My next project?

**dlw** · 05-05-2002, 04:37 PM

Just for a laugh I drove by this jewel after seeing it in the paper for sale. To my horror, my 14 year old daughter feel in love with it! Being a true obsessed detailer`s daughter, her biggest concern is if the silver can be made shiney enough. Now that the Prelude is basically done, I admit to being a little tempted. Good Lord, I think I`d detail a pizza delivery car given the chance! I was so embarrassed looking at this thing that you`ll notice that I did a drive-by photo shoot so no one would see me looking at it!

**Lemonxxs** · 05-05-2002, 06:56 PM

GO FOR IT!!!!!! PACERs rule!!!! HEck get a GREMLIN too!

Good Luck!

**imported_seres** · 05-05-2002, 07:08 PM

That`s so funny!!

It seems that the cars that I thought were so tacky when I was in high school (grad. `83), my kids think are so cool!?! (hmmm, and the clothes, too...

)

**imported_BretFraz** · 05-05-2002, 09:27 PM

Dan, I hate to say it but this is one of those little things where one shows their age. I understand that to some folks the Pacer is a hideous monstrosity, but with younger crowd, Pacers are so cool they`re off the dial.

I guarantee you, put your son in his Prelude and have him drive it to school and gauge the reaction to it. Then let him drive the Pacer and the reaction will be a whole lot different.

Honda`s, BMW`s, Mustang GT`s are a dime-a-dozen clone cars. But Pacers are forever unique and hip.

**boywonder** · 05-05-2002, 09:29 PM

Pacers are starting to become collectible cars. So are Gremlins. Javelins were already pretty hot as muscle cars.

**bigltc** · 05-05-2002, 09:59 PM

You`ll need a Chevette, Pinto and Vega to round out the collection!

LOL

bigltc

**dlw** · 05-05-2002, 10:33 PM

Hey, I did buy a brand new Pinto (root beer color w/vinyl top!) back in `73! It was the one item that I readily let my ex-wife take with her. She had to replace the engine about 2 months later and tried to make me pay for it and my attorney laughed in her face. It was the only positive thing in the whole divorce debacle. Those that think the Hondas, etc of today are "dime a dozen clone cars" should be sentenced to go back in time and drive some of the old stuff that was junk when it was built, let alone when it got 50,000 or so miles on it. Not that I didn`t think the old muscle cars were cool, I`m just smart enough to realize that of the cars back then were pretty poor quality-wise and safety wise.

**imported_doug** · 05-05-2002, 10:48 PM

It may seem cool, but it is still every bit as much a piece of junk as it was when it was new. That era was the absolute, undisputed low point in the American car industry. The Pinto, the Vega, the Chevette, The Pacer, the Gremlin (remember that ad? A woman drives a Gremlin into a gas station and the attendant laughs and says "where`s the rest of your car, Toots?") - anyway - these cars sold in the MILLIONS. How many do you see on the road today? Nearly zero. They all fell apart and disintegrated.

By contrast the VW bug, Honda civics, Datsun and Toyotas, BMWs and mercedes of the era, all of which sold in lower volumes - are still every-day sightings.

My friend had a Pacer. We called it the "Aquarium on Wheels" - the optional A/C could not come close to keeping up with the heat generated from sun on all of that glass. My cousin had a Vega. Sold it after putting 3 engines in it within 35K miles. My sisters had Pintos. The steering was like winding up a spring - if you let go of the wheel coming out of a (grossly understeering) turn, that thin hard plastic steering wheel would spin back so fast you could break a finger. And of course, when you stepped on the gas, it didn`t really go faster - it just made the same awful groaning, complaining sound it was already making - only louder.

Ahhh - those were most definitely NOT the days.

:scared

**dlw** · 05-06-2002, 06:58 AM

carguy, I couldn`t agree more! I actually went back yesterday and test drove the Pacer (mostly to convince my daugher she needs a newer car) and I`m still laughing. The thing has 97,000 documented miles on it and I can truthfully say that the test drive was one of the most frightening rides of my life. The first thing I noticed was that there was no response by the front wheels at all until the steering wheel was turned at least a half a turn. The thing wallowed like a bowl of oatmeal going down the road and couldn`t possible get out of it`s own way performance wise. Nothing worked inside (gauges, air, heater, etc). The radio sounded like two cats caught in a coffee can and the manual windows threatened to give you carpal tunnel they wound up and down so slowly. Most cars made within the last 10 years of so would laugh at 97,000 miles. I have seen and driven dozens of Hondas, Toyotas, Subarus with well over 100,000 miles on them that acted and felt like they had 50,000 or less on the clock (I`m not counting out domestic brands, just haven`t been shopping for one lately). I think there`s a song that says "These are the good old days". Yeah, I like to fondly remember back to my youth too, but like I said, looking at the Pacer was a lark, my son and daughter will never own a car without air bags, anti-lock brakes, and any other modern safety features that might just help them get back home when they go off for a drive.

**JJUACC** · 05-06-2002, 07:05 PM

My parents used to own one until my sister "totalled" it one icy January.

There isn`t enough Z-5 could cover that "scratch".

Other than the fact that it was a "sauna" in the summer, it wasn`t a bad car for a teenager.

**TonyTahoe** · 05-06-2002, 07:12 PM

You ought to find a Mustang II - now that was value....

**FastHappy** · 05-06-2002, 07:45 PM

pacer... cool... i must be getting old. those two words together were an oxymoron when i was in school. i did have a friend with a gremlin that had a gas pedal shaped like a foot when i was in high school though. hey, it got us around, somehow.

we just bought our daughter a 94 nissan altima. it has 120k and looks and drives like new.