In 1959 I was working in a wood sash and door plant and I owned a nice 1950 Desoto club coupe, like the one pictured. It was big and comfortable. My gal pal asked could she drive my car to school the next day and pick me up after I got off work. Dumb ol' me said, sure. Well, I got my car back a crumbled mess. Seems she pulled out in front of a classmate in a '57 Chevy. The Chevy's whole front end was wiped out, but my beloved Desoto had the right side pushed way in and windows broke, but I was still able to drive it home. One tough old car. Another old person's car. The flathead 6 cylinder engine and fluid drive tranny couldn't push the heavy car off the starting line with any real speed, but it was a dependable car.
1960 MEMORY- I got married in 1960 and was driving a beautiful (to me) 1948 Pontiac fastback coupe, exactly like the one in the photo. Mine was shiny black with all the usual Pontiac chrome. I was at work and my new wife was out with my car, running errands. After work, she stopped to pick me up. It was then I noticed a huge gouge and rip in the right front fender. Wifey had an argument with a fire plug. Pontiac-0, fire plug-1. Clearly, I should Never let a woman drive my car.
In 1955, I use to drive my stepdads 41 Olds. It was the first year of the GM Hydro-mastic transmission. It didn't take me long to blow up the tranny as it wasn't made for my driving antics. He refused to let me drive it after that episode. Picture was taken in 56, but this is the same car.
You guys are lucky to have driven those vintage cars, the so called gas guzzler with 8-cylinder engines. When I was in pre-school, my father bought a Ford Mustang. It was not brand new but still sleek and classy. That car was the talk of the town, so to speak, and my mother had immediately enrolled in a driving school. My benefit was that car became my sort of school service. My mother would bring me to school in that Mustang and if her schedule permits, I would hear the horn during dismissal at school. When the going got tough, my father sold the car for the money.
I had a 1958 Chevrolet. Although not the cool car that the 1957 model was, it sure was a dependable car. Mine was thrashed when I found it behind a gas station in 1966 or 1967. The body was badly dented, and there were no tires. However, the gas station owner put a battery in it and it started right up. Add four tires and it was ready to go. I paid $30 for it. I used to play bumper cars with it. A group of four of us who drove cars that were, shall we say less than pristine, would bash into one another's cars when we came across them in traffic. I might be sitting at a traffic light when a friend would come behind me and bump me, so I'd reverse and bump into him. Someone would call the police and we'd both deny it, insisting that any damage they might find was already there.