Not all at once, of course.

I recently watched the odometer on the '49 convertible turn past 55,000 miles.  This was significant to me because the car had almost 52,000 miles on it the day I towed it home.  Some simple math, and we see that I've put on something over 3000 miles in the two years I've had the car.

Now, 3000 miles is nothing much by most standards... especially stretched over a two year period.  but we're talking Crosley here.  25 mighty horses and a transmission that seems to have been bred from a pencil sharpener.  The Crosley just doesn't fit in any regular car category.  Add to this that the car was either broken, waiting for parts, or on jackstands for at least 4 months out of the two years, and the mileage starts to look a little bit better.  I'm not absolutely sure on this, but i would guess that there can't be more than one or two other Crosleys in the world that have done that much traveling in the last DECADE.

Why drive it?

It's a car.  Sure, it's a tiny, funny-looking, finicky, slow, luddite kinda car, but it IS a car.  So I drive it.  I decided to buy a Crosley because I was tired of gas-guzzling monoliths with power steering and automatic transmissions that handled more like boats than cars.  I liked the looks and size of Fiats and brit cars but the parts availability, reliability and prices turned me toward something domestic.  When I stumbled across some racing reviews of the Crosley and looked into parts availability and pricing, I was hooked.  I was convinced that I could ENJOY driving one, learn to be a better mechanic and not feel like the Exxon Valdez every time I went to the gas station.  The past two years have, for the most part, proved this theory right.

There are the downsides.  Having a Crosley as a "transportation" car can be limiting.  It would be nice to get somewhere in a hurry once in a while.  Knowing that you are not unlikely to shake something loose or just break something anytime you take a long (more than 40 miles) trip can put a damper on those spur of the moment jaunts.  And forget about "blasting" down to Las Vegas or LA for a weekend.  Driving somewhere has to be "about" the drive... you can never quite forget that you're in a Crosley.

The turning of the odometer came at a symbolic moment.  It happened the very day that I bought a "real" car.  I finally gave in to the desire to take trips on a whim, go surfing at least once a week and to stop renting cars to go on road trips.  I also wanted a car I could tow Crosleys with, just in case I buy any more of them.  Ironically, my idea of an "appliance" vehicle is a '62 Valiant station wagon, a choice informed by two years in a Crosley.  I open the hood and it seems so complicated and futuristic.  More ironically, I've been "relying" on the Crosley the past couple of weeks while I get some kinks straightened out with the plymouth.

I haven't given up on my dream of the roadworthy Crosley.  I've been tinkering with the convertible, getting ready to attempt a drive to the West Coast Crosley Meet in Morro Bay in a couple of weeks.  The round trip should be about 800 miles.  i'm giving myself two days each way, and plan on bringing a back seat full of tools and spares.  I took an eighty mile trip last Sunday to do a road test.  The tailpipe shook loose, the idle screw rotated free and the clutch was slipping over 40 MPH.  Eight hundred miles.  How hard can it be?

Tim Foster | Sept 2000