I have been wanting an old car lately.  I don’t know why.  It just seemed, well, fun.  I had a picture I took of a 1976 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight on my desktop because it was blue with a white vinyl top and rear wheel covers, just like my grandfather’s.  I actually wondered if it could be the exact same car but my mom said it didn’t look exactly like it when I sent her the picture.  What?  In my mind it’s the exact...same...car.  But she remembers with an adult mind and I’ve got foggy childhood memories. 

There was a 1974 Plymouth Valiant on Craigslist I wanted. 

But they wanted to get it running before they showed it.  Um, then don’t put it on Craigslist, lady.  Oh well, their loss.  Actually, that car had the slant six and manual steering and brakes.  Tough little thing.  It would have taken effort to drive it.  Something like the Olds of course has everything – power windows, brakes, a/c, steering…and a gas guzzling big block V8 if it’s the same as my Grandfather’s.  I think that thing had a 455.  Sheesh.  And it was huge.  Whereas the Plymouth would fit in one side of our garage, the Olds would not.  And I wasn’t sure I wanted something that big.  If I did, I thought, I’d get a Cadillac.  This was before I realized I was a Lincoln man: I fell in love with a 1971 Lincoln Mark III.  I test drove it.  It ended up being too expensive and needing too much work.  Sigh.  The search continued.

What does this have to do with Dave Grohl?  It does.  I promise.

The funny thing I realized is that I didn’t want a super cool, super nice car.  Everyone wants muscle cars; camaros, barracudas, chevelles, blah blah blah.  That’s why they cost a fortune too.  I wanted the forgotten car from the 70’s with faded paint.  I pictured myself driving around in that Plymouth Valiant with an old man’s hat and a pipe clenched in my teeth.  And horn rimmed glasses for some reason.  Why?  I don’t know.  Sometimes things just come to mind.

I even thought about an old pick up truck, but those are almost always rusted to pieces.  And that has a whole different feeling about it anyway.

But I did find a car.  The perfect marriage of price and style that I was going for and
 
THIS



IS



THE



CAR


I


BOUGHT:

A 1978 Chrysler New Yorker.  As big a car as you can get I think and it’s not a Cadillac OR a Lincoln (although I believe I’m still a Lincoln man at heart).  It’s funny how things work out.

And for you fact finders I paid $1300 and put another couple hundred into it (brakes, battery, etc.).  It has a 400 cubic inch V8 and gets about 10 miles per gallon.  But it rides like a dream and there is just something about turning corners with a hood sticking out a mile in front of you. 

Oh yeah, what does this have to do with Dave Grohl?  Well, consider this my tribute to the man I obviously don’t hate as much as I proclaim...

Here’s the video for White Limo.  And for the record, Dave’s car is a Cadillac. 

Nerd.