In my early teens(I was born in 1957) my automotive tastes were a bit schizophrenic; as for obtainable cars, I lusted after a 2002tii, a Bavaria, a 240Z, a TR3A and a Camaro Z28 with the RS package. As for dream cars, it was the Daytona, the 1971 Road Runner(w/426 Hemi), and the XK120...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
And the reason she stopped? Her car chose that exact moment to break down on her, and she figured that since I went to her school, she could catch my bus in to work
Maybe she faked it to see you. School kid fantasy. LOL
80s for me, what a horrible time for car enthusiasts. :sick:
I wasn't in to muscle cars because I'd watched my dad waiting in line to fill up his '72 Buick Electra and his Z28 T-top. The latter was fun but I wasn't going to wait in line, and emissions strangled those V8s back then.
So I looked to smaller cars. A neighbor has a Fiat roadster that he was restoring, that was the sort of car I wanted.
Dream car? Watching rally made me crave a Lancia Stratos.
I never had the big rig phase, but I could never deny that a fancy custom 70s rig with a garish custom painted stagecoach scene trailer is about as cool as it gets.
On the chronic buyer theme, I looked at bikes yesterday. Didn't buy, but maybe moved closer. sat on a low miles SV650 - didn't feel right somehow, maybe being the half faired version that looks odd to me. Also sat on a new Ducati Monster - liked it a lot, felt really good in size and weight. Also tried on a couple 2013 model sheep in wolfs clothing Ninjas (300, 650) - nice, too.
Yeah, it sucked for the most part, but there were some bright spots. The Japanese sportscars come to mind.
It wasn't all bad. Yeah, I really liked cars the 280/300Z, Supra, RX-7, and of course BMW, and VW Sirocco and GTI etc. I had a wide range of tastes. I always liked the 308 and 328 Ferarri along with the 911 and 928 etc.
Yeah, the Starion/Conquest were cool. Kind of a poor mans 944.
Had a neighbor that lived across the street who bought a new black Omni GLH Turbo. IIRC it was in '85 or '86. It sounded cool, never drove one of those though.
It only had a 318 but it was pretty fast. By 74 the punch had been taken out of the 440s due to emission standards. The Charger was about as fast as the 69 Plymouth which also had a 318.
If I had gotten the 69 Hemi Charger (426) back then I'd probably never have lived long enough to get the 74. Sometimes things happen for a reason.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
The friend with the GTI replaced it with a Shadow ES turbo, the early 2.2l turbos. I think the guy with the Omni convinced him they were fast and therefore worthwhile.
Those engines were finicky, though.
The Omni guy switched to Hondas, and my buddy went from GTI to Shadow to Jeep Wranglers. Go figure.
My uncle bought a used '88 LeBaron turbo coupe in 1990. He had originally set out looking for a Grand Am, but when he saw how cheap and plasticky the interiors were, it turned him off. I know it sounds funny, griping about a Grand Am interior and then buying a K-car, but that sucker actually did have a pretty nice interior.
I forget how many miles it had on it when he bought it, but he sold it to me in 1995, soon after I got married, so the wife could have something semi-modern to drive. It wasn't a bad car until around the 90,000 mile mark. That's when we had the timing belt done, and they also did the camshaft and crankshaft seals, and something to do with the FWD, like CV joints or something?
Anyway, after that the car went downhill fast, but fortunately we were separated by then, so it was her problem and not mine! It went from decent to total junk in the next two years and 28,000 miles. Some sensor fried, causing it to over-rev. The a/c broke. Power antenna broke. Trip computer started telling bald-faced lies about how many miles you had to empty. Paint started wearing down to the primer in some spots, although it was mostly still shiny.
Then, the head gasket blew. Turns out the head was warped, as well. My ex wife and her mother found someone who put on a used head and a new gasket, but it still wasn't right. So I talked her into letting me take it to my mechanic, and he got it sort of running for $75, but said to not put another dime into it. Whoever put it back together made a mess of the wires and vacuum hoses, and that was part of why it was running so bad. But, the mechanic also found out that the turbo was shot, and compression was really bad in two of the cylinders and low in the other two.
In the end, we limped it to my grandmother's house, and I gave her something like $80 or $90 for it so she could buy two tickets to see Faith No More at the 9:30 club in DC. I pulled out the stereo in the hopes of trying to fit it into the '79 Newport I had at the time, but the wiring was all different so I didn't. Ended up selling the car for parts. I think I got $700 or $800 for it...can't remember now. And the radio's still in my grandmother's garage somewhere!
It's a shame though, that the car crapped out like it did later in life. It really was a nice car before it went downhill. We drove it cross-country on our honeymoon, and it did fine. I got about 28 mpg when I drove and the wife broke 30 a couple times. Not bad for a turbo and only a 3-speed, non-overdrive automatic. I thought it was a good looking car, too.
Oh, I should add that it did get stolen a few times, so it's possible that could have been the cause of its problems later in life. I'd like to think that the joy-riders took good care of it, but I'm quite that naive!
Same turbos from the Shadow IIRC. Shadow was lighter so it was quicker, but not as nice inside.
Funny that Dodge's small car was a 2.2l turbo, Ford had the Escort and went with a DOHC 1.8l engine, and Chevy stuffed a V6 in the Cavalier and called it the Z24.
Yeah, most likely the same turbo...2.2 with 146 hp. For what they were, I thought those Shadows and Sundances were fairly nice inside. I think Chrysler saved a LOT of money by basing just about everything off the K-car platform, so as a result, they could splurge a bit more with interior materials.
In later years, Chrysler started putting 3.0 V-6es from Mitsubishi in a lot of these K-car variants, so I guess they took a cue from Chevy. And while Ford's Escort was always 4-cyl, Ford did take the Tempo and start stuffing their Vulcan 3.0 from the Taurus under the hood.
I always wondered if that 3.0 Tempo was much of a performer? The Cavalier Z-24 wasn't bad for the time, and neither were the 3.0 Shadows and Sundances.
Wasn't that the first (or second) year of the redesign on the Escort?
I remember debating at the time between an Escort GT and the '90 Civic Si I ended up purchasing. IIRC, the Escort was a bit more expensive, so that made it a little easier to go with the Honda.
At the time, I also really wanted the Isuzu Impulse, which at that time was mostly a rebadged Geo Storm, but with "Handling by Lotus."
It went from decent to total junk in the next two years and 28,000 miles.
That's kind of what my old Windstall did. It hit 80K and had been OK - more repair than I was used but in acceptable range - and then it flew downhill in a big hurry and was gone within 10K. I know we never saw it hit 90K. That was in 1999. I still have its replacement.
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
I paid $10,792 out the door, so decent bang for the buck. List was $12.4k.
My experience was the opposite of yours - I remember markups on Hondas back then, at least at Ourisman Honda in Bethesda, MD. I'm talking $14k sticker, $16k on the window, though who knows how far they'd deal down.
Do you remember what you paid for yours?
Friend of mine had an Impulse, he removed the Isuzu badges so it only had the Lotus badges. LOL
Those had a good 130hp but I seem to recall they had basically no torque. He had to rev the daylights out of it.
My Escort has 127hp but more torque then the Impulse. The Si had less of both but I'm sure it weighed less.
Don't recall anyone posting about a Special Edition in here, but if you got one or know someone, let us know. Thanks.
If you bought a new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Fiat "special edition" model in the past year or so - or if you are a dealer who sold one - a reporter would love to hear about it. Please email PR@edmunds.com no later than Wednesday, October 10, 2012 with your daytime phone number and a brief description of the car and your experience with it.
The first "Special Edition" that pops into my mind is the old Dodge Dart Special Edition of 1974-76, with the ritzy velour seats, shag carpeting, and color-keyed hubcaps.
There was also a Charger S/E, basically a clone of the Cordoba, and an Aspen S/E, although I think in later years they called the top trim level "Medallion".
I think those SE badges went away in the early 80's, but they resurfaced around 2001. That year, Dodge took the base Intrepid and called it "Intrepid SE"
Remember how Gulf War I drove gas prices up to (gasp!) $1.50/gal? I did ... first wife and I were driving an '88 Isuzu Trooper at the time and it was costing $30 a tank to fill up.
Ouch!
Plus, we had an Isuzu P'up and a 2 year old, so we decided to replace both cars within a few months of one another.
I don't remember what we looked at, but wife settled on a '91 Mazda Protege LX (the one that looked like a baby E-class).
When it was my turn, I too looked at the Protege - a stick vs. her automatic, and light blue instead of her dark blue.
Thought it would be silly to have two of the same make and model in the garage, so I passed.
I looked at the Hyundai Scoupe (remember those?), the Nissan Sentra SE and the Civic Si. The Hyundai was ruled out pretty quickly. I really, really, really wanted a Sentra SE-R, but it was just a bit too expensive for our budget.
So, it came down to the Si or the SE. When I talked to our insurance agent about which was cheaper to insure, we were told the Nissan.
Bought it .. don't remember all the details, but I think we paid somewhere between $10-11K for it.
I drove down to Atlanta and got gas for $0.86. Least I ever paid!
Came back to DC and $0.99 was EXPENSIVE!
My Escort had the same engine as the Protoge ES. Ford and Mazda shared a bunch of stuff back then.
I test drove a Scoupe! Funny! It was basically an Excel with nicer styling. I passed, of course. Those were so cheap, the disposable car.
The cool Sentra was the SE-R. 140hp was great for the class back then, but it cost a bunch more than my Escort.
SE-R was another car that carried mark-ups around here. I can't imagine how many buyers dealers scared away with those dealer markups. Funny thing is I never even test drove an SE-R or a Civic Si for that precise reason.
Wish we had services like TrueCar and no-haggle dealers back then.
Oh dear. Here we are as middle aged guys talking about way back when....
I don't remember if the SE-R had markups in CA, but the Hondas sure did. Weren't the voluntary import restrictions still in place at that time? Those really messed with the supply and demand curves.
Plus, owning a Honda dealership at the time was pretty much a license to print money.
some of which you had to kickback to the American Honda sales executives - see the book "Arrogance and Accords" for more details
The SE-R, IIRC, was about a grand more than the SE. Still had to pay extra for a stereo and A/C on either model. Not sure if power windows were even available.
The SE had 110HP from 1.6L. Mine was a red 5-speed with a spoiler and 13" (!) alloy wheels. The SE-R had 14" wheels, which looked so much better.
My dad bought a '92 Scoupe new for my brother and sister to share. My brother quickly found a nice used RX-7 to drive. But that Scoupe lasted until my sister graduated from college with nearly 130k miles, the trans died that summer which obviously ended it's life as an automobile. But it withstood 7 years of her abuse. I don't know how many curbs or guardrails she hit with that car. At the end, I don't think it had a body panel without a dent or scratch.
Yeah those gen SE-R are somewhat legendary. I have an uncle that's only 7 years older than I. When he graduated from college he bought an '87 CRX-SI. I remember he was on a waiting list to get it.
I remember in February of 1979 (I was almost 21 yrs old) I filled up my brand spanking new Datsun 210 hatchback (MSRP $4,100) for .65 a gallon at an Exxon station. I put in 10 gallons.. $6.50 total. I think I was making $4-$5 and hr working fulltime at Kroger. Nothing like a terrible job making you buckle down and finish college so I could get outta there!
For a while, I've had a fascination with station wagons (anything before 1979). Found three on Ebay yesterday. One in particular, a 1976 Buick Estate wagon with the clam-shell tailgate was just beautiful. I grew up with station wagons so I think that's where it's coming from.
A guy in my car club has a 1973 Pontiac Safari wagon with the wood paneling, vinyl top, luggage rack and all the goodies.... car looks really loaded and it also has the clam-shell tailgate. GM made them from '71-76 on their large wagons.
I'm not going to scratch that itch until I'm finished motorhoming.... don't want to put too many irons in the fire.
Mark156
2010 Land Rover LR4, 2013 Honda CR-V, 2009 Bentley GTC, 1990 MB 500SL, 2001 MB S500, 2007 Lincoln TC, 1964 RR Silver Cloud III, 1995 MB E320 Cab., 2015 Prevost Liberty Coach
I think I was making $4-$5 and hr working fulltime at Kroger. Nothing like a terrible job making you buckle down and finish college so I could get outta there!
Wow, it's amazing what a few years of inflation can do to your wages. My Granddad retired at the age of 60 in 1974, after 35 years on the railroad, and he was only making $5-6 per hour!
Kroger paid really well during that time, we had a union. When I left in 1983, I was making just shy of $11 per hour regular pay, made time-and-half on Sunday's and double time on holidays. Soon after I left, Sunday pay went to just .50 a hr. additional pay.
I definitely rode the wave while it was good but I'll tell you one thing, you have to love what you do or a job feels like a prison (never been just assuming, LOL!). I would rather live a lower lifestyle rather doing something I hate.
Mark156
To stay on topic, the very first car I purchased on my own was a 1972 Dodge Charger (in 1977), dark brown, tan vinyl, front half black vinyl top, 32,000 miles for $1,400. 318 engine, 12 mpg city.
2010 Land Rover LR4, 2013 Honda CR-V, 2009 Bentley GTC, 1990 MB 500SL, 2001 MB S500, 2007 Lincoln TC, 1964 RR Silver Cloud III, 1995 MB E320 Cab., 2015 Prevost Liberty Coach
there is 1 less Honda in the CCB fleet. One guy that I have been going back and forth with for a couple weeks finally came up (From Delaware, about an hour or so) with his family. Had a cashiers check, and took it away with him. So, the garage bay is now empty, waiting for the Volvo to move back inside. And there will be some money in the bank.
Got way less than I was counting on when this process started (good thing for the wife we bought than sold, otherwise she would now be buying a CRV!). But it is gone, and I can stop dealing with the flakes and loonies from Craig's. And cars.com was probably even worse, they just came from further away!
Time to move on, and wait for the time to get something for me. Most likely not soon, since we will be sharing 2 cars for the 3 of us until the bank account recovers. Hopefully my son has a job when he graduates, and can get a new car and I can just repo the TL from him in June.
I had some of the cars out this evening so I could rearrange them in the garage, and with seeing everything out in the driveway like that, made me think this looks really bad...
Now, before y'all get on me about slipping yet another one in, I drove my Mom and stepdad to the train station on Friday, and while they're gone, I'm "babysitting"...so that one misfit isn't mine! :P
You better move the Altima, I think it may be suffering some serious anxiety from worrying about a possible beat down by the surrounding Detroit iron;)
I didn't intend the pic to turn out that way but yeah, it does look like those mastodons are circling for the kill, doesn't it?
I kinda hate that car, partly because I think it's ugly, partly because it's not very comfortable to me, but I have to confess, it's been a good car for my Mom and stepdad. It did eat a transmission around 35,000 miles, but it was replaced under warranty, and the car now has about 340,000 miles on it.
Seeing it in my driveway does give me a bit of a bad vibe, too. I have a recurring bad dream (not quite a nightmare), where my Mom and stepdad run into financial problems and move in with me! :surprise: So, seeing their car in my hard is a bit like an omen...
that is the car I should have had for my son back in 2008. Neighbor had it, and I saw the sign. Drove it, decided to think on it, and his kid sold it out from under to a freind. Snooze you loose, but it is still in the neighborhood.
a white 1998 Altime GXE, with ~80K on the clock at the time. I think they wanted $3,100 for it. My son was not fond of it (chick car!) but for the money, it was a steal. Even with some smoker smell in it ...
My Mom and stepdad are thinking about getting rid of their Altima, but they're convinced that it's worth about $3,000. And oddly enough, I looked it up on KBB.com, and even with 340,000 miles on it, the private party value ranges from about $2500 for "fair" to $3500 for "excellent".
I don't see how that can be right, though? It actually runs great for its age, no squeaks or rattles or anything. The check engine light is on, my stedpdad says that's because the EGR valve keeps clogging up and it's hard to get to. It has a big tear in the carpet on the passenger side, where it looks like one of them has been rubbing the side of their shoe. But otherwise, it act like a car with 1/4 the miles.
But still...at 340K miles, it's like a 96 year old man in perfect health. There are only so many more mornings that he's going to wake up, no matter how healthy he is.
I just can't see something like this being worth much more than $500-1000, tops, at that mileage.
Oh, I flat out told 'em I didn't want it. I learned that with my Mom and stepdad, hand-me-downs come with strings attached. Back in '98 they gave me a miled-up '86 Monte Carlo. I got t-boned in it after about three months, while delivering pizzas. Sent the the emergency room to get checked out (luckily just shook up and an adrenaline rush) and the car was totaled. When I told my Mom and stepdad, the first thing out of their mouth was "why were you delivering pizzas in THAT car?!" Not, "thank God you're okay", or anything along those lines. :mad:
In 2002, they sold me the Silverado for $1200. My grandmother was a bit miffed at that, as she GAVE the truck to them. But admittedly, Mom and stepdad did put some money into it. My original plan was to pay them $100 per month. But then, she ran into a problem where her cats started disappearing. She found out her neighbor's father was trapping them and turning them over to animal control She bailed three of 'em out, but I think one or two others got put down. Anyway, she asked if I would take one of the ones she bailed out. Naively, I said yes. At that point I had only paid her $200, and since I took her cat, she said don't worry about the rest.
Well, first off, that cat taught my other car how to shred furniture. When we moved from the condo to the house, it reached out from the carrier and dug its claws into the armrest of the Intrepid, and left its mark. In early 2004 I got a new kitten, and her cat started peeing down the furnace duct in the living room in protest.
In 2005 we got a dog, and in retaliation, that cat peed on my bed. The second time it did it, that was the last straw. I had sold the condo by then, had some money, so I paid Mom the remaining $1,000 for the truck. And then on Mother's Day 2005, I crated that monster up and gave it back to my her!
So, needless to say, I'd be afraid to see what kind of strings would come attached to this Altima!
Oh, back in the spring, they were thinking about getting rid of their 2008 Altima, as well. In an attempt to reduce their fleet. Right now they have a 2011 Prius, 2008 Altima, 2002 F-150, the '99 Altima, and a '98 Expedition. They were thinking about killing two 'possums with one rock...get rid of the Expedition and the '08 Altima, and replace it with an Escape, which they think is still strong enough to pull their boat.
I had thought about it, as they'd probably give me a good deal. But, the more I thought about it...if anything happened to that car, they'd still gripe about it. And, I'm not taking any more critters!
The really alarming part is that those better paying retail hell jobs might average around 2.5x that today, but gas is about 7x, cheapo car is about 4x, tuition must be 10x or more, and I can't even get into housing, healthcare, etc.
I like the clamshells a lot too, the cars were nicely designed for something of such mass, and the rear gate is very cool.
My dad bought a white CRX in the mid-80s. I'm not sure what year, but it had no factory A/C. The dealer called him when his spot was up on the waiting list, and told him they had just unloaded two of them from the car hauler. He had to pick whether he wanted a red one or white one and take delivery within a day or so in order not to lose his place in line.
that reminds me. A few days ago, I saw an early CRX for sale. It was red. Pretty sure it was just a base type car. I was not able to stop (and my wife was with me!) but that would be a cool toy to add to the fleet as my spare.
Now, I just have to remember where the heck I saw it...
I remember that was the type of climate for buying Hondas back then, so I just stayed away.
Some people are just suckers. No wonder the execs were getting kickbacks. I'm sure it was the most crooked dealers that got the most cars and could charge those markups.
Insanity.
Speaking of the Sentra SE-R, do you guys remember the NX2000? It was the ugly duckling hatch model, the one with the T-top optional. Ugly as it was I wanted one of those. Same 140hp in a lower, sleeker package.
American turbos were all finicky back then. The 2.2 put out between 146 and 174hp depending on the tuning. The more powerful version must have been pretty fast for the time in a 2600 pound car. The ES Shadow dropped the 2.2 turbo when the Mitsubishi sourced 3.0 became available.
Here's one that caught my eye just because you don't see them anymore and it's a convertible.
His coupe wasn't very rigid, I can't imagine the flex on that drop top.
There was an engine in between, also. Early models had a 2.2l turbo, but then they had a 2.5l turbo for a year or two, before the V6 came out.
To give you an idea of how that turbo held up, my Escort GT was totalled, and my buddy still wanted to get my Escort to replace his Shadow. I just took money from insurance and ran.
Comments
Yes, that's the California Roof; it was a special edition model at first, then it became a separate option.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Maybe she faked it to see you. School kid fantasy. LOL
80s for me, what a horrible time for car enthusiasts. :sick:
I wasn't in to muscle cars because I'd watched my dad waiting in line to fill up his '72 Buick Electra and his Z28 T-top. The latter was fun but I wasn't going to wait in line, and emissions strangled those V8s back then.
So I looked to smaller cars. A neighbor has a Fiat roadster that he was restoring, that was the sort of car I wanted.
Dream car? Watching rally made me crave a Lancia Stratos.
Funny thing is I've never owned an Italian car.
On the chronic buyer theme, I looked at bikes yesterday. Didn't buy, but maybe moved closer. sat on a low miles SV650 - didn't feel right somehow, maybe being the half faired version that looks odd to me. Also sat on a new Ducati Monster - liked it a lot, felt really good in size and weight. Also tried on a couple 2013 model sheep in wolfs clothing Ninjas (300, 650) - nice, too.
I had to fix that for ya.
Yeah, it sucked for the most part, but there were some bright spots. The Japanese sportscars come to mind.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
It wasn't all bad. Yeah, I really liked cars the 280/300Z, Supra, RX-7, and of course BMW, and VW Sirocco and GTI etc. I had a wide range of tastes. I always liked the 308 and 328 Ferarri along with the 911 and 928 etc.
I could go on and on.
I did like the Mitsu Starion turbos. Top Gear had a fun segment with one.
RX7 was cool back then, I liked those. A buddy took me for a spin in a 944 Turbo and that was a rush.
A friend had a GTI and I liked that, and his buddy had an Omni GLHS, which was quick but I still couldn't like it.
There were a few bright spots, but mostly it was an era of OPEC hangovers.
Had a neighbor that lived across the street who bought a new black Omni GLH Turbo. IIRC it was in '85 or '86. It sounded cool, never drove one of those though.
It only had a 318 but it was pretty fast. By 74 the punch had been taken out of the 440s due to emission standards. The Charger was about as fast as the 69 Plymouth which also had a 318.
If I had gotten the 69 Hemi Charger (426) back then I'd probably never have lived long enough to get the 74. Sometimes things happen for a reason.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Those engines were finicky, though.
The Omni guy switched to Hondas, and my buddy went from GTI to Shadow to Jeep Wranglers. Go figure.
I forget how many miles it had on it when he bought it, but he sold it to me in 1995, soon after I got married, so the wife could have something semi-modern to drive. It wasn't a bad car until around the 90,000 mile mark. That's when we had the timing belt done, and they also did the camshaft and crankshaft seals, and something to do with the FWD, like CV joints or something?
Anyway, after that the car went downhill fast, but fortunately we were separated by then, so it was her problem and not mine! It went from decent to total junk in the next two years and 28,000 miles. Some sensor fried, causing it to over-rev. The a/c broke. Power antenna broke. Trip computer started telling bald-faced lies about how many miles you had to empty. Paint started wearing down to the primer in some spots, although it was mostly still shiny.
Then, the head gasket blew. Turns out the head was warped, as well. My ex wife and her mother found someone who put on a used head and a new gasket, but it still wasn't right. So I talked her into letting me take it to my mechanic, and he got it sort of running for $75, but said to not put another dime into it. Whoever put it back together made a mess of the wires and vacuum hoses, and that was part of why it was running so bad. But, the mechanic also found out that the turbo was shot, and compression was really bad in two of the cylinders and low in the other two.
In the end, we limped it to my grandmother's house, and I gave her something like $80 or $90 for it so she could buy two tickets to see Faith No More at the 9:30 club in DC. I pulled out the stereo in the hopes of trying to fit it into the '79 Newport I had at the time, but the wiring was all different so I didn't. Ended up selling the car for parts. I think I got $700 or $800 for it...can't remember now. And the radio's still in my grandmother's garage somewhere!
It's a shame though, that the car crapped out like it did later in life. It really was a nice car before it went downhill. We drove it cross-country on our honeymoon, and it did fine. I got about 28 mpg when I drove and the wife broke 30 a couple times. Not bad for a turbo and only a 3-speed, non-overdrive automatic. I thought it was a good looking car, too.
Oh, I should add that it did get stolen a few times, so it's possible that could have been the cause of its problems later in life. I'd like to think that the joy-riders took good care of it, but I'm quite that naive!
Funny that Dodge's small car was a 2.2l turbo, Ford had the Escort and went with a DOHC 1.8l engine, and Chevy stuffed a V6 in the Cavalier and called it the Z24.
3 diverse strategies.
In later years, Chrysler started putting 3.0 V-6es from Mitsubishi in a lot of these K-car variants, so I guess they took a cue from Chevy. And while Ford's Escort was always 4-cyl, Ford did take the Tempo and start stuffing their Vulcan 3.0 from the Taurus under the hood.
I always wondered if that 3.0 Tempo was much of a performer? The Cavalier Z-24 wasn't bad for the time, and neither were the 3.0 Shadows and Sundances.
I got a 91 Escort GT. EPA mpg was 26/31, not the best but WAY better than the V6 compacts of the era. It was light so it was fun to drive.
Ford is using small displacement again, deja vu? This time turbo, though.
I remember debating at the time between an Escort GT and the '90 Civic Si I ended up purchasing. IIRC, the Escort was a bit more expensive, so that made it a little easier to go with the Honda.
At the time, I also really wanted the Isuzu Impulse, which at that time was mostly a rebadged Geo Storm, but with "Handling by Lotus."
2024 Audi Q8 e-tron - 2017 911 C4S - 2025 BRZ - 2023 A6 Allroad - 2024 Genesis GV60 - 2019 Cayman
That's kind of what my old Windstall did. It hit 80K and had been OK - more repair than I was used but in acceptable range - and then it flew downhill in a big hurry and was gone within 10K. I know we never saw it hit 90K. That was in 1999. I still have its replacement.
I paid $10,792 out the door, so decent bang for the buck. List was $12.4k.
My experience was the opposite of yours - I remember markups on Hondas back then, at least at Ourisman Honda in Bethesda, MD. I'm talking $14k sticker, $16k on the window, though who knows how far they'd deal down.
Do you remember what you paid for yours?
Friend of mine had an Impulse, he removed the Isuzu badges so it only had the Lotus badges. LOL
Those had a good 130hp but I seem to recall they had basically no torque. He had to rev the daylights out of it.
My Escort has 127hp but more torque then the Impulse. The Si had less of both but I'm sure it weighed less.
To be honest I was more interested in the CRX Si.
If you bought a new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Fiat "special edition" model in the past year or so - or if you are a dealer who sold one - a reporter would love to hear about it. Please email PR@edmunds.com no later than Wednesday, October 10, 2012 with your daytime phone number and a brief description of the car and your experience with it.
There was also a Charger S/E, basically a clone of the Cordoba, and an Aspen S/E, although I think in later years they called the top trim level "Medallion".
I think those SE badges went away in the early 80's, but they resurfaced around 2001. That year, Dodge took the base Intrepid and called it "Intrepid SE"
Remember how Gulf War I drove gas prices up to (gasp!) $1.50/gal? I did ... first wife and I were driving an '88 Isuzu Trooper at the time and it was costing $30 a tank to fill up.
Ouch!
Plus, we had an Isuzu P'up and a 2 year old, so we decided to replace both cars within a few months of one another.
I don't remember what we looked at, but wife settled on a '91 Mazda Protege LX (the one that looked like a baby E-class).
When it was my turn, I too looked at the Protege - a stick vs. her automatic, and light blue instead of her dark blue.
Thought it would be silly to have two of the same make and model in the garage, so I passed.
I looked at the Hyundai Scoupe (remember those?), the Nissan Sentra SE and the Civic Si. The Hyundai was ruled out pretty quickly. I really, really, really wanted a Sentra SE-R, but it was just a bit too expensive for our budget.
So, it came down to the Si or the SE. When I talked to our insurance agent about which was cheaper to insure, we were told the Nissan.
Bought it .. don't remember all the details, but I think we paid somewhere between $10-11K for it.
Nice car, but I really wanted the SE-R or the Si.
Oh, well.
{here we go...}
I drove down to Atlanta and got gas for $0.86. Least I ever paid!
Came back to DC and $0.99 was EXPENSIVE!
My Escort had the same engine as the Protoge ES. Ford and Mazda shared a bunch of stuff back then.
I test drove a Scoupe! Funny! It was basically an Excel with nicer styling. I passed, of course. Those were so cheap, the disposable car.
The cool Sentra was the SE-R. 140hp was great for the class back then, but it cost a bunch more than my Escort.
SE-R was another car that carried mark-ups around here. I can't imagine how many buyers dealers scared away with those dealer markups. Funny thing is I never even test drove an SE-R or a Civic Si for that precise reason.
Wish we had services like TrueCar and no-haggle dealers back then.
I don't remember if the SE-R had markups in CA, but the Hondas sure did. Weren't the voluntary import restrictions still in place at that time? Those really messed with the supply and demand curves.
Plus, owning a Honda dealership at the time was pretty much a license to print money.
some of which you had to kickback to the American Honda sales executives - see the book "Arrogance and Accords" for more details
The SE-R, IIRC, was about a grand more than the SE. Still had to pay extra for a stereo and A/C on either model. Not sure if power windows were even available.
The SE had 110HP from 1.6L. Mine was a red 5-speed with a spoiler and 13" (!) alloy wheels. The SE-R had 14" wheels, which looked so much better.
My dad bought a '92 Scoupe new for my brother and sister to share. My brother quickly found a nice used RX-7 to drive. But that Scoupe lasted until my sister graduated from college with nearly 130k miles, the trans died that summer which obviously ended it's life as an automobile. But it withstood 7 years of her abuse. I don't know how many curbs or guardrails she hit with that car. At the end, I don't think it had a body panel without a dent or scratch.
I drove it a few times, man was it slow.
The least I ever remember paying was maybe 31 cents - but that was in the early 70s.
I remember prices dropping below $1/gal in 1999 ... we owned a Ford Expedition at the time and it was nice to fill that beast up with such cheap gas.
Yeah those gen SE-R are somewhat legendary. I have an uncle that's only 7 years older than I. When he graduated from college he bought an '87 CRX-SI. I remember he was on a waiting list to get it.
For a while, I've had a fascination with station wagons (anything before 1979). Found three on Ebay yesterday. One in particular, a 1976 Buick Estate wagon with the clam-shell tailgate was just beautiful. I grew up with station wagons so I think that's where it's coming from.
A guy in my car club has a 1973 Pontiac Safari wagon with the wood paneling, vinyl top, luggage rack and all the goodies.... car looks really loaded and it also has the clam-shell tailgate. GM made them from '71-76 on their large wagons.
I'm not going to scratch that itch until I'm finished motorhoming.... don't want to put too many irons in the fire.
Mark156
Wow, it's amazing what a few years of inflation can do to your wages. My Granddad retired at the age of 60 in 1974, after 35 years on the railroad, and he was only making $5-6 per hour!
I definitely rode the wave while it was good but I'll tell you one thing, you have to love what you do or a job feels like a prison (never been just assuming, LOL!). I would rather live a lower lifestyle rather doing something I hate.
Mark156
To stay on topic, the very first car I purchased on my own was a 1972 Dodge Charger (in 1977), dark brown, tan vinyl, front half black vinyl top, 32,000 miles for $1,400. 318 engine, 12 mpg city.
Got way less than I was counting on when this process started (good thing for the wife we bought than sold, otherwise she would now be buying a CRV!). But it is gone, and I can stop dealing with the flakes and loonies from Craig's. And cars.com was probably even worse, they just came from further away!
Time to move on, and wait for the time to get something for me. Most likely not soon, since we will be sharing 2 cars for the 3 of us until the bank account recovers. Hopefully my son has a job when he graduates, and can get a new car and I can just repo the TL from him in June.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Now, before y'all get on me about slipping yet another one in, I drove my Mom and stepdad to the train station on Friday, and while they're gone, I'm "babysitting"...so that one misfit isn't mine! :P
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Mark156
I kinda hate that car, partly because I think it's ugly, partly because it's not very comfortable to me, but I have to confess, it's been a good car for my Mom and stepdad. It did eat a transmission around 35,000 miles, but it was replaced under warranty, and the car now has about 340,000 miles on it.
Seeing it in my driveway does give me a bit of a bad vibe, too. I have a recurring bad dream (not quite a nightmare), where my Mom and stepdad run into financial problems and move in with me! :surprise: So, seeing their car in my hard is a bit like an omen...
From the pic, it still looks like it's in good shape. 340k on any car is impressive.
a white 1998 Altime GXE, with ~80K on the clock at the time. I think they wanted $3,100 for it. My son was not fond of it (chick car!) but for the money, it was a steal. Even with some smoker smell in it ...
much better than the Contour I got instead.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I don't see how that can be right, though? It actually runs great for its age, no squeaks or rattles or anything. The check engine light is on, my stedpdad says that's because the EGR valve keeps clogging up and it's hard to get to. It has a big tear in the carpet on the passenger side, where it looks like one of them has been rubbing the side of their shoe. But otherwise, it act like a car with 1/4 the miles.
But still...at 340K miles, it's like a 96 year old man in perfect health. There are only so many more mornings that he's going to wake up, no matter how healthy he is.
I just can't see something like this being worth much more than $500-1000, tops, at that mileage.
I'd be surprised if they got $3K for it but I wouldn't be shocked.
In 2002, they sold me the Silverado for $1200. My grandmother was a bit miffed at that, as she GAVE the truck to them. But admittedly, Mom and stepdad did put some money into it. My original plan was to pay them $100 per month. But then, she ran into a problem where her cats started disappearing. She found out her neighbor's father was trapping them and turning them over to animal control She bailed three of 'em out, but I think one or two others got put down. Anyway, she asked if I would take one of the ones she bailed out. Naively, I said yes. At that point I had only paid her $200, and since I took her cat, she said don't worry about the rest.
Well, first off, that cat taught my other car how to shred furniture. When we moved from the condo to the house, it reached out from the carrier and dug its claws into the armrest of the Intrepid, and left its mark. In early 2004 I got a new kitten, and her cat started peeing down the furnace duct in the living room in protest.
In 2005 we got a dog, and in retaliation, that cat peed on my bed. The second time it did it, that was the last straw. I had sold the condo by then, had some money, so I paid Mom the remaining $1,000 for the truck. And then on Mother's Day 2005, I crated that monster up and gave it back to my her!
So, needless to say, I'd be afraid to see what kind of strings would come attached to this Altima!
Oh, back in the spring, they were thinking about getting rid of their 2008 Altima, as well. In an attempt to reduce their fleet. Right now they have a 2011 Prius, 2008 Altima, 2002 F-150, the '99 Altima, and a '98 Expedition. They were thinking about killing two 'possums with one rock...get rid of the Expedition and the '08 Altima, and replace it with an Escape, which they think is still strong enough to pull their boat.
I had thought about it, as they'd probably give me a good deal. But, the more I thought about it...if anything happened to that car, they'd still gripe about it. And, I'm not taking any more critters!
I like the clamshells a lot too, the cars were nicely designed for something of such mass, and the rear gate is very cool.
Now, I just have to remember where the heck I saw it...
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Some people are just suckers. No wonder the execs were getting kickbacks. I'm sure it was the most crooked dealers that got the most cars and could charge those markups.
Insanity.
Speaking of the Sentra SE-R, do you guys remember the NX2000? It was the ugly duckling hatch model, the one with the T-top optional. Ugly as it was I wanted one of those. Same 140hp in a lower, sleeker package.
American turbos were all finicky back then. The 2.2 put out between 146 and 174hp depending on the tuning. The more powerful version must have been pretty fast for the time in a 2600 pound car. The ES Shadow dropped the 2.2 turbo when the Mitsubishi sourced 3.0 became available.
Here's one that caught my eye just because you don't see them anymore and it's a convertible.
http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/3297972541.html
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
There was an engine in between, also. Early models had a 2.2l turbo, but then they had a 2.5l turbo for a year or two, before the V6 came out.
To give you an idea of how that turbo held up, my Escort GT was totalled, and my buddy still wanted to get my Escort to replace his Shadow. I just took money from insurance and ran.