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
My Fraternal Grandfather was a loyal Studebaker man, ( this was before my time, but told to me by my Father) Anyway, My father told me about a trip that they took in the 1950’s driving from Michigan to California in my Grandfather’s Studebaker President .
My Dad said that his Father took all of the back roads and drove the Studebaker consistently 100+ MPH for 95% of the trip and my Dad nearly Sh*t his pants several times during the trip! 😉
Anyway, When I knew my Grandfather, after the demise of Studebaker, he drove Mercury’s to the day he died and I remember one special Mercury that had a rear window that would retract. I was not until many years later when I was an adult that I was to learn that it was a called a Mercury Breezeway window. As a wee lad, I remember vividly the first time my Grandfather lowered this window when I was riding in the back seat and I was never so taken back by this witchcraft! 😉
Oh yeah, we had a neighbor who bought a new (I think it was ’68), Mercury Park Avenue, and couldn’t wait to show it off at a neighborhood July 4th party. Interesting times…
Well, they were unique for the times, that’s for sure.
From what I can remember, my maternal grandparents had a mid 70’s Ford F-250 and a ’78 Mercury Grand Marquis (which was eventually given to me in highschool). These were replaced with an early 80’s F-250 and a boxy Chevy Caprice. A 2000 Grand Marquis would replace these sometime in the mid 2000’s which grandpa drove until passing away last year. A 2000’s Chevy Silverado was also in the mix for a while.
The early automotive memories of my paternal grandparents was a late 70’s GMC Sierra and an late 80’s GMC Vandura conversion van. These were around until the late 90’s/early 2000’s when a mid 90’s F-150 and a 2nd gen Chevy Lumina came into the picture. A Chevy Uplander (or maybe it was a Pontiac Montana?) joined the fleet in the late 2000’s. The pickup and van wound up going to my father and I think the Lumina is still owned by grandma. An 80’s class A Chevy motorhome was also around for a while until one of the tires fell off on a trip down south. After that accident my uncle bought it back from the insurance company and fixed it back up and I think it might still be in the family. The 70’s GMC might still be rusting away in the back of his farm as well.
I have no idea what three of my grandparents drove, if they drove at all (at least one never attempted driving again after crashing the first time behind the wheel in the 1940s). Due to poverty and the era in which they lived, it might be more accurate to ask what they rode. The answer to that would probably be a mangy, elderly horse with a weird German name, but I have no way of knowing.
The one grandparent that both drove a car and survived into my lifetime drove a series of beige or burgundy Delta 88s after taking up driving in her 70s. I did not get my car enthusiasm from my grandparents.
My parents aren’t a whole lot better. Since The Bishop mentioned it, I will say my mom drove a slant six Dart in the early 70s. I am well under 50, so this illustrates the large age differences between generations in my family.
I had an uncle that drove cool cars, though. Back in the 50s and 60s he got a new Oldsmobile every 1-2 years. I don’t recall which ones specifically, but I used to go to car shows with him and he would point at every other car and tell me about a similar vehicle he owned. I didn’t know him well and he is long dead, but it was fun to hear him talk about the cars he drove back in the day.
Only one grandfather drove, and only one of his cars stands out. A Triumph Dolomite 1500HL in healthy poop brown (also available in diarrhoea), which is probably why I now own a Triumph Dolomite Sprint. That 1500HL was an absolutely bang-on old man’s car – tartan blanket on the back seat, tin of travel sweets on the parcel shelf, sun visor extensions, the works. As far as I can tell he never really drove very far, but I do remember being taken to the sweet shop in it once.
That absolutely would’ve been a Dodge Dart on this side of the pond.
I guess I’m an old person, because my parents owned the Darts and Valiants with the slant-6. My grandparents owned a series of Olds and Buicks, along with various Dodge and GMC vans for my grandfather’s business. One grandfather also owned some neat cars, like both a ’69 Camaro SS and a ’73 Camaro Z28. The other grandfather had a Gran Torino for a bit and then jumped on the Toyota bandwagon in the mid-70s and continued with it until his death.
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.”
LOL.
I’m over 50 years old but not by all *that* much; however, being one of the youngest in a large family means my parents were a little older plus their own parents were all a little older (especially in my dad’s case) so my grandparents’ automotive acquisitions actually predate the ol’ Leaning Tower of Power Slant 6…
My paternal grandfather had only one car, a 1928 Oldsmobile in green with black fenders, which he bought *new* (he worked in woodworking at Fisher Body whose logo might be familiar to those of you who had or at least grew up with GM cars which had said logo, which said “Body by Fisher” with a picture of a stagecoach, on their door sill plates) and kept until his death in 1953. My paternal grandmother didn’t ever drive so she didn’t own a car. (As a teenager my dad bought a well-used 1930s Chevy business coupe which had only one windshield wiper, one windshield visor, and access to the trunk only by folding down the backseat due to the lack of a trunk lid, it was indeed that no frills when new, hence it being affordable used even for a teenager.)
My maternal grandfather died in 1935 when my mom was a toddler; as far as I know he didn’t actually ever own a car since he & my grandmother lived in a big city with good public transportation. My maternal grandmother did buy a Ford coupe new in 1939 though she traded it in a few years later on a mid/late 40s Dodge (which predates the Slant Six, lol) which she then replaced with Studebakers. Her last car was an early/mid 60s Studebaker Lark. Alas, I do not remember which generation it was, as I was still a toddler when she moved several states away to Florida, and my older siblings only remember it as “the pink Studebaker” (it was a really pretty dusty rose pink, I do remember that much) and that she was still driving it when she died in 1976.
So, yeah, “not your father’s Oldsmobile” because it was actually my grandfather’s, lol, and so, yeah, none of my grandparents ever owned anything with a Leaning Tower of Power which would make them scofflaws in the eyes of The Bishop…
On my dad’s side, my grandmother didn’t drive. I know my grandpa had an AMC Ambassador at one point.
On my mother’s side, Grandpa seemed to have a couple Chrysler products. I remember a Reliant, which was then replaced by a Dynasty. That was replaced with a 4th gen Ford Taurus. Grandma always had a large Ford to drive as my Mom was the oldest of 8. I remember a late 70s LTD station wagon, a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan, a 1990 LTD sedan, and then a 1995 Grand Marquis. When Grandpa passed, she drove the Taurus for a bit, then went to a Gen 1 “refreshed” Fusion.
Don’t really remember what my paternal grandparents drove, not even sure my paternal grandma had a driver’s license. There was a standard 60’s American sedan in the garage out back in Colorado. Before I was born, my paternal grandfather was with the Forest Service, so no doubt drove trucks, etc, for the job.
Maternal grandparents were farmers, both drove sedans. trucks, pickups, etc. nearly all American, there was a little Datsun pickup in there somewhere. Their last car was a “sporty” Buick IIRC. There was also a 1940’s Chevy and a Model T pickup rusting out back at the farm in Kansas, those were eventually sold off to some collector folks after they moved into town permanently. Interestingly enough, Grandma T had a much heavier lead foot than Grandad T. But there does seem to be a bit of a tendency of a need for speed in the family.
Such great material in the comments. My maternal grandparents were the ones I related to. Grandpa owned a 1993 Saab 9000 Turbo (liftback too) when he passed, and had a Saab turbo before that one. Grandma had a seafoam green Grand Marquis, which Grandpa bought for her without her knowledge, and she hated it. She much preferred her Volvo 960 that immediately preceded it, but they launched that over a frozen deer carcass at highway speed. They weren’t traditional car enthusiasts, but they relished a well made car and always had tales of the journeys their cars took them on.
Love a SAAB story
From the 1960s-1980s, my paternal grandfather mostly went through a string of Oldsmobile 98s, replaced every other year or so, except for a period where he was doing more business with Chrysler and had a Dodge Coronet, and another period in the late 70s/early 80s, when the Olds became my grandmother’s car, and he switched to an E12 and then E28 5-Series. Grandmom liked big, comfy cars, so they kept a 98 around, until they bought a diesel one, which was their final Oldsmobile. That got traded for an Acura Legend, and when Grandmom sort of complained about that, he took it as his daily and traded his BMW for a Caprice Classic Brougham for her, which was the last new car he bought before he died
My mom’s dad was mostly a Ford loyalist, a couple base model full-size sedans, then a few Falcon wagons, then a wildcard AMC Hornet Sportabout he got a good deal on, then a Ranger. He had a couple Rangers, traded the last one for a Tacoma in retirement. Grandmom H also mostly had Fords, a Comet, a Mustang II, and a Mercury Topaz, and eventually switched to Camrys. Her most recent one is a 2014 that has about 20,000 miles on it, and as of earlier this year, was sitting with a dead battery and at least one flat tire. She’ll be 95 in a few weeks and stopped driving a few years ago, she was keeping the car for out of town visitors to use, but my mom and her brothers stopped driving it because it always seemed to involve and argument or other drama that made renting from Hertz look like a better option
My grandparents lived in postwar Europe and never drove (because mostly why?), except one grandfather that took it up late in life. He had a Triumph Dolomite Sprint. He drove that around Oxford and occasionally London like he stole it. In his eighties, fun and terrifying at the same time to ride with him.
My father (b.1932)’s family lived in Karachi (now Pakistan, but British India at the time). His father had a 1932 Chevrolet, with chauffeur. After the war they moved to the UK where he had a Ford Popular – my paternal grandmother never drove.
My mother (b.1936)’s family lived mostly south of London. My grandmother had a bullnose Morris Cowley before she married; I don’t know what my grandfather drove (although he did have a pilot’s license). Following their marriage, I believe he drove “Standard” cars (the same company as Triumph). After the war, I’ve seen pictures of a Ford Pilot V8, a Jaguar MkV, an Austin A55 and an Austin 1100. After his death, my grandmother had a Vauxhall Viva, two Renault 10s, and a Mini Clubman before she died.
I remember my paternal grandparents getting a Toyota Cressida (5th gen?) sometime in the 80s. I think it was highly unusual for Wisconsin at the time. I don’t remember anything about their other cars or my maternal grandparents cars. They were probably boring malaise apliances.
My grandparents were Buick folks, I guess: a Roadmaster and a Skylark. Absolutely covered in Collie hair, naturally, and with Silly Putty in the ashtray to keep me occupied.
But the vehicle I most associate with my grandfather is a little two-person sailboat. My job was to man the jib sheet.
I grew up with my maternal grandparents. My grandfather talked about the Ford Console he had, but before I moved in with them I did not know what car he had. Obviously that changed once I took up residence with them.
70s Datsun 210 (too small for the now 5 of us)
Late 70s Chevy Nova
Early 80s GMC Vandura 35 Class B conversion van
Early 80s Chevy Malibu
Mid 80s GMC Vandura 35 Class C motorhome
Mid 80s Olds Cutlass Ciera
Early 90s Nissan Sentra
The Sentra was his last car, and I purchased it from him and drove it a couple of years.
Well, since I’m the grandfather now, I’ll answer for my grand daughter, who is in France right now. My son, her dad, learned to drive in my MGB, so he had to learn to clutch and shift. I’ve gone from the B to a TR6, and just replaced the whole interior, so I plan on driving it quite a while, and if my son is still in the country by then, I’ll give it to him.
On my mom’s side my grandfather who owned a salvage yard would have driven a series of dealer plated cars and a tow truck. He died when I was 5 years old, so all I have are a few vague memories of riding with him in the tow truck. My grandmother simply didn’t drive during any time that I can remember.
On my dad’s side my grandfather drove a ’64 Scout and then replaced it with an early 70s Bronco. My grandparents also had a ’63 Galaxie 500 convertible which later passed to an uncle and a ’73 Galaxie 500 which passed to me as my first car after my grandfather died and my grandmother stopped driving.
To The Bishop: Amusingly enough I don’t remember any grandparents with a Dodge Dart or Plymouth Valiant stoked by the mighty internal combustion fires of the 225 Slant Six, but my parents had a ’75 Valiant and an uncle had a ’68 Dodge convertible that is still with my cousin and for which I have first option to buy should they ever decide to sell it.
My Grandfather on my Mom’s side was an insurance adjuster, then manager, for his career. By the time I came around in the 80’s he was driving a Honda Accord, which he then traded in for a Camry in 1993. He kept that car till the end and it was immaculate in 90’s harvest gold.
Hmm Mom’s side- well Grandpa was an Indy driver before the war. Claim to fame the #66 Preston Tucker Rear engine and one of the few Indy drivers ever to have a fake leg. He died in the 60’s well before my time and what I remember of my Grandma she had an ’86 Cougar until she passed in the late 90’s. Dad side he was a GM employee but he had an early Beetle, then what I remember from being a kid he had a Dodge Ram pickup, Grandma a huge station wagon Olds.
I guess I’m old, because my PARENT’S cars were both Valiant’s. One was a ‘74 with the 318, in gold with a black vinyl top and the other was a ‘75 with the Slant 6, in light metallic green with a dark green vinyl top. My first car was the gold one.
My grandparents (the only ones I really knew) were Mercury people. Grandma drove a beautiful ‘68 Monterey in metallic blue with a white vinyl top and black interior. That got traded in for a ‘75 Monarch, in that copper color with camel vinyl top and interior. That got traded for a ‘84 gunmetal gray Grand Marquis.
Grandpa drove a ‘64 Chevy Biscayne (metallic light blue) wagon and a ‘64 Chevy pickup in dark green. Those eventually went away for a silver ‘78 Dodge D100 (slant 6 with 3-on-the-tree). That was followed by a navy blue Ford Ranger.
My one grandfather had a Bronco, a first-gen I think, which was impossibly cool to me as a tiny child, post-monster trucks but pre-SUVs in every driveway. He used to give me rides in it as a treat! A ride in a small SUV being a super cool treat is almost as unimaginable in 2026 as the glass of bourbon in his hand as we were puttering around. My other granddad had a green Hornet which I can’t say impressed me quite as much.
I’m in the UK
He had a Mini Clubman Estate
Example Picture 1
Example Picture 2
We used to fit 7 of us in it, including me and my sister in the boot
All 4 of my grandparents were city dwellers, and only my paternal grandfather drove. The only car that I associate with him (before he had a massive stroke and could no longer drive) was a 1963 or 1964 Oldsmobile 88, which was a “hand-me-up” from my father, rather than trading it in. He stopped driving around 1972 and my father took it back and sold it off.
On my dad’s side, they always had just a single GM vehicle, but my granddad rode the bus to work every day instead of driving. In my life I can remember a late-80s Oldsmobile followed by a Malibu Maxx as their final car. That Malibu was a mess of a car, just constantly had issues.
On my mom’s side, my grandparents were a Mopar family, and they had dozens of cars. At the peak, they had 17 simultaneously, and I don’t think that included the race cars. My grandpa had a couple of midget and sprint cars, one of which could have been raced, the others were vintage. They always had a Dodge conversion camper van then later a full-on RV. Also had a really nice Mark VII Jaguar in addition to all the Plymouth and Chrysler sedans. Oh yeah, three Saabs (95s and a 96, my parents have one of the 95s now), a Cosworth Vega, a bunch of other stuff. Essentially, whenever a family member was getting rid of a car, my grandpa would buy it from them and hang on to it forever, but sometimes he’d sell stuff, like the Studebaker truck that was around for a few years. A lot of his cars were special trims or weird editions like the Cosworth Vega. Some of my extended family still have most of the cars, but some were sold off after my grandparents died. I would like to get the 1973 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham that my cousin has at the moment. He’s got three or four of their old cars, so he wouldn’t notice if it went missing, right? 😀
My maternal grandparents were a testament to a good union job that allowed for getting new cars with a pretty decent regularity. As a WW2 veteran, my GF would not own a Japanese car after having been in the Pacific theater, so most things were Big 3, though he did buy a used BMW 2002 after my parents got one, although he was aghast by the price. From the 80’s until he died, he was a van guy, first with the full sized, then moving to the minivans (the Chrysler minivans were his jam, including a conversion van that had a VCR and TV in it, which was the coolest thing I’d seen ever). GM was a truck lady…F100, S-10, Ranger, F150 and last was a SportTrac- always liked having a truck to throw “treasures” in the bed of.
Paternal grandparents weren’t car people. Last car I remember my GF having was a K-car and my GM got a Civic that she drove like a bat out of hell until she got a ticket.