Event Coverage The Rambler Adventure-Up The River

When I started working at a GM dealership years ago, most of my co-workers in the parts and service departments were generally understanding of some customer's frugality. But they were far less tolerant of the few who were dyed-in-the-wool CCP's (cheap, chiseling pr*cks).

 

Well, I'm no longer one of those Rambler owners...someone bought it today.

 

Rambler owners and Studebaker owners tended to be... "excessively frugal". We would say, if you can't afford to buy a car, buy a Rambler. Now that are sought out and are cool, as the fugly Edsel is back in vogue.

 

In the Studebaker world, the term for a frugal soul would be CASO (cheap assed Studebaker owner

 

Hey, I resent that. My first car was a '52 Studebaker... two friends and I coughed up $5 each for it and had one of our mom's tow it home for us. Two door with OD and a solid body; too bad none of us knew what we were doing mechanically.

 

I already bought an OT car to replace it....it might even be on my web page now....

 

My uncle had a '50 Studebaker... that was ugly. He always bought bare-bones no-frills cars. One of his last was a '69 or so Valiant with a 318 and a 3 on the tree.

 

Ok...??? That's not what I expected. Needless to say it has me curious.......

 

I’m going to take a look later when I wake up, but is this for next year’s leMons?

 

This year, now. But that's entirely off topic.

the Rambler went to a younger couple, the fellow brought his wife when he came to look at it, and she noticed the LeMons Rally badges I put on the back, and knew what LeMons was...so it was a pretty easy sale....

 

Paint it "Plan II" red and you can probably double your investment!

 

Jim,
Now there is room for another project .

Nick

 

yeah, the Rambler was parked outside for the last month or so. Which is how it sold, too...they saw it when driving past my house, and stopped in to look at it.

Now everything is inside again.

 

Well, that one is a surpris

 

Ah Yes.. that is off topic, so no talking about it, looks like fun.

 

I am glad the Rambler went to a good home, it now has a unique future!

 

When new Ramblers were generally known as economical cars with a lot of value for what you paid. They included some things that were optional on other cars. There were exceptions -- the bottom of the line Americans and even Classics cut every corner they could to be the cheapest cars. The 58-63 American bottom model only had the basics. It was really cheap for AMC to make -- the only successful reintroduction of an old model. AMC literally dusted off the old dies of the 1955 Nash Rambler for the 58-60, with only minor tweaks -- even dusted off the flat-head six! The 61-63 looks way different from the 58-60, but only the outer sheet metal, rear glass, and firewall are changed -- a really cheap re-skinning to make it look radically different.

As used cars they didn't hold their value starting in the mid 60s (from 58-64 they had very high re-sale values though). That the times most of us remember. Then they were throw-away used cars, back when everyone traded every 2-3 years and didn't want to be seen in anything much more than 3-5 years old!!

 

I heard a '65 Studebaker radio commercial, and the theme of it was that if you buy one, it won't look dated when next year's models come out because Studebakers always look the same! They were obviously getting desperate for a selling point.

 

Too bad you didn’t drive it up to Flagstaff the last couple of weeks, you could have done a nice tutorial on how to install snow chains!

 

Or made a buck or two installing chains/cables for flatlanders But if AZ is like CA you would have had to pass a test and get a chain installer's permit from the state.

 

They shut Ft Huachuca, and all the schools today, because of the storm. I went for a walk, lots of ice hiding under the snow on the roads.

And I live about 10 miles north of the Mexican border. In other words, pretty far south.