I remember ads on tv for the Austin America so the name was familiar but I’ve never actually seen one.
My favorites are in order as…
#1 - 61 olds dynamic 88 because of the nostalga.
68 cougar just because of what is and those great “bye bye headlights” that make it look mean and nasty.
72 f100 because it’s an F100 tied with the Ranchero. (My Dad had a newer body style, Ranchero sold it and got an El Camino. Both were VERY fast!)
Then the Nova’s only because I liked the older 60s squarish bodies better. I definitely wouldn’t have turned one down though!
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“Brakes? We don’t need no stinkin brakes.” They all would stop eventually. Ha ha!
The 9.5 inch x 2 inch 4 wheel drums on that 3000# car with a single pot master cylinder was the start of my desperate hatred of drum brakes.
Hit the brakes hard from 70 mph and they are all gone by 35. Even with real asbestos linings. I’ve never had a car with 4 wheel drums since!
The Austin was also the most trouble-prone car I ever owned. It burned a couple valves by the time 7000 miles rolled around. We pulled the engine and two of us carried it into the house, pulled the head, and saw the bad news. I found a wreck in a local junk yard, I removed it, and took it to a machine shop. They shaved the head, did a top end job with all new parts, and I was back in business. I sold it not too long after that and got a Chevelle with a 307. Much more reliable, and a very nice ride. I forgot about the Chevelle until now. Make that 17 vehicles.
On only my fourth car.
1973 Corolla handed down from parents
1987 Olds Ciera new
2007 Impala new
2014 Camry new
The Olds Ciera had the 3.8L 6-cyl, not the wimpy 4-cyl. I factory ordered to get that engine in an otherwise mid trim level. 
Also still have a classic Schwinn cruiser bike I’ve had fifty-two years. 
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Back in the mid 70s a young man who lived half a block away from me went (sadly) through 21 cars from the time he was 16 until he turned 21 years of age. These cars were not beaters either. They were nice cars until he got behind the wheel and trashed them in a matter of a few months.
At one point he said he was going to get a car and go dirt track racing at the fairgrounds. Fine; if you can deal with the expense and aggravation. A few weeks later he called me and another guy over to look at his potential race car.
It was a 1964 Ford Galaxie; black with orange interior, fully loaded, and a 390 under the hood. It was a low miles one owner and would have been right at home on a dealer showroom. We told him a dozen times; NO NO NO! Do not do that to this car. Not a door ding or interior tear anywhere.
So he gutted it anyway, broke all the glass out, and then decided he did not want to go racing so he had it hauled off to the junkyard.
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I also remembered 2 more a bit ago so I’m up to 70 I think. One was a Honda motorcycle and the other a Honda CVCC 5 speed manual. Ended up replacing the valves that got crunched in the CVCC by a timing belt that went bad I believe. Good times!
That is a hilarious story. Sounds like it could be a “Dukes of Hazzard” episode. I had an early 60’s Galexie 500 that I used as a field car. (Made a small dirt oval with a dozer.) It was a used up mess when I got it. Some kids had a party in it one night on the 40 acres we had it on and it burned to the ground. The car that took it’s place was 64 Ford Fairlane that was also junk. I drove it to the house after each run from then until it died and got parked. Great fun though while they lasted though.
That sums up the British car industry in the 60s and 70s in a nutshell. It is why most famous names, like Austin, Triumph, Morris, Riley and others are gone and those that are left are no longer owned by Brits. Most are owned by groups from former Brit colonies.
I seem to remember on the news back in the 70s the British auto workers were on strike almost all the time. Still, I do like Brit cars though having owned a Sunbeam and a Morris Minor. Kind of liked the Triumph TR-6s also.
I’m sure we can shove a Preditor 212 in the Schwin somehow.
I currently own a 2004 Corolla (my wife drives this car), 2002 Daewoo Lanos (I drive this to work every day and for shopping, etc.), 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (driven every now and then), and 1993 Plymouth Sundance (in my garage disassembled, plan to put back together when my work slows down).
In my lifetime, I have owned the following cars that I no longer have: 1988 Toyota Corolla (my first car, shared this with my siblings), 1991 Toyota Camry (shared this with my siblings as well), 1991 Toyota Tercel, 1995 Dodge Caravan (V-6 3.0), 1995 Dodge Caravan (4 cyl. 2.5). Of these, the one I really wish I could have again is the 95 Caravan with the V-6 3.0 and 3-speed automatic. Last summer, I saw one for sale online, it was far away, and the distance proved insurmountable, I regret not having it.
Yeah, when British Leyland went down, most of the traditional Brit brands went with them. The less expensive brands, that is. The luxury Marques weren’t part of BL, IIRC.
I’ve owned so many I really don’t know the number.
1957 Chevy Bel Air and 1977 Bandit Trans Am
Simca and Amphicar
1950 Ford Club Coupe
FYI…The 1950 Ford Club Coupe was going to the scrap yard. I traded my neighbor a Lionel train set for it. I was only 12 but had been driving a little while. In Kentucky…you could drive a “farm truck” if the truck had Farm Truck painted on both doors. My grandfather painted both doors of his old truck so I could drive to town and back. I drove the Ford up to a frozen pay lake in the middle of winter. I would have asked the owner but he was in Florida. My friends and I took turns doing doughnuts in the middle of the lake all afternoon. Problem was…we couldn’t get off the lake because the banks were too high. We went home for the night and brought back my dad to pull the little coupe off the frozen lake. Well…we got back and the Ford was halfway through the ice. My dad said that it was too dangerous to attempt to pull it out so we spent the next couple of hours watching it go to the bottom. Dad said it would make a good habitat for the fish. BTW…it was out of gas so no harm…no foul. I told Mr. Gentry about the car when he returned from Florida. He laughed and made me help him dump old Christmas trees in the lake. The old Ford is still there but the lake has been closed for decades.
Well three were part of it… Jaguar, Land Rover and Rover cars.
And it was all owned by the UK government from 1968 until it collapsed completely by 1986. The UK government owned Rolls-Royce and Bentley as well in the 1970’s but sold it to Vickers in 1980.
Jag was spun off as an independent business from BL in 1984 and later acquired by Ford. BL unsuccessfully tried to do that with Land Rover but it ended at Ford, too. I’d say Ford made huge improvements at both companies during those years.
The Rover Group with, MG, Rover cars and the remnants of BL ended up at BMW. Known as the “English Patient” because of huge continuing losses, BMW closed Rover cars, sold off the rights to MG and kept the Mini brand. BMW just couldn’t fix the problems that took decades to create.
BMW later bought Rolls-Royce and VW bought Bentley. Ford later sold Jag and Land Rover to Tata, the Indian company.
The UK car story from 1950 to 1990 is a complicated soap opera of labor issues, socialism in the UK government , very poor product choices, and very poor management. It is fun to read about, though.
Most people I know that have or have had Caravans or Voyagers really liked them. People knew they weren’t hot rods so they usually didn’t push them to the limits so there wasn’t much abuse I guess. The older body styles were “meh”. I do like the looks of the newest Caravan and T&C though. I got a lot of compliments on the looks. The room inside with the Stow n Go was one of the best ideas ever! When the seats are up there is plenty of room in the stow area to toss the cranky grandson in too so I didn’t have listen to him. Just kidding. Maybe. LOL. Just a few months ago I got some 4x8 plywood and 2x4s in my 2014 3.6L T&C w/181,000 miles, (that I just got rid of) with no problem with the gate closed. Great MPG too. I’ts done 30mpg on the hwy and a consistent 25mpg avg. I will end up getting another in the future probably.
My head scratch moment with Jag was when the 4.6 V8 went under the hood. “But, But, But… It’s a Jag. Why is that in it?” (Until recently, I didn’t realize that Jag was using smaller Ford engines since 1999.) Anyway, it made feel like my Grandma got a tattoo of David Hasslehoff on her chest… 
I know, Ford now owned Jag. From what I understand though, it was good that Ford took over Jag because it was on the verge of vanishing anyway. At least they kept the brand alive. “Well Honey, I guess we are getting the DB-9 instead.” Always wondered why there was no DB-8. Anyway, It’s like when I saw the consumer Hummer for the 1st time in person… The hood was opening … The suspense was almost unbearable… aaaaaand… What!!! There sat a GM engine… Scooby said, “Huuuhhh???”, then shut the hood and walked away! My universe is collapsing!!! Hide, hide!!! Grab your Loved ones to kiss them goodbye!!! Get to your bunkers!!! We only have seconds to live!!! Faint echoes of Bob Dylan in the background… “…Oh the tiiimes they arrre a chaaangin…”
I have owned 25 vehicles since I bought my first car in 1962. That first car was a 1947 Pontiac Streamliner 2 door fastback. Some of the cars I owned were oddball cars that few people wanted. Among those cars:
- 1961 Corvair purchased as a second car. I talked the dealer down from $695 to $450. Ralph Nader was a big help.because his book “Unsafe At Any Speed” had knocked the resale value out from under the Corvair. When I bought the Corvair, I thought it would need a valve job. The dealer said his mechanics didn’t want to work on Corvairs so I used that to lower the price. The first time I was out in a heavy rain in the Corvair, I didn’t think I would make it home as the engine wasn’t hitting on all cylinders. I replaced the spark plug wires and that Corvair ran beautifully. That was all that was wrong with it.
- 1968 AMC Javelin. This car replaced the Corvair. I bought it from a used car lot. The dealer wanted $1695 and would trade for $1650 and the Corvair which by that time was worn out. This was in May of 1971. In checking the car out, the odometer read 33,000. I found the state inspection record in the glove compartment and it had been inspected in February with 55,000 miles. It made the dealer very unhappy when I showed him the inspection record. I bought the Javelin for wholesale book of $1200 plus the Corvair. I put an additional 100,000 miles on the Javelin and sold it for $600. The Javelin was a 6 cylinder with automatic, so it didn’t appeal to many people.
- 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon. This was my first new car. It had the 4-4-2:trim package but only had the 260 cubic inch V-8 and automatic. The car didn’t appeal to the performance enthusiasts nor did it appeal to the older people. The car sat on the dealer’s lot from April bto October when I bought it. The dealer was anxious to get it out of his inventory.The slope back styling wasn’t very popular. I drove that car 33 years before I sold it for $500.
- AMC Pacer X This replaced the Javelin. It was a 1975 and I bought it in 1976. My son was a toddler and it was easy to put him and his car seat in the back seat through the wide passenger side door. The passenger side door was longer than the driver’s side door. For the time period, it rode and handled well with its rack and pinion steering.
- 1950 Chevrolet one ton pickup. I bought the truck in 1972 for $115 dollars. We had moved to 5 acres in the country. That truck was a real work horse. I really wanted just s half ton, but back then, a used half ton fetched more money than a larger pickup. The truck was sitting out in a field when I bought it and hadn’t been started for quite a while. I jump started it and it ran like a top. I sold it three years later for $105. I lost $10 in depreciation.
I was always looking for just transportation. Unpopular cars were, in my opinion, good buys.
These days I drive a Toyota Sienna minivan. I have owned five minivans since 1991. A minivan isn’t exciting, but it gets the job done.
Wow, a 61 Corvair for $460! Imagine what one in good shape would be worth today? I believe my Dad’s 1st (used) standard VW Beetle was only $400+ dollars from the deslership. My sister named it, of course, Herbie and he was white. His 2nd (also used) was a late 60s, “sorta” automatic because Mom couldn’t use a clutch. If we only knew then. My dad had a Corvair and Loved it. It did get a “bum rap”. I believe I remember him saying that he did put an elevator weight in the front of the Covair to help with the balance. I know there were other vehicles at the time with MUCH worse issues as far as stability though. I looked up the 1 ton. I Love the grill! Looks like it was ready to eat anything that got in it’s way.