my first foreign car..

[frenchy]

well like most of us here i grew up with chevy's and fords and pontiacs and dodges and for the most part i didn't complain .. if i needed a car i'd look around and see what was available and if it fit my needs and i could afford it i bought it .. no real mystery there .. and while i liked chevy's i had nothin against fords or chryslers .. i pretty much owned a few of each . but i didn't break down and get a foreign car till 1980..i had friends who had toyotas and hondas and datsuns and of course who didn't have a volkswagon ?? but i stuck to the american cars cause after all i was an american and it was only right .. even after the two oil embargo's the arabs laid on us i still drove an american car that at that time probably got about 16 miles to the gallon .. on a good day , with no wind against you , goin downhill all the way .. but one nite on a lark i stopped at this place on route 22 in i think its springfield .. called dodgeland .. i think they changed their name to autoland before i moved to florida .. they were one of the first super dealers .. and they had just about everything there but they mostly sold a lot of dodges .. of course that changed as time went on hence the name autoland .. i guess they didn't wanna put all their eggs in dodges basket .. so i saw this little datsun number and thought ya know i can see myself drivin that .. but the trick to the deal is to not look or get excited so i just walked around kickin some tires and stuff and a salseman came out and started puttin on the full court press .. you like that car there ?? ehh .. i dunno .. tell me about it .. so he starts off on his speil and i look it over .. it was a 79 so it was a little over a year old .. but it was in great shape .. so i looked at the price they had on the window and nahh.. you want too much for it .well this guy didn't wanna let me get away so he said well if i drop the price can we make a deal tonite . i said i dunno how much you wanna drop the price ?/ and back and forth we went .. i mean we danced .. he was tryin to lead but i wouldn't let him so he called in the big boy .. his boss .. and when i say the big boy i ain't kiddin this guy was about 450 pounds easy .. so we danced some more . finally the big boy said to the first guy here's my lighter go out and set that car on fire cause i can get more for it from insurance .. at the time i smoked so i said here take my lighter too just in case his don't work .. i wanna see this ..so we danced some more and they finally gave me a great price .. they dropped it by a grand and it was already a pretty good price when i went in .. and the salseman kept say so can we make a deal tonite and i said well lemme think about it .. i could see the smoke commin outta his ears when i left .. but i went back the next day and said ok and then the dance started again .. well that was if you made the deal last night .. now its back to the original price . i said ok then .. see ya bye and he stopped me ok ok you can have it for that price and i drove it home .. it was one of the best cars i ever owned .. it was a datsun 310gx .. a 5 speed with a hippy sunroof and velour interior that had seats that went all the way back and the back seats folded down so i could throw guitars and amps back there like a station wagon .. but it looked really cool .. only problem was the color .. that ice blue that sorta blends in with the sky and the road at dawn and dusk .. i got hit 4 times in one year .. always by a girl .. and they always said the same thing .. where did you come from i didn't even see you .. by the time it happened the third time i said yeah i know i know you didn't even see me.. how did you know ? call it a lucky guess .. anyway i saw some pics of a the same exact car and saved em . of course this one is like 34 years old .. but its in great shape for 34 years old .. man i loved that car .. it got about 36 miles to the gallon back then and sometimes 38 .. and that was all around drivin .. so anybody here have a car they miss for one reason or another ??

    

[frenchy]

here's another pic 

[frenchy]

and finally one more .. its missin the little emblem in the back that said 310gx .. when mine was totaled i saved that and i built a speaker bottom and put it on there just to confuse people .. cause it had 2, 12 inch speakers .. not 3,  10's .. 

[frenchy]

so thats the story of my first foreign car .. i think it took the shitheads in detroit way too long to figure out what we as americans wanted and needed from a car.. we're all different and some still like them muscle cars that get 8 mpg and look really cool .. but others were feelin the pinch at the pump and 12 and 15 mpg just wasn't feasable for some .. so they left the door wide open for the japs and the germans who were used to gas costin way more than it is here .. and now we have the koreans and fiat just bought chrysler .. not so much for their cars but because i gives them a place to launch their new fiats from ..and soon enough the chinese and the indians will be exportin cars here too if they can ever get the emmisions right........ but lookit this car in the pics .. wasn't she a beauty ?? it makes me think of my lost youth .. reminds me of a song by paul simon .. cars are cars where hes singin cars are cars all over the world  .. similarly made similarly sold .. and all the time you think he's singin about the car and then he hits you with a curve .. and says i once had a car hat was more like like a home .. i lived in it loved in it polished its chrome .. if some of my homes had been more like my car . i probably wouldn't have traveled this far ..so the car was just a metaphor for life and love .. and lookin at this car in all its glory .. i can relate .. i can so relate .. how bout you guys ?? 

[uno,dos,3]

I had a 1950 Mercury when I went to college (1963). Suicide doors, flathead 8, kind of mint.....but alas I had no garage, then someone keyed it and I just needed to find the car a good home....which was easy to do.......I think about that car to this day. I  currently have a foreign car that I love.....a 2007 Volvo C70....which is a hardtop convertible.....I drive it mostly in the late spring through early fall. I have a Ford Escape, as my everyday routine ride, in which I haul the grandkids and other hazardous materials.

I have a bizarre car salesperson story and another car story which is a classic.

1) It's 1971, I'm working full time, I have a ponytail and I'm wearing blue jeans as I enter the local car lot to purchase my first new car.....a Pontiac grand prix MSRP $5,700.00. There are zero customers on the lot.....just 3 sales people standing together, in white shirts and ties, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee as they b.s. with one another. I walked around the car, I sat in the car, I walked around the car, I sat in the car.....after about 10 minutes of my car mating dance (it seemed like a 1/2 hour)......a salesman finally broke from the pack and walked my way....he looked at me and said "nice car huh kid?" and continued walking.........I proceeded to the Pontiac dealership in the next town, bought my coveted grand prix....returned to the original dealership later that day and said to my greeter/salesperson....."this really is a nice car sir"....and off I drove.

2.) Fast forward 20 years. I'm laid-off, can't find a job, I have a family....and I'm about to run out of unemployment benefits......I'm badly in need of a job...so I become a car salesperson....ponytail cut off, earring out......I SOLD OUT....literally. There were 3 older salespeople who had sold cars for over 25 years each. On my 2nd day there a Hispanic male walked onto the used car lot....after sizing the guy up (Hispanic with no car.....and no doubt no money or credit)....the other salespeople said "You can take that guy"......we were supposed to take turns (ups) with walk-ons........by why not have some fun while pretending to help the new guy? Turned out the guy had no car BUT had been hired at the elementary school, a bilingual certified teacher. It took about 15 minutes to sell him a car..........and you usually make a lot more money selling a used car........the smirks vanished on their faces and just as quickly appeared on my face. There was a lesson there....though I'm not sure any of them were quick studies.        

[frenchy]

you mean like this uno ?? you didn't mention the color or if it had the skirts or not so its the best i could do with short notice ..  

[frenchy]

or maybe you can find one in here that fits yours closer .. see if this don't remind you of zz top .. that always kinda bewildered me .. then i found out later that steve miller was born in texas and it all made sense ..texas blus has its own sound .. 

[uno,dos,3]

That would be the color....black.....but mine had 4 doors.

I tried to get as many skirts as possible into that car....with some success.

 

[uno,dos,3]

A high school classmate of mine was the original drummer for the Steve Miller Blues Band. They started the band at the University of Wisconsin.

[frenchy]

no kiddin uno ?? ya know a buddy of mine brought over a dvd of him awhile back and while i watched it it hit me .. this guy has had a lotta hits .. i knew every song he played .. and so would most other people too if they had a radio .. i mean i knew he had some hits .. but that dvd went on and on for at least an hour and he never ran outta hits .. one after the other he just kept em commin..   

[uno,dos,3]

The drummer's name was Tim Davis. Todd Rundgren was also in the band. Tim left to start his own band (bad move). He died from juvenile diabetes a long time ago.

[frenchy]

todd rundgren was in steve millers band back then ?? i never knew that.. i knew that boz skags was for a time but i never heard that todd was too ..  

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