OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - Best/Worst

I've had a lot of cars over the last 30 something years and I don't know if I've ever owned one that made me say "this is the best car I've ever owned ".

We had a couple early edition Expeditions that were nice to drive in the snow and when gas was under $2/gallon.

Minivans served their purpose when the kids were young.

Most recently, I've owned two Ford Fusions consecutively and I really like them abs at the same time two Chevy Equinox.

I haven't had a problem cat yet and all have served me well.

The worst car I owned was a Geo Storm. I have no idea why I bought that stupid thing.

Best Car - 2000 Camaro Z28

Worst vehicle purchase ever - 2006ish Heep of Jeep Liberty.  Had to hit a deer to get rid of that POS

vroom vroom errrrrrrr pffffttt vroooooooooom

My current one. 2012 Jaguar XF 5.0 litre. Fast as shit, sucks gas enormously (i actually like consuming large quantities of precious resources). I've put 80,000 miles on it already and have not had any problems with it. Worst car, my first car in 1979, a 1979 AMC Spirit with a 4 cylinder. It did 0-60 mph in about 4 days. Way underpowered, shitty transmission and the seats didn't recline for extracurricular activities.

Best - '96 GMC Sonoma.  Manual transmission, 4-wheel drive and no power anything.  That little SOB got me through college and my first couple of years afterwards with almost no trouble and an ability to own any snow covered road I cared to throw at it, along with a great carrying capacity for the frequent moves of a young Air Force pilot training student.  When I came back to the states from being stationed overseas for my MBA my parents let me borrow it for those two years in Ann Arbor and it was reliable as ever.  My parents still have it and drive it on their property in the middle of nowehre Nevada.  Dang thing has only gone in for major maintenance once and has always been reliable as hell.

Worst - '81 GMC Sierra,  my high school car.   When you started it in cold weather you had to let it run for ten minutes or so before you could take it out of park.  It was rusted everywhere and neither the stereo nor the climate control worked.  Add to that the pleather seats.  Price was right for $500, though.

A: a shtick.

I have never owned a car.

Best: '98 ZJ. Reliable. Tough. Simple. Loved that thing.

Worst: hard to say, I'm a car slut. But.... My '88 dynasty had a bunch of issues.

Best and worst car were same. First car of my own. 88 Camaro convertible. What a piece of crap but what fun was had in it as 17-19 year old Brown Bear.

Best: 1995 BMW M3 with a manual transmission.  Fast, reliable, and just amazing to drive.  I loved it so much it didn't even bother me that it was purple (or Daytona Violet according to BMW).   During the reception after my wedding, all of my groomsmen (total dicks, all of them) decorated that car with facepaint, condoms, vaseline, and God knows what else.  My wife sat and watched for a half hour as I frantically tried to clean it all off, in my tux, before we headed to our wedding night hotel.  Yes, I have issues. 

Worst: 2000 Audi A4.  Which leads me to this pos.  Three months after our wedding day, my wife hit a curb on a bridge going over a drainage ditch a half mile from our house and managed to flip the car over the side of the bridge and landed upside down in the mud (it was only a drop of about 5 feet...she was fine other than a cut on her nose from the airbag).  It was a beautiful little 1997 Audi A4 that I had decided wasn't worth full insurance coverage anymore.  Since it was a total loss we had to sell the M3 to buy two less expensive cars.  That's when I panicked and bought the 2000 A4 from a listing on Ebay.  I flew down to Miami to pick it up, took a taxi cab to a very bad neighborhood not far from the airport and should have just gotten back in the cab and flown home.  This "car lot" was enclosed in barbed wire and I'm sure selling shitty cars was only a small part of their business.  I took them 2 hours to find the car at the back of the lot and it had all kinds of problems. I was too scared of the owner to walk away from the transaction.  Thankfully I was able to trade it in for something else pretty quickly, but I hated that car every minute we had it, and kicked myself regularly for agreeing to buy it.  And yes, our cars always have full coverage now.

Best And Worst
1997 Jeep Wrangler--worst reliability even though owned and maintained. Best is current Porsche 911 GTS---fun and more fun.

Best and worst is the same, a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica.  Loaded, very comfortable to drive, great for long highway trips, hasn't had that many problems ... until lately.  Using coolant, finally found a leaky gasket but now the gremlins are back and it's running hot.  Also some defective paint is becoming an issue.

If I can't get it fixed it's going to be time to send it to the scrap heap.

Iceland draws Portugal!!!!

Best & Worst - 95 Eagle Talon which I've talked about a few times on here.  College car, spent all my money on go fast mods which bumped the HP from 210 to around 300.  Only bad part was, I spent more on fixin her up than I did on all the mods and eventually crashed her.  But probably due to the reason, she lives on fondly in my memory.  Made so many memories with her.. a shame she had to go out that way.

But, is it better to burn out than to fade away? With cars that you love, I'd say better to burn out than to fade away... it would've been a slow, painful death... so in some ways I'm grateful.

:56

Worst car: 2001 Porsche Carrera Cabriolet. The car was amazing to drive and was incredible during the summer. So, so, so many issues with that car out of warranty. Two flat tires, one replaced rim, one leaky rim, an overhauled engine, IMS bearing retrofit, broken central locking system, suspect a/c fan (complete with spewing foam bits), cracked windscreen, defective horn, and other various issues later, it was finally sold this spring. I loved that car. Best car: 2016 Maserati Ghibli S Q4. Growls like a wild animal. Handles well for a sedan. Has a warranty!!

Worst: 1988 VW Cabriolet. There was a hole somewhere in the bottom of the car and when it snowed, and the car sat in the snow, melted snow (water) would make its way into the hole and flood the entire floor of my car. And it wasn't that fun to drive.

 

Best: That's a tough one. Either my 1987 VW Scirocco 16V (very fun to drive, good stereo, I was young and single) or my first car, a 1978 Camaro Z-28. It was white with light blue stripes on the side, and my total dream car at the time.  

Best:  1986 300 ZX.  Wish I still had it.

Worst:  1968 Ford Galaxie 500.  Pig.

great car.  my oldest brother talked me into buying it.  sold it for another 4 x4 when we moved back home to northern  michigan, but if i had to buy a car, that'd be the one.

Best: 1990 Lincoln Town Car. Also my favorite car. It was so badass ......

Worst: 1988 Renault Medallion. Junk on wheels

I miss my '93 Chevy pickup, regular cab long box. Vinyl floors, so who gives a crap if something spills, 4:10 gears so it got 11 mpg no matter if you're cruising downhill on the highway or pulling an 8,000lb trailer, it was a heavy ¾ ton so the brakes never wore out, it rode AWESOME, and the bench seat made dating my wife a whole bunch more fun.

My husband had a soft spot for needy Chrysler Sebrings the same way some people bring home stray cats, so I suffered through a decade or more of regularly sitting by the side of the road waiting for the tow truck.  Ugh.  There are several vehicles vying for "worst".

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm no longer driving a Sebring, but I'd say the happiest a car has ever made me is the car I'm driving right now, which I bought from kansasblue (thanks, kansasblue!) and named Simon.  It's a nice little Mazda Protege5, with a GoBlue license plate frame,  And it's blue!   When I'm old and wealthy, I'll get myself a Koenigsegg Agera R.  But for now, I'm doing okay with Simon.

Are the same. 2009 M3 coupe. So much fun, but a dumb impulse buy that I can't seem to make myself get rid of. And I'd probably just buy another one 2 weeks later if I did get rid of it!

My 1999 Saturn sc2 also sucked quite a bit

Worst: was my first, 1980 Chevy Citation. 2 engines and a transmission later I bought a 1972 Chevy C20 truck. Best 1996 Lincoln Continental fast and comfy. Also love my 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4x4.

I've driven the following cars, some in my title and the others (clearly) in my parents' (and yeah, I was a spoiled boy):

Volvo station wagon - can't remember the model (mid-80's).  No complaints, but wasn't mine.

Mercedes-Benz 560SL (I think '85) - fun as hell to drive, too small for my lengthy body.  Parents'.

Taurus SHO ('91) - all mine...manual five-speed, just a great car.  Totalled it in '97 when I jumped a curb while changing CD's.  A few months later, a guy down in NC called me (found a business card of mine) asking if I had a spare key for it.  He bought it at a junk auction.

4runner ('97) - another fine vehicle.  Sold me on Toyota for life.  Traded in for...

Tundra Limited 4x4 (2007) - 200+K on it, and I plan having it for another ten years.

#blessed

Best: 1990 Buick Regal- It was my first car and I freaking loved it. Leather seats, unconventionally located outer door handles, and a DIGITAL display. Fond memories of driving in excess of 100 mph on back roads and ramming into shopping carts in parking lots with this beauty. I also got my first knob job in that car.

Worst: 2009 Chevy Silverado- It pains me to say it because I'm a Chevy guy (and I have only owned 4 vehicles), but it has had so many electrical issues. I was on my way to get donuts last month and it started completely losing power every second while I was driving. Locks, radio, complete power. Switched off and on until I was able to pull over. I thought the damn thing was possessed. It happend again the other day, but I was advised that unhooking the battery would alleviate the problem for awhile. My 2000 Silverado was a beast, though.

Including some with crazy stories (first car I bought had the miles on the odometer turned back and the seller ended up giving my money back and then bought my next car for me)

Best Car: 2013 Chevy Volt--Love, love, love this car. 95% of the time uses only electricity. Takes off like a rocket 0-30 mph. Used less than 100 gallons of gas in 3 years including several road trips. Has a ton of options and electronics. Pretty reliable, especially for a GM. One of the only cars I have bought coming off a lease and I got it for a steal.

Worst car: Tie

2003 VW Passat-- Horrible car. Brakes and rotors went bad at 13K miles. Seat heater burned a hole in my a$$. Dealer changed my oil, yet didn't add in any oil and engine nearly fried until my oil light came on.

1979 Dodge Omni 024. Car was so bad, the carburetor wasn't even bolted on to the car. 0-60 in two days. Junk extraordinaire.

good ones, bad ones, good for mileage, fancy, expensive, cutting of a rig to modify the monster 4wd tires you just put on, how much they change mileage, how much they change the odometer/speedometer reading if off-size tires are used, and what the heck is up with the donuts that some car makers call 'spares'?  

ben, maybe something in there for a topic? 

Idea for a future post: favorite road trips and the best cars to take them in. 

for best: 71 240z, 84 Carrera, 08 Wrangler Rubicon. Each had/s warts (rust, miniscule A/C vents and massive oversteer if not driven right, oil consumption and stupid plastic clips on transfer case linkage), all three a joy to drive and work on. Wish I had kept the first two. I also wish the diesel Wrangler had made it into the US market (same testing cost constraints). Worst: 04 BMW 530i with manual and sport package. Whatever software they had in the car (most likely for US market automatics), constrained power at 5000 rpm. You'd just start to really sink into the seat and boom, you're into your seatbelt, then back into your seat for the rest of the way up to redline (an exaggeration would be the Apollo 13 launch scene). It took them my full 4 years of ownership with constant reflashes to fix it. Was never happy with the car, especially for the price. Will never buy a BMW again.

This is something I do sometimes when I'm bored.

If you were a teenager with $3-4,000, what car would you buy right now and why?

The budget can be different, but this is roughly what I had for my first car in late 90s. You could also do same question with different budgets. Do you go for an old cheap sports car, a truck, a jeep, a van, why?. Manual vs auto. HIndsight is 20/20, so what would you get if you were a teenager now.