A Frank Odell Web Page

Purpose of page:

This page is a history of automobiles owned by the Odell family. Some facts about each car is included to add interest. When available a picture is included. This amounts to a history of randomly selected production cars over the last 50 years.

Created: February 8, 1997

Last Improvement: 08/18/02, 11/10/03 11/11/04 06/22/05 02/26/07 04/26/08

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This is not a picture of my TR-7, but it is close enough for you to see why I think the TR is one of the prettiest cars built. A car that was beautifully designed, but poorly executed.

We have owned many cars and loved them all -- even the Triumph that almost never ran.

List Of Autos.

Autos we have owned:

• Ford, Fairlane, 1953. Used. 2 Door.
• Volvo, PV-544, 1959. New. 2 Door.
• American Motors, Classic Station Wagon, 1962. New. 4 Door.
• American Motors, Rambler American Station Wagon, 1962. New. 4 Door.
• Renault, Dolphine,, 195?, Used, 2 Door.
• General Motors, Chevrolet, Corvaire, Monza, 1965. New. 2 Door.
• Ford, LTD Country Squire, Station Wagon, 1967. New. 4 Door - Special order car.
• American Motors, Matador Station Wagon, 1972. New. 4 Door.
• American Motors, Gremlin, 1972. New. 2 Door, Hatchback.
• American Motors, Gremlin, Gremlin, 1978. Used. 2 Door, Hatchback.
• Triumph, TR-7, 1974, Tin-top. Used. 2 Door.
• American Motors, Pacer, Sedan, 1974/5. Used. 2 Door.
• American Motors, Pacer, Station Wagon, 1978. Used. 2 Door.
• General Motors, Cadillac, Sedan Deville, 1985. Used. 4 Door.
• General Motors, Oldsmobile 88, Royale, 1984. Used. 4 Door.
• General Motors, Cadillac, Brougham,, 1990. Used. 4 Door.
• General Motors, Chevrolet C-30, El Dorado (RV), 1989. Used. 3 Door.
• Dodge, Dodge 1995/96 Xplorer (RV) 1995/6, Used, 3 Door.
• General Motors, Cadillac, Fleetwood,, 1989. Used. 4 Door.

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1953 Ford Fairlane

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Features Of The Car:

A 2 door sedan. Flathead V-8 engine. Three speed shifter on the steering post. Rear wheel drive. None of the equipment was power assisted. The radio could be played very loudly, an important point for a young man.

At that time and place "Real Men Drove Fords." How good can it get?

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

The car was "of its time." When driven fast the car did not corner well and it took me to places I had not intended to go. The brakes would fade when hot, or wet, or anytime, for any reason. The engine was in the low RPM, high torque, medium Horse Power, category.

This particular car was well worn at the time of purchase.

Good Stuff:

The radio worked great. It even had backseat speakers, a rare feature in those days. The heater was weak, so the girls had to help keep things warm. The car had a two tone paint job. The colors were cream over maroon, and my old school colors were gold over maroon - well close enough. The single most important feature of the car was the Flathead V-8 engine. The car was driven over 100 MPH a few times. This was not a good idea, but I was young and very stupid.

Bad Stuff:

The car needed repairs when I purchased it, and it needed more repairs when I sold it. The car stayed with me for less than a year. In that time the ball joints, Saginaw steering unit, starter motor and tires were replaced. Several hoses and gaskets were also replaced. It was a good starter car.

Picture: The car the picture above is not my car, but it is all most the same car.

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1959 Volvo PV-544

Features Of The Car:

A 2 door sedan. 4 Cylinder B16-B engine. 4-on-the-floor gearshift. Twin side-draft SU carburetors. Rear wheel drive.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Solid STEEL body. When dented auto body guys did not want to work on it - too much thick steel. There was a remotely operated window shade in front of the radiator to provide a quick means of heating the engine. Very little plastic - all steel. When accelerating it sounded like a European racing car, it only sounded like one.

The heater in the car worked very well.

Bad Stuff:

Under powered and under cooled. Always leaked in the rain. Not made for American highways. Parts were very difficult to obtain and of poor quality if they were located. No radio from factory.

The in-car heater used engine water/coolant to supply its heat, so it was often used to cool the engine while driving in the desert at high speeds in the summer time. Using the heater for this purpose was necessary, but it really made riding in the car almost impossible. Damn, it got hot in there.

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1962 American Motors Classic

AMC Classic is in background

Features Of The Car:

Rambler Classic 4 door station wagon. The car was powered by a 232 CDI, 6 Cylinder in-line engine. Three speed, push button, electrically operated automatic transmission. Shift controls were push buttons on dashboard. Rear wheel drive. No power steering or brakes. Came with radio, heater and air conditioner. Unibody construction (many cars were not in those days). Body was hot dipped to galvanized it. Life time warranty on ceramic coated exhaust system. The selling feature of the car was that it would last for a long time with little maintenance. I believe this was true, but not many people really cared about these features.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

The car was a little under powered, but not to a fault. The engine was dependable and easy to maintain.

Steering was normal for a car without power steering.

The car cruised best at 62 MPH. There was a definite sweet spot between 60 and 65 MPH. Top speed was 97 MPH.

The car felt heavy and low to the ground and rode with a slight chop. The front seats were forward of the center of the car much like the larger cars of today.

Good Stuff:

We owned the car for 10 years. It was traded in because of a transmission shifting problem. There was a little rust (we lived on the sea coast for part of the cars existence) and the radiator needed a new core. Today I would not trade the car, none of the problems were severe.

Rode and drove very much like a 90's car.

Bad Stuff:

Had problems with the tail gate window. Most station wagons I have owned had tail gate problems. The tail gates were always treated gently, because I repaired them when they failed. The problems did not seem great, but the car manufacturers never got it right.

Go To Automobile List.

1962 American Motors Rambler American

Features Of The Car:

The station wagon was a 4 door with a drop tail gate. It was a light weight vehicle with light steering. It was classified as a compact car. In today's rip-off new car market it would be classified as a large car and I would not pay the price the car manufacturers would charge.

Four cylinder engine, automatic transmission, steering post mounted shifter and rear wheel drive.

No system had power assist.

The car came with radio, heater air conditioner and automatic transmission. The engine was a 4 cylinder inverted L-Head with the camshaft mounted in the block. The dependable engine produced good torque, low RPM and low horse power. The engine was much like the Willis Overland Jeep engine.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

The car was a delight to drive. This was in the days before power steering was available on all cars, light steering was a nice feature. Of course, light steering implied small engine (and it was) or exotic engine metals (it was not).

The car was inexpensive to buy and inexpensive to own. Only problem was an automatic transmission shifting problem that appeared with in two weeks of the initial purchase of the car. After two returns to the dealer and a trip by the dealers mechanic to my house it was discovered that the shift adjustment screw had a lock nut intended to hold the adjustment screw in place. Adjustment was made and the lock nut was tightened and the problem never returned.

The car cruised best at 62 to 68 MPH. Very smooth ride at those speeds, all though an under-steer tendency became obvious at about 65 MPH or faster.

Good Stuff:

Like most AMC products all parts to maintain the vehicle were readily available at any auto parts store.

The car was easy to maintain and the engine compartment was spacious. The design was for a V-8 engine and we had a 4 cylinder engine.

Bad Stuff:

The car was not perfect, but I do not remember anything to fault the car on.

Go To Automobile List.

1959(?) Renault Dolphine

Features Of The Car:

Rear engine, 3 speed floor shift. Power nothing. Four cylinder water-cooled engine (RF-4 engine?). Rack and pinion steering. A 4 door sedan. Small in size, even by today's standards. Thin medal all round. Cute little thing, but no guts. Came with a radio and heater. Cost new was $999.00. It was cheaper than a Yugo (adjusted) and was a much better car. Rust was not a problem and up to about 60,000 miles the car was dependable.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

The car was purchased in poor condition, for very little money, and was used to self teach auto-mechanics. It was an excellent training aide as everything on the car that could break, did break.

When the car was operational it was fun to drive. Had to be alert as to what would fail as I was driving along. I had the car up to nearly 80 MPH once. It was not a race car.

Good Stuff:

Had a tight little body and did not rattle. Easy on tires and gas. It was responsive and cornered quickly and neatly (rack and pinion steering).

Bad Stuff:

The car was designed and built as a throw-away car and had a definite life cycle. My car had exceeded the life cycle. Many interior parts were made of poor quality plastics and fell apart when used.

Go To Automobile List.

1965 General Motors, Chevrolet, Corvaire

Features Of The Car:

A 2 door sedan. Rear mounted engine. Twin downdraft carburetors on a four cylinder engine. Pancake engine (like an airplane engine) and was air-cooled. Dashboard gear shifter. Shifted with a small handle to the right of the steering wheel. The rear drive wheels were independently mounted and adjusted like a Corvette.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Fun car to drive. Light steering and easy braking although it would sometimes skid the wheels when stopping.

When driving in the snow the car would sometimes ride over the snow instead of pushing through. In some conditions this was a good feature, but sometimes it was bad.

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

Had a gas smell inside the car. Could not get rid of the smell. Dealer shop people were not trained on this car and their work was often unsatisfactory.

Go To Automobile List.

1966 Ford, Country Squire LTD

Features Of The Car:

Special order 4 door station wagon. Colors and equipment were just what we wanted. When the car arrived from the New Jersey factory (2 months late) it was better than we thought it would be.

Car was a station wagon and had two small fold down (jump) seats in the rear area where the spare tire normally would be stored. The small seats were intended for our kids. This moved the kids to the very rear of the car while the adults were in the front of the car. This arrangement provided some privacy. The tire was mounted in the right wheel well just behind the rear wheel. The spare was accessible from inside the car.

The engine was one of the famous Ford 289 CID, V-8 "you just can not hurt it" engines.

Front engine, rear wheel drive, steering post mounted shifter and automatic transmission.

We had radio, heater, air conditioner and power everything.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

We drove this car on many trips from Maine to Florida and back and many places in between. One round trip was made from east coast USA to California and back. The car always performed as it should.

Good Stuff:

Best riding car we have owned. Not best driving, but best riding.

Installed a towing package and towed a 25 foot Norris Travel trailer over most of the east coast of the USA. The car could only attain 45 MPH with the trailer attached, but the engine never faltered.

Best cruising speed was about 68 MPH. The car did exceed 100 MPH during a test sprint.

Did you hear the one about the South Carolina State Trooper who was driving 55 MPH on US 17A, a small 2 lane highway, when a car passed him going in excess of 85 MPH? Well, some other time.....

Bad Stuff:

Fancy 2 way tail gate proved to be weak. Good idea, but poor engineering.

Go To Automobile List.

1972 American Motors Matador

Features Of The Car:

A 4 door station wagon.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

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1972 American Motors Gremlin

Features Of The Car:

A 2 door hatch back car.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

Go To Automobile List.

1978 American Motors Gremlin

Features Of The Car:

A 2 door hatch back car.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

Go To Automobile List.

1974/5 Triumph, TR-7

Not my TR7, but one much like mine

Features Of the Car:

A Tin Top sports car.

1. 1974/75 US Federal/Canadian/UK mixed up machine.
2. Ecology devices were unusual.
3. Engine rotated Clock Wise.
4. SU Carburetors were in poor condition, as were most moving parts.

Car body was rebuilt and painted in a bright red color. The car was beautiful inside and out.

A few years ago worked with a group in which three of us owned TR-7s and we agreed that the cars were beautifully designed both visually and functionally. However, we also agreed that the cars were poorly constructed.

Found that the car could absorb all the effort I could muster to improve the car and the car would demand more. Improvements were not making design changes or alterations, but were normal replacement of parts, failed or not, with higher quality and more suitable parts. One example was that the standard ignition was replaced with an IR LED High Voltage unit. Difficulty starting the engine was no longer a problem.

After years of drive it - fix it, I traded the car.

 Installing a General Motors V-6 engine was considered, but most modified cars I saw were not neatly modified. Little problems like gear shifters placed under the instrument panel were common, so I quit trying make things right and traded the car.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining the Car:

Good Stuff:

It was a beautiful car and a real pleasure to drive. The car was repainted and the badges were not replaced, so identification was a problem for some people.

Men could not understand why GM built me a special Fiarro out of metal with the engine in front instead of in the middle like all the other Fiarros.'

Women did not care about any of that, they just wanted to ride in it and maybe drive it a little.

Bad Stuff:

The automobile was poorly constructed out of soft metal. My TR-7 was a hybrid Federal -- Canadian model. The engine rotated counter clock wise. Had carburetor problems and could not get parts for the car. When I found parts they were priced reasonably or in some cases the parts were priced far too high.

The engine had a Lucas ignition system that was a joke. Replace it with a High Energy system and I could start the engine any time.

Go To Automobile List.

1974 American Motors, Pacer Sedan

Features Of the Car:

A 2-door sedan with the largest hatch back possible.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining the Car:

Good Stuff:

Rack and pinion steering -- I love it.

Bad Stuff:

The technology is was 1980s stuff.

Go To Automobile List.

1976 American Motors, Pacer Station Wagon

Features Of the Car:

A 2-door hatch back station wagon.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining the Car:

Good Stuff:

Rack and pinion steering.

Bad Stuff:

Go To Automobile List.

1984 General Motors, Cadillac

No picture available

Features Of the Car:

Four door Sedan. Powered with a V-8 engine. Rear wheel drive with 4-speed auto transmission controlled with a steering wheel shaft shifter. Everything that could be powered was powered. Everything that could have a heater installed did have a heater.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining the Car:

It had a swishy ride. Driving was like steering a 40-foot boat. Loved it. Enough horse power and braking. Well designed and built car.

Good Stuff:

Leather seats, good sound system, excellent atmosphere control.

Bad Stuff:

On a quiet night - you could hear it rusting.* The plastic filler between the tail lights and the body fell apart.* The radio quit and was difficult to fix.* The headliner fell down and required replacement.*

* Standard GM problem.

Go To Automobile List.

1985 General Motors, Oldsmobile
Sold February 2007 (Car is 21 years old)

Recent picture of the Oldsmobile taken on Merritt Island Airport

Features Of The Car:

The car is a 4 door Delta 88, Royal sedan. We still own this one and it is in daily service. We purchased the car as a low mileage excellent condition vehicle. It has performed flawlessly for about three years now.

The car has a small block V-8 engine with rear wheel drive. The shifter is on the steering post controlling a 4 speed automatic transmission.

Radio, heater, air conditioning and power assisted everything including the front seats.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

The feel of the steering system is some what like a front wheel drive vehicle. All systems function well and are dependable.

The car rides very well with the exception of a slight chop because the front seats are too close to the front wheels. Most cars made today have the same design concept. A longer wheel base would help.

I have the impression that the car will run forever with a minimum of maintenance.

Good Stuff:

The car always starts. In simple words, it is dependable.

One of the best features of the car is its trunk. The trunk is very large and shaped so that it is useful. Car manufacturers can buy all the advertising possible to "educate" me that I do not need a trunk, but I do need and use it.

Bad Stuff:

The head liner is coming off the overhead and it can not be re-glued. I have three GM cars and all three have the same problem. I have never experienced this problem with any other make car. Shame on GM for building fine automobiles with such a built-in fault.

Go To Automobile List.

1990 General Motors, Cadillac, Brougham

Features Of The Car:

The car is a 4 door large sedan. Comfort and class. Great car in every respect.  Big engine and power everything. Great to drive and great to ride in.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

During the second week of July, 2002, Betty was parking the car in a parking lot on Merritt Island and struck a building. Betty is safe, the building was injured, and the Cadillac was a total loss.

Go To Automobile List.

1989 General Motors, Chevrolet, C-30, El Dorado, Class C Motor Home
Sold February 2007

The El Dorado on our driveway

Features Of The Car:

The chassis is a Chevrolet G-30 with an RV body installed on it.

Impressions Owning, Driving And Maintaining The Car:

Good Stuff:

Bad Stuff:

Go To Automobile List.

Your comments or memories about any of these cars are welcome (anything you send may show up on this page)

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