Age and cars owned

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jimbo
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Re: Age and cars owned

Post by jimbo »

Hey Kip Respect..a Mustang :rate10:

48....

Ford Escort 1.6 GL 5 door 1983 (couldn't afford the insurance on an XR3i :( ) did over 140k miles and sold it for a

Volvo 480 es 1990 (worst car I have owned....kept it for a few months then sold to save up for an MX5)

Volvo V70 2.5 turbo diesel 1999( rode around for near on 5 years on 2 motorbikes freezing my tits off to save for an MX5......just got enough dosh together when the wife told me she was pregnant...hence the Volvo....still going strong 14 years later...the Volvo that is !) (current car in house)

Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 turbo diesel SXI+ 2006- use it for teaching driving in, learners love it, cheap to run, 115k on the clock still on it's first clutch ! (current)

MX5 MK3 2.0 (with hard top) 2006.....my baby......finally got one, wife went mad last year and bought it for me, so have a toy to let the remains of my hair down........

still have a clean licence......26 years and not yet caught!..... :lol:

looking forward to next one sadly the corsa has only a while before it needs replacing and looking favourite at the moment is a VW Polo blue motion

Love my Volvo's and would buy another V70 as a "Family" car as it does everything, would like the new "F" type Jag if the money came my way !

Now 56! :) got there...still hopefully a few more years yet! :)

Still got the V70 Volvo now on 251k miles (lock down has kept this low)

Corsa went in 2013 to be replaced by a 2012 Mini "Baker Street edition" diesel a great car for teaching learners, got it second hand with 7k on the clock, car has been brilliant with learners trying to destroy it. but, now on 175k on the clock and still on first clutch!!! This would also now be on over 200k if not for lock down

Gone off the Jag, tempted to get the MX5 "converted" to a BBR 225HP monster :)
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jkbarnes
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Re: Age and cars owned

Post by jkbarnes »

50...

1976 Toyota Corolla: Technically my parents owned it, but they bought it for my brother and me. The silver paint job was so faded it looked primer grey. It had a black vinyl interior that was BRUTAL in the Virginia summers, and a 8-track player that my best friend and I ripped out in favor of a cassette player

1984 Honda CRX: This was the first car I bought with my money. It was a manual shift, in decent enough shape, and a ton of fun to drive...until it wasn’t. I eventually got rid of it because of something mechanical but can’t recall the specifics.

mid 80s Pulsar NX: Stop gap car at the end of college. It was decent enough, but the defroster never quite worked right.

1994 Honda Civic Coupe: My first new car purchased when I first got hired as a teacher. I loved this car - stick shift and fun to drive!

The Married Years: My Civic sold to get a ‘99 Honda Odyssey minivan for the 1st wife; I inherited her ‘96 Civic 4-door.

2003 Mazda3: When the van was paid off I replaced the Civic with this Mazda, beginning my love affair with Mazda. It was a 4 door automatic. I wanted a manual, but the ex didn’t know how to drive stick, nor did she want to learn. The official name for the color of the car mentioned the word blue, but really it was purple...I drove a purple car.

2012 Mazda5: Now a single dad with two kids, I needed something bigger. I replaced the Mazda3 4 door with a Mazda5 mini-minivan. I bought is used from CarMax, and it’s still going strong as my daily driver. The name of the game with this car is practicality & utility.

2004 Mazda MX-5: Purchased used from a friend with the encouragement of my wife, this is the single greatest purchase I’ve made in my life. I LOVE this car!

There was a shift in car priorities some where between the Mazda3 and the Mazda5. I had let my subscription to Car & Driver lapse and realized the folly of lusting after interesting or exotic cars. I started viewing cars as simply a way to get from point A to point B. Practicality & utility were now the driving motives. The Mazda5 is paid off and will continue to be my daily driver until in no longer makes sense financially to keep it on the road. It will be replaced with another used, inexpensive, practical car as a daily driver.

As for the MX-5, that’s therapy on four wheels. I will pay whatever sum is necessary to keep it running or will cough up whatever is necessary to replace it with another mk2 MX-5.
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Thegreyman
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Re: Age and cars owned

Post by Thegreyman »

jimbo wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:03 pm
Gone off the Jag, tempted to get the MX5 "converted" to a BBR 225HP monster :)
Good to see a few other MX5 current/ex owners about. Interestingly in 1989 (iirc) when the mk1 first came out, there was a limited edition Mazda sanctioned MX5 BBR Turbo version, someone at my work back in the 90's had one. That must have shifted, in a very lightweight car.

After posting last night I rembered I forgot:

Vauxhall Astra 1.3

and a few cars that were my wife's really

Ford Fiesta 1.25 LX
Honda Jazz Sport (the only brand new car we have ever bought)
Fiat Panda 1.2 Pop #1
Fiat Panda 1.2 Pop #2

The BMW will probably be due to be changed later this year so need to decide if it is just another 3 series or something completely different. If we are still in lockdown (please god not) then it's hardly worth having two cars when you can't go anywhere :problem:
Patrick

C60 Pro 300, C60 Sunrise, C63 Sealander Lucerne blue LE, C65 Dartmouth, W11 Amelia (wife), C63 Sealander (son)

Some others + a few on the way
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gaf1958
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Age and cars owned

Post by gaf1958 »

Age 62, almost 63, drivers licence at 17 (1975)

1975 (17) 1963 VW Beetle flat four, 1200cc I think. Wind down windows before closing doors...

1976 (18) 1971 Ford Cortina 2 litre 4 cyl. 2xtwin choke Webers and all the associated revvy bits. First and only time I lost my licence.

1978 (20) 1971 Dodge Dart 440ci (7.2L) big block V8 with relatively mild mods. In the 70s, the alarmingly light Dart (weighed almost the same as the Cortina!) could run a very respectable high 12 second quarter mile on 70 series radials (smoking the woefully narrow rear tyres to ~100kph) and was a good match for many of my mate’s 1100/1200cc motorbikes. It never met a corner it could handle gracefully though... Oh yes, the first to second gear change on full throttle was a beauty too - I had to steer to the left when it changed gear as otherwise the torque hit would shove the car one lane to the right (when the LS diff eventually caught up and worked). In Australia (we drive on the left) that would put you into the oncoming traffic on a 2 lane road. It was a lesson learned quickly and never forgotten.

1981 (23) 1981 Ford Cortina 4.1L (250ci) six cylinder. Not as pokey as the Dodge, but could manage the odd corner. The tale of its demise is listed below.

1986 (28) 1986 Ford Falcon 4.1L six. Bought to replace the Cortina which had rusted through (badly) in every body panel except the roof in five years. Ford eventually conceded that it never went through the anti-corrosive dip at the factory as it had been taken off the line after panel damage and then skipped a few steps. They gave me a trade in price which was very close to the price of the new Falcon to sweeten the deal. The Falcon lasted quite well in comparison. The Cortina went from Ford straight to the crusher. It had once been a lovely car.

1988 (30) 1974 2 door Holden Monaro. Gutted and replaced the anemic 308 Holden V8 with a mild(ish) 407ci small block Chev and associated running gear, a full bare metal repaint and importantly some great suspension work. Not as quick in a straight line as my old Dodge, but much more stylish and it could embarrass most cars of the time in the twisty bits. Brakes were not masterful though, but probably acceptable. It even had factory air-con.

1991 (33) 1991 Nissan Pintara TR/X 2.4 litre 4cyl. The arrival of my daughter the year before meant that the 2-door needed to go, to be replaced by something more family oriented. Not a lot of guts, but unlike every other Pintara put on this planet, the TR/X handled well. Just the thing to give a toddler a neck injury...

1997 (39) 1997 VT Holden Commodore. I kept this car for about 17 years; it was a trooper. Basically, I saw no reason to replace it until one of my daughters wrote it off. Even then I didn’t... see below.

2010 (52) I swallowed my pride and drove my wife’s Volvo 850 2.5L for a few years...

2014 (56) Traded the Volvo on a VW Jetta with the high output 2 litre. Lovely car, now owned by one of my daughters who maintains it beautifully. It was my introduction to DSG gearboxes (a double clutch automatic shifting manual with paddle shifters). The later 7 speed DSG couldn’t handle the torque from the engine, so the Jetta had the older, slightly less intelligent 6 speed version.

2016 (58) 2016 Porsche Macan. Massive fun, fabulous cruiser as 95% of our driving these days is made up of interstate runs which this excels at. Plan to keep it for many years yet. The Porsche 7 speed PDK gearbox (their DSG equivalent) is seemingly linked telepathically to my mind, as it is alway ready with the right gear; I’m never caught flat footed with it. Mind you with 580Nm (428ft/lb) of torque, it’s hard to be caught flat footed. Mind you 2nd gear is a winner...

2017 (59) Added a demo 2016 VW “California” wide bodied Beetle to the stable as a city car. A real looker (if you like v-dubs and I do), small and easy to drive, park. Moderately lively with a supercharged and turbocharged 1.4L 4 and 7 speed double clutch auto shifting manual.


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