Vintage dealerships

^^^^ I've been in that showroom.....

In fact, I've purchased a vehicle there.
When I lived in Orange, CA. from 1981, until I moved to Oregon in 2009, Selman Chevy was my local Chevy dealer.
Remember my story about me purchasing a 1984 Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park wagon in early 1989? (And then the wagon burning up in Las Vegas about 10 days later....)? This is where I purchased that wagon.

You will find the FULL story of what happened in my post on the 'Cars You've Owned' thread, on page 3:
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/cars-youve-owned.1326/page-3#post-330672

 

That's the first time I've heard of a Panther having an electrical fire. I'm glad you didn't find out it was burning while driving it!

 

It was an odd situation. The wagon seemed fine for the first few days we had it. On the Friday we were due to head to Las Vegas, So Cal got hit with a really bad (and cold) storm. The wagon didn't seem to like the cold weather - couldn't get any heat out of it in the passenger compartment. It was OK on Saturday, but then on Sunday morning at the coffee shop, it decided to blow up. The electrical fire seemed to be concentrated around the connections on top of the engine - like the computer control of the carburetor or something. Insurance company didn't want to bother with paying an investigator to determine the cause. They rarely do that.

 

And were you already working in the insurance industry at that time?

 

Yes, I was. And my insurance company was also my employer. They took care of me though, basically paying me back for what I paid for the wagon, less my deductible. Bad part was, it was the wife's daily at the time, so I wasn't able to find another with the time crunch, which would have been a big issue with the missus anyway......

 

Yeah, that really sucks. I would guess the injector power wiring was at fault, but I'm just glad it was early enough you guys were able to get out without harm. I've had wiring burn, and finding out it's burning certainly gave me a shot of adrenaline.