The "Proof Cars Have Feelings/Moods" Thread

This is the thread for posting proof that your car/cars have souls, feelings, personalities, moods, etc.

I'll start us off. We recently bought a Protege5 to replace my wife's Saturn SL2. We needed a station wagon, something with A/C, and something with 150% less crashiness.

I go to start the SL2 for the first time since bringing the Protege5 home (to move it across the street into an empty gravel lot), and it starts up and immediately idles like crap and throws an SES light. I put it in gear and begin to move, it jumps like crazy and the SES light goes from solid to blinking. Get the car across the street, turn it off, dig up the code reader from the workbench, and read the code. "Multiple random cylinder misfire." The car ran fine the last 6 million times I drove it. If that isn't the car saying "I am totally pissed at you for replacing me," I don't know what is.

Funny you mention that. After owning an SRT4 for six years - I put it up for sale on craigslist. Later that day a sensor crapped out on me and the car went into limp mode and barely ran. I replaced the sensor and the next day the radiator hose that I had to move out of the way to get to the sensor starts leaking and I wake up to a puddle of coolant under my car. Mind you this is a car that ran nearly flawlessly for the whole six years I owned it. Weird.

Brought home my free subie from Value pack. Park it in the drive way. Less than a week later, take my daily driver subie wagon in for inspection, and it fails terminally.

My new to me van, I bought it 4 new tires. Inside of two week, one rear tire gets punctured while towing, resulting in death of the tire. Replace it. 3 weeks later the tire on the other side gets a puncture, but at least this one is saveable.

On a Sunday I had autocrossed my 944, making 10 runs, and then driving 45 miles home with no issues. Drove it to work all week, too. Sold it on that Thursday after a vigorous test drive by the new owner. Half way back to his place at 60 in the right lane the clutch let go. There's a welded hub in the middle and the welds failed. Oddest thing I've ever seen.

Every time I think about getting a new truck, Bertha breaks something else. Its true.

Last two were springs, so I upgraded, thats like getting her a ring, right?
Then it was the drive shaft. Replaced all that. Now I'm low on cash and can't take much more.

My 1979 Trans Am is also proof of this. That thing is a rolling heap of finicky emotions.

I think it longs to die, or just hates me. I've had it for 10 years, and I thought I was doing it a favor by saving it from it's abusive former owner who beat it to within an inch of the crusher. I brought it home, gave it a bath, and spruced it up with new tune-up parts and a new exhaust system. And then it caught fire.

After that incident, I fixed all of that and got it going again, and a few weeks later, the rear calipers both locked up. Fixed that, and then the fronts went. Fixed that, and FINALLY think I have it doing well enough that I can start driving it on a regular basis, and it starts running rough and spins a rod bearing.

At this point, I parked it and got something newer to drive every day. But the fun continues. Every time I fix something, whether it be minor or major, something else twice as bad happens. No matter how much money and time I throw at the car, it refuses to care.

I rebuilt the original engine, including replacing the crankshaft, and it develops an oil leak from between the head and the block that can't be stopped. So I got fed up, built an entirely new engine, and it decides to stop sending oil to the top end after the break-in period is over. It goes on and on.

Here's something strange: on it's good days (and there have been VERY few), it is extremely picky of what music is played in the car. It almost exclusively wants to listen to 1980's hair metal. Throw on some Whitesnake or Dokken, and that thing starts running perfectly, as it probably did when those songs were new. Put anything else on and it wants to stall out or die. And the strangest thing: If you play the song Panama by Van Halen in the car, it will break down. This happened 3 distinct times while driving the car. That song is on perma-ban in the Trans Am.

Oh, and it loves it's uncle Pseudosport. For instance, if it doesn't want to start for me, you can guarantee that it will when he comes over. It went to live with him for a few months when it died over his house and I couldn't get it home without fixing it. I think it likes him better, or it likes to hang out with Pseudosport's 1969 Camaro that's in pieces. In fact, there's part of that Camaro's rear quarter grafted to the Trans Am's passenger side fender. Maybe I should let him adopt it so it can hang out with his Z car.

10 years later, it sits in my driveway waiting for my CSX to get out of the garage. The Trans Am knows the CSX cut it in line to get fixed, and it's not happy. It has been inviting weird people to the house ever since we moved in as a result. For instance, random people have stopped while I'm not home to look at the car, which is under a weighed down and locked cover. I'll come home, and the stuff weighing it down is piled neatly next to the car. They also stop by when I am home too. Since I am new to town, it has become a reason for strange people to stop and talk to me.

Should I be scared of this car? Or am I a glutton for the sadistic punishment the car has been dishing out all these years? I have no idea. The lure of that giant bird on the hood that makes the car look like a giant Hot Wheels car in the driveway keeps it around. Maybe someday it will all work out.

I've been telling myself that for the past 10 years.

My 924s gets mad at me every time I drive the mustang. If I let it sit for more than a couple of days when i go to use it something is going to be broken with it. This has happened so many times I have just come to accept that it is a living thing that gets mad at me when i ignore it. It is all part of the love hate relationship I have with my 924s.

Sitting in my driveway waiting for the girlfriend to show up for a blast around the block, my Triumph ran fine. Shut it off to wait, she arrives, try in vain to get the car to start for 15 minutes before she gets fed up and goes back home. I go get a beer from the house, come back outside not 2 minutes later, car starts on the first try.

It did that EVERY TIME my gf was there. We're married now, and the car doesn't give me any grief anymore.

In reply to Yavuz:

Thats because srt4's are possessed.

I've noticed that sho's seem to have a heart and soul.....and get very needy with parts/attention if you start driving other things. The redline just completely lacked a soul.....I'm not used to that.

About a year ago I bought a motorcycle to drive to work and gave my reliable 318ti to my wife to use. In that year it developed several oil leaks, the sunroof quit working, the a/c crapped out, the ccv failed and it developed an exhaust leak. Hell hath no fury like a frau with abandonment issues.

In reply to JohnInKansas:

Just needed to clean the rear seats every once in a while.

I've been driving the benz for years, trouble free. I actually said to a buddy of mine (while I was sitting IN the car!!!) I was thinking about selling it. That was December. Since then, there are always three things that need to be done to the car, of these three things, two are always something that would prevent me from selling it. Now, understand that when I say three things, this is a rotating list. When I fix the not important item I still have two more serious things. When I fix a serious issue, another one crops up within days.
I actually have accepted that I will have a rotating list of things that need to be done. And since two are always serious, I'll always be motoring in fear.
But Adolph if you are hearing this, let me tell you something. If you don't stop this, I'll drive you down to Detroit and let you sit for an afternoon. Trust me, you WON'T fare well in the hands of whoever will steal you!

Did I just threaten a car?

In reply to yamaha:

Oh, no, no, no, no you didn't. SHO's do not have souls. They are possessed by evil demons sent from hell.

My 92 SHO:

I bought it at a dealer auction from the original dealer, who's wife used it as her DD after it's demo days were done (completely loaded Jade Green Metallic, sunroof, leather, auto temp, the works) until I picked it up (with ~70K miles) in 2003. I drove it home and the cats caught fire. A neighbor put it out with his extinguisher from his boat (dry chem) so guess who had to wash every single car in the apartment parking lot after that.

I had the cats replaced and then the valve cover gasket sprung a leak. The rear one. So into the shop it went to have the entire massive intake pulled, etc.

Got that fixed and the next time I drove it the clutch blew up. So I replaced it with a Zoom (or Centerforce, or something like that).

At this point I had doubled my money in the POS and put it up for sale at the car lot I worked out. We stuck it in the "featured" spot where it showed it's possession by slowly locking and unlocking all of the doors. (Completely unresponsive to the key fob or keyless numbers on the door). The Jag XJ-S that was next to it blew some sort of electrical circuit board sitting next to it while this happened.

So I put a new Optima in it, put new tires on it, polished it like crazy, massaged the leather, the works. I showed this car love for weeks straight and finally started to act well.

I left it at the dealership when I went to boot camp and came back to a stereo-less, but running SHO. I drove it cross-country (Cocoa, FL to Bellingham, WA) in 3 1/2 days, solo, with no radio. Somewhere by Tonopah, Nevada I hit a bird (at triple digits, because I was a berking idiot back then).

Once in B-Ham I had my FIL drive it to Cali to take care of it while I was overseas for 4 months. On his way home, in a huge rainstorm, the wiper motor fried itself. Ding! $600 repair at a Ford Dealer in BFE Oregon.

When he brought it back up 4 months later he took a rock to the windshield. I had to meet the Chief of the boat at his house after that and leaving his driveway the car stalled and slid down his driveway, rear-ending his wife's new SUV. Luckily she had a hitch, so no damage to her, unluckily it knocked out a headlight on me.

I finally get new lights in it and let my then-GF (now wife) borrow it and the brakes fail on her taking the freeway exit. She taps a POS old Scoobie (that was already smashed) and the bitch sued (that took 4.5 berking years to win!). Now my front end was totaled (4x4 Scoob with a hitch vrs low SHO = crunched hood).

I let it sit at my apartment for months then finally have it fixed (on my own damn dime, berk you gecko!!!). I swear as I'm driving out of the berking repair shop a little old lady runs a red and t-bones the new front end!!! Right back in it goes (luckily this time on her insurance).

I take it home from the shop after that fixing and we meet some friends for dinner. Our friends were backing out of the parking lot after dinner and guess what? Slammed into the new front end of my car! I didn't even bother to fix it this time, since it was just a bunch of scratches.

Other buddies flew up to visit and taking them on a drive it lunches 3rd gear. Yep, 3rd. 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th are all A-OK, but 3rd took a dive.

I finally decide that enough is enough and traded the POS in on my Nissan Hardbody 4x4. IIRC I got like $1000 out of the dealer (it's the only car out of 100+ that I lost money on).

No E36 M3, a year later and a buddy had flown up from Arizona to buy a cheap 4x4 up here to drive back. We buy a truck from the same dealer and the SHO is still there!!!

About a year after that my Dad gets a nasty summons from the Washington State Police about my car being impounded, involved in a hit-and-run, drug trafficking, and various other fines. (The car was Florida titled/registered as my home of record while I was in the service).

A bunch of phone calls later and we figure out that the dealer never got the title taken care of and sold the car at auction to another dealer (who not only didn't title it, but quit the business/got shut down) and those guys did a ton of crime with it and abandoned it in the median of I-5 in Seattle. Luckily I had all the paperwork showing it was traded-in to the dealer. I sent all of that to the WSP, who cleared me of everything, and the dealer got nailed for some serious fines and stuff (as the actual, legal owner, of the SHO during the crime spree).

And thus Bloodwork is my favorite movie just because they beat the ever-living E36 M3 out of an identical green SHO in it. I hate those cars, and if they all died a horrible fiery death tomorrow I would dance on their graves.

After 18 years of basically trouble free ownership I was cleaning some smudges in the garage queen's engine compartment preparing for the big car-4-sale photo shoot, and managed to catch the bitch on fire!

A nearby extinguisher limited the damage to my ego.

In reply to N Sperlo:

The Triumph doesn't have a backseat. Barely had front seats then.

Besides, that's what trucks are for. Beverly the Cheverly doesn't mind.

I had a '74 Civic in which the radio would only receive the local Spanish-language stations.

My car stabbed me multiple times for putting my hand in its privates.

sachilles wrote: Brought home my free subie from Value pack. Park it in the drive way. Less than a week later, take my daily driver subie wagon in for inspection, and it fails terminally.

Sorry about that. The Outback must've passed off the oxide virus before the TS ever hit the trailer. Spreads worse than SARS.

My Nissan loves cold weather. I can go out in below freezing, wave the key at the ignition and it'll jump to life. Summer? It's not a summer car. It'll start, after a pause. But it hasn't missed once.

My winter beater Pontiac Sunfire likes to be a bitch when other people ride in it just to berkeley with me. People unfamiliar with me get uncomfortable when it stalls in an intersection, and I proceed to, without saying a word, restart it, and roast one of the cheap tires through 1st gear and chirp them into second. It also has the typical GM problem whereat least one thing must always be broken or dieing. I fear replacing the passenger window motor will cause the very, very worn out gearbox(when I got the car, it had silver fluid in it) to take a crap.

I can hardly wait to see how the Yugo treats me, it is an Italian car knocked off by Communists, but I have put a ton of work and money in it to save it from the shredder. It better appreciate that.

All of my cars have names. And personalities.

For years, my daily driver was a massive '01 Dodge Ram 4x4 named "Rudy." Rudy got 12 mpg on a good day, but I never had one problem with him over the more than 60,000 miles I put on him. For years I saved up for a new car, which ended up being the 2011 Mustang I now have. I planned to trade Rudy in on this car, as I didn't have room at the time for both vehicles and couldn't justify keeping the truck. Two weeks before I went shopping for my new car, Rudy blew his front left tire. On the Interstate. At 80 miles per hour. I had to shell out $400 for two new tires on a truck I was selling in 2 weeks.

In retrospect, I should have kept the truck and just saved up another couple months for the Mustang.

anybody who doubts that cars have souls and personalities.. needs to treat themselves to an italian car.

My first spider hated having anybody but me drive it. I drove it daily for three years (finally succumbed to rust) without any issues.. somebody else drove it.. all hell would break lose.

Best was when I let a friend drive her once. Made it 5 miles to his house without even a slight hesitation. I really thought the curse was broken.. until he shut off the car, handed me the keys, and got out. Upon closing the door (not slamming) the glass in the mirror fell out and shattered on the ground.

Just a gentle reminder not to let anybody drive her again

I have been daily driving my 1980 diesel rabbit for over 4 years. I drove her across the country twice, even, and down the entire East Coast and back. One winter, I decided that I didn't want my perfectly rust-free West Coast car to be eaten up by the salt in New England. I bought a second car, a 1983 Mercedes 300D.

Even though the Merc's sole purpose in life was to prolong the life of my rabbit and take the beating of the winter chemicals and potential side swipes while parked on my hill, the rabbit was PISSED. She overheated 2 days later.

When I finally fixed her and got her running again, several $100s later, she was still angry at the Merc. Every time that she saw me drive, work on, change the oil of, heck, even TALK ABOUT that thing, something would "happen" ...

Door handles, hatch struts, turn signal relay, glow plug relay, INJECTION PUMP (ouch!), axles... Darn little thing.

To this day nothing has changed. I took her off the road to do some interior work and painting, and still she chewed up her timing belt shortly after I brought home my Samurai.

I don't know if things will change, but she is certainly a moody little thing. Now, every day, even if I do some work to the Sami, I will always go back into the shop and do something to her (it is a big project with a lot to do, so....) no matter how small. Install something minor, connect up a section of wiring harness... ANYTHING! to keep her happy. I will even gently pat her roof and tell her good night before I close up the shop.

Hopefully, this engine swap will be the last huge thing that I will have have (out of necessity) to do to her for a while, and she will finally learn to calm down.

SilverFleet wrote: 10 years later, it sits in my driveway waiting for my CSX to get out of the garage. The Trans Am knows the CSX cut it in line to get fixed, and it's not happy. It has been inviting weird people to the house ever since we moved in as a result. For instance, random people have stopped while I'm not home to look at the car, which is under a weighed down and locked cover. I'll come home, and the stuff weighing it down is piled neatly next to the car. They also stop by when I am home too. Since I am new to town, it has become a reason for strange people to stop and talk to me.

Are you calling me strange?

In reply to Mazdax605:

No, you came over to look at the Turbo Dodge in the garage. You are more than strange.

I was referring to my garbage man. He is stalking me and the car. He keeps stopping by when I'm home and not home and my wife is there alone and keeps asking me when I'm going to sell it. I've told him no a couple of times, and so has my wife. The 1st time was innocent, 2nd time was strange, and the 3rd time when I wasn't home is downright scary.

To quote her, "Listen, he's had the car longer than he's had me. It's not going anywhere."

I already told him that they made over 100,000 Trans Ams in 1979 (highest production year!) and he can go find another one. There are plenty of other ones out there.