Cars

We have had a lot of cars over the years. Some of them we liked and some were "just okay." These are a few that we liked and still own. Starting with the oldest, they are:

Dad special ordered this car. The styling inside and outside were used for the 1974 and 75 Imperial, which did not sell well. Chrysler cancelled the Imperial for 1976 and switched the styling for the Imperial to the New Yorker and made many of the standard features optional.  They then moved the New Yorker styling to the Newport Custom and the Newport Customs design to the Newport. This turned out to be very good for Chrysler as they sold a lot more cars.

This is my 1983 Imperial. I bought it between finals and graduation. Dad always had large cars, and so that's what I grew to prefer. I never really cared for loud or fast cars; comfortable is more to my liking. But I really didn't need a big, huge four door car, either. This worked for me and I liked its design. A convertible would have been nicer, but there were very few available at that time and the ones available, such as the Mercedes SL, were expensive.

Overall it's been a good car for me. I did have some issues with the EFI system, as did nearly everyone else, but I didn't let the dealer convert it to a carburetor. I kept working with the dealer to get it working right. Usually I'd take it to the dealer with some issue and they're return it a week or two later saying, "It's much better, now. Not perfect, but better. Bring it back if you're not happy and we'll take another look at it. $1,000.00 please. Pay the cashier." That was in the 80s when a thousand dollars was real money, not monopoly money as it is today.

This is our third Mark VIII. The first two we leased, but when Lincoln announced that they were discontinuing the model and that there would be no successor, we decided to buy this one instead of leasing. These are probably the last really good luxury cars that Ford engineered and produced. While the Town Car remained in production years longer than the Mark VIII, it was based on a very old design that first appeared in the 1970s! The Mark VIII, on the other hand, was throughly modern and up-to-date for the 1990s. Even today, she's still a pretty nice driving car.

After the Mark VIII Ford lost its will to compete in the luxury car market. Today, there are no Lincoln cars, only trucks. That's sad.

Eventually, we needed something to replace the Lincoln Mark VIII as the miles were accumulating pretty quickly. Visiting different dealers, the Lincoln dealership we were using had closed, we saw a Jaguar sedan (saloon as they prefer) at a combined Lincoln and Jaguar dealership and liked the car. ... but hated the salesperson. We saw this car at a different Jaguar dealership and was able to get a great deal on it because it was a factory demo car with not quite 5,000 miles on it.

The conventional wisdom about Jaguars is wrong. Partly wrong. These cars that were built while Ford owned the company are very good. The electrical system, parts, and motors were sourced from Bosch and Denso, not Lucas. When they designed the cars, Jaguar wanted an all aluminum car for lightness and strength, which is better for both handling and fuel economy. Jaguar brought in outside expertise for the body design. They did a very good job. Even after more than two decades, this car is squeak and rattle free. We have, at the time of this writing, over 160,000 miles and she runs great!

Sadly, under Jaguar's new owners, quality seems to have slipped. Again. We test drove a XJL Portfolio Edition that was built under the new owners. The test drive did not go well, so we switched brands.

This is Sadie the Mercedes and one of our current daily drivers. It's a really nice car and was pretty well equipped with options. The E400 had as standard a number of options that were extra cost on the E350 models. This one also has a number of extra Designo features such as the Designo trim, nappa leather seats, and other design items. It's the last year that Mercedes produced the W212 cars, which have an excellent reputation for reliability. It's a very nice car to drive with great road manners.

This is Luna, so named because she's painted Lunar Blue Metallic. I've always wanted a convertible, but never bought one because "they're impractical." But this is the best car ever in my opinion. It is comfortable, drives really well, looks nice, the interior is great, and, best of all, the top goes down and I'm outside!