Tire talk...got me thinking about my cars

[CharlieO]

The other thread about tires got me thinking about the tires that I have owned, and the cars that they were mounted on. I'm 52 years old, and in 36 years of driving I've owned a heck of a lot of cars, and I'm not a collector. I think the count is around 30 at this point.

Some of the cars I've owned were great cars, and others were pieces of crap. I thought that it might be fun to list some of the cars we have owned, good and bad, and maybe toss in some comments, memories, or whatever. This thread could go anywhere, I guess. Feel free to comment on my cars, or list your good vs.bad, or whatever. Here goes with some of mine:

GOOD
'61 VW Beetle (first car, bought on my 16th birthday for $80, it HAD to be good!)
'62 Triumph TR-3. Actually an unreliable POS, but how could anyone NOT love this car?
'73 Mercury Capri 2600 V-6. Actually ugly in metallic green, but this was a great car. I might drive one today if I could find one.
'72 Datsun 240Z. Beautiful custom candy apple red. Needs no more explanation.
'74 Datsun 260Z. Much less "good" than the '72, less reliable, but better than anything the US auto industry had to offer at the time.
'86 Honda Prelude Si. I had two of these. I sold the first to buy a BMW 633 CSi (see VERY BAD!). I actually forced the dealer to buy it back after 30 days and he bought me another Prelude!
'93 Honda del Sol Si. A sleeper, a very under-rated, under-appreciated car.
'91 Mazda Miata. Simply one of the best cars of all time, does exactly what Mazda engineers intended it to do.
'98 Chrysler Sebring convertible. The perfect Florida boulevard cruiser, perfect vacation rental car, and an absolute bargain. Utterly reliable. Classic styling will still look great in 20 years. I might keep mine that long.

BAD
2 VW Cabriolets (the "Rabbit" or "Golf") models. These were extremely unreliable pieces of sh-t, and they were "girlie" cars. I owned 2 of them! WHAT WAS I THINKING?
'80 Audi 5000S. A great car to drive, and mine was beautiful, dark blue with dark tinted windows, blue leather, etc. This was a chick magnet, but I must have spent $1000 every 2 months keeping it on the road. Thank God I replaced it with a Honda.
'78 BMW 633 Csi. A NIGHTMARE!!! I always wanted one because I thought it was beautiful, but this was the worst car I have ever owned. You'll never get me to buy another BMW.
'98 VW New Beetle. I love old VW Beetles, and I've owned 7 of them (including 5 convertibles). I had to be the first guy in town to own one, so I ordered mine 18 months before they came out. I actually got the first manual transmission one delivered in Milwaukee, and it was a lemon. Dealer service was horrible, and I'll never buy another new VW.

UNDECIDED
2002 Jaguar X-Type. I really like this car. It drives great, it looks beautiful, it's very British, and thank God it has a great warranty. I haven't had any major problems, just a squeak and a dead battery that were both fixed. Jaguar replaced the transmission under a recall, even though there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it. It's too early to tell whether it will be reliable in the long term. I'll probably ditch it 2 days before the warranty runs out.

How about it, guys? What's your good/bad list? Comments on mine?

[jhundt]

1963 Saab 95 (I'm not 100% sure about the year or model #). With an 850cc 2-stroke engine. The gas station attendants (remember them?) used to go crazy when they saw me pouring oil in the gas tank.... The manual 4-on-the-tree transmission would automatically freewheel when going downhill with no pressure on the gas pedal. I coasted from the Caldecott tunnel all the way home to Oakland. It cost me $100 and I should have kept it forever...

I had a Mini 850 too for a while. I got pulled over by a policeman on a motorbike (in West London); there was so much wrong with the car... bad tires, worn steering gear, no registration or MOT, I had no license, was in the country and working illegally, my three passengers also... the cop thought about the paperwork nightmare and said "get out of here, I never want to see you driving this thing again". This was another $100 special.

I always liked goofy cars, I guess. With little tiny motors. My wife had a Fiat 500 and a 2CV before I met her, I wish I could have one of those.

[Colin Johnston]

Good? Bad?.. I've loved them all!

1985 Austin Rover Mini "City E", 998cc, champagne (aka beige!!)
My first car - drove it until the sills rotted and fell out. Useless heater, no radio but perfect for carrying me, a guitar and a SF Twin (on the back seat!!) to my first gigs.

1989 Austin Rover Metro "Red Hot", 1275cc, red
What a step up in the world! Most of the fun of the Mini but a bit more civilised! :) Once had a holiday in County Donegal where the exhaust fell of and the darn thing sounded like a Spitfire - cool, but deafening!

1993 Renault Twingo lhd personal import.
Big fun and a real coversation starter as they're like hens teeth over here!

1994 Rover Mini "35", 1275, blue.
Mini, slight return. Rover had just "updated" the Min with multipoint injection, a longer diff, etc. and there was talk of a BMW Mini replacement - I HAD to own one last REAL Mini. As before, I travelled all over gigging in this wee car. Far off gigs, a tiny petrol tank and the lack of 24hour garages out "in the sticks" meant you had to have the smoothness of Jackie Stewart and the pit stop stategy of Michael Schumacher just to make it home!! :D

2000 Skoda Felicia, 1300, green.
The Mini was getting to the point where it was time to start thinking of spending money on it or move it on while it still looked great - Mini owners will understand! I needed cheap space & comfort (a migarine sufferer driving long distances in a Mini was never going to be a long term thing!). Got a GREAT deal on a new Skoda and went for it! Loved this car and so did my Dad who bought it off me when I bought my uncle's...

1997 VW Golf GTi, 2000cc 8v, red.
Aside from perhaps a Subaru Imprezza Turbo, this may be the perfect car for Irish roads! Comfortable, great space and as fast as a-very-fast-thing!

[CharlieO]

I always liked goofy cars, I guess. With little tiny motors.

Me, too, jhundt. I never had an interest in "muscle cars" (who needs a 427 Cobra, I'll be happy with a 289). I've had a lot of small, fuel efficient cars, and I'd rather brag about how many mpg I get than how many speeding tickets I've gotten.

I've always wanted an original Mini Cooper and a 2CV.

I have owned a long list of "girlie-cars". Have you ever seen a list of the top 5 most popular cars for women? I've owned:
5 VW Beetle convertibles
2 VW cabriolets
1 Honda del Sol
Volkswagen New Beetle
Mazda Miata

The Chrysler Sebring convertible and Honda Preludes could also be on that list. The benefit of owning all these cars, by the way, is that women love my cars. That's not a bad thing.

I might be saved from ridicule because I've owned a TR-3, an MGA , 2 Datsun Z's, the crappy BMW 633 Csi and one or two other "manly" cars.

[Billy Claire]

1968 Chrysler Newport
1959 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite
1964 Chevy Impala
1971 Ford Pinto- totalled in one month
1973 Ford Pinto
1974 Datsun 260Z
1978 Datsun 280Z
1985 Mazda RX7SEL
1984 Mazda RX7SE
1987 Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon

Overall best car: the '84 Mazda RX7SE- if it wasn't for eventual undercarriage rust, I'd still have that car. It was without a doubt the most dependable, most fun to drive, and least cost to maintain car I have owned.

Still the Volvo fits EVERYTHING and is low at the back so there's almost no lifting invloved. PLUS it fits more than just about any SUV.

The Bugeye was fun to drive when it ran right- it was on the road for a year and a half and it ran right for maybe 6 days out of that time.

The Z's were great- all power and speed... but the RX7 beat them hands down.

[Twang]

'68 Convertible Mustang
'86 Honda Accord
'96 Honda Civic
'04 VW Passat

The Mustang was cool cause I was in college. The exterior, CAR/black ragtop was perfect but eventually spent too much time in junkyards looking for parts.

The two Honda's were reliable and inexpensive.

I love the Passat. Have it in the "Johnny Cash Special" Black/Black, 1.8L Turbo, 4-motion, leather. Comfortable, quick and quiet. I'll be driving this one for a while. :P

[telemike]

Except for a couple of exceptions, this'll look like a Ford commercial...

1978 Ford F100 Pickup
1986 Ford Mustang
1966 Ford Mustang
1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
1988 Ford F150
1992 Pontiac Sunbird
1996 Dodge Intrepid
1999 Ford Explorer
Current:
2000 Ford F150
1992 Ford Mustang
1970 Ford Mustang

[Jakedog]

Here's my list:

'78 Subaru DL wagon - $75

'72 Ford Torino GT - $500 w/starsky and hutch paint

'75 Ford Granada -$500 two door w/a 302

'76 Firebird Esprit - $400 what a piece of crap

'72 Lincoln Continental Coupe - $150 drove it 1 day and abandoned it in a K-mart parking lot in Lubbock, TX

'84 Subaru Turbo - $1600 Tons of fun with the turbo and AWD, but totally unreliable, and impossible to find parts for.

'89 Ford Ranger- $7500 My first "new" vehicle. I was a year out of high school and my old man co-signed. It was the simplest model they had, just a bench seat and a gear shift. I worked two jobs to afford a stripe kit, tinted windows, a bedliner, centerline rims, white letter tires, and a slammin' sound system. This was without a doubt the best truck ever built by ford. I put over 300,000 miles on it from '89 to '01, and it was never in the shop once. Not once. I drove that truck, I slept in that truck, I even lived in that truck a couple of times. By '01 it was done in. It just lost it's will to live. In about a six month period everything started to go bad, and my first three winters in cleveland had rotted the body beyond all hope. I don't mind admitting that I cried like a schoolgirl when I traded it in. Who thought you could get that emotionally attached to a vehicle. I went back three days later to buy it back, thinking that one day I would restore it to it's former glory. The dealer had already sold it for scrap. They crushed my best friend.

'98 Ford Ranger - Bought as a replacement, not even close. $2,000 in repairs in the one year that I owned it. I thought that buying a used truck with 27,000 miles on it would be fine since the last one was so good. Ford lost the magic, this one was a total POS.

'96 Dodge Intrepid - Great car, but being that funds were low, it was old, and had 80,000 miles on it when I got it. It was a great ride for two years, but then it started leaking oil to the tune of about a quart a day. I wasn't upset, by that time it had 140,000 on it, and I had beat on it pretty hard.

Traded the Dodge three months ago to get my wife a new car, a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix. What a sweet a$$ automobile. Hopefully it will run long and reliably. I took over her old car, a 2001 Hyundai accent. This car is totally stupid. Especially for sombody who is six feet tall, 200 pounds, and partial to wearing cowboy hats. On the good side though, we've had it four years with absolutely no issues whatsoever, and the mileage is great!


Jake

[DAK]

As I was reading these posts, I just heard that Motor Trend has named its car of the year: the Chrysler 300.

My faves were:

55 Pontiac (my first)
72 Datsun 240-Z
93 Lexus GS300
98 Lexus GS300

I've just extended the lease on an '01 Honda Civic coupe and put down a deposit on a Prius, which I'm told will be here in about 11 months. (If I find something I like better before then, the deposit's refundable and the lease extension is month to month.)

[eryque]

I didn't have a car until I was 21. My dad and I managed to put together $800 so I could buy my first car, which was an '84 Camry that had most of the engine rebuilt. Got me a few places it shouldn't have, until the oil pump went on the highway after 5 months. Student loans had just come in, so I had some cash to spend on another.

'84 Camry
'83 VW Jetta - A total lemon, but it was the best car I have ever driven in the snow. 50 MPH on top of 12 inches of snow on the highway (it was an emergency, I was 22 and stupid) and SOLID AS A ROCK.
'85 VW Golf. My favorite car ever. Paid $1000, sold it for $500 three years later and only had to replace brakes and a muffler.
'90 Subaru Legacy 4WD. It's been a decent car, but now it needs more work than it's worth. Not as good in the snow as I expected, but I've only had cheap tires on it. It's at 207,000 miles now, so I'm not complaining.

I'm looking for another Golf now.

[jhundt]

I could probably add up the engine displacement of every car I ever owned, add all of my wife's cars, and still come out less than one of those big old trucks or SUVs. I think my current Mazda is pretty peppy with a 1.3 liter...

[Geo]

Trying to remember here......
'53 Packard Hearse
'55 Desoto 4-door
'55 Chevy 2-door w/ '60s 327 ci V8
'59 Chev. 1 Ton Panel truck
'72 VW Super Beatle
'59 Mercedes 190db 4-door
'63 Ford Econoline van
'67 Dodge A-100 van
'72 Fiat 2-door 110(?)
'77 Chevette
'80 Ford Fiesta
'75? Dodge Coronet (wife's car)
'85 Ford Thunderbird (wife's)
'87 Dodge Omni - sold running fine after 225k miles
'87 Ford Thunderbird (wife's)
'91 Pontiac Bonneville (wife's)
'93 Lincoln Continental (wife's)
'74 Mercedes 220(?) sedan
'95 Ford Mustang - still active
'99 Dodge Intrepid (wife's) - still active
'99 Neon 4 door - still active

It would be easier to pick out the duds here
'72 Fiat - engine cylinder head problems

'91 Pontiac - wife traveled a lot in her job and
the seats were terribly uncomfortable. The front
suspension was real weird, had to be careful opening
the front and rear doors or these would hit each other on
the edges and had to push the antenna aside when opening
the trunck. Other wise no real mechanical problems.

'93 Lincoln - around 125k miles it started to have
various gizmo and AC problems. We dumped it. It was a
great car prior but the dealer service dept. sabatoged
several things.
I'll never deal with them again.

'99 Intrepid - a few minor things but the trans needed an
overhaul just past warranty. Now some odd minor
(for now) electronics weirdness is showing up at ~80k miles.
Too bad, the car is a great driver with lots of room.
This one will probably be gone next year.

'99 Neon - only problem is it leaks or drips oil at
the head gasket. It runs fine though and is a great car,
trouble free other than this inconvenience. It isn't really
worth it to have the gasket replaced.
This is my main daily driver and gets great fuel mpg
with the 5-speed trans.

All three active ones are paid for so not really into
replacing them. The '95 Mustang is like new
with 31k miles on it. I'll may still have it years down
the road.
I've always liked Corvettes though.

[Billy Claire]

HA! I blocked out my 72 Fiat 124 Spyder.... forgot about that one...

[gtrjones]

65 Impala SS Convertible... my first car, purchased in college... have put about 50K miles onnit since I rebuilt the engine, and still love this car... it's in the garage right now, licensed and driveable, but in need of a pretty thorough cosmetic restoration.

76 Buick LeSabre... inherited at the end of college when I had to choose between insurance payments on the Impala or tuition... put about 50K on this one, just oil and tires... cosmetically challenged but I didn't care... eventually threw a rod and I told somebody "if you go get it, you can have it..."

90 VW Fox... purchased new, drove it everywhere... Canada to Mexico, high mountain passes, deserted backcountry highways... one weird little problem that took a couple people to figure-out, but otherwise trouble-free... was totalled by a drunk driver running a red-light...

92 VW Jetta... still driving it, waiting for it to die... it's had niggly little problems for the 4 or 5 years we've owned it, but it's never stranded us far from home... okay...

04 Mazda Prelude 5-door - sport wagon thing... bought this in January, and are working on wearing-out the VW, so it doesn't have a lotta miles... but it's a nice car... too early to tell about reliability, but it's been doing exactly what we ask of it...