Thursday, August 18, 2005

Cars I've owned

I was just talking to somebody about cars... I got to thinking about all the cars I have owned. 75 Olds Cutlass 4 door- This was my first vehicle. My mom figured a teenage boy needed to be surrounded by as much steel as possible. I think she paid $300 for it. It was ugly, but it was great! I loved that car. I could pile up everybody in the back seat (I think I had 11 people back there one day) and go everywhere. I hauled people to concerts, to the beach, to the mall, to the bowling alley... all over the place! I screwed up and lost my oil cap... one day while exiting the freeway, I was suddenly engulfed in a huge cloud of smoke and hearing the loudest clanking noise I have ever heard. I put all the oil I had in my trunk in it and drove it home- couldn't do over 25 mph, but it got me there. It never started again after that- I sold it for $50 to a junk yard. 75 Dodge half ton pickup- This was the first vehicle I ever paid for myself- well... sorta. I made a deal with a friend that if he kicked in $200 of the $500 I needed, I'd sell it to him after 6 months. Dumb decision, but I was desperate for a car. She was big, yellow and ugly! 2 days after I bought it, the brakes went out as i was pulling in to What-A-Burger. I drove in. Thankfully, that large brick wall was there to stop me. I did $3500 worth of damage to What-A-Burger. I did not scratch the paint on the truck. The guy who owned it before me had lost his right arm- they changed the transmission out to an automatic and put the shifter on the floorboard between my legs. One day, I discovered that they hadn't bolted the transmission on quite right... I was doing 80- then i was slowing down... The engine was reving higher and higher, but the truck was going slower and slower. The bolts that connected the driveplate to the cam had sheared off. It took 2 weeks of drilling to get the bolts removed, but finally got it going again. I miss that truck. 71 Pinto- What was I thinking? It was dirt cheap. The right front spring was bent, so the car sat high on that side. If you hit 55mph, the whole car would shake like an unbalanced washing machine. My girlfriend at the time wanted to dump me for the car... I drove it for three weeks and it crapped out.... I abandoned it on the side of the road. Next was an 81 Olds Cutlass Supreme- This car had belonged to a friend of mine. It had air-conditioner problems, so he ripped out the compressor. He replaced what used to be the firewall on the passanger side with a thin sheet of sheet metal. So I was driving a blast furnace. I got all the heat straight off the block in the passanger compartment. I also got a lot of the exhaust. I hated that car. We painted it primer black with graffitti. I was so glad when that one bit the bucket. 68 Dodge Dart Someone had painted this one with silver house paint. Then they tried to wax it at some point. You can imagine the result. It was huge, it was heavy, it was one of my favorite cars! I put in a cheap ass stereo that we had modified a bit and it pumped out the tunes... It was great for sitting on at the beach... Then it died. :( 78 Yamaha 250cc I rode this little bike for almost 2 years, rain or shine. Cold rain on a motorcycle sucks! Having to ride such a small bike all the time sucks! By the time i got rid of it, I was glad to do it. 85 Cadillac Seville This monster of a car cost me $500. She was pretty (besides the fact that all the plastic dry rotted). The problem? Tie rods. The front wheels bowed in badly. I could get about 2000 miles out of the front tires. I couldn't see paying $1200 to fix a $500 car, so i parked it. 91 Grand Prix (I think it was a 91) Piece of Shit. The windows fell off the tracks, the air conditioner didn't work, leaked fluids, etc... i was thankful that my mom let me borrow this for awhile, but I hated that car. 2001 Saturn L-Series This is my current car. It has been great! This is the second Saturn I bought actually (I somehow bought one for my ex). It has been a reliable car that hasn't had many problems. Well... there's my little walk down car-memory lane. I still haven't owned my dream car, still don't own another truck or another motorcycle... But that's ok. Some day.

5 comments:

xtessa said...

wow, guppy! would you believe i never even owned ONE?!!

*sigh* someday... LOL!

Jackie Bolen said...

That's a lot of cars! I have never owned a car (I'm 26) and my plan is to see how long I can go riding my bike, public transit and scamming rides off friends :)

True Jersey Girl said...

My first car was an 82 Mercury Capri that my ex painted an awesome blue for me...I loved that car. Then I had a crappy Buick Skylark hatchback - it was a POS. Then, I got my first new car - a 1996 Mustang. Green with saddle interior. Then in 1999 I got another new Mustang - red GT convertible. I LOVE that car. Of course now with the kid, Hub drives that car and I get the Mazda Tribute. Seems so unfair.

Quitter said...

We have a 79 dodge charger sitting in the garage..interested?!! :D

Bridget Unnel said...

Wow -- your list is definitely longer than mine. I had an early-80s Datsun 310GX for about two years and then went to college, graduated, and moved to an urban setting where no car was required. Got bored of mass transit and bought a new 1996 Dodge Neon, kept it until last month. I am now driving a gorgeous midnight blue 2005 PT Cruiser!