I’m 24 and work seasonally so money is tight most of the time. I have a 1992 Buick Roadmaster that I bought from a friend whose grandfather passed away and they just wanted the car gone. So I took it for a steal.
Driving it into the store where I work, my boss kept praising it and saying how much he missed the beautiful luxury car. He has a 68 Toro, all original and very well preserved. He bragged about it often and liked to take us out on nice days when there wasn’t much to do at the store.
One day, while we were working on the construction site, he casually suggested, “Want to trade your Buick for my Toro?”
I thought he was joking. He’s not like that. So a week later we did. To put it bluntly, just sign each other’s names.
It’s a fun car to own and drive, but expensive. It has the 455 “400-HP Force-Air” HO engine, which can sound on anything less than stellar and gets about 9 miles to the gallon. So, as a poor young man, this thing lived off the fumes in the tank, because I only filled gas when I had no other choice, and even then I only had a few dollars. And even though I have the coolest car in my group of friends, I rarely volunteer to drive anywhere.
About a year later, my long-term girlfriend and I decided to break up and decided to move out of our shared apartment. Of course, I didn’t have any savings and knew I would have problems regarding First, Last and Deposit for a new place.
So Toro was put up for sale.
I made a VERY good profit over what I originally paid for the Buick, so that’s a win. But more than 20 years later, I still think about that car. My look at the lights, because they are not known to many people. People know it’s a muscle car but don’t know what it is. Cool features like lights hidden behind the grille and a roller-style speedometer. It even had the factory 8-Track and an 8-Track cassette in the trunk with everything from the Beach Boys to Gordan Lightfoot in it.
On one hand that note is humorous. While I was selling it (Local Nickle Ads, Newspapers, etc. Yes, this was a long time ago), I called a few specialty dealers to see if anyone was interested in it.
There’s a place a few miles away that seems to specialize only in old muscle cars. They have a lot of Mopar cars, Ford Mustangs and Torinos, Chevy Chevelle, Nova, etc
I called them up and said I had a 68 Old Toro with a 455 Force Air big block, all original, and would they like to see it. The person on the phone said, “No, we only buy classic high-performance cars. Sorry that’s not interesting.”
I guess, 400HP and 500 lb-ft from the factory, performance numbers aren’t high enough for them?
I honestly think the Toronado is one of the most beautiful cars of all time. I suppose it’s good that you’re making a profit, but damn it. I hate to see this go.
