By Oliver B. Pollak in Richmond, California
Sixty years ago, 1960, I got my driver’s license in Los Angeles. But I am getting ahead of myself. We left London with its red double decker buses, underground, and signature black hackney cabs in November 1952. The last tram (aka streetcar or trolley) shut down on July 6, 1952, I still have a ticket…somewhere. We arrived in New York after a tempestuous North Atlantic crossing. We moved from a small Ohio town of 1900 people, where my grandfather, a Theresienstadt survivor, worked in a tuberculosis sanitarium, to mega-booming Los Angeles in 1954.
My mother and four-year-old sister flew to LAX America’s 5th busiest airport. My grandfather, father and I took the train. Public transportation in Los Angeles was a joke, the smog palpable. Los Angeles, a city of long distances and freeways, demanded an automobile.
Mother soon had a driver’s license. Dad had a couple of goes at the DMV before passing the exam. They bought a used 1951 Chevrolet and were disappointed by flat tires and other problems. It was not a lemon or crap car though I thought the sloped back ugly. Foreign competition touting economy, craftsmanship and reliability would soon take advantage of America’s declining reputation for quality. In 1955 we got a reliable white and black Chevrolet, a two-door sedan with hand crank windows, automatic transmission, no radio or air conditioning.
A 1956 family road trip to Carmel, San Francisco, the Redwoods and Tahoe resulted in our only scrapbook with Brownie camera photographs and ephemera, napkins, matchbooks, menus, postcards, park receipts, a “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” story. We took pictures of driving through a Redwood tree, and President Eisenhower waving to the crowd from a car at a Monterey golf course.
My parents purchased a Rambler produced by American Motors Corp (ceased production in 1969), Mercury Comet, produced between 1960-1977 (Mercury ceased production in 2011), and a DeSoto (Chrysler dropped it in 1960). My parents kept meticulous Germanic maintenance and expense records – showroom window stickers, sales contract, trade in credit, sales tax, loan papers with interest rate, registration certificate, insurance policy, and maintenance including oil change, tune up, steam cleaned engine, shock absorbers, mufflers, tires balancing and rotating, body shop repairs, and other receipts illuminating the ownership experience – which I have continued in an attenuated character, simply saving documents.
My father of blessed memory died in 1977; mother moved to Japanese cars. Karen’s parents owned a couple of anomalies. They won a Studebaker in an early 1950s raffle (production ceased in 1966) and purchased a used early 1960s pink Cadillac with flamboyant tailfins from an employer. Joe’s last car was an economical inconspicuous Dodge Colt.
We went to car shows at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. I rode my fat tire Schwinn bicycle to automobile showrooms and brought brochures home. My first car, a 1957 grey four door Ford purchased at a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power surplus property auction, had unsightly paint on the front doors covering where LADWP insignias once were. It got a car pool of college students back and forth from the Baldwin Hills area to Cal. State LA in East Los Angeles.
Karen and I married in May 1966 and drove the bedecked Comet to Malibu with “Just Married” shaving cream sprayed on the car and tin cans clanging behind, and then on to Ojai for our honeymoon.
The Ford Mustang debuted in 1964. It fell into that anomalous – gotta have – category. We traded in Karen’s 1961 Fiat, for which she paid $1800, and my Ford for a 1966 British racing green Ford Mustang for $2,522. We experienced some Ford syndrome, Fix or Repair Daily.
We went to London in 1970 to complete my dissertation research. Despite substantial bitterness my parents had from fleeing Hitler in the late 1930s they agreed to pick up a 1970 beige VW station wagon in Wolfsburg while on a European holiday and bring it to England. In 1971 we shipped it to Beira, Mozambique and drove it to Harari/Salisbury, Zimbabwe/Rhodesia where I taught. I sold it when we returned to the states in 1974.
We purchased a 1974 blue Toyota Corolla station wagon at Toyota in North Hollywood for $3,379, the first of our eight Toyotas. Toyota came to America in 1957. They had 384 dealerships in 1965 and sold their one millionth vehicle in 1972. In 1975 they became the biggest car importer to the US.
We purchased three used cars, one practical, and two whims. Newspaper classified ads listed cars as new, used and vintage. The 1970 VW bus moved our possessions in Los Angeles. It struggled from Salt Lake City and over the Rockies. On a very cold snowy day in late 1979 I took the LSAT, the VW heater did not work. A reliable 1981 orange Toyota Tercel (a precursor of the Echo), costing $5683, replaced the funky transporter. It took me between home, teaching and taking law school classes. I like smaller vehicles and had a shine for the 1950s Nash Metropolitan, America’s first “compact.”
In high school I longed for an MG. I settled for a 1969 red Karmann Ghia in 1976 for $1095. The thirty day or 1,000 mile guarantee on the motor and drive train did not cover the rusty floor or persistent cabin fuel smell. I could not call Click and Clack, the Car Guys only went national on NPR in 1987. I sold it in 1977 for $800. Our 1970 red Saab acquired in 1980 with 65,000 miles cost $600 and sold for $150 in 1981. The Ghia and Saab were impractical period piece whims.
In 1982 we traded in the 1974 Toyota wagon for $1007 and welcomed a butter yellow Datsun (now Nissan) Stanza hatchback with sunroof for $9,896. Interest was an incredible 14.9%.
We purchased a 1986 brown Toyota Corolla which cost $8818. The Tercel had 58,000 miles and we got a $2536 trade in. The interest rate was 10.5%. At 210,000 miles my son suggested getting something safer, with airbags.
We went into five figures in 1986 with a “prestigious” 1987 silver Chrysler Lebaron GTS Turbo for $17,283. It started our leather seats fetish. The 1983 Nissan generated a $4198 trade in. The interest rate had dropped to 4.8%
In late 1989 I paid sticker price for a red 1990 Mazda Miata fulfilling the MG longing. It fell into the new – gotta have – category. Impractical in winter, and increasingly difficult to get out off, it languished in our three car garage. We attended a program at the JCC featuring Nebraska-born writer Tillie Olsen and filmmaker Ann Hershey whose Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action” appeared in 2007. A hail storm hammered our Avalon and Miata and many other cars in the parking lot as well as house roofs. Karen collected $7000, I suggested a diamond ring, she had the body repaired. The Miata came in at $4200. I replaced the shredded black rag top, retained the dimples, and pocketed the rest. My cv indicates “In Preparation, – 1990 Mazda Miata – A Midlife and Late Midlife Crisis.” After back surgery in 2011 I said goodbye to stick shifts and clutches. The Craig’s List purchaser returned to display the undimpled Miata.
In 1998, Karen became the happy owner of a 1999 champagne sable Toyota Avalon LTD. For $32,969, with $4441 for the trade in for the Chrysler with 134,688 miles. Most our vehicles were practical and economical, some spoke modest prestige, a couple were whims. We permitted ourselves leather luxury. LTD, connoting a degree of exclusivity, a premium for additional creature comforts, stands for Luxury trim décor.
We have had three cars in the 21st century. We special ordered 2004 teal blue Toyota Corolla, with stick, leather, and sunroof. It took a couple of months to arrive from Kentucky.
Karen replaced her sable 1999 Avalon with a 2011 silver Toyota Avalon, our most expensive car, $34,995, with ungainly coffee cup holders and CD player.
Uninspired by Toyota I purchased a 2011 blue sky metal Korean Hyundai Elantra, LTD, ‘the new Toyota,’ with automatic transmission for $23,000 at 2.19%. I U-Hauled it to California in 2016 and drove about 2,000 miles a year.
Gas in 1960 cost $0.31 per gallon. Gas wars lowered the price to .25. Leaded gas was phased out. We went from rear wheel to front wheel drive, but no all-wheel drive. Our cars were predominantly 4 cylinders, except for the Avalon and the American cars.
In the early days with a car creeper, I changed oil, spark plugs, brake fluid, radiator coolant, checked tire pressure, used a grease gun for zerk fittings, loosened nuts with WD-40, and applied Rust-Oleum to rust. We hosed the car in the driveway, used a chamois, applied Turtle wax and carnauba to the exterior and Armor All inside.
Metal curb finders, deer whistle deterrents, white wall tires, radio antennas and chrome are gone. Designers piled on conveniences, power windows, air conditioning, moon/sun roof, keyless entry and ignition, sound systems, convenient and awkward cup holders, seat belts and the insoluble back seat passengers struggle, electric garage openers, top rack, bike rack, cell phone ports, seat heaters and GPS.
Prices rose from $1800 in 1963 to $35,000 in 2010. We did not always get the car we wanted because we did not think it worth it. The gold standard, Volvo, eluded us, it took too much gold. Moderate frugality prevailed, reinforced considering that immediately upon leaving the showroom, driven off the lot, depreciation set in.
Karen and I have driven over 1½ million miles. We endured the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, long lines and designated days at gas stations, emission standards, health, geopolitics, sustainability, and speed limits. We consumed thousands of gallons of gas, followed the owner’s manual maintenance schedule and fortunately had few safety recall notices, accidents or tickets. Our bane has been stones cracking three windshields. We have had our share of dead batteries and flat tires. We left snow tires, ice scrapers, snow chains in Nebraska. “All weather tires” are sufficient.
We’ve seen DeLorean (1981-1983) and Saturn (General Motors, 1990-2010) come and go, DeSoto, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Packard, Plymouth, Pontiac, and Studebaker disappear, and so much more arrive from Acura to Volvo and Yugo, the most dramatic being the Japanese and Korean invasion as well as England, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. The Prius hybrid and Tesla all electric arrived and shocked aspiring consumer environmental buying habits. If we want another.
We did not give our car names or get vanity plates. I hung a few Nebraska plates in our California garage. We change cars when mileage, repair bills, and wanting something fresh converged. The veterans were sold, traded in, never donated or junked. Earlier the year my granddaughter took possession of my 1911 Hyundai with 50,000 miles.
Brand and patriotic loyalty no longer run deep. Only two cars, Mustang and Chrysler, were American made — both Lee Iacocca’s handy work. Merchandizing, reliability, price, panache and convenience influence purchases. We have a long relationship with Allstate car insurance, a couple of years with Farmers, and a couple of Geico contemplations.
We were not around for the introduction in the 1920s of laminated safety glass that reduced head and facial injuries and electric starters. We witnessed the development of seat belts, children’s seats, airbags, declining use of chrome and bumpers, improved tire technology, car phones, and front and rear seat heaters.
Cars age, so do drivers. The array of electronic safety sensors has descended from luxury cars to standard equipment. Technology assists safe driving. Uber, Lyft and Waymo are alternatives.
If we go car shopping we won’t look under the hood, kick tires, check if it had a full size spare tire, or an electric pump. We will focus on safety features, trade in for a 2011 car with over 150,000 miles, and financing.
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Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D., is an historian and Northern California correspondent for San Diego Jewish World. He and his wife Karen live in Richmond, California.