Comments on: What’s Wrong With This Picture: Cold Dead Hands Edition

By: jerseydevil

jerseydevil — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:37:35 +0000

I especially like the part about the lifetime warranty! Good for her.

There is hope for all of us.

By: DweezilSFV

DweezilSFV — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:34:45 +0000

Inspiring old car and old lady. Would like to see more stories like this. What a treat.
Thanks.

By: segfault

segfault — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:53:15 +0000

I don’t think anyone makes a car battery with a lifetime warranty anymore. Amazing that JC Penney still honors their warranty even though they no longer service cars. It may be the original engine, but I’m sure it’s been re-ringed/rebuilt, or whatever you do to refurbish an engine.

What really amazes me about this story is that this has been her only car for 40+ years.

By: skor

skor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:45:48 +0000

The Mercury Comet(Ford Falcon) was one of Ford’s greatest success stories. The first gen Mustang was nothing more than a re-skinned Falcon. The Ford Maverick was a re-bodied Falcon. The Falcon was built in Argentina , with it’s original 1960 style body, until 1991. The Falcon was first assembled in Australia starting in 1963. It was so well liked in the land of Oz, Skippy continued to develop the Falcon long after is was abandoned in every other Ford market. Possibly one of the greatest ROI of any auto engineering project ever.

By: Jeff Puthuff

Jeff Puthuff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:41:34 +0000

I don’t know, xyzzy. It works for me in Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

By: xyzzy

xyzzy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:39:26 +0000

One thing wrong with it is the video doesn’t work. I tried by IE and Firefox.

By: 50merc

50merc — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:34:20 +0000

A great story about a great American and her car.

And I love it that she’s gotten seven mufflers and sixteen batteries under the terms of “lifetime warranties.”

By: ponchoman49

ponchoman49 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:25:40 +0000

Nothing wrong with this picture other than lack of optional seat belts. This is from a simpler better time when hard working people took pride in there cars and kept them up and serviced and put oodles of miles on them and really got there moneys worth. I once knew an old guy with a 70 Impala with about the same mileage on the original small block V8. I owned a 1981 Olds Cutlass with the small 260 V8 with over 300K and it still ran well when I sold it. It was not uncommon to see slant 6’s, Rambler Americans, Chevy Stove Bolt 6’s and Fords 230-250 L6 equipped cars with 500k miles on the clock back in the day. The myth that Amarican cars were horrible and unreliable in the 70’s and 80’s was greatly exaggerated in many cases. As long as you avoided the real lemons like the Vegas, Pintos, Mustang II’s, early Volaries, GM 5.7 Olds diesels, Caddy 8-6-4 or HT 4100 V8’s etc it was very possibe to get a long lasting domestic car.

By: afabbro

afabbro — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:23:19 +0000

No seat belt option on the deluxe ‘64 merc? This car is right on the edge of universal seat belts, and I’m surprised that one ordered “deluxe” doesn’t have them, since Ford was offering optional seat belts in the late 50s.

By: commando1

commando1 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:13:03 +0000

I loved it when she pulled out her revolver. God Bless Her!!

By: afabbro

afabbro — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:06:50 +0000

I would love to have every car I own go 540K miles. That’s extraordinary, but not record-setting – there are many million-mile cars out there. And if you drive a Saab a million miles they will give a free one. Well, at least the old Saab did.

I would love it if my 2004 Volvo S60 would get to 500,000 miles. But I suspect the 21st century ones are the legendary long-haul Swedes of the 20th…

By: autoemployeefornow

autoemployeefornow — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:24:35 +0000

An amazing woman and an amazing car. I wonder if she ever used the gun to get better/cheaper service?

By: Samir

Samir — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:03:49 +0000

Random brandishing of firearms by 86-yr-old woman: Bad ass.

By: Blue387

Blue387 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:43:22 +0000

It’s a ‘64 Mercury Comet Caliente. This is spectacular.

By: WildBill

WildBill — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:28:26 +0000

Man, don’t f’ with that lady or she’ll cap yo’ azz! She’s not shy about showing her piece either.

By: Rokovak

Rokovak — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:08:24 +0000

The only thing wrong is that owners and cars like Rachel and Chariot are all to rare in this disposable technobabble whizbang day and age.

By: geeber

geeber — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:02:30 +0000

I can’t get the video to work, either.

From the door posts, the car looks to be a second-generation Falcon (1964-65) or Comet (same years).

By that point, both cars offered the option of a larger six or a small-block V-8. If her car is equipped with one of those engines, I can imagine her getting that kind of mileage out of it.

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:34:11 +0000

I can’t get the video to work, but that looks like a first generation (‘60-63) Ford Falcon. What’s wrong is that it’s hard for me to imagine one of those things going anywhere near that far. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED mine, and I drove it across the country twice (you can see it at motorlegends.com). But the second engine threw a rod at 106k or thereabouts, and by that time the tranny was shot, partly my fault for clutchless shifting, but similar clutchless shifting did no harm to my ‘77 Toyota Corolla some years later. My Falcon had a small (120ci, I think) six.

NONETHELESS, who knows, maybe she really did get that mileage out of that car, in which case, it’s worth some major honor in the world of cars. Maybe we should give her the first Far-a-go Award for absolutely amazing achievement.

By: ohsnapback

ohsnapback — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:29:42 +0000

Power to the people!

This woman is emblematic of what this country should strive to be!

If it aint’ broke, don’t trade it in only to get smoked by an unethical dealer on an overpriced new ride and abysmal trade-in credit!

By: Samuel L. Bronkowitz

Samuel L. Bronkowitz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:12:53 +0000

Is the sign about the car or the driver?

/obvious joke…

By: Frank Williams

Frank Williams — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:03:49 +0000

You go girl!

By: TonUpBoi

TonUpBoi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:00:45 +0000

Absolutely nothing is wrong. God bless both the car and owner.

By: GS650G

GS650G — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:00:20 +0000

I had several old fords from 1963 and 1964. They were all simple reliable cars. I had a 63 Comet with the V-8, a rare option that year. She might have a 260 or 289 engine.

As to what’s wrong with this picture, well we assume only M-B can make it 500K or more. Maybe it’s just a matter of care and feeding.