Trond Antonesen, also known as "The Norwegian Furyman", is a Jeep and Plymouth enthusiast from Norway, and a frequent reader and contributor to  this blog. A trained mechanic, Trond is now in the recycling business. He lives with his wife and two sons near Bergen, Norway.

 
Growing up in Norway during the sixties and seventies, there were days between each time you could spot an American built car on the streets. The Beetle was the proud Norwegian family car, and for the less fortunate, a Russian Pobeda, Moscowits or maybe a Skoda. Later the Japanese invasion started, and in the first five years of the seventies the Mazdas, Datsuns and Toyotas were everywhere. Eurpean Opels and Fords were also common along with VW and French cars.

The first years of the seventies, some of the Norwegians who had immigrated to the USA after World War II decided to come home again. Some of them did bring along their latest car from the U.S. Often, these were bought with the thought that they needed a car with good gas mileage. At that time, that meant a six-cylinder engine, and they knew that no one knew anything about automatic transmissions here. But wow, how great these cars looked! 

My first American car was one of these…

When my generation reached driving license age, (which is 18) the big difference between a cool guy and a geek, was if he owned a U.S. car or not. Any old U.S. family car from the sixties could blow the doors of a new European/Japanese family car in 1980, and they looked much better!

My first U.S. car was a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere Wagon, with 225 CID engine, and a manual transmission. Not the hottest car on the street, but this particular car was not the best-looking one either! I did a complete restoration of this car from 1985 until 1987.

In 1985, I purchased a 1973 Plymouth Fury III sedan with a piston out of the 360 Cid engine, and broken auto transmission. I also restored this car. Now Plymouth became my brand!

In 1989, I bought the 1957 Plymouth Fury I still own. Still trying to find time to finish the restoring of it! A couple of years ago I also came by a 1967 VIP, so these are my hobbies now.

(Above is my My ‘67 VIP. It has Ferndale Hodges license plate frames, a gift from my buddy Bernard, one of my friends that hung out on Woodward Avenue.)

All along there have been a few more cars in between. Two ‘66 Belvederes. One wagon and one Belvedere II hardtop (with a 225 six in it) Volare , Dodge Ramcharger, 1958 Plymouth Plaza four-door and also a couple of Chevy’s, but that ended quick! All was just hobby cars. Daily drivers were always an old European wreck. Mostly Peugeot.

My first Jeep was a '96 diesel Grand Cherokee, which I owned from 2002 to 2006. Then I bought a 1998 Grand Cherokee (below).

I believe Chrysler has a new line of cars that really suits the Norwegian tax system fine. The small Jeeps, the Dodge Caliber and the Avenger, all have the 2.0 CDI diesel engine. That means great power, and good gas mileage, this is perfect for our car tax system! Chrysler is maybe suffering from a bad reputation, but I am sure this will turn around.

I bought the new Jeep Patriot in November (seen at the top, and below). It is days between each time I meet a Patriot on the road. A big selling hit it hasn’t been so far. Not in this area, anyway. Nationwide I do not know at this point. The market is flowing with small 4x4 SUV and crossovers so it is hard to reach people. I think that the Jeep name should say it all! People are settling with copies of the original!

I bought my Jeep after a visit to Detroit in September ’07, when my sons and I visited the Chrysler Museum. This was our first visit to the US. I actually was first “test sitting” in a Patriot visiting Roseville Chrysler Jeep in Michigan. They had an classic car meet there this day. We had a great time there. Thinking of a brand new car, I really wanted it to be American-built.

Our rental car on this trip was a Chrysler 300C Hemi. This car was a dream! In Norway a car like this has the price of $222,000 new from the dealer! The $25,000 Patriot, costs $75,000 here. So I had to go for the Patriot - the government makes it so through the crazy tax system.

This was my story, the short version of it. We are a couple of Chrysler nuts over here. Most of us have the old car hobby in our spine. We have used our grown life to take care of old U.S. cars, and specialty cars from the muscle car period. We have studied the history and the construction of these vehicles since we were teenagers, and some are truly experts on the matter. Some of us have good contact with the old car community in the USA. It is possible to import 30-year old cars relatively cheap. There is a large tax reduction on them, since they have become classics. So I might take home a good ‘67 Satellite some day. I really like those. My fist one was a 67 B body, maybe that has something to do with it?

Many of us have chosen to drive Chryslers and Jeeps every day. Earlier the U.S. cars were just for summer fun. More and more people are driving Chryslers and Dodge without having any linkage to the brand other then that they like the car. Not all even know that is an U.S. car they are driving, and at the bottom line, that is OK.
Chrysler cars mingle fine, they just look better!

The Norwegian Furyman , Trond A