BS: Your favorite car ever....

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Jeanie
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:56 AM

Without a doubt, the favourite car I ever owned was an orange VW Beetle. I owned it in the 1980s, but it was 1970s built - can't remember what year. Part of the registration was HUC, and I called it "Little Mrs. Eileen Huckbody", for no real good reason.

The heater didn't work, and in the winter I had to scrape the ice and frost off the *inside* of the windscreen, as well as the outside, sometimes several times during a journey if it was cold enough. All part of the charm of the car. Sadly, rust got the better of it and it would have cost me far more than I could afford to have it repaired to get through the MOT, so we had to part company, and I part-exchanged it for a bright blue Yugo (remember them ?) which was another jolly little car, but never quite the same.

For the past several years I have been driving Daewoo Matiz - now Chevrolet - on my third one now - and like them very much. In some ways, they remind me of dear old Eileen.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Grab
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 08:52 AM

Cars we've owned, or cars we'd like to own?

Favourite I'd like to own is a Marlin (now Javelin) Cabrio. If I had ten grand spare, I'd buy a kit to build. If I had twenty grand spare, I'd get one built for me.

Favourite owned. Hmm. Being a bit sad, I'm actually very attached to our Citroen Berlingo. Reliable, comfortable, extremely well-designed, great fuel economy, and it'll take a full PA system in the back no problems at all.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 09:00 AM

I never owned my dream car, because my Mum wouldn't let me buy it! It was a bright blue 1939 Standard Flying 9, in almost perfect condition, that was owned by the landlord of a local pub that was closing down for demolition. He offered it to me for 5 pounds (in 1970), but my Mum wouldn't let me park it on the (unused) drive, so it went for scrap.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 09:50 AM

All part of the charm of the car.

Gee, Jeanie-- I guess one man's charm is another man's royal pain in the knickers. I personally would not think fondly of a car that built up rime on the inside of the windshield! :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 10:10 AM

Jeannie, I've always enjoyed you being around here but now I know why.

There has to be a special spirit and attitude to anyone that names a Bug Little Mrs. Eileen Huckbody.   But it takes an extreme wacko to describe a Yugo as a "jolly little car."............LOL

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 11:10 AM

I liked my Eclipse because it accelerated REALLY fast, cornered great and had all wheel drive. It got to the point where it cost around $500-$700 every time I had it in the shop, and it was in the shop 2 or 3 times a year. It also ate PREMIUM gasoline at about 23 MPG. I have a Saturn now, which is an OK hoopdie, but I guess all I need is transportation.

My all time favorite car was a 1976 Honda Civic CVCC. It was a 5-speed with wood grain shift knob, steering wheel and dashboard bits. It got over 50 MPG. The car went from California to Texas, and Texas to New York, and to Illinois. I sold it before I went to England, and about a week later got a call from someone who said they'd passed it on the side of the road, burning fiercely. I felt bad for the people I sold it to, but I felt worse for that poor car I'd loved, that had been part of many wonderful memories, from tooling around Austin streets at night to watching the dry summer miles wind away serenaded by the road rocking away under my wheels... and 'Sultans of Swing' on the radio. Poor dead car...

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 11:32 AM

Ferrari 250GTO - Nick Mason of Pink Floyd has one. With the registration plate 250 GTO.          Oh.......My.......Gawd.

And what about the Pontiac GTO? 7 litres in a compact wasn't it? I will never forget at the age of 18 reading an early edition of Car magazine where (I think) Doug Blain did a comparison test between Henry Manney III's Ferrari 250GTO and a Pontiac GTO.

Doug was Australian and possibly certifiable. He could not understand what all the fuss was about the Pontiac....until he put the throttle pedal down more than half way. A banshee howl emitted from the hood, smoke from the rear tyres and it took him about a mile to get the thing pointing in the right direction again.

From such wonders did Ralph Nader and Volvo deliver us.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 11:35 AM

It is not a fair question.
Gull wing cars are usually fist on my list.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Greengal
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:26 PM

I agree with robomatic about Toyotas. If you love driving, you gotta love a Toyota. I drove my last one - a little blue 4-speed- for over 200,000 miles.

If I won the lottery- I'd quit my job, move to another state, buy a new wardrobe, etc. etc.


but I'd still buy a Toyota.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:39 PM

If I won the lottery I'd buy a big 1978 Caddy Eldorado, a big white stetson and a few packs of Cuban cigars and go off on a long slow roadtrip to nowhere in particular.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:46 PM

My favorite car ever is a red 1999 Honda Civic EX two-door with a moon roof. It was the only time I bought exactly the car I wanted, and it served me well for 120,000 miles. I got a very good deal on a 2006 four-door Civic two weeks ago and I like it very much, but it isn't RED and the four doors make it look just a bit doughty. It's a very nice car, but it isn't my red car.
I gave the red car to my 18-yr-old stepson. My previous two cars were in perfect condition when they ended up in the hands of teenages, and neither one lasted very long.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Jeanie
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:58 PM

Thanks, Spaw ! I am taking your comments as the greatest of compliments. You have made my day.

I once owned a Moskovitch - after which, believe me, *any* vehicle is a "jolly little car" :)

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:17 PM

405 peugeot diesel best seats ever got 406 now 55 mpg diesel great car

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:27 PM

My fifth car that I ever bought was my first NEW car. It was in 1962 (possibly early '63), I fell in love with and bought a spanking new Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. To this day I think that was the prettiest car ever put on the highway.

A few months after I bought it I had to go "on the road" to southern Indiana, and I knew of just the stretch of highway I wanted, way out in the boondocks. It was fairly long, flat, and straight, and very little traffic, with an excellent surface. "Aha," sez I to meself, sez I, "Now I'll find out how fast it will go!"

When I came to that stretch, I worked up the speed...95.. faster...100.. faster...105.. faster...

I never found out how fast the car would go. However, I did find out just how fast _I_ would go. At about 107 mph, still accelerating, I lost my nerve and gradually took my foot off, because I was getting a feeling of "float", "motorboating", that I wasn't really quite in contact with the pavement. That was enough. I don't think I ever drove that car over 75 or 80 again. I'd been given an answer to a question I hadn't thought of asking.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 07:13 PM

Hmm, since this is back again - of the cars I owned, maybe the C series Fiat 124 sport coupe. A lovely crisp twin-cam crackle and good for over 120. On an "N" plate so that made her 1975 I think. A much less twitchy drive than the 124 Special T that I transplanted a 1608 coupe engine into.

Or maybe one of my current 3 7 series Volvos. I have a twin-cam (1990), a turbo (1988) and a V6 (1986). All estates. Huge by UK standards. All good for over 120 and the twin-cam is the one I have had closest to flat out and she was doing 130 and still gaining slowly on a dark wet night, I could see the bend coming up and I know that that bend is not good at over 100 in the wet, so my nerve gave out.

Some cold dry morning we will see...

No cameras on that stretch of road.

Yet.

Later this year I will take her to the redblock guru to have a turbo added and then she will be a bit special. Maybe as much as 300 rwhp. To get some idea search for volvo turbo on youtube. She might be nearly that fast.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 08:22 PM

Finally (in December) ditched the old ('93) Plymouth Voyager mini-van and got a brand-spanking-new Toyota Rav4. So far so good. Safe, nimble, snow-worthy, packs a lot of gear, and best of all it has relieved the fear-of-going-places syndrome brought on by the old horse and buggy.

At the moment, it's my favourite. Sorry dear old Volvo, wherever you are!

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: bassen
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 04:40 AM

A 1965 VW microbus with a rebuilt 1600 engine, my all time favorite. Drove it all over Europe from Gibraltar to North Cape. It always started no matter how cold it was, would go anywhere, used almost no gas and never complained. Of course the windshield defroster gave up at about minus 0.5 Celsius, trying keep the windshield clear in muddy spring weather would turn your left thumb into a quivering swollen mass from the manual pumping and if I flashed the high beams with the windshield wipers going and the radio on it would blow a fuse (never did figure that one out, might have been some kind of subtle sabotage at the factory to commemorate 20 years since VE Day). Tried to see how fast it would go on a long downhill slope on the Autobahn. At about 110 kph with a heavy side wind I suddenly changed lanes without turning the wheel. Never did find out how fast it really would go!

In the world of my dreams it would have to be a Bentley Speed Six. But being a modest man, I'd settle for an MG-TC.

Bassen

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 09:45 AM

re: those Bentleys; what was actually inside the bright metal soup-pot centered under the horns?

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 10:55 AM

1949 Ford Custom. My first, when my dad got too sick to drive any more. It had a flat-head V-8 engine and things were so simple then that you could do major overhaul stuff yourself. What little functional knowledge I have of automobile engines, I got from that.
Of course it put on a certain side of the American Civil War--which is NOT Union/Confederacy, but Ford/Chevrolet. I still have a Ford and my auto mechanic is a Chevy guy, so I know FORD = Fix or Repair Daily or Found on Road Dead. Backwards, DROF = Driver Returned On Foot. But I can live with it. (And we thought Hornets were the pits. :) )

CC

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: skarpi
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 11:29 AM

I have had a lot of cars but only one car , who top them all
and that is my new Peogeot 2008 407 diesel st 2,0 sport turbo .

what a car .

All the best Skarpi Iceland

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: jonm
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 12:44 PM

Re. Bentley Speed Six "soup pot" - that is the supercharger. Basically, an engine-driven pump to force more fuel and air into the carburettors and increase power. Power increase is basically linear with engine revs, which can be interesting when you change gear.

A similar system to the turbocharger, which uses exhaust gas pressure to drive the pump. Robs less power from the drivetrain (insignificant anyway) but power increase is dependent on exhaust gas pressure, hence the "turbo lag" while the pressure builds up before all hell breaks loose. Modern turbos are better than my dad's old Saab 99 black one.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: EBarnacle
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 01:05 AM

I have had several favorite cars over the years.

My first was a 61 Impala 3 speed overdrive coupe, the first car I ever owned. It was great until I didn't stop when the guy in front of me did.

The next was my '65 Saab Monte Carlo which I rebuilt to a 1.5 litre tweaked to rallye specs after the 2 stroker died for the third time.
The speed topped out at more than 150 the one time I opened it up all the way. I ran out of speedometer before I ran out of the power curve.

Favorite of all time was the Citroen D type. It was a wonderful GT car, capable of cruising all day at 90 MPH and giving 25 mpg on regular with 5 bods on board. How many full sized vehicles can do that now?

My current favorites are my 96 Villager and Lady Hillary's 91 MR 2. My only problem with the MR2 is the noise level. Even the custom exhaust on the Saab, it was quieter than the 2. The van is ultrareliable, handles very well and is a real prime hauler. I use it to carry boats on top and tow as needed. It does it all without a complaint and asks for more.

Right now, we are contemplating renovating [not restoring] Lady Hillary's 71 Celica 5 speed fastback and putting it back on the road. It was her first car and was taken off the road a couple of years ago after failing inspection. The body needs a lot of work but the engine is ready now. Since she cannot seem to get up the nerve to get rid of it, it might as well go back on the road.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Janie
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 11:07 AM

I don't much like cars - but I gotta have one, so my favs would have to be the dependable - which would be a toss up between my very first car, a '69 VW beetle and a '73 plymouth Duster that I drove until 1986.

I liked my sister's first car awfully well - a '62 Volvo - And Dad got us girls a '63 Valiant station wagon (with a push button automatic transmission) that we ran the wheels off of and was just as dependable as a car gets.

One could say I lack a sense of style, I suppose....

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 01:30 PM

Like I said...my Subaru Legacy. Definitely the best car I've ever had.

Japanese cars rule, Bobert. Oldsmobiles are good if you want some scrap iron. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: number 6
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 01:50 PM

Ann and I went over to our son's house for a visit this morning .... There was a friend of there's who happened to be visiting as well ... Anyway, when introduced to their friend I asked "is that you piece of junk in the driveway, referring to a 1991 Taurus, in the most pathetic state of being, a complete junker. He replied yes, and admitted to being in the market for a replacement. I then advised him he should seriously think about getting a Subaru. At that point, my son, his wife and friend broke out in a roar of laughter. Apparently they had warned their friend that upon meeting me, somewhere along the line in conversation I would bring up the subject of Subarus.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:32 AM

The Standard Flying 9 coupe that my dad bought in 1957. A great car with proper running boards. We went down from Newcastle to Cornwall in it and the top hose split going over Bodmin moor but we fixed it by tying all our socks round the hose and refilling the radiator from roadside streams till we reached a garage where it could be fixed. He sold it for £4 in 1960. what a car!

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: frogprince
Date: 30 May 08 - 11:56 PM

BMW, apparently inspired by Chryslers move of styling the Chrysler Atlante after a classic Bugatti, has introduced The BMW 58e, their tribute to an American icon of the late '50's...

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Cats
Date: 31 May 08 - 07:15 AM

Still my 2CV

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 31 May 08 - 04:42 PM

An Austin Princess, bench seat in the front so great for shagging!

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Ed T
Date: 31 May 08 - 04:47 PM

1969 Plymouth Barricuda

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 31 May 08 - 04:48 PM

An update on my earlier post in regards to 'that junker of a 1991 Ford Taurus' ....my son bought it off of his friend. He loves it ... it's his favourite care ever.

Geeesh ... where did I go wrong ???? :)

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Rasener
Date: 31 May 08 - 05:10 PM

Torn between my 1971 MG Midget and my Ford Scorpio 2.9 Estate.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 05:36 PM

1968 Ford Mustang with a 289, center console was the only real upgrade on the thing. I bought it used and was just earning enough to get some real work done on it when a little old lady ran double stop signs and put an '82 buick skylark station wagon 8" into the passenger side of it. She did so much damage that a friend of mine wouldn't let me out of the car after the accident for fear I'd kill her. By the way, it was Poppy Red (faded to a bright hunter/pumpkin orange) and she claimed to have not seen me coming. I showed the judge the color (from a paint chip) and he found her guilty.

Warning: The following is a car guy rant!

I must protest! Toyota does not love cars or driving (as far as the Camry goes). You can't hear the road, feel the road, stay awake while "driving" the Camry! No performance, little in the way of handling and this last year a total lack of external styling. Don't get me wrong, it's economical, it's well built, it's probably a lot safer than a lot of others, but a car it is not! Put it in the "transportation" category

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:43 PM

As for Toyotas, the 90 to 93's were stylish, fun to drive and lasted far longer than most, even through many salty winters,if you undercoated them frequently.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:43 PM

The 90 to 93 Toyota Celicas, that is

Subject: RE: BS: Your favorite car ever....
From: pdq
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 07:00 PM

"...has introduced The BMW 58e, their tribute to an American icon of the late '50's..."

I went to that picture and can't believe it. Looks like BMW has re-invented the '58 Edsel with two toilet seats in front instead of one. That is heapin' hunks of ugly!