O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle Aug. 23

I'm waiting on two soon-to-be-released 1:43 cars that are already pre-ordered and thinking about several others, all from Diecast Direct.  Their website says their images are copyrighted so I will respect their request and did not copy and paste pictures, they are:

1959 Ford convertible (IXO - about $60).  This for detective Dick Diamond (I think he had a '58 but this is closest I can find)

1954 Buick Roadmaster coupe,Highway Patrol" (Brooklin) (Broderick Crawford).

I am also interested in but have not yet ordered:

1960 Facel Vega Excellence (IXO) Not sure why I find Facels so interesting: I've seen exactly one Facel in my whole life, but they intrigue me.

MGTC (Vitesse) - I have just about every other MG model, even an Arnolt MG coupe, but not the TC - might as well make a full set!

Lee, this is very interesting as it is exactly the same model and color of the Franklin Mint one produced years ago. Wonder if it is from the same tooling? On eBay, the FM model goes from $60.-$100.+. I own 2 of them.

It looks to be identical - same two-tone colors, same opening doors, etc., same colors, trim, Continental pare tire kit, etc. , but I can't tell from the photos.  Certainly can't be much to choose between them if they aren't the same.

HI Richard

First, thank you for the weekly chronicles on model cars. I do have many in my collection for my collection as well as buses !! I will take some pictures and post them. With the new offerings you listed, the Chevrolet, it is a 1973 from what I can tell based on the photo. 

TY

Steve Marko !

You're correct, it is a 1973 typing is not one of my strong skills. I'll make a correction

Richard 6/3 I showed the Esval Packard on your O Scale Motor Vehicles. Take a look.

Bob

This model gives you an excuse to own 3...top up, top down, and top halfway up/down. I saw one at the dealers back in '59. What was left of the truck area may have held 2 suitcases standing up. Heaven help you if the motor conked-out halfway up (maybe it had a emergency hand crank?).

I understand that both that Ford and later on the convertible Eldorados in the '70s (the 8.2-liter ones) were nightmares because their tops didn't have any way to operate them in an emergency and they tended to fail more often than not. 

I think that the Fords were okay if you took care of the motors and di maintenance on them routinely.  But if the motors on the Ford or hydraulics (Caddy) failed, your were toast: had to unbolt stuff and manually move the top to closed and lock it there.  I was told in the '80s that the Eldorado was dangerous - if the top failed half way up you could crush fingers, etc., trying to loosen brackets so as to move it into place manually if you didn't know exactly what you were doing.  I loved the engines in those cars (with 500 cubic inches, who cares how heavy it is) but otherwise I stayed away from them.  .  Its the same with retractable headlights.  How many Miatas, Toranados and Riverias have you seen running around with the headlight spermannetly "open" becuas the mechanism failed and the owner had to disassemble and lock them in position. 

With all the mechanical and electronic gadgets on modern cars, you don't want to still be driving them when they get old and start needing repairs.

Many appliances we buy are really  "throw away" products.  Who would bother to have a DVD or Blue-Ray player fixed if it broke?  Just buy another - it's cheaper and less hassle.  It might get to be the same with cars.  It would be infrequent, though, because durability seems excellent: they last a good 10-12 years and 150K+ miles.   

Still, I worry about this because I own two cars that are each a "potential nightmare" in this regard.  One is a Chevy Volt - 32 computers, five internal networks, and ten million lines of code - and a gas and an electric drive train, plus a $6K battery pack replacement that will eventually wear out in time: my car's computer predicts mine will last twelve years because of the mild way I drive it, but still).   I have to admit though, that so far it is bullitproof: two years now and the best daily driver I've ever had. 

My other car is worse, a high-end Italian job with 22 computers and, the factory claims, 43 miles of wiring in its 2950 lb carbon fiber chassis (no easy grounds here and no shielding of EMF as in most cars).  It has dynamically adjusting everything, and hundreds of sensors like tire temperature monitoring, not just pressure.  So much to go wrong, so far to send away for parts, and course, just one pace in the state that can work on it. Still, I've had it three years (but only 5000 miles) and its never given any problems, so you just hope. 

I was looking at my '52 Fiat the other day and thinking: these things were wretchedly bad performers in every way compared to today's cars, but they sure were simply to work on.

Fiat stands for "Fix It Again, Tony"

 I was once told, Fiat= Fix it again today.

Fiat Spyders in the 60s:  I remember that the back end of everyone I ever saw was covered in oil.

Yeah, but see it didn't really matter, because while the engine covered rear rear of the car with a thick layer of oil including obscuring the taillights and brake lights, they didn't work so it made no difference!

The major problem I had with my 124 was that the parking brake mechanism would wear out every six months, like clockwork.  Woe be to the poor owner who forgot to leave his 124 in gear when parked.  I would have ignored that and just lived without, but the car would not pass annual inspection without it.  Replacing it was a royal pain in the butt that required nearly a day's work.  Over the years I owned it, I replaced/rebuilt the mechanism so many times that I actually stripped the threads on some of the mounting holes in the cheap soft, pre-rusted metal Fiat used for mounting the mechanism and had to retap them with bigger bolts.  Grrrr, the thing was a delight to drive on a sunny day when it was running well, but that was not enough to make up for all the hassles.

I had a couple of Alfas later on that were the opposite.  They both rusted (badl in places), had minor things like trim and all and a few instruments go bad, etc.,  but they would always run, run well, and run hard if asked.  And the engine - geez, The Alfa DOHC four was one of the best ever made.

With regard to Lee Willis' comments about retractable headlights:  My all time favorite

post 1940 car is the 1966-67 Dodge Charger, which had those, and their problems.

In 1966 in a brand new Charger, I was half way across the country, down on the

bank of the river on the Merced River in Yosemite NP (where I would not be today!!),

with the hood up trying to get a stuck light to close.  (I unplugged the wiring and

locked them both open).  It had a 383 and four speed and otherwise was a very

good car that was, apparently, only loved by me, as that style only lasted two years.  I camped all over the country in it, and would buy one with modern fuel efficient engine and six speed in a heart beat, if only I could.  The FORD acronym from the

Model T era was, "Fix Or Repair Daily".

LMAO - I remember them as being like roaches trying to run away from everyone.

Sounds like Fiat might have copied the Brits like the Japanese did, all the way down to the little things that didn't work or work well.  

I read somewhere that the Brits really loved their Austin Healey and similar two seater cars because those cars would always give them something to repair every weekend.

When the Nissan plant opened near Nashville, TN Chamber of Commerce members got special tours of the plant during pre-production.  They showed us a restored imported Datsun from the early 50's and said the the reason for the Datsun name instead of Nissan was they were afraid that the cars might initially give them a bad name in the U.S.  And they were right - our guide said the first Datsun imports would vibrate and shake so badly at highway speeds that they couldn't be driven more than 45 mph as I recall.  The obviously improved, but it was a long time before they changed from Datsun to Nissan.

A friend of mine and his wife  both that unfortonally had early Honda Civics. They were both just junk. The Japanese leaned quickly about quality control. Today Hondas are bullet proof. J.D. Powers claims The worst cars made today are better than the best cars made 10 years ago. 

That is very true.  Not sure who make the worst today, but sticking with Fiat, since I was beating them up earlier - the current Fiat 500 is a fairly good car by any standard, and requires less maintenance, service, and repair than any car did back in the '70s, for example. What is amazing to me is that the Abarth version, which while a hot rodded version still gets about a zillion miles per gallon, is faster in every way than my Dad's '65 425 cid, 365HP Olds Super 88 which got, if memory serves, about 11 mpg on a good day.