Have you owned an automobile (or truck) from each of the Big 3 automakers?

In My Humble Opinion
61

The biggest auto company for over 70 years. Also, if I’m reading this right, the largest company of any kind

From 1955 to 1974, GM topped the Fortune 500 every single year, fueled by the postwar auto boom and the dominance of U.S. manufacturing

Ranked: America’s Top Company by Revenue, Over Time (1955–2025)

62

'62 Olds 98 (what a beast).
Chevy C10 short bed 4x4 (wonderful).
Hi-powed VW Shirraco (much fun)
Nissan 240 sx (snappy little car).
Jeep C7 softtop (worked for me at the time).
Two Nissan Pathfinders end to end (great vehicle until they turned them into crossovers).
Dodge 1500 4x4 short bed Hemi (my second plow truck).
Now I’m in a Toyota 4Runner (Probably the last car I’ll buy).

63

When it was a major blue chip I remember GM’s production numbers and sales data were stated along side the DOW.

As an environmentalist it irked me that automobile production was an indicator of a healthy economy

64

Yes:

  • 1959 Ford Fairlane (“Edsel’s Revenge”, bought for $25 after it had sat out through a Montana winter with a blown freeze plug. Learned a lot about cars keeping it running.)
  • 1974 Chevy Vega
  • 1984 Chrysler LeBaron
  • 2011 Dodge Caliber

Also, as several have noted, an AMC (a 1965 Rambler Ambassador). 232 cid straight six, three-on-the-tree with overdrive. My second favorite car ever.

When businesses were transitioning away from horses my grandfather, who had a feed-and-fuel business, bought several Model T trucks. At about the same time he bought a Dodge touring car for his personal use. After a number of incidents where he had to send the Dodge out to haul in one of the trucks which had broken down, he (according to family legend) swore a mighty oath that he’d never own anything but a Dodge ever again. Not sure whether he kept that oath, but our family has always gravitated that way.

It should be noted that this was when the Dodge brothers ran their own company, before Walter Chrysler acquired it.

65

It was the Chryslers with which I had serious quality/reliability issues.

  • The Reliant was an inexpensive car (given to me uses, by my parents), but wasn’t too bad for what it was.
  • I traded it in for a used (but only two years old) LeBaron, and that car rapidly developed so many problems, particularly with the electronics. I got rid of it after two years.
  • A decade later, I fell in love with the look of the PT Cruiser, and talked myself into believing that Chrysler had figured out their quality issues in the intervening decade. For the first four or five years, it was a good car, and extremely comfortable to drive. But, then, the wheels metaphorically fell off: again, lots of electronics issues, but also one mechanical issue after another.

I’ll never again buy a Chrysler product.

66

Yep. I’ve had two Toyotas, two VWs, and two Hyundais. One of my Fords was a Festiva, a Mazda design built by Kia.

Just for fun, my full disclosure: 6 Chevys, 4 Fords, 2 Toyotas, 2 Hyundais, and 1 each Dodge, Studebaker, Datsun-Nissan (badged as such, 1983), Cadillac, Mercury, Mercedes Benz.
67

Yep. My first driving car, that was my dad’s was a 1973 Galaxy 500. My first purchased car was a 1969 Ford Mach I. My next vehicle was a 1975 Dodge Tradesman 100 van. My next purchased vehicles were a GM van, and a chevy berretta.

I had and drove several other various makes and models, mostly from the GM group until I settled on Toyota. My last 5 vehicles have been Toyotas.

68

Yes, bought new:

Fomoco: 2 Fox-body Mustangs

Chrysler: Dodge Dakota pickup truck

GM: All passenger cars. 3 Pontiacs, 2 bought used, one new, 4 Chevrolets, the latest of which is my daily driver.

69

I’ve just created a list of every vehicle I’ve ever owned, and I have only owned one from the American Big Three, a Ford Fairlane I owned for only a year or so, back in the late 1970s. I can’t remember why I bought it (other than I had just gotten my license and it was probably cheap) or anything about driving it or selling it.

I then bought a Rover 1969 TC 2000, which I owned for several years, and when it died bought a 1971 TC 2000, which I sold when I went off to college (where it wasn’t practical to own a car).

In college, and for two years after, I owned four motorcycles (three Hondas and a Yamaha).

Since 1980, except for a Porsche 944 Turbo I owned for a little over a year, I have only owned Japanese vehicles.

Three Nissans (Sentra wagon, 350Z, Leaf)
One Mazda (Miata)
One Honda (Accord)
Two Toyotas (Camry Hybrid, Prius)
One Lexus (ES350)

70

Lots of Cheys, 1 Ford, nor sure about Chrysler. Is Dodge chrisler?looked it up: we’ve had a number of Chevys ( our preference) a Dodge Nitro, Ford Escape , also a Kia Soul…loved that little car.

71

Yes. As is Jeep (at least since the late '80s).

72

I’ve had a Ford (Mercury), a GM (2 Chevys), and a Chrysler (Plymouth). I’ve also had a Honda, a Mazda, a Mitsubishi, two Hyundais, and a Toyota. My wife had a Subaru when we got married, and since then she’s had a Saturn, a Toyota, and a Ford. And we’ve had two Nissans as rentals on vacation.

73

Poll time: Which car makes have you regularly driven, owned, leased, and/or borrowed?

74

Am I doing something wrong? It’s not letting me click on VOTE NOW.

ETA: I just noticed: It says “Choose at least 48 options.”

Maybe I’m strange, but I haven’t owned 48 different makes of cars.

75

I ran into the same issue. It looks like @John_DiFool unintentionally set the minimum number of selections to the same number as the total number of options in both polls.

76

I bet @Gatopescado will have no trouble voting. Hell, he probably owns more than 48 right now.

77

I wasn’t able to edit those polls, but i copied them to make votable versions. I’ll go back and close the first two, now that i see the new ones work.

78

IMO, about once a decade Chrysler would come out with a car that strikes an emotional chord with people to the point where they convince themselves to take a chance on a Chrysler (like you did):

  • The Cordoba in the 1970s
  • The minivans in the 1980s (ok, maybe not “emotional” in the same sense as the others on this list, but it was a hot new class of vehicle that Chrysler owned for decades.)
  • The Intrepid in the 1990s
  • The PT Cruiser in the 2000s
  • And I guess we can include the Challenger on this list, though it came out in the late 2000s so doesn’t quite fit the “once a decade” pattern.
79

You could likely add in the Dodge Charger along with the Challenger; the Charger came out two years before the Challenger, but both were clearly meant to scratch a muscle-car itch.

80

My parents had a 1964 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. My mom drove it. Dad drove a 1962 VW Beetle and then a 2-door, 1968 VW Squareback. All good cars with no probelms.

The family Lemons were a 1972 Opal Cadet. Sold through through Buick dealerships. Dad drove it and then I got it at age 16. Threw a timing chain soon after. Then carb problems.

The worst car was ironically 1974 Ford LTD. Early smog emissions requirements gave my parents a lot of trouble. That POS was at the dealer constantly.

My parents left the worthless LTD parked in their garage. They bought a Datsun after the first 70’s gas crisis. Dad drove a Ford truck.

They eventually sold the low mileage POS Ford LTD at a loss.

They drove and replaced Nissan cars starting in the mid 80’s into the 00’s.

Their last car was a 2012 Toyota Camry. Dad still drove a mid 90’s Ford truck. But he was in his late seventies and it was difficult climbing in.

I had a Ford 1976, 2 door Granada for 10 years. Then started driving a Ford E150 Econoline van. My current van is a 2013 E250 Econoline.

It’s the last year before Ford switched to the Transit base van. I’ll have to buy one soon. My old van needs replacing.