Top 10 Cars According to Face

My first car was a 1980 Toyota Corona* (Luxury Edition) that was a manual. My current car is an automatic civic. I miss the manual.

I'm not even a "car guy" (as I mentioned on the Wizardmobie thread), but I just enjoy the shifting. Last week I borrowed my friend's truck to move, and enjoyed driving it around. Hopefully, my next car (in 3-4 years) will be a manual.

*Yes you read that right. Corona was an actual model, I didn't mistype Corolla

I remember the Corona, the "Crown". it evolved into the Cressida.

Was that the car that "talked"?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Time for "Motorbikes with Face"?

Don't you get me started. Just talking about it gets me way too excited, followed by terribly disappointed now that I can no longer do it.

Perhaps a "Motorsports" thread, instead of something so specific as bikes. Then we can cover anything with a motor instead of a niche topic. Hot rods, track days, numerous racing orginizations, ATVs, dirt bikes, sports bikes, even MAWG cruisers ;) Cruising ain't my bag, but I still like when s2dbaker talks about his "babies". Hell, even talking about beaters is fun, the car so bad you loved it. God knows I've owned a few.

Perhaps soon. I just have some rants to put in "Firearms" first...

Quote: Ayecarumba

Was that the car that "talked"?

Nope, those were the Nissans: Maxima and 300z. "Your door is ajar!" 1984 it was said in an alarming voice, like it was on fire. 85 and later it was much more refined, like a gentle reminder.

Cars I have owned.

early '70s

1) '65 Bonneville convertible. The first. Titled in Dad's name. 421 motor, all the options. Truthfully this was a pretty bad car, but also I was pretty bad about caring for it. Wrecked it.

2) '63 Bonneville convertible, 421 tri-power and 3 speed stick. I only had this one a few months. Bought it cheap. The tranny was a Ford conversion, and when the clutch went no one knew how to fix it. Bought it for $300, sold it for $100. Cars were cheap back then.

3) '64 Buick LeSabre wagon, 401 nailhead. This sucker was powerful as hell. Tinworm took it.

(It gets a little hazy here. I might forget some. The order might get messed up.)

4) '67 Buick LeSabre. First "small" engine, a 340 2bbl. 2 speed Powerglide. I hated this car. Junked it with tranny issues and tinworm. [edit: it was a Skylark.]

5) '63 Mercury Monterey, the one where the back window goes the wrong way and up and down. 390 4bbl. Absolutely HUGE, biggest trunk of any car I've ever had. Tinworm took it.

6) '65 GTO. Bought cheap, sold cheap. Can you believe, during the gas crisis, I bought this for $200 and sold it 6 months later for $150? No one wanted '60s muscle. Needed rings and a radiator, and had a broken spring. Still.

mid '70s

7) I think this is where I went bike. '70 BSA 650. Loud as hell, and an absolutely wretched machine with horrible Lucas electrics. The ignition was wired through the tail light, so when it developed a short it would stop running when I hit the brakes. I wrecked it.

8) '69 Mercury Colony Park wagon, 429 motor. This was a pretty good wagon, actually. I wrecked it (wet leaves on a blind off-camber corner).

9) '66 Chevy Caprice. Bought it for $50. The brake lines rusted out. I fixed them and the frame rusted away; broke right in half. I abandoned it in the park, and later had to appear in court to explain why. I got off, surprisingly.

late '70s

10) '73 Pontiac Catalina. Damn, I loved this one. 400 2bbl. Best highway car I ever owned. Tinworm got it.

11) '69 Chevelle. I forget what happened to it. I didn't like this car, is all I remember. There was something wrong with the steering.

early '80s

12) Jeep Grand Wagoneer. '77? '78? 360 4bbl, Quadratrack full time 4wd, horrible gas mileage. Maybe 7 around town and 10 highway. Uncomfortable seats. Completely rusted out in 1983. Traded it even up for the Volvo 144e.

13) This one was actually before the Jeep. '65 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. Classy as hell. I forget what happened to it. I'm thinking it got wrecked, but I don't remember wrecking it.

14) '76 Suzuki GT500. Two stroke twin. This was a damn fun bike. Sold it.

15) '81 Honda 650-4. Another really good bike. Fast, smooth, quiet. Sold it for what I paid for it.

16) Volvo 144e. Nice little car, actually. Really solid. Started losing oil pressure at around 130k miles, and I got sick and tired of driving/riding junk and finally bought a new car.

mid '80s

17) Nissan 86.5 truck. 2wd, 5 speed. This was a damn nice truck. It got good gas mileage and was fun to drive. I drove it about 50k miles and sold it to a friend, who drove it another 150k miles.

18) I got into management and had a nice string of demos. My favorite was the '87 Lincoln MkVII LSC. I had a (used) Porsche 911 for almost a week, until the owner came back from vacation and freaked out. I got no points for that one. Probably lost a few, actually.

'90s

19) While I drove the demos, Mrs Mosca had a couple Corsicas. Wretched cars, but they fit our needs: cheap family cars.

1999

20) '97 Miata. I always wanted one, from the first moment I saw one. Sent the buyer to the auction and he came back with a nice red '97. Someone ran me off the road and into a telephone pole.

21) Another '97 Miata. I still have this one. I modified the suspension to the way I wanted it, and supercharged it.

23) Bought Mrs Mosca one of my later demos, a 2001 Malibu. She still has it, it needs to make it until May when our daughter graduates college. It was a pretty doggone nice car for the first 35,000 miles or so, then it started falling apart.

mid '00s

24) At a certain point, the value of having a demo is outweighed by being able to say, "Take this job and shove it." I decided I wanted to be able to say that, so I gave up the demo and bought an '05 Subaru Legacy Limited. Leather, roof, fancy stereo, heated seats, etc. Man, this was a nice car, a really nice handling sedan that was fun to drive. I gave it to my sister when I got...

25) When I gave the Legacy to my sister, I picked up an '08 Nissan Altima GL, big 6 with leather and all the stuff. Best damn Buick I ever owned. V6, 270hp, accelerated like a rocketship but turned like a barge. But big and comfortable.

26) 2011 Maxima. Everything that the Altima had, and more, with pretty decent handling for a big 'ol boat. I really enjoy this car. It's comfortable, reliable, it looks good and it corners nice and level.


I'm certain I forgot some; the '70s were really pretty hazy for me. But that's the list.

Quote: Mosca

Cars I have owned.

Ha! Awesome stuff Mosca =) Lemme guess...Northeast? Seeing "tinworm" a hundred times makes me thin it's so. Kind of sucks when you think about it; everyone's goal is to "get out of debt, pay things off". Unless you live in the desert, a car payment is for life. Engine might go 400k, but all the bits and pieces will have disintigrated by 150k.

Anyways...my turn!

Late 80s

1) 1972 'Cuda. 340 automatic. First car I ever drove. 7 years old, sitting on Pop's lap, just cruisin' the back country roads. It was 25 years ago and I can still remember the road, remember the feeling of that old, skinny wheel. Pops sold it in '95 for $1,500. I still haven't completely forgiven him...

Early 90s

2) 1982 Honda CB900F. Four cylinder, 4 into 1 headers, quite a rocket for its time. At 12, Pops again plopped me in front of him and let me cruise the back roads with him on the back. Even let me finish off the journey through town and into the driveway. Needless to say, Mom wasn't impressed. Bike sat in the shed for some 12 odd years after that...

Late 90s

3) Mid 90s GMC Jimmy. The first time I ever drove a car by myself, it was this. For my very first practice session, Pops tossed me the keys and I drove some 40 miles home through the April Fools Blizzard of '97 on a road that was closed due to a travel ban. Again, Mom was not impressed. 0 visibility, 8+ inches of snow on the road. Writing this is kind of making me realize I probably owe Pops equal blame for my own craziness, as well as credit for my superior driving skills. Love that guy =)

4) '93 Subaru Legacy. By far, the greatest car I've ever driven. I beat the dog shit out of this car and it only ever begged for more. Quick, agile, and power to spare. 5 speed manual, once I got my license, this was the only car I ever drove. 1 month before I would have received it for a graduation present ('98), I fell asleep behind the wheel after taking my g/f home and whacked a telephone pole, ripping the whole rear end, wheels, and suspension out of the car. It died on scene =(

5) 91 Chevy S-10. Had a 4.3 (?) litre 6 banger, moved pretty good for a lil old truck. Got it from my great-grandfather. On graduation day, all the gearheads had a burnout competition in the school parking lot. Monte Carlo SS, Chevelle SS, and my little S-10. I killed it and was the talk of the town all summer lol. I jumped it and bent the tranny linkage so neutral was drive and park was reverse...or maybe it was the other way around, I don't remember. One cash strapped day I dumped some fuel into it from a can. I found out later the can was kerosene. Ran liked a raped ape before starting to spit oil out the seals, so I traded it for a...

6) 1978 Camaro Z-28. This thing was cool. I never had that kind of power before where you could just tromp an automatic and break the rears free. The first or second day I had it I tried to max it, and after going into a little dip, having the suspension give up and allow the fronts to hit the fender wells and almost yank me off the side of the road made me remember it was 20 years old and needed some TLC. But the body was good, the engine clean and fresh, and it an ace black with black and red interior. Pops noticed a tranny line was leaking and tried to get me to get rid of it, saying it was a sign and a bad one. Unbelievably, 17yr old Face actually listened to the wise elder, and traded it for...

7) My old S-10 lol. And I gave her no quarter, ramming her leaking, kero-raped engine all to hell and back. It blew up within the month. Finally listen to Pops, and see what happens? I never let that happen again ;)

I didn't have a car for a while, what with all the destruction. Mom didn't let me drive her new Saturn since I wrecked her Subaru, and blowing up the S-10 didn't give much faith. But I was persistent, so eventually was given access to...

8) 2000 Saturn S Series. I was good, for the first few months. But it was a 5 speed, so the burnouts came. Then the jackrabbit starts. Then my old rally cross shit. Eventually had too much drinsky and sent it end over end through the woods at about 90mph. Two passengers survived with bumps and bruises, I had severe concussion and PCS.

Early 00s

9) '93 Chevy Beretta 5 speed. What a turd. It looked cool, but I got it at 112,000. 90s American econoboxes weren't made to last, and this was no exception. The synchro had went, so 2nd and especially 3rd grinded all to hell on all but the most geriatric of shifts. I was in the middle of what was my drug career as well, so maintenance was not a word in my vocab. Tote around 8 of my friends in that little thing? Sure. Think it's funny that my gears grind, so you just pull it out of gear from the backseat and grind it yourself for fun? Might as well. Starter broke? Just push it. Went 2 years like that lol. I lost a tire, I mean the whole friggin' thing rim and all, on the I-90 in Buffalo. Got that fixed, and maybe a month later lost the other one in the middle of nowhere, tweaked out of my skull. I don't think I ever drove it after that, sold it for a few hundo.

Mid 00s

10) '82 CB900F. Yup, the same one from when I was 12. Pulled it out of the shed, drained the once-was-gas-now-is-laquer from the tank, put a charge on it and it fired right up. Got my license, got it registered (DMV: "Sorry sir, this bike no longer exists." lol), and started terrorizing the town. Gotta love Hondas =)

11) '95 Olds Cutlass Sierra. Got this one from great-grandpop, too. A nice little "luxury" car, at least it was luxurious to me. Good power, smooth tranny, soft ride. I was actually nice to this one, but it started to nickle and dime me to death. Brake lock up, water pump, fuel pump, fuel filter. It got tiring so I got rid of it for a few hundo.

12) 2004 Suzuki GSXR 600. What a machine, the first new thing I'd ever bought. While I pounded the snot out of it, I maintained it at professional levels. Synthetic oils changed <3,000 miles, disassembled, taken indoors, and checked over during winter, always kept clean, always kept tight. Rode wheelies over a mile, went over 170mph, I was a legend. And an outlaw. Transmissions on the police scanner began with "bike at high rate of speed". Two years later, they were using my first and last name. Sold it for $3,500 shortly thereafter.

Late 00s

13) 2004 Quad Cab Hemi Ram 4x4. Off road package, dual exhaust, it was a beast. The first nice vehicle I'd ever owned. I had settled down by now, and was actually fairly nice to it. Only took it over 100mph once, just to see what the highway mileage was cruising at 110 (16.2, only 1mpg lower than normal highway driving ;)) Blew it up just 2,000mi past warranty and 2 days before I was taking it to trade. Going <30mph and complete piston grenadation. Cost $5,000 to repair and it still wasn't fixed. Traded it at a $9,000 value for...

14 2005 Chevy Silverado. Small V8, automatic. Bare bones, no power windows, no power locks, no CD or tape player, hell, no carpets even. Power steering went about 5 months ago and I can't even be bothered to fix it. Wheels, engine, body and doors, all I ever needed. Still got it and it's not too bad. A little heavy on gas, and a little heavy on payment, but I'm almost too underwater on it to give it up. We'll see what happens.

Almost all of those older cars are lost to the dust of time. But a couple years ago a funny thing happened. A Facebook page opened up titled "I walked to Mowry Park" which was a park near where I grew up. And an old neighbor, Tom Puckett, put up a bunch of old photos that his mom took, and in one of those photos... my first car. What are the chances. It's the yellow Bonneville convertible. The girls are probably one of my sisters and her friend Mary Beth.

Quote: Mosca

Almost all of those older cars are lost to the dust of time. But a couple years ago a funny thing happened. A Facebook page opened up titled "I walked to Mowry Park" which was a park near where I grew up. And an old neighbor, Tom Puckett, put up a bunch of old photos that his mom took, and in one of those photos... my first car. What are the chances. It's the yellow Bonneville convertible. The girls are probably one of my sisters and her friend Mary Beth.

Mowry park in Pleasant Hills? Are you serious?

Yep. We lived on Dutch Lane. TJ '72.