Loser cars: All awesomely lame, but which is king?

[Guest]

Yes, it was, a Isuzu Impulse. The Metro was a Suzuki Swift, the Prizm was a Toyota Corolla IIRC,

[Danno]

Didn't Isuzu cross their small suv with the little coupe and call it the Storm Trooper?

Memory unclear . . .

[Tom Geiger]

Here's our 1993 Geo Storm. I bought it as my older daughter's first car figuring it would last a year until either she wrecked it or it just died. Good practice car for $1800. Well, it kinda lasted a bit longer. It also became my younger daughter's first car four years later. She drove it a long while too. Then it ran so well that we kept it as a spare car. I'd drive it to work once a week to keep it limber, and anyone who was having their car in the shop would drive it. We wound up keeping it 15 years and I can say, nothing ever went wrong with it, just doing routine maintenance, the heaviest repairs being brakes, an exhaust, struts and a timing belt. In the end, we donated it to charity when we moved to Pennsylvania, as a good running car. We only got rid of it because of the move. I'm actually sorry we did since it was a good little runner and fun to drive.

My older daughter with car dressed up for high school graduation in 2002

Same shot with my younger daughter. High school graduation in 2006. We kept the car until 2012.

[cobraman]

Nice looking young ladies Tom. I'm guessing that they take after your wife ??? Just kidding. : )

[lordairgtar]

A shame you donated the car to charity as I know what they do to them. A lot of charities don't want to deal with selling a car and liability issues, so they just crush them.

[dartman]

Years ago,I ran a parts store and we had a DIESEL chevette.We also had a diesel escort wagon to run parts in.

[Tom Geiger]

A shame you donated the car to charity as I know what they do to them. A lot of charities don't want to deal with selling a car and liability issues, so they just crush them.

No, the charity had a local used car lot as the drop off center. They put the cars right out on their lot for sale. I drove by a few weeks later and saw it sitting on the front row. You can get some interesting cars and good deals from that lot. My brother in law bought a 1995 Corolla with 60,000 miles on it for $1500. Looked like a little ole lady car.

[Belugawrx]

Moahnza

[DodgeAddict]

Was the 77 Monza the one that you had to pull the engine off the motor mounts to change the sparkplugs?

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Yes when equipped with a V8

[MrObsessive]

Years ago,I ran a parts store and we had a DIESEL chevette.We also had a diesel escort wagon to run parts in.

If I'm not mistaken, the diesel in the Chevette (and Pontiac's T1000) were actually Isuzu engines. GM wasn't doing too well with their homegrown diesels back in those days.

A rare car if one can be found in good shape today!

[lordairgtar]

No, the charity had a local used car lot as the drop off center. They put the cars right out on their lot for sale. I drove by a few weeks later and saw it sitting on the front row. You can get some interesting cars and good deals from that lot. My brother in law bought a 1995 Corolla with 60,000 miles on it for $1500. Looked like a little ole lady car.

In this day of liabilities and licensing to sell cars, that is indeed rare. There are several of these groups in Wisconsin that cry for cars all the time, but are sold for scrap. It's nice to hear of some entity actually offering the cars for sale at good prices.

[robertw]

I don't recommend the Pacer kit. Bought this one when it was reissued because I wanted to add it to my 'Cars only an owner would love' collection and its now back in the box. Problems fitting the interior tub into the body and then getting the chassis to fit into the body rather then underneath the body. I'll tackle it again at some point but there are too many less frustrating projects to do.

rob

[Faust]

Oh, that sucks about the Pacer.

I have the reissue 76 Gremlin in the big fancy art box, and man, it SUCKS!

The front clip doesn't fit on worth a tinker's darn, and the engine bay/chassis fitup is nonexistent! Very disappointing, and I paid a good penny for that kit too. How is it that an MPC from nearly the same time can be so much better? It'll be a while before that Gremmy sees day, I can tell you!

[Tom Geiger]

Hey Adam... I don't think you saw my Chevette build thread.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=86536&hl=

I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend.

[Erik Smith]

Oh, that sucks about the Pacer.

I have the reissue 76 Gremlin in the big fancy art box, and man, it SUCKS!

The front clip doesn't fit on worth a tinker's darn, and the engine bay/chassis fitup is nonexistent! Very disappointing, and I paid a good penny for that kit too. How is it that an MPC from nearly the same time can be so much better? It'll be a while before that Gremmy sees day, I can tell you!

Yeah, it's not the best kit...but, you can make a decent shelf model.

[Faust]

Whoa, Erik!

How did you get that thing looking that good? Nice work!

Seriously, though, what did you do to polish that thing. I'm always looking to improve my finishes, and that's sparkling!

It even makes the Gremmy look good!

[Erik Smith]

Adam - Tamiya paint...micro mesh polishing kit then scratch-x polish then Tamiya fine polish.

[Rob Hall]

Years ago,I ran a parts store and we had a DIESEL chevette.We also had a diesel escort wagon to run parts in.

My first car was a diesel Escort 5dr hatchback. 5spd manual, 52 hp...

[Tom Geiger]

I graduated high school in 1976 and a buddy-0-mine got a job at All American AMC in Keyport, NJ. It was owned by the Straub family who owned many of the dealerships on the highway and gave them different names so it didn't look like they had cornered the market. My friend mainly did dealer prep, but part of their weekly routine was to put all the new cars through the car wash on Route 36 on Friday afternoon and sometimes finishing up on Saturday morning so they all looked spiffy for the big Saturday sales day. I got hired on under the table to run cars through the car wash. We'd drive them with no plates for the few blocks and when the attendants saw it was a new AMC, they just waved you through. I think the family also owned that car wash.

I was valuable to them because I could drive a clutch. I was amazed at how many AMC cars were manual transmission in that era. Didn't matter if it was a 6 or an 8, you could get a floor shifter in a Gremlin, Hornet or Pacer. They were peppy and fun to drive, and honestly all drove about the same. I remember thinking it would be cool to have a Sportabout with a 4 speed.

My buddy eventually got fired from that job. At the car wash, there were three self wash bays on the side and you had to wash soft top Jeeps in those. The dealership gave you a big warning... the entrance was fine, but the exit was too low for the Jeep. ALWAYS back out the Jeep. Well, my buddy washed a Jeep, absent mindedly hit the gas and tore the roof off a brand new Jeep that he was prepping for delivery. End of job.

That dealership property was originally a bowling alley and was converted into the AMC dealership. Eventually it became their Dodge store where I bought my Grand Caravan, Remsen Dodge.... Remsen Straub was one of their sons. Today the building is gone and a Walgreens sits on the site. Progress?

[unclescott58]

Mr. Geiger - Chevettes a good car everybody likes to put down. Everybody I know who had one, got great service out them. Boring and unsafictcated, but reliable cheap little cars. Had a buddy who bought a fairly new Pontiac T-1000 in the early 1980's. Had a lot of fun teasing him about his Chevette. He kept on insisting it was not a Chevette. Yeh, right.

One fun fact about Chevettes, is that Pontiac sold a version in Canada before US dealers got the T-1000. Starting in 1976 they sold a Chevette called the Acadian. And their version of the Chevette Scooter was the Acadian 1 + 1. Someone at Pontiac of Canada had a great sense of humour.

Back to models. The only Chevette I own is a '79 promo. You mentioned the only changes required in different year MPC Chevette models would be the hood and grille. Did MPC ever offer a 1980 or later Chevette? If so, there was a change made to the rear of real Chevettes. The easily noticeable change was the new wrap around tail lights. But also notice the small aerodynamic spoiler lip on the rear. A major change if MPC offered an accurate Chevette model.

One last thing. Converting a Chevette into a '76 and later Acadian is easier than converting it into a T-1000. The difference between an Acadian and a Chevette is only nameplates and emblems. The T-1000 was trimmed out a little bit better than the Chevette. The Acadian wasn't.

Scott Aho

[jbwelda]

A bachelor of science degree in HISTORY? That's not the way things generally work.

Most "loser" cars are thought of that way for a reason, possible exception being the Corvair which was the victim of a political hatchet job that would have taken VW and Porsche along with it had they been American cars. Destined to be exiled to the ghetto of obscurity and in this case, for good reason. There will of course always be admirers, generally those who base their decisions on emotions...you can find yards full of Chevettes for instance within a 50 mile radius of any major city.

That doesn't mean anyone other than those individuals would ever want a model of one. On the other hand one doesn't encounter grease covered driveways and irreplaceable parts when dealing with a mere model, so to me the choice is clear: if I MUST have one, it had best be a scale representation rather than the real thing taking up valuable real estate not to mention resources. its much easier to safely ignore sitting unassembled on the shelf rather than out in the driveway scaring off the neighbors (not always a bad thing though).

jb

[Tom Geiger]

Mr. Geiger - Chevettes a good car everybody likes to put down. Everybody I know who had one, got great service out them. Boring and unsafictcated, but reliable cheap little cars. Had a buddy who bought a fairly new Pontiac T-1000 in the early 1980's. Had a lot of fun teasing him about his Chevette. He kept on insisting it was not a Chevette. Yeh, right.

Agreed. There's a certain group in this hobby that puts down anything that's not a muscle car, and any car built after some date. But those of us who lived with 1960s through 1970s cars in our upbringing, no doubt have interesting stories to tell about all these mere transporation cars of our era. My friends didn't drive Lambos, Ferarris or Corvettes, in fact those who had Novas, Chevelles and Mustangs generally had the low end cars, some of them with (Gasp!) 6 cylinder engines. That din't keep us from cruising, having fun and adventures in them. Thus, for many of these cars I have fond memories, a story about something we did.

And those are cars I choose to build for my shelf. I recently built a Dodge A100 van that someone I knew drove back in the 1970s. I posted pictures of it on the Facebook group for my town, and it was identified within fifteen minutes. People remembered that truck! So now I'm building my sister in laws Chevette, next up is the '74 Mustang II my wife had when I met her. Having these cars brings a bit of my youth back to me!

[unclescott58]

A bachelor of science degree in HISTORY? That's not the way things generally work.

Yes I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in History. The full title of my degree is: The History of Popular Culture in America, with Emphasis On The History of the Automobile. Why it was decided that my degree was to be a Bachelor of Science rather than a Bachelor of Arts, I can't quite remember. But, it is.

Speaking of that, my first major paper towards that degree was on my favorite "loser" car. The Chevrolet Corvair. I got very lucky as I was working on that paper at the time. Ralph Nader came to my University to give a lecture. Got to talk with him a bit and have him sign my copy of his book, "Unsafe At Any Speed". I liked the guy after meeting him. Even though we disagree on issues automotive. He's a very smart man. And has a great sense of humour. But I feel he knows little to nothing about cars. Especially the about swing axle cars like the early Corvairs. The man does not drive. He has never had a drivers license. And travels by car little as possible. And he's a expert on that subject?

Back to my bachelor degree. I've always been amused by the fact that it is also referred to as a BS degree. Some of my friends will tell you that I was good at that before they gave me my diploma. I'm not sure I disagree.

R. Scott Aho

Automotive Historian for 23 years now.

[unclescott58]

Ah... Mr. Geiger. I'm with you. As you've noted we both grew up at the same time. High School Class of '76. And the people around me were pretty much blue collar, middle class. We rode and drove in lots of so called "loser" cars. The first new car my Dad ever bought was a '61 Comet. With no options, other than heater. His second new car was a '67 Comet 202 "Sports Coupe". The Sports Coupe package gave you vinyl seats and carpeting over cheap cloth seats and vinyl floors. That car also had a heater (standard by then), a radio (!), and full wheel covers (maybe part of the Sport Coupe package?). We thought we were livin in luxury! By the way, my Mother drove the new cars. My Dad drove beaters back and forth to work.

In 1971 my Dad bought one of the first Toyota Hilux pickup trucks in this part of country. When that rusted out 6 years later, he bought himself a new '77 Mustang II. Four-cylinder, automatic, radio and heater. By that time my Mother was driving a '75 Mercury Monarch they bought new two years earlier. Six-cylinder, three-on-the-tree, radio and heater. My folks were cheap. Until I wrecked the Monarch, and my Mother decided to buy a new car without my Father's input. She bought a new '80 Olds Delta 88 Holiday Coupe. Buckets, automatic, ps, pb, air, and cruise!

Another "loser" car I grew up with, was a buddy of mine parent's bought a new Chevy Vega in 1971. You hear a lot of bad things about Vegas. Especially the early ones. Can't prove it by me. My buddy, "Dirty Dave" was hard on everything. He beat the living BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH out of that car. The only way he could kill it, was by getting it t-boned at intersection, totaling it. By that time the Vega was six or seven years old!

So I too love the "loser" cars of the 60's and 70's. And I enjoy building models, like AMC Pacers (and Gremlins). And proudly displaying them on my selves.

Scott Aho

[dieseldawg142]

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Edited May 11, 2018 by dieseldawg142