Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Fredericksburg: ranked, best place)

[gy2020]

Have you guys ever heard of a Hillman Minx. I had a convertable in 1962-63.
It was a horrible car. On one trip to Marble Falls it quit working and we would push it up a hill and coast down to the next. what a pain!!

[outafocus]

I remember the Hillman Minx very well. It was an English car made by the Rootes Group. Other British cars that graced our highways (or the sides of them) at the time were Vauxhalls, Morris Minors, English Fords labeled as Anglias, Prefects, and Consuls, Austins, MGs, Triumphs, Jaguars, and the ONLY British car I ever owned, the "Nash" Metropolitan. It was an Austin through and through with Nash inspired body styling. It was also cursed with Lucas electronics.

There's an old riddle. Why do the British drink their beer warm? Because Lucas makes their refrigerators!

[gy2020]

This is my 1950 Chevy that I inherited from my mother. She bought it new in 1950. It was maroon in color which faded in about a year. She had it painted green with a white top. When I got in 1960, I had it painted Colonial White and I had a green light in the interior. Cool, bathed in green. I wished I still owned it.

[Dwangle]

I hate to say this (But I guess I will) the absolute worst vehicle ever built was the VW microbus. I know it has a lot of memories (mostly bad) but was absolutley the worst vehicle ever built. Under powered under designed a wreck waiting to happen. I always wanted one but could never figure out why. I think it was media--kinda like the chopper (Easy Rider). The Chopper has made a comeback. I keep waiting for the Microbus to come back!

[*mud*]

Originally Posted by gy2020

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Have you guys ever heard of a Hillman Minx.

.
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when I was out on the west coast in the mid 60s, I bought one for ten dollars.

drove it for a few weeks, it gave up one day, and I just walked away from it.
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.
.

[gy2020]

My parents owned both of these models and I drove them quite often.



I picked up the Chevy PU in a police auction in the 1980's and gave it away as a prise on a Super Bowl game and I wound up with $500 with $10 picks. I think I paid $50. for the truck at the auction. It didn't run.

[Willsatx]

Great pics guy, thanks for posting.

[outafocus]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

I hate to say this (But I guess I will) the absolute worst vehicle ever built was the VW microbus. I know it has a lot of memories (mostly bad) but was absolutley the worst vehicle ever built. Under powered under designed a wreck waiting to happen. I always wanted one but could never figure out why. I think it was media--kinda like the chopper (Easy Rider). The Chopper has made a comeback. I keep waiting for the Microbus to come back!

The first brand new vehicle I ever bought was a 1978 VW Bus in November 1977. The salesman at Rod East VW that sold it to me was Domingo Vara! I knew I made a mistake a week after I bought it. Although the Type 4 engine was more powerful than the Microbus VW Beetle engine, it was noisy. Crosswinds were terrifying, and the driving position was VERY uncomfortable on long trips. I took a bath financially and traded it in the following September for a new 1978 Champagne Edition VW Rabbit. It was more satisfying to drive, but what a heap! It turned me off VWs forever!

[ged_782]

Does anyone remember a service here in San Antonio called Doorstep Delivery? It was a service affiliated with the San Antonio Light newspaper around the late 1980s - early 1990s.

They specialized in the delivery of periodicals, catalogs, and flyers/circulars, and they were sort of like a private-sector alternative to the U.S. Postal Service. Of course, they didn't have access to your mailbox, so they would put your deliveries in a plastic bag, and hang it on your front door. They delivered seven days a week, mornings to early evenings.

The stuff that got delivered to me by them (not my choice to use them) were mostly national publications and catalogs, and they seemed to combine them all into a single monthly delivery, IIRC. But there was no set day of the month or time of day that I would receive these deliveries.

I think Doorstep delivery met its demise when the San Antonio Light folded. I don't think the Express-News continued that service.

[BudB]

Originally Posted by outafocus

It turned me off VWs forever!

Never owned a new VW but owned, at various times, a 1956 Beetle, two '67s, a '71 Transporter(bus) that was woefully underpowered and difficult to work on because the engine was stuck in a closet under the rear cabin. We also briefly owned a '69 Type 4, three door, that was a pain too. It had been wrecked, fixed, painted and sold as "in good condition" which was a lie. Luckily a lady ran a light here in Austin and totaled the old clunker with no harm done to my wife. The pair of 1967 Type 1 Beetles were both good cars as long as I changed oil religiously, kept the points and valves set properly and didn't overly abuse them. I converted the first one into a honeymoon car by removing the back bench seat, built a platform then covered it with a foam mattress and eloped with my new wife. She named that Bug "Velda" and we spent much of the summer of 1974 in the little motel room on wheels driving and camping out with Coleman stove, lantern, etc., We made it to CO., over to Utah, out to CA then back to SA between June & Sept. with no problems. Drove it to Durango, Mexico and back the next summer. Made another drive to CA in '76 then nearly home Velda choked on an improperly set valve between New Braunfels and SA; I had set the valves in the dark with flashlite ... a bad idea. With rebuilt shortblock we drove Velda to Harlingen and back stuffed with airplane paintings, lawn chairs, clothes, etc. every Oct. for seven years chasing the Confederate Air Force shows. We then raised our first two kids using that Bug so have lots of good memories of our first '67 Beetle. The other '67 was equally good and brought a fair trade when we got a two year old Datsun sedan in 1984.
Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe at Any Speed" had a chapter on "the deadly" Beetles but his main target was the Chevy Corvair which I'll bet some of the GDNF readers recall fondly.