Hey everyone. Lately I've been looking for a way to get rid of my car, and have been thinking back on all the cars I've had over the years and how I hated some of my cars with a passion. What cars have you had that you loved, hated, or both all at the same time?
For me, the 1988 BMW 535i I had during my aol days was the greatest car I've ever had. It was fast, rock solid, pretty, and also a great conversation piece. Sadly, it got the dreaded shimmy that afflicts so many high mileage e28 BMW 5 series sedans, and it became more sensible to replace it with a ford contour than to fix it. I still regret selling it, but one day plan to buy another to fix up right and never sell. The Ford Contour was a treat - v6 with the five speed, I got a few too many tickets with it. The Ford Focus I currently own is nice and invisible to police, and incredibly functional. I packed everything I own and moved from Florida to western PA in it. Unfortunately, the car eats brake pads and rotors every 15k miles. It's on its third transmission (ate the second gear syncros quite a few times). I bought it with 23k in feb of 04, now it sits in my yard with 54k on it. I can't drive anymore due to reemergence of epilepsy, so she sits in my yard.
-iantm
I love (and hate to love) old Corvette's and New Subaru's. They are so fast but the brands are what I hate. I'm a Ford guy and hate Chevy! But once I drove the Corvette, I was in love. Same with the Subi's. THE ARE SO COOL! Yet I have the brand names.
I Love my 1985 Buick Regal, and I hate most imports no ricers for me please.
I actually miss my first car... a 1975 Pacer X. Don't laugh, that was actually a pretty neat car. Mileage wasn't the greatest, but it got me around for the three years I owned it. Admittedly, a bit of a rolling joke to all of my friends, but I didn't mind at all. A Firestone mechanic damaged the transmission doing maintainance of all things, and the car had to be retired in late 1983; they paid for it. The only other car I had that I really loved, from a mechanical standpoint (though certainly not from one of asthetics) was an ex NASA 1981 Ford Fairmont I owned in the early 90's as a second car. Ugly as can be, but very easy to work on.
Love:
1981 Chevrolet Chevette, 4-speed, 2-door. Not much to look at, but a very simple car. No power steering, power brakes, or A/C! Liked to eat through alternator housings. Got my only speeding ticket in this car. Retired after being rear-ended by a full-size Ford pickup.
1977 CP&L Plymouth Volare fleet car, Slant-6, 4-door. Again, not much to look at, but very easy to work on. By the time I retired it, it had rear-ended a Chevy Beretta and hit two deer. The two deer were hit within a 3-day time span and each one took put 1/2 of the front end. It was still drivable unless you were driving in snow (couldn't see crap because the headlights couldn't be aimed).
1995 Buick Skylark, Quad-4, 4-door. The only car I have bought that was even remotely new. Very dependable, quiet and good on gas. Was totaled 8 months before being paid off by a $#%^$ lawyer from Ohio on the same day my future wife and I bought our wedding rings.
Hate:
1975 Oldsmobile Starfire, V-6, 2-door. Bought this car 6 months before I had a license. After that I drove it for a month and the oil pump gave up the ghost and siezed the engine.
1981 Plymouth Champ, 4-speed, 4-door. Leaked a quart of oil a day, took it back to the dealer to fix. When I got it back, it leaked 6 quarts in 20 miles. Returned the car to the dealer.
Mixed:
1993 Chevy Corsica, V6, 4-door. Has gone through 2 starters and 5 alternators. I think I have it to where the only thing wrong with it is leak oil. Only three months left before it is paid off.
Aaaiiieeee!!! You tossed a 3.5L e28 because of the shimmy!?!!? Dang, all it takes is simple (and cheap!!) front-end bushings replacement to cure. Snif, snif . . . those 5ers are great cars, we also had an e28 bimmer, an '87 528eA, what a wonderful car that was. All it took to upgrade it for fantastic handling was to add Bilsteins and VR-rated Yokos. Nimble and light (for such a nice sized car), it was very tossable and immense fun to drive. After 5 years or so of ownership though the wife insisted we needed new (well, newer anyway) so we bought a '92 525iA, nice car but kind of boring, without the soul of the older model. Sold the 528 to a friend, whose daughter wrecked it a year later. I was sad.
I do love my gen 2 Golf, a Sahara-Beige '85 3 dr. with the 1.8L gas motor and 5 spd. I bought it new and still have it, running as sweet as ever. Ran it as my business motor as a courier, it's got over 818,000 miles on it. It's not a great car, but it's simple, easy to work on, cheap to run, most important, quite fun to drive. I bumped up the suspension to GTI specs with Konis, and added a GTI close-ratio gearbox and 4 whl disk brakes. Simple and fun!
My worst car was a '74 Chevy Vega (super tech Aluminum block, POS otherwise.) Worst family car (my Dad's) was a ~'80 Chevette, man that was such a god-awful piece of crap. My Dad stubbornly kept that car for at least 5 or 6 years, he's some kind of nutter masochist if you ask me!
Err, come to think of it, I had my Vega for a similar length of time . . . hmmmmmmm, I guess I didn't fall too far from the tree. 
dan k
Of all the stupid things I've done over the years, dumping that car is the one I regret the most. Though, the trx tires were due for replacement too. Tampa wasn't a terribly friendly place for me at the time.
I still look through eBay wistfully, praying that my fiancee will let me buy one. If it sits for six months in my yard, that's ok. I'll spend that time fixing it up. One of these days, another bronzit-beige late production e28 (86-88) 535iA will come my way. If anyone knows of one of these that will be available in western PA, let me know.
-iantm
well the favorite car i have driven is either my subaru forester XT, not the best looking, but very fast and practical or my mom's cadillac SRX, it has the most solid handling of any car that size, although not much power, but the looks make up for it.
car i love to hate is the mustang gt convertible i had. It had many many problems, and just wasnt a very nice car to drive, and it was slower than the subaru. It was all looks.
Yeah, I know it was basically a glorified Omni 2 door, but that was a fun car. I bought it new in late '82, and it was pretty stripped down -- 4 speed, no AC, no power windows, just the basics -- but had the high output 2.2L 4 and some fat Goodyear Eagles. It was a blast to drive!
One car that I didn't care much for, but really can't complain about was an '87 Chevy Celebrity Wagon. We bought it 2 years old from a salesman with 60K on it, and drove it for five years with no major problems. I called it the refrigerator because it was more of an appliance than a car -- not much for character but it did its job.
One of my dream cars is to find a rare Shelby 87 GLHS. Ya know, a glorified Omni w/ Shelby suspension mods and a bunch of internal mods and turbo bolted onto the 2.2L 4 for a mean 175HP. Oh yeah!
I've owned 2 cars and driven 5.
Mid-90s Mazda 121s suck. No frills, carbied 1.3 engine, horrible space and shocking seats. That's my worst car, but...I gotta say, it handled excellently and made nice noises, despite being slow. Great fuel economy, too, and no issues apart from the time when the rear axle(I think that's what it was) snapped ALMOST in two(faulty past repair job at fault), which could have allowed both rear wheels to eject themselves at god knows what speed if not detected when it was. Creepy.
Best one, then, is what I have now- my '83 Volvo 240. Love it. Spending too much of my time restoring it now(despite the fact that it's in near-mint condition already:-p). I've wanted a Volvo my whole life, probably because they're all my mother ever used to own. So comfy, powerful, reliable and such an anti-statement. The Mazda went to my sister as soon as I found this one for sale.
Worst car I've ever driven is a 1991 model Holden/Isuzu Rodeo 4-door pickup. Raspy enough engine at low speed, and if you gave it the revs it needed for power(didn't wake up until 4000rpm), it made a noise and vibration so bad you thought it was committing suicide. Terrible interior, lots of inbuilt rattles. Bad gearbox. Poor interior space for such a big car. Barely any rustproofing. Whole car was ready to just give up when sold at only 250 000kms.
Second worst car I've driven(just a tad worse than the 121) is my mother's current 1989 Holden Apollo(aka, Toyota Camry). Seats so bad they should be illegal(back problems anyone?), OK legroom front and back, anemic carbureted(thanks, Holden) twin-cam engine, very very jerky automatic gearbox which, if not given enough juice off the line, will *not* let the car pick up speed in any gear. Really weird, because the car's not really THAT slow if you give it a good solid punt all the way to the speed limit. Excellent fuel economy, 750kms from a full tank(my 300cc larger Volvo engine returns 430 from a full tank) of 60 litres. Plus, the car has been well-maintained since new, and only ever had *one* person in it at any given time- so no abuse- but ALL the plastic which lines the interior seems to have been built specifically to rattle and vibrate. Annoying.
Tied with this car for second worst I've ever driven is a 1985 model Holden Commodore. Big thirsty 6 cyl is gutless as all hell. Flimsy build, inside and out. Horrible handling. Too much wind noise at highway speeds. Most unsafe car ever built in Australia, according to a news report a few months ago.
Anyone notice the pattern?
I remember seeing one of those back in 91 after my Chevette was totalled. However, I was warned ahead of time when at that dealership that mechanically it was falling apart so I didn't try it.
Yes, that was a sweet machine. I used to see a couple of them around town here, but haven't for a long, long time.
But I just checked eBay, and there is one for sale there! But, you'd have to haul it back from Great Britain.
Man, that's a nice looking car. Almost $1500 already, and the reserve is still unmet. I'd be happy to take that home (29k mi? Wow!) for anything less than $5000. Of course, getting it across the Atlantic would be tricky. I think I'd have to drive it half way across the continet though. Shipping it would save the miles, but it'd be a fun ride to go on.
I've heard about a local guy who runs either a couple GLH or GLHS on the drag strip in Topeka. I dunno how much is changed from stock, but they're still fast buggers for their day.
107HP? My Volvo would give that thing a right proper whoopin' on a drag strip.
Is it really only 107 or is that a typo? The stock Volvo does 140hp from an 8-valve pushrod 2.3 litre 4, so I can't see why a hotted-up 2.2 would be so much less powerful.
That's a typo. Stock rating for the GLHS (intercooled turbo) was 175hp. That combined with curb weight under 2300lbs, and the thing really cooks! I doubt your Volvo would stand a chance going head to head on a drag strip, but you'd really lose out on a road course.
I could have sworn the B230F was a SOHC motor with a horsepower rating of 114 hp. I know the B230FT (turbocharged) put out somewhere between 170-200hp. I had an intercooled 745 turbo for a few months. What a fun ride.
- iantm
No, mine is a B23E, Australian-spec. K-jetronic fuel injection and twin cat. converters, runs only on premium unleaded and does 196Nm @ 4500rpm and 100kW/140hp at 5500rpm. Redline is at a freakin' incredible 7000rpm. Same engine as the 740 Turbo- the 740T only put out 15 more kilowatts and 25% more torque. Well... over here, anyway. Don't know what Volvo did with American cars.
And yeah, I kinda knew deep down that the 107hp thing was a typo, but for a few seconds it was pretty darn amusing.
Ah, that explains it. I was going by U.S. specs for the B230f. I had a couple of volvo 740 wagons, one a 1986 745 ti and a 1990 745 gl. The 740 GL was the most boring car I've ever owned, also the most reliable. I remember smoking civics and neons with my 745 turbo. It was fun, though the best part was seeing the looks on their driver's faces when they'd just been smoked by a volvo station wagon.
-iantm