As handy as modern-day classified car ads are, I miss thumbing through newspaper listings. There was something special about the tactile feel — even if it meant getting some ink on your fingers. And remember how you were limited with the number of characters you could use? You had to go with short words or acronyms like PW, PL, Cruise, and A/T.
One of my favorite weekly traditions as a teenager in the mid-1990s before getting my driver’s license was riding my bike to Red Sands Market (a Chevron gas station) each Thursday to pick up the free “Pioneer Shopper” with the latest in ads. I’d take it home, plop down on the floor, and browse its pages — none of which were very well organized. Vehicle ads were mixed in with merchandise and whatever else. But I was 14 or 15, and I wasn’t in a big enough hurry to care. Nor did I have the funds to buy anything.
That nostalgia started me down a rabbit hole of searching for my family’s old phone numbers in some newspaper archives. I was able to dig up ads for 15 of our old cars (including some jet skis, an ATV, and a camp trailer mixed in), along with a photo of each one.
Here they are, in order of model year.
1975 Chevrolet Monte Carlo: This one pre-dated me, and the only photo we had was of its wheel (along with mom’s dog “Cadet”).
1978 Mercury Bobcat: There’s the car I rode home in from the hospital.
1986 Chevrolet Celebrity: My first car, and my ultimate pride and joy back in 1997. Apparently, dad listed it for sale sometime in its younger years, but he didn’t end up selling it.
1986 Terry Taurus: Many memories were made in this camp trailer on trips up Logan Canyon in northern Utah. That’s me in the white shirt, with my brother in yellow.
1987 GMC Sierra: My grandpa Rex’s truck when he passed away in 1989, this truck was listed for sale about a month later by my uncle. I wish I could track it down.
1988 Jeep Cherokee: This Laredo received a custom set of Eagle alloys after we purchased it from my grandfather. It was our trusty family hauler in the mid-1990s.
1989 Pontiac Grand Prix: I miss this car a lot, and I talked about my love for the W-body GP in a story earlier this year.
1990 Acura Integra: The car that started it all for my Acura addiction. This was a GS-trim automatic that was fun to drive and not bad to look at.
1990 Ford F-250 XLT: Another vehicle that made an imprint on me as a kid. Check out how my dad was able to wedge three ATVs in the back.
1993 Acura Legend L: After mom sold the previously mentioned 1990 Integra, this was her next vehicle. It was the car I drove to my senior prom back in 1999. Check out my nice bleached hair.
1993 Yamaha Badger YFM80: This was an ATV my brother and I rode around on as 12- and 13-year-olds. We didn’t care that it had a pink seat — this thing was a riot to ride.
1994 Ford F-150 XLT: Another one of dad’s many F-Series trucks, this one towed our watercraft (mentioned shortly) to the lake many times.
1994 Ford Ranger XL: For a short time, dad went to a compact truck, but the Ranger was more capable than it looked. This was a basic model with vinyl flooring and manual-crank windows.
1995 Chevrolet S-10: One of my grandpa’s trucks; the only photo we have of it was when it was parked at his cabin in central Utah. But I spent a lot of time riding around on the teeny jump seats in the extended cab.
1995 Yamaha WaveVenture 700 and WaveRaider 1100: Personal watercraft that ferried us around the lake from about 1996-98. The WaveRaider had a three-cylinder engine and could do 60 mph.
Hope you enjoyed the walk down Memory Lane as much as I did!
