22nd May 2019, 14:53
You would probably be able to buy the 76 LeSabre cheaper than the newer review topic model 1989 Crown Vic.
19th Apr 2022, 20:39
Your comment was wrong three years ago and still is now. The comments in that LeSabre review pertain to the FACT that cars made up until the mid to late 1980's were, for the most part, considered junk by the time they hit 100K miles and THAT is why the odometers back then only registered up to 99,999 miles. Yeah there were exceptions and we'll certainly hear some story about somebody's 1970 whatever that made it past 100K miles and kept going, but most of the vehicles made back then... didn't. It's not a "belief" that they were "not meant to go over that", it's a fact that most did not. This contradicts the BELIEF, stated ad nauseam in comments here, that those old cars were built better and lasted longer than modern cars. They weren't and they didn't. Anyone who BELIEVES otherwise is welcome to supply proof in support, but anecdotes about that 1970 whatever making it past 100K miles... are not it.
12th Jul 2026, 20:40
And that was your opinion four years ago. The fact is today, most if not every brand built after 2020 has absolutely atrocious build quality. Reliability? You can forget that too. Most people are indeed keeping their older cars from whatever decade, steering clear of the overpriced trash that is dying on dealerships lots.
There will always be the old vs new discussion mainly focusing on the 70s and 80s.
You can spare me the whole 5 digit odometer talk also. It was in the middle 80s when this started to surface. Mainly because the better cars from the 70s were rolling the odometer back to zero, sometimes twice.
14th Jul 2026, 22:08
I used to work as a parts puller in a salvage yard in the early nineties when many vehicles from the seventies were retired. Most V8 cars the engine still ran effortlessly while the body was overtaken by rust to put the nail in the coffin. Obvious signs such as worn brake and accelerator pedals, torn and worn driver side seats and sagging driverside doors indicated that an odometer that read 40k was more than likely 140k.
Speaking of salvage yards; anybody hear or read about random fires wiping out somebody's business and destroying older cars for their parts? About a dozen across the US in the past year. No way in hell this is a coincidence.
15th Jul 2026, 15:41
60ies and 70ies so called gas-guzzler were often dumped, not because these were worn out, but because they were too expensive to run. Your full size car from this era were generally almost ridiculously over dimensioned and robust and easy to work on. However, the smog equipment these were fitted with could be difficult to tune, and often cars were dumped because people didn't bother spending money to get this fixed.
The golden era of cars is after this, I'd say late 80ies to about 2010. Why? Because cars still then were simple, and you at the same time didn't had to mess around with carburetor settings and ignition points like you had to do some decades earlier. The ultimate car from a reliability standpoint would probably be a 1995 to 2005 Toyota Camry.
19th Jul 2026, 00:35
GM 350s from the 70's were robust engines. So were the Ford Windsor/Cleveland V8s.
Smaller compact cars were a challenge for all the domestic 3 at that time. All the offerings didn't fare well in quality.
21st May 2019, 23:27
Most recent 1976 Buick LeSabre review. There is a discussion about it on the first three pages of comments, not to mention a few other threads. Really don't feel like listing them all. Amazing how some on here tend to forget certain comments they have posted.