About Me

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
My passion is also my business, as I am with the Toronto based Hav-A-Kar Auto Group. I sell or lease any make of car, van or truck available in Canada. My interest in all things "car" has helped me with my many clients in Ontario over the past 25+ years. Please give me the opportunity to assist you.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Jan 30: A longtime favorite

We all have favorite cars for one reason or another  -  it was reliable, it fit all your buddies, was a chick or guy magnet or whatever. Sometimes it was just because in the eye of the beholder it looked great. One of my favorites, while growing up was the 1963 Chev, which I just loved. This was an interesting time for Chevrolet, as their designs sometimes mimicked Cadillac's, but a couple of years later. See if you can see the similarities between this 1961 Caddy and the '63 Impala below it........

Now before you blow me off and tell me that I'm seeing things, take a look at the grille, the v'ed out bodysides, the lower body line and the back end. Anyway, I've always liked this model, so it should come as no surprise that the CMC (car modeling cat) and I, have made our own version of this classic Chevy........


 Is it real or is it Memorex? An associate dropped by our home last week and saw my car room for the first time. He knew that I made model cars, but really had no idea of what it entailed. He thought (and maybe many others do as well) that, we simply opened the box and put together the model, as it already came painted and chromed. He was quite surprised that we paint them, painstakingly apply the chrome foil and also paint the intricate nameplates. To think that he thought, I simply glued parts together. Gawd! Glad I cleared that up.


Beauty is in the eye, but my helper, the CMC, and I really like this era of car design, as every car had it's own identity and there was no confusing a Subaru for a Hyundai or for a Ford . Although she doesn't actually talk (she's a cat after all), I know that the CMC shares my enthusiasm by the way she attacks each '60's build............


And one more thing..........I know I'm not the only one who gets confused by all the alpha-numeric naming of cars these days. Look, I'm in the car business and I immerse myself in the car hobby that, I love so much, but even I get confused with all the various names and numbers. So back to the Impala. A name you can recognize and remember. And one with some longevity and history, as the name first appeared in 1958 and has continued to the present day on the 2015 Impala shown here.......


Pretty comprehensive blog. I did a comparison, showed a new model we made and ranted about cars' names. Only at Wheel to Wheel!

Until next time........


2 comments:

  1. It's interesting that Cadillac (or Oldsmobile, or Buick) never appealed to me. I was always a fan of the everyday Mom'N'Pop cars. Interesting to know that, while working for a GM dealer, there were a lot of pieces that interchanged between the brands. And some major pieces actually began life out of the same stamping mill. Going back through the years, I've seen that Chev, Olds, Pontiac, Buick and some models of Cadillac shared the main body shell. It's also interesting to note that some of the service parts are identical but if installed in the carton from one of the upper class brands, the price also went up. Case in point: Just replaced a headlight dimmer sensor in a Pontiac, and right behind it was a Cadillac with the same ailment. The part from Pontiac was $27.00 while the same part (same p/n# on the part itself but the p/n# on the carton was different) from Caddy was double that. Oldsmobile and Buick were in the $40.00 range. Anyways, looking at the '63 Caddy and the '63 Impala, if I were given a choice between the two, it would be the Chevy.

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    1. George, that pricing principle probably applies to all the Mercedes, Audi and BMW parts as well. A client just had their A6's driver's side mirror replaced - $1800 installed! Breath taking, eh?

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