by Kev442 » Sun May 13, 2007 5:02 pm
In 1975 my parents bought my brother a used '74 Vega coupe for college. They took his '67 Belvidere in trade for my sister. I got a couple rides in it and remember two things. That hood was sooo low that you could see everything on the road like you had a microscope! The other was it was so light that when we hopped in it after an ice storm, it just slid down the road and into the intersection and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.
In '79 he came home and bought a really nice '77 Tbird, a beautiful triple blue. That was a big step up from the turd brown Vega! He sold my sister the Vega for $300. and she drove it for a couple years until she got married and got a '77 Grand Prix. She musta liked my brothers TBird, because it was triple Blue too. Soooo, the Vega became mine for that same $300. They had changed one dead 2.3 for a nice smokey one, but it ran! I used that ride for several years as a winter beater/work car until I spied a '77 Starfire SX on a car lot. Fully loaded V6 and American rims, awesome! I sold the Vega for $450. (I put Rallye rims and white letter rubber on it). Here's the kicker: I never even considered that my Vega coupe and Starfire Hatch were the same car! Heck, they still made Vegas until '77 and I wasn't a big car nut then over HBodys, so I wasn't paying attention. I figured they shared some components, but until I did brakes and found the same weird plastic slide guides, then it hit home. I sold the '77 in '86 and picked up an '80 Sunbird for the wife in '90 or so. Cheap and ran good. She hated it! Gone by '92 for an '85 Firenza.
So, from '92 until '05, no H bodies, but I always thought about the '77 and how much I liked the car. I only disliked the V6, another oil monster. So, like the ad, I could've had a V8, and I finally went out and found one! (Then another, but that's a different story!)
1978 Olds Firenza x2!