Car Discusion & Poll

[Pumpkin_Man]

Hi Folks:

Since we are in the off season, my fancy turns to the upcomming summer season, and the various things I like to drive. Of course my motorcycle is my favorite, but sooner or later, after I lose some weight as a result of my bariatric surgery, I am going to be in the market for a new car, and I know that there are a bunch of you who love cars, trucks and motorcycles as much as I do. So I thought I would post a little discussion here, and get your opinions of all the various car manfacturers.

I'll start off by posting what I like the best, and why. My leaning, is toward the Ford motor company, particularly Mercury. My dad owned a 58 Comuter wagon that he drove me home from the hospital from the day I was born. He also drove my mom to the hospital in that car when she was in labor with me. In later years my dad drove a 1970 Mercury Monterey. That was my all time favorite car of my dads.

Today, I really love the Mariner, Mountaineer, Grand Marquis and the Sabel. All of them are fabulous rides for various reasons. The mariner also has a hybred option that gets 36 miles to the gallen. That's the one I would really like to own, and I hope I'll be aboe to afford it by October. That would truely be a great way to "trick or treat" myself next Halloween.

I never had the oportunity to own a Mercury before, but I did own a few Fords. Whild going through my Pick-up Phase, I owned one Toyota, two F-150s, and one Chevy Cheyenne. I also owned a Dodge Ram for about 2 years. All of them were fine trucks, the hands down, the Fords, IMHO were THE BEST. They had the best gas milage, the best transmission in the business (5 speed manual over drive) most comfortable seats and ride, and best looking. They all had pretty much a comperable payload capacity, except for the Toyota which was only a 4 cylender 4 speed manual, and only rated at a quarter ton.

So what kine of cars do you all like? I like Fords the best. Do we have any other Ford peopld out there? Or how about Crysler or GM people?

Or Honda, Nissan, Toyota or any other brand people out there?

Feel Free to take part in the survey.

Mike

[TK421]

Mike,

I have to admit, I'm a Honda fan. I've had 3 Honda motorcycles (also 2 yamaha and 1 kawasaki). I just feel good on a Honda. They're really build to last, with very little maintenance needed. Change the oil and the tires when needed, and they'll run forever.

As for cars, my wife and I bought a Honda Odyssey back in 2005 and it's brilliant! We tested all sorts of minivans and the Odyssey was hands above the rest. Very comfortable, great handling, fantastic features, and great gas mileage.

My commute car is a 2001 Saturn SL2. It's a great little car and gets great gas mileage (in the 30s) but it doesn't have a very good turn radius. That's really my only complaint. Other than that, it's a reliable, efficient little car that gets me where I want to go.

If I had the resources, I would probably go out and buy a new 2010 Toyota Prius. I've been reading up on them and the new, 3rd generation Prius is going to be very cool. I told my wife that if they came out with a Prius in metallic orange, I'd sell the Saturn and buy it. Sadly, they have yet to release a Prius in that color.

Now, if I just wanted a car for the sacred joy of owning a car and polishing it in the driveway on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I'd have to go with either a '67 Impala 4 door, or a '63 cadillac hearse.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I like your hearse idea, but for the "Sunday Drive" car you described, I would go with a 58 Mercury Monterey Turnpike Cruiser, or a 63 Mercury Park Lane convertable.

But I must admit, I do like the early 60s models Chevys, too. I'm partial to the Caprice, but the Impala is also pretty nice.

Mike

[TK421]

I'm not much of a wrench monkey, but I love the older cars. A 40s era Mercury is beautiful.





And I'm a sucker for an Edsel grill.

[litemareb4xmas]

Right now I drive a prius eating 2001 Chev Suburban 4x4, love that rig, didn't like filling it up at $4 a gallon, rode my bike a lot then. Have a Volks Jetta I hate [wifes car] trying to sell it right now so we can get a convertable camaro. Just bought our 3rd car for my daughter, 94 GMC Jimmy
I'd have to say my favorite car, a 69 Firebird!
Past rides,
57 Belair 4 door
68 Firebird
65 F-100
69 Coronet [same body as charger]
82 Volks Cabrio
72 F-250
85 Firebird
91 Camry
85 Blazer
01 Toy Sienna
68 Jeep Commando
63 F-100
85 Chev K1500 p/u
82 Dodge Colt
81 Subaru wagon
57 Willys p/u
63 Dodge Dart
95 Chev S-10
81 Toyota Surf Van [jap]
82 Subaru Mini van [jap]
83 Nissan Bluebird [jap]
Wow I think that's about it, most of these were cars I bought to fix n sell.
JAp is cars we had while stationed in Okinawa

[TK421]

How could you give up a 57 Belair 4 door??

The 69 Coronet is nice, too, but I bet it would be a gas guzzler.

My mom's first car was a silver 62 Corvair coupe. It is by far the greatest car my mom ever owned. I think my grandfather still has it in one of the many garages on his property in Montana.

[TK421]

My own vehicle history is less than exciting.

1990 Huyndai Excell
1992 Subaru wagon
2001 Saturn SL1 (wife's)
2005 Honda Odyssey (me and the wife)

I know, I know, very dull and unexciting. I can't believe I've been driving for 20 years, and in all that time, I've only owned three cars. I had the Subaru for 13 years -- good car, hauled a lot of stuff. The Saturn became my car when we bought the Odyssey for the wife. Good commuter car, not as much fun as the motorcycles.

'79 Yamaha 125
'85 Kawasaki 454ltd
'82 Honda CB200
'83 Yamaha XJ900
'98 Honda Blackbird (1100XX)
'04 Honda VTX 1300C

[litemareb4xmas]

The Bel Air was hard to part with, it was my getting hurt losing my job and my son on the way thing.
It also was a money pit, everything needed fixing, the motor ran good was about the only thing good on it.
The coronet was a fun ride, had a high geared rear end and would just fly down the highway at idle. I painted it, backing out of the paint booth and went right into a tree, so it went right back in. After moving to San Diego my wife got tired of sweating to death driving to work so we sold it and ooopps there's another car to my list 85 mazda 626 pos! Muffler fell of the next day and motor mounts all went out, another one to the list of cars I hated!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Those are some very beautiful mercuries you posted. Also, I would love to see that 57 Belair.

I don't have a very exciting car history either, but I've had quite a few of them, unfortunately none of them were Mercuries. Every time I shopped for a car, I just couldn't get the right deal on a Mercury, and people pretty much have to drive what they can afford, but I did have some nice rides.

Car & Truck History:

1971 Datsun 1200 (My very first car when I first got my driver's license)

1969 Chevy Caprice (Looked like I drove it out of a salvage yard, but ran like a champ

1974 Ford LTD. Very comfortable, and ran like a champ, unfortunately my mom borrowed it, and drove it all the way from Burbank Illinois to New Lenox Illinois with no oil in th crank case, and fried two of the valves.

1974 Pontiac LeManse. A fabulous car, went like a bat out of hell, confortable ride and fun to drive

1984 Toyota Pick Up. Great engine and drive trane, but a very flimsy body.

1988 Chevy Cheyene Pick Up. Great ride, Great hauler and great sounding stereo. Unfortunately I had to have front end work done on it twice.

1991 Ford F 150. 2 W D. Great truck, excelent work horse and a reasonabley confortable ride, only it didn't have air conditioning. It had a Borg warner 5 speed manual overdrive, though

1984 Suzuki Samari 4WD. Good 4wd Traction, but this car was in it's own way.

1994 Chevy 1500 Pick Up. I only had this one for a few months, before financial issues forced me to sell it. Great truck, however.

1999 Jeep Wrangler. 4 W D. My first 4 W D car, unfortunately it was defective from one bumper to the next. 3 times back to the dealer to fix the four wheel drive switch, 6 trips back to the dealer to fix the blower motor for the heat/air conditioning, and 3 trips back to the dealer to resolve issues with the igniter.

1998 Ford F 150. 4 W D. An excelent ride all around. I put over 150,000 miles on this truck before trading it in. It, too had a Borg Warner 5 speed manual overdrive.

2000 Dodge Ram. 4 W D. Great engine, and good traction, but I did not like the automatic transmission.

2005 Chevy Aveo. At 4 bucks a gallen, I just couldn't afford to drive that Dodge, so I traded it for the Aveo. Great little car, 36mpg, front wheel drive and a nice ride to boot.


Motorcycle History:

1982 Yamaha Seca 750. Fun to ride and fast

1988 Yamaha Venture 1300. Great ride. Rode this bike all voer the place.

1989 Yamaha Verago 950. Fun, and loud like a harley, but not quite as fast as I'm use to with a motorcycle.

1997 Honda Valkyrie. The best bike I ever owned or drove.

Mike

[Haunt Master]

I have 2005 Chevy Malibu. Well, back in 1997 I used to own my car 1992 Pontaic Firebird and it was total loss in 2003.

But I'm happy to keep Chevy!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Tha Mailbu is a nice ride. My cousen had one of those for quite some time before he gave it to his younger brother.

Mike

[OctoberChill]

I had the chance not too long ago to buy a beautiful 63 Fairlane. It wasn't mint by any means, but for $3200 I should of bought it. It had minor fender damage and needed some maintenance done to it but it was gorgeous. I chickened out at the last minute.

I've always been a Ford guy, mainly Mustang. However, the last car I bought was a Nissan.

[Andybev01]

My first car was a used 1973 Fird Pinto Runabout (hatchback) The little old lady who bought it new had it loaded. A/C, stereo with 8-TRACK!!, dual remote sport mirrors, high-back bucket seats, automatic. For it's time it was a real beauty...powder blue with dark blue 'leather-ette'

Car numero dos was a 1972 Chevy Nova Rally. Dark Cherry red, 2-part rally wheels (beauty ring and center hub), automatic 350 small block (only engine I can take apart and put back together) black leather interior also high-backs. 200 watt do-it-all sound system. This one was my High School car. My best friend at the time had the same car but green with the 327.

College; Yamaha 180cc Riva scooter, silver (c'mon, it was the 80's...) and a Honda 450 custom bike with mags and a beauty tear-drop tank. Crashed both of those and discovered that part of my hearing loss also affected my balance. Pity 'cause I loved to motor.

Next a crappy red Mazda B2000 (?) truck with camper shell. It ran.

First new off of the lot car a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 hatchback. 'Autumn Orange' (gee, why?) every accessory they had. Never, ever but first model year...

"01 VW Beetle GLS (I refuse to call them 'new' after more than a decade in production) Silver with gray leather.

9/11 happened & like everyone I freaked out and so I traded it for a 'serious' car. White, 4-door automatic VW Golf. Snore......

Latest, and just PAID OFF!!, 02 Beetle GLX Turbo. Heated and power everything silver/gray 5-speed 17" alloys. 8-speaker Monsoon audio that will peel your skull off, with 6 cd changer.

I guess I am a car guy after all.

Top pic is the first Beetle, lower is the current one. Next one will be the converta-Beetle.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Volkswagen does make a great product from a mechanical stnad point, but If I were going to buy a VW, I would probbly go with a Jetta. That's just my personal opinion.

Last night Ilooked at a 1969 Mercury Marquis convertable. It was in mint condition, and to boot, only had 23 thousand miles on it. (I suspect that odometer had been 'around the horn') But the guy wanted way too much money. 20 grand.

Mike

[SpookShowBaby]

I bought a new 09 Jetta last year and by far it is the best car I have ever owned. Neat dash lights, standard heated seats (MN winters are COLD), MP3/IPOD plug in, red nightlights inside the car, 6 airbags, and 4 out of 5 stars for front and 5 out of 5 starts for side crash test ratings. Great gas mileage too! I don't think I will ever buy any other brand again.

At Back to the 50's car show (http://www.msra.com/BackToThe50s.htm) last year there was a bug that was painted orange with a punkin logo. I'll see if I can't find a picture. If I had an old car, that it what I would drive!