My next car . . . Envoy Epic

My next car was an 1964 Envoy Epic

My friend Martin Hornberger had a Vauxhall Viva which was the exact same car only with a different name. This was a fun car. At the same time our friend Lloyd Nielson had a VW beetle. In this car I took my mother on a trip to Burley Idaho to visit her sister Alene Burgie. On that trip the muffler fell off so it was quite loud and then on the way home the engine seized up when we were a few miles south of the boarder. Uncle Lou Conrad who owned a Ford Dealership (Superior Motors) in Taber drove down with his tow-truck and picked up the car. Taking that car on the trip was an expensive way to save on gas. I used this car until I went to BYU. My first year at BYU I did not have a car.

On my mission in California I drove 1969 Rambler American 2 door sedan with no radio. This was the last year that the car was made and even though they were “New” cars they had “no comeliness” and their main feature was that they fostered humility. I am just kidding . . . I was very fortunate because for my entire mission I had a car and was never posted to a bicycle area. This car was advertised with seat belts and head rests.

The picture above was taken in front of Sister Soaper’s home in Napa. She was a wonderful old sister who rented out a back room to the missionaries. I can remember that she was very hard of hearing and if we entered the house and she didn’t see us it would give her a terrible start when she actually did. There were many times that we would back out of the room and try to make a lot of noise so that we didn’t scare her to death.

The next cars that we got in our mission were the bran-new AMC Hornets. They had an MSRP of $1,994.00 They were a step up from the old Ramblers but they were still very austere and economical.

When I came home from my mission and went back to BYU for the second year, thanks to my parents I was able to buy a car. I had a budget of $400.00. The first car that caught my eye was a 1963 Chevy Impala 2 door hardtop with a 327 cu in engine and a 4 speed manual transmission. It had a modified muffler system with glass pack pipes and it made a very distinctive rumble. I took about 4 weeks and looked at maybe 20 other cars before I decided to buy the first one that I looked at. I had it narrowed down to the Chevy or a Plymouth Barracuda.

I loved this car . . . even though it was about 10 years old when I bought it. It had a full bench seat in the front and each side would move forward to allow people into the back seat. I had this car when I was dating Mary. The shifter was on the floor and she would sit right next to me. I would put my arm around her and she would shift while we were driving. The car had a great heater and we spent quite a bit of time in it talking about life and families and stuff like that. It made enough noise that when I drove up the back alley to the parking area behind Mary’s house she would know that I was there.

After we were engaged Mary’s folks came up from Las Vegas for a visit to meet me and check things out. After we had said good by we were both driving away Mary’s parents in their car and Mary and I in mine. Her Dad flashed his lights and pulled me over. He said I just wanted to let you know that when you get married we plan to give you our car. (I have always thought of it as a sort of package deal.)

Fos and Reva’s 1966 Pontiac Bonneville 2-door hardtop.

Fos liked nice cars. This one would have cost about $3,750 in 1966. In that year the average car cost 2,650.00 the average household income was 6,900.00, the average home cost 14,200.00 and a gallon of gas cost $.32. This car got 16 mpg on a good day. The engine was a 6.4 L (389 cu in)V8 that produced 325 HP When you look at it 32 cents per gallon seems like very cheap gas but wait. If gas cost us the same amount in comparison to the value of our house then gas would cost $18.03 per gallon. . . but it only costs $2.09 at Costo in the USA today.

Gas $ .32	This is what the price of gas would be: $18.30
Average House in US $14,200.00 in 1966	Ave house price . . lower mainland $ 812,400 in Nov of 2016

Or expressed another way . . . if the price of houses went up the same as the cost of gas then a house should be worth 92,743 not $812,400. Our gas is really cheap now compared to housing.

When we left Provo and moved up to Edmonton we pulled a trailer that was loaned to us by Terry Wolsey. When we think back on it now we laugh because we put so much stuff in that trailer that we bent the axil (sorry Terry). As we were driving through Idaho we hit a bump and the weld that held the trailer hitch to the back bumper broke. The hitch swung down and dragged along the ground until we could get the car stopped. It was problematic but the stuff that we brought back was mostly junk, like the old green sofa that we had purchased for $5.00 and the stack of bricks that I had used to make a book shelf.

Our next car was a 1970 Toyota Corona

This is a picture taken when we lived in Edmonton. Lisa was expecting Scott at the time.