Reminising

Driving home this evening I seen a late 80's Buick Regal got thinking , you used to see Oldsmobile Cutlass, Pontiac Grand Prix everywhere and when I was a young lad lots of these vintage 76,77,78 were alot of first cars for alot of 16 year old. You used to drive around find for sale signs on these cars in front yards , of course the same thing for motorcycles. You used to see Honda 350, 550,750 for sale everywhere where I grew up and Yamaha dirt bikes or Suzuki usually ragged out...how many of these bikes started many of us onto the cult of riding? You do not see these things on the side of the road with for sale signs like you used anymore . I started riding at 14 on a 74 Honda trail 70 , put a bunch of miles on that , learned to ride on my dad's 75 HONDA CB550 , the first bike I owned was an 84 Kawaski 550 LTD ... I paid 1200$ in 89 sold bike in my front yard for 1500$ in 1999. I don't know just some things that I was think about. Cheers

 

Used to see a lot of first-gen Toyota Celicas too. Now you hardly see any. In 1989 I gave $900 for a nearly showroom-condition '75 ST. The same model in that condition typically gets sold for just south of $10K today.

The basic rule of cars: The cooler they are to teenagers, the fewer of them survive unmolested.

 

The old Ford line of rolling boats. Those big V8's in them were all over here in WI. I stared at 13 with a XR75, took my street test on a 78 Gold wing and my fist bike was a FZ600. Got the FZ from a salvage, back then when those bikes went down just the plastics would total them.

 

I had a 75 Z1 I paid $500 for, a 78 Malibu two door for $600, and an 83 two door V8 regal for $900 when I was younger. Can’t touch any of those these days for those prices. Would love to drive an old car again.

 

Took my date to prom in a 78 Regal, but my daily driver was the 74 Mustang II.

I notice the same thing about the lack of low priced used cars. Craigslist replaced the front yard, but all the old $300 beaters that got me thru my 20s don't exist cause cars keep their values now I guess. Here in CO you commonly see 15 yr old cars with 200k miles selling for $5000, and a lot higher for 4WDs, esp toyotas and nissan.

 

I know a guy near Tomahawk that has a 5.0l V8 from a 1995 F150... if anyone is looking.

Pay for the engine get the rust bucket that it is attached to!

 

So last week was riding around neighbor hood ,had to stop and look at a 78 Yamaha RD400 looked really good 15k on odometer , looked like it was taken care of , a few cosmetic item but at 5k $ more than I would pay . Some folks love 2 strokes I like the RD ,but would rather it the an LC .