It's nice when non-car people value the buying advice of a gearhead

"sm70- why not Duesenberg?" (sm70-whynotduesenberg)
08/29/2017 at 12:43 • Filed to: None

Almost two years ago, my grandmother’s search for a new car ended abruptly when I sent her a link to a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for sale locally. Next to all of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! she was considering, this ATS seemed like too much of a young hooligan’s hotrod, the sort of thing the average Jalopnik commenter might suggest for an old lady in the same way they might suggest a Miata as a family hauler. Amazingly, my grandmother loved the car so much that she bought the car less that 12 hours after I first sent her the link. Two years on, she is still in love with it. She told me last week that, in more than 50 years of driving, this is the first car she’s ever owned that she actually looks forward to driving every day. She loves the acceleration, the steering, the braking, and even the very bouncy sporty ride. For the first time, she is actively protective of the car; no food inside, no parking too close to other cars, and I’m one of the only people allowed to drive it (not even my grandfather gets to). I guess it’s never too late to convert someone into a gearhead.

DISCUSSION (22)

JR1 > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 12:50

Somewhere a Cadillac engineer is smiling

Milky > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 12:50

Sorry but this reminds me of the opposite. Friend from high school always asks my opinion when car buying and has ignored me 3 times. She has gone Patriot - Juke - Verano (in the last 4 years) and rolled negative equity into at least the last loan.

Don’t take your grandma’s trust for granted!

Tristan > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 12:52

Can you please help me convert my wife?

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Milky
08/29/2017 at 12:52

Yeah, your scenario is how most of these situations go down.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Tristan
08/29/2017 at 12:53

...to Judaism?

Chariotoflove > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 12:55

This makes me happy.

Tristan > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 12:56

If Jews love cars, then sure- I’ll celebrate Hanukkah with her!

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Tristan
08/29/2017 at 12:58

Bwahahahaha!

Actually a surprising amount of the Jalopnik staff or former staff is Jewish. Fun fact.

Start your wife off by having her drive a slightly sportier/quicker version of whatever she currently drives

WilliamsSW > Milky
08/29/2017 at 13:03

Yeesh - I think that next time around, you need to remind her of the bad decisions she’s made as a result of ignoring your advice before you start.

I’m sure it’ll make her mad, but it sounds like she needs some tough love - that’s brutal.

Azrek > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 13:07

My friends/coworkers come to me all the time for car advice and I explain to them...I love Cars. I really...really...love cars. So asking me to help them pick a $50,000 budget car will mean I am gonna steer you towards a performance vehicle that is fun to drive. So, if your idea of a good car is a basic Civic or Accord; go type in a google search.

I chase away folks because I will do hours of research on their budget and design, but they will pull in the next week with a lilac Sonata and declare they got a great deal!

Party-vi > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 13:16

My mother tells the story of her grandmother purchasing a new car in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, and she told the sales person she needed a car with “balls”. He talked her into a Mustang with the I6, and she took it home only to bring it back the next day and tell him “I need something with balls god dammit”. She took home a Mercury Cougar with what I would hope and dream was a 428.

OmerCarrothers333 > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 13:53

You’re doing the Lord’s work.

CobraJoe > Milky
08/29/2017 at 14:05

The girl I dated in college was a bit clueless about cars, so I told her “Don’t buy something without me looking at it first.” She didn’t. She bought a ‘96 Taurus with 203k miles. For more than double what it was actually worth.

But she got it from her cousin, it couldn’t be bad! Except for the short in the radio that would cause the battery to go dead after 2 days. And the one mismatched tire. And the fact that it had a reman engine because her cousin ran it without oil changes until it died. After she killed the Taurus (trans wasn’t changed with the engine, died shortly after she got it), she needed something extremely cheap, dead reliable, and insisted that it must be under 100k miles. I told her a Crown Vic or Marquis would be the best option to fit all those requirements, and she was adamant that she’d never drive one.

Then her brother buys her a grandma special Marquis, and she loved it.

Looking back, I don’t think she really trusted me...

Xyl0c41n3 > Party-vi
08/29/2017 at 14:12

Your great grandma sounds like an amazing woman. :)

shop-teacher > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 14:16

That is pretty awesome!

Party-vi > Xyl0c41n3
08/29/2017 at 14:23

Same woman that decided the roofers quoting her a new roof wanted too much money, and spent a summer/fall carrying shingles up on a ladder and securing them one sheet at at time.

Xyl0c41n3 > Party-vi
08/29/2017 at 14:26

Damn! Made of sterner stuff, she was. :) Thanks for sharing.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Party-vi
08/29/2017 at 14:29

Too bad it wasn’t a Mopar...

Party-vi > Xyl0c41n3
08/29/2017 at 14:48

She was quite ornery.

Tristan > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/29/2017 at 20:29

...sportier version... Ummm... That’s kind of a dividing-by-zero type of situation.

*i was going to insert an image of a white current-gen RAV4, but kinja.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Tristan
08/29/2017 at 21:19

She’s in a RAV4? Get her a V6 RAV4 Sport.

Tristan > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
08/30/2017 at 00:42

A more pleasant experience might be smashing my gentleman parts with a small hammer...

It’s her company car. We both have searing hatred for it. It’s so awful. She loved her MK4 manual Jetta TDI, but not in the it-gives-me-the-fizz kind of way. It’s more like the love one might feel for that nice little retro red microwave they had in college.