[solvegas]

Back in December of 2020, I got in an accident while driving northbound on I-15 and as I was trying to get on the merger to the spaghetti bowl and get into US 95 westbound, an asshole in a huge black Chevrolet Suburban decided he needed my lane and to avoid hitting him, I unfortunately hit the concrete barrier and badly damaged my 2015 Chevrolet Trax. The Suburban kept going like nothing happened. I wasn't injured, Thank God, but the insurance company totaled my car and so then I went to Carmax and I got a used 2019 Chevrolet Spark that only had 4,000 miles on it and I still have it. It gets 38-40 miles per gallon and it has been a good little car. I'm retired now, even though I work part time in a movie house and I get to see free movies as a perk. Anyways, this is my most recent car. This photo is exactly what it looks like. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

1974 Subaru Wagon 4 x 4

This is pretty close, color and all.  This was a great vehicle for hauling camera equipment for shoots for college or, The New York Times, which I delivered on Sunday mornings as one of a couple of jobs I had while in college.  I remember one freezing 10 degree morning when I got in the car at 4am intending to go meet the guys to collate the paper and load up the cars when the gas pedal froze to the floor.  I had to wake up my mom and ask her if I could borrow her new ‘82 Accord to deliver the paper. She must have loved that.

[solvegas]

The first car I actually owned was in 1960 for Christmas, a pedal car. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

I’m going to skip a picture of the ‘74 Nova since it wasn’t properly registered to me.  A nutty friend of mine had cut the roof of his car and his mother made him get rid of it.  Stupidly, I said I’d take it after he drove it through the Holland tunnel purposely knocking into the tunnel’s walls for fun. It was a dangerous car to drive becsuse it was totally illegal. I had no title to it.  But that didn’t stop me from driving it in some nearby sandpits. Eventually, it lay neglected in the street in front of our house till the town towed it away.
Another car I purchased while in college (my friends used to joke that I went through cars like toilet paper) was a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper I purchased from a Frenchman who was preparing to return to France with a Chevy Caprice.  That’s quite the change in vehicles. Unfortunately, right after I purchased it, the brakes totally failed and so I had to have it towed from Manhattan.  Soon afterwards the engine’s water jacket split open. Not a good purchase.
It had a manually retractable cloth roof that was pretty cool, though.

[solvegas]

Another car I purchased while in college (my friends used to joke that I went through cars like toilet paper) was a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper I purchased from a Frenchman who was preparing to return to France with a Chevy Caprice.  That’s quite the change in vehicles. Unfortunately, right after I purchased it, the brakes totally failed and so I had to have it towed from Manhattan.  Soon afterwards the engine’s water jacket split open. Not a good purchase.
It had a manually retractable cloth roof that was pretty cool, though.

I remember back when I worked at an ESSO/EXXON service station from 1971 to 1974 during High School, that British sports cars like MG, Triumph and Jaguar were beautiful style cars but they had a bad reputation as lemons. I remember a costumer that owned an XJ Jaguar that got rid of the original engine and swapped it for a small block Chevy V-8 engine since it was better and much more reliable. British cars in the 60's and 70's were not the best by any means. 

[Jack59]

The eighth and absolutely worst car I've ever owned: a gold 1999 Cadillac Catera.  I know that they had problems but I did my research on Carfax. Although it had had troubles when it was new, into and out of the shop constantly, it hadn't had any for several years. I figured that whatever the problem had been it was fixed and bought it.

The problem was not fixed. Every four to six weeks I would come out to a dead battery. I had the car jumped so often that AAA refused to come and jump it for me. I replaced the battery twice. Nothing worked. Something was draining the battery and no one was able to find out what. I eventually came to the conclusion that during those "trouble free" years on the carfax report the vehicle had been garaged and ignored until it was finally sold to a sucker, in this case me.

Just when I was thinking that I would have to rip out every electrical component in the car and replace them all with new ones fate smiled upon me and the car was totaled in a fairly minor accident.  I got enough from the insurance company to put a sizable down payment on a new car.

I should note that when the car started up it ran fine. Plenty of power, good handling, nice amenities, and so forth but it was completely unreliable. Live and learn I guess.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Another car I purchased while in college (my friends used to joke that I went through cars like toilet paper) was a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper I purchased from a Frenchman who was preparing to return to France with a Chevy Caprice.  That’s quite the change in vehicles. Unfortunately, right after I purchased it, the brakes totally failed and so I had to have it towed from Manhattan.  Soon afterwards the engine’s water jacket split open. Not a good purchase.
It had a manually retractable cloth roof that was pretty cool, though.

I remember back when I worked at an ESSO/EXXON service station from 1971 to 1974 during High School, that British sports cars like MG, Triumph and Jaguar were beautiful style cars but they had a bad reputation as lemons. I remember a costumer that owned an XJ Jaguar that got rid of the original engine and swapped it for a small block Chevy V-8 engine since it was better and much more reliable. British cars in the 60's and 70's were not the best by any means. 

I think you have to include 80s in there, too.  And the phrase you are looking for, as far as reliability is concerned, is “they sucked”.

[MaxBigfoot]

One of the reviewers in Road & Track called them "money pits".

[Jack59]

My ninth car was a dark blue 2008 Pontiac G5. It was my fourth and last Pontiac. A very nice car, it was a certified preowned that had previously been a rental car and been well taken care of. I bought it in 2010 when it was two years old with plenty of time left on the warranty. I kept it for six and a half years before trading it in on my current car. It never gave me any trouble even at the end, I just wanted a new car.  And I'll tell you about that later this weekend.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

In the mid-80s—probably ‘86–I bought a 1982 Honda Accord LX hatchback.  It was a pretty good car and had a manual sunroof, which I loved.  I added two oval rear view mirrors on the front fenders ala the Japanese and they actually helped with blind spots.

I recall driving down to visit a friend in Winston-Salem and I couldn’t drive faster than 85 mph without the whole dashboard shaking violently.  Other than that it was great.  Probably one of the more visually mundane cars I’ve owned. Kept it until Honda came out with the del Sol.

[Jack59]

And finally my tenth and current car a 2014 Buick Verano in mocha bronze metallic. Bought in late 2016 she's the best car I've ever owned. I don't plan to replace her for at least four more years possibly six. She's got 84k on her but still runs fine. When the time comes to replace her it will probably be with an electric or at least a hybrid. But for now I'm quite happy with my Verano.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

And finally my tenth and current car a 2014 Buick Verano in mocha bronze metallic. Bought in late 2016 she's the best car I've ever owned. I don't plan to replace her for at least four more years possibly six. She's got 84k on her but still runs fine. When the time comes to replace her it will probably be with an electric or at least a hybrid. But for now I'm quite happy with my Verano.

Nice car.  Does Buick make regular sedans anymore?

[Shadowmuse Blown]

This was a stupid car to buy when you consider my then wife and I were planning on raising a family.  She might even have been pregnant when I bought it.  Who the hell buys a two-seater when you know you’re going to have kids?  We both wanted to play with it and so neither of us was the voice of reason, LOL.  This is a 1993 Honda del Sol S with just 102 hp.  Not a slug for such a small car, but not the fastest thing in the neighborhood, either. The Si, which had the bigger engine cost too much to afford.  What was great about the car was that you could remove the targa roof panel and store it under the trunk lid and then retract the back window.  What fun!  And very little wind buffeting.  I hated the little beep it made and so replaced the horn with a high decibel one that would make people jump.  It did have the annoying attribute of suddenly not wanting to start every now and again.  Don’t remember the cause, but it was not due to the alternator or the battery. Really annoying.  The roof panel also creaked terribly in cold weather. 

But it was so much fun.

Sold it eventually to buy my family hauler.

[Jack59]

And finally my tenth and current car a 2014 Buick Verano in mocha bronze metallic. Bought in late 2016 she's the best car I've ever owned. I don't plan to replace her for at least four more years possibly six. She's got 84k on her but still runs fine. When the time comes to replace her it will probably be with an electric or at least a hybrid. But for now I'm quite happy with my Verano.

Nice car.  Does Buick make regular sedans anymore?

Unfortunately only in China. They're still making the Verano but only in China.

Here in the good old US of A it's just SUVs.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

My family hauler: a 1998 Dodge Intrepid ES.  This was a great “cab forward” design and doesn’t really look old today.  It was one of the biggest front wheel drive cars at the time, which I needed to drive the family out to Wisconsin in the summer.  Had this car for 17 years and I miss it a lot.