Cheers or Jeers: 60,000 Mile 1971 Checker Marathon Station Wagon

Link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item1c25d9b902

This is a 1971 Checker Motors Corporation, Marathon Model, Station Wagon. It's a cousin to the familiar Checker Taxi Cab and was intended as a sturdy alternative for the suburban family. Factory paint was dark green but is now red. 8 cylinder engine. Automatic transmission. Ran good when garaged and licensed 18 years ago. Body appears in good condition with some rust and bondo apparent. Interior has had some restoration done. Hub caps included. All glass is in good condition and rear roll-down window operates. Clear title. Great for a classic restoration or as parts. Car can be seen and picked up in Covington Kentucky, 41015

Quirky cool, and with a GM drivetrain.

Some cars should just be scrapped and left to the history books. Here is a perfect example. Love the It ran when parked 18 years ago.

Jeers, ready for the recycle pile.

Eh....the GM parts are cool...

I could picture Samedei rockin' this one..bench seat, lots of room inside. Painted flat black w/ anarchy symbols painted on the hood and doors...

I could picture Samedei rockin' this one..bench seat, lots of room inside. Painted flat black w/ anarchy symbols painted on the hood and doors...

Potentially. ;-) I'd have to swap in some wide buckets, thought, and a T56. Suede black with a skull and crossbones on the hood. *sigh* I haven't driven a car with skull and crossbones on the hood since 1996 or so. :-(

Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with Checkers. This Checker is quite cool, being a wagon... but most sedan Checkers don't thrill me, as they are not, LOL, 2 door coupes. Not only that, but I always felt the '50s era styling was a mish-mash of elements slapped together... of course, thats for a reason... the cars were designed to be infinitely repairable, with nearly replaceable parts all around (including rear quarters). Since this unit is fairly rare and Checkers are so hardy, it should live. Cheers.

BTW, just because this was a wagon, its not necessarily a civvie unit. The taxi companies used wagons, and so did airports.

There's a '60s vintage Checker in good shape around here in dark gray w/ a black vinyl top and porthole windows, chrome bumpers...

AT least this one has the pre-IMPACT! bumpers. As a wagon, they are quite uncommon, ESP at this point in time.

I too would like to find something to love here.... but the blah interior kinda holds that up.

I don't recall seeing a Checker wagon in person. Have to vote 'cheers' due to the rarity.

There was a collector in NE Ohio that used to have dozens of Checkers in a field...bought and sold them and collected parts and cars...I recall driving past his place a few times back in the early '90s.

I can't imagine why anyone would have bought one of these retail

I can't imagine why anyone would have bought one of these retail

People that found Ramblers to be too bold and trendy, I guess..

Edited April 12, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

^ It was a bit less than $200 more than a Biscayne wagon.

You did get better seating position & visibility, straight-cut rear doors, flat floors and a LOT of interior space on a relatively shorter exterior.

Checker billed them as having 30% larger interiors than any other 4-dr sedan.

I've heard tell the seats were very comfortable (I've never sat in one personally).

Checkers were also well-renowned for their durability.

... but yea. Total '71 Checker production was approx 4500 units.

Checkers are completely awesome and I would drive this everywhere around as is (with air in the tires of course).

Cheers, simply because it's within a 100 mile radius of me.

I can't imagine why anyone would have bought one of these retail

Well, Balthy covered several buying points.

Simple, they held up 3-5x longer than the average car at the time... reasonable initial cost, commodity parts that could easily be replaced. The later Marathons could be customized to be quite luxurious (for the time).

It would be cool to get ahold of one of these and modernize it. Chopped and channelled... tucked and smoothed bumpers... updated lighting. Maybe a phantom post coupe.

I've seen hot rodded Checkers, but never a custom.