Cars I have owned.....

[CARBIZ]

Well, now that I have licked this uploading problem and managed to scan all 2,000 or so photos that are the sum of my life before I left Canada, I can post pics of the cars I have owned. There is one vehicle missing and that is a '87 K-Car that I bought in 2000 for $300 from a customer (it only had 50,000 miles on it and it was absolutely pristine), spent $500 getting it 'safetied,' but it was rear-ended 3 months later by a chick in an Audi (the Audi had to be towed; I drove the K-car for another week before the adjuster came to 'write it off:' he gave me $2k for it!)

Okay, she wasn't the prettiest, but she cost me $50 and a pair of speakers that my buddy wanted. This (then) 12 year old Dodge Polara had 99k miles on it and I drove it faithfully for a year, before selling it for $500. Sadly, it was involved in a hit&run accident about 4 months later. I know this because the cops banged on my step-father's door at 1 a.m. - that's how up to date the police computers were back in 1980.

My first 'new' car, although it was an '82, bought in May '83. I hated the color, hated the fact it was a 4 spd stick (not the 5 spd I wanted), but it was a 'deal' I got through my aunt who worked at a Dodge dealer. Hmm, looking back, I wonder if she knew what a deal was? I sold this one to my BF at the time when I leased my next car. Said BF rolled the little trucklet about 6 months later. Cars just don't seem to survive after me.

The first new car that I bought because I wanted it, not because I could 'afford it.' It was leased - thank God. This is the vehicle that killed Chrysler for me. I can't even begin to list the troubles I had: 2 head gaskets, rack & pinion steering went, 2 water pumps....and so on. But, it was the '80s. At least the floor didn't rot out like my ex's '81 Tercel. I racked up about 75,000 miles on this car, though. I had a lot of memories.

This was my favorite beasty: anyone who says they don't like wagons, never saw this car. I factory ordered this in Jan '91: the wagon versions of thise new model weren't even out yet. No test drive. A friend of mine had the sedan anyway and I loved it. The 5.0 litre was a tough soldier. It pulled my boat to Florida and all over Ontario. I had 8" bazookas put in the floor space behind the 3rd row, run by a 200W amp, I had the windows blacked out, put American Racing wheels on it and toyed with the idea of dropping a 5.7 Corvette engine into it that the local dealer offered. (I was worried about towing, though) A great car. I put 2 starters (?), a condenser on the a/c, new shocks and there was a recall from Goodyear for an automatic transmission hose - but that was it for 150,000 miles of very tough driving. She went to Vancouver and back, Florida twice (once with a 3,000 boat/trailer behind me) and countless trips with the boat (and my later, bigger one) all over Ontario.

Alas, in Nov. '97, this happened to her:

Black ice on an expressway at night is a bad thing. Red book offered me $7,400 or the insurance company would fix it. Are you kidding? As much as I loved the beast, it was 6 years old, had 240k km on it and was maybe worth $2,500 on a trade - less with this kind of an accident on her record! Take the money and run.

This was the replacement. I wanted a pickup, but the BF at the time argued that the dog would not go in the box of the truck, so $10,000 more later, we got a Blazer. It didn't tow as nice as the Caprice, but launch ramps were easier with the 4WD and the higher ground clearance.

Various company demos followed the Blazer's 3 year lease, but then I tired of manager's screaming at me for the dog hair in my cars, so I bought this:

Now, there will be groans from the peanut gallery about it's 'not a real car,' etc., but the HHR had ugly as hell seats in '07 unless I upgraded to leather, the boat is long gone (no time for it in the car business - days off what's that?), the Vibe was $50 a month more, had no sun roof and was just as gutless - so, what the hell! In 15,000 miles of driving, this little Daewoo has NOT HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM. There was a silly recall on a seatbelt clip or something. Who cares. I would have bought an Impala, but dog hair is still a problem and a hatch was a priority. With the kind of driving we were doing, it made no sense to buy a Silverado or anything bigger: we fly where ever we travel to now. So much more civilized.

Now, she sits in the garage in my place in Toronto, awaiting a return that may or may not ever happen.

If we stay here, I am eyeing either the Montana (cute trucklet) or the Crossfox, which (sadly) is a VW. The BF likes Fiat, but I will never own one of those.

[Camino LS6]

Love the wagon.

[Intrepidation]

Neat collection of cars you've had Carbiz. My favorite is the Polara, followed by my soft spot for Shadows and then the wagon. The Rampage is neat but that style front end wasn't pretty.

[ocnblu]

I wish I had pictures of all my vehicles. Nice!

[Camino LS6]

I wish I had pictures of all my vehicles. Nice!

Me too.

I have pics of many of them, but not all.

[daves87rs]

Very cool!

I have pics of mine, need to get the rest off the dead computer....