Sorry, I don’t have any current Nash pix. You can spell current digital. Neither car is nearby. If I get out to Uncle Bob’s farm sometime, I’ll get some for you.
I still think the Ambassador would make a neat family car, but that’s just the way I am. I’ve taken some long cross country trips in my Antiques, but probably the longest in one of my Nashes was 90 miles or so, one way. I drove 400 miles on a day in my Model A several years ago, and 1200 miles in 2-1/2 days in a 22 year old T-Bird in the winter of '82.
Wow; 400 miles a day in a Model A. That’s moving pretty well all things considered. Imagine those people who crossed the entire country back in the day with the roads they had back then. Ouch.
Some years ago a friend of mine bought a stone stock, original paint 1936 Ford pickup from some old farmer near Dodge City and drove it 225 miles to home back in OK. Seems like it took him about 7-8 hours.
I almost wish someone would post about how much trouble they had with classic cars. Someone who wants to haul 6 kids around in a classic car needs to be discouraged. Besides with 6 kids when would you have time to enjoy it when it did run.
AMC, AKA son of Nash, made some nine passenger Ambassador wagons in the late '50s into the '60s. The rear seat faced backwards. I’m not sure if one of those has enough panache (Panash?) to make the OP happy or not, but they would haul the whole family.
Yes, @OK4450 it was a long day in a Model A, and we didn’t get a very early start. It cruised easily about 45 to 50 with a few down hill bursts close to 60 MPH. We happened into one small town just as they were starting a parade down their main street. A guy directing traffic motioned us off of the highway right into the parade, so we participated for six blocks as perfect strangers, waving to everyone. We never knew what the parade was about, but it was fun while it lasted.
My early 80s aged neighbor told the story of his parents going from KS to Chicago in the rumble seat of a nearly new Model A in the winter. He was born a few years later, so apparently it didn’t freeze his father’s testicles off.
I actually don’t remember having many problems with my 59 Pontiac or 59 VW. Of course they were only maybe 8 or 9 years old then. Next was a 68 which I don’t consider a classic yet. I had the normal carb and tune up issues and a generator going out and of course a little rust. It never really left me stranded though except it was hard to start when it sat outside when it got down to 10 below. I do remember that dang heater though drive you out. You’d have heat in a couple blocks after a cold start.
In 1976, I paid $600 for a 1969 Buick Sport Wagon (twin to Vista Cruiser) for my young family. After sorting out the brakes and distributor, it ran fine for about a year. Then a transmission seal blew leaving us on the side of the road. I figured my family’s safety wasn’t worth it and I bought a much newer station wagon.
Old cars were built like tanks? Sorry, but in the old days, you were lucky to get 100K out of a car. They broken frequently - water pumps, generators (alternators), carburetors, points and plugs.
Unless one replaces all those old technology parts with new technology, then one is kind of stuck with frequent repairs.
That Packard is a beauty, and in my favorite color. But I wouldn’t drive one except on special occasions. I had a friend who inherited an aging (but not classic) Rolls Royce convertible. It was a white elephant needing constant repairs, but it sure was fun for a Sunday picnic outing. Everyone honked and waved.
Im not sure I agree with CapriRacer re: older cars being temperamental garage queens that break down frequently.
I will grant, they need more frequent maintenance/“tinkering.” But, provided the maintenance is done, I don’t see DISPATCH RELIABILITY being out of line. Remember, the more systems on a car…the more systems that can fail!
I also think a LOT of the “done by 100k” rap can be laid on lube technology and similar. Run a Civic on leaded gas and 30wt non-detergent…let us know how you do!
Some of the most DURABLE engines of recent memory–GM 3800, Ford 4.9 and Jeep 4.0 I6–hail from an era when the Beatles were best known as “Chuck Berry’s opening act!” The engine management systems changed (slightly), but it was decidedly “proven technology” racking up 300,000+ miles…
I have to respectfully disagree that the older cars required an engine overhaul by 100k miles. Much like now, it all depended upon the oil change regimen and back in the days of leaded gasoline oil changes were even more critical.
It wasn’t the materials or construction if problems surfaced; it was the lead which coated pistons, valves, combustion chambers, tainted the engine oil, mucked up carburetors, etc, etc. There’s a night and day difference between a disassembled old leaded gas engine and its modern unleaded equivalent.
I could sit here and cite example after example of older, very high miles, untouched engines all day long not even including the ones I’ve personally owned. As to breaking down on the road back in the day that seldom ever happens unless someone was lax with a set of contact points.
Multi-state trips in early Monte Carlos, 64 GTOs, Corvettes, and so on have never left me pondering life while sitting on the shoulder…
@ok4450–early Monte Carlos, 64 GTOs, etc you are talking about late model cars in my books. I made the 350 mile trip from east central Indiana to Southern Illinois in my 1947 Pontiac back in 1962 without problems. A year later, I had a 1954 Buick I bought from my dad that had over 120,000 miles with no problems. I drove the Buick to 160,000 and the heads and pan were never off the engine. It was on the street two years later.
When my dad was 18, his family owned a 1922 Model T Ford. For several summers, the family traveled from Rock Island, Illinois to southern Minnesota in the Model T. The only problem was having to stop and patch a tire on the trip. In those days, a great road was one paved lane where you pulled off if you met a car. An ordinary road was gravel. Some of the roads were just dirt paths. It was a two day trip–25 to 30 mph was the average speed on the gravel roads.
When I was a kid back in the late 1940s, a new car was one made after WW II. My parents had a 1939 Chevrolet which they drove until 1951. When they traded for a 1949 Dodge in 1951, we thought we had a new car.
Back in the early 70s while in the Los Angeles, CA area I bought a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker for 10 bucks; clean title and tagged with about 125k miles on it. I checked the oil, opened the points up a bit, pulled a spark plug to discover it was half burnt up, reinstalled the plug, and took off for OK as is.
Used no oil and the only problem was a flat tire out in the CA desert. After being back in OK for a while I just gave the car to someone who needed some wheels and they drove it to Florida with no issues.
A local farmer (who was wealthy in spite of his disheveled appearance in old overalls) could buy any car he wanted out of petty cash. Until his death not many years ago he continued to drive a '65 Chevy Bel Air and a late 50s GMC pickup; both of them bought brand new back in the day.
I don’t know how many miles were on them at the time he passed but it had to have been in the hundreds of thousands because he had them on the road almost every day; especially the Bel Air.
Even at about 90 years of age that guy was one of the most careful and conscientous drivers you could hope to find anywhere although he never, ever exceeded 55 MPH anywhere.
meanjoe75fan: I agree 100% that maintenance is the key with any equipment. Vintage vehicles can be very reliable if required maintenance and minor repairs are performed in a timely manner. Older vehicles are not happy when these things are postponed or worse ignored. If they are not driven much scheduled maintenance measured in miles should be changed to periods of time. This also applies to modern vehicles. I can actually maintain and repair 1930 thru 1980 vehicles. I have no clue with “computer” cars.
I can remember any number of vacations as a kid where something went wrong, and my father was very good about scheduled maintenance and always had the car given the once over before a long trip. Despite that, things happened. Cars were looking pretty ratty by 100,000 miles. Even if the engine didn’t need major work it wasn’t anything like new, and the rest of the car often has a good deal of rust, upholstery was splitting, plastic parts were getting brittle, and it needed repainting. Time to start over.
My theory on the supposed lack of longevity of older cars has to do with the outdated practice of rolling back odometers. I saw it in 1965 when my father traded in his well maintained '62 Rambler Ambassador showing 98,000 miles on a new '65 Ambassador. My old home town dealer, whose daughter is now my next door neighbor through another circuitous series of coincidents, had it on his lot for several weeks and was unable to sell it. Soooo, he had the speedo clocked back to 60,000. The car sold right away.
In this case, the unknowing second owner drove it till it had rolled past 100K and showed 76K. He thought it had 176,000 miles. It still ran well, and looked good. If he had decided to trade it in, a dealer might well have sold it as a reasonably low mileage 76K car. In reality it had 216K. That third owner might have thought things were starting to wear out when it rolled up on 100K again.
Incidents like that abound. I accidentally met the third owner of my dad’s '55 Nash which was traded in showing (1)06K on the '62 above. That owner bought it showing about 75K. Who knows how many miles it really had when my dad bought it used in 1957. It might well have been clocked back twice.
You get the picture.
Of course today clocking odometers goes on, but it is a federal offense punishable by high fines and imprisonment. There are even gizmos available on the internet that can turn back digital odometers. The feds should monitor those internet sales.
Now days it is very common to see 200K and even 300K cars.
Clocking odos might have been a small factor, but it’s a fact that most 60s cars didn’t make it far past 100k, whether it was rust, engine or transmission, whatever. We never saw them in our '70s gas station.
We had pretty new cars as a kid but the only time I remember having a problem on the road was with out 61 Mercury that the starter bendix stuck on it near DC. The tow truck driver got it unstruck and we ended up trading it soon after getting home.
The flathead Ford V8s of my youth usually needed valves at 40,000 , and rings at 60000. There were no interstates, most roads were 2 lanes and many dirt.
I saw someone I knew who has 5 Hudsons last lear at a car show in Buffalo NY. He had just come back from a car shoe in Iowa in his 1947 Hudson Six that he drove there and back with no problems. I remember road signs from the late 40s promoting Kendal, the 2000 mile motor oil.
