OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - Your big mistake

Buying a Cobalt instead of a Solstice or Sky when I was young and didn't have any family or money obligations. Now I'm going to have to wait until my mid life crisis. 

At least my fiance has already approved of a Viper when that happens.

I had a girlfriend who hated my beater Volvo 164 (great car, except the roof leaked and the floor boards rusted through, etc.).  She cajoled me into buying a Pugeot 504 without having a mechanic check it out.  Needed a head gasket, and much more, so I doubt I got 50 miles out of the thing.

So yeah - that was a mistake!

Right before gas went into the $4/gal + range. Couldn't give that thing away for about 2 years.

Awesome truck though. My favorite one I've owned so far.

Easy one for me.  Was in the process of getting back with an ex-girlfriend (mistake #1) and met her and some friends out to play pool.  Drank waaaay too much (mistake #2) and decided to drive home. (Mistake #3).  Got all the way back to her appt. complex and decided to show boat in my souped up Eagle Talon (Nothing crazy, but would run high 13's low 14's depending on the day, so fast enough to get you in a bit of trouble).  Not sure what happened but completely lost control of the car, sent a fire hydrant flying and crashed into a tree. (Mistake #4).  Spent the night in the Troy PD with a bunch of passed out drunks in a tiny cell.  Completely totalled my car and tore my ACL in the process.  Luckily, the most harm I caused was to myself and my car.  No one else injured.  Needless to say, I changed my perspective on drinking and driving after that.  So morale of the story? Get a cab and save yourself the trouble.

Fun, but very unreliable, little hatchback that VW sold for a handful of years in the early 90's. Becuase they didn't make many of these cars, parts were hard to find and expensive. 

Found it for sale in 1997 on the Corrado Club of America website.  It was in Boston, I was in Philly.  I had to go up to Boston for work, so one night I drove to the Boston burbs and saw the car.  Gave the guy a deposit and told him I'd be back the next weekend to pick it up.  Never had a mechanic check it out...lesson learned.

I paid $12,500 for the car.  Over the course of 10 months of ownership I made $2,500 of payments on the loan, put another $2,500 into the car for maintenance.  Ultimately, I decided I just couldn't afford to keep the car, so managed to find a buyer who amazingly paid $12,000.  After I sold the car, but before the buyer picked it up, the fuel pump failed, so I had to replace that.  Day after the sale was final, I got a call from the buyer asking if there was a trick to starting the car becuase they were unable to get it to turn over.  

That maintenance experience scarred me and I went as bland as possible for my car.  I leased 1998 Toyota Corolla.  It was boring, but gave me 0 issues over three years.

The first car I bought was also the first car I owned with front wheel drive: a Mercury LN7.  Ok, it was a Ford Escort mascarading as a sports car, but it's what I could afford.  So, I'm driving this car in the snow for the first time and it seems to be tracking along quite well, inspiring confidence.  I turn to the left and the car keeps going straight...right into a curb.  I had the wheels turned at the time, so the right front wheel broadsides into the curb.  The suspension gets bent pretty bad.  I later learned that the frame got bent, too.  I kept the car a few more years, but it was never the same.  It chewed up front right tires every 10,000 miles.

I became a devotee of snow tires after that incident.

Bought the Pantera new and it was in the shop about 10 of the next 13 months until I could finally sell it (even then, I had to duct tape a hose shortly before the guy who bought it showed up for the test drive).  Sold my M3 convertible when my youngest daughter was about to turn 4 so that we could have a more family friendly car, but it was a great and very fun car that I should have kept forever.

back in the day. I swear that car was put together with tape and gum.  The drive train actually fell out of the car one day at a stop sign.  Seems alll I did was put money into that car to keep it running.

I once drank two pitchers of beer and got in a car. The good news is, I wasn't driving; my friend drove me home. The bad news is, he had three pitchers of beer.  Easily the dumbest thing I've ever done involving a car.

The next morning he called me up and told me he'd gotten in a fender bender that morning while getting breakfast.  Lucky that didn't happen last night, I said.  Yup, he said.  Later on he admitted that was a fib - he actually had gotten in a fender bender that night, after dropping me off, and how he got out of a DUI, I still don't remember.

It wasn't me doing the drinking and driving, but you might as well smack me in the face anyway for being complicit.  Lesson definitely learned.

Never a really bad experience. There was that 1981 Eagle Wagon but it was a blacked out 4x4 so while it was the not the best I would not call it a bust. This is like it but mine was black.

I've driven trucks and fun cars most of my life but more trucks than anything. I love trucks but not the monster full sized trucks. I have had:

Mid '60's 3/4 ton Chevy - trusty and rusty - my first car

Early 70's Datsun pickup - tight as hell inside but fun to drive in anything but snow. Rusty, unlike this one

Late 1980's Jeep Comanche Eliminator - great size fast truck, maybe my favorite. This was exactly like mine except I peeled off the eliminator sticker

90's Dodge Dakota - meh

90's Chevy S10 - 6 cyl but still handled like shit. Felt like a land yacht. Worst pickup of the bunch

90's Silverado - ok

2005 Chevy Colorado crew cab 4x4 - drove it for 10 years, nice size performed well, not fast but it was one of the nicer trucks I have owned.

2015 Silverado extended cab 4x4 - Waaay to big. Nice driving experience but it is like driving a bus. $6k prepaid 2 year lease that is coming due.

I am in the market for a new truck and would kill for the new Jeep

or

Huyandi Santa Cruz any of the other small pickup

The Chevy Colorado's are okay but push $30k

It's hard to choose just one.

My first car was a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.  I basically abandoned it (for reasons too personal and complicated to get into here) after owning it for a few years.  I think it only had about 65k on it at the time.

I bought a used 1998 Jaguar XJ8. That had over 100k on it.  I owned it for a few years and spent more on fixing it than I paid for it (a fucking transmission should not crap out at 125K).  I eventually dumped it on some poor sap for about $2,500.  I still miss this car though.  It was sexy as hell and awesome to drive when it was running.

I leased a loaded 99 Mazda Miata and turned it in WAY under the mileage.  I should have bought the car at the end of the lease.

I sold my 76 Torino when gas hit about $4 per gallon.  It had a Lincoln 460 V8 crammed into it and was fast as hell, while getting about 6 MPG.

So back when gas prices surged over $4/gal for regular (somewhere around 2011) I had a nice 2003 3.0 liter V6 sedan and thought that maybe it was time to upgrade to a hybrid. Was looking for something around $30-40k. A nice luxury hybrid vehicle. So i went around car shopping for a few months. Did all my research and comparisons. And after about 6 months of shopping around seeing all these cars, gas prices dropped big time and was back to normal around $2 and change or something. The shopping continued because i was already in too deep. What did I end up with? A fully loaded 2011 Jaguar XJ Supercharged (5.0L V8 engine).

Now, to be clear, I absolutely loved this car when it came out. And still do. Very happy i bougtht it. Always catches my eye on the road even though I am in one myself. So I guess it isn't really a mistake but the mistake was looking for a car around $30k and not successfuly getting even close to that.

Car buyer beware, once you go from 30k and talk yourself to 35k, you'll later talk yourself to 40k then from 40k to 45k, and on and on etc..