Guess I'm No Longer An Asset To The New Auto Industry

As I listen to the news and the predicament of the Auto Industry, I think back to when Maryann and I bought our first new car after we were married back in 1965. It was a black 1965 Plymouth Belvedere 6 cylinder standard shift with white sidewalls and a radio. The cheapest model they made. In 1967 Clint Paquin contacted me and said he was ordering his new cars and wondered if I was interested. He asked me what I might be interested in and I told him, the same thing, the cheapest black model standard shift with a radio and white sidewalls, only this time give me the red upholstery. I asked what it would cost me to trade and he told me $1000.

Clint contacted me again in 1969 and we went through the same thing. When I asked him how much it would cost me, he said he wasn't sure as he didn't have the prices of the new ones yet, however, when the car came in, the cost for me to trade was again $1000.

1971 came around and again Clint asked me what I would be interested in for a new car and once again I told him the same thing as I had in previous years, but it would be dependent on what it would cost me to trade. Well, the car came in and I went down to look at it, but Clint had some bad news for me. The cost for me to trade would be $1200. I told Clint, no way am I going to pay $1200 to trade cars in two years, so I did not trade cars in 1971.

In 1972, I bit the bullet and went down to see Clint to see what I could do on a station wagon as we now had the three girls and felt we needed a little more room. I actually went a little wild and got a V8 with an automatic shift and the vehicle was not black. The cost was way more than the $1200 I could have traded for in 1971, but I did go up in class a bit. I traded again in 1975 again for another V8, which was unfortunately a bad choice as this was during the gas crunch where you were only allowed to get a couple dollars worth of gas at a time and with that car you could almost burn up $2 worth waiting in line up at the gas station that is now Nan's Mobil. Ended up buying a 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit and keeping the Gas Hog, however later traded it in for a 1975 Plymouth Horizon, so Maryann and I had two small cars to drive as she was driving to Burlington and I was driving to Essex.

During those working years, we traded every 3 years and had two vehicles. Now it is definitely a different story. I have a 2004 Ford FreeStar Van with just a little over 40,000 miles on it and haven't the slightest intention of trading or buying a new car. I only need to change the oil about twice a year, get it inspected one of those times when I go in and time it to do my changeover of tires for the season.

Hopefully, nothing will go wrong with it, but my contribution to the auto industry is practically nil. I haven't seen Clint to talk to in a while, but suspect their business is a little slow like all other automobile dealers. One definite thing that is very noticeable is the lack of those temporary paper plates you see on cars when people trade. Very rarely see one now. Guess every one is hanging on to what they have, provided it is still running well.