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
72 Ford F-250, white on the outside, with a maroon bench seat covered with a hand-sewn cover from my grandmother.
Grandfather had 2 3rd or 4th gen Fury III’s. V8, probably 318. He had some elaborate water injection system that he made himself. I remember going to circle k with him to get food coloring (without sugar, he emphasized) to add to the water so he could be sure that it was going through the tubes he had rigged up. He claimed he got 25mpg on road trips. He aspired to own a Dart, but i didn’t even know what that was. Later, as a teenager and in my early 20’s, I had many Darts/Valiants. That was pretty much the go to car for my friends and I in the late 80’s, early 90’s: Cheap (often free), solid motor, torquey, tight 3 speed auto tranny, which you could often bring back to good performance with a band adjustment. My friend once got a beautiful black 64 Dart, four door with red interior, all because the points had closed and the owner gave up. $20.
My maternal GP drove a 1971 Ford Torino, well owned one at least, not sure if he ever drove it.. GM drove a 1964 Falcon, which my sister then drove until the late 2000s, it even survived Katrina. My paternal grandfather never drove, or spoke much English, had a successful produce business in Boston though..
My family is a SOLID car family so there isn’t “one” car. To pick some fun ones? On my dad’s side, my Grandpa had a ’61 Olds Starfire convertible. My grandma had a ’64 T-bird convertible with the tonneau cover. However, she did buy a new ’73 Dart, Super Blue (so she could find it in parking lots) but it had a 318, no slant for her.
On my mom’s side, my grandma usually had basic four-door cars (Omega, Skylark, 6000, Corsica, etc.). My grandpa had two vehicles during my life, a ’73 Chevy Van with ALL the JC Whitney goodies fired at it, and an ’82 Dodge D150 (slant six) which I still own.
My grandmother drove a silver 1992 Oldsmobile 88 Delta Royale for much of my youth. She bought it new in 91 and every time she spoke of it, which was often, she always used the entire name, with a special emphasis on the “Royale.” It had a grey velour interior with a grey carpet dash cover and those metal GM seatbelt buckles that would get so blistering hot in the summer that you thought you were going to get 3rd degree burns trying to buckle up. I later convinced her and my grandfather to replace it with a 1999 CPO Lexus ES300, which was their first Japanese car, and it never lived up to the Oldsmobile and had numerous issues that the dealership couldn’t successfully fix or diagnose.
My grandfather was a farmer after retirement and had a white 1995 Chevy Silverado with the burgundy cloth interior and the main thing I remember about it is that any time I drove it I felt like I had to stand on the brakes to get it to come to a complete stop. He eventually replaced it with a 2008 GMC Sierra and then added a 2015 Subaru Forester when he no longer needed a truck to pull a cattle trailer. He’d use the Forester like a truck though and many times he’d come home from the livestock sale with a goat in the back.
My dad’s dad drove a brown ’80s Chrysler New Yorker that grandma named Clancy. My mom’s dad however, he built some pretty cool stuff, ’68 datsun 510 wagon, ’56 ford ranch wagon, and a ’78 bronco with a 351 cleveland that he had built to the same spec as when he was building nascar motors back in the day, among others. I miss both grandpa’s dearly.
Oh boy here we go:
My grandma: Her first car was a Nash Metropolitan. She had various cars in the 70s-90s like a Sidekick and an 80 series Land Cruiser. She was a car saleswoman in the 90s and I think had demos then. When she met my step grandpa he leased her a white Honda Accord or white Acura sedan every 3 years starting in 2000 and ending in 2021 (returned in 2024) because my grandpa used to work for Acura and wanted her in the safest possible cars in the event of an accident. She also had a 2004 Saturn SL200 that I still see driving around. She then drove my grandpas Nissan Frontier until she got a Toyota BZ4x. Her lease is up next year and I’m going to buy her one of her dream cars, a Mini, just the EV version since she doesn’t drive much. She never bought anything nice for herself and always worked to survive and she deserves it.
Step grandpa: his first car was a 30s hodgepodge that him and his best friend for life build in a sugar mill workshop. He then had a Vespa that he bought with his paper route money. When he started his career in the auto industry he bought himself a Laguna blue SS396, his best friend had a Laguna blue SS396 el Camino. He originally ordered a 1965 Pontiac GTO, but the dealer stiffed him on it. He then went to work at a Ford dealership in their performance show room. He got married had a kid, had a Chevy station wagon of some sort, lost faith in the domestics in the 70s when my great grandparents custom ordered F100 ranger showed up at the dealer in 2 different shades of red (bed was solid red, cab was candy apple red) and switched to Nissan. He had demos, his favorite being the Maxima with the crazy air suspension it had. In the 90s he bought a teal blue stepside ext cab Silverado 1500 that he had until it was totaled 8 years ago. He also bought a 1994 Lexus ES that he put 500k miles on. He called it his 4wd Lexus because it went places no fwd sedan should have gone. After his truck was totalled he bought a blue Nissan frontier. he adored the midsize and drove it till he couldn’t. He leased a new Honda/Acura product every 3 years for my grandma until he passed away starting in 2000 and ending with a 2021 Acura TLX. In the late 00s he bought a 1934 Plymouth hot rod coupe I nicknamed ZZ because it looked straight out of a ZZ Top video.
Bio Grandpa: was an off-roader, had various 4×4 SUVs in the 60s-present. Sidekicks, land cruisers, monterros, and then an Oldsmobile Bravada… then a Nissan Frontier. He also has a 2wd 1999 F250 5.4 single cab 8’ bed I learned to drive in.
Great Grandma: all I remember is that she had a fire engine red Saturn Ion coupe. She barely drove it and I remember my mom and grandma having to jump start it every 6 months.
My dad’s side had a lot less vehicle variety after I was born. My grandpa had a Chevy Corvair, then bought a 1965 GTO Tri-Power with factory air new in Dallas. I think the color was Nighshade blue with blue vinyl interior. My dad wound up becoming a car salesman and they’d upgrade occasionally. They had a few Saleen mustangs, a Saturn LW300 they towed behind their RV, then they had a 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada, and then switch to a W210 E class, beige with beige interior. 2008 was not kind to them and their last vehicle they had was a 2013 Chrysler 300c my dad leased for them. The past away in the late 10s after being together for 55 years.
My dad’s mom had a nash metropolitan briefly too. Technically it was her daddy’s car as she told the story, but it was involved in her meeting my grandpa when my great grandpa pulled her over after she stole it to go to a dance hall the next town over.
That’s hilarious! My grandpa would get caught driving his Vespa to neighboring towns. He grew up in a small railroad town in BFE CO. If it wasn’t for cars, and car dealerships I probably wouldn’t exist. My mom and dad met at the dealership her worked for, and my grandma and step grandpa met while they both were selling together.
Cars my grandparents had in my memory:
-1966 Ford Galaxie Custom 500, black, former forest service car. It was my grandfather’s car that he often drove to work in, sometimes 50+ miles depending on the job site. He had that well into the 2000s. He drove with both feet, one on the brake and one on the gas. It was a jerky ride because although he had a good driving record he was full on the gas or full on the brake.
-Early 1970s Ford Country Squire wagon, dark green with wood-paneled sides. That car was huge and fun with the fold-up seats in the back.
-Early/mid 1970s Dodge Dart, eggshell color. That one was pretty boring.
-For some reason in the mid/late 1970s my grandmother, who looked a bit like Queen Elizabeth and was the sweetest woman ever, got a bright yellow Chevy with black pinstriping, chrome wheels, and big rubber on the back wheels. Not sure what model it was, don’t think it was a Caprice or a Chevelle. Maybe my grandfather was responsible but she didn’t seem to mind driving it.
-Late 1970s Ford LTD, burgundy. They kept that one a long time.
-1990s Ford Crown Victoria, light blue, they also kept that one a long time.
When they still lived in Minnesota, they had some small Datsun hatchback. After they moved to Las Vegas in the early 90s, they sold that and got a Ford Crown Vic. They replaced that at some point with a late 90s Pontiac Grand Prix that they drove until they died in the early 2000s.
On my mom’s side, my grandmother entered the marriage with a Ford that her brothers bought on the black market just after WWII. Both grandparents pretty much stuck with Fords, although the last car my grandfather purchased (in the ’80s) was a Chevy Caprice for some reason. They also owned an Edsel (unsure of the year) and a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, which my grandfather still had at the time of his death. That was the only one I had the pleasure of driving; it was awesome.
On my dad’s side, I know my grandmother owned a Pinto that she drove through the back of the garage – apparently Pintos had some kind of brake issue in addition to the more well-known problem. My grandfather had an assortment of Chevy station wagons, which were a necessity for family road trips from NC to Maine.
Both sets of my grandparents were former midwestern farm folk, so their American made cars/trucks were the absolute base/cheapest model available. It’s frivolous to pay for A/C, power steering, etc…
Besides the basic Dodge truck, they had a 70s 4door Ford Maverick and then moved up the rental spec white Tauras.
1970 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Luxury Sedan. This thing had power windows! ( which blew my mind when I was five. )
1976 Cadillac Fleetwood: My mind was blown again when Grandpa got this massive beauty. Navy blue with light blue leather seats. They had a one car garage, and this thing barely fit.
I’m not quite over 50, but my grandmother absolutely did have a Slant Six Dart with a vinyl top! It was a 1976 model, but it was gold not green. I’ll never forget the smell of the vinyl interior mixed with cigarette smoke on a sunny day.
Back then, Pop drove a rough-around-the-edges ’74 Plymouth Fury wagon. As the early ’80s gave way to the mid 80s, both those cars were replaced with K cars, an Aries wagon for Pop and a Dodge 600 convertible for Nana, who was a realtor.
As the years went by their driveway contained several other K’s, then a Plymouth Acclaim, then a Cirrus.. I think you can see the pattern here. Pop was a Mopar or No Car guy going back to the 50s and his first Fury.
He lived to be 92 and kept driving his 4-speed 1967 Barracuda (manual steering and brakes) until he was 88.
This year will be my first time going to the Mopar Nationals without him.
My one set of grandparents have driven GM since the 70s (when their brand-new Ford F-250 suffered an oil filter problem and then wasn’t covered under warranty – they’ve avoided Ford since) but they still had a habit of buying new every time the warranty ran out. Oldsmobile and GMC were their preferred brands for a lot of that time, they later diversified into Buick and Chevy, but the truck was always a GMC except for the one time it was a Ram (!) instead.
Some notable exceptions to the GM rule: A Supra Mk1 in the mid-eighties (Toyota is the only other car dealer in town besides the americans, and we are 400km from the next big population centre, so I understand the hesitation), a VW Cabrio, a Civic and of course a Beetle in the 70s. They came close to switching to Japanese in the mid-00s when they replaced the Park Avenue with a Pontiac Vibe, but again only kept it for the warranty period. I remember getting picked up from school sometimes in that Vibe. It was the AWD Auto, but still sorta cool for my Grandma to drive around in. Finally, they sold their Acadia and Sierra Denali and have a hybrid Venza. Which has given them no issues whatsoever, unlike all of the recent GM crossovers had.
Other grandparents had conversion vans and then Squarebody pickups and Suburbans on and off, but I’m told prior to having children my Grandpa owned several early 70s Mustangs. In the 90s they were bit by the Toyota bug around the same time my dad was, so had an XV20 Camry that my Dad still talks about, followed by a second-gen Avalon, a few different ESes, and are now on their 3rd RX. The trucks were GM until they bought their 2007 Tundra, which they still have. They also several years back bought a 2013 Mustang GT/CS, which is now the summer cruiser. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet… Maybe this summer.
The only one I remember was my maternal Grandma’s ’79 Ford Pinto. Not only did it become my first car, but it was hers as well. She didn’t get her license until after her husband died, when she was 65 yo. She bought the Pinto and my dad bought an F100, both dark brown with tan interiors.
One of my grandfathers drove a baby-shite-brown Austin Metro. Which was shit.
Another drove various milk floats, and I do remember him driving a Proton, which really confused childhood me, because I’d never heard of the brand, or seen another one on the road. I have no idea where he got it from, but I think it was brand new.
My dad’s dad had been a Lincoln Man since the late-’50s, and he generally traded in for a new Lincoln every two years or so. By the time I came along, those Lincolns were Panther Town Cars, all fully equipped Cartier trims. But he also held on to the last of the really big Lincolns, a 1979 Continental Town Car.
My dad’s mom had a very Grandma car: ’84 Mercury Cougar in tan with wire wheel covers. I can still smell the stench from her NOW cigarettes.
My mom’s parents had a late-70s Granada (which sounded like “grandma” to my kid ears), a mid-80s Cadillac Fleetwood, an ’81 Toyota Starlet that we ended up inheriting, and later an early ’90 Olds Cutlass Supreme..
My grandma drove a Buick LeSabre. She got an updated model a couple of times but it was always a LeSabre
This feels like snooping out people’s 2nd order answers to security questions
Mine drove (to me) the most grandparents cars ever. Grandma in an olive green 1970 Pontiac Executive four-door hardtop, and Granddaddy in a fire engine red 1977 Mercury Grand Marquis four-door with fender skirts, nicknamed “Big Red.” The Mercury had a CB radio, of course. He was a banker, and his handle was “Prime Rate.”
My Grandpa and Grandma always lived in a simple apartment above their barber shop, but Grandpa always drove a late model Olds 98 Regency. Riding in it was a treat with the pillow soft seats, and power locks and windows and ashtrays everywhere. Air conditioning was a plus too, My Dad would never get air conditioning, even when he ordered a new Cutlass Supreme.
Only ones I remember were
Grandma: Early 1980s Lada AutoVaz 2101. Awesome car!
Grandpa: Volvo 164.
White 70’s (I think) Buick skylark, brown dodge van, blue big ugly crew cab dodge, burgundy gmc safari (with the awesome geometric rims), Chrysler town and country, gmt400 step side with glass packs, 1st gen v6 escape (great car!) and a minty fresh pt cruiser. last thing my grandparents did together was bought that car for my grandma. Grandpa died of a heart attack playing golf later that day.
Great grandpa had a 96 Buick lesabre I inherited in high school. Thing was so much better than it should have been and I always laughed that the stereo looked like a jitterbug phone
First car I remember any of them having was my great grandma’s gold Plymouth Sundance coupe. When she died my dad started driving it and I vividly remember throwing up in it.
I only really had one grandparent that I knew (RIP Granny), and the car of hers that sticks out to me was a light metallic green Chrysler Lebaron with dark green vinyl around the Landau windows (IIRC — it was a long time ago). It was exotic to us because it had air conditioning.
My grandfather, who died loooong before my release from the ovarian Attica was a member of the SAE, and had a bunch of wild cars including a Rolls Royce that he got for next to nothing thanks to a tip from a chauffeur friend of his.
Before my time, I knew they had Falcon wagons, and Pop’s truck he bought new was a 1964 Chevy C10 (owned till he died in 1988). They also had a 1968 Ambassador SST that I eventually owned and their last car was a 1980 Olds Cutlass that I still own (since 1988).
Other grandfolks were Ford owners. I remember a 67 Ford Custom 2 door sedan, a 1970 LTD, 1976 Mercury Bobcat, 1976 Mercury Monarch, 1979 Mercury Cougar, 1979 Granada (this one didn’t last long for some reason), 1984 Mercury Cougar, 1989 Mercury Cougar, 1987 Mercury Topaz, 1997 Mercury Cougar, and a 2001-ish Ford Taurus.