP on mom’s side died not long after WW2, GM died around ’85 while Poland was still under communist rule so never had one in her family. On my dad’s side they immigrated came to the US in the 60’s right into the middle of Manhattan, so car’s weren’t useful there and nobody had a car in Russia back then. When they moved to LA in the 80’s there was no longer a point to learning how to drive when you’re over 80.
My Dad learned to drive in the Military, but right after that he came to the US so he had to re-learn when my now married parents also moved to LA (at almost 40) My mom learned when she came to the US around 1970 at about 25 to essentially be an indentured servant for 3 years in exchange for sponsoring / paying for her to come / live in their house for an older couple that preferred she do the menial things like drive to the grocery store.
My grandmother was a helluva lady. My grandfather passed away and she raised my father and uncles on her own, but drove a third gen corvette until I was born, when she decided to buy a sensible 1985 accord to make the long highway trip to see me. she kept that accord until 2002, when she bought a Chrysler PT Cruiser in BRIGHT RED, with her initials monogrammed on the side. Kept it til she stopped driving, and sold it to some enthusiast for a boatload of money, because it only had like 6k miles on it
These are the ones I know of that my beloved maternal grandfather owned and comments he had about them: ~’22 or maybe 26 Dodge (you could bang the fenders with a hammer and not leave a dent), Essex Terraplane (I wish I could remember the comments on this one, I think it was something particular about starting it in the winter), ’28 Packard limo (he really loved this one, pretty sure it was paid for with bootleg distribution money), Willys-Knight (smooth and quiet, but ate a lot of oil), Nash Ambassador Airflyte (it was like an ugly beetle, but the seats all folded down into a bed!), unknown ’50s Olds 88 that my never-licensed grandmother didn’t like because it was too fast (he jokingly blamed my teenaged uncle for suggesting he buy it), a couple Mavericks, and his last car, a ’85 Caprice Classic, black with the bordello red interior. He gave up his license in his early 80s after driving home with a large granite stone dragging under the front subframe sending sparks several feet out both sides of the car and having no idea how he picked that up. Giving up his license so early and being a “burden” on people (he wasn’t) bothered him, especially where he never expected to live to 103. Truthfully, though, he needed to give it up as he was pretty bad at the end—his eyes were terrible. The lens in one eye fell down partly, leaving his vision as if his eye was half underwater and he didn’t want to fix it because the doctor told him they would pull his eye out to do it (at the point where he got it looked at, he was almost 100, anyway).
My paternal grandfather was a psychopathic bottom feeder (not hyperbole, the little I know of him doing is horrific), so as fas as I know and saw, he mostly had an assortment of whatever POS he could scrape/steal/con enough money to get except when my grandmother’s job paid for a new Dodge Spirit.
Ford Model A