Do You Remember When?

Remember When...

June 20, 2011

In 1969, a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am started at $4,366 and a gallon of gas was 39 cents. Here’s a look back at some other bits of automotive trivia—and some amazing prices—from a bygone age.
1933: Franklin Roosevelt was in The White House and Richard Hollingshead opened the first movie Drive-In in Camden, New Jersey. The Depression was at its peak with unemployment at 25 percent. A gallon of gas cost 10 cents and a Plymouth 6-Car cost $445.

1946: Gas was 21 cents per gallon, minimum wage was 40 cents per hour, and the average income in the United States hovered around $3,150 per year. Automotive factories had only recently switched back to making cars after years of World War II production of military vehicles and tanks. A Buick Roadmaster Sedan started at $1,822. Price for a Chevrolet Fleetmaster: $1,280.

1958: Toyota and Datsun cars went on sale in the United States the year Elvis Presley joined the army. Cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette ($3,631), the Nash Metropolitan ($1,626), Chrysler New Yorker ($4,347), Ford Edsel Corsiar ($3,346) and Oldsmobile Super 88 ($2,958) went for prices that today would be considered a steal.

1969: The year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, Sesame Street and Monty Python’s Flying Circus made their television debuts, a Toyota Corona sold for $1,950, a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was $4,438 and gas was 35 cents per gallon.

1980: With American car makers reeling from the recession and foreign competition, two of the most popular cars in recent memory—the Camaro Coupe ($7,571) and the Pontiac Trans Am ($7,179)—were taking a backseat to more fuel efficient, subcompact models. A Datsun 210 sedan cost $4,516, a Toyota Celica around $5,964 and the national average for a gallon of gas was $1.19.

1990: With home prices averaging around $123,000, the Ford Mustang Convertible was moderately priced at around $14,289. Gas cost $1.34 per gallon and imports like the Toyota Camry sold for around $9,989


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Is the Gas Going Out of Classic Cars?

With the increase in prices and the introduction of ethanol into the fuel, the combustion engine is under assault and is about to run out of gas. 

As a lover of the Classic Car I have a deep interest in what is happening with the price of fuel. Why? 

To understand just how much of attack our classics are under just pick up one of the highly published car magazines, such as Motor Trend or Automotive Magazine and notice the acclimates You have to know when they start touting the 0-60's or the 1/4miles, or the bizarre combined HP and ft. lbs. of these whining electric magnets it may be time to get concerned about the future of Classic Cars as we have known them. 

In the very near future the gas combustion engine, the engines that have been the work horses, the engines that carried lovers to lover’s lane and to A & W’s for most of a century now will give way to the electric transporter. As for me I find a Segway, the two wheel green mailman transporters to be more interesting. 

How is demise of the combustion engine coming about? Why is government not stepping in with the price gouging? Why is Exxon not worried? The answers to those questions are complicated and multilayered yet simple, money.

We will never know exactly why just like we will never know why the stock market climbs and at the same time the price of gas climbs and unemployment climbs. We can be sure though that of the banks, the investment companies, the government and the gas companies are not done stripping the rest of our hard earn savings from us.

My best advice is while you can afford to and while you can still purchase fuel that a Classic Car can run on, get that car that you have always wanted, take her to lover’s lane, enjoy a stop at an A & W and run the wheels off of it.

The time for combustion engine is running out of gas and you and I have an obligation to enjoy ever last minute of it.

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