I have the worst luck with cars. I challenge someone to beat my record.
I was given a little '78 corolla when I was 17, which unfortunately, but predictably, died.
So I bought a Mazda 323, great little car. Had it a little while, when someone decided to run into the side of it. They hadn’t seen me coming. So, that was my first write-off, not my fault.
Next car was a little red Ford Laser. Again, a beaut little car, no trouble. This time, I stopped at a pedestrian crossing straight after a corner and a truck was coming around the corner too fast after me. Yet again, a write-off that wasn’t my fault.
So, I bought a Nissan Pulsar, a bit of an upgrade, even had air conditioning. Only had it 6 months or so. Yesterday my mother was driving; I didn’t feel like it. Small lapse in concentration, ran into the car in front. Hadn’t had an accident in 30 years. Yes, my third car written off, still not my fault. The worst bit? Just had new brakes, new tyres, new water pump and a service the week before ($1,000 worth).
Can someone beat that? 3 cars written off in 4 years? Surely has to be a record.
I’m the youngest in my entire family, cousins and all, so when I first started driving I sorta inherited everyone’s beaters. Somehow, the idea of “Hey, that car’s too dead for any rational adult to continue pumping money into, I think I’ll offer them a coupla hundred for it!” seemed like the way to go.
I’d buy one, pump time and money and heart into it, and either there’d be an accident or my dear father would suggest a mercy killing when it was clear the junkyard was benefitting more from my ownership than I was. I had and buried at least half a dozen cars by the time I hit legal drinking age.
I’m right there with you, bud. I’m 20, I’ve had a license since right before I turned 18, so lets say almost 3 years now.
86 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme- Piss tan, smelles like stale cigs and ass, inherited from my grandparents, lasted about 6 months getting 8 miles a gallon and a quart of oil per day, until finally the tranny died and we sold it to some rednecks.
88 Nissan Sentra- Bought from my friends dad(original owner) for $250, with 280k on the clock. Ran great as long as you skipped 3rd gear, got about 6 months out of it before we road tripped it to NYC and back in the same day for a concert, and it got stuck in 4th gear on the way back. It sat in my girlfriends driveway(drove about 50 miles in 4th, including stoplights) for another six months, until her brother beat it up with a golf club and some rednecks hauled it off.
87 Toyota Supra Turbo- Bought for too much, had a blast driving it for about a year, when I decided to sell it and buy something more economical. The first guy to test drive it burned the clutch to hell, and I sold it to him that way, still the car was not running when It left me. Apparently, I am hell on transmissions.
Currently im driving a 88 toyota corolla that my girlfriend gave me when she got a jeep. I like it.
When I lived in L.A. in the 80’s, I got rear-ended at red lights 3 times in 10 months. Last time totalled it. Note to self: when in L.A., run the damn light!
I had a college roommate who’d established some sort of record in this category. On the day he got his license (age 16), his father gave him the assignment to take the family car to a garage for routine service. The mechanic botched the job by improperly fastening a front wheel, then installing the hubcap, so it looked fine.
On the way home, at around 40 mph, the wheel fell off. His car veered sharply into two parked cars (one of which was a days-old Cadillac). He managed to get out (with only minor injuries) before the fire was serious, but it eventually turned into quite a blaze. Total driving experience: 15 minutes, 7 miles, 3 vehicles completely destroyed.
Fortunately, examination of the wreckage showed that just a single lugnut had been in place, and the garage was held responsible.
That happened to an acquaintance of mine in his new car. His location (somewhere in CO) hadn’t changed at all, so his only guess was that the guys at the plant had accidentally received some leftover Stealth plane paint.
No, but seven timing belts in three Ford cars in about a five year span …
At first, my mechanic laughed when I “threw money away” by replacing them at or around their suggested replacement mileage (which at the time was 50,000 miles).
Then I dragged the sorry Escort carcass in a mere 3,000 miles before it was time for a preventative change out …
Gotcha beat by a year. Ages 16, 17, and 18, and each one was my fault.
The first one was the most frightening. I rolled my mom’s car (with her and my little sister inside as well) exactly six days after getting my learner’s permit. I’m not sure if the car rolled over two or three times, but whatever the case, the car was at least sitting on its wheels when it came to a stop. And I was sitting in the back seat! Luckily, none of us were seriously injured.
I killed the engine of a second car by driving it 105MPH with no oil. :smack:
As for the third car, I was driving like a lunatic (sometimes it takes me a while to learn my lessons), hit a little patch of ice, and slammed into a curb so hard that I bent the frame of the car up against the wheels.
My mom was driving home from her road test. She got her license later in life. Got into an accident when she slammed on the brakes at a yellow light and the guy behind her smoked her.
The cops were called as there was significant damage. They asked routine questions -
Well, my sister has everyone beat except for the age part. A couple years ago my sister, who was in her 30s at the time, went through 3 cars in about 4 months.
Car #1. She rear ended some one and totaled her truck.
Car #2. A little over a month later my sis was driving the car my parents gave to her since she totalled her truck. She was driving to New Mexico and did something and totalled the car. I am not sure what she did but she managed to rip the transmission (!?!) out of the car. Totaled.
Car #3. About two months afte that she got another truck and was rear ended. Totalled that truck as well.
I stopped riding with her a couple years ago (before all this happened) because she scared me witless everytime I got in the car with her.
What makes all this truely amazing is that my sister wrecked a VW and almost died in the accident. She hit a tree and was in a coma for a couple days. The tree was where the windshield should be. That happened in 1987 IIRC. She was hurt extremely badly, shattered leg bones, coma, the works. Yet she still drives like a loon. As far as we know (my sis doesn’t remember the accident) that wreck was a single car accident.
My first car I bought from a dealership that sold me a bum car. The car died within a week and my mom fussed at the dealership and they gave me a credit to get a different car from them.
Second car, same dealership, was a 1980’s Cadillac. It was stolen and dumped in Lake Worth within a month of me buying it.
Third car was a sympathy gift from my parents. I bought it for a dollar with the understanding that I would sell it back to them for a dollar when I graduated. It was a 1972 Chevy pickup. We went through a lot together. It leaked oil, so I was constantly refilling it and after it started shooting fire out the tail pipe I learned to how to fix a carburetor. The thing was pretty reliable, it would break down a couple times a year and I would fix it, or since I was poor my dad and I would strap the filter or something else down with tape and clothes hangers. Fond memories….
All prior to 21.
After that, I bought a new car and later bought a second used car from a local dealership. I knew when I bought it there was something wrong with it, but I was leaving town and needed a second vehicle so my husband could have something to drive while I was gone. I made the dealership do a complete inspection of it to determine what was wrong, they claimed nothing, and we bought it the day before I left with a week warranty. Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t know much about cars and when the thing broke down, while I was still out of town, we just ended up dumping money into it to fix it up. Stupid dealership - I should have gotten it in writing that there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Live and learn and then put them on my “dead to me list.”