1976 Ford Pinto, didn't blow up on me, but I was never rear-ended 1976 Honda CVCC--my friends called this a beer can. Because it looked like one to them. Could reach over and roll down the window on the passenger side while driving, without leaning over. Small! 1988 Pontiac LeMans-the car they brought back from the 60s only uglier and less durable. The first car I ever ever bought. 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse-At this time, Mitsubishi, Dodge, and Eagle (remember them?!) were in collusion, I mean had agreements, in place and Eagle made the Talon. Daddy liked my Eclipse so much he bought a Talon. 1990 Mazda Miata--you know how I feel about that one!!!! 2011-1990=21 years old. Still running strong. After bankruptcy, foreclosure, and divorce... AND it got flooded, there is no A/C (I don't care), no heater (I don't care), the driver's window doesn't crank up or down, I can pull it instead, and the radio just went out. I might fix that. I did just get a brand new convertible top and it'll likely work another three or so years. My parents owned, during my lifetime, and I rode in: '67 Jaguar XKE (CHECK THIS CAR OUT!!!!) Late 70s Grand Torino Ford, Pinto (the same one) A really huge and old Oldsmobile that I learned to drive on. Ugh. Cars my boyfriends/husbands have owned, and I drove/owned: 196? VW Bug (two of them) 198? Honda CRX (two of them) 1986 1/2 yes, a half year??? Toyota Celica, Supra (two of them) Oldsmobile Cutlass Nissan pickup Mazda 626 Mazda Protege Isuzu Rodeo The weird thing is, the two bugs, two Hondas, and the two Supras are the same two guys. Both guys onwed all those cars in succession. Where they deviate? After I broke up with boyfriend of eight years, he bought a Nissan Pathfinder. The one I married and stayed married to for 11 years, owned an ordinary Nissan pickup. Weird!!!!!

DH just informed me that he learned while watching the Congressional Hearings on the auto industry that the auto industry's current debt is also heavily leveraged by credit defaut swaps. So if they go under and stop paying off their debt, we can expect another round of financial industry failures. Why not just keep them in business and let them pay off their debts? Why bail out the financial industry again when they produce nothing material? jkom51: I believe that Buick is the luxury car of choice in China, a huge emerging market. I agree that the Big Three need to get rid of their airline fleets. So shoul all the other business bailed out by the government. In doing a search on "Corporate Jets," I came across a story from 2005 that talked about executives being required to use the coporate jet when on personal travel! "Citigroup's proxy says it spent $309,783 for personal "company transportation" for Chairman Sandy Weill, $108,208 for CEO Chuck Prince and $459,153 for executive committee chair Robert Rubin. Citigroup doesn't break out personal expenses for planes or ground transport." And Jack Welsh, the rumored new Auto Czar: "After reports of heavy personal plane use among disgraced CEOs and negative PR heaped upon former General Electric CEO Jack Welch over his post-retirement use of company jets, "Culturally, you don't want to send a message to the market, employees or customers that CEOs are treated preferentially," notes compensation specialist Mike Kesner of Deloitte Consulting." Yikes! He used the coporate jet after retirement, and he is going to be the guy who gets the Big Three to be frugal? But realistically, here is basic info on coporate jet use from Wikipedia: "There are approximately 11,000 business jets in the worldwide fleet with the vast majority of them based in the United States or owned by US companies. The European market is the next largest, with growing activity in Asia and Central America. There is a pre-owned marketplace in which aircraft are bought and sold based on their immediate deliverability because new aircraft orders often take two to three years for delivery."

1929 Model A Ford, 4 dr with window shade, roll-up, style curtains on rear side windows. Color black - was there any other color? 1949 Plymouth, 6cy, 2dr, 3-sp manaul, column shifter, Blue, the last of the fast back designs. (Horrible rear visibility) 1954 Dodge, 4dr, w/ Red Ram V-8, 3-sp stick. This one was not a large displacement engine, rated only at 140 hp, but was the smoothest running engine that I have ever owned. Color: White top over Blue bottom. 1960 Plymouth Valiant, slant six, 100 hp, automatic, 4 dr, blue. Low torque engine - couldn't get out of the way of itself. Good fuel mileage. No power steering - didn't need it - very good handling. The next year, a longer stroke engine was offered with much more torque. This one was very driveable and became the engine of choice. 1964 Dodge Dart, 273 cid V8, 4 dr, automatic, white w/red interior. This one was a good compromise between, power and fuel economy and room. I wish that I had another similar car today. This one was well liked. The engine was a thin wall cast version of the 318, but with a smaller bore. The bore centers were the same as the 318, thus it was manufactured on the same engine line as the 318. Many engine parts were interchangeable with the 318. 1969 Dodge Coronet, 4 dr, 318 cid V8, blue Just an ordinary sedan to hold my growing family. EPA fix-ups began to appear and degraded performance a bit without any fuel mileage increase - lower compression and a low ratio rear end ( 2.71 to 1) Though I put 115,000 miles on it before moving on. 1974 Dodge Sedan, 400 cid V-8. EPA had struck this engine hard. It was based on the admired 383 V8, an engine upgrade option for station wagons and police cars. To meet EPA requirements, Chrysler lowered the compression ratio and installed a very mild cam. The resulting power was so embarrasing that chrysler bumped the displacement up to 400 cu in to gain back a bit of performance. (An earlier 383 in good tune would run cicles around it.) 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass, 4 dr, V8. Bought used for a 2nd car and commuter. Had to put in a valve job after 1 yr ownership. As it neared the end of its life, sold it to a junk yard. I didn't want to see this on the road again as it had become dangerous. The body metal holding the rear body mounts had corroded away. The best part of this car: The radio. 1975 Buick Apollo, 270 cid V-8 (Oldsmoblie engine), 4 dr, Yellow. The smallest V8 made by GM. Not a good car. Was purchased as 2nd car for a winter-beater and comuter. Let my kids learn to drive with this one - they were not going to win any stop light drags with it. In fact, they were lucky go to get across a big intersection before the light changed to red. I bought this car during a period of runaway inflation. It was 3 yrs old and loosing value at a lesser rate than my hard earned cash in the savings account. That became part of my rationale for picking it up for a 2nd car. 1976 Buick Estate Wagon, 4 dr, 455 cid V8, Clam shell rear gate and window; 19 ft long! This one was the family land barge and vacation machine. The family had now grown to 5 and this station wagon held us all in comfort on long trips. This was the first year that GM put catalytic converter on all of the Buick line. (GM had put catalytic converters on a few select models the year before as a field trial.) With the converter, Buick put in a better cam and iginition advance curve and got better power plus 2 more miles per gallon. I garaged this one every winter taking it off the streets just before road salting began and it stayed off until next spring after a rain had washed away the salt. I kept this one 13 yrs and it was in very good condition the day I traded it in. It was showing signs of a catalytic converter plugging up, otherwise, the engine was in fine shape. 1980 Chevrolet Citation, V6, 4dr + hatch back, green, my first front wheel driver. A fair car. Had a very good useable interior layout and driver visibility - wished there was a car with those features today. Had too much braking on rear wheels compared to the front - gave the car a tendency to swap ends while braking on slippery surfaces. Over- sped the engine one time when the tranny failed to catch 2nd gear on a downshift - it went all the way to 1st gear at 45 mph. Loosened a rod bearing. GM got the steering geometry right on this one - no torque steer. The Chrysler K-car was plagued with torque ateer. 1983 Chevrolet Citation, V8, 4dr, white Engine was de-tuned a bit, but otherwise the same as the 1980. 1981 Pontiac Phoenix (twin of the Citation), 4 cy "Iron Duke", 4 dr., Brown. A dog. Served as a commuter. When climbibng a grade, engine vibration could be strongly felt in the steering wheel - each firing of the cyliners were perceptable. No. 2 son, a new driver, burned the engine up while driving home from a days outing with the guys. He had not been watching the oil level - it ran out. 1989 Dodge Dynasty, 4 dr, V6, Light blue 1st yr for Chrysler's new computer controlled transmission. It had issues - shifting algorithm should have been revised. It was programmed to give good results on the EPA fuel mileage test, but otherwise, was bad for commuting traffic. Car was too softly spring - people riding in back tended to get car sick. 1992 Dodge Dynasty, V6, 4dr, White. A much better car. Better handling. Held front alignment very well. Shifting algorithn improved, but still had glitches. I put 90,000 miles on it and sold it (cheaply) to my daughter. She moved out of state and later sold the car to her friend. By then, the rocker panels were holed out. I saw the car two years ago and it was still running with upwards of 140,000 miles on it. 1992 Jeep Cherokee, inline 4.0 L 6CY, 4dr, with part and full time 4-wheel drive, Red. Really liked this one. Gas mileage wasn't great, but it took us all over the lower 48 states and into places where an ordunary car could not go. We photograhed many interesting scenics using this vehicle. This one was my prime winter time driver - great in snow - can't beat it. 1998 Dodge Stratus, 4 cy, dual overhead cams, 4 dr, red. An OK car - not great, but OK. Its gets very good gas mileage on trips and that is what I bought it for. Runs great. I beem garaging this one very winter and there are no rust spots. 1998 Jeep Cherokee, in-line 6 cy, 4 dr, again with part and full time 4 wheel drive, Deep Amethyst Purple (appears black under many lighting conditions). Replaces the red Jeep which was getting body rust, but ran well - had 190,000 miles on it.

I started driving a Ferguson 2-plow tractor when I was 13 yr old using it to plow fields in preparation for spring planting. One yr later, I was driving and maintaining our 2-door Model A Ford sedan. I had a provisional farm labor learner's permit and got full license by age 16. I also drove a John Deere Model B tractor for 2 seasons for another farmer. Most of my early driving was on dirt or gravel roads. My Junior yr of high school, I was working in a filling station for 3 hours after school and bought myself a 4-dr Model A. I was the head Grease Monkey. While working the filling station, I drove a variety of customer's cars when delivery was required. The most interesting of these was a 1950 Packard Hearse with an automatic transmission that took forever to get the vehicle rolling. After it passed 15 mph, the engine began to have more effect of accelerating the vehicle. The culprit was the fluid coupling in the drive line.