New guy
 

Hi!

New guy from Norway (so dont mind little typing errors, and crap grammar)

I have been reading this site a bit every now and then, and figured I might as well join the forum.

Right now, my cars are: 67 plymouth valiant (project), 89 grand voyager (to move stuff)
My mpg-ish project is a peugeot 605, 2.0/5 speed, and to some degree the wifes peugeot 306 1.4/5 speed.

Not much done yet, have to get them working ok before I start messing too much with stuff.

Welcome to Gassavers! Its interesting that you live in Europe and have two American cars. I guess its not too hard to get parts for the minivan though, If I remember correctly a lot of them had Mitsubishi engines.

-Jay

Thanks, and yeah, the minusvan has a mitsu v6.
It is actually easyer to find parts for the valiant, well, non year specific parts, like drivetrain, chassis, and brakes... Good front fenders and such usually has to be found and imported from the us.

I find that most parts are availible for almost any car, as long as you can figure out what other cars used the same part.

Up here in scandinavia, american cars are pretty common, at least a lot more common than down in Europe.

I figured you picked up cars being dumped cheap by American servicemen when they end their European tours, and are returning back to the States. They can ship a car over for free, but when they return they've usually purchased a lot of stuff, so they dump the car so they can transport the additional stuff for free.

-Jay

I think you are right, but that would be more usual down in germany, and such.
Up here, we don't have a lot of american servicemen (compared to...say germany)

As for the valiant/darts, they were produced under license by... I think it was saab(?) in sweden. They vere used as taxicabs, and policecars.
Over here, they vere BIG luxury cars.... Most people might have a.... wv bug, or small opel.
I bet you were king if you had a crappy old...uh..new dart in your drive back then.

A lot of sailors brought back a us-built car when they came home too.

Then, in the 70's american cars got more popular here, the supply of aspen wagons and malibu wagons are just starting to dry up here, the caprice is still around...now and then.
But the pickups and vans... they are everywhere, oh, and the suburbans, and tahoes and those "things"

It is kinda hard to explain, as it has always just been like this (from my point of view)

Oh, and I am just turning 30, so all this is just stuff I have heard/read.

But still, scandinavia is a very americanized part of europe, both with cars, and in general.

Welcome to the forums.

The Valiants, Darts, 70's & 80's model Malibu's were all considered midsize cars by the EPA.

Imagine if you had a Chrysler Imperial, or a Cadillac Fleetwood! Those were big cars!

-Jay

Yep, BIG is relative...when you have a beetle, they are...

Btw, my first american car was a slant six aspen wagon...a-77 I think
it had some wierd towing package, and the rear seats was folded down, and blocked with a steel wall... I believe it was used as a van, more or less.

After a bunch of hours messing with it, it got "good" mileage, and ran pretty well, for what it was. I still miss that car.

Oh, and I had a -66 rambler american 440, but I never got it on the road. My plan was to stuff a mercedes 300 diesel engine in it, but it never got done.
It was a nice car to tow around, if nothing else. That would be a cool car... I still know where it is...hmmm...

Oh well, I am kinda stuck with my oddly engineered french cars now.

Oh, and thanks rgathright!

LOL, here in the States we have a saying, "Only French men should drive French cars".

The car I learned to drive on was a 1980 Pontiac Bonneville Safari wagon... large, 9 passenger wagon. I absolutely loved it. I have a thing for large cars. My Buick is built on the same frame as the 80's era Chevy Malibu's.

-Jay