Cars After 1980

Cars turned really boring in about 1980. The economy turned bad. Interest rates were so high, up to 26%, that no one could afford financing. The air pollution had gotten so bad that laws had to be passed about exhaust emissions. The automotive engineers really didn't know how to control emissions and keep gas mileage up. Gas prices were going up, up, up. Car prices were going up, up, up, as well.

Gas prices were skyrocketing. They'd been steady around 35 cents per gallon for several years. Suddenly they were double that. Gas started being rationed. Based on your license plate number, you could only buy gas on odd or even numbered days. The first time I pulled into a gas station and the price was over 75 cents, I pulled right on through, thinking I would never pay that much for gas. How little did I know, that I would never again pay that little for a gallon of gas.

It was a terrible time to be in the car sales business. So I decided to try that. I went to work at Henry Day Ford on Redwood Road in Salt Lake. Mountain West Medical had to be closed. So I thought I might be able to sell cars. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I think I lasted less than six months.

Negotiating a car deal was contrary to my personality. I wanted to give anyone who came in a good deal. The dealership wanted to squeeze every penny possible out of the customer. I found out in a hurry what it meant to be upside down in a financed car. Half the people I sat down with owed more on their trade-in than it was worth. Car prices were so high that few people who came in could pay for them. I'd sit down with a buyer who had been used to trading in a car every couple of years, figure out a deal for them, and the payments would be more than double what they'd been used to. They'd just walk out shaking their heads, and without their new car.

Contractors who needed a lot of power in their trucks were very disappointed. The new emission controls severely reduced the power. I saw more than one buyer come back saying there must be something wrong with the truck, only to be told that was the way it was now. They'd just walk out shaking their heads.

I only vaguely remember most of the cars we had after that. After we moved back from California, I bought a Mazda pickup. It was really good on gas mileage, and didn't look too bad, either. I managed to burn out the clutch on it trying to pull out a tree stump in our front yard. I hooked up the big old Ford station wagon to the stump and it came right out. But I thought a truck was more suited to the job. Wrong.

We also bought a little Mazda hatchback. The guy who owned it before us had mistreated the gears. He'd apparently never used the clutch when he downshifted, so the gears were all worn down, and it wouldn't stay in the gear I put it in.

Styling took a back seat to all the other problems. I can look up the cars we had to see what year they must have been, and I can't tell. The same style may have been used for five or more years. Before 1980 the styling changed every year, and sometimes the companies would add new models in at the half year mark. They never kept the same style for more than two years. After 1980, styling became unimportant. Before that it was so important, that the companies would hide the new styles until a specific date in September. You could drive past a dealer, and all the windows would be blocked with poster paper until the date. The cars coming in on car transporters would all be covered with tarps, and they'd be unloaded late at night to keep the styling a secret.

When we lived in Mesa, Arizona, we finally were able to buy a couple of cars. One of the members of our ward worked at a local Ford dealer. As I talked to him, he said the best day to buy a car was on December 31. We went in and bought a Ford F-150 pickup, and a Suzuki Esteem. The truck was very useful when I started my handyman business in Salt Lake in 1999. We ended up giving the Suzuki to our son, Eric, when my sister and her husband gave us their Plymouth Voyager minivan.

My handyman business hit a low spot and we had to let the truck go back to the bank. A couple of weeks before, the transmission had locked up on it, and it could only be driven in second and third gears, and reverse. We were then given a Toyota four-wheel drive pickup, which sustained us for awhile. It was great on snowy winter streets. I really appreciated the four-wheel drive at that time. The head gasket on the engine blew out, and I replaced it, only to have much difficulty reassembling the exhaust system. We ended up giving that truck to a kidney transplant foundation.

I used the minivan in my work for a few years. As we were travelling from Vancouver, Washington to Salt Lake with Hillory, Serenity, and Cadence, travelling through the Columbia River Gorge, we hit a rock on the road. We were just west of The Dalles, Oregon, on Interstate 84. We were in the left lane, passing a semi-truck when we saw the car in front of us kind of bounce. He had just run over a big rock in the road. I had no way to avoid it and I hit it, too. It stuck under the van and was being dragged along the road. As soon as I could, I pulled over to the right side of the road, right behind the Toyota Celica that had hit it just before we did.

As we pulled over, the rock was dislodged. But as I tried to move forward, the engine just revved, but the minivan would not move. We had broken a hole in the transmission pan, and had lost all the transmission fluid. We were not as badly off as the poor guy in the Celica. His engine was displaced. When he hit the rock, his foot was knocked back, and his knee hit his chest. His car was totaled. A highway patrol car pulled in right after we stopped. He had heard a report that there were rocks in the road and he was on his way to get them. He was having back trouble and was supposed to be off that day. He was not looking forward to getting rid of that rock, while dodging traffic, with his bad back. He thanked us for removing the rock. He also called a tow truck for us. He recommended that we buy a AAA membership for emergency road service.

We were towed to a repair shop in The Dalles. The owner there took pity on us and just did a temporary repair. He found a pan that would fit at a junk yard, and stuck it on. There was some interior damage to the transmission, but nothing that would keep it from running for a few months. He recommended a restaurant and a motel nearby where we could eat and sleep. We were able to leave early the next morning. He also recommended we join AAA for emergency road service, and that we should trade the minivan in as soon as we could after getting back to Salt Lake.

Our credit rating was not very good at that time. I had no idea who would take an old minivan in trade and still finance a car. I called our credit union and they said we did not qualify for a loan there. I prayed and the thought came into my mind that I should go to Larry Miller Dodge. I had no idea if there even was a Larry Miller Dodge, let alone where it might be. In the mean time, the minivan started running badly. It would sputter and surge while driving. So I drove it out to the dealership, parked, and met a salesman named Fred. Fred was a very nice Samoan man. He took me out to look at cars. After asking a few questions, he showed me a Chrysler PT Cruiser and a 2002 Mazda 626. He recommended the Mazda as most likely the better choice and took me back in to fill out the paper work. A little later I drove off with the car. I was surprised and grateful that we were able to get a new car. It was a very nice car.

A couple of weeks later I got a call from someone who had purchased the minivan. He wanted to know if I knew what had been wrong with it. He was surprised that I had driven it to the dealership. He had had to tow it away, as it had not run since. I was truly blessed to even get to the dealership, and even more blessed to drive away with a very nice car. I later did see that minivan on the road, so it was repairable.

We have since sold the Mazda to Eric, and he has put a lot of miles on it, and it still runs well. It has been a great blessing to Eric and his family as well.

When we moved to Palmyra to work on Heidi and Matt's house, we needed a truck. Matt had a 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup that he had used to deliver newspapers in Arizona. He had taken very good care of it, so it has served us well. We left it in Palmyra for Matt and Heidi to use as a backup vehicle, and to tow their trailer when they needed it.

As we were preparing to leave Palmyra, I was planning to make the trip back to Salt Lake in the pickup. One day, while serving in the Palmyra Temple, I got the distinct impression that we were not to take the pickup back to Salt Lake. I started thinking about what we needed. I mentioned to Matt what I felt. He said his associate, Don Gammon, who also worked for the Church was getting ready to sell his Church-owned car. It was a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. I knew that Don had taken very good care of the car, and that it gets very good gas mileage. I called our credit union in Utah and asked about getting a loan. They gave me an amount we qualified for. When Don got the sales figure from the Church, it was enough lower than what we qualified for, that we were able to borrow enough for the taxes, license, and enough for the trip back to Salt Lake. What a great blessing.

It looked like we would have to get the car licensed temporarily in New York before we could drive it back to Utah, where we would have to pay taxes and license again. However, the Church office had misplaced the title, and we could not get the temporary permit to drive it from New York. We eventually received permission to use the old New York license plates so we could drive it to Utah. That saved us the New York fees, and we only had to mail the plates back to Don to complete the transfer. It delayed our departure for four days, but the timing was better for when we did leave.

The car has turned out to be a great blessing. It does get terrific mileage. I think we averaged between 37 and 38 miles per gallon on the trip from Palmyra to Salt Lake, and similarly about 36 miles per gallon since then. It is also the most comfortable car we've ever had, and has several options that make it the best car we've ever had. We love it!