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1955 Pontiac, $2,223.81 out the door.
dheffley
Member Posts: 25,000 ✭
I gave my baby sister a bunch of my father's old files. She wanted to look through them just to be nosey.
She found an old window sticker (for over $2,800), a receipt from the dealership in Ft. Worth, Texas, an owners manual, some miscellaneous paperwork on the car and it's sale, and a canceled check to the dealer signed by my dad for the amount of $2,223.81, all stapled together. It was for a 1955 Pontiac Catalina he bought and paid cash for.
I remember that old car. It was kind of an aqua green and white or maybe a butter cream white, and he bought it new for mother. That thing was wider than some of the lanes on the roads and as big as a house inside, and it had the nicest seats I had ever sat in up until that time.
As I recall, he sold it to my aunt and uncle around 1959 or so and bought a 1960 Chevrolet stationwagon when they first came out (he didn't like the 1959's tail lights). I don't know what happened to it after that, but mom said that Pontiac was twice the car the Chevy was.
We went on two vacations in that car, one to Yellowstone National Park, and one to see the Grand Canyon. That was the one I remember most.
My dad's only complaint on that car was that it burned up ignition points too fast, and he always carried an extra set and a condenser in the truck, which was almost as big as my bedroom!
My brother and I were goofing around in the front seat and I kicked the dash and broke the knob off of the radio. Back then you could order parts (and vacuum tubes that would burn out) for the radio without having to buy a complete new radio. He spent $12 getting the radio repaired, and I had to work a month (felt like all summer) around the farm to pay him back at $0.50 a day if I worked all day or $0.25 a day if I didn't do a full day in his eyes.
Man, that dairy barn was so clean you could have eaten ice cream off of the floor.
I've got some pictures of us on vacation in the Catalina somewhere around here in an old picture album. Baby sister wasn't born until 1966, so she never knew the car. I'll have to find them and show them to her.
Wow, I wish I had that old car now!
She found an old window sticker (for over $2,800), a receipt from the dealership in Ft. Worth, Texas, an owners manual, some miscellaneous paperwork on the car and it's sale, and a canceled check to the dealer signed by my dad for the amount of $2,223.81, all stapled together. It was for a 1955 Pontiac Catalina he bought and paid cash for.
I remember that old car. It was kind of an aqua green and white or maybe a butter cream white, and he bought it new for mother. That thing was wider than some of the lanes on the roads and as big as a house inside, and it had the nicest seats I had ever sat in up until that time.
As I recall, he sold it to my aunt and uncle around 1959 or so and bought a 1960 Chevrolet stationwagon when they first came out (he didn't like the 1959's tail lights). I don't know what happened to it after that, but mom said that Pontiac was twice the car the Chevy was.
We went on two vacations in that car, one to Yellowstone National Park, and one to see the Grand Canyon. That was the one I remember most.
My dad's only complaint on that car was that it burned up ignition points too fast, and he always carried an extra set and a condenser in the truck, which was almost as big as my bedroom!
My brother and I were goofing around in the front seat and I kicked the dash and broke the knob off of the radio. Back then you could order parts (and vacuum tubes that would burn out) for the radio without having to buy a complete new radio. He spent $12 getting the radio repaired, and I had to work a month (felt like all summer) around the farm to pay him back at $0.50 a day if I worked all day or $0.25 a day if I didn't do a full day in his eyes.
Man, that dairy barn was so clean you could have eaten ice cream off of the floor.
I've got some pictures of us on vacation in the Catalina somewhere around here in an old picture album. Baby sister wasn't born until 1966, so she never knew the car. I'll have to find them and show them to her.
Wow, I wish I had that old car now!
Comments
His name was "Dan The Hatchet Man"[;)]
D-I think that was the first year of V8 power for Pontiac. 287 cu inch they were. I remember a guy at the strip who ran one.
His name was "Dan The Hatchet Man"[;)]
It was a V-8, and it was mom's first "automatic transmission" car. She loved and babied that thing like one of us.
I also think it was the first "new" car they had bought. Dad bought a "new" truck two years later, and I remember him saying it was the first new truck he had ever owned.
i gotta laugh at new old car owners. for some reason they think nothing is ever going to break.
i chuckle that thought when i see those car auctions. 100,000 for a vet that requires the front wheel off to change a sparkplug.[B)]
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
Merry Christmas!!
I found it for ya!
Merry Christmas!!
Holy crap.. that is the twin around the corner from me.
to be had a 55 chevy in highschool he fixed up.
Also remember an old studebaker my dad bought in 1970 when money
was tight. He gave my brother and sister and I a ride to school
one winter morning when we missed the bus. "Skip a rope" was
playing on the radio. We'll the old car needed new shocks,
and that car was bobbing up and down as we we're going up and
down some hills. Funny to remember. I thought the song was
appropriate for the ride.[:D][:D]
1955 - '48 Pontiac Convt - $400.
1957 - '53 Stude Lowery coupe - $500.
1963 - New Pontias GP - $4,400.
1967 - '65 Vette - $2,300.
1969 - New Vette - $5,100.
2000 - New Vette - $51,000.
My how things (and prices) change!
The cars I remember best:
1955 - '48 Pontiac Convt - $400.
1957 - '53 Stude Lowery coupe - $500.
1963 - New Pontias GP - $4,400.
1967 - '65 Vette - $2,300.
1969 - New Vette - $5,100.
2000 - New Vette - $51,000.
My how things (and prices) change!
Do you still have the CBX, Jeff? those are becomming quite a collectors item as well
Town hates it. It does not Architectually Conform with cities' new building codes[:(!][:(!]
56 Merc Montclair Phaten(Not sure of spelling)
Just floated down the road. You would be driving on the freeway look down and be doing 80-90 MPH and it felt like you were still going to slow.
One of these but white top Sea green bottom.
the ad was in the may issue of "Country Gentleman".
the back page of the ad is a story about how much time you can save by putting and electric pump on your water well![:0]
I tried to get her a new 67 Firebird but she said nope, she wanted the 55 because it was "safe" for her and our son.