I stumbled across this site and HAD to register. I love wagons. I wish we had more to choose from again, but the dummies that run our car companies won't let us have them. I'm 35 and live in Marlborough, Ma., and used to teach high school. After no work and needing to change, I'm retraining to be a paralegal right now. Presently, I own a 1991 Caprice wagon, which unfortunately, is probably going to have to be junked due to frame and other problems. I'm looking at a couple of new wagons right now. I also have a 1977 Buick Estate Wagon that I want to restore once the funds are presnt. I've had that car since high school. Other interests aside from cars in general, are trains, music, reading, cooking, history, building models, architecture, traveling a little bit, and my activities with the Masons. Looking forward to getting to know all of you. Charlie Larkin
Welcome Charlie, glad you registered. That 77 will be a nice car to fix up. Did you drive it to school or just have it since then. If you did drive it to school was it a chick magnet , since you probably graduated in the early 90s? Also what kind of models do you build?
to the wagon train, charlie. Too bad about the 91 Cappy, but.....that 77 Buick is a great car to restore.
to the site Charlie. Sounds like teachers there are in the same position as teachers here, not enough jobs and cut backs. Glad you found the site, these guys will be great to have around when your ready to start your resto.
Chick magnet and me don't seem to go together in any sense of the word...actually, my car and I were subject to all kinds of nasty, deriding comments. Whatever. I graduated in 1993, so you're correct. We bought the car with the intention of me using it, but my dad's car got wrecked, so he usually ended up driving it, but I did take it once in awhile. It's been on the "fix" list since 1995. I'm hoping within the next couple of years I can really get into it. In the meantime, I at least want to get it sheltered and start doing something with it in terms of taking things apart. I build model cars, and used to do model railroading, but space has curtailed that for right now. I also build the occasional plane or ship. Charlie Larkin
It is a bit upsetting about my Chevy. I've had three of the new-style wagons, this one and two Buicks. In many respects, especially gas mileage, they're nice cars, but I've found a lot of the nice, solid quality of the 1977-90 cars just isn't there, especially in rust resistance and the interior odds and ends. These cars just don't seem to have the same solidity. In the drive to make newer cars like their "superior" foreign counterparts, the made the steel less rust-resistant, the body trap moisture and the interior parts somewhat chintzy. My grail now aside from a 1960s-70s full-size wagon, is an LT-1 powered B-body, and I'd happily take one of those, despite the short-comings, especailly after driving one a couple months ago. I just couldn't get the money together quick enough. I'm looking for a new car now, and am leaning towards a 1990 Custom Cruiser I ran across. Wagons in any condition, especially around here, seem to be very hard to find. Charlie Larkin
I don't think it's quite this way. I think the car companies would gladly build them if people would buy them. It's because people stopped buying them in favor of minivans that companies stopped making them. Having said that, though, I think they're making a comeback, but under a different name. We see these "crossover" vehicles now. They're supposed to be a combination of minivan, station wagon, and SUV. I owned one for several years, a Ford Freestyle. To me, that car was about 80% station wagon (overall appearance, standard swing-open, not sliding, passenger doors, fold down second and third seats to make large cargo floor), 19% SUV (elevated ride height, large-ish ground clearance), and 1% minivan (swing-up tailgate).
