Happy car / Unhappy car Is it really that simple?

We currently have about 10 older vehicles in our family.   Some further along the project trail than others. Of course, All older stuff needs something.      But some REALLY respond to basic care and restoration and become just really happy vehicles. A joy to behold.    And some........ Just seem to never become shining happy things. No matter how much love we give them.Like the nearly showroom condition 86 F150 that I drove to work today. Always some new surprise to add to the old surprises. Like gallons of fuel pouring out of the bottom of the rear tank this morning at the gas station. And yup, its the truck that -always- tosses curve balls at us.        New and scary Surprise!         Compare this shiny truck to my sons very similar and decidedly not shiny old truck that has had nothing but 40 plus years of impressive abuse and neglect. I checked the oil once and found..... none.  (ford 300 six) It was running like a top. like it always does. Like when I found 0 bolts holding the carb down after a long ride. Only the linkage attached. No transmission fluid? no problem.Butter. We could park that thing upside down and backwards in a swamp for a year and it will still fire right up and go.     So I guess it just comes to happy truck/ unhappy truck for me.              

I don't go so far as to assign names to them, but I've always felt like cars have a personality...some are like happy golden retrievers that are only there to serve you, some are like crabby Siamese cats who secretly want to kill you.  

Same.  Has a lot to do with previous maintenance and use.  I have had some cars that were destroyed by bad/unskilled idiots.  My baja turbo has been the worst.  A minor misfire turned up

-spark plug ceramic cracked so it would randomly cover the gal

-timing belt installed 2 notches off.  No valve to piston hits but it ran like crap

-boost controller hoses reversed, so once the above 2 were fixed it spiked 15 PSI and cracked a piston.

This education cost me over 5K, more than I paid for the whole car.

My Volvo 142E was a parade of easily fixable things; Oil pump drive gear (easily fix and upgrade), injector popped out of it's hole, fuel pump and other assorted things. After it left me stranded twice I bid it farewell. I loved the car but it did seem to be unhappy............we bought it from the original owner and I think the car was mad about being sold on.

The Datsun 1200 on the other hand seems to thrive on neglect.  When it was a street car it never failed us. As a race car it's only failed to finish the weekend three times in 36 years and one of those could have been avoided if I'd been more heads up.

Our Blue 1968 F100 was another vehicle that seemed to love abuse.

The MR2 we owned for about a year seemed to be unhappy. The timing belt that was done about 6 months before we bought it, popped (thankfully without breaking anything). AC compressor switch and a radiator that would leak intermittently.

My daily is a 1991 Ram 50. It'll still be running when I die. Low battery? still starts. Crappy gas? still starts. Burns a bit of oil, but just keeps going.

Project truck- 1976 Dodge Power Wagon. Rescued it after it sat in one spot for more than a decade. New starter, some wiring work, and a half-dead battery out of a Ford Exploder resulted in a stumbling start from the old big block. It smoothed out and settled down into an 800 rpm idle after about two minutes. It still needs a ton of work, but I'm pretty sure it's happy too.