I went from a ‘78 New Yorker (like the one seen here ), then to a ‘84 Grand Marquis (similar one seen   here ). So, I felt a little claustrophobic! I just like bigger cars, that’s all. Volkwagens are awesome cars, though.

Edit: To answer your question, I’m 5’3”. I’m just paranoid about getting in an accident with a little car.

I’ve always bought older cars which I can pay cash for.  I know many argue that I’m buying someone else’s problems when I do it, but in 20 years, I’d estimate I’ve spent less than $10,000 on cars, including repairs.  Of course, it helps a lot that I do the vast majority of my own repair work.  Had a 75 Ford when I was just out of HS that went through starters so often I got so I could change one out in under 15 minutes. 

I’m looking forward to the day a Dodge Viper is old enough for me to afford. 

Jon, I hope you don’t mind my renaming this thread and reviving it. It turned into a nice little discussion about our own car experiences.

Anyway, I rescued this thread from somewhere back on page two to say I bought something. I bought the car I said I couldn’t afford in my first reply to this thread. Ok, so I *can* afford it, but I’m still not sure I *should* try to afford it. Oh well, too late now. I was smitten.

I settled on terms yesterday and they are in the process of locating a vehicle at another dealer with my desired specs. I can’t wait. It’ll be the first new car I’ve ever owned.

I’ll post a pic or two when I get it.

Congrats, bweels!

I bought my first new car (a Honda Accord coupe) a few years ago.  I was such a nut about holding on to that new car smell that I wouldn’t roll the windows down or open the moonroof - it went unused for a couple of months until I sadly realized one day that the new car smell was gone.

There are only a few exicting purchases in life, and for me my new car was one of them.  I think the Muranos look wonderful.  What color did you get?

[quote author=“stevensces”]Congrats, bweels!

I bought my first new car (a Honda Accord coupe) a few years ago.  I was such a nut about holding on to that new car smell that I wouldn’t roll the windows down or open the moonroof - it went unused for a couple of months until I sadly realized one day that the new car smell was gone.

There are only a few exicting purchases in life, and for me my new car was one of them.  I think the Muranos look wonderful.  What color did you get?

Thanks!

My brother-in-law has the Accord Coupe, 2001 maybe (?), and I drove with him from Michigan out to Wyoming two years ago. Really nice car. We drove straight through and managed to do 1,400 miles in 19 hours, partly due to my 2 straight hours of 100-110 mph as dawn was breaking over western Nebraska. It was very comfortable at those speeds.

I’m getting the “Polished Pewter” color - kind of a warm metallic goldish gray - with the charcoal cloth interior (not getting the whole leather package helped a lot to make it more affordable).

Edit: posting a stock photo of the color mine will be:

Like others in this thread, I don’t see myself buying a brand new car. For one, buying a car that is a year or more old saves you a ton of money. Also, I don’t like many new cars, save for a few. If I did buy new, I certainly wouldn’t lease it. Sorry, but with something like a car, I want to own it, not rent it.

Currently, I drive a 1985 Buick Skylark Limited (what it’s limited to I’m not sure), with a 1977 Chevy G20 (3/4 ton van) waiting on some minor engine work, new headers, and to be smogged and registered.

Vroom!

Ford Rules!

Yep, we here are members of the Ford Camp.  We have three Fords that have been bullit proof reliable for us.  My ‘89 Aerostar has about 250,000 miles on the same engine, although we had the transmission rebuilt at 148,000 miles and a few other odds and ends that I replaced myself.  Next, is a Queen Victoria (Ok, Crown Victoria) that we bought back in ‘97 that has about 125,000 miles (barely broken in).  Finally, the latest addition to the Ford Family is our 2002 Ford Expedition that we’ve managed to put 15,000 miles on it in one year of fun! 

Like Katherine says, we like to drive around with a little extra protection.  I’ve had pretty good luck buying brand new cars because I make sure to keep up on the maintenance (that goes with my job) so they last a long time.  I guess we keep our cars for about 10 years?

I’ve had other cars (Datsun, Toyota, Chevy, Triumph, Pontiac etc…), but I have found that the Fords are usually a good dollar value.  Not the prettiest, but not the ugliest either (although some may argue the latter).

With the mini-van that is still in good condition both inside and out, I’ll remove the back seats and haul sofas, washing machines, lumber or whatever the job calls for.  Man, it is the greatest passenger/utility car to have as a back up.

I call the Crown Vic a poor man’s big car, but it is a smooth, good accelerating, city or highway cruiser.  Plenty of room up front on the sofa sized bench seat and you get a huge picture window to enjoy the scenery.  The back seat can host three full sized adults with plenty of leg and head room, or you can put three full sized car seats for children as well.  And the trunk - oh the trunk is huge - big enough for a hot tub, but not recommended. 

We really like the Expedition, its probably the nicest car we’ve owned to date.  My wife especially likes driving it, and I do to on that rare occassion that I get to.

If there is one car that I would like to get my hands on, that would be a 1970’s Volkswagon Beetle Convertable (running or not, I’ll fix it no problem).  That may be hard though because my wife comes from a country(The Netherlands) where they were banned because supposedly they roll over easily in accidents(can anyone verify that for me?) and she fears that it is an unsafe vehicle. Hey, I’ll just keep whining until she says I can have one

I like cars, they’re all good.

[quote author=“thepoeticjuan”]
If there is one car that I would like to get my hands on, that would be a 1970’s Volkswagon Beetle Convertable (running or not, I’ll fix it no problem).  That may be hard though because my wife comes from a country(The Netherlands) where they were banned because supposedly they roll over easily in accidents(can anyone verify that for me?) and she fears that it is an unsafe vehicle.

Hmm, weird. I’ve seen quite a lot of VW Beetles here. Both the standard model and the convertable. I’m not aware of Beetles being banned for such a thing.
I assume you mean this one:

The are very sweet cars to cruise in.

Geez, I’m so shocked I never posted in a car thread!  I’m all over every car thread anywhere I frequent.

Enjoy your Murano, Brian.  Looks like fun.   Personally, I am avoiding SUVs and likely won’t own one unless somehow “necessary” (to get up my driveway, say ), and at that point I might be more likely to get a pickup anyway, as I don’t typically need back seats very often.

I bought a series of 5 old cars (the first ones were pretty short term, but the last 2 of those I kept 4 years each) then finally bought a brand new one 3 years ago.  Main reason for me to buy is that I typically put too many miles on to make leasing that much better a deal.  I’ve been cutting it down a bit, though.  At just a week or two over 3 years old, my current 2000 Acura Integra (silver 2-door LS) has about 47k.  The first year it was 19k.  So that’s only 14k a year average for the next two.   In reality, the second year was more like 16k, I think, then the third year about 12k, which would put me back into the leasing realm if I kept it there.  But when I get a new car, I go out and drive a lot.

Even if I could keep the mileage down, I probably still wouldn’t lease.  It doesn’t sit well with me.  Every little thing that’s wrong with it costs extra at the end, and I’d have to be rather disciplined with banking the difference in payment.  Easier to put equity into buying the car, I think, and less worry about mileage, etc.  If you want to trade your car all the time, a lease might turn out to be a better deal.  But trading cars all the time is expensive.  Now, the longer I keep mine, the better off I’ll be.  I’m still paying, but if I keep it until the end of the loan I’ll own it clear, and it will still be worth several thousand dollars.

So I’m trying to keep from buying the MINI for another little while.

(Actually, right now I wouldn’t do that anyway, as I’m shopping for even bigger purchase:  a house.)

Since we’re sharing car experiences…

My first and only car is a 1998 Ford Taurus, which I’ve had about 6 months.  I’ve got no complaints yet and it has around 38k miles so I think I’ll just drive it forever. 

My first car was a 1979 Toyota Celica hatchback.  I drove it everywhere for six years, then my brother managed to kill it in two.  Go figure.  It was super reliable 99% of the time, and nearly made it to 200,000 miles.  Had I continued driving it (by not moving to Japan), I’m sure it would have marched past 200,000 easily.  I should note that his name was Rocky, after the flying squirrel in the cartoon “Bullwinkle.”  Coming home from a strip club late one night (yet another story), my friend Melissa asked me if I had squirrels under the hood instead of horses, since I was cruising at a brisk 40MPH up a mild incline.  Insta-name.

Coming back from Japan, I was carless.  Bryan drove us around, but his car needed to be re-aligned, which was bad, and I wanted to have my own polution-mobile.  I’d saved quite a bit of money while in Japan, and was able to buy a used car outright.  I even got my dream car…the one I’ve lusted after since I was 13 and it came out.  A 1991 Toyota 4Runner.  Oh the beauty!  Tomorrow or the next day it’ll get a clear coat touch-up where the clear coat over the paint has started to chip.  I use the 4 wheel drive for going snowboarding, and when the seats fold down in the back, the dog has lots of room to be tired and wet after the beach.  I love my car.

Now if only I could afford that Audi TT Quattro…

OK. Here’s my contribution to this thread. Love this thread, by the way. I’m abit of a car person.

Since American car names mean virtually nothing to me (and some European car names are probably meaningless to a lot of you people), I really like the posts with piccies (yes, I’m shallow? Surprises? I thought not…). Although I have to admit that I don’t really like American cars (with the exception of some sports models and some SUV’s).

I am -I admit- a “new car person”. I finally bought my very own, brand-spanking-new Peugeot 307 a year and a half ago and it’s absolutley delightful. Wonderful handling, great engine, lots of nice “luxury” thingies like automatic windscreen wipers, automatic headlights and airco for the low, low , LOW price of 17.000Ђ. (My car dealer promised me free maintenace for half a year if I did some free advertising, OK?  ) The only thing that’s problematic is that the electronics tended to have problems at first. A quick tune-up took care of that, luckily.

Here’s a picture for the US residents amongst the TMO crowd:

Before that, I drove an old Saab 900 I got from a Swedish friend of mine. Great car. It was old, but left many a newer BMW choking on its exhaust fumes. 

Here’s my dream car . I might have trouble convincing the cops that it’s street legal, though.

Oh Boy, I like these car stories!

hoytt, thanks for the comment and the picture (that is a very nice Bug )  I don’t know where my wife got her information from, but now I have some arguement-ammunition!  This means war!  :x

Well, on second thought, we’re going on a short holiday (driving the Expedition to Las Vegas for a 5 day get-away) and I don’t want to ruin our trip.  But when she least expects it - kapow! - I’m going to hit her with your Post!  (She’ll probably hit me back with something else   )  You know, those Dutch girls can be very stubborn at times.

Anyway, it may take me a few years to get my Convertable Beetle, but I’m a patient man.  Thanks again for the post

tbone1, I got a chuckle out of the thought of making that street legal!

For starters let me say, I hate buying cars. I dislike loans of any type to begin with.  Even if you find the car you like, who really likes to haggle over the price for 4-5 hours. ( Sometimes that’s what it takes )  Here is my car history.

78 Toyota Corona - Great car, constant carborator trouble though. I should have kept it.

88 - Honda Civic - Electrical problems and burned oil like no tomorrow.

95 - Mitsubishi Pickup - Bought new, what a hunk of junk. I could never go out of town in the thing.  I missed several days of work due to this sorry thing.

93 - Mitsubishi Eclipe - Another hunk of junk, trany went out 3 weeks after I bought it. Put 5 grand in repairs in one year.

99 - Saturn SL2 - Great car Still have it. It’s my communter car. Low miles, good price, love it. wouldn’t get rid of it for anything.

2001 - Honda Civic Ex - Love this car. bought it 14 months old and saved 7 grand on what it cost new. Sweet car. Gets lots of looks.  Got broke in after less than one week of ownership. (refer to gets lots of looks. )

In my experience I find I get a good reliable car from buying 1-3 years old.  As for price negotiation, I’ll drag out a car deal all week, having the salesmen call me at home.  Works great

-iswitcher-