History Have you ever owned a car you just didn't like? our possibly it didn't like you!

In my younger days I was a Ford man I had a 62 galaxy must have been an early year car it had 375 hp 390 with a T10 you could not keep a trans in it. Only had it 9 month the up keep was to high Next car was as Impala. Most cars L've owned have been standards the only other car that I lost a trans in I bought a 40 ford coupe that had a 371 Olds a 39 trans. It did teach me that it is hard to make a 4200 lb car fast the car before was a 60 Falcon that I swapped in a 221 and it was faster.

 

OT ride, I purchased a new 82 Chevy Blazer off the showroom floor on a whim when looking for a new pickup truck or was thinking maybe a Suburban. This Blazer was "Tits" IMO, Black, Red interior, fully loaded including lift kit, aftermarket big tires wheels, it just tripped my trigger, test ride, purchased, drove it home. I owned it 2/3 weeks, took it back to dealer stating it gets 6 mpg, 350, auto, full time 4 wheel drive, their suggestion was manual locking hubs for front, OK, I pay for these, now it went to 8 mpg, still unhappy, next solution was gear change front and rear, too tall tires, engine was lugging , not in happy rpm range for mpg, now went to 10/12 mpg. pretty pricey date, could have bought a lot of gas, mpg now similar to a stock one I was told. So....... drove it 6/8 months and decided what a POS, what was I thinking ? I towed my Midget racer a few times after adding a hitch, rough ride, short wheel base, had 3 kids plus my Dad that came with to races, Again, What was I thinking ? Tried to sell it, nobody other than dealers made me low ball offers, So I go around to dealers and traded it off on a new decked Suburban, found a dealer that treated me somewhat fairly, I purchased several vehicles from this dealer through the years after this, BUT what an Expensive lesson. Other than owning race cars for 20 + years, a high speed spend, that Blazer was without a doubt my Dumbest/Costly decision regarding any purchase I ever made. Moral of story, Remove Head from Butt when making expensive purchases.

 

Nope

 

John, what kind of car was it? HRP

 

A guy down the street owns a HAMB-friendly car and he hates it. It is a nice GM convertible with a stout BBC and an automatic. Honestly it would have been a better car with a SBC in it. It needs some tuning, my brother straightened out a few quick things to make it more driveable. It runs super hot, he has dual electric fans and a flex fan. I drive mine all year, he drives his maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I have given him a ride in mine a couple of times and he says he wished his ran as well.

 

Many reasons why a car runs hot, it usually has a lot to do with the radiator or the type of pulleys, wrong type of fans,. HRP

 

A Corvette, I hated that car.

 

1972 Chevelle with a 307, brown in color w/ cream color vinyl roof. Then, as now the body style was "the most man." Absolutely the most gutless POS ever dreamed up by GMC engine designing engineers. I stupidly traded in my white 63 Impala SS for it. Gwad I hated that thing, but had to keep it because my (3) girls had to eat, have clothes and a warm place to sleep. I still hate that POS!!!!!!!!!!
This was the only non-white everyday drive I've ever had except for my first car a 1947 Kaiser (grey and blue) and my second car, a cream puff 1950 black Ford which I of course promptly totaled after having it only (4) months. ............................................................................ Damn, I still despise: (to regard as negligible, worthless, or distasteful) that larger than life POS.
Can ya tell HRP that I did not like this thing???

 

OT '85 2.8 4x4 Blazer I got for a song. It had a blown head gasket with 60k original miles on the clock. Had been parked in a heated garage for years after that because they kept planning to fix it. It was beautiful. A museum piece (if you're into that sort of thing), perfect interior. I fixed the head gasket and drove it a few months before everything in the world started going wrong with it. I had two different engines out and back into that thing a total of 5 times. Finally the flex plate cracked and I sold it for $700 ( still more than I initially paid). It was the last model with a carb before going to injection. Had about 5 miles of smog related vacuum lines on it and 4 separate V-belts driving different things. Man, it looked like brand new though and had every luxury option. Slow as shit on its best day.

 

The word loathe comes to mind! HRP

 

The Chevelle from Hell, I ended up having a strong dislike for that car.

 

Just got the Frumpy Librarian's Dream Machine: OT 2005 Camry. 116K on it, loaded XLE V6 from my 90YO FIL.(No I did not want it at all, this was a request to get it out of the garage in preparation for MIL coming home from the nursing home). Why couldn't he have had a '57 Olds 98 in there? With a 394 4 speed....

Observations:
1.Japanese cars are very hard to work on. At some effort is/was made to make certain parts accessible on US cars...though less and less so. But H.A.M.B. era cars are now a dream come true. I don't hate the idea of fixing the Parklane's power seat at all after working on this sled.
2.Non-car people judge a car by what they can touch, see, and hear ...so Toyota has picked up on that. All inside door handles, and emblems and switches are heavy, chromed and the steering wheel, shifter knob is rich leather. Look under the dash or hood, and a different tale emerges: The cheapest of clips and plastic and crummy materials. cardboard and styrofoam in various places. Razor sharp edges everywhere. No rattles though.
3.This car was designed to go together quickly on an assembly line, no consideration to disassembly for replacing sensors, parts...so you have to take half the car apart to get to a minor repair item. So the dealer will pass that 6 hr job cost along to you, HVAC blend door = $1800....changing spark plugs = $900. I was told by a colleague in Japan, the men don't work on cars, it is a not a hobby, and looked down upon, so the car makers couldn't care less about user-friendly assemblies. Only the mechanics will be wrenching and dearly charging you for the privilege.
Smooth engine, no exhaust note, not much power...does not inspire you to drive it anywhere just for the joy of motoring. A people pod. nothing more.

 

The 61 Olds I have now has been pretty much a nightmare since I first got it. Really wish I hadn't bought it. Instead of buying a car that was ready to enjoy as I thought it was and as I paid for, it has been a steady stream of issues of all kinds that will ultimately lead to me losing my ass on the car. I literally haven't had a week of being able to enjoy the car where something hasn't broken.

 

71 Fiat 124 that I bought during the gas crisis of 1973 to commute. My much used 4 door 64 Ford wagon became a
mobile gas station. My wife would wait in line to fill it and I had gas for the Fiat for a week. That Fiat disappeared the day the crisis ended.

 

I wish that I had the foresight and money to buy a bunch of hemi powered muscle cars during the "gas crisis"!

 

not mine, but I did spend more time with this car than I did with my third wife. Buddy had a 66 Chevelle. He loved the car, but wanted a big block in it. He also suffered 'lock pocket', so it was used and hopefully gently abused(NOT) big blocks that found their way to the shop. Changed five motors in four days, and considered using Velcro for the motor/tranny mounts. Then the 700r comes along and he decides he wants one. BUT, trouble was they couldn't handle a built BB at that time. Trans shop swears they can build one that'll work, so we're off again. Installed seven of those fuckers in six days, and that included my building a custom trans mount and shifter. Finally the shop admits defeat. To my Buds credit, he had stepped up and paid full whack for these 'experiments'. Shop made good, and we ended up with two race prepped powerglides and one stout 350. So it was back to stock mount and shifter. Whatever we did to the car it made us do at least twice.

 

Had an old VW Hatchback for about 6 months when I was in college......need I say more.

 

has to be my first car, a '53 ford victoria, but only because the damn thing had axles that would break at the drop of a hat!

 

A 1960 Chevy Impala 4 door hardtop. With a 283 and a Turboglide transmission. The turboglide went "south" shortly after I bought it! I wrecked the car and then I joined the Navy!My mother took the car and traded for something.? That car was a POS!

 

I've always been a sucker for oddball cars, and I have suffered for it on occasion. Fortunately I seldom had the disposable cash to indulge in many that presented themselves, like a early 50's Cadillac hearse, a Renault R8 (actually, three different ones over the years), a Renault Dauphine (I kick myself over not snatching it when I had the opportunity), a Citroen Traction I found in Great Lakes, an enormous Jaguar Mk10, and a Rover TC2000 and a 3500V8. Never got a Cadillac, but did have a Buick that cost as much to drive; mom said I would never park a hearse in our driveway, so that ended that

 

In the mid 60's a local band called the Escorts had a 1950 Cadillac hearse pained yellow with a black vinyl top and it was what the hauled their equipment in, much cheaper than a van and would haul just a much stuff.

The hearse disappeared and I ask one of the band members what happened to it back in the 80's, he didn't have a clue but said they bought a new van and the Cadillac was gone.

I was at one of our junk yards looking for parts and found the remnants of the hearse, all the front sheet metal was gone along with the engine and transmission and it was just a shell of it's former glory, I would have loved to have found the car before it's demise.

I hust wish I had taken a picture of it. HRP

 

I generally dont buy cars that I dont like, but I have had a few that dont like me. The only old car was a 56 chevy. It blew out the intake/exhaust gasket on the drive home and the dash wiring shorted out and caught fire. From there it turned into a downward spiral of replacing the same parts over and over, as well as a couple of what I believe were self induced massive fuel leaks. I finally had to throw in the towel and put the car up for sale. To add insult to injury it took several months to sell the car because every time someone came to look at it the car would run poorly or something would quit working. The car eventually found someone it liked and I sold it at a huge loss. In hindsight I would have been further ahead to just let the damn thing burn to the ground when the dash caught fire.

 

I bought my wife a 62 Fairlane once, worst car I (my wife) ever owned. The trans and clutch was in and out so often it should have had wing nuts holding it in. Finally got tired of the problems and sold it to some people that never had much of anything go wrong with it.

Maybe someday I'll buy a 63 Fairlane and try again.

 

This thing is a mess in the cooling department. He would need more radiator to start and a decent steel fan and shroud.

 

I actually got rid of a nice car due to my soon to be ex-wife crabbing about it. It was a '67 Plymouth Fury III, dark green with black vinyl top and added on AC... that worked. She maintained that there was something about that car, long before the Christine movie came out. I should have dumped her on the spot, finally did a year later. I sold the car and got another '64 Ford Country Sedan, 352 and a 3-speed. That one got wrecked and almost killed me in the process in late 1978.

 

I know what you mean but I’d prefer the 66 gto

 

Long ago I was given my Grandmother’s car when she passed away. It was a beautiful cream puff toronado. It never gave her any troubles at all.
Once I started actually driving it ,,, more than 5 miles distance and faster than 35 mph the thing started falling apart. It got so bad that I’d have to do something nearly every day at lunch to make it home. Then work on it in the evening to make it back to work the next day.

At the end of owning that car-
In the morning one day the window would not go back up. So at lunch time I removed the door panel and mechanism then blocked the window closed. Heading home that day I tried to stop and the pedal went to the floor and I sailed thru a flashing red light at 50 mph. Worked my ass off installing a new master cylinder that evening. On my way to work going over a bump that I went over a least 1000 times the rear bumper fell off and was dragging by the taillight’s wires. I stuffed the bumper in the trunk and went to work.
I managed to get home, collected the old lady and went to the Chevy dealer. I told the sales man I ain’t got all night. What’s the cheapest new vehicle with AC? He walks over to a 4cly 5speed S10 and says this is it. I loved that truck.

 

Busting my ass baling hay and finally make enough money for a down payment on a 62 Ford Galaxy, black, 406 tri-power, 4 speed. Salesman lets me drive it then tells me since I'm under legal age I have to have my Mom co-sign for the loan. Drag my Mom down to the dealer and show her the car. I'm about to pee my pants 'cause I know I'm going to be leaving the dealership in the classiest car in town. Salesman comes out, walks up to my Mom, says and I quote,
" You know he's going to kill himself in this car ". I wound up with a '61 Olds F 85 4 door, white, 215 aluminum block, 3 speed that Mom thought was just right for me and I absolutely hated. Didn't have too many kindly words for the salesman, either.

 

Anything and everything from the Dark Ages (also known as "the 1970s through the 1980s") thanks to Washington politicians designing our cars for us.

 

I owned a new '80 turbo Trans Am and hated that gutless dog of a thing. It had the WS6 suspension and went around corners as if it was on rails. Too bad it couldn't pull the scum off of rice pudding...