Thursday, March 6, 2008

Flint Artifacts: Buick Electra


My grandparents and my siblings pose in front of the monumental Buick Electra near the Flint Cultural Center. All five could probably fit comfortably in the front seat of that 225.



14 comments:

  1. Are there no more bench seats? There is something to be said for sitting on the couch while you drive down the road.

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  2. I know...it's really hard to sleep in your car these days.

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  3. A cool deuce and a quarter right near the planetarium. My Flint family had a pink 57 chevy!

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  4. What a sweet ride. My Dad loaned me his Electra to use for a week while my car was being repainted. I drove it back to Wayne State in Detroit and it was stolen within 48 hrs.

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  5. Ah, Phil, it's just to nice a car for car thieves to resist. I'm sure breaking the news to your dad was fun.

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  6. wow america had style back then!
    :)

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  7. I remember this car and the rides we all took in it. Some times I was also in the back seat with my children as I was still one of the "kids" to my mother and dad who owned the car. Every Sunday they "went for a ride" and toured "the rich peoples houses" off Miller Road. At Christmas time this was a big event.
    For these wonderful memories, I thank you. Your daughter, Pat

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  8. Pat...I'm guessing you took this photo, right?

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  9. My first 2 cars were a '74 and '71Electra 225. God I loved those cars. We fit 13 of us in it to go to the drive-in and still had room for more.

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  10. Awesome. You can't get any more classically Flint than that...

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  11. What a fine car and a priceless photograph - I've no doubt it evokes a lot of memories! I can still smell the interior and hear the rear seatbelts rattle in my dad's old '67 Chevelle. That was a fine one, too - red with white pinstriping, black interior...back when cars were still made of metal...

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  12. Redgirl,

    Another great thing about the old cars was that they were NOT aerodynamic. I just got back from a long road trip and it's pretty much impossible to roll the windows down in you're going over 25 mph.

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  13. They may have not been aerodynamic,
    but God, did the older cars run forever... The first car I ever drove regularly was a 1965 Dodge with a slant 6 engine. So help me that car (which at that time was 20+ years old) would start with the temperatures below zero, while once in a great while I had to give a neighbor a jump for a dead battery with their newer cars, all OF COURSE on the good old east side of Flint! They just don't build them like they used to...

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  14. I bought a 1978 Electra Limited. Why with gas nearly four bucks a gallon it seemed insane. Well I bought it because I loved those old cars and to me represents what a real Buick is, rear-wheel drive and a V-8. Growing up in Flint and seeing that beautiful Buick made me homesick. So I got it! You only live once. This is a car that a gearhead like myself can still work on.

    Yesterday I drove it from Everett, WA to Tacoma. Thanks the new cap, wires, plugs, and coil my gas millage was 23 to gallon. Pretty respectable for a 30 yr old car that was luxury for it's day. And you weren't beat at the end of the day.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.