What's your favorite car?

s31463221 · Oct 5, 2016

All these Mercedes....

REALLY makes me miss my old Benz....I traded it a couple of years ago to my truck....and honestly I've regretted it ever since I let it go.....

suckolux · Oct 5, 2016

My brother just dumped as in what will you give me carmax 2 late model MB,one was nice, the other cute. He wanted to hit the road and roam after they sold their house here in CA, took their new F150, it was nice too. I very much enjoyed my 81? I want to say 300D, built like a tank

kirbyvertibles · Oct 5, 2016

Steve, that's beautiful!!!!

I felt that way for a while about my Volvo s-60. I still miss driving it but I've finally gotten over it. I drove the crap out of her. I made SEVERAL 5,000+mile road trips across this Country in it. Mostly from Kansas to Washington down to California and back.

vacerator · Oct 6, 2016

Yes,

Waynes World used a Pacer, and so did John Denver with George Burns in Oh God, and Oh God, you Devil.

gottahaveahoove · Oct 6, 2016

and....................

those Pacers are a great workspace to make a very large hoagi (sub to some folks) Remember that ad?

vacerator · Oct 6, 2016

I

don't recall that add John. So it was also a good tailgater.
By the time the Pacer came along, my two year old Gremlin was falling apart, so I was paying more attention to Monte Carlos and Olds Cutlasses. I didn't even want a Nova.
I sat home except from school, and work for a year to save for money down on a good car.
I didn't have the heart to sell it to anyone. The dealer gave me $500 for it.

vacerator · Oct 27, 2016

Austin,

A state trooper was indicted yesterday on charges of fraudulent salvage vehicle inspections.
So it can and does happen, that a dealer may unkowingly buy a salvaged vehicle at an auction that may have been rebuilt, but not have a salvage title reissue.

dysonman1 · Oct 27, 2016

The first car I ever bought was a 1979 Pontiac TransAm. I loved it, drove it until the wheels fell off (not literally). It did have almost 300,000 miles on it when it finally gave up the ghost.

When we got married, my husband bought a new Tie Yoda Corolla, and gave me the Tie Yoda Highlander that he had. I sold my big Dodge truck to a co-worker (for hauling deer out of the woods). I'm extremely impressed with the Highlander. It drives like a dream.

The Corolla is also a fantastic car. We took it to New Orleans on our honeymoon, and spent in total, $80 to go from St. Louis to New Orleans and back. It just sips the gas. He bought the 'sport' model, and it's so comfortable to both drive, and ride in.

The first time I saw the Corolla, Donnie told me to take it work so I could see how it handles. Lord, I got into that thing and there were a million buttons. Buttons everywhere. I mashed them all down, and floored it. Once I figured out what all the buttons were for, it was much better.

All in all, after much more than 50 years on this earth riding and driving a lot of vehicles, I think the Tie Yodas are the best.

vacerator · Oct 28, 2016

Yeah,

it's great to have so many choices in vehicles. Toyota builds quality ones, and most others run rather well until they get older also. Most have had issues and recalls. Today, it's Toyota again, for air bags.
The car business is a global giant today and all makers source parts from the huge consortium of suppliers, such as Takata, Bosch, Delphi, Eberspaker, Merritor, Nippon Denso, etc., etc.
So, a Toyota assembled her in the USA may have some same parts as a GM product.
GM and Fiat even share small vehicle suspension parts.

suckolux · Oct 28, 2016

Yesterday at the library there was an older fellow, gosh getting there myself! walking away from my car, I asked if something was wrong? He said Park Avenue, didn't know they still made that. Pretty car. I said thanks, they don't. It's 16 years old! But there isn't a nick or scratch in it, it looks new! Thanks very much, I try hard. Made my day!He had even looked inside the thing.

human · Oct 28, 2016

I got behind a 1941 (I think) Pontiac in rush hour traffic on Wednesday. It was beautifully restored in two-tone gray and silver but the exhaust just about asphyxiated me. There were no brand markings on the back but my dad has a '41 Olds similar to it (for sale, btw) and looking at some photos online, the '41 Pontiacs I saw all had the same distinctive five vertical chrome strips up the middle of the trunk lid. Amazingly, it didn't appear to be hot-rodded in any way.

dartman · Oct 29, 2016

Those older cars used simple 1bbl carbs and should have the usual idle mixture screw so if it was running that dirty it needed a tuneup or adjustment. I don't remember my Jeep or Power Wagon ever running so dirty they smelled bad or made my eyes water unless the choke was out when cold. My Jeep the engine was pretty tired and it even passed emissions testing in 77 when I first tagged it as the cut off back then was 41 or earlier vehicles. I think the standard was 1 percent or less C02 so not very tight but it passed and they checked for visible smoke too so even if it technically passed smoke would fail it. Later they went to 74 or earlier so my Dart is exempt, I have ran it through on a free self test and it passed better than many new cars in the late 80s after I super tuned the AVS 383 carb I plunked on the original 318. I kept the test reports it was so clean and the test guy saw me come in again and poked his helper and told him to watch this. It passed just as clean again and then he came out and showed me a picture of the 71 340 Dart he owned, his pride and joy.

tolivac · Oct 29, 2016

Mine has got to be my 2016 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited-Best car I have owned so far.Gas mileage is excellent for a car its size-and it does have all wheel drive-great for snow or ice.Mainly the ice storms we get here.

vacerator · Oct 30, 2016

How about a

"Zimmer Quicksilver"? Those of you anywhere near Pompano Beach Florida have likely see at least one.

real1shep · Oct 31, 2016

Speaking of

the Park Ave....my neighbor has a 19yr old version with 50,000 miles, not a scratch, goes back to the dealer for anything wrong. She's older and so I've driven the car for her a lot, even trips to the coast. Meh...car has some traction control system that when engaged, it growls ferociously sometimes. That would spook me, but the dealer can't find anything wrong. I guess the 'Ultra' models were supercharged, never drove one of those. Still, FWD and I'm not generally a fan. Repairs seem excessive on this car. Some sort of dash instrument cluster failure and they had to replace the whole dash cluster for $1,500. Had a manifold seal leak that recently cost more than that to repair.

I think she's putting more money into the car than it's worth. She loves the car though and remembers like yesterday when it was new. It keeps her happy to drive/have it, that's what counts.

Kevin

suckolux · Oct 31, 2016

my dash cluster had fading issues, in and out. 1 hour labor and sent to SF to a company that rebuilt it and polished the lense, 220 total. Changed the oil today, getting too old for this crap

human · Oct 31, 2016

The manifold seal issue is the achilles heel of the 3800 V6 engine that GM used in the Park Ave, LeSabre, Bonneville, Gran Prix, Olds Eighty-Eight, Ninety-Eight, etc. This was especially true of the 3800 series II engine that ran from 1995 to around 2001. The DexCool coolant they used (called 'DexKill' by many) would turn acidic over time and eat away the seals and let coolant into the oil, which is definitely not a good thing. I had a '97 Olds LSS that the mechanic caught just before it gave way and the repair was only about $400. Of course, I don't take my car to the 'stealership' where you pay double for repairs.

Other than that, the 3800 V6 is a rock-solid engine that will outlast the car if properly maintained. I had a friend whose dad had a 1991 Olds Ninety-Eight that he bought new and drove 400,000 miles before the body rusted out to the point that it was dangerous to drive.

suckolux · Oct 31, 2016

I have had that happen, was told that the plastic top half cracked around the egr port. Its a few hundred to replace and my mechanic is 109 an hour

air-waycharlie · Oct 31, 2016

My favorite is the 1964 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special. Just beautiful.

jmurray01 · Nov 1, 2016

With all that talk of Mercedes, I suppose it is appropriate to post a picture of my "new ride".

It's a 1996 C220 Diesel, "Classic" trim-level so not a lot in the way of extras, but the general build quality per se is luxurious enough for me. It has the automatic transmission (although the manual was also popular over here) which is mainly why I bought it, as my Peugeot and Ford are both manuals which were wreaking havoc with my left knee injury.

I got it for a great price, and it only has 134,000 miles on it which I believe is barely run-in for these engines.

Yes they are slow as hell, but you don't buy a big Mercedes with an automatic for speed! It'll do 80 easily, and the cruise control holds it there smoothly, just takes a little longer to get there in the first place...

The first thing I need to replace on that car is the alloys though, as the current ones are aftermarket and hideous in my opinion!! They would be nice on a sports car maybe, but not a saloon.