55. Owned the following, in order from first to most recent..
'72 Datsun B210 manual 4. Gift from parents w/ 90K on it.
'73 Oldsmobile Delta 88 auto. $400 used.
'83 Ford E150 manual (4 on LONG floor mounted shifter, cargo van, bought new for $9500). Taught new young 5' tall wife to drive stick on this! She's still here...
'74 Fiat Spider mt 5 - $1200
'71 Fiat Spider mt 5 - $400
'87 Colt Vista mt 5 - $12,000 (GREAT little car/micro van for an increasingly growing family, bought new)
Late 80s Colt E mt - $500 (can't remember the year. Cheap disposable car).
Early 90s Nissan Sentra mt - $1000
'93 Ford Aerostar auto - $12,000. Bought w/ 12k on it, put another 225K on it. SURPRISINGLY reliable comfortable car for road trips.
'93 Toyota Celica mt 5 - $12,000 certified. Bought w/ 12k on it, put another 200K on it before giving it to my oldest son for college use. Another great car.
'93 Range Rover County LWB auto - $15,000 w/ 50K on it. Very unreliable, but my favorite car of all time. I just LOVED driving this thing, especially in bad weather and/or awful roads. Amazing comfort, ridiculous capability, and great unrestricted view in all directions. I became a decent backyard-plus mechanic out of necessity, and eventually the frustrations got the better of me and I sold it w/ 120K miles on it.
'93 Audi 80 mt 5 - $1500. Only had it a few months.
'93 BMW 325i mt 5 - $8500 w/ 66K. LOVED this one, too.. to over 235K. Sold it to by my '13 FR-S.
'88 Mercedes 560SL auto - $15,000 w/ 86K. Prettiest, classiest looking car ever made, at least to my wife's and my eyes. Still have it, and will for a long time. Not a particularly fun car to drive handling-wise; kind of boaty-floaty, but great for cruising, especially open-air.
'99 Mercedes ML430 auto - $15,000 w/ 82k on it, sold @ 235k. Tent-camped all over the eastern coast in it, from OBX in NC to Meat Cove in Nova Scotia. Only broke down once, and it was my fault; I knew the starter was going. Great car.
'82 VW Rabbit convertible, mt 5 - $300. Bought as a total mess rusting away in someone's barn, then rebuilt engine, new suspension, brakes, and pretty much everything else. Fun car, good learning experience, and still cosmetically rough. PERFECT car for taking the dogs to the beach! Still have it.
'92 Volvo 240 auto - $900. Wonderful car to work on, and GREAT community of helpful owners. Did a lot of work on it, drove it a while, then gave to our middle son for college use. He drove it for years.
'89 Volvo 240 auto - $1000. Same as above, but gave to our youngest son for college use. He's still driving it and loving it six years later!
'06 Mercedes ML500 auto - $12,000 w/ 86K. Had it less than a year, and bought it used from a borderline criminal used car dealer. Told the story elsewhere. After a new transmission, quite a few expensive electrical modules replaced, and a host of other repairs, it's starting to become reliable. VERY comfortable, powerful, and my wife loves it. I just hope the repair frequency starts to slow down.
'13 FR-S mt 6 - $17,750 certified w/ 22.5K. Bought this because I needed a reliable year-round car due to wife's flaky ML500 and end-of-life issues w/ the 325i. Couldn't find another affordable RWD mt 325i, so I "settled" for the FR-S.
Current stable consists of ML500 and FR-S as our dailies, w/ the VW Rabbit (currently off the road needing some shock tower restoration) and the 560SL for summer fun. Looking through the list, the only new cars we've ever purchased new were the E150 van and the Colt Vista. The FR-S was the most expensive car I've ever purchased, at $17,750 certified. All the others represented what we were able to afford throughout our lives, including some very lean times and some more comfortable times. The Fiats were really our only foray into irresponsibility and impracticality, and were done at a time when we were pretty much just scraping by. You know what? We never regretted it.
Haven't had a loan other than our mortgage in many, MANY years, but I did take one on the FR-S just in case; I'm newly retired and didn't want to deplete cash-on-hand too much until I see how finances shake out after a few months. The car will be paid off w/in 6 months, and we paid off our mortgage last month. Clear!
Ooops.. what was the point of this thread? Oh yeah .. age and wife opinions. Sorry.. I got going down memory lane and it was kind of fun to see if I could remember them all. Cars, not wives. I'm still on my first wife, working on year number 34. She loves driving the FR-S, but not quite as much as the 325i, which she, too, adored. She hasn't driven the FR-S a lot, but it's going to grow on her, too, I can tell. She does not particularly like being a passenger in it; she sits too low to see much, and the lack of body roll makes her car sick when I take turns too fast for her. I could slow down, I guess, but.. well.... I don't just 'cause it's just too dang much fun.
She really loves the comfort, quiet, and power of the Benz cars. Weird.
Gotta go make the Princess her breakfast...
Best to all,
Barry
12-12-2015, 05:14 PM
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