my first foreign car..

[frenchy]

well like most of us here i grew up with chevy's and fords and pontiacs and dodges and for the most part i didn't complain .. if i needed a car i'd look around and see what was available and if it fit my needs and i could afford it i bought it .. no real mystery there .. and while i liked chevy's i had nothin against fords or chryslers .. i pretty much owned a few of each . but i didn't break down and get a foreign car till 1980..i had friends who had toyotas and hondas and datsuns and of course who didn't have a volkswagon ?? but i stuck to the american cars cause after all i was an american and it was only right .. even after the two oil embargo's the arabs laid on us i still drove an american car that at that time probably got about 16 miles to the gallon .. on a good day , with no wind against you , goin downhill all the way .. but one nite on a lark i stopped at this place on route 22 in i think its springfield .. called dodgeland .. i think they changed their name to autoland before i moved to florida .. they were one of the first super dealers .. and they had just about everything there but they mostly sold a lot of dodges .. of course that changed as time went on hence the name autoland .. i guess they didn't wanna put all their eggs in dodges basket .. so i saw this little datsun number and thought ya know i can see myself drivin that .. but the trick to the deal is to not look or get excited so i just walked around kickin some tires and stuff and a salseman came out and started puttin on the full court press .. you like that car there ?? ehh .. i dunno .. tell me about it .. so he starts off on his speil and i look it over .. it was a 79 so it was a little over a year old .. but it was in great shape .. so i looked at the price they had on the window and nahh.. you want too much for it .well this guy didn't wanna let me get away so he said well if i drop the price can we make a deal tonite . i said i dunno how much you wanna drop the price ?/ and back and forth we went .. i mean we danced .. he was tryin to lead but i wouldn't let him so he called in the big boy .. his boss .. and when i say the big boy i ain't kiddin this guy was about 450 pounds easy .. so we danced some more . finally the big boy said to the first guy here's my lighter go out and set that car on fire cause i can get more for it from insurance .. at the time i smoked so i said here take my lighter too just in case his don't work .. i wanna see this ..so we danced some more and they finally gave me a great price .. they dropped it by a grand and it was already a pretty good price when i went in .. and the salseman kept say so can we make a deal tonite and i said well lemme think about it .. i could see the smoke commin outta his ears when i left .. but i went back the next day and said ok and then the dance started again .. well that was if you made the deal last night .. now its back to the original price . i said ok then .. see ya bye and he stopped me ok ok you can have it for that price and i drove it home .. it was one of the best cars i ever owned .. it was a datsun 310gx .. a 5 speed with a hippy sunroof and velour interior that had seats that went all the way back and the back seats folded down so i could throw guitars and amps back there like a station wagon .. but it looked really cool .. only problem was the color .. that ice blue that sorta blends in with the sky and the road at dawn and dusk .. i got hit 4 times in one year .. always by a girl .. and they always said the same thing .. where did you come from i didn't even see you .. by the time it happened the third time i said yeah i know i know you didn't even see me.. how did you know ? call it a lucky guess .. anyway i saw some pics of a the same exact car and saved em . of course this one is like 34 years old .. but its in great shape for 34 years old .. man i loved that car .. it got about 36 miles to the gallon back then and sometimes 38 .. and that was all around drivin .. so anybody here have a car they miss for one reason or another ??

    

[uno,dos,3]

It was Boz Skaggs.....I'm old and get confused easily.

[Kim]

My ex husband decided we BOTH "needed" new cars but I'd pretty much rather do ANYTHING at that time than go around the car lot looking for a car. I was fighting Lyme Disease and the fatigue and leg pain was often overwhelming so I said, "LOOK,  I don't CARE what you get. All I want is an Electric Blue car and a CD player. And..well, a sunroof would be NICE!" So, he came home with an ICE BLUE (FRENCHY....LOL!) Toyota Matrix with a sunroof and a CD player. I liked it a lot actually. BUT about 3 days later, he said, I think I will  take the matrix, I found you something BETTER. (his SOMETHING BETTER usually TOTALLY sucked because it was always about HIM!!) WELL....!!! He came home with an ELECTRIC BLUE Ford Focus with a sunroof and a 5 CD disk changer...WOO HOO!! I LOVED the car and it was the BEST thing my ex ever gave me that was 100% what I wanted. But it was short lived. I had the car about a year and a half and my SON needed a car so Steve looked around for something for a young man in his early 20's. My ex said AS we were going to pick up the Gray/Silver Mercury Sable an hour away...."THIS Sable is probably a better car for YOU than HIM." IT was NOT a request. So I gave my son MY BEAUTIFUL blue car and I had to drive the GRANNY looking car!! MY son TOTALLED it about 6 months later in Wisconsin tho my ex didn't think it was "totalled" so he had it towed all the way back to Tennessee and fixed it himself. After 7 years, it STILL is in the garage awaiting a bumper!!

[flippr 2.0]

I never owned an import.

[Kim]

And BY THE WAY...the Mercury Sable turned out to be the car I NEEDED in about another year's time...my daughter had 2 foot surgeries (one at a time) that took a year to heal for both and we borrowed a GIGANTIC wheelchair that would NOT have fit in the Ford Focus whatsoever!! (UNLESS we strapped it on the roof without wrecking the "spoilers") HOWEVER, it slid EFFORTLESSLY into the trunk of the Mercury. OH, and it didn't have a sunroof but it DID have a 5 Cd Disk changer AND a cassette player which was great because my dad had made me some CUSTOM cassettes of all my favorite songs!!

 

[Wayne Goodwin]

I've never had a desire to own a new car . Always been a Chevy Man . I have own two ford Vans that were great . Never a problem with them except they loved gas . I always had to buy something that fit me . Just didn't buy one that i couldn't move the seat back . I fixed up a lot of cars I'd owned . My 1964 SS Chevelle was really sweet , Loved that car . 1967 Pontiac Firebird was the fastest car it had the 400 4 speed . My 1969 Chevelle was a good one . I presently drive a 1996 Silverado extended is best so far . Have nothing against Foreign cars , Most won't fit me ...

[Kim]

I barely KNOW what the foreign car list IS which I guess is WHY I mentioned the 2 NON FOREIGN cars....LOL. But I must say despite the fact I just replaced the exhaust system on my 2004 HYUNDAI, I must say, it drives better than any car I have ever had, NEW or USED!!

[Lifesighs]

I've had so many cars over the years, I loved my Olds F-85s had two of them, was really fond of my Nissan Pulsar, owned many Pontiacs a bunch of Fords.

I really like my little red Scion that I have now, it's 2009 I bought it new and only has 11,100 miles on it that includes driving it from Wyoming to CA.

This is a picture of one just like it.

 

[frenchy]

i like that little scion lifey .. can i borrow that next saturday nite ?? 

[Lifesighs]

Sure, it's very roomy both front seat and back. That's the surprise for people when they get in, how much room it has. My husband is 6' 2" and he has leg room and head room.

Just so you know in case you need extra space.

[frenchy]

i love extra space lifey .. i've even been called a space cadet a time or two . ( i was younger then ) even worked for the space program for awhile .. ( i ran a warehouse where my main job was to manufacture space where there was none ) .. so.. i'll be there around 8 to pick it up ?? is that good for you ??  

[frenchy]

i could see you were gettin your moneys worth outta that van chief . that was back in the days of the stacks and stacks and stacks .. and people would say ehh, you musicians are wimps .. i'd tell em oh yeah .. lemme see you carry an svt 8x10 bottom up two flights of stairs buddy .. you'll only have to do it once .. then you'll know ..  

[frenchy]

oh yeah .. i switched to a traynor mark 3 which was basicly a twin reverb on steroids .. 100 watts goin thru two 12's .. a badass little amp for its size .. and if it was gonna be a really big gig then i'd bring along a bandmaster bottom with 2 12's and put that on the other side of the stage .. one night i blew the bandmaster bottom up so i replaced em with 15's .. then we could use it for bass or guitar .. we only had the three of us .. guitar bass and drums .. we kept lookin for another guy for either guitar or bass but never found one that was good enough .. it was hard enough tho with just three guys ..those were the days ..  i eventually just went out with an acoustic guitar all by myself .. it was easier ..