Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 11, 2023

Yea Arlo, you da man!

The iconic ‘57! Adults could actually sit in the backseat.

What was on the bottom becomes the top. The wheel turns.

One of my earliest and fondest memories. In November 1956, when I was almost 4, my parents took my brothers and me to a dealer to get their new car, a red ‘57 Chevy Bel-Air 4 door V-8 sedan. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my young life.

Bought my first car in 64. It was a 52 Chevy. Cost me 50 bucks and that was a lot of money. It was a great ride but I couldn’t wait to move up as my age increased as well as my income bagging groceries.

no give me the 65 ford falcon

Missed opportunity?

I’d rather have a ’36 Duesenburg with the 101" wheelbase.

Wow, that car costs a lot.

Ah, 50’s cars. Where auto designers liked to play guess where the gas fill is!

My father had a 1964 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, maroon with black leather seats. I loved driving her. My mom had to sell it and it broke my heart. Was a beautiful car.

’66 Chevy Impala. I called it The Big Blue Frog, because I was in love with it!

My first car was a Jack Benny Maxwell.

Chevy ruined their mainline cars when they tacked on all that junk to the understated ‘55 and ’56 body. If you want an outlandish yet attractive ’57 car, I’d suggest one of Chrysler’s “forward look” models.

“That’s not cherry”? Meaning?

‘65 Chevy BelAir, the ’Tank’. Cost $400 in ’71.

Those tablets on a lot of cars today CAN be a distraction. That’s why I heard that car manufacturers may soon do away with them.

And do more than sit there. The “horizontal tango” maybe??

57 Ford Fairlane, 61 Ford Galaxy 500(with the 390) three 66 Chevy Caprices, 65 Ford Mustang, 72 Chevy Impala and the list goes on for about 40 more, yes, I have had a lot of cars in my lifetime and looking for a new one right now.

American narcissism…with 6% of the global population has put 25% of the CO2 into the atmosphere since 1750…

My favorite was the 1955 DeSoto, which was parked next to a 1956 in the garage across our alley in St. Louis. Our car at the time was a [well-used] 1948 Packard.

My all time favorite car is a ‘70 Chevelle SS

I prefer the ‘55 Chevy. For those into that kinda thing, they’re known as the “tri five”( 55, 56, 57).

Even though I love cars, I hold no affection for any cars that I had in the past. Not sure why I feel that way, except that I prefer the increased reliability and safety of modern vehicles.

Coming up to more recent times…

We own a 2005 Pontiac Vibe (basically a Toyota) with 164,000 miles, and it’s still going strong. We hope that it will last until at least 2030.

I drive a 2015 Camaro that I bought as part of turning 62. It will last longer than I will, and I know that I will need to trade it in when I can no longer get in and out of it without great effort.

Only 10 years? I bought a 1995 Toyota T-100 in 1997. 26 years and 369,800 miles later I still drive it. I did finally break down and get me a 2011 Tacoma 4×4 used last year, I expect it’ll last me the rest of my life if it’s as good as the first one.

I’m with Arlo on this one!!! I actually owned a ’57 back in the day.

In talking to my students about the challenges television posed to the movie industry in the 1950s I include drive-ins and note that they were a nice compromise. Young parents could get out of the house to see a movie, but dress more casually, and put the kids to sleep in the back so they didn’t need to find a babysitter. I mentioned that the big bench back seat was a lot more comfortable than the bucket-style seats that came later, and much more convenient. I doubt any of them caught the implications. (these are college students FWIW)

We bought a RAV4 hybrid, a computer on wheels. Love it but purchased extended warranty (basically insurance) because if something goes wrong it is an expensive repair.

Back in ’69 or ’70, I was looking for a cheap car, and hoped someone would be selling a ’57 Chevy. The closest was a ’55, which I would have bought, but it was in bad shape. I ended up with a ’55 Buick, which had some problems, but it served me well for more years than I was expecting.

But new cars come with all those new features, like in car cameras. For you Tesla owners, it has been confirmed that Tesla engineers share the “Best” videos of what they see on the feed.

No ’57 Chevy.

My girlfriend got a new car 4 months ago. She hasn’t changed the radio station, can’t figure out how.

Just because a car is new, doesn’t make it better. Many cars today are good for over 200,000 miles if you do all the regular maintenance….

In the iconic ‘57 Chevy back seats a lot more than sitting was done!

cherry? told thats from the 50’s

I would call that a big miss! Love 57 Chevys!

No air conditioning, lousy gas mileage, no cruise control, big and clunky; no thanks.

Or for about $50,000 more, you could have bought a drivable replica of the Batmobile.

So which car have they actually bought now? Is it a Tesla?

New cars are a box of chocolates; never know what will reveal itself. I am still finding things in mine.

Grandpa had one. Gears sure would lock up.

Borrowed an idea from a friend of mine. He kept a soft towel in the car. Each morning he would wipe the chrome. Remember chrome?

I traded in my 13-year-old Civic for a 2020 Prius last spring, and it still feels like driving a spaceship, it’s so much newer and fancier! I love it!

When I was a young’un, my Dad had a ’62 Impala. Cherry red, with a black interior. First and only car he ever bought new…boy, did he love that thing. I just remember how hot the seats got in the summer!

Nowadays, the cheapest car you will ever have is the one you have right now. I have a ’97 Dodge 3500 farm truck, a ’13 Ford Escape, and an ’02 Jeep. No car payments.

I can’t remember where I learned about it, but the breakthrough in engine longevity was the use of a dummy head bolted (and torqued) to the block to deform the block the same way a cylinder head would. Before that the cylinders tapered near the head, doing bad things to the rings.

My favorite car was my mid 1990s Chevy Blazer S10. I would probably still have it if I had not opened my mouth in 2012 and said – I guess we should have one newer vehicle that we don’t have to worry about it dying on us. (Our other vehicle was a mid 1990s Astro Van, which is still our “other car” as we use it for craft shows/reenactment events.) Since then we have had 2 cars which were problems – a Honda Pilot – we did not get along with Honda/dealer and current Chevy Equinox, which if we did not have to always worry about it coming to the end of its life while we are out (especially to take 94yo mom who lives in next county to doctors – no way she could get into a van, she can barely make it into the car) we would not be looking for a replacement. (For car “guys” out there – yes, we put in the ventilated oil cap and the oil collection can to keep it going as long as we can while we figure out to replace it with.)