Lets Talk Cars! (Car guys)

[MediumMouthBass]

As the title says, lets talk cars, what cars did you have when you were younger? What ones were your favorite? If you can have any now what would it be? What are you driving now? Did the wife make you sell the Mustang for an Suv?

 

I really love cars, (not all cars) but anything performance, rare/limited edition, rally, muscle/sport, exotic, and super cars too.

Theres been a few SUV's and trucks too that ive liked as well. like the TRD Tacomas and Colorado Trail Bosses, but especially the Ram TRX.

From turbocharged 4 cylinders to supercharged v8's, and long as its not a v6 im happy😂. From the Japanese, to the Germans, to the American ones, whether they are rusted out 20 year Subaru's, or the newer Last Call Challengers (R.I.P.).

Cars have been a part of my life since i was a very young child, my family members were always working on something in their garages, and all had some nice classic muscle cars too,. Playing alot of car video games growing up and then getting my first car and spending countless hours working on it made me appreciate and enjoy cars even more.

Ive went on hundreds of test drives, talked to lots of really great people at different shops, dealerships, car shows, even social media groups too.

Met alot of really, really nice and great people along the way, and its not just driving them, working on them is just as fun.

Whether thats vinyl wrapping, detailing, changing the exhausts to something the neighbors hate, or working on the engines, it might be stressful sometimes, but atleast its a learning experience.

 

My current car is a Subaru Baja 2.5 with the turbo charger and detuned STI engine, sadly its an autotragic transmission.... Id love to get one in a manual one day. I know the Subaru's arent the best when it comes to headgaskets and turbos (mine had the engine and turbo need to be replaced so far) but just having something that was only made for 3 years, and a mini truck with Subaru emblem on it sure is cool.

 

Now im looking into getting either a 5.7 RT Dodge Challenger or a cammed SS Camaro with a 6 speed manual, ive been in so many different types of cars, and what ive learned is this. Theres no substitute for a rwd American V8 paired with a manual trans and a Borla catback.

The sound, the feel, the look, wow is it amazing.

Id really love a 1969/1970 Dodge Charger one day but for now one of the above will do.

 

It honestly breaks my heart that Dodge killed the Charger/Challengers this year, and that Chevy will soon do the same with the Camaro.

These were American icons, feared, loved, hated, and respected around the world, and just like that they threw them away to replace them with vehicles no one that cares about cars would ever want.... And from talking to quite alot of people, im not the only one that feels this.

 

But back to the point, what got you guys into cars? And whats your story with them?

[Chowderhead]

Will not be able recall details like @MediumMouthBass has, but a quick look/reflection of the vehicles I've had (or had in the family as my son's were getting vehicles that I helped towards):

 

1973 Chevy Nova (Hatchback) loved having this as my first car. So much fun to drive, tinker with, etc... Would love to have this one back now.

 

1979 Honda CVCC -- beat up hand-me down, but surprisingly fun to drive. 

 

Ford Tempo (1st car married life...)

 

Suzuki Swift (fun car again - wife driving Tempo)

 

1997 Ford Taurus (better married life car -- pretty fun, had decent look (at the time)

 

2002 Dodge Grand Caravan (yes, fully embraced the married life/kids on the way)

 

2011 Ford Expedition EL (family much larger and kids much bigger) - barely fit into our garage

 

BMW X5 (so much power and fun...when it wasn't broken down and in the shop. This was a complete money pit that I should have rid myself of much quicker than I did) BMW (BringMyWallet)

 

Chevy S-10 (dependable) - the Bass Raider 10e fits nicely into the bed.

 

Nissan Sentra (very good mpg and used for college kid)

 

2023 Toyota Venza Limited (love the hybrid, comfort/luxury boarding on Lexus, but better price. My wife loves it)

 

Next up... I'm thinking maybe a 2024 Venza for me or an all-electric (Toyota BZX4 or Rivian)  

[MN Fisher]

Let's see....in order

1973 Plymouth Cuda

1962 Chevy C-10

1973 Dodge Coronet Custom Wagon

1967 Dodge Dart GT convertible

1974 Pontiac Ventura

1976 Dodge Charger SE

1979 Chrysler Cordoba

1981 Dodge Diplomat

1982 Dodge Mirada

1984 Jeep Cherokee

1998 Chevy 1500 Work Truck (only new purchase)

2001 Chevy 1500 LS

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, Chowderhead said:

BMW X5 (so much power and fun...when it wasn't broken down and in the shop. This was a complete money pit that I should have rid myself of much quicker than I did) BMW (BringMyWallet)

 

I always wanted a BMW when i was a teenager, my dad always told me they were junk. Didnt believe him, i just thought it was his bias that anything that wasnt a Chevy was bad.

Now from having friends, coworkers, and other people i met that owned them i understand how right he was.

Anyone i ever met that owned one either hated it and sold it, or loved it enough to bring it back to the shop monthly.

That BMW joke at the end is funny. Reminds me of KTM dirtbikes (KostToMuch)

[TnRiver46]

I’ve only owned stick shift pickup trucks where you roll the windows down with a knob 😂 

 

hopefully they aren’t phased out before my next purchase, don’t want a backseat either 

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’ve only owned stick shift pickup trucks where you roll the windows down with a knob 😂 

 

hopefully they aren’t phased out before my next purchase, don’t want a backseat either 

You are smart, better gas mileage, and comes equipped with one of the finest anti theft devices known to man!

[DaubsNU1]

Good topic!!  In order...

 

1971 Chevy C-20 3/4 ton, long box, 2 wheel drive, 6 cylinder, three-on-the-tree. Dad was smart to start me with this truck...it was SOOOOO slow

1982 Chevy K-10 1/2 ton, long box, 4x4 with 305 V8 and 4 speed manual. Former farm truck, we purchased knowing the engine, clutch, and front hubs were shot...but got a great deal. No AC, no power windows, just a plain jane regular cab...but it was 4 wheel drive!!

1985 Honda Accord 2 door hatch, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual. Purchased from my sister. Knocked down 30 MPG. Great car.

1992 Honda Accord 4 door LX, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual. Another great car!

1987 GMC K-20 4x4, HD 3/4 ton regular cab, long box. Had 350 fuel injected v8 with 4 speed manual transmission. My dad purchased this truck new, and sold to me in 1998. Should have kept it.

1999 Silverado 1500 Z-71. Extended cab, 5.3, great truck. Needed the room for our new daughter. Leased.

2001 Silverado 1500 Z-71. Traded in the lease for a new lease...

1972 Chevy K-20 4x4. Project truck, 350 V8, 4 speed manual transmission. It's in my shop now, awaiting restoration.

2004 Silverado 2500HD Crew Cab 4x4.  3/4 ton, 8.1/496 V8 and Allison transmission. Beast! Great truck that I drove and owned for 15+ years

2005 Honda Accord, 4 door, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual. Drove for a few years, then gave to my oldest daughter. She hated the manual transmission at first, but then really loved it.

2005 Honda Accord, 4 door, 4 cylinder, 5 speed auto. This is my current daily driver. Great car, knocks down 30MPG all day long

2019 Silverado 2500HD Crew Cab 4x4. Duramax diesel...this is my current vehicle. Love it!

 

(Hmmmm...I'm seeing a bit of a pattern here...GM trucks, Honda cars...)

 

[gim]

I hate minivans. That’s all I’m saying here.

[Dwight Hottle]

1970 Chevy Camaro. 
Porsche 914 2.0 liter. 
Jensen-Healy with a 2.0 liter Lotus all aluminum dual overhead cams with 4 valves per cyl & dual Weber carbs. It produced 140 hp from 120 cubic inches.  
Porsche Boxster

1939 MG TB right hand drive total restoration

BMW 320i

BMW Z4 

Mercedes 380 SL convertible used car 

The Boxster & the BMW Z4 were my wife’s cars. 
The Healy was my favorite. 

[Mike L]

Say Hello to MR G

GTO Nationals Concourse Award Winner 
 

 

 

[Woody B]

Too many to list.  I used to drag race and had a few purpose built drag cars.  That's a different topic.

 

My first vehicle was a 1965 Chevy stepside pickup.  I took out the 230 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine and put a 454 in it.  Later I had a 1971 LT1, Z28 Camaro.  I kept it for a few years and sold it for a nice profit.   I had a 1963 Corvette split window coupe for ~6 months.  I had just one a big money race and ran across a guy selling that needed money.   I didn't a little work on it and sold it to a collector for a BIG profit.   The daily driver I miss was a 1969 Cadillac Eldorado.  It had a 472 cubic inch engine.  You could pretty much see the gas gauge move when driving it.   I used to tow my race car with it, but eventually sold it and bought a truck.   

[Tennessee Boy]

My first car was a 1976 Plymouth Arrow.   It had the power of a cheap push mower.  Top speed 92 mph on a warm day.  If it was below 10 degrees it would go about 7 miles before it quit which was a problems because I lived 10 miles from work and 12 miles from school.  It had 90,000 miles on it when I traded it and it was worn out.  I don't miss that car one bit. 

[BigAngus752]

Previous...

Mustangs:  1968 Mercury Couger XR-7G big block (cousin to the Mustang in the 60's), 1970 Mustang Fastback with a 351 Super Cobra Jet (and Shaker hood) from a 1971 Torino, 1969 Mach 1 with 351 Windsor, 1987 Mustang LX, 1995 Mustang GT. 

 

Jeeps:  1948 Willy CJ3, 1985 CJ7, 1989 LJ, 1991 YJ, 1999 TJ, 2003 TJ, 2013 JK, 2014 JKU, 2014 WKII. 

 

Harleys: 1981 Softail, 2003 100th Anniv. Softail Standard, 2008 Electra Glide Ultra

 

Current:

1985 Chevrolet C10 Silverado

1968 Mustang Coupe (owned for 34 years)

2003 Harley Fat Boy (full custom, owned 19.5 years)

2016 Harley Electra Glide Ultra Limited

 

My son, who is about to turn 21, just bought himself a 2019 Mustang GT with a Track Pack today (with his own money).  Like father like son.  He doesn't fish...yet....

Here he is about 18yrs ago on the Fat Boy.  He's 6'7" now.  

 

 

[GReb]

5 hours ago, MediumMouthBass said:

I always wanted a BMW when i was a teenager, my dad always told me they were junk. Didnt believe him, i just thought it was his bias that anything that wasnt a Chevy was bad.

Now from having friends, coworkers, and other people i met that owned them i understand how right he was.

Anyone i ever met that owned one either hated it and sold it, or loved it enough to bring it back to the shop monthly.

That BMW joke at the end is funny. Reminds me of KTM dirtbikes (KostToMuch)

I had a 2009 328i sport edition back when they offered it. Had beefed up suspension and brakes and the big fat rear tires with a 6 speed manual. It wasn’t going to win a drag race but I’m convinced it could take literally any curve faster than any other car on the road. The car was fast though. 4th gear would exceed 100 with two left to grab. It never cost me much besides the expensive tires that had to be replaced every 25k miles.  I sold it around 100k miles 

[A-Jay]

2006, year before I retired,

I bought myself a birthday present.

2006 Pontiac GTO (Last Year they made them).

LS2 6.0L 6 speed short shifter along with a few other after market tweaks. 

ALWAYS wanted a rear wheel drive road eater and this what certainty that.

Just a Blast to drive.

After 10 years 2016, I sold her for cash to my local GMC dealer.

The money help finance my Lund Pro-V Bass.

I miss it a little.

A-Jay

[Mike L]

17 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

2006, year before I retired,

I bought myself a birthday present.

2006 Pontiac GTO (Last Year they made them).

LS2 6.0L 6 speed short shifter along with a few other after market tweaks. 

ALWAYS wanted a rear wheel drive road eater and this what certainty that.

Just a Blast to drive.

After 10 years 2016, I sold her for cash to my local GMC dealer.

The money help finance my Lund Pro-V Bass.

I miss it a little.

A-Jay

When the ‘05’s came out I thought it would have been cool to have another Goat on the 40th anniversary of my original. 
 

When I found out it was a rebadged Holden Monaro with a few performance add on’s from GM’s division in Australia I passed. 
 

Just didn’t seem right 

😀

 

 

Mike 

[A-Jay]

17 minutes ago, Mike L said:

When the ‘05’s came out I thought it would have been cool to have another Goat on the 40th anniversary of my original. 
 

When I found out it was a rebadged Holden Monaro with a few performance add on’s from GM’s division in Australia I passed. 
 

Just didn’t seem right 

😀

 

 

Mike 

I drove the 04 & the 05 and they were both 5.7 and not my cup of tea.

3rd gear in the 06 with 6.0L sealed the deal for me.

Driving it brought back so many memories.

Fun actually driving a ride again - no tech.

Just a seat, a radio, a big motor and 3 pedals !

Ah the good old days. 

Went through some rubber.

A-Jay

[Catt]

Learned how to drive in a 1959 Ford Fairlane Police Inersepter.

 

Learned how to drive a standard in a 1965 Ford Falcon with 3 on the tree.

 

Spent a lot of time in Pawpaw's 1957 Ford F100 & 1960 International B100.

My first car was a 1969 Oldsmobile Cutless S, 350 cu.in., Hurst 4 speed on the floor & a fifth under the seat.

 

First new vehicle was a 1969 Ford F150.

 

My favorite to drive was my wife's 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI. Turbo charged diesel that got 35 mpg in town & 55 mpg on the highway. 

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

My favorite to drive was my wife's 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI. Turbo charged diesel that got 35 mpg in town & 55 mpg on the highway. 

Those TDI's are very under rated. My only experience with them is with the Golfs and Bugs but they have a ton of torque and get ridiculously amazing mpg.

The Golfs and Bugs ive been (in as a passenger) have shocked alot of people in nicer much more expensive and higher horse power cars too. A few years back when VW was recalling them for emissions issues they would sell them back to the dealers for about $4-6k with barely any mileage. I called every day of the week for about a month but sadly they were always sold out before i called.... Still would love to have a TDI Golf one day with the seats switched out for the GTI Golfs plaid seats.

[Catt]

@MediumMouthBass Don't get me started on that Emissions joke.

 

That little car would flat out run from a standing start to top end. 

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

@MediumMouthBass Don't get me started on that Emissions joke.

 

That little car would flat out run from a standing start to top end. 

When the guy at the dealership was telling me why VW was paying customers 2 times more than their car was worth, to change something like that, then selling it back to the dealers for a small amount i couldnt believe the guy was serious.

Wouldve been fantastic if i was able to get one at the price they were selling but oh well. Those TDI's last forever. Have seen several with over 300k miles on them and still going!

Ive seen and heard several times about those TDI Beetles going past a Ford Mustang or Subaru Wrx's and they would try and accelerate but by the time they could those little TDI's were already to far ahead. Amazing engines those had back then.

[WRB]

I built my 1st car from a 49 Chevy that cost me $25. My neighbor was a hot rodder and knew what would work so we went around to junk yards looking for a ‘51 Caddy engine, 39’ La Salle stick transmission that bolted onto the caddy V8. He wanted a 4:11 rear differential and axle assembly from 56 Pontiac snd dual quads from 56 Eldesdo ut was nearer to 1959 when we put this car together. My 1st hot rod I named Mr. Magu. 
Fast cars were my thing back in high school and ended up driving A fuel alters up to A fuel dragsters until the late 60’s

When my wife retired from teaching in 2005 she wanted a Porsche 911 until we couldn’t get out it!

We settled on a MB C55 AMG and still have that car. Very fast street car faster then old iron.

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

I’ve never been a big car guy. I grew up riding around in pickups and had mechanics in my family but fun cars were never a thing to anyone. However, when we moved to the south of the uk my 3.7L engined jeep liberty wasn’t going to be great for a 30 mile commute each way at $5-$8 a gallon. I kept the jeep for fishing and shooting but got a fun car as my commuter- a Mercedes slk 200. I miss this car all the time. At the same time, just before we left (and before we knew we were leaving) we got a new lease for my wife on another gl-c. Her previous was a 2.0L turbo diesel which was great. This one (stock picture below but that’s basically exactly what we had) was an AMG 43 with a twin turbo AMG tuned 3.0 L that pushed 360 hp and 0-60 in 4.9s and sounded beautiful doing it. On top, it was sooo easy to drive and we took it from the UK through the alps, to Italy and back. Going through the tunnels it just purred. 
 

But the SLK was my baby. I had it ECU tuned and it was putting out around 240 hp.  I had an aftermarket control chip and could drop the roof from my key fob as well as a few other neat features. I put in a skinny under seat subwoofer. If the weather was 25-85 degrees I had the top down because it had an air scarf system built into the seat headrest that blew warm air. Everything was clean and tidy. And of course it was AMG Mercedes level fit and build. By far the most fun car ever for the place I was in. I’ve looked at getting one here but mercs are much higher priced relatively speaking and I can get a new corvette for the price. 

[Catt]

@MediumMouthBass I would like to see that engine in a small truck!

[12poundbass]

24 minutes ago, WRB said:

I built my 1st car from a 49 Chevy that cost me $25. My neighbor was a hot rodder and knew what would work so we went around to junk yards looking for a ‘51 Caddy engine, 39’ La Salle stick transmission that bolted onto the caddy V8. He wanted a 4:11 rear differential and axle assembly from 56 Pontiac snd dual quads from 56 Eldesdo ut was nearer to 1959 when we put this car together. My 1st hot rod I named Mr. Magu. 
Fast cars were my thing back in high school and ended up driving A fuel alters up to A fuel dragsters until the late 60’s

When my wife retired from teaching in 2005 she wanted a Porsche 911 until we couldn’t get out it!

We settled on a MB C55 AMG and still have that car. Very fast street car faster then old iron.

Tom

So Johnny Cash wrote ‘one piece at a time’ about you! 😁