Valiant

[biometrics]

My dad had a station wagon and the rear window could wind down.

http://www.classycars.org/Plymouth/plymouth.1965.valiant.stationwagon2.jpg


The Plymouth Valiant is an automobile manufactured by the Plymouth division of Chrysler Corporation in the United States from 1960 to 1976. It was created to give the company an entry in the compact car market emerging in the late 1950s. The Valiant was built and marketed worldwide in countries including Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, as well as other countries in South America and Western Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Valiant

[Kosmik]

Dude my first thought was the cartoon, Tv and Sunday Times magazine.

[Electron1]

Dude my first thought was the cartoon, Tv and Sunday Times magazine.

Funny that, my first though too, so I bypassed this thread entirely, and only found it now when I wanted to post about Valiant and Chrysler cars.
Biometrics - Maybe edit your Title to include Car or Gas Guzzler or something.

My first car memories were of a valiant with a boot. Man those vehicles were huge. You could fit like 8 kids in the back and 1 or 2 up front. Then there was so much space in the bonnet and the boot too.

When I was about 6 or 7 my dad bought a Chrysler. http://www.classycars.org/Chrysler/chrysler.1969%20Imperial%20Crown.jpg
Man that thing was like a luxury spaceship. It had electric windows, a cavernous boot that seemed like it was as big as a loadbed of a 1ton bakkie. And a v8 380 cubes that gave endless power to the auto transmission. My dad had bought it second hand and it had a conlog cruise control fitted.This thing was so high tech in its day.

My Dad then had heavy duty springs and shocks fitted, a towbar and vacuum brake system to brake the Gypsey 5 caravan we had. There were so many memories of long trips in that car. I remember my older brother and I being banished to opposite corners so we could not strike out at each other. You had to maneuver your entire body to get a kick in and were easily bust in the process.

Then the fuel crisis hot and those cars rapidly lost popularity, but then became the first "illegal" taxis for the black population. In fact if memory serves correctly you could fit all the passengers of a minibus taxi into one of those. The big difference to today's taxis (besides vehicle type) is that the drivers were always courteous, not owning the road like their modern counterparts.
Yes it was the dark days of apartheid and they had to be very inconspicuous, and that most likely was the reason, but there were hardly ever issues that I remember.