View from a seasoned owner

[Curt's_72]

While I was hanging out in the garage this past Sunday, watching football and having a few 'sodies', I glanced up at the old picture which I've encluded to back up my rambling. Taken in 1979, I was nineteen years old and it was my first of four so far of these trucks. It was an old cool truck then, but it was only seven years old. My buddies and I knew these were cool trucks and nothing has changed that today. I paid $1200 for it and only had to do some minor mechanicals to make it my daily winter driver. My big block 4 speed '68 Nova didn't get around too well in snow. Pop didn't care for two of my vehicles in his driveway, but that's another issue.
Anyway, at the time, this truck was only seven years old, but it was an old truck. Today, our latest '72 is in pieces being restored, and my daily driver is a '95 Blazer. Wifey drives a '99 Tahoe and is our long distance family truckster. Neither are considered old by today's standards. Just seemed odd that it was old then but today's stuff isn't as old for some reason.

[mclairmo]

My folks had a late 70's Chevy Luv truck and Malibu wagon and an 84 C10 and junked them after only about 80,000 miles each. However, they were pretty much junk by then, all ran like crap and we were at S&J Chevrolet every weekend getting repairs done. I think cars and trucks did not last as long back then before having major problems or maybe people were just used to junking them after 80,000 miles or maybe it was just my folks being wasteful, not sure now.

[special-K]

Nice truck!!!Thanks for the old photo.

Many are still lasting today.but,it`s true.Vehicles were considered old way sooner back then.and if you liked that "old" stuff (which I always prefered) you could get it for cheap.Remember how peoplw would come up and say,"I had one of those.Wish I never got rid o it"? I always thought,"So,why did they get rid of it?"
in`77 I restored a`69 Dodge truck.I mean frame-off (yeah,I know...Dodge,go figure).I replaced the cab with a less rusty one,even.Parts were hard to find,plenty in the junkyard though.The dealer was a PIA to get parts for (I know...Dodge,again).that was the last time I strayed from GM.But anyway,my truck was about the only one like it on the road in my area.I moved to AZ in`80 and saw a few.It was a rare truck (I know,Dodge).

[rwolf9653]

I know what you mean, I saw an S-10 with historic tags the other day. Really? An S-10? They are still new. I did the math and it could be over 25 years! They just dont seem to have the same "classic" feel as other vehicles. For me the line for "old" stops somewhere in the early 80"s, depending on the vehicle.

[Spoof]

You bring up a good point. In 1979 I can remember how classic my 71 Chevelle SS was. A nice Cheyenne pick up drew a lot of comments and offers to buy, and were appreciated as much then as now.
As an 16 year old I loved the muscle car era and so did my buddies. Seemed like ancient history but it was a mere 10 years past. Maybe it's just our perspective has changed.

[ChevLoRay]

I always drove "old" cars. My first one was a 10-yr old '54 Ford 2-dr, V8, stick, dual exhaust, nosed, decked, bar grille and '56 Olds taillight lenses. It had a set of Lancer 4-bars and "Double-Eagle" Port-A-Walls. It was painted '56 Dodge Royal Lancer Blue Metallic and it was the love of my high school senior lifestyle. Crazy thing is my dad had to co-sign for me to buy it for the princely sum of $225! He said, "Well, I guess that anything worth driving is gonna be worth at least $200". Wow. I can't think of taking $2000 for my '96 and that won't even touch my '69! Heck, the wifes' Lexus is now a 12-yr old, born in '98. With only 178K on the clock, it's starting to be broken in, while my '96GMC is the low-mileage vehicle at 145K, unless the '69 odometer is showing 13K on top of once around, i.e., 113K. Starting to think it might be right.