…that you were in your thirties back in early 1980-85, and had a job that required you to drive about a hundred miles a day, every weekday — let’s go back in time, and imagine that you were what they called back then a “traveling salesman” and had to call on both existing and new customers in a fairly large sales area.
Let’s also stipulate that this job was somewhere that required driving in non-urban traffic (perhaps in the Midwestern states, or maybe the rural Northwest or Northeast), so not in LA, NY, Chicago or any of the other metropolitan cesspits.
Clearly, this would require a car that was reliable, comfortable, could handle hot and cold weather and was large enough to carry samples. So the company accountant took you aside and said, “Here’s $15,000 dollars; go buy yourself a decent car.” (Note that no company accountant was ever going to give you enough for a Merc or the like; you’d probably be stuck with a Murkin car or one of the minor Euro, Japanese or Scandi brands. For reference, a 1984 Olds 98 would run you between $14k and $15k back then.)
So: to which dealer would you be going, and what car would you get for yourself?
Feel free to give reasons (because I know you will).
My choice below the fold.
Volvo 240 DL Saloon or Wagon (depending on the size of the samples I’d be dragging around)
My second choice would be a Saab 90, the non-turbo version of which cost back then about the same as the Volvo 240, although it might just be too small for the job.
And if the accountant had a hissy over me getting an “import”, then very begrudgingly, I’d get a 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS (4.3-liter V8), which would cost about four grand less than the Volvo withal:
(I’m assuming they’d never okay the SS with its 5.0-liter V8).
Of course, the Chevy — like most American cars of the period — would be absolutely shit in any kind of snowy road, but hey, at least I’d die in comfort.
I don’t have to suppose. As district manager of the Denver Office of an Engineering firm I did that scenario. But your way wouldn’t be done. Nobody would just hand over cash. We either bought a company vehicle ( with the firms name on the side ) or would have given them an allowance per month to lease a vehicle.
Our Small Dam inspection team needed a vehicle that could transport a team of two to locations all over the state along with their equipment. The contract with the state allowed us to bill mileage, so we leased a Chevy Blazer for them. Worked out well because the Small Dams that needed to be inspected every 5 years ( 100’s of them ) were always somewhere in the middle of a ranchers fields in eastern Colorado or down a long dirt mining road in the mountains.
When we did Sales presentations, we used our own cars and paid Milage to whoever we needed for the Presentation, often myself and one or two other Engineers because it was usually to some other office building in Denver.
If we had needed a “Travelling Salesman” we would have given him an allowance of X Dollars a month to lease a vehicle, the vehicle he choose would have been up to him.
but to answer your question, If the choice had been mine, I would have leased a Porsche 928 S. ( and paid the difference myself ). It was a good long distance cruiser, and If I was traveling all over the western states by car for some reason I’d need a long distance car. ( We generally flew to out of state presentations )
Have you considered a van? Just after that time period (early 90s) we had a van, a Vauxhall Astravan of some description.
I’d want either KITT from Knight Rider (Firebird Transam) or a Buick Grand National.
Maybe a GMC van like the A Team.
This is back when American vehicles had some level of quality.
1982-83 I was driving 800-900 miles/week to work and school, and found a Pontiac 6000 STE to be quiet, comfortable, with Euro-style handling and plenty of room for passengers or goods. A number of car mags voted it The Car of the Year somewhere along there. IIRC, it was in your required price range at about $13K.
https://www.throttlextreme.com/pontiac-6000-ste-1980s-americas-ultimate-sedan/
Today, our salesmen get Chevy Malibu sedans and they hate them. Of course, that’s through a fleet purchase. Most of them would rather have a small SUV like the Toyota Rav4 or the Honda CR-V. Even a Blazer or Explorer would be better than the Malibu.
My dad was a Chevy dood and I inherited that gene I guess.
6 of the 9 vehicles I have owned were Chevy’s.
For long hauls? Maybe a big assed Impala, or Caprice if they still made them. The big boats just kinda float along. And, that big ol’ couch could instantly be a nap station and a dining table.
Kim,
I graduated college in ’83 so I may be a bit young to play … but here goes. Back in the day my folks had a 1978 Old Cutlass Calais with T-tops and a GM 305 v8 engine. It was a heavy car … on the highway at 75 it maybe got 18 or 19 MPG. In city driving you could almost hear the sucking sound from the gas tank a fuel was consumed. But damned skippy it was COMFORTABLE. Had great a/c, good heat when needed, could cruise all day on the open road at 80 to 90 MPH without event starting to break a sweat. Under the bonnet (yes, the bonnet) there was enough room that most shade-tree DIYer types could do all the basic maintenance with ease. The only weak point was the Turbo Hydromatic “Metric” 200 transmission. Oh, and not to be forgotten, as a college yoot home on break, it had plenty of back seat space for gettin’ on. Shit, I miss that car.
– Brad in IL aka I’ma Jewish Deplorable
My father was a travelling salesman for Brown & Bigelow advertising starting in the mid 1960’s through the 90’s. The largest advertising firm in the US at that time. B&B sold everyday items, pens, calenders, stationary, etc. with your company’s name and text on them. Their catalogues were VERY extensive. Which required my father to carry a large inventory of samples with him. He covered the entire Tacoma area, so he did a lot of daily driving. He preferred a Ford station wagon with a 390 CI engine for the power because samples weighed a lot! Comfortable to drive, large cargo area with the back seat folded down. Low enough that you didn’t have to strain or reach hard to find a particular sample box. He was meticulous about keeping it serviced and it served him well for almost 3 decades.
Ford LTD Crown Victoria with all the police extras.
Winner Winner. Reasonably priced, comfortable, reliable, could haul all your stuff in a trunk the size of a small estate. This is a no brainer.
15 large is still a little short for a Cadillac, so probably the Chrysler New Yorker instead. No idea of how it handled or drove, but I imagine you gotta want to impress the clients. And no fucking clients in the fly-over country are going to be impressed by a fucking Volvo. So big American sedan instead. The bigger, the better.
But as someone else stated, no salesman bought his car, it was leased and usually by the company with no real choice in what you drove. I never had a company vehicle, but the dept loaner I got to drive in the mid-80’s was a ragged out Malibu that was easily the worst vehicle I’ve ever piloted.
Now if I had 15 large to buy a personal vehicle from that time period, there’s only one real choice – the Buick Grand National with that beautiful turbo-charged V6. That son-of-a-bitch could outrun a Corvette! The only real muscle car of the early 80’s, no contest. Otherwise probably just a pick-up from any of the big three.
As a JO in the NAV I bought a new ’87 VW Sirocco 16V and drove the heck out it for 11 years. It was a bit small, but being just me, who cares. It was fast (for the time) handled well and was still pretty comfortable on long trips. That would be my choice.
I was a field tech back then, driving a hundred or so miles a day. I had a company Toyota pickup, then a Corolla wagon. Never broke. Not once. Plenty comfy on the highway. Later on I had a Taurus. Bland as it was, it was comfy and reliable.
The thing is, if you are traveling to the hinterlands, you’re in big trouble if your Volvo or Saab craps out. An American car would be a better bet. So I’ll tell you what I did when I got a choice of a company car or a vehicle allowance;
Bought a Chebbie Caprice cop car. Chebbie, Dodge, and Ferd all had them. Any of them were decent.
I’d get that Volvo wagon in a heartbeat. Reason being my parents had a Volvo wagon (don’t recall the exact model or model year, but it was probably an ’88 or ’89) when I was VERY little. It was totaled when I was in Kindergarten, so maybe 5-6 years old. Mom was driving my little brother and I to pre-school and kindergarten, respectively, when a drunk driver blew through a stop sign and t-boned us. We went off the road, sheared through a utility pole (which thankfully didn’t come down on us)…and all three of us walked away without a scratch.
Worked for an insurance company in that time frame. For the people we had on the road we got a fleet deal on Chevy Celebrities. Good size, Comfortable, with a four cylinder and front wheel drive what was not to like?
How about an AMC Jeep Cherokee wirh the 401? Plenty of room for anything including the family. It was fairly comfortable. We took it from MT to CA several times. We had a ’76 growing up. The only thing it couldn’t pass was a gas station, especially if you were heavy on the throttle. Full time 4wd was perfect in MT..
Just to be ”That Guy In The Comments Section”, I’m pretty sure that the Monte Carlo’s 4.3 was a V-6. The 4.3 engine “powered” my first delivery van. It was pretty lethargic but by the mid 90s they were at least reliable.
In any event, that’s about the worst time for the domestic auto industry, between the 70s when EVERYTHING went to shit, and the mid- to late-80s when we finally started to get things together. In my callow youth there was NO WAY I’d ever select the Volvo wagon, but of these choices it would seem to be the most practical.
My father *was* that guy, except for the age. He was in his late forties and early 50s in that time frame. He had a rather large area to cover, and his car of choice was the Caprice Classic https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/1978_Chevrolet_Caprice_Classic_sedan%2C_front_left_%28Harlem%29.jpg
I think he probably left that game in 82 or 83.
My Dad was that guy. He sold electrical stuff to the utilities in northern & central Illinois & Indiana. He had some big samples sometimes, so he liked “boats”. He would get a new Chrysler Newport every couple of years, but the last thing he bought was a Plymouth Voyager minivan. I bought the oddball car he had when I learned to drive – a Chrysler Cordoba (with crushed velour seat coverings rather than “rich Corinthian leather”).
For about the same price as your Woolwo you could have bought a W123. Sticking to the $15k price limit, what’s wrong with a 5-series? For serious sample-toting, a Navara or Hilux would have done the job quite adequately, and might still be running today. Saab, only if you don’t want to get laid.
Because I am admittedly a bit crazy, around that time I bought a 1982 RX-7. A 280ZX, though at the end of its life cycle, would have been a better choice.
I was “That Guy” in the late 1990’s. I used my first wife’s car because of fuel economy.
I don’t know what I’d recommend, but what I did use was a 1998 model Oldsmobile Achieva.
Both the model and the company are defunct now.
Back in the day in Aussie the tax system encouraged company supplied vehicles. For about two years my job involved driving around NSW visiting pharmacies. I would do 500ks in a day as a matter of course. Weapon of choice was one of these mighty Ford Falcons. Because I was doing a lot of country driving mine had air con, power steering, 4.1 litre straight six and a four speed automatic. Did 150,000k in two years. It was brand new when I got it, but was 100% reliable.
https://www.tradeuniquecars.com.au/ford-falcon-xd-wagon-budget-tempter/
It would be a station wagon of the day with the road package of shocks/springs and what not. My cousin bought one from a traveling preacher, had all the extras for comfort. Was a tank that drove like boat on calm water.