1985: Purchase 1980 Ford Fiesta 1990: Fiesta dies. Add 1982 Plymouth Horizon. 1991: Horizon dies of frame rust. Add 1985 Plymouth Reliant (inherited upon marriage). 1993: Reliant blows a valve. Replace with 1986 Plymouth Colt Vista (a desperation buy). 1994: Add 1985 Plymouth Reliant (free from MIL; still paid too much) but now we have TWO CARS! 1995: 1988 Chevy Celebrity wagon (now we’re moving up in the world, and we have THREE cars! I feel rich!) 1996: Dump Reliant in exchange for repairs on other cars. 1997: Get Colt Vista back from mechanic after tranny fluid leak with a note “Corner slowly”. Decide it’s time to trade it. Add 1996 Chevrolet Lumina. 2000: Fourth child on the way. Need a minivan. Dump Celebrity. Add 1998 Pontiac Transport. We now have two cars made within the past five years. 2004: Reliving second childhood. Buy 1968 VW Beetle. 2005: Have extra cash, decide I need a truck. Add 1993 Dodge Dakota. 2006: Lumina acting funny at mile number 175,000. Donate to VOA. Add 2003 Mazda Protege5. 2008: Transport acting funny. Trade for 2004 MPV. 2009: Dakota fails inspection. Trade for 2002 Chevy Silverado.
So right now I have the MPV, the Protege5, the Bug and the Silverado. But I’ve had five Chryslers, and I HATE Chryslers. Used to love GM, but not so much anymore. Purebred Mazdas (Protege) are better than Ford cousins (MPV). But I’m still liking Mazda the best.
65 Pontiac Tempest
66 Olds Dynamic 88
70 Olds Cutlass
75 Chevy Impala
31 Ford Model A (yeah. it was used)
82 Buick Regal
83 Dodge Diplomat
87 Ford Bronco
88 Nissan Pathfinder
Company Cars since 2005
Lets see, the ones I’ve owned:
86 Ford Mustang V6, the last year for the V6 until the late 90s.
96 Ford Escort
67 Ford Mustang
97 Ford Mustang, ex wife’s
07 Ford Escape, current
Motorcycles:
96 Honda Shadow 600
00 Kawasaki Concours, current
The ones I’ve driven, in the family:
85(?) Isuzu sedan, can’t even remember what it was, mom’s
early 80s Audi, mom’s
05 Subaru Outback, wife’s
Can’t even count. My M.O. in the past has been buy a cheap clunker with either tax refund or student loan, when it dies, rinse and repeat about once every one to five years. A couple of times I traded out a dead car for one that runs to some backwoods junkyard dealer. It’s hard to even recall the individual cars from 25 years of having a driver’s license. However in the past year I’ve tried to change that, we bought an older Honda that we’ve been maintaining scrupulously and hope to keep more than 5 years.
1976 AMC Hornet, used-- gift from my grandfather in 1979, shared with my brothers
1986 Subaru wagon, bought new(lost to ex-wife in divorce)
some Datson or similar beater I bought for $300 to get me around for awhile
1990 or 91 Ford Explorer. (bought new)
1996 Ford Expedition (lease)
1997 Ford Torus (bought used after Expedition lease)
2000 Nissan Pathfinder
2010 Toyota Prius
Pretty sure I’ve done this before, but here is the list anyway (bought used unless stated otherwise):
'65 Buick Wildcat 4-door hardtop (purchased in early 1973)
'67 Plymouth Satellite 2-door hardtop
'72 Ford Pinto station wagon
'54 Buick Super 2-door hardtop
'68 Lincoln Continental four-door hardtop
'75 Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf) 2-door sedan (new)
'78 Chevy Malibu station wagon (new)
'81 Audi 4000 5 + 5 2 door sedan (new)
'78 Dodge Omni (don’t ask)
Ten years or so without a vehicle of any kind (living in Europe)
'90 Ford Ranger pickup
2001 Subaru Impreza station wagon (new)
I also very briefly owned a '62 Buick and '67 Mercury for demolition derby purposes.
I’d own any of them again, except the Wildcat and the Omni.
Started driving in 1987. Used Mom’s 79 Cutlass to start, then bought:
77 Buick Skylark purchased 1988 for $500
82 Toyota Corolla purchased 1989 for $1500
90 Ford Probe purchased 1994 for $4000
98 Ford Mustang GT purchased 1999 $12000
Moved to the city in 2001. Sold the Mustang, miss it but dumb to have a car in the city.
I’d buy another Mustang in a second, specially the new 2010 glass top.
1978 (?) Cadillac
1985 Toyota Tercel (sic-should be Tiercel)
1995 Honda Civic EX
2006 Honda Civic SI
Caddy was a hand-me-down from a friend of my dad’s-hardly my first choice, but wasn’t going to quibble. It had transmission problems, then a punk kid sideswiped me, and, while it wasn’t totaled exactly, that was the beginning of the end. I soon was given the Tercel from my dad; oh it was a beater, very basic in features, but gave me some good years with minimal maintenance (was a stick too, something I was at first hesitant about, now I don’t want to ever own an automatic ever again). The EX, which my dad bought for me as a graduation present (got the color right-blue-the transmission wrong) was good for several years, but then started to have a number of problems, starting with a faulty cooling system which would randomly overheat. Sold that to a friend, and he must have spent, at a minimum, $5,000 dollars to fix it and keep it running (still has it-don’t ask why he hasn’t gotten rid of it yet). The SI is by far the best, no contest-never had as much fun driving an automobile as I have that one.
Because of Dad’s (now former) job my family has owned over 45 cars, and driven somewhere in the 70s. Pretty fun growing up.
Personally however. Been driving since 2002
1996 GMC Jimmy: My family still has this truck. Has over 150K miles on it and runs beautifully.
2001 Cadillac Catera: I loved this car but was a money pit. I got it in 2006 and in 3 years had to replace the head gasket, timing belt, engine, two head lights, air con, transmission (twice).
2006 Saab 9.3t: I have owned this car for 3 weeks now. The Caddy was just too expensive. I love this car tho
My history is extremely boring compared to some of yours. I’ll list the cars I’ve actually owned, not family cars I used occasionally when I was learning to drive: