What's the automotive skeleton in _your_ closet?

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:44 pm

that is a good list EXCEPT THE TERCEL what the crap. That is a rallyx car waiting to happen when they were brand new.

MikeWhitney wrote:

Thought you guys would get a kick out of this. I've been Google Stalking the seller. He's vietnamese, single, 33 years old, used to have a boosted 240sx, lived in Evansville IL until mid-2007, and here is the list of cars he has owned in his life. I approve.

1990 Acura Integra LS 5spd
1994 Nighthawk 250
1990 Nissan 300zxTT 5spd
1997 CBR 600F3
1998 CBR 900RR
1989 Nissan Pickup 5spd
1997 Toyota Supra Turbo 6spd
1989 Nissan Sentra 4spd
1991 Nissan 240sx SE w/Hicas 5spd
1990 Eagle Talon TSI Awd 5spd
1993 Eagle Talon TSI Awd 5spd
2001 Chevy Silverado auto
2004 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 auto
1991 Acura Integra LS 5spd
1991 Nissan 240sx LE 5spd
1995 Toyota Tercel
1991 Mitsubishi Galant VR4 5spd

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

jeremy gast wrote:

that is a good list EXCEPT THE TERCEL what the crap. That is a rallyx car waiting to happen when they were brand new.

C'mon I'm sure everyone has an automotive skeleton in their closet.

Heck, my skeleton isn't even in my past, Kendra's driving it right now -- a 2003 PT Cruiser. :oops:

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:38 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

Heck, my skeleton isn't even in my past, Kendra's driving it right now -- a 2003 PT Cruiser. :oops:

Ugh. The thought of one of those in the driveway is worse than my thoughts about a G-Stock SRT-4 ACR. :leave:

- AB

clinehall · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:49 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

jeremy gast wrote:

that is a good list EXCEPT THE TERCEL what the crap. That is a rallyx car waiting to happen when they were brand new.

C'mon I'm sure everyone has an automotive skeleton in their closet.

Heck, my skeleton isn't even in my past, Kendra's driving it right now -- a 2003 PT Cruiser. :oops:

OK, I'm going to forgo the mention of your budding Bromance with this guy in Kentucky in favor of asking what bizarre story is behind you allowing a PT Cruiser at your Garagmahal.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:13 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

Car people won't understand it. Guys with 2 kids and married to a minivan-averse woman who wants a "big" small 5-door car with an automatic to drive up and down Hwy 55 to work will understand. Obviously a Fit or Matrix would have been ideal, but this car was only $5k with 50k miles. And it is a spectacularly good value for $5k, enough to live with its dynamic shortcomings as a vehicle. And it doesn't need any work, which was my requirement. We test drove a few Matrices (?) for $8k which were beat to death.

In a nutshell, it's a great appliance but not boring. Kendra's happy, so the world is good. Me? It's growing on me, in fact I now think it's a pretty cool looking car. But I hate driving it.

We generally can't ever bust your stones about anything car related, thus, the commentary. Hell, I was a single dude for a while with a Volvo Wagon and a Celica GT-S. I enjoyed driving the wagon more for a period of time :wink:

- AB

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:41 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

clinehall wrote:

OK, I'm going to forgo the mention of your budding Bromance with this guy in Kentucky in favor of asking what bizarre story is behind you allowing a PT Cruiser at your Garagmahal.

Car people won't understand it. Guys with 2 kids and married to a minivan-averse woman who wants a "big" small 5-door car with an automatic to drive up and down Hwy 55 to work will understand. Obviously a Fit or Matrix would have been ideal for her, but this car was only $5k with 50k miles. It is a spectacularly good value for $5k and a great form-factor. Good enough deal to live with its dynamic shortcomings as a vehicle. And it doesn't need any work, which was my requirement. We test drove a few Matrices (?) for $8k which were beat to death.

In a nutshell, it's a great appliance but not boring. Kendra's happy, so the world is good. Me? It's growing on me, in fact I now think it's a pretty cool looking car. But I hate driving it.

Are you guys figuring out yet that I am in fact _not_ a BMW snob? Last count I have 8 hondas at my house, 5 of which don't move under their own power.

Edit - PT Cruisers are NOT allowed in the garagemahal except for maintenance and bathing.

Don't forget, anything is looking up from a Volkswagen. You did sell the passat wagon thing you had right?

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:56 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

C'mon I'm sure everyone has an automotive skeleton in their closet.

Everybody fess up here...

I bought a 1985 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo back in late 1984. It was supposed to be my drive to work beater car, and it was mildly fun for a while since for its period in time it was one of the fastest new cars on the market in 1985. It was the crudest and cheapest made car I have ever owned including the stupid steering wheel which was part of the collapsible steering column requirement. I'm sure if I had so much as bumped another car I wouldn't be writing this today. Sold it in 1986 when my son was born and bought a guys E21 320i track car as my daily driver -- lot more fun, much safer, and even though it was 9 years old a lot more "modern".

It was even faster than the stupid turbo GLH and of course handled much better. Wish I hadn't sold that one -- kind of like Mike will wish about his M3 in 15 years.

clinehall · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:35 pm

ok I won't bust your balls anymore. Anybody married knows that if Mama's not happy nobody is happy. 5k for a car that does not any work and you will feel safe about your kids riding in probably a good deal. Yes an old volvo or Mercedes station wagon would be more fun, but I understand wanting to be able to buy a part at Advance when needed.

As for skeletons: I once bought a Ford Fairmont because, it was a family car but was a straight and that appealed to me. What a piece of crap!!! I made a very good trade by trading it for a Renault Le Car.

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:53 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Everybody fess up here...

1982 VW Rabbit. It was Carolina Blue so I should have known from the start it would be high maintenance. Flaming pile of crap on wheels. No really, the Rabbit burned to the ground shortly after I sold it. Funny thing is, I wasn't even trying to sell it, the guy asked me if he could buy it! Unfortunately, I hadn't learned my lesson quite yet, so it was replaced by a 1983 VW Quantum. They spawned my hatred for all things German. Fast forward 6 years to when I met Judi and she was driving a 2000 Passat. Very nice driving experience, but like all things VW, it was plagued by a CEL for some kind of vacuum leak that was finally fixed after 6-8 months of being in and out of the shop. It promptly went up for sale right after that. I feel bad as David Teague bought the car and I heard it's gone through numerous front suspension bits. On the plus side, I heard David and his family celebrate Christmas each year in the front seat next to the glow of all the pretty lights on the dashboard so he never has to put up a X-mas tree.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:11 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Everybody fess up here...

Oh God, where do I start?

1981 Mazda GLC, green, 4 speed. Broke the engine and got to see the crankshaft sticking out of the block. Yea, that was fun.

1985 Dodge Omni, White, Auto. Broke down at school and I left it in the parking lot over night. Some idiot broke into the thing and stole the crappy KMart radio out of the dash. Oh, did I mention that we discovered it had been in a flood before I bought it. Every nut, bolt & screw was rusted.

1984 Chevrolet Chevette, white, 4 speed and no head liner. Financially, was not a car guy at the time and the clutch got so bad that I didn't have to use it at all. I could start the car in gear, slip it into first and drive away. Clutch to shift gears?? NEVER!!

1995 Dodge Caravan, green, POS. The only time I ever bought an extended warranty was when I bought this van. Boy am I glad I did. The transmission was replaced TWICE during the life of the warranty. I sold it right before the warranty ran out. Because of this vehicle, I will never own another MOPAR product.

Sorry for the threadjack Mike. The S2000 looks good, you should go get it this weekend.!

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:50 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

C'mon I'm sure everyone has an automotive skeleton in their closet.

Everybody fess up here....

This has the makings of a great thread topic on its own...

1981 Diesel VW Rabbit. Yellow, well supposed to be if I ever washed off all the black particulate that spewed from the exhaust. On summer days had to choose between A/C and making it up the next hill, but 55mpg was easy ont he wallet. Good times.....good times....

Back OT...thumbs up on the AP2, sounds like a good price on a good car. Good luck!

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Steven Carter wrote:

This has the makings of a great thread topic on its own...

Good idea! I was chuckling about the fact that my whimpy "WTB" thread had grown to 5 pages, but you're right we need to hear some more skeleton car horror stories here in the lounge -- so I did the split

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:15 am

ok so my first was was a 1979 datsun 210, it was "doo doo brown" I drove that through high school, it needed valve seals and would smoke every time it cranked up. It used more oil 20w50 than it did gas.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:58 am

jeremy gast wrote:

ok so my first was was a 1979 datsun 210, it was "doo doo brown" I drove that through high school, it needed valve seals and would smoke every time it cranked up. It used more oil 20w50 than it did gas.

My story is similar. The christmas after my 16th birthday, my dad gave me a car he had been daily driving for a couple of years:

A 1981 Datsun 310GX. He bought it from a woman at work. In a single accident, she played pinball and hit two opposing guardrails a total of 4 times while spinning in the snow. While the frame was straight, there were only a few panels on the car that didn't have dents. Even something had fallen on the roof.

The hood was so wrinkled at the front that the grill couldn't fit on it. I need to find a picture and post it.

It had a sweet 4 spd manual mated to a tiny four banger that couldn't spin the massive 155/70/13 tires. This thing was a peach.

I still loved the thing, because I was 16 and had a car.

My dad bought it from the woman for $300 and drove it as is for about 2 years, even with a 4 year old '84 El Camino with a 305 - 4 spd sitting in the garage.

In about 6 months of owning this POS, it developed an overheating condition. Considering I knew nothing about cars, my dad tried to help me with it, but it stumped him as well.

I put it for sale for $200 and I had a old guy come look at who brought a tape measure, which I thought was odd. He measured every interior measurement on the car (he arrived in a even smaller 3 door packed to the ceiling). When I asked what he was doing, he needed to figure out if it was bigger than his current car, so that he could "live" in it. Literally.

He passed and I sold the hot mess to a couple who wasn't smart enough to drive it more than 15 minutes. I told them it overheated and they thought I was just a stupid kid. I never did ever hear back from them.

I had saved nearly $1k by this point and worked out a payment plan for the rest of money for my Mom's '81 Accord Hatch with a 5spd. To this day, it's still one of my favorite cars. - AB

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:41 am

Bad cars:

1960 Studebaker Lark 4 door 6 cyl auto (used in 1964. Blue)
1974 Vega GT 4 spd but only 1 barrel carb (Calif) (New. Yellow)

Decent cars/bikes:

Honda 50 Scooter (new 1963. Red/white)
Toyota Corona 4 door, bench seat, 3 spd stick on column (new 1966. Blue)
Honda 350 Bike (used 1973 . . . forget year but loved to rev it to 10, 500 rpm. Teal)

Good car:

1984 Datsun 200 SX Hatchback auto (new 1984 and still own it . . . wife won't sell it because it was "our" first purchase. Silver)

Real cars:

1974 Datsun 260Z (new. What can you say about the car that ultimately won my first National Championship?)
1973 Lotus Europa (used. Needed lots of work BUT got me my wife and my second National Championship)
1969 Mustang 351 4V 4 spd GT coupe (New. Red)
1988 Mustang 5.0 Hatch 5spd (New. Red)
1997 Mustang 4.6 GT auto (New. Red. Still own)
2001 Mustang 4.6 GT 5spd (New. Red. Still own)

Race car:

1985 Van Diemen Formula Ford (used in 1991. Yellow. FUN)

Dick (obviously not into buying/selling cars)

THSCC Forums

What's the automotive skeleton in _your_ closet?

Who is online