Quote:
Originally Posted by g e
Mine wasn't.
1974 Chevy Nova with 350 and a special order gearing option that made it loaf along at 60 mph and didn't feel fun until 75 or so. This was the time of the federally mandated 55 mph speed limit no matter if two lane or rural interstate. It was very easy to look down and find myself going way over the limit. And the State Patrol found me doing this several times culminating in a tasteless letter from the state that I was in danger of losing my driving privileges.
That was the good part.
The throttle on this car would get stuck once in a while. It ate transmissions and developed a weird pac man-like "Wuccha-wuccha-Wuccha" noise from somewhere in the back end. The vinyl roof developed a little tear above the windshield and finally tore off on an ill-fated road trip. The exhaust was rusted and if I opened a window to cool off, exhaust fumes were pulled into the car. Some previous owner had defeated the seatbelt system by tying knots in the belts and stuffing them into the covers at the anchor point. And the rust that eventually revealed itself....
I still can't stand the sight of GM metallic burgundy. I never again bought a used car and it is the last American built car I owned.
Eventually I traded it in on a new 1985 VW Golf. It was a major leap forward in driving pleasure. Shortly afterwards I spotted my Chevy dead on the side of a local freeway. No mistaking that car's identity.
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Ahhh but see, yet again you remember it and have loads of stories. That is what I meant by the first car was "great". It may have been the biggest crap heap on the road but you remember everything about it and can still tell the stories all these years later as if they were yesterday.