My first car: In senior year of high school in 1973 was a
1966 TRIUMPH SPITFIRE--It was a [censored] fire, repair after repair.

1972 FORD PINTO HATCHBACK--I put a CB radio in it and my handle was the "Green Bean" it was metalic green. 10-4 Good Buddy.

1983 VOLKWAGEN GTI--A great fun car one of my favorites. Had to sell it the girlfriend just couldn't master the stick shift.

1985 MERCURY COUGAR--This was fully loaded w/ leather and V-8 auto headlights, Plush large 2 door.

1989 MERCURY SABLE--Started a family in 1988 and needed a 4 doorthe Cougar was a pain w/baby seat in the back bucket seat.

1990 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA-Good Wolfsburg edition, but slow a/t, getting on freeway was a chalenge, sold it w/130,000 miles made good money on it.

1993 MAZDA 626--Tin can car, handled like crap.

1994 NISSAN PATHFINDER 4x4, constant exhaust manifold repairs.

1999 VOLKWAGEN PASSAT--The most repairs and most money out of pocket. I totaled up the cost in the six years I owned it the repairs took $7850.00 out of my wallet. I feel sorry for other VW and AUDI owners beware.

CURRENT OWNERSHIP--Two great vehicles 2004 Yukon and 2005 Honda Accord. True great performers on the budget as we put about 20,000 miles on each per year.

i've enjoyed most of my cars and only kind of hated one. i loved the 1968 plymouth valiant which featured a straight 6 cyclinder engine with a 3-on-the-tree manual gear box that my dad gave my twin brother and i as our first car. i also loved the 1972 crysler new yorker we got shortly later when we killed the valiant. it had a massive engine, got 8 mpg on a good day, and held 7 teenagers in the trunk to sneak into the drive-in movies. it was so big we fit a 125 cc motocycle INSIDE the car. the front seats folded flat backwards. what a great car for dates! the car i had a love-hate relationship with was a 1975 vw beetle that i bought as a station car in 1997. it was a blast to drive but had definitely seen better days. the floor pan was rotted and going through a puddle would bring moisture intot he car. when the temps dropped, ice would form on the INSIDE of the windshield. only a credit card was flexible enough to scrape it off. forget about the heater or defroster, since there was no fan. you only got air flow over the engine (to heat it) when the car was moving forwards. and don't even get me started on the genious who thought using air from the spare tire under the hood to push fluid thru the winshield washers was a good idea. probably the car i loved the most was a mazda miata. you wore the car rather than sitting in it and it really hugged the road.

Same here. My favorite car of all time was a 90 VW Corrado. Super fun car to drive. I bought it after graduating from college and was having fun chasing women. Maybe thats why its my favorite.

Second favorite is a tie between a 77 Trans Am (Bandit Edition) and a 73 MGB, which is still in my folk's barn.

All my other cars I have been post marriage and kids. Plain ole transportation.

We have went overboard on cars in out short time,

1965 Ford T-Bird first car in 1991 Sold in 1992 when gas went up, made some money on it.

1993 Chevy Caviler Base car but it sipped the gas vs the T-bird

1995 Chevy S-10 worst car even Chevy agreeded they took it back

1995 Chevy S-10 Round 2 better than the lemon but never got over the bad taste from the first one, only had it for 13 months due to the lease sub.

1996 Jeep Cherokee 4 door learned the lesson about milage on a lease got hosed on this deal

1998 Dakota that had the 318 and many toys added, could not drive in snow or rain.

Admiral enters the mix

1990 Olds Cutlass with the blinking dash board, her collage car.
traded for her

1997 Grand Am GT, great little car till the Deer ran into it. Rattled from then on traded in on her

1998 Chevy Z-28 Bright Red with t-tops what fun it was to be (DINKS)

Now the ours cars

1994 Honda Accord bought since the Z-28 and the Dakota hated bad weather.

Kids enter the picture

Sell the Accord for a profit, Trade the Z-28 in on a Rodeo

1999 Rodeo, what a Rattle Trap

2001 Toyota Sequoia, Lemon Law, I will never buy a first model year car again.

2002 Grand Prix GT, had to get out of that @#%!! Rodeo we should have NEVER BOUGHT still hear about it to this day.

2002 Toyota Sequoia, Much better than the first. Thanks Toyota

2004 Toyota Tundra DC, Matched the Rinker 232 perfect.

1998 Z-28 6-Speed purchased for the admirals 30th B-day, Remember my mistake for buying the Rodeo.

2005 QX56 Lease was up on the Sequoia and wanted a change after driving the same car for 5 years. This was a record for us.

2007 Maxima, Tundra was traded since it could not pull the Ebbtide and could use the company 2500HD

During all this time we have also had

1996 Seadoo's 2 seater and 3 seater sold when prego

1999 Rinker 192 Sold for down payment on house

2002 Rinker 232 Sold for the Ebbtide

2005 Ebbtide 2600 Sold for the Moomda

2008 Seadoo 3 seater

2007 Moomba XLV

And I have had

2001 Buell Blast

2002 Suzuki Bandit S


We have decided to try and keep the toys longer and stop spending money on them. But look at all the fun we have had shopping for cars.

I can honestly say I've LOVED every vehicle I've ever owned.

'67 Beetle - Drove 3 years
'75 Camaro - Drove 9 years
'84 T/A - Drove 11 years
'98 F-150 - Drove 11 years (so far)

That doesn't count the admiral's cars, starting with a '70 Grand Prix, an '88 Chrysler minivan we bought in '90 and put another 160K miles on, another Chrysler minivan that convinced us not to buy another, and two Honda Odysseys which have been awesome.

Since everyone else actually listed their prizes, I will too:
In chronological order starting in 1992,

1986 Chevy Cavalier coupe 4cyl 5sp
1990 Chevy Cavalier Z-24 (auto, bummer Owned it for 5.5 years and put 105k miles on it, [186,000k total miles on the car] and only had the fuel pump quit [at 100k miles], replaced two batteries, and the alternator. Great Great Great car!)
1983 Chevy S-10 (with a ZZ3 350 crate engine!)
1987 Chevy Beauville G20 (the sleepy one)
2003 Chevy Impala
1999 Pontiac Montana van (Still have)
2004 Chevy Impala (still have)
1990 Chevy G20 conversion van (still have)

Detect a theme?

My wife owned a 97 Ford Taurus LX before we were married in 2004, I got rid of it and replaced it with the 03 Impala in June 04. I did not like that Taurus. Its cheap plastic interior rattled bad, the rear disc brakes were designed stupidly, and it was NOT fuel efficient. Think 15mpg tops in the city!

The only car that I had that I have any affection for was my '78 Cutlass. I bought it in '89 from a retiring school teacher that my mom worked with. It had a SBC/4 barrel.

THe car was not anything special, but what I remember is all the good times in that car(front seat and back seat, if ya know what I mean).

Driving down the back roads at 90+ at night with the lights off, catchin' air on "thrill hill", whippin' it in my parent's drive at 30mph, locking the em. brake to see how many 360's I could slide, and on and on.

The car is still around. I know it's mine cuz it still has the duct tape on the right rear fender where a buddy put his foot thru the paint.

First car (parents) 62 Ford Galaxie 500 station wagon. 'The Tank'
Learned how to shift - 65 Mustang 289 HiPo
1st bought car and favorite-72 Mercury Comet GT w/302
63 Olds Super 88 (wife's)
63 Chevy C-10 w/I-6
68 Opel wagon -worse piece of junk. Sewing machine engine that burned more oil than gas. Never could get parts.
83 F150 SC 300 I-6. Work horse.
83 LTD. Ex-police car that was abused. Rebuilt engine, but sold when suspected tranny getting ready to go. Great cruiser on the highway
88 Daytona. Fun car, but it had bad luck with me. Three repaints, all glass replaced (twice windshield), dead mouse in dash, alternator, and a few things I don't remember.
91 F150 SC. Great truck
93 Dodge Shadow. Wife's car that will not die. 180k on the original clutch.
01 Dodge Dakota. Great truck for my needs.
08 Ford Taurus. Sweet ride. Not a real fun car, but very comfortable for highway travel.

I can't really say that I have owned a bad car as we usually buy new then keep them forever. And I have always stayed away from options on cars that sound like they would be easy to break and expensive to fix. Stuff like GM Turbocharged engines or the 80s era diesel engines they put into automobiles.

So I guess the closest I can come to a bad car is that my parents bought one of those GM diesels. I cannot remember the year for sure, but I'll guess 1980 or 1981. It was a Buick Park Avenue, and a huge tank of a car. Unfortunately it blew head gaskets about every 4,000 miles.

I am not sure of all of the details, but seems GM retrofitted a gasoline engine for use in cars during the last gas crisis, and well, the heads were just not up to the high compression of desiels, so it went through head gaskets like most cars went through oil filters.

My favorite is our current car; a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix that we bought new. Its just a fun car to drive, and we have really not had any mechanical problems with it.

The only issue is people seem to want to rear-end me while I am stopped at a red light - it has happened twice with this car - the first time when we had the car for 2 weeks.

Luckily they were not huge crashes and only required the replacement of a plastic bumper. Otherwise, I'd be worried about the overall condition of the car due to the wrecks.

Our other current vehicle is my '99 RAM pickup, and I'd have to say for mechanical problems, it would be the worst for me. Luckily all of those problems were during warranty, and they have seemed to settled down now. I bet during warranty, I had it in the shop 10 times. Simple stuff like the seat-back lever fell off, or a radiator hose breaks off; just odd stuff (although they did have to replace the computer once).

I remember one time, we signed a contract for the first time for in/out service for our Cuddy. We were transporting the boat to the marina, some 2 hours away, and the speedometer quit working; the oil temp started wig-waging, the check engine light started blinking, and all strange kind of stuff. I shut the engine off, turned it back on, and everything worked OK for maybe 5 minutes, then started acting goofy again.

Now, this was a matter of my will against the trucks will, and I won. I decided that I was going to get the boat to the marina or the truck was going to die trying. I think as soon as Murphy found out that the truck was going to either make it or blow up, he backed off. I jumped out of the truck and pulled my Garmin GPS receiver out of the boat, threw it on the dash so I could tell how fast I was going.

Well anyway, we made it, put the boat into service and got back home OK. We found the problem was a sensor on the brakes or something that fed the RPM into the gauges. Apparently even though the speedo gauge is analog, it is fed from a digital sensor rather than the traditional tap off of the transmission. Who knew?

Well, at least it was still under warranty.

I bought the truck new as well, and still drive it to work. I would have been livid should I had to pay for repairs of any of that stuff.

So, my wife and I are driving around in a 7yr old and 9yr old vehicle, both paid for long ago.... and I think, I might just keep it that way. I think I am done buying cars. They just cost too much.

My favorite car was my 1980 T/A. Came with the awesome 4.9 V8. I couldn't handle that much power so I changed it out with a sbc 400 bored .040. That was a little calmer and respectable engine. I don't know if I like the car as much as I liked that time in my life.
My next favorite car is my current car, the Saab 9-5 Aero. Handling and braking are great, and it goes pretty good for a 2.3l 4-cyl.
One vehicle we had that I really liked, but had no use for was our Mitsu Montero Sport. It was a great little truck, very solid. The 4WD system, imo, was great. It would have been a great off roader, but I never drove off road, so it wasn't appreciated. Towed our boat at the time pretty well, but was outgunned with the current boat. If I had the money, i'd get another one for winter and utility use.
And finally an honorable mention has to go to the '98 Diesel Jetta. Great car, terrific fuel mileage. I wish I would have kept it at the time and traded our other vehicle. Live and learn.

Lots of second generation Trans Ams on the list. I never owned one, but my parents had a 1979 that I got to drive. I'm not sure how I managed to never wreck that car with all the dumb things I did in it.

That was the last year for the "big" motors for awhile although the power output they got from 403 cid (185 hp IIRC) is pretty funny by today's standards. Fun car at the time, and it does bring back happy memories.

Only really hated one the remainder I would have again if money was no object.

74 Jeep CJ 5 - First ride w/AMC 304 V8 and a 3 speed manual
74 VW Bug - Junk
73 Chevy 1/2 ton - w/454 pushing 450 Hp to the rear wheels
79 Jeep CJ 5 - 25th aniversary model, would still have it if some drunk hadn't rear ended me and totaled it.
27 Ford T Bucket - 327 Chevy V8 able to lift the front wheels off the ground from a standing stop. Absolute blast to drive.
86 Chevy 1/2 ton
94 Chevy 1/2
99 Ford 3/4 ton Power Stroke

Current Vehicles
02 Corvette - Drop the top and hang on...
02 Silverado
00 Accord - Admirals ride, great fuel economy and reliable.

First cars to drive (family vehicle)
1977 Pontiac stationwagon
1985 Ford Country Squire- wood grain

vehicle's purchased
1986 Mazda B-2000 (1990-1993)
1985 Honda Nightwawk 650 (1991-1997)
1993 Chevy S-10 (1993-2001)
1997 Harley Davidson Roadking (1997-2002)
1995 Mercury Sable (2000-2003)
1998 Honda Civic (2002-present)
2003 Ford F150 (2002- present)
2001 Sea Ray 180 (2003-present)

Not one vehicle is outstanding but each have their special moment. The Merc was bought from my grandmother's estate when she passed away. I enjoyed the SW as they were ver usefull to have as a tow vehicle when we went camping as a family, as a truck to haul stuff, and as a basic family vehicle. We drove these prior mini-vans coming around.

Well lets see. I started driving in 1987 and my grandpa gave me my first car a 1975 Buick (boat) Regal with around 120k miles on it. It sucked gas, but could hold the whole cheer leading squad so I do have some fond memories of it. From that point here is the list:

1971 Mustang Convertible 351C w/ C6 trans. Fun, but I couldn't afford the gas or the parts to keep in running when I was in H.S.

1985 Mecury Lynx (Escort) don't really know if it was bad or good, I totaled 3 weeks after I got it, so I guess bad.

'86 Escort I guess good, it made it to a 100k until it blew a head gasket, probably not bad since I went thru 3 clutches, so you no how I treated it.

'85 Tempo, dad gave it to me to get to school and back. Horrible piece of crap, it died around 100k.

'89 Mercury Tracer 2dr 5spd (basically was a Mazda 323), got me through college, was a good car that I bought cheap.

'95 Neon Sport Coupe 5spd- My first new car. It was relatively fun to drive, was fuel efficient, fairly quick for that type of car, but horribly crude.

'92 Saturn SL2 5speed- wife's car- piece of crap

'94 Ford Probe SE 5speed- wife's car, was reliable and she liked it.

'96 Mercury Villager- Here comes the kids- Very reliable and drove nice

'98 Ford SVT Contour 5spd- One of my favorites. Fun to drive, to bad quality was not job one. Lots, and lots of problems. But the 2.5 duratec v6 w/ 195hp and 7k rpm red line was fun, it just loved to rev. Not much by today's standards, but ten years ago it was impressive.

'00 VW Jetta TDI 5spd. Great car, a little pokey, but 50mpg and was reliable, still wish I had it.

'01 Nissan Pathfinder LE 3.5 Great SUV, rock solid, awesome v6,drove nice, and timex reliable

'00 Chevy Suburban- The exact opposite of the Pathfinder- just plain junk, one of those vehicles that after a month I was already planning how to get rid of that disgrace. Can't tell you how many times it made me say @#$!%^&* GM on a daily basis. Probably my least favorite.

'00 Chevy Impala- wife's first company car. Was okay, but would never buy one with my own money

'03 Ford Taurus- wife's 2nd company car, yuck, Vulcan OHV 3.0 v6 was a dog and didn't get very good fuel economy, but was reliable

'06 Ford 500- wife's 3rd company car, as far as company cars go, it was great. Drove nice, had lots of room, comfortable and reliable. Little slow with 3.0 v6, but was adequate

'07 Grand Prix- wife's current company car. Reliable so far, but sucks in every other way, doesn't handle that well, rides horrible, extremely uncomfortable, and since day one, we've been trying to figure out what we can do to speed up the time until her next car. GM cars like this are the reason GM stock is under $7/shr. Thankfully the GP is done after this year I believe.

'07 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer- Replaced the Suburban. So far I like it about as much as one can like an SUV. It's comfy, drives nice, tows nice. So far so good.

In conclusion, the car that I've had which I like the most was probably the SVT Contour. The Jetta TDI probably a close 2nd.

My favorite vehicle ever is my current ride, a 2001 Kawasaki ZX9R. Makes all the cars I have ever been in and almost every bike I have ever ridden seem really sluggish. At 68,000 miles (quite a lot for a sport bike I'm told) it runs perfectly and reliably.