In order of purchase:
1963 VW Beetle. 36 aircooled hp. 6v. $150, because the (manual adjust) front drum brakes needed to be adjusted. Got driven off road more than on road. Put big mugrip on the back. Drove it through creeks, rolled it onto it's side in a field sliding it sideways. POS. Ended up yanking the body off and welding up some rudimentary framework (just enough to hold a gas tank and position the steering wheel) and thrashing that around for a while.
1963 Volvo 122 - sea blue/green sedan. Bought for $450. Ran like a sewing machine. Drove this throughout high school. Over time, more and more parts from a rusted 142E in a junkyard found their way onto it. In the end, it had the rdiator, engine, trans, driveshaft, rear axle, gas tank, rally dash, front seats in it. The B20E was pretty peppy with the SU carbs on it.
'73 Volvo 145E - baby blue. $1100, everything worked on it. Amazingly nice shape. Auto trans though. Within a few months of spirited driving, it started to go out so I swapped an M40 into it. Drove this most of college, until junior year.
'72 Volvo 1800E - metallic dark green (Ford color IIRC). $1500. Had over 200K miles, appeared to be burning oil but it was really just a leaking oil pressure gauge line dripping onto the exhaust manifold. Started restoring it, repainted it, had the seats redone. Big problem was the horrible auto trans, but I soon swapped that to an M41. It was looking pretty nice by the time someone ran a stop sign at speed, and hit the RF tire, and bent the whole car into an 'L' shape.
'71 1800E - Took the insurance money and bought a really nice ($5500) 1800E. 75K, mint condition garage queen from CT. Flew into NYC, took a bus to Norwalk, paid, drove it all the way home to Springfield mo (where I was going to college). And about 9 months later, someone failed to stop at a redlight that I was stopped at, and smashed the trunk in about 2 feet. Grr, I shouldn't own an 1800.
-84 BMW 318is - Took the insurance money and bought a neat little Bronzit/black leather 318is coupe. $7000. Yes, in retrospect, should have bought a 325, not a 318. But the 318 wasn't that bad, got great MPG, cruised great on the highway, was sort of fun if you thrashed the motor and kept the RPM's up.
-90 Miata - graduated from college, got my first 'real' job, bought my first new car. Traded the BMW in on a red B pkg Miata in Feb '90. I wated *just* long enough for the ridiculous mark-ups to go away, and managed to get it at sticker. Which was something around $18K, IIRC. Loved that car, still think about getting a beater Miata again. So much fun to take on twisty country roads, which aren't that hard to find in MO.
-95 Jetta GLX - Miata worked for a while with one kid, could put a child seat in and take her to day care, but the arrival of a second kid meant that had to go. Test drove a variety of cars, Saab 9'3's, Volvo S40's, BMW 318 (325 was too expensive), Maxima. Wanted a somewhat fun sedan with a stick shift, which wasn't easy to find then. Test drove the Jetta, loved it. VR6 is a hell of an engine, 5 spd manual was fun, and priced a lot less than most of the competition. Sequoia green with black leather. $21,500. Really great car. If only it had been RWD I'd have *actually* loved it. Drove it for 180K miles, though, and it worked great the whole time.
-63 Volvo 544 - Jetta just wasn't as fun to drive as it might have been, I started looking around for something fun. Test drove a V4 Saab 96 (too quirky), looked at an Alfa GTV6 (heart said YES, head said HELL NO). Found a PV that had been sitting in a carport for 17 years, ever since a rear brake had locked up on it. Bought it for $800, initially restored it into running condition with the original spec, then set about modifying it bit by bit. Pepped the B18 up some with a 'D' cam. Put IPD sways on it. But Bilsteins on it. Put wider tires on it. Put a 2.1L B20 in it. Put an M41 in it. Gradually pepped the B20 up more and more (rebuilt the bottom end around 2006). DCOE's, cam, R-sport head header, lightened flywheel. Pretty zippy now. Still have it. Probably always will, even if I have to replace the rusty body.
- 89 Bronco II - Inherited this from the wife when she bought her 4Runner. Tough as nails. 5 speed manual, 2.9L V6. Used it in the winter to take all the salt abuse.
- 93 Volvo 245 Classic - After driving the Jetta for 180K miles, I was just sick of it. Started looking for a 240 wagon. Eventually found a 245 Classic (#1141) for sale on eBay. Absolutely mint condition, and with a great upgrade - a very slickly and professionally installed '93 940T drivetrain. Didn't exactly steal it at $5100, but given the engine and the condition (near perfect paint, near perfect body, near perfect interior with new (actually new) tan leather seats front and rear), I think it was worth it. IPD springs and Billy HD's. 17X7 wheels. Had an automatic, that lasted about 7 months before I put an M47 in it. Then I started tweaking the motor. NPR, browntops. MS'ed it. A 16t swap. 3" exhaust. Then the M47 blew up and I put a T5 in it. Then the 8V blew up and I put a 16VT in it. Which is where it sits now (304 whp at SE). Currently working on V2.0 of the engine - the V1.0 had some obvious time/cost shortcuts in it. V2.0 will be MS3, COP, ported head, proper intake and exhaust manifolds, better turbo. And a better clutch and flywheel - the dogdish makes me nervous now that a few have blown up, and the red Clutchnet PP and Kevlar disc is starting to show signs of weakness with the new HP levels. I'll probably own this car for a very long time as well.
-97 Ford Explorer Sport - The Bronco II got really rusty. Then my SIL was trading in this Explorer Sport - which she'd bought from my FIL - who's a mechanic and maintains everything perfectly. 95K miles, in perfect shape. Plus she was selling it when gas had spiked up to $4 a gallon, and lots were full of SUV's. So the Honda dealer (she bought a Civic coupe) didn't want it. We told we we'd beat whatever they offered her. Which ended up being $1000. Total steal, but the SIL wanted no part in trying to sell it herself (and she would have had a hard time right then, CL was flooded with people ditching SUV's in a panic). One problem - it was boring to drive. The Bronco II was a lot more fun somehow. This was a fairly soulless appliance. Still, worked great, did great in snow, can't really complain. OK, you can. I did.
-99 4Runner Highlander Edition. $5800 - Green, tan cloth interior. 5 spd manual, locking rear diff. Highlander package so lots of nice options. Sold the Explorer after a couple of years (and about $1K in new Mich tires, shocks, brakes, etc) and bought this. Great upgrade, even if the 4Runner has 155K miles on it it will still comfortably outlast the Explorer. And with the manual trans it's more entertaining to drive. And it's better in the snow. All in all, very worth the $2800 over the Explorer.
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it had more horses than saab 900i & volvo 745 equal.