I've always had a thing for wagons. Have had a few 62-65 Chevy II (nova) wagons. Those were cool. At one point though, I have to admit, I owned a 74 Ford Pinto Wagon. Like the one pictured here, but in WAY worse shape. We used to go beat around in it, out in fields for something fun to do..... Damn, that thing was a POS.
I owned a 96 Ford Taurus that wasn't exactly ugly, but let's just say that the car just REALLY didn't want to have a head gasket. What a piece of shit.
Dad let me drive an old Nissan 80's model, may have been a yellow Stanza..... IDK. But man it was butt ugly. Had my learner's permit, but it was on the property where I worked in his machine shop,.... So I tooled around in it, alone, doing burnouts into gravel, again and again. Good metaphor my my life in general....
Used to call it the Bang Bus. It was actually fun to drive though but a little slow. Had problems with it and VW engineers suck with the engine layout. Parents just gave it to me after I totaled my Accord shortly after I graduated. I could get wasted at a bar and just sleep in the back until I sobered up, which I did. Had a sleeping bag and pillow and everything. Had a system in that thing too, shit was bumpin' yo.
My first car was a crap-brown 1980 Honda Civic hatchback that I bought in 1997. It had virtually no suspension, so I bottomed out constantly while entering parking lots, which I presume was what led to the exhaust leak. Clutch was shot, so I basically had to floor it to get it out of first. Also had no air conditioning and a problem radiator, which occasionally led to me having to blast myself with outside air while in rush hour traffic to prevent it from overheating on hot summer days. Plus, the paint was peeling, ceiling fabric was stained and detaching, and the seats had several tears in the upholstery. I miss that car.
It didn't want you to keep driving it and have to put thousands of dollars into the transmission. It was looking out for you. I had a 78 Pontiac Grand Prix that a previous owner painted bright orange and blacked out the wheels, mirrors and windows etc... It had a 283 4 barrel with a huge cam and stock converter and freeway gears. It couldn't spin a tire in the rain. From 65 to 80 it was pretty fast in second gear but as soon as it hit third it would fall on its face. The 283 came out of the prior owners 50s Chevy pickup with a granny gear and steep rear end gears so it would actually have been ok in the truck.
Damn. You reminded me of the black 90's Taurus Wagon I had. (I've had MANY POS beaters over the years-Lol) Head gaskets, fuel pumps, and front brakes. Over, and over....
I couldn't be happier with my current car. I bought it for 500 bucks in Florida on September 7th and drove it all the way to Portland with no issues. It sure beat buying a plane ticket. 98 Civic for the win...haha
Toss up between the '64 Chevy Corvair and the '71 Pinto. I have to give the nod to the Ford, though. I mean, how many cars have you driven where the stick comes off in your hand when you are shifting?
I had a 1969 Citroen Ami 6 Break, looked a bit like the following: I bought it for $30 (rescued it from an airport where it was abandoned) and worked on it. I do not think I ever drove it for more than 15 miles without having to stop somewhere and fix somewhere. After about 6 months when I used to arrive late to classes at college with greasy black hands - I decided that it was cheaper and faster to just use public transportation.
It really depends on the car and the engine. Alloy engines usually twist more when they get hot - so it is important to re-torque the head occasionally to eliminate this issue (more of an issue with older cars). Some engines have issues with gasket design or material. Subarus have had these issues quite a bit in the past (I no longer own Subarus so I do not know how their newer cars fair) - and I think it is a combination of gasket material and the design of the engine (boxer) which gives you more gasket area that can go wrong. I had 4 Subarus - 1 blew an engine because of a head-gasket failure that lead to oil leak combined with Subaru deciding not to have an oil warning light on that particular machine - and unfortunately, I was away on business and my wife did not check the oil when I was away. One other Subaru I had - had the same issue, but I did check on it - and caught it before it failed.
Don't feel bad that you didn't. I did it as a profession, and my body is paying for it now.... Normally. Some, like the Taurus, will blow if you look at it wrong. Geeze, and Bodyman was right on the money about those transmissions..... Lol You guys are getting me to feel not so bad about that Pinto! A Citroen??? Well, no, that Pinto was junk.... Like Pres said, if it had a thumpin stereo, it didn't matter tho....
Dude, it was $30 - and I probably missed lunch for a week to afford it at the time. Funny thing, I would love to have one now (or better yet, the even uglier Berline) as a play thing... Just look at that rear window... To make it clear, the Ami 6 is basically a Citroen 2CV, 603cc 2 cylinder engine with less than 30HP - Citroen decided that the 2CV was too pretty so they came out with this thing..
My first car...cost 300 dollars..when everybody had muscle cars in high school, I went the opposite direction, nobody would steal one of these
Lol. Yeah, and I bet it'd be worth some money now too. Really, kinda cool looking, in an odd way. Closest thing I've touched would be a Renault Fuego. Geeze, that was a money pit. Glad I didn't own it....
My wife had a Fiatt Regatta overseas her brother gave her...worst car ever...giant trunk...no turning radius...absolutely no chance of making a U-turn in this baby and it was breaking all the time...could carry a ton of luggage though
