Why Do We Love and Hate the Cars We Do? Passed Down or Self Inspired?

hauntedtexan

hauntedtexan

Member
Location
Central TX
When I was a little kid, my dad and grandpa and I would have a contest on who could be the 1st to identify the car that was driving towards us. That was the beginning of my automotive passions.
Most of us have developed a love-hate relationship with certain types and styles of vehicle. Have restored everything from a '53 Cadillac Cope De Ville to a '69 Nova SS for shows, it seems I have constantly changed my rides. Over the years, 3-280Z's, a '70 Porsche 914-6, an '87 RX7 Turbo, a Mercedes SL500, and my newest 2012 Altima 3.5SR Coupe, have led me to a favorite, the high powered sports coupes. Now that is settled, right?....
But also, certain anger has steered me away for a few, like Chevrolet and their recall failures while I owned a show condition 2001 Monte Carlo SS. They plugged the hole in the ignition key instead of replacing a life ending faulty ignition switch so nothing, not even the key fob, can attach to the key.. So stupid, and disrespectful to owners, in my opinion. So I will never again own a Chevy.
What is your automotive passion, how did you get there, and what won't you even ride in....
 

No real passion about transportation.

A little frustration but certainly no passion!

My first car was a used 1970 Ford Torino that I bought for $500.00. That car always seemed to know when I had a few extra bucks and would immediately break down, the repair always seemed to cost $125.00. I fixed one thing after another, finally I just gave up and sold it off the front lawn. The kid I sold it to drove it trouble free for over two years, go figure!

The rest have all been Chevrolet products and I have been very pleased with all of them, some of the dealers not so much!!!
 
My uncle in Ohio was some kind of big wheel with GM at the plant in Lordstown, so when I graduated from college he hooked me up with my first engineering job. I worked in the Vega engineering area. I was always a GM man, but the Vega was almost as bad as the Ford Pinto. It died a very slow death. I only stayed there 4 months before getting a job at DuPont before going to flight school and becoming an airline pilot.

Over the years, I really enjoyed owning all of the cars from the GM family. My first car while in high school was a 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. One of the most beautiful cars of its time, except mine.
 

hauntedtexan said:
When I was a little kid, my dad and grandpa and I would have a contest on who could be the 1st to identify the car that was driving towards us. That was the beginning of my automotive passions.
Most of us have developed a love-hate relationship with certain types and styles of vehicle. Have restored everything from a '53 Cadillac Cope De Ville to a '69 Nova SS for shows, it seems I have constantly changed my rides. Over the years, 3-280Z's, a '70 Porsche 914-6, an '87 RX7 Turbo, a Mercedes SL500, and my newest 2012 Altima 3.5SR Coupe, have led me to a favorite, the high powered sports coupes. Now that is settled, right?....
But also, certain anger has steered me away for a few, like Chevrolet and their recall failures while I owned a show condition 2001 Monte Carlo SS. They plugged the hole in the ignition key instead of replacing a life ending faulty ignition switch so nothing, not even the key fob, can attach to the key.. So stupid, and disrespectful to owners, in my opinion. So I will never again own a Chevy.
What is your automotive passion, how did you get there, and what won't you even ride in....
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That brings back pleasant memories. My son would be able to identify cars in front of us. He was about 10 years old. He always got them right. I asked him how he did that and he said by the taillights. Always consistent.

Right now I have a Nissan Sentra. A 1998. It doesn't owe me a thing. Starts in the extremely cold weather we have in Northwestern Ontario and the repairs are minimal.
 
Camper6 said:
That brings back pleasant memories. My son would be able to identify cars in front of us. He was about 10 years old. He always got them right. I asked him how he did that and he said by the taillights. Always consistent.
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Years ago, cars had "personality", and most people could tell at a glance what make/model they were. Now, you almost have to find the nameplate to tell what they are. Plus, it seems that most manufacturers are placing more emphasis on WiFi, Bluetooth, and "connectivity" than on reliability, handling, power and fuel mileage. If I were rich, I'd almost be tempted to find a car from the 60's, and have it fully restored for a daily driver....something like a Plymouth Road Runner.
 
Passed down. For years my father said Ford vehicles were no good, only bought GM. After too many problems with GM vehicles in the 70's, he finally bought a Ford. He did a 180 and swore by Fords then. I have inherited his Ford pickup. It's been a great vehicle so far---21 years old. Will look first for a Ford next purchase. Ha!
 
Don M. said:
Years ago, cars had "personality", and most people could tell at a glance what make/model they were. Now, you almost have to find the nameplate to tell what they are. Plus, it seems that most manufacturers are placing more emphasis on WiFi, Bluetooth, and "connectivity" than on reliability, handling, power and fuel mileage. If I were rich, I'd almost be tempted to find a car from the 60's, and have it fully restored for a daily driver....something like a Plymouth Road Runner.
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Agreed. We inherited a 1970 Mercedes 220D in the 1980's. It was a bucket of rust, but dammit! it was a Mercedes. When you slammed the door (if it didn't fall off) you knew it was a Mercedes door that was slammed. THUNK! It wasn't sleek or aerodynamic, but dammit! it was a Mercedes and it didn't need to impress anyone. Now you see a Mercedes and you could mistake it for a Corolla if it went by fast enough. I liked it back when a luxury car looked and sounded like a luxury car. Not that it makes any difference.......I'll never be able to afford a luxury car again.

What I would give my left kidney for is a '55 or '56 Bel Air in red and crème. If the Bel Air fairy is in a good mood, she could make it a convertible.

A Pinto was the first new car I ever owned. We put $100 down and financed $1750. Drove the car for 36 months and never had to replace a thing on it. I guess we were lucky it didn't explode but it was a sweet car. Then we traded it in on an AMC Matador station wagon and the honeymoon was over. It was the original "lemon car".....it was in the garage more than we drove it. We actually had to go to arbitration over it.
 
I've loved cars since the first time I saw the magnificent, brand-new, just-released, Jaguar XKE sportscar. What a beauty! Still to me the finest looking automotive design in history.

Nobody else in my family has any real interest in cars. I don't have enough money to indulge in the cars I love most, so I just define certain parameters and go from there.

We have had Honda, Acura, Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai. Currently have a Hyundai SUV and a Ford Fusion sedan. Planning on replacing both this year, leaning towards the 2017 Ford Edge Sport SUV. Twin-turbo V6 with 315 hp, and I finally found a good dealer with a solid repair department. Of course, it would be in the next city over, but if it's not rush hour it's less than 20 min away.

No interest in classic cars. Beautiful but few of them were good "driving cars". I prefer top-of-the-line safety features (including lane control, emergency braking, rear and side camera views), good handling, ABS brakes with traction control.

We were in an accident almost 20 yrs ago. The steering wheel air bag broke my arm but that was the only injury. This was at high freeway speeds; both the handling and braking on our car prevented a more serious accident. The other car was an older model w/o airbags, and the driver ended up with four busted ribs from slamming into her steering wheel.
 
I've had an interest in cars since I was a teenager, and I think my father was the spark. He was 22 years older than my mom, born in 1898, and I loved the stories he told of the cars he owned through the years. He was a caddy for professional golfers when he was a teenager, and one of the pros had a 1913 Stutz Bearcat. He apparently liked to race it around and kept getting in trouble, so he got fed up with it and sold it to my dad for $400....pretty exciting stuff for a 15 year old kid!

My first car, in 1970, was a 1931 Ford Model A Towne Sedan that my dad helped me buy. I think it was as much for him as it was for me :) I learned to do repairs on that car, and it was my daily driver for 3 years. But it needed restoring and I didn't have the money for that, so I eventually sold it. I moved on to a 1960 Ford Sunliner convertible (wish I still had that one!), a 1949 Willys, a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, a 1948 Packard.....the list goes on. In 1975 I bought a mint condition '54 Chevy Bel Air from the original owner for $600, and I still have it, and drive it throughout the summer.
 
I've always got used cars but the worst used cars I got with the least amount of miles on them were Fords. People would tell me that FORD stands for F ix Or Repair Daily and it was practically that with the ones I owned. I had a Pontiac Grand Am that needed repairs every month; I was always broke because of that car. I have had a Chrysler Concorde now for over 8 years and did not have but 1 repair for about 5 years and it had 143,000 miles when I bought it. Usually I would never get a car with that many miles but the body was in mint condition and my friend told me they last up to 250,000 miles. The past 2 years I have put about $1000.00 into it in repairs. It's cheaper than a car payment though and it runs good at 160,000 miles. I've also had a Plymouth Acclaim that ran really well with no problems until someone hit me head on and totalled it and me..:distrust:
 
Pappy said:
When the wife and I were both working, we always had a big Buick. Loved the ride and style of the older Buick. Rivera, Electra 225 and more. Now that we are on a fixed income, we downsized to a 4 cyl. Kia Sportage.
Always loved my 1950s Fords, too. Crown Victoria was a gorgeous car.
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Buick Riviera. A classy vehicle. My friend still has one. Leather seats. Comfort drive for sure. My friend had a Crown Victoria also a classy car. I think it's still a rear view drive and the police still use them .
 

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