Car Stories Part Four

Photo by Peter Broomfield on Unsplash
Photo by Peter Broomfield on Unsplash

This is part four of the series on my cars.  Writing this I continue to remember my life through our cars!

2011 Chrysler 200

In part three of this series I talked about our beloved Mitsubishi Lancer that was unfortunately totaled.  We really would’ve considered another Lancer but Mitsubishi had not been doing too well in the US and in fact was stopping production of the Lancer ( a mistake in my opinion.

Enter the Chrysler 200.  I was looking for something comfortable and not too expensive.  The Chrysler fit the bill.  It was black with a nice tan interior and chrome-like accents.  They did up the interior nicely and it featured a terrific stereo complete with a real hard drive.  This was definitely the fanciest sound system we ever owned in a car.

Chrysler products are not exactly known for longevity but no complaints.  We eventually gave it to my son who was putting on huge miles commuting to a long distance job.  After 170,000 miles he traded it in and even then it was still running fairly well.

2014 Dodge Minivan

I was always a fan of minivans,  and even though Dodge vans did not have the reputation of a Toyota or Honda they were way less expensive.  Our previous Dodge minivan has lasted a lot of miles and only died due to a freak disintegrating spark plug that caused engine damage.

This new minivan was great.  It had fold-in floor seats that allowed it to carry as much as a pickup.  Only disappointment was that we were miraculously able to carry two kayaks inside the old minivan but the new one has redesigned front seat backs that made that impossible.  Otherwise we liked it and made two memorable cross country trips using it.

2015 Camaro

This one was a surprise. I had always wanted a sports car.  A few weeks right before Chrisrmas my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I responded as I often did “A Camaro.”  To my surprise she said do it!  We had a little extra money (which never happens) and went to a Chevy dealer only a mile away.  Sure enough they had a beautiful red Camaro Convertible  sitting on the lot.  Of course nobody buys a convertible in December in Pennsylvania, so we got a great deal and bought it on the spot!

The Camaro was a third car for us and spent most of its time in the garage.  But boy when we took it out on a nice day it was fun, and it turned many heads.  Only down side was I discovered convertibles get really hot in the hot sun!

We kept the Camaro a few years and eventually sold it for a good price as sports cars hold their value better than many cars.  I miss it in some ways but at least I had a real sports car once in my life, and who knows what the future may bring.

2016 Ram

The RAM pickup was kind of a necessity. We bought a travel trailer and needed something to tow it.  With the pickup we no longer needed the minivan so that got trade in for the RAM.  I’ve written a separate article about the merits of a pickup here.

2019 Jeep Cherokee

The Cherokee was a bit of a compromise.  We wanted four wheel drive because of winters in PA.  I like real Jeeps (aka Wangler) but they are really rough for normal driving.  The Cherokee fit the bill.  We decided to lease it so the Cherokee only lasted for 3 years.

2021 Kia Sportage

The KIA is sort of my retirement vehicle.  It has all wheel drive and every available option so it is very convenient and comfortable.  We still have the pickup for towing and carrying stuff so the KIA is our “everyday” car.  We don’t put many miles on either one these days.  This is also a lease so time will tell whether we buy it at the end of the lease.  This definitely a possibility because we won’t even come close to using the mileage allowance.

So that’s where our car history stands at this time.  I still like cars so maybe in a few years there will be a Car Stories part Five!

Car Stories – Part Three

Beautiful Road
Image by Adam Derewecki from Pixabay

Intro

What started out as just a quick trip down memory lane has turned into a series of posts.  Our car stories do have a way of telling our life stories.  So much revolves around our cars, from family trips, to what car we drove to the hospital for the birth of our kids.  If you’re even a little bit of a car buff then the stories have even more meaning.  We picked a car for certain reasons and features at the time and it is fun to remember.

1991 Dodge Conversion Van

I had always wanted to take a trip in a van.  Back in my youth a buddy and I had plans to take a cross country trip that never materialized.  My wife and I had taken a number of cross country trips in cars but never in a conversion van.  This particular van was silver, and a low top to save a little money.  It was beautiful!  Our first trip was from Philadelphia to Glacier National Park, in Montana.  My wife was pregnant.  Like all our trips we camped to save money.  But after all our tent camping trips the van, with its built in bed seemed like real luxury.  And with Glacier’s bears we were glad for the hard side.

1996 Dodge Conversion Van

In 1996 we upgraded to a really fancy Dodge Conversion van.  It was gorgeous!  White and a pretty green hi-top.  It had thick woodwork and luxury everything.  We really couldn’t afford it but bought it anyway.  No idea how we were approved for the loan.

What I remember most about that van was a trip to Utah with my 5 year old son.  The van had a TV and VCR (a big deal at the time!)  My son watched “How the West was Fun” with the Olsen twins over and over all across the country.  I think I memorized the words from listening to it (we eventually hooked up the headphones for him.)

1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse

The Eclipse was a second car, and a treat for Dad.  This was during the Dot-Com boom and we had a little extra money so we leased the Eclipse.  It was a fun sporty little car.  I got a stick shift, and it was peppy and still great on gas.

2002 Misubishi Montero

When the Eclipse lease was up we got a Mitsubishi Montero.  My wife loved it.  Great SUV except for the turning radius, which was huge, to the point where getting into a parking spot required planning.  It was rock solid however, and probably saved my wife when a hit and run driver plowed into my wife one morning on the way to her job.

2003 Dodge MiniVan

This minivan ended up being a replacement for the conversion van, which by this time had gone through two transmissions.  The conversion van looked great but was getting expensive to maintain.

This minivan was fairly plain, but boy was it practical.  We could fit two kayaks in that thing, with the rear door still closing.  Amazingly I think it had more usable space than the much bigger conversion van.

1994 Ford Taurus

This was after the dot com bust and money was very tight, but we needed a second car.  I picked it up for $2500 with about 90,000 miles on it.  Ended up fixing a lot of things on it, including brakes, a new radiator, and a weird electrical problem.  This wasn’t all bad because I did all the work myself, with my teenage son helping.  So my son also learned something about working on cars which is always a good skill to have.  After keeping it for about 5 years and another 40,000 miles we sold it for $2200!

2010 Mitsubishi Lancer

The Lancer was a small sporty compact from Mitsubishi.  It was fun to drive and we liked it a lot.  We let my son use it to commute to college and unfortunately he had an accident that totaled it.  It was a close call.  He was on a date and skidded on some gravel and hit a telephone pole,  hitting on the passenger side, but avoiding a full frontal crash.  His date ended up with fairly minor injuries.

This takes us to the second decade of the 2000s.  We’ll save that decade for another post in the series.

Again, if you have interesting car stories please share!

Car Stories Part Two

Chrysler K Car

This is a continuation of my car stories.  Cars are such an integral part of life in America.  They tell many stories and remind us of past times.  Here is more of my car story.

K Car

In 1981 Chrysler was barely surviving and Lee Iaccoca was pushing the K car as Chrysler’s answer to better fuel economy and improved American car quality.  We ended up helping a little by purchasing a light blue Plymouth Reliant.  The car was roomy and pretty good on gas.  Not much power due to a low powered four banger (America hadn’t learned how to make good four cylinder engines.)

Eventually the car started developing the weird habit of just shutting off while driving down the street.  After coasting to the side if you just let it sit for about 20 minutes it would start back up and run fine.  It was out of warranty and the dealer wanted $700 to replace a “computer module” with no guarantee that would actually fix the problem.  This was in the early days of computers in cars and $700 was a fortune back then, so we started considering a replacement.

Ford Courier

A Ford Courier was next in line.  This was actually a little Mazda pickup rebadged as a Ford.  It was actually a pretty good little truck.  Bright red, it had almost no options.  Stick shift on the floor, no air, and a basic AM radio.  After only a few weeks an elderly couple smashed into it and bent the front wheel parallel to the ground.  The body shop did a bad job and the fender paint never did match quite right. 

Ford Tempo SVO

In the mid eighties I was a banker responsible for visiting clients all over New Jersey.  I decided I needed something a little more car like, and with air conditioning!  I ended up with a Ford Tempo SVO.  A Tempo was a plain car but the SVO model dressed it up a little with fancy wheels and pinstripes.  Hosepower was also increased slightly.  I really couldn’t afford the car.  Banking was somewhat prestigious, but didn’t pay well.  I put on tons of miles driving for work.  I got a mileage allowance but needed that money to survive, so we eventually ended up with a car with 126,000 miles on it with lots of payments left!  And this was at a time when a car with 100,000 miles was considered finished.

Pinto

Sometime later we ended up getting a second car, under unusual circumstances.  My Mother in Law was trading in a Pinto and the dealer would only give her $300 because the engine was blown.  The car only had 35,000 miles, but had never had an oil change!  I offered her the same and somehow got it home.  My father managed to fix the engine with a new camshaft and assorted parts.  It ran pretty well but had a terrible oil leak.  I had to add a quart or more of oil every few days.  It did look pretty good though – bright red with a vinyl roof, plaid seats, and a sunroof, a rarity in those days.

Unfortunately my wife was in a pretty bad accident.  She was OK, but she was hit by a large car, spun around and hit a telephone pole.  The car was smashed on three sides.  With the Pinto’s reputation we were lucky the thing didn’t explode!  The insurance company totaled it.  The only good side was because of the low miles they gave us $2600, so we actually made a profit 

Honda Civic

Even though a Pinto was technically a second car we really needed to replace it.  We still had the Tempo with its bazillion miles.  All we had to work with was the $2600 insurance check.  We had no money as usual.  We ended up finding a 1980 Honda Civic with about 50,000 miles on it.  Hondas held their value and the dealer wanted about $3000, which was actually low due to a few little dents.  We needed to come up with about another $500 and ended up financing the $500 difference on a short loan!

The Honda was a great car.  It was a brown two door hatchback and very peppy with great gas mileage..  The transmission was considered an automatic but it was actually a two speed with a low range that you used up until about 30 MPH and then you moved the shift lever up into high range.  But it had no clutch to depress!

We put many miles on that Honda.  The odometer stopped working so I’ll never know how many miles it had on it by the end.  At some point we did have a transmission replaced  and the odometer started working again so when we got rid of it the odometer said 126,000 miles, but I’m pretty sure the real total was closer to 170,000 or more.  That was remarkable for a 1980 car.

I should mention that rust finally finished the Civic.  Early Honda’s had a reputation for rust.  The engine never did quit, but with all the rust I was afraid the thing might fall apart around us.  I’m convinced that little Honda would still be going if the sheet metal had lasted!

My car stories are going longer than I expected.  It looks like I’ll need a Part Three or more.  More to come!