That car and phone is what Joe Mannix would’ve been pushing around in and calling Peggy on, if the show had lasted till ‘85!
That car phone was the last of that type, because cellular service was just plain better. But it surprises me that it ended up in a mid-'80s car for the sole reason that car cell phones were all the rage. I'd have to say, this must've been owned by someone who had that radiotelephone service for a looooong time and refused to change. Edit: I did a bit of reading on Wikipedia, which showed that IMTS (the mobile radiotelephone service) was severely limited in its scope and usage due to bandwidth restrictions, and consequently, a waiting list to get one. That may explain why the original owner of this convertible kept the telephone set for so long. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Mobile_Telephone_Service
Middle son's mother in law drove one of those the same color for years. As for the phone, could that be a CB radio? I had one that looked like that in my 1965 Mustang fastback. I think mine was called a Citiphone?????? I had 102" whip antenna on the back. Could that be a small CB antenna with a load at the base?
No, the Citiphone is a radiotelephone. There's no way the FCC would've allowed any telephony to go over any channel other than what was allocated to Ma Bell. It is as I had stated in my previous post, an IMTS phone.
