Regrets, your old rides

[Stone-Free]

I got a project car from my dad, a '70 Ford Torino GT convertible. 351C, Hurst toploader from the factory, power top. I rebuilt almost the entire car, and then sold a few years later for $8,000. I really screwed up.

[Tippster]

I've actually liked every car I have owned - there have only been 4 - they each had a certain... something about them.

In order (using found images



1968 VW Bug.

Got this car when I turned 16. It was my Dad's commuter car when we moved to the States in '77, and had been sitting in our carport rusting away for 2 years before he gave it to me. he said "It's still insured but won't run. You get it going and it's yours." My friends and I took that flat 4 apart piece by piece, cleaned everything, and put it back together. Had a couple of nuts & bolts left over but the fucker ran. 2x4 held the seat up - the floor pan had rusted out. Muffler was shot so this thing was LOUD. Had a Sunroof too - my buddy climbed onto the hood through it while I was going 65 on the Beltway - scared the fuck outta me. It fell apart my senior year and we donated it to Good Will for a $200 tax credit.



1977 Saab 99 GLE Wagonback (sedan pictured)

My car in College. With the hatch back and rear seat folded down I could fit all my DJ equipment in it. Fuel Injected transverse 4 made surprising power and got nearly 30mpg on the highway. Had a bitchin loud Jensen Stereo in it. Sold it to buy a Motorcycle.



Aforementioned Bronco was next...

I then went through a decade of not owning a car. Living and working in the city lessened the need for one, plus we always had my wife's car for road trips. Finally when we had our second kid we decided to get another car just in case they had to be driven in separate directions. I bought:



1997 Audi A4 Quattro

I love this car. Drives great, gets decent mileage, and sticks to the road like glue. I'll keep this one 'til it falls apart as well.

[Hutch]

I have a 2007 A4 3.0 as a loaner right now. holy shit that thing is tight.

[Beaver]

I had a '73 Celica when I was 16yo. Sweet ride. Nothing could touch me in the corners once I put on the low profile fatties and stiffened the springs. JR stole it one weekend and blew the timeing chain at about 100mph and destroyed the top end. Our dad made him buck up and repair it so I threw in a few dollars more and had the head replaced with a DOHC head from Japan and had the bottom end rebuilt as well. I eventually sold it to a guy who restored it.

[DJMingus]

The first car I really liked was a '70 Volvo p1800. Did many a road trip and had a lot of fun in that car.

Still have the '79 Alfa Spider just because I can't quite let go... even though I haven't bothered to get it running for almost ten years. Loved my other Alfas, too; an '87 Milano and a '91 164 were both great cars.

Now I'm driving the fastest car I have ever had, though, and loving it - 99 Saab Viggen. Smoking fast and can still haul a lot of stuff.

[ljm]

Can't find any pics right now, but my first car was a baby blue '78 Scout II. That thing was awesome. *sigh*

[oftpiste]

The first car I really liked was a '70 Volvo p1800. Did many a road trip and had a lot of fun in that car.

Still have the '79 Alfa Spider just because I can't quite let go... even though I haven't bothered to get it running for almost ten years. Loved my other Alfas, too; an '87 Milano and a '91 164 were both great cars.

Now I'm driving the fastest car I have ever had, though, and loving it - 99 Saab Viggen. Smoking fast and can still haul a lot of stuff.

Good to see some Saabers here. My current ride is a '97 9K aero with some additional handling and go-fast bits. Stage 4 chip, big pipe etc. Great snow car. Faster than u know what. Reasonably discrete.

[FrankZappa]

68 intl scout 800 - still got it (plow now)
80 saab 900 T - gone
85 saab 900 T - still drive it everyday
78 ford f100 - still got it (ranch goat)

Hey bought 4 so far in this life and still use 3... not bad I guess.

[DJMingus]

Good to see some Saabers here. My current ride is a '97 9K aero with some additional handling and go-fast bits. Stage 4 chip, big pipe etc. Great snow car. Faster than u know what. Reasonably discrete.

Nothing too discrete about the Viggen... mine is the 'lightning blue' so it's a little too flash but that's OK. I had to put on a handling kit as soon as I got it to get the savage torque steer under control.

Hasn't been out of the garage for almost a month - the 4x4 beater S10 pickup is doing me right with all the snow we've had. The vig is a little light for the 215 tires in the snow even with good snows. It's pretty good but not great. Should get narrower 16" wheels and snows but I got the truck instead.

[P_McPoser]

I miss mostly my 89' RX7. That thing was the tits.


Since then I had a '92 Camaro, and a 2000 Wrangler. I don't miss either.

Enjoying my 05' F-150 these days.

[mnflyfish]

Wish I had a picture handy to scan, but my first car was a 1964 Merc Montclair hardtop 2 door. It was my Grandfather's car, when I got it(1985) it had 35K miles on it and was in perfect condition. It came equiped with the Maurader 320 engine, and just roared. It was by far the best car I've ever owned. I still see it from time to time, the guy that purchased it from me lives by my parents. Sold that car in 1989, biggest mistake I ever made.

Good Luck,
Jay

[stayalert]

1st - '78 fj40 - RIP -
2nd - '79 subaru wag - sold
3rd - '84 fj60 - sold
4th - '88? saab 900 - sold
5th - '84? volvo 240 -sold
6th - '92 honda accord - sold
7th '94 FZ80 landcrusier - still have
8th '67 landrover dor(k)mobile - still have
9th '01 VW Golf TDI - still have
10th MB300D turbodiesel - still have
11th?

[mrw]

1967 Austin Healey 3000. British Racing Green, It developed an oiling problem that I was not sophisticated enough to diagnose and I ended up trading it for a 1971 VW Karmann Ghia convertible + cash.

The Healeys handling was not cat quick but it was a nice ride that is worth $$$ today in the market place.

I don't even want to talk about the early 50's Ferrari race car that my father talked me out of buying except to say that I could retire today on what it is now worth.

[advres]

Had to sell to finance my move to Wyoming to work for TGR. Worth it, but I do miss it.

[ECbum]

-Early 90's VW Fox Wagon-

I think. Sometime around then, they only made them for a few years if I remember correctly. Like many of you posting in this thread, I believe I could write a novel about the car, get it published, and buy a new one.

Anyways, short list (could be much longer) of fun things associated with my first car:

-it was a lemon to begin with. Wiring was screwed up and the owners must have had their fingers crossed when I stopped by to check it out both times. Two months and several towings later, a simple sodering job fixed it.

-Drove it to Martha's Vineyard for a drunk summer after HS graduation. Friends ended up rallying it on the dirt roads to our apartment, broke the CV joint.

-Pushed it to a friends house after the CV joint collapsed where it quickly became the garbage can for their house for the remainder of the summer. I was too broke to pay the $150 to fix the CV.

-At end of summer, had to PAY to get it cleaned out and then wrecked. Because you're on an island, you get nothing for parts and such. $200 down the drain.

-Left money in front seat of car for wrecker, he got to car 5 minutes later (I had to leave for work) and the money was gone. I show up and he is in the woods finding ripped up money and a note from friend's neighbor bitching about the noise all summer and how this "was what we had coming". She must have been watching me.

-So I go to bank with ripped up cash and tape it back together, teller accidently gives me $100 too much.

-Pay the $200 to wreck a car that only needed $150 to fix it.

-Leave island without car, broke (plus $100), and still drunk. Complete diseaster...

...wish I could have that summer and my car back.

[4matic]

Had to sell to finance my move to Wyoming to work for TGR. Worth it, but I do miss it.

What's all that stuff on the walls?

[Adski]

-Early 90's VW Fox Wagon-

I think. Sometime around then, they only made them for a few years if I remember correctly. Like many of you posting in this thread, I believe I could write a novel about the car, get it published, and buy a new one.

Anyways, short list (could be much longer) of fun things associated with my first car:

-it was a lemon to begin with. Wiring was screwed up and the owners must have had their fingers crossed when I stopped by to check it out both times. Two months and several towings later, a simple sodering job fixed it.

-Drove it to Martha's Vineyard for a drunk summer after HS graduation. Friends ended up rallying it on the dirt roads to our apartment, broke the CV joint.

-Pushed it to a friends house after the CV joint collapsed where it quickly became the garbage can for their house for the remainder of the summer. I was too broke to pay the $150 to fix the CV.

-At end of summer, had to PAY to get it cleaned out and then wrecked. Because you're on an island, you get nothing for parts and such. $200 down the drain.

-Left money in front seat of car for wrecker, he got to car 5 minutes later (I had to leave for work) and the money was gone. I show up and he is in the woods finding ripped up money and a note from friend's neighbor bitching about the noise all summer and how this "was what we had coming". She must have been watching me.

-So I go to bank with ripped up cash and tape it back together, teller accidently gives me $100 too much.

-Pay the $200 to wreck a car that only needed $150 to fix it.

-Leave island without car, broke (plus $100), and still drunk. Complete diseaster...

...wish I could have that summer and my car back.

Ha Ha, I think I bought that car in UT a few months later. My '90 VW Fox Wagon had 40K mi on it when I got it, hardly ever changed the oil in it (hey I was 19 and bbbrrroookkke!), drove it everywhere, slept in it, unstoppable with snow tires. Drove it to AK and back when the AlCan was 75% paved and 25% cobbled fill. Sold it for 150.00 to the pick-n-pull in 1999 with close to 150,000 mi on it.

[mindthegap]

man u guys would be pretty jealous of my old ride.
i dont wanna brag...but its pretty fly

1wheel drive
chrome
banana seat
12' rims

[gravitylover]

Of the dozen and a half vehicles I've owned I miss my 1960 Willys the most. Went anywhere and got great gas mileage (if I kept it well under 55.) It had a Buick 225 ci odd fire V6 from a '64 Skylark hooked up to a NP transfer case and a Muncie trannie and Hurst short throw shifter with a Warn 27% overdrive, Dana 30 diffs with 5.38's inside. That thing would do wheelies and take just about anything on the road up to about 45 mph! I could take anyone to the other side of an intersection The motor had a Rochester Military 450cfm progressive 2 barrel, redid the heads and stuff to bring the compression up to 11. to 1 and ran a Bosch coil, oversize alternator and Jacobs wires with Splitfire plugs. It ran 215 horses on a rear wheel dyno at 5200 feet with 91 octane gas. All sorts of ditties to make offroading nicer and put in the front seats from an old Nissan Stanza minivan/wagon and a couple of hundred watts worth of sound.

Sadly, it succumbed to my stupidity

[Superstar Punani]

1st car when I got my license as a snot-nosed 17 year old, a 1958 220s. Many cherries were popped in the back seat. Blew up engine on a 1,000 mile surf trip


(file photo)


1st car after moving to CA. $800 '64 220se. Killed it trying to drive to Tahoe.

(file photo)

[mindthegap]

1st car when I got my license as a snot-nosed 17 year old, a 1958 220s. Many cherries were popped in the back seat. Blew up engine on a 1,000 mile surf trip

whats a cherry?