This is a list of every car or motorcycle that has ever found its way into my garage, in order of how they came into my head.
I'd love to see your list, too.
Because I'm bored.
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# means currently in the stable, *means wished I hadn't ** means it was a piece of crap.
1964 Ford Station Wagon**(bomb)
1963 Ford Galaxie 500 (a real beauty with a long story)
1972 Fiat 124 Special ** (Oh, it was "special"all right.)
1970 Honda 125 (my first "street legal motorcycle")
1954 Willys (Army green, built like a tank, slow & uncomfortable, but it would climb Mount Everest in 1st gear)
1972 Triumph 500 (shakin' all over!)
1963 Beetle (red, with dents - the only car I ever owned to have 3 different engines)
1970 Triumph 650 Bonneville (leaked like hell, but still my favorite, crashed it)
1970 Dodge van**(junk)
1973 Ford Econline van (boring, but reliable)
1968 Volkswagen Beetle (yellow- chick car)
1973 Norton 850 Commando (Beautiful bike that I couldn't afford for long.)
1966 Chevy Panel Van** (Navy Surplus junker - squid party wagon)
1976 Honda 750 Four (great bike took me up and down the East and West Coasts and everywhere in between- including most of Canada- victim of BIG smash-up with truck)
1972 Chevy Nova (Army green with a white top - 4 door uglymobile that I bought for $700 when I got out of the hospital - put a hundred thou' on it, and then sold it for $650)
1976 Chevy Vega** (came with the wife - when it got totaled, I opened champagne.)
1980 Buick Skylark Sport* (Silver and black leather, 4 speed - fun until I blew the engine)
1972 BMW 2002 (A top 3 favorite- I still cry when I realize what I sold this car for- idiot)
1984 Dodge Aries K** (company car- an incredible piece of sh*t -we saved Chrysler for this?)
1986 Nissan Pickup (good truck- I sold it to my bro-in-law who took it over 300K before it got totaled)
1986 Ford Taurus (another boring company car)
#1975 Yamaha Xs-650 (Basically a Triumph without all of the Brit eccentricities and problems - still own it, but it hasn't run in years, and never will again)
1970 Porsche 914 (My only mid-engined Nazi slot-car, thus far, and an absolute pisser to drive. Donated to Salvation Army in 1997)
1990 Toytota Camry (dull, reliable transportation for a few years)
1985 Jaguar XJ6 (outside of the Porsches, the Jag was clearly the most beautiful car I've ever owned - I had a true love affair with this car - donated to Salvation Army in 1998 - I kept the grill and the "leaper" which now sit on my home office bookshelf
1991 Ford F-150 King Cab 4x4 (blue with truck cap - nicknamed "Gigantor")
#1982 Porsche 911 Targa (black on black, whale tail, and still the King of the Garage)
1991 Yamaha TDM-850 (last of the parallel twins - a real carver for it's day. Also my last ride. I gave up on two wheels after my third serious crash in 21 years in 1994.)
1983 Mercedes-Benz 300D (Turbo diesel driven, car was with us until 2003)
1995 Chevy Suburban (first of the sport-utes - white- nicknamed "The Fridge")
1991 Mercedes 560 SEL (Huge, plush, fast and comfortable- the "Dictator-mobile")
1987 Porsche 944 Turbo*(I'm sure that there were better ones than the one I bought - fast, but nothing but trouble)
1990 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL ( I liked mine so much I bought the same model for my eldest daughter - "Big Pimpin'")
1998 Vokswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition (beep beep we go go speedy #1)
#2002 GMC Yuknon Denali XL (My wife likes big things. Excellent unit.)
#1990 Mercedes 560 SEC (Coupe version of the same M-B 560 model- I drive this everyday)
#2002 Chevy Tahoe (Horse hauler- forest green - "Spruce Bruce")
#1998 BMW 318i (beep beep we go go speedy #2)
2003 GMC Envoy (Youngest daughter's "dirtbucket" - Likes to take out mailboxes)
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So there you have it. I might have forgotten one or two company cars, but they are so forgettable.
Thanks.
24 comments:
good god, spd. That is one helluva potpouri! I have motion sickness after taking a ride through this post:)
One car, and I still have it! A 1989 Mercedes 280 SE that has had two owners, me and the old lady before me. Hey, I'm a city girl. I prefer things yellow.
Why do I love cars so much? I dunno.
Let's get in the wayback machine, Sherman, and look at all the cars I owned (eek!)
'67 Plymouth Fury III, 383 ci V-8, with a two barrel Holley carb, ran on regular gas. What a bus. It could carry six full size adults.
'71 TR-6; 2.5 liter straight-6, ran on 93 or 95 octane leaded gas (great!) a lotta fun 'till that day in 1980 that I wrapped it around a tree.
'71 Dodge Coronet; replaced the Fury. Had a 318 ci V-8; got rid of that in '85.
'74 Jensen-Healy; had a 2-liter DOHC Lotus engine in it. Fast, but rather poorly engineered and unsafe, and rusty, although a friend helped me rebuild it back in '86. My wife made me dump it.
The only "new" car I ever owned (until much later), '84 Chevette. Make fun of it all you want, it was economical, reliable, but seemed to be an accident magnet (I got hit three times in that thing).
But it made the following affordable (saved money).
'87 BMW 325 (bought in '88), Black Beauty; A great car (I still have it in the garage; it needs new struts). I proposed to my wife in that car. Many good memories associated with it.
'88 Chevy Beretta (wife car); good car with a bad paint job (GM is run by dopes). Had that till '95, when we needed a bigger car (kids)
'92 Honda Accord Station wagon. Owned that one from '95 until Jan '03, when I slid on ice and totalled it (going 5 miles an hour, rear ending a Suburban, which was unscratched). That was great car, and it broke my heart when it got busted.
2000 Mercury Villager van; bought that one new, too. Mom-wagon, still a pretty good car. We still have it.
'98 Honda Civic; replaced the wagon. Nice little car, but it gave me backaches to drive it very far. I replaced that with:
2001 Audi A6 Avant AWD wagon. A great car, but expensive to keep up, and now it has an oil leak on the overhead cam seal. Still, drive it to work everyday.
"Don Brouhaha"
I've seen your Merc Portia. She's a beauty. But didn't I almost have you talked into a new Audi A-4 last year?
Here's acknowledgement of a personal flaw, ladies and gents: I like cars. I love to buy them. I like to have them. And I hate to sell them. I never buy new cars (except for my wife, and that's a given). But my palms' itch constantly for the feel of a new set of wheels. I also admit to living vicariously through friends and associates as I steer them towards their new love wagon, and I am considered to be the local ofice guru on what where and how to buy cars. I have even negotiated for an associate in my office who was intimidated by the process. Now, that girl is a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, but is probably still petrified about buying a car.
I am able to satisfy my urges because of the number of vehicles currently in service at the rdr household. BUT I WANT A NEW CAR FOR ME! I want a 2001 BMW M5 - Is that too much to ask?
(Answer: Yes, knucklehead. You got kids in law school/college)
Damn.
Way back when (actually, 1989) I lived in another city, with my wife in a townhouse apartment that had 8 garages for the four apartments. The lady next door had a well-heeled gentleman friend living in Rhode Island, who would drive out to visit her in the barbarous reaches of Ohio (they eventually married).
He always had a stable of new or late model cars (usually BMW's).
Well, one winter day while I was changing the oil in my little 325, he had parked his 1988 M6 (last year they were made) in the stall next to mine. He came out to check it over while I was piddlin' with my little Beemer.
Ye gods. Talk about your ultimate driving machine. I woulda given my left... to drive that beast.
Spd, some day, buy that M5. You've earned it.
I figger I can afford to buy a 2006 Z-4,.... in about 2014!
"Don Brouhaha"
Ah....the M6! What a freakin' beauty that car was! Another of the cars that I have unsuccessfully lobbied for in recent years. I could have had from a RICHMOND OWNER!!! an absolutely "cherry" red '88, (except for the indemic fading of the plastic bumper skirts) had my wife not waved orthdontist bills in my face and claim (falsely) that we could not afford to build build another garage. "Where is your sense of priorities!" I cried. "wher are you sleeping tonight" she answered.
:)
Yes, you almost did convince me to buy the Audi, and I nearly pulled the trigger a number of times but but every time I think about giving into the urge to buy something shiny and new, I think about the $3200 plus per year to insure it, and the $500 per month to garage it, and I decide that the urge for something shiny is better met by buying something shiny or new for my neck or ears or feet.
A car in New York is a luxury. You don't need it to get to work, you can go a week without driving it except to move it to the other side of the street due to alternate side of the street parking rules, and then when you do need to use it, you forget where you parked it, or if you rememebr where you parked it, you find that that some stranger decided to "borrow" it...forever. If I needed a car to commute, I'd be all a new one every three years, and you'd have your "car talk" fix met, and then some:) Someday. Maybe. In the meantime, I'll just sit back and enjoy the continuing tales of the spdettes and how they test their father's patience.
I'm with Don, go for the M5; it's hot and you deserve it. Just don't forget to pack your pillow:)
I would rather browse through Hemmings Motor News than look at Playboy (I get in less trouble that way, too).
Buying the Audi A6 just about broke my marriage too :). Actually, it just made her reaallly mad for about 6 months (although she loves to drive it too, it's a dream to drive on the interstate). The seal on the rack blew out on her on July 4th, leaked power steering fluid all over the street and she had to wrestle it into the driveway with no power steering. That really made her mad!! ( $1200 later, yikes).
Portia, how can you survive in such uncivilized climes that would prevent you from exercising your God-given right to drive fast and burn up fossil fuel? :D
I have co-workers in Paris (France, not Kentucky) who are in the same situation.
-"Don Brouhaha"
It's an incredible thing, Don, when people place themselves in a location where driving just sucks. Portia and I both know of a high school friend, Tom B*ock*mp who moved to the Virgin Islands to manage a restaurant-casino. He spoke of "Island Fever," the urge to get back to the mainland and....drive, fast, for more than 30 seconds. New Yorkers feel the same way (except fot he Belt Parkway on Saturday night where all bets are off).
I'd love to hear what y'all think is the best road to travel - fast. I've got my own ideas.
Cars.
What can I say about cars?
We've owned mostly crappy pre-owned cars. Or station wagons. And I never choose them.
When we were dating my husband was saving up to buy a black cherry BMW. The fricking idiot ended up cashing in his savings and marrying me instead and having two babies. In 27 years the poor man has never bought an exciting car since. He says he doesn't care about cars, but that is garbage b/c I still remember what he was saving for when he was only 18 years old. How many 18 year olds are saving for a BMW? Not many.
I made him buy that stupid RX8 though, so that is something, even though he keeps trying to trade it in for a 'more practical' commuter car. But I know he loves it, because he takes it to work every chance he gets. And because I watch his face when he drives it, and he has changed since we bought that car.
I will never let him sell it unless he buys something better for himself.
You are a true humanitarian, Cass.
We guys have a tendency to deny ourselves (because our beloveds' do the same, so well, and without whining). But the fact is, we men want that thing that makes us super us. Poised and agressive and the ready to rumble with the sound of those sweet, sweet horses, bursting to cut loose. And all that holds us back is out own sensibilities, the law, and your sensibilities. I can dodge the first two , but damned if I can counter the third.
I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me last night.
Sometimes I get frustrated for him, that's all.
We've had a lot of dumb cars.
Being a woman, I have no idea what the years and models are for most of them - I don't remember that stuff.
Our first was some kind of dark green Dodge station wagon that lasted about a year before the automatic transmission went on us. It was just about the last automatic we owned. Just about all the rest have been manual.
Next we bought our first new car: a 1980 Toyota Tercel. We couldn't even afford rugs, radio, or A/C - it had rubber mats on the floor instead. But I loved that car. It got totalled coming home from the Unit's grandma's wake at 3 am on 270 in a pretty spectacular smashup but the wake was a hoot.
1981 Toyota Starlet replaced it in the lineup - try getting toddlers in and out of the back carseat when you're 9 months pregnant in the Pensacola heat. Not fun. It developed some kind of problem in the wheel bearings and had to go.
1984 Chevy something wagon - this was our one-and-only automatic. It was a lemon. I hated it and we got rid of it.
Some cast-off car from the Unit's grandad - i think it was a Ford and was loaded to the gills with options. We called it The Ford Grand Inquisitor. It talked when you opened the door and looked like a land whale. The Unit totalled it, I think.
Mazda 323 red hatchback- one of our best cars - drove it into the ground until some moron rear-ended it on Thanksgiving on the off-ramp to the 5 in soCal - had 140K on the odometer.
White Suburu legacy wagon - another keeper. Not exciting, but dependable and drove well. Traded in for the Bug.
Chevy Caprice wagon from my parents - the suburban assault vehicle described earlier. Ended up being the joke of the battalion after the glue holding the ceiling lining came off in the desert heat and some kids threw a rock through one back window at a party my sons were at one night. It was like a rolling RV for desert teens.
Dark blue Nissan 200 SX, blue we bought fixed up - reminded me of going out of dates with some guy I knew in HS. God knows how old it was. We only had it a year or so - stop-gap car while we were in soCal.
Lime green Beetle. This was a fun little car, but the electrical system was always acting up. That's why we got rid of it in the end.
Red Mazda RX8 - currently my favorite car but it's a death trap in the snow. Very fun to drive.
Black Maxda 6: the interior is wonderful and we love the leather seats, but the clutch is mushy and it spins out at the drop of a hat and the turning radius is ridiculous. Might as well be driving a Mack truck. Disappointing - we should have gotten a 3.
Cass,
Trade in the RX-8 on an Audi A4 2.0-T, quattro.
They are about equivlent in price (~$34-35K), and the A4 Quattro will be great in the snow. Plus, that 2.0-T(turbo) engine is a rocket. They have auto/tiptronic shifting, so you can sorta go manual if you like.
Just my dumb suggestion.
VW Beetles (pre-1968, that is), what can you say. We (well, my Dad) owned a host (literally) of them when I was a kid/teenager. They were sorta fun 'cause you felt like you were going 40 when it was only going 25, and as Spd has interjected, the motors were easy to change (sorta). My Dad would buy 'em, fix 'em up and pass 'em out to me or one of my sisters to drive, or sell one to one of their friends. After he died, the garage was full of old VW Bug parts that I eventually tossed out (after my little sister bought the last Bug ('67) in the family around 1979).
-"Don Brouhaha"
Portia, how can you survive in such uncivilized climes that would prevent you from exercising your God-given right to drive fast and burn up fossil fuel? :D
I ask myself that same question often, Don. However, the chance to travel with friends, course through unique
landscapes and take in unexpected curves now and again, more than makes up for the need for speed:).
Boy, I think you guys have been spinning your "wheels" all these years with your Audis, Hondas VWs. This is what you should be pulling, um.... driving. Can't hurt:)
*speeding away*
Portia, all I need to do is drive right out of my development to see all the tractors I want or need :) We're surrounded by dairy and horse farms right now, at least until the developers buy them all out and construct McMansions on them, which ought to be right soon - they're starting at 270 and working their way out to where I am, more's the pity. But there's nothing more beautiful than driving back to where we live from DC.
That used to be my favorite part of my commute from McLean: getting off 270 and all that God-awful traffic and driving through miles of gorgeous, serene countryside before getting to our dumb little house in the woods. I could just feel the tension drain out of my neck and shoulders. And in the spring, seeing all the new calves and foals lines up along the road.
I love the city too. We go into DC all the time where my son lives and like to spend the nite at a hotel just because I like waking up on the weekend and watching the sun rise over Washington and being able to stay out late and have something always open. But I don't think I could live there all the time. I need quiet.
I keep telling the spousal unit we need a townhouse in the city for the weekends and a cabin in the mountains for during the week - or vice versa :)
all I need to do is drive right out my development to see all the tractors I want or need
And? Is Kenny onto something?
:)
Go for the townhouse...for whenever.
I'd rather rent. That way the second home can burn down for all I care. Just so long as it's AFTER my vacation.
And? Is Kenny onto something?
It may just be my aging sensibilities, but...no. But again, that may be because I'm not into younger men.
Although put me on a Marine base and I have been known to appreciate (in an entirely patriotic and platonic way, you understand) whatever is manhandling various camoflagued vehicles travelling in and out of the gun park.
There is no end to what I'm willing to endure for my country... my patriotism knows no limits [hand to forehead].
*running away*
It may just be my aging sensibilities, but...no. But again, that may be because I'm not into younger men.
It seems neither was Renee Zellwegger:) We'll take a pass on the tractor, for now...
Well actually I kind of prefer older tractors, too... they look lived in.
And what the hell is a whale tail?
Yes, I know I am a stupid female. But I honestly have no idea and I'm not going to pretend I do. Flagellate away.
No problemo, tenderfoot. A whale tail" was a spoiler latched onto the back engine panel to provide aerodynamic downforce for the rear wheels (where the power comes from) to counteract the air pushed under the car, which, at speed tended to lift the rear end and thus reduce traction, particularly in curves. With the raer-engined 911 presenting such a lodsided forward/rear weight ratio, the damned thing needed to have its bid fat ass pushed down in the stretch so's to not break loose and put you in a snap spin.
Recent Porsches don't have this charateristic anymore, but my 24 yar-old model still makes you feel like you're driving by the seat of your pants. And that's the thrill.
Interestingly mr rdr, a search of "whale tail" brought up this little gem, which I thought might amuse you (I know it did me):
In a runoff for the most creative word, "whale tail," the appearance of a thong above the waistband, beat out "muffin top," the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-riding jeans.
Being the high-minded individual I am (or more accurately, perhaps only a still-sleepy one) I will skip the temptation to snark about the juxtaposition of "whale tail" with "my 24 year-old model" and "thrill".
*running away as fast as my little whale tail will allow me to without breaking loose and going into a snap spin...*
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