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Automobiles? Any other car freaks out there?

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Chevette Girl

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Ok, yes, my Chevettes forum went bellyup and I'm jonesing to talk about cars... so what do you drive, what do you want to drive realistically and fantastically? What do you love/hate in a car or truck?

I love driving rear-wheel drive and I love small cars. Unfortunately they haven't made Chevettes in over 20 years now and now I think the only other small rwd vehicle available would be the Miata, which does not come in 4-door models, which is a requirement of mine...

Having driven new cars, I HATE ABS (it's almost gotten me killed once already, let me work the damn pedals thank you very much) and I cannot abide a car with a signal clicker that sounds like a little kid playing with a metal juice cap, and it makes me feel ill when I sit in a new car that gets WORSE gas mileage than my 29-year old carbureted engine was originally rated for. So when my beloved Little Beast finally goes to the great parts yard in the sky, I'll probably suck it up, learn how not to kill myself in snow with front wheel drive, and replace her with a Toyota Yaris. Last I checked the base model didn't have ABS and so many of my friends have gone over to Toyota that I'm liking what I'm seeing, if I HAVE to get dragged to the 21st century.

I'm a child of the 70's so I have a real thing for big old muscle cars, although as much as I don't think I'd ever buy a North American car again (unless it's a Chevette) I do really really like what they've done with the new Dodge Challenger (although I loathe the new Charger).

If money and pollution were no object, I'd want a 1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme. That's what I learned to drive on (well, that and a 1976 Delta 88 but the Cutlass is far sexier) and it was just a dream to drive (till you had to park it somewhere tight, but hey, I learned how, dammit).
 

AToE

NewBee
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Jun 8, 2009
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I'm on my third Chevy Cavalier, all have been early 90's, this one's a 94. These things are tanks, cheap, piece of junk tanks! My first one would still be running for sure and be over 300,000km by now if I hadn't written it off on a deer going 140/130kph...

I like modest cars anyways, I'm not really into displays of wealth. If I had a nice car it'd be a cool muscle car, or a cool heares... or one of those 30's-ish gangster cars.

If I had lots of excess money I'd buy a very early 90's Cavalier and have it restored completely... just to see the looks on peoples' faces when I told them! ;D
 

1k_wayne

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 18, 2010
56
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Wisconsin
I had a couple Chevette's many years ago, an '80 scooter, and an '85 CS. The scooter was great, I never should have traded in for the CS, that car couldn't keep a transmission together until I found a 5 speed for it (yes, some of them actually came with a 5 speed). Got rid of it around '93 since I needed a pickup for work. Had a friend with an older Deisel Chevette with an auto transmission. That thing was so slow he kept a brick on the floor, when the light turned green he just put it on the accelerator and left it there, we called it his cruise control. It would only go about 60-65mph depending on wind and grade, but got over 50mpg in town, and close to 60mpg on the highway.

I've got a '64 Baja Bug with a body lift, roll cage, and the engine is nowhere near stock (1.8l, Weber, headers, cam, etc...) It's never seen a northern winter so there's no rust, but it is kinda beat up. It desperately needs a new interior and I really should install a new wiring harness too. Honestly I'm more into bikes than cars. I've got a Suzuki SV1000S and a KLR650, and I put more miles on them than I do on my pickup or Bug combined.

I took my SV down to the Great Smokey mountains last month:

6.jpg
 

commonsenseman

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Mar 23, 2011
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CG, thought of getting an old BMW? Something like this one?

80sBMW.jpg


Anywho, I used to be a cadillac guy, but now that I have a family I drive a Chevy Malibu. Not my first choice in a car. If I had my say, I'd have a muscle car too, probably either a Mopar or a GM.

At least I still have my truck, makes me feel more manly than the Malibu. Now that I think about it, neither of our cars get decent gas mileage though. GEO Metro here we come?

I almost forgot. We had two chevettes growing up. One was bright red, the other was bright yellow, we called them ketchup & mustard. Man do vinyl seats get hot in the sun.....
 

Echostatic

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 5, 2011
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I like older sports/muscle cars. My first car was a black 1981 Trans Am with gold trim. ~30,000 miles, immaculate, all original. My parents bought it for me dirt cheap, before they were really worth anything. I want a 1961 Cadillac, go find a 500 v8, build it up a bit, get a TH-400 transmission and drop it all in, make it fast. Right now I have a black 1968 Grand Prix that I want to sell and a 1989 Turbo Trans Am that sadly had this happen about 16 hours ago...

03326dde.jpg


Went under an SUV, which wasn't damaged in the least. Fortunately it all looks cosmetic...
 

TheAlchemist

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I'm a Mustang Woman, myself. On my thrid. Mister Ed is 2005 V6 manual. Would consider something with better mileage, though.
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
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I had a couple Chevette's many years ago, an '80 scooter, and an '85 CS. The scooter was great, I never should have traded in for the CS, that car couldn't keep a transmission together until I found a 5 speed for it (yes, some of them actually came with a 5 speed). Got rid of it around '93 since I needed a pickup for work. Had a friend with an older Deisel Chevette with an auto transmission. That thing was so slow he kept a brick on the floor, when the light turned green he just put it on the accelerator and left it there, we called it his cruise control. It would only go about 60-65mph depending on wind and grade, but got over 50mpg in town, and close to 60mpg on the highway.

Nice... Yeah, seems just about everyone had a Chevette or knew someone who did. I had a friend who had a diesel 'vette but I don't remember how he said it drove... Oddly enough, this is my fourth Chevette/Acadian (1986 Acadian, two 87 'vettes and the Beast is an 82 Acadian) and it's the only one that isn't a scooter and wasn't 5-speed (at least by the time I was done with it) and I have the 5-speed tranny from #1 waiting in the garage but I can't seem to kill this automatic! It leaks but I never top it up till it starts shifting funny and it still goes just fine (well, if you account for the fact that Chevettes new off the line had 68 horsepower, so let's just say long sloping uphills are not our friends and we get passed by transport trucks)... A Baja Bug? Cool. My parents both had Beetles when they got married but then the got an Afghan Hound and then the year after that they had me, so they upgraded to giant Oldsmobiles...


Went under an SUV, which wasn't damaged in the least. Fortunately it all looks cosmetic...

:eek: OH NO!! well, at least if you're going to go underneath something, the wedge-shaped nose is appropriate, but geez, I hate seeing stuff like that happen to nice cars... :( Glad you're OK and the Trans Am should be too...

I'm a Mustang Woman, myself. On my thrid. Mister Ed is 2005 V6 manual. Would consider something with better mileage, though.


I can understand that, I wasn't too happy with what they did to 'stangs in the 80's but I do like the recent developments, I think they captured the older style well in the last few years. And even at 29 years old, the Beast is still getting well over 400 km on a 40 litre tank. Which is better than my old roommate's Cavalier!

And ATOE, I do understand, Chevettes are hardly fancy classics but I just like driving them so much that I've dumpled a lot more money into keeping them on the road than any sane person probably should... I got this one off an old lady's estate at 20 years old with 90,000 km on it, but although it runs fine and isn't going to fall to pieces on me (it better not!), it's rather in bad need of a paintjob cause it looks pretty crappy right now after I finally did some bodywork on it last year and couldn't find an exact match for the paint...


CG, thought of getting an old BMW? Something like this one?

Anywho, I used to be a cadillac guy, but now that I have a family I drive a Chevy Malibu. Not my first choice in a car. If I had my say, I'd have a muscle car too, probably either a Mopar or a GM.

At least I still have my truck, makes me feel more manly than the Malibu. Now that I think about it, neither of our cars get decent gas mileage though. GEO Metro here we come?

I almost forgot. We had two chevettes growing up. One was bright red, the other was bright yellow, we called them ketchup & mustard. Man do vinyl seats get hot in the sun.....

Thought about it, but new Beemers are expensive and I think I'm getting near done with old cars, I don't have enough room to do a lot of my own work anymore and after the Chevette carks, I want my garage back... and I'm tired of travelling with half my tools and a box fo spare parts under the front seat, just in case I need to put something back on on the side of the road. The one thing I absolutely insist on is my car being reliable, and when it becomes unsafe or I'm not confident that it's going to get me where I need to go, that is when I start looking around... The Beast has only been on a tow truck about 5 times in 9 years, which I consider to be not too bad (tossed timing belt, choked fuel filter, broken control arm, timing belt tensioner fell right off, and one or two other random things). The rest of the time I've either been able to limp her to the garage or get her fixed up by myself on the side of the road (I can change out an alternator or a heater core faster than my mechanic now!). Not to say that I don't expect her to get me there, I'm just prepared for every now and then when stuff happens, which one does expect when one's daily commute added up to 500 km/week.

Ketchup and Mustard, that's cute. Funny, all the 'vettes I've had had the fabric seats, the only vinyl seat I remember becoming stuck to was The Pig (76 Delta 88 ).
 
Last edited:

1k_wayne

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 18, 2010
56
1
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Wisconsin
Nice... Yeah, seems just about everyone had a Chevette or knew someone who did. I had a friend who had a diesel 'vette but I don't remember how he said it drove... Oddly enough, this is my fourth Chevette/Acadian (1986 Acadian, two 87 'vettes and the Beast is an 82 Acadian) and it's the only one that isn't a scooter and wasn't 5-speed (at least by the time I was done with it) and I have the 5-speed tranny from #1 waiting in the garage but I can't seem to kill this automatic! It leaks but I never top it up till it starts shifting funny and it still goes just fine (well, if you account for the fact that Chevettes new off the line had 68 horsepower, so let's just say long sloping uphills are not our friends and we get passed by transport trucks)... A Baja Bug? Cool. My parents both had Beetles when they got married but then the got an Afghan Hound and then the year after that they had me, so they upgraded to giant Oldsmobiles...

That's interesting, when I was looking for transmissions, I could only find 4 speeds and autos. I had to look it up, the diesel was rated at 51hp :p

I did the Baja conversion about 15 years ago when I blew a brake line, it had the single piston system so all I had left was one E-brake in the rear. The impact pretty much crushed it from the gas tank forward, but the passenger compartment was OK. I used a 1 piece Mark V, and it also got a new dual piston master cylinder and a disc brake conversion kit.
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
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That's interesting, when I was looking for transmissions, I could only find 4 speeds and autos. I had to look it up, the diesel was rated at 51hp :p

I did the Baja conversion about 15 years ago when I blew a brake line, it had the single piston system so all I had left was one E-brake in the rear. The impact pretty much crushed it from the gas tank forward, but the passenger compartment was OK. I used a 1 piece Mark V, and it also got a new dual piston master cylinder and a disc brake conversion kit.

The blue 'vette that I stuffed all the good guts from the red one into and then painted purple had a 4-speed but the previous owners had used it to tow a trailer halfway across the country, when I took out the drain plug, there were pieces of transmission teeth stuck to it with sludge... but it still drove OK, didn't shift hard or crunch or anything, even with a crummy half-burned clutch... so it got Red's 5-speed too... I think my 'vettes are dual cylinder, even when you could see fluid pissing through the hole in the breakline, there was still some braking even without e-brake.
 

tweak'e

NewBee
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Jan 31, 2011
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Having driven new cars, I HATE ABS (it's almost gotten me killed once already, let me work the damn pedals thank you very much)

would like to know how the ABS almost got you killed ?

i'm in the middle of doing an engine conversion on my toyota surf 4x4. for offroad use i hate ABS. but on tarseal i wish i had it !
 

Meriadoc

Worker Bee
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Jul 6, 2005
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I can understand that, I wasn't too happy with what they did to 'stangs in the 80's but I do like the recent developments, I think they captured the older style well in the last few years.

Aah...! The first car I ever bought, once I was a fresh-out-of-undergrad, suddenly-wage-earning bachelor, was a '90 Mustang GT. Man, that was a fun car! (Although, I have to admit, I like the look of the recent model years better, too...!)
 

Chevette Girl

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would like to know how the ABS almost got you killed ?

i'm in the middle of doing an engine conversion on my toyota surf 4x4. for offroad use i hate ABS. but on tarseal i wish i had it !

It was on snowy pavement, with a minivan I was driving while the 'vette was in the shop, going around a curve I'm very familiar with without ABS at admittedly perhaps the higher end of a safe speed I'd take it in the 'vette under similar conditions, I hit the brakes and held them hard like you're supposed to when you have ABS, heard/felt the ABS kick in, and we just kept going forward, and kept going, and kept going... I had to steer it into the ditch beside the stop sign I was about to blow through because it barely slowed down and there was a transport truck coming crossways. Yeah, sure it lets you maintain control of steering when you'd otherwise have locked the wheels, but it doesn't stop the damn car! I had another friend experience the same thing before when braking strongly, new to ABS, she knew her old car would have stopped fine in the distance she had, but she had to steer around the car she was avoiding and was five feet past it by the time hers finally came to a halt, lucky for her there were wide paved shoulders.

Earlier that day with the ABS off on that thing I nailed the brakes hard enough to lock them (Brake Check!) on a snowy straight-away just to see what would happen, and the ass-end tried to come around to see what was the matter. This, this I understand, but so long as you have the control of your vehicle to avoid actually locking up the wheels so you can still steer, gimme straight brakes any day. After I got back up to speed on the same road, I did a more controlled brake without locking the wheels, and it stopped fine. My opinion may change if I ever drive something with power brakes, but unless you're on ice or the pavement's around -40, it's hard to lock the wheels on the 'vette (that time I hit the brakes strongly because a light turned yellow and I do generally follow "can I stop?" rahter than "can I make it through?", the tires made an obliging "SKREEK" noise and we didn't slow down at all, so I put foot back on gas and got through the intersection in time. Healthy reminder about cold tires on cold pavement, hate to think what might have happened had they been all-seasons and not winters!)

Then again, I'm often found in empty snowy parking lots practicing getting into and out of skids, and I drift snowy corners in winter whenever safe... I am soooo not looking forward to reprogramming all that when I have to get front wheel drive... Doing this with your all-seasons in fall and then again once the snow tires are on gives one a major appreciation for why you would want actual winter tires and not trust the job to all-seasons. That, and it's embarrassing getting stuck on 1" of snow at the top of a hill because you have no weight over your drive wheels :p.
 

wayneb

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If money and pollution were no object, I'd want a 1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme. That's what I learned to drive on (well, that and a 1976 Delta 88 but the Cutlass is far sexier) and it was just a dream to drive (till you had to park it somewhere tight, but hey, I learned how, dammit).

Well, as someone who grew up in the 60's (and saw 'old school' muscle when it was showroom new), I want my first car again - a '68 Olds Cutlass 442. I got the original in 1973 dirt cheap from my aunt, who was a GM employee and got a new car every few years from them at an incredible discount. She was the classic "little old lady from..." who always drove more car than she needed. ;D

That was a truly impressive acceleration machine - especially since it was one of the component groupings with a 3-speed auto tranny, so many of my peers poo-poohed the car at first, until I took them for a ride! ;) Yeah, I know, the claim that many seem to make, that the '4-4-2' stood for 4 barrel carb, 4-speed stick and dual exhaust, was true only in very early Olds marketing (circa 1964 when the 442 moniker stood for a performance package that Olds put into their police cruiser chassis) but in fact that was never the config for the majority of 442s that hit the streets. And IMO, the only manual tranny worth getting in a 442 is not a real manual shift - it is the Hurst/Olds package. Those were a sweet early interpretation of auto/manual hybrids. The straight-up manuals that found their way into plain vanilla 442s tended to self-destruct after a couple of years - typical GM engineering of the day, not matching the tranny to the torque and HP characteristics of the engine.

Do I miss my old Olds? Yes. Do I wish that I could afford another one now? Yes! Would I rather have a Hurst/Olds of the same vintage? Well, Duh! Of course!! ;D
 

Chevette Girl

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Well, as someone who grew up in the 60's (and saw 'old school' muscle when it was showroom new), I want my first car again - a '68 Olds Cutlass 442.

Do I miss my old Olds? Yes. Do I wish that I could afford another one now? Yes! Would I rather have a Hurst/Olds of the same vintage? Well, Duh! Of course!! ;D

Awwwww, an Olds 442!! I think I just swooned a little there...;D

Before he died, I bought my dad a Hot Wheels model Olds 442 because I couldn't find a Delta or Cutlass for him... It's still in its blister pack, never opened :)

My Cutlass had the sport-tranny, so it would get you fast pretty quick too. Could pass anything but the gas station... Of course, in its later years, when you nailed the gas hard, there was a bit of time lapse before passing gear would kick in, like it was asking, "Are you sure? Are you REALLY sure? Hang on then!" and it would belch out some brown smoke and go like stink. Only better acceleration I remember was when my uncle took me out in his RX-7 with the rotary engine... nailed the gas and embedded me in the seat upholstery :)
 

gurn_bot

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 16, 2011
12
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Stuttgart, Germany
I have to say that I'm more than a little bit jealous reading this thread! ???
My first car was a 1.3 litre Hyundai, and after a year of driving I moved to the States (from the UK) and was young and determined to show you Americans that European cars were better than your yankee heaps of steel, so I got myself a VW Corrado G60 (the 1.8 litre supercharged version).

Man did I love that car! And I've wanted one again ever since... and I grew up in the UK the late 80's early 90's when all the best cars came from Japan, so I love all those 3 litre twin turbocharged rockets of the era.

But now when I play Gran Turismo 5, and I have the greatest cars of all eras at my fingertips to play with, it's the American muscle that ends up on the screen :eek: I LOVe the style of a good old American sports car. And yes, I'm glad they're bringing some of it back lately!

I now live in the valleys where Benz and Porsche more or less invented cars in the late 19th century. Visit the museums and the history of these companies is mouth-watering. But give me 1970s Dodge Charger over a 911 any day of the week! (Actually, just give me one... please :D)
 

veritas

NewBee
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Dec 7, 2007
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2005 duramax diesel crew cab of course I had to do a lot of THINGS to make it the way I wanted but I really like the truck.
 

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Chevette Girl

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I now live in the valleys where Benz and Porsche more or less invented cars in the late 19th century. Visit the museums and the history of these companies is mouth-watering. But give me 1970s Dodge Charger over a 911 any day of the week! (Actually, just give me one... please :D)

Nice... There are a couple years where Porsche made a 911 that looks like a car but on the whole I think they're ugly. 70's Dodge Charger though, oooohhhhh.... Makes me think of that scene in xXx where he's racing around Europe in a Pontiac GTO...

The UK has Chevettes too, made by Vauxhall... also Opel Kadett elsewhere in Europe, not sure if that's Germany or Nederlands or where. Not that anyone cares about Chevettes much anymore :rolleyes:, they ARE silly little cars.

I'd never heard of the VW Corrado G60, had to go look it up. I think I know a guy who's still got a Rabbit on the road though!
 

TheAlchemist

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My first Mustang was an '86 manual. Got 36mpg with that one. Followed that w/ a '96automatic. After about 5 years I would have been ready for another Mustang, but I didn't like the looks of what they were making then, so I just held out until the 2005 beauty. Not too pleased w/ the mileage on this one, though, despite the manual transmission.
 

Loadnabox

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Apr 17, 2011
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My first car was a 1980 Honda Prelude my dad gave to me at graduation. I always loved how sporty it was with a little tiny cvcc engine. If I had the money, I would get one and put a Subaru flat 4 with turbo under the hood (Like the one in the WRX) Stock my 1980 prelude could whip a 90's vintage V6 stang in a quarter mile. It's engine was barely 80 HP, imagine what it would do with a couple hundred from the sporty WRX powerhouse.

My next car was a '97 Ford ranger 2WD. By the time I left Idaho I had gotten so good at driving it on every kind of surface, famous last words were "You'll need 4wd to do this" Videos of me driving it (that I have now lost :( ) that were posted on the internet garnered comments to the effect of "You're lying, you're a professional rally truck driver, there's no way you can pull this driving off"

Somewhere in there I did actually get a Suzuki Samurai. The kid that owned it before me rear ended a Jeep and messed up the front pretty good but didn't hurt the frame. I replaced a timing belt, timing cover and water pump. Put a used nose clip into place to re-make the engine compartment. By the time I was done I had all of $500 into it and used to joke, "I could roll this thing off a cliff and so long as everyone was safe it'd be a hell of an experience"

In between there was a series of unmemorable vehicles, then my '96 Cavalier which simply won't die. I had a '82 Honda Silverwing 650 Interstate edition bike (was funny riding it around at Daygton Bike Week and jump starting Harleys :) and now I've finally got a truck again... well... my nused SUV, but I'm enjoying my Pathfinder for now :)
 

Riverat

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I've had a few favorites but my current is a 1963 Chevy short bed, step side K10 (first year for a factory chevy 4 wheel drive) And it's
restored, not perfect under the hood, the dash has a spot that needs some work but prettty much brand new.



n557409014_1551499_8388425.jpg
 
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