1965 Dodge Coronet 440

Reminiscing

Jim writes: My grandpa gave me this car in 1974. He turned 80 years old that year,
and the State wanted him to take a road test. He decided to give up driving
rather than have some agency tell him he couldn't drive any more.

(This picture was taken after I had sold the car and realized that I had no photos of it, and the snow is a very familiar sight.)

My girlfriend (now my wife of 24 years) and I ran this car right into the ground, I must say - thousands of trips commuting to college, always with five or six kids on board. My dad was forever asking me why the rear tires were always bald. We did a lot of camping and towed several generations of hard trailers from 22 feet to 28 feet. This car towed them all like they weren't even back there.

We lived in the Buffalo New York area - all vehicles there are subjected to hideous amounts of road salt and we were lucky to have doors at all in four or five years. Once our Dodge had an accident with a 1974 Monte Carlo. That Chevy was virtually totalled and all the Dodge got was a little blue paint on the front bumper. Another time we hit a guard rail and mangled the Dodge's whole driver's side front. Our youthful solution was to paint the car with brushes and Rustoleum, wrinkles and all.

Black was the lowest priced color. The original color was that turquoise color that almost all cars from '62 to '65 had, Chevys and Dodges anyway....

I like your Web site and I've enjoyed jotting down some memories of a great car - smack dab in your target model years.

Thanks, Jim!

"Dependable: Dodge" as the ad said!

Gary H.

July 21, 2004

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