Taking a Nostalgic Look at the Many Vehicles I Have Owned Over 35 Years!

Cars have always been more than just basic transportation for those of us who really enjoy everything automotive. There have been times when I owned a really sweet ride, but due to one circumstance or another I could not keep the vehicle at the time. Now when I look back on the some of the really cool cars that I had to let go of I could kick myself for not finding a way to keep these priceless beauties.

They say you always remember your first, and my first real driving experience was in a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air at the age of 14. It was a cherry red beauty and I can still picture that warm summer day in my mind. My stepfather would drink the same warm beer that his father killed a liver with, called "Carling Black Label" most typically while at the bowling alley or in the dugout at our little league practice. When the movie "Bad News Bears" came out I thought someone had been spying on us.

One day we had to play back to back games, and he had about 3 beers too many, and asked if I wanted to try driving around the gravel parking lot. I instantly agreed with a hearty oh heck yeah! So we went around in circles a few times, and other than not really having very good timing on the clutch he seemed fairly impressed for a man riding the Black Label train letting a fourteen year old drive the little league gang around. On one lap we were way out near the road and he said to just go ahead and drive us all home! Well I did that 4 mile trip with the biggest smile, and the whitest knuckles ever, I can still hear my mother yelling at him today.

My first car was a 1969 Camaro that I bought for $750 from my mother, and she made me pay back every dime. I used my busboy job when I was 15 to purchase that car. For a while I was driving to work using my learners permit which the chicks really seemed to dig at the time. With this plan I already had a car and was ready to hit the road at 16 when I got my real license, and I have not stopped going since!

Over the past 35 years I have owned well over 20 cars and trucks, some of them would be really nice to still own today. Of course some of them were truly just beaters that were intended to get me to work and back, yet others were extremely fun to drive and own. Some of the worst cars were the ones that I just could not afford to keep running, like my '55 Bel Air, the '73 Opal Manta, '71 Spitfire, and my '63 Pontiac Bonneville. Those were all hard to keep going due to the expense and difficulty of finding parts, which was exacerbated by my limited automotive knowledge and even less cash to use on parts.

My Bel Air was being set up for racing quarter mile drags when I bought it, and it was about 45% of the way there. It was loud and fast, but was constantly either overheating or blowing out the clutch. We almost missed the high school senior pictures when she stalled out on the railroad tracks! In fact that was the fastest I ever saw my brother move, when we both hopped out and started pushing her across the tracks! The most fun was having my date ride around with me because the passenger seat was a big orange bean bag chair. And second best fun in that car was racing my stepbrother down the main road in town, him in his 327 Orange and White 1969 Camaro. That worked for me, at least until my rear wheel bearing came out while making a turn.

Not certain but I am pretty sure that the seating arrangement in that car was what led my girlfriend to convince her father to sell me his 1967 Cadillac with a 500 cubic inch engine! She was a powder blue two door, and if I did not work at that gas station then I probably could never have afforded either the gas or the maintenance. My boss was exceptional and he helped me with the car a lot. In fact he bought it from me when I finally gave up on her. I remember calculating the incredible amount of gas I needed to get to work and back for the week, and I only lived 3 miles from work. This car was getting about 6 miles per gallon. A friend suggested I had a fuel leak, and when I popped the hood and pointed to the carburetor and told him that "yes indeed I have found that leak" and it seems to be falling right into the engine!

I have lived a life of strange extremes, and the most extreme automobile change was when I went from this '67 Cadillac to the '71 Toyota Corona Deluxe. This little cream puff had a 1.6 liter four cylinder engine, seventeen thousand miles, and was literally owned by a lady who drove to the store a few times a week. I am her to tell you that going from a 500 cubic inch engine down to a 1.6 liter four cylinder engine the fuel economy simply amazed me! Of course the Corona would have fit in the Cadillacs trunk! The other really odd part was that the little Corona was almost exactly the same shade of baby blue. A lesser man would have been embarrassed by this, but I was a very practical guy back then, and after sticking one a really wide bright read racing stripe decal down the side she was looking sporty enough for me. Beside that I really did not care much about what others thought of me, so long as I could get in that car and go somewhere I was going to be just fine!

My all time favorite car that I really do miss today was my 1974 cutlass supreme, she was Jet Black with the 350 cubic inch "Rocket" motor, and the nicest leather interior I ever had until my 1995 jeep grand Cherokee. This cutlass was big and heavy, but had plenty of room and could cruise the highway like a dream. When I am flush with cash one day I will be looking for another car exactly like this one!

My all time worst car had to be the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville, but this was only true because of my financial situation at the time. It was winter here in Northeast Ohio, and that giant 389 engine took a lot of juice just to crank her over. She still had the electrical generator system instead of the more modern alternator, and a very weak battery. So this was the perfect storm of automotive failures. The car was so long that I had to manufacture jumper cables that were almost 25 feet long in order to get at the battery from any direction. This thing was constantly being jumped and charged. As I learned more about generators I discovered some great tricks that helped me to keep her going. Over the six months I owned her I went through three batteries and two voltage regulators before I decided to sell her. If I had known as much about cars then as I do now, then I could have easily kept this old car running. It did help build a solid foundation of vehicle failure knowledge which has served me very well over the years.

Here is a list of some of the more special vehicles that have really stood out for me.

1) 1973 Opal Manta, burnt orange sporty, and very unique.

2) 1966 "Jeepster" Commando, Buick V-6 engine, hard to keep running and oh the many mice!

3) 1979 Subaru Wagon, mocha brown, four wheel drive, oversize tires. Best car in snow ever!

4) 1985 Subaru XT Coupe, sleek and refined, pretty fast for a four cylinder!

5) 2000 Dodge Ram, 318 engine, beefy treads, matching fiberglass cover, green and silver, totaled in 2003. This truck was awesome.

6) 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee, black with gray leather interior, all power, fabulous sound system, excellent four wheel drive! This Jeep has been both reliable and serviceable.

7) 1997 Jeep Wrangler, lift kit, Snow Sport plow, air ride, custom exhaust, "Best Top" replacement, and running boards, Lapis Blue, amazing four wheel drive.

I truly miss most of the cars and trucks that I have owned, and I think that a lot of people go through this same nostalgia with older cars that they have perhaps forgotten about over the years. In fact my one friend tells some great travel stories about her Chevette that was nicknamed something that can't be printed here, and a lovable VW beetle in which she learned to drive stick shift in the hills of Pennsylvania. The point is there are many vehicles that we could have, and probably should have kept, and it is kind of sad to think back on them today.

So go ahead and think about some of the classic cars and trucks which you have owned and like me wonder, what if we had been able to keep them instead of trading them in or selling them off?

Thank you for reading my articles here on AC-Yahoo! Please leave comments and share with us some of the vehicles you miss owning today.