frenchy
New Reader
4/7/11 9:03 a.m.
My first car was an '85 Honda Accord hatchback, the "gray ghost". The power steering pump was broken so it was great for building definition in you forearms. Drove it for a while until I sold it to some guy I work with. He drove it for about 6 months before the timing belt snapped and it was off to the scrapyard. I hated that car.
RossD
Dork
4/7/11 9:05 a.m.
'88 Subaru GL 4WD Wagon, 5 speed. My parents bought it new and by the time my sister handed it down to me, it was rusty, dented and comsumed about a quart of oil every other tank of gas. It only was driven home with a front axle shaft flopping round twice.
My 1991 Taurus wagon decided to break her oil pump the day she was selling. Even the red light warranty wasn't enough. We donated her to make chillenz lives better.
mndsm
SuperDork
4/7/11 9:21 a.m.
Sold my 1993 Corolla to some unknown gent through my uncles dealership after blowing it up and throwing a junkyard motor at it. I shoulda never sold that car. Strangely, I now own what was the wifes first car she purchased on her own...... which is a 1999 Chevy Prizm, that we sold to a guy after we bought her first manual (Cooper S) who was going to give the Prizm to his daughter as HER first new car. She drove it for 3 years, and I bought it back from him for 150$. He seriously refused to take more for it.
Mine was a $350, 1966 Chevelle, 283/ Powerglide. It was such a nasty rat that when I got home my Mom cried and begged me to take it back. I kept it, and learned lots about bondo and rust.
Bought one of those right after I graduated HS, 64 Spit, like this one but with a black int. I drove it from Reno back to my future FIL's house where it sat for 2 weeks trying to sort out the last 25 years of PO fixes.
Got it running and used it as my DD for the next 3 or so years. Drove it from Ohio to Louisiana and back when I was in the Army. It now sits in the back of my garage waiting to be resurected.
I just realized I have has that car for @ 22 years, I really need to get it going again.
My '66 Dart is sitting here in the shop at work; I've been having trouble finding the time to get all the details finished on a turbo installation. But I have been managing to find a few minutes here and there to get things creeping along.
1966 Volvo Amazon.. loved that car - just could not keep NY from rusting it away.
My first car was a 1985 Civic wagon. I couldn't get it to run, so I gave it away (parents bought it for $50) and picked up one of these:
Mine was the same color, but with steel wheels and hubcaps and the 225 "Fireball" V6 and a 2-speed auto. Paid $400, drove it for a few months, parked it when the gas tank started leaking, and sold it 2 years later for $800 with body and frame rot.
Mini clubman - sold it to a friend. Not sure what happened to it after that.
hand me down #1: kinda metallic-ish jade green '97 Dakota Sport ext. cab, 2wd, with the Magnum V6 and an auto. inherited it from my dad's estate, drove it when I had my learners permit for about 8 months, then sold it to some guy who wanted a truck to use on the farm, haven't seen it since
hand me down #2: blue '02 Ford Escort ZX-2, with the automatic. inherited it from my grandma's estate, it sat for 7 months after she passed on until july of '09, when it started right up. proceeded to drive it for the remainder of holding my learners, until selling it to my very nostalgic uncle in July of '10 when I got my DD '04 Cooper S
first real car: Indi Blue '04 Cooper S manual. had it since july '10 after waiting through 2 months and 4 separate promised delivery dates from Ford on a 2011 V6 Mustang and getting fed up with the deposit sitting around collecting dust, still have it and don't plan to get rid of it any time soon
Since I found no bugeyes advertised and all the carlots within reach didn't have one I finally settled for a car with the same drivetrain, a pale blue 59 Morris Minor 1000. It had an almost perfect body and interior, everything worked and it ran great, not to mention it had that sweet sounding 948 resonance. The bad part was that even though it didn't smoke, didn't leak oil while parked, and didn't have blow-by, it used a lot of oil. Of course the reason was that they don't have a rear crankshaft seal, just a "scroll". Another serious fault was that no matter what I did to the brakes they were dangerously very poor. Traveling around in the hills of NE TN was hard on it. Some long climbs had to be done in 2nd. gear. Very frustrating! The clincher was that a woman who didn't know how to drive a stick drifted out in front of me and even though I swerved hard to the left and even off the road to the left she got excited and ran off the road to hit my RF fender. I did a quick repair when I got home but the car was looking to be more trouble than it was worth to be a keeper. So I traded it to a car lot for a 59 Karmann Ghia convertible, bright yellow with a black top, interior and wheels. It had a Judson supercharger, Abarth exhaust, and a big bore kit. I now had something that could keep up with traffic and handled l little bit better than the Morris. That answers the topic so no details about this one, just to say that I'm very lucky to have survived all of my adventures in that car. The good part is it forced me to begin doing major mechanical and paint and body work which started me on the path toward my eventually making my living with an auto restoration shop.
I never saw the Morris again.
EvanR
Reader
4/8/11 1:59 p.m.
1974 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Classic Landau Collonade Coupe.
Among other things, it won the title for longest car name EVER.
145hp from 350 cubic inches. Can you say "Low Stress"?
Purchased in 1982 with a whopping 40k on the clock. I put another 360k on it, without major surgery.
At 403k, in 1989, I noticed a chunk of body, a body mount, and a chunk of frame lying underneath the car, on the ground. I sold the car for $100 to a fellow who wanted the engine and THM350.