Bonnevilles, Galaxies, Wildcats - Fun, Fun, Fun

NY Times - June 19, 1986

SOUTHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND. When Vivian Pummill was invited to a beach party last weekend, she did not worry about what to wear. She worried about what to drive.

"I've got a Toyota, but that would be boring," she said. "I wanted to drive up in something and feel great."

Miss Pummill solved her problem by renting an automobile synonymous with summer fun and sun, a metallic time machine from the era of...the Beach Boys - a 1962 white Pontiac Bonneville convertible

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"There's just something about a car from the 60's, but especially a convertible," she said. "It makes things more exciting. People see you and start honking and waving. They know you're out having a good time."

Miss Pummill found her convertible at Dreamboats Rent-A-Car Inc., s Southampton-based business that is one of the nation's most unorthodox and exclusive car rental concerns.

Dreamboats rents convertibles, and only convertibles. "Convertibles bring back the good old days," said Edwin J. Biebuyck, the company's vice president. "Riding down the highway with the top down and radio blasting - it's a very good feeling."

The company's small fleet of cars here looks something like the parking lot of a 1960's Senior Class Prom. There are Galaxies

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Wildcats
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Thunderbirds, Bonnevilles and Cadillacs in a blazing parade of color and chrome that draws stares and gawks from passing motorists on Highway 27, prompting some to swerve off the road for a closer look. "Anybody who thinks cars today are better than these cars is crazy," said a visitor as he strolled through the lot Friday. "It's not so. They just don't make cars like these anymore - just look at those fins."

"These are the cars of our times," said Mr. Biebuyck, "a time when America was so sure of itself and was making the most outrageous and wild cars." They are also the cars millions of Americans grew up with. Miss Pummill, who graduated from high school in 1962, said: "?this is right out of my generation - that's what I get a kick out of. Back then people really knew how to live."?

Mr. Biebuyck, a 30-year-old Belgian citizen, is an artist who lives in Paris most of the year, but his enthusiasm for old American convertibles in irrepressible.

"I really believe in these convertibles, in their look and what they stood for," he said. "These cars are the coolest things in the world."?

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