Personal Narrative: Driving The Catalina

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When I first told my parents I wanted a classic car they were very against my decision saying it would be expensive to maintain, always be broken down, and be a complete death trap. I bought one anyway and it’s only a complete deathtrap, ha look at me now dad.

In the winter of 2017 I brought home my 1966 Pontiac Catalina that I purchased for $4,000 and have since have had 13 months and 6,000 miles to evaluate it.

(Full Disclosure : I own the 1966 Pontiac Catalina in this review but will remain 100% truthful in my opinions both good and Bad)

For those unfamiliar the Pontiac Catalina it was essentially a slightly upscale version of the Chevy impala with a higher performance engine and more luxurious interior. It came in a coupe convertible …show more content…

The steering wheel is big and easy to turn making driving the large car more like captaining a ship. Everything about the car is big even the gas and brake pedals are bigger that your foot. Stepping on the gas nothing happens for a few seconds then once the transmission kicks down the car surges forward. The brakes require tremendous force to slow the car down from its charge. Everything is less precise than the cars of today but this makes for a more driving experience as there has to be purpose behind every …show more content…

Throughout my 13 month ownership of the vehicle I have driven it daily as my primary vehicle without much difficulty.
Gas Mileage : this is one of the weaker categories for the Catalina with a whopping 8mpg. I would always end up at the end of the week dropping $50 on gas, about 4 times as much as the typical car owner.
Reliability : In the past 13 months I have spent less than $200 on maintenance and repairs only having to replace a 30 year old alternator and the basics fluid changes. Cars of this period are so mechanically simple that there's not that many parts to break and if anything does break its very affordable and easy to replace making them quite reliable. When the alternator went out I went to the autoparts store put down $80 and within 20 minutes of getting back it was installed. When my moms 2012 honda needed an alternator it was $500 and took me hours.
Utility : Being able to legally seat 8 people with comfort and ease and a trunk the size of a small pickup bed the Catalina works just as well as any suv for hauling people and stuff just with more style and

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