I've never owned a Firebird but had a '69 Camaro Z28 and a few years later a '72 Vette. The only way the Z was better was that it had a back seat for the drive-in movie.

Bought it from a used car dealer in Columbus, GA when I was in the Army in '68 and drove it home to CA on leave before shipping out to Vietnam.

It looked like this, but with a red interior:



It was a great car, but after nearly being killed in the war I traded it in on a brand new '70 E-Type Jaguar.

Cars back then had more character than today's.

It was a monster with cloth bench seats and had to touch the back wall of the garage to get it to fit in the garage to close the door without hitting the chrome bumper.

I lusted after the Toronado when I was a kid. Batman with Adam West was running when I first saw a Toronado. I thought it looked like the Batmobile.

I think they bought it in 1996. It held up very well over the years as Grandma and Grandpa got older. By 2004 they didn't really drive themselves very much - I think to the end of the driveway to get the mail was about the extent of Grandma's driving and Grandpa would occasionally go to church. Most of the time one of their kids would drive them around - either in their own vehicles or in the Oldsmobile. They pretty much stopped driving by the end of the last decade when they moved from the farm into assisted living. When Grandpa was alive my uncle would take the car up to the assisted living place, pick them up, and take them back to their farmhouse for several hours every Sunday. I don't remember if they kept the car after Grandpa passed or not or sold it off - Grandma had all the stuff she wanted still at the house moved up to her apartment and the rest of the stuff went to the family.