i was planning on giving my daughters each one of these to take to college (actually, one for college, one for high school and then college)...want to get them reliable cars that will last awhile...that way i don't have to buy them any more...sort of, "there you go girls, have fun, be safe and i am never buying you another car again, so take care of it"
my eldest right now has a 1990 acura legend...we hope it lasts her till she is out of high school...we told her she could get a new car for graduation...
now the younger daughter is starting drivers ed and wants a car also...dang those kids...we are rethinking the used car angle and will likely just get them nice cars, one time only
g
That's great.
I think the Legend should be a reliable car. The Mazda 3s should be a good car for both city and highway. I haven't tested drive it.. so I have no comment on the real performance and interior design. It looks good on paper anyway.
80's hotrod. . . there weren't really too many of these. The japs hadn't yet gotten into their forced induction frenzy, and many of the American manufacturers were playing with V6s. On that note, the Buick Grand National is a unique and interesting beast. Some of the Camaro/Firebirds from the 80's had some engine to them, but they're slow by today's standards. The late 80's mustangs are humorously called the "five dot slows." They do take well to modifications though.
Anyway, you CAN get an 80's porsche for a good price, but you have to be willing to do your own work to/on it. And porsche's are always kind of cool, albeit in a very, very German way.
Quote:
Originally posted by thegelding
my eldest right now has a 1990 acura legend...we hope it lasts her till she is out of high school...we told her she could get a new car for graduation...
now the younger daughter is starting drivers ed and wants a car also...dang those kids...we are rethinking the used car angle and will likely just get them nice cars, one time only
The 1990 Legend. . . had some fun times in one of those. It has that very distinctive slippery-yet-tight Japanese feel to it. The parents on one of my high school friends had an Audi and a 91 Legend. One weekend when they weren't around we borrowed the Audi and practiced power-sliding around the neighborhood, which was in this case the very quiet neighboorhood known as Potomac Falls. The next weekend we took out the Legend for a speed trial down a secret road we liked to road-blast on. (Hint quagmire. . . it's a hidden road that goes from Bradley blvd to Democracy). That thing was seriously loose, but so much more fun than the Audi at the same time. In the end we managed to take down this guy's mailbox, and spent the rest of the weekend repairing it.
Back on topic: If you're buying teenage girls new cars, make damn sure to get them manual transmissions. That way, the period where they tend to crash them is spent learning how to drive instead. Trust me on this one: I have a sister with friends. She's 19 now, but I remember all the stories about her friends smashing up SUVs and the like. I think the only one with a clean history, including my sister, is the one with the Mitsu Eclipse Turbo 5spd.
My first car was a honda civic I think 81? I was twelve years old (this was in 92') and I told my dad I wanted it to buy it with money I was saving little did I know it had like 300,000 miles, the recent hailstorm caused the glass to rip the interior to shreds so the seats were removed just springs, and there was no dash. But hey I was the only 12 year old with a car, so my dad showed me some things, and we towed to the abandoned airforce base, and he let me drive it, yeah it aproximately made about 5 miles before it through a rod... but in that 5 miles I ran over a prarie dog... the first thing i ever ran over, I felt so sorry for the thing. Ahh fun in desolate, melancholy west texas. I'm actually starting to miss that state of mind...
My first car was a 1979 Honda Accord. I had just got back from a good season working on a fishing boat in Alaska and I was tired of biking around Seattle while going to school there and not having a car to go outside the city. I paid $6000 cash (in those days the Accord was not the semi-luxury car it is now). It was kinda funny because the salesman kept asking if I needed a loan or needed a parent to cosign. I said no and wrote him a check. I thought he would want to let the check clear or something, but he let me drive off with the car.
This car is even still on the road. My mother sold it to a friend of my sisters when I was on one of my long trips out of the country and she is still driving the beast!
That was the last brand new car I have ever bought. These days I usually just buy some old beater for a $1000 or so and run it until it dies. I spend to much time out at sea or out of the country to waste money on something that would just sit around for months at a time.
I was fortunate to have a father that was in upper management at Ford. We had two new company lease cars every year, so I until I was 23 (when he retired in 1990), I was able to drive a new car at minimal cost--usually Escorts or Mercury Tracers (the Mazda 323 variant).
When that gravy train ended, the first car that I owned was a 4-door 1983 Saab Turbo. A bit dented, a bit rusted, and I had to really baby the rebuilt turbo, but I loved that car.
After two years, when that became too expensive to maintain, I bought a 1989 Ford Festiva LX (made by Kia--a Mazda 121 variant).
My first was an '81 Datsun 310GX. Sounds like a sports car eh? It wasn't... looks a lot like that brown hatchback compact in Podmate's Photo. I think it had 90,000 and I paid about $2000 for it back in 1986!
One my favs old cars I owned was the only one I'd ever been given as a gift. My mom and step-dad gave me the '64 Nova when I left to go to college at KU in 1993 or so. It was that 60's Teal color, 4-door, 3-on-the-tree transmision. The transmission was funky, I was used to downshifting in all my other cars when I was coming to a stop, but that thing wouldn't let you go back to first gear unless you were almost completely stopped. Probably the most unsafe car I've ever owned. It did have waist-belts but the dash was all metal, so if you were ever in a wreck all those belts do is snap your forehead onto somethink akin to an anvil. It was a cool car though, mint, all stock, and 67,000 miles when I got it (my step dad bought it from an old lady!). Alas, it became the victim of accidents (none of which were my fault), once while moving, and twice while stationary. The two stationary accidents were because I had to park it on the street that was frequently used by drunk morons returning home from downtown bars. Being the poor college student that I was, I could never afford to repair it. After the 3rd one, it was totaled and undrivable. Drunk bastards. *sniff* I saved the Chevy badge from it though heh.
Another Datsun in da house. It was a 1978 Datsun 810 station wagon. My dad gave it to me my sophomore year in college, 1985. It was a good car. 3 liter, 6 cylinder engine with a 4 speed manual transmission.
Blue 73 MG Midget. I put over 250,000 miles on it before it started to have problems. I drove it across the US every summer when I was in college. It only broke down once on one of these trips. I spent 5 days in Sioux Falls South Dakota. 3rd gear teeth broke and they had to send to Minneapolis for parts. At least I got to experience my first tornado there.
Comments
Originally posted by thegelding
i was planning on giving my daughters each one of these to take to college (actually, one for college, one for high school and then college)...want to get them reliable cars that will last awhile...that way i don't have to buy them any more...sort of, "there you go girls, have fun, be safe and i am never buying you another car again, so take care of it"
my eldest right now has a 1990 acura legend...we hope it lasts her till she is out of high school...we told her she could get a new car for graduation...
now the younger daughter is starting drivers ed and wants a car also...dang those kids...we are rethinking the used car angle and will likely just get them nice cars, one time only
g
That's great.
I think the Legend should be a reliable car. The Mazda 3s should be a good car for both city and highway. I haven't tested drive it.. so I have no comment on the real performance and interior design. It looks good on paper anyway.
Originally posted by zodiac
I bet mine will be some 80's hotrod.
80's hotrod. . . there weren't really too many of these. The japs hadn't yet gotten into their forced induction frenzy, and many of the American manufacturers were playing with V6s. On that note, the Buick Grand National is a unique and interesting beast. Some of the Camaro/Firebirds from the 80's had some engine to them, but they're slow by today's standards. The late 80's mustangs are humorously called the "five dot slows." They do take well to modifications though.
Anyway, you CAN get an 80's porsche for a good price, but you have to be willing to do your own work to/on it. And porsche's are always kind of cool, albeit in a very, very German way.
Originally posted by thegelding
my eldest right now has a 1990 acura legend...we hope it lasts her till she is out of high school...we told her she could get a new car for graduation...
now the younger daughter is starting drivers ed and wants a car also...dang those kids...we are rethinking the used car angle and will likely just get them nice cars, one time only
The 1990 Legend. . . had some fun times in one of those. It has that very distinctive slippery-yet-tight Japanese feel to it. The parents on one of my high school friends had an Audi and a 91 Legend. One weekend when they weren't around we borrowed the Audi and practiced power-sliding around the neighborhood, which was in this case the very quiet neighboorhood known as Potomac Falls. The next weekend we took out the Legend for a speed trial down a secret road we liked to road-blast on. (Hint quagmire. . . it's a hidden road that goes from Bradley blvd to Democracy). That thing was seriously loose, but so much more fun than the Audi at the same time. In the end we managed to take down this guy's mailbox, and spent the rest of the weekend repairing it.
Back on topic: If you're buying teenage girls new cars, make damn sure to get them manual transmissions. That way, the period where they tend to crash them is spent learning how to drive instead. Trust me on this one: I have a sister with friends. She's 19 now, but I remember all the stories about her friends smashing up SUVs and the like. I think the only one with a clean history, including my sister, is the one with the Mitsu Eclipse Turbo 5spd.
I hear G.M. is eliminating Oldsmobile?
?and bringing in some Saab-badged Subarus (some impressively brilliant global management they have in Michigan to be sure)
Originally posted by Immanuel Goldstein
Second hand Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight from 1958, quite like this one, but all black.
I hear G.M. is eliminating Oldsmobile?
?and bringing in some Saab-badged Subarus (some impressively brilliant global management they have in Michigan to be sure)
Yep, Gm is geting rid of oldsmobile. They are making now there last 500 cars. No blood lost.
Now I've got a red 2003 Corolla.
This car is even still on the road. My mother sold it to a friend of my sisters when I was on one of my long trips out of the country and she is still driving the beast!
That was the last brand new car I have ever bought. These days I usually just buy some old beater for a $1000 or so and run it until it dies. I spend to much time out at sea or out of the country to waste money on something that would just sit around for months at a time.
When that gravy train ended, the first car that I owned was a 4-door 1983 Saab Turbo. A bit dented, a bit rusted, and I had to really baby the rebuilt turbo, but I loved that car.
After two years, when that became too expensive to maintain, I bought a 1989 Ford Festiva LX (made by Kia--a Mazda 121 variant).
One my favs old cars I owned was the only one I'd ever been given as a gift. My mom and step-dad gave me the '64 Nova when I left to go to college at KU in 1993 or so. It was that 60's Teal color, 4-door, 3-on-the-tree transmision. The transmission was funky, I was used to downshifting in all my other cars when I was coming to a stop, but that thing wouldn't let you go back to first gear unless you were almost completely stopped. Probably the most unsafe car I've ever owned. It did have waist-belts but the dash was all metal, so if you were ever in a wreck all those belts do is snap your forehead onto somethink akin to an anvil. It was a cool car though, mint, all stock, and 67,000 miles when I got it (my step dad bought it from an old lady!). Alas, it became the victim of accidents (none of which were my fault), once while moving, and twice while stationary. The two stationary accidents were because I had to park it on the street that was frequently used by drunk morons returning home from downtown bars. Being the poor college student that I was, I could never afford to repair it. After the 3rd one, it was totaled and undrivable. Drunk bastards. *sniff* I saved the Chevy badge from it though heh.
Originally posted by dmz
67 Beetle.
now why did i know that?
reg