Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:15 am by WildKarrde
My car history is pretty long, for a variety of reasons, lol.
1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS
-Given to me from my dads friend. It had been sitting for 7 years, needed massive work to get running. Fuel rail leaked gasoline, and the brakes failed on me, jettisoning me into the middle of a busy intersection after about 8 months or so of use.
1994 Chevy Cavalier VL Coupe
-Bought for $700. Drove for 2 years, roughly 50,000 miles, pretended I was a rally driver every time I saw a gravel path, got it in 3 minor accidents on said gravel paths, sold it for $800 while it was still roadworthy.
1992 Dodge Stealth RT
-Super fun,everybody thought it was a Ferrari, and it might as well have been for how much some of the maintenance cost. This is the first car I got with a 5-speed manual. This is the car I drove faster than any other, 150 MPH at 4:00am on bald tires. I got a speeding ticket for something like 105 in a 65. Got it reduced to 5 MPH over by creating enough doubt in the circumstances. Sold it soon after.
2005 Dodge Neon
-My dad wanted me in a safe, slow reliable car, so he helped me buy this. I didn't particularly like anything about it, but at least it was a 5-speed. Every day I drove it I wished it was an SRT4. Gave it to him when I became gainfully employed and bought my next car.
1994 Mazda Miata MX5 w/ "R-Package" Suspension
-This was a great, low mileage, 5-speed car with the stiff R suspension and Kazera KZ-M Spec Miata wheels and cold air intake. I later installed a low profile halogen headlight system in it. Loved this car, put about $7000 into it, sold it for $6500 after 2 years. Kept it for almost a year after I bought my next car.
2006 Mazda MX5 Sport
-I got the car bug after my brake and clutch cylinders needed to be replaced on the NA. First new car I purchased on my own, it was a "last year special" and winter special at the time. The 6 speed manual transmission was wasted on this car though, would have been better with a 5 speed. Loved this car too, but it's probably my most regretted car. For one, with the payments I had on this car, the equity I had in the NA, and full coverage on both, I could have (barely) afforded a Lotus Elise. But in the end, the thing I regretted most was that it was no more fun to drive than the NA, cost me 3 times as much, and was depreciating at a much faster rate. Sold it after almost 3 years while I was unemployed.
1987 BMW 325e
-I was employed in outside sales, and needed a car with more space than my MX5. I wanted something cheap, but fun for all the miles I drove. I had always appreciated the E30. I wanted a 325is, but settled for the 325e. It's one of the slowest cars I've ever owned, but it was still fun. Shortly after I bought it, the brake hydraulic system decided to give up during rush hour traffic, and I clipped the rear corner of another car. Didn't even look at it for about a year, until I decided I needed to sell my MX5 while unemployed. So I fixed the brakes, tore off the front fender, banged out the headlight fixture, and started driving the heck out of it. It was during this time that I fell in love with E30's. I took it on a 5000 mile road trip, and it was rock solid the entire way. On the way back, in Tennassee, some asshole stopped dead in the middle of the highway, 90 MPH traffic. The brakes locked up and I hit the car in front of me. Totaled. Turns out it was an insurance scam, a couple people went to jail, and my car was a total loss with no recompense.
1989 BMW 325is
-I bought this car after making a $5000 1 year interest free cash withdraw from one of my credit cards. I bought this car because I couldn't afford the payments on my NC anymore, but this was my favorite car ever. Loved everything about this car. Brilliantrot red with black leather Recaro interior. Cold air intake. New suspension. 5 speed manual. Dinan performance chip. An absolute dream to drive. I picked up a job with the Census Bureau the summer after I bought it, and always volunteered for the road less traveled. I got paid for driving around twisty back roads in one of my dream cars, nothing could be better! It got rear ended, thrown off the road and utterly totaled. I still tear up when I think about it.
1994 Geo Prism
-Shitty car, my go-between while looking for another car and waiting for my tax return so I could afford something else. My dad had bought it for $500 as cheap work transportation. I bought it for $1. Drove it about 3500 miles and sold it back to my dad for $1 after finding my next car.
1989 BMW 325iX - Turbocharged
-When I saw this car, I knew I had to have it. An AWD E30 coupe, 5-speed, sweet!! The turbo job was a complete hack, every single corner had been cut. It was cheap, raw, dirty and fast as balls! I bought it for $3000, and I could keep up with Evo's and STi's. This is one of the most fun cars I've ever owned. It was also one of the most troublesome. Highway mileage was pretty good, I could get about 24-27 MPG with premium fuel. City and mixed mileage, on the other hand, what a shame. I got 8-12 MPG. I was able to tune the Megasquirt computer to get me a few more MPG in the city, but it caused it to knock, so I had to live with the dismal fuel mileage. Later I had to limit the RPM's to 4500, because I was burning the stock clutch at anything above that. The car was still faster than anything else I had driven, but the shifting was quite annoying.
Shortly after buying the car I discovered that the front drivetrain setup was extremely expensive to replace, and this became a constant source of nightmares (literally, I had bad dreams at night that my front drivetrain would break). I had the tires changed soon after buying it, and the monkeys at the tire shop didn't tighten the lugnuts enough. So on a 200 mile trip to MEPS, the front end started shaking very violently. When I pulled over I found a lug nut missing, and two extremely loose. This further fueled my fear of the front drivetrain breaking, even though it was a simple fix. After MEPS, the key broke off in the door. Luckily I had another... at home. It took over 2 hours for my mom to bring it to me. On the way home from MEPS, I found myself doing 55 in a 35 while at idle, and the brakes were starting to fail at slowing the car down. I turned the car off, and pulled into a church parking lot to find that I had a vacuum leak. Electrical tape was a necessity with this car. After joining the Air Force and flying back home for Christmas, I decided to drive the car back to Texas. It made the trip without fuss, and died 2 days after I got there. The spark plugs were shot. The turbo was in the way of plug #5. It took 2 elbow joints and about 3 hours to change that one spark plug. Everyone there wanted to buy the car... and I should have sold it while I had the chance, oh well. I later got fed up with the fuel mileage cost, and constant worry of it breaking, so I traded it on an '87 325iC project car.
1988 BMW 325iC
-Still not much to say about this car. It's a low mileage shell, and needs a ton of work. I have all the parts I need, but no time. To be continued....
1979 Mercedes 300SD Turbo Diesel
-After being medically discharged from the military, I decided to use my severance pay to buy some cars to work on and try to turn a profit. The first was this car. I bought it for $1800 and daily drove this one for about 9 months. It was the slowest, heaviest thing I had ever driven. It got tons of compliments, and a lot of looks (probably because it was so darned loud). The seat eventually fell through the floor due to rust, and I had to cut the damn thing out, install some steel bars to remount the seat to, and ended up trading the car for parts for the convertible project.
1985 Mercedes 300D TurboDiesel
-Another car I bought to turn a profit on. It cost me $700, and the starter died a couple days after I got it home. Never could get that darned starter out. Traded it for parts on the convertible project.
1985 Mercedes 300TD Turbo Diesel
-The first (and so far only) wagon I've ever owned. I got it for $450, and this was the best of the Mercedes I bought. Everything in it was solid (other than the rear driver side passenger board =\) but it had some vacuum hose issues. I spent weeks and weeks trying to figure out those vacuum hose issues. Everything in the old Mercedes is driven off of vacuum. EVERYTHING! And all three of the cars vacuum configuration was different, so it wasn't like I could look at one to figure out how to fix the other. I got the car running, but it still had some vacuum issues with the power windows (yes, even power windows were actuated with vacuum) and I traded it on an '85 535i.
1985 BMW 535i
-A 5-speed E28 535i, awesome! This was a great car, it never left me stranded, and never let me down. It also never had all problems resolved either though. Fourth gear grinded about half the time I engaged it, so I usually just skipped it. Winding up 3rd gear to provide for a smoother transition to 5th gear meant the fuel mileage took a hit. I got about 16-18 MPG in this car. It also had some fuel delivery issues, and was leaking oil into the spark plugs. After putting about $1200 into it, I was faced with a dilemma. Spend $1000-$3500+ to leave it at a shop for a few weeks to resolve all the issues, or buy another car. I decided to let it go and buy another car.
1987 BMW 325e
-Finally, we have gotten to what I'm driving now! I traded the 535i in on this, and the shop owner gave me everything I had put into the 535i back on the purchase of this car, so it was a pretty good deal for me. This is the first E30 sedan I've ever owned. It's had a few minor issues, but has never left me stranded, and has been overall pretty solid, despite a few neglects I've given it. It's a lot faster than my first 325e. It has an M20B25 timing belt, performance chip and dimpled head. I've driven this car now for over 2 years now, and it's been fantastic. Still not as fast as I like, but it's been as fast as I need. Great fuel mileage as well. I regularly get 26-28 MPH in mixed driving, and can get as high as 40 MPH on the highway with a couple hypermiling techniques!
, fixed and sold away)
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*not the pic of mine*
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