I may be looking at a 68 Toronado tomorrow but have a concern with one thing in particular stated in the ad, "could use an alignment". The car looks great and I wonder why the seller wouldn't have had a $50 fix done to make the car drive better on a test drive. My concern is that my experience with fwd vehicles is an alignment problem can really be a failing CV joint. I really don't know is the fwd on the Tornado is similar to the Honda I own which had a bad CV joint. What should I be looking for to determine if it could be a CV joint issue VS a front end alignment? if a CV joint, are parts available and how expensive is this to have repaired?

 

I can't say that I understand how a CV joint can cause an alignment problem on a Toro. You can completely remove the front driveshafts and it doesn't change the alignment. More likely the "needs an alignment" is because there are worn parts in the steering or front suspension, so I'd be checking for that, but frankly on a car that old, I just assume the suspension and steering need to be rebuilt and factor that into the price.

 

That sounds most likely the case. Are parts available for that car? I assume you may not be able to walk into the nearest O'Reilly's and get some of the front end parts as easily a your typical rwd car from 1968. I wasn't implying CV and front end issues were related. When the right CV joint on my Honda began to fail, it felt like being buffeted by a strong side wind with the symptom becoming more pronounced while accelerating. Fortunately I made it to the shop before it completely failed.

 

Maybe can't find a shop willing to take it on. The way the Toronado front end is set up, sometimes it's better to take it to a shop that does big trucks.