Car history:

1972 Ford Mustang (powder blue w/ white leather interior and white vinyl roof) purchased used around ‘78 or ‘79; totalled by a cretin who rear-ended me at a stop light

1978 Chevy Camaro (black w/black interior) purchased from Avis Rental with only a few thousand miles on it; drove it until very rusty and in need of third full suspension system

1986 Mercury Sable station wagon fully-loaded (black w/gray fabric interior) purchased new; driven into the ground, but paint began to flake within a year after purchase and needed second full exhaust system when sold

1998 Dodge Grand Caravan ES fully loaded (purple w/gray fabric interior) purchased new; only 12K-13K miles on it currently

2004 Dodge Grand Caravan ES fully-loaded (black) to be leased in September or October

I currently drive my mother’s new Dodge Durango R/T more often than I drive my van.  I negotiated the terms for the lease and picked out all the options.  The only thing she did was sign the papers and so she said I could drive it whenever I pleased.  Needless to say, it too is fully-loaded to the point where there were no other options to be had.  It is, to put it mildly, a man magnet.  It is black with a gray interior and a kick-ass 5.9 liter V8 engine.  I love the sound of that engine.  If this weren’t a family site I’d explain how much I love the sound of that engine.  And Mom, who is all of 5’1” tall and a very spry and well-cared-for 76-yrs-old, gets more play from younger men than I do.   It’s quite amusing and she loves it. 

I want to get a Durango that’s very similar to Mom’s, but we need another van.  Since I don’t drive very much in any given year, it makes more sense to lease, especially since the downpayment from the sale of the current van will make monthly payments on a new lease less than the current note.

I love cars.  The Mustang and the Camaro had big engines and often broke lots of speed limits while traveling between Cleveland and Oberlin, Cleveland and Kent and Kent and Oberlin.  But having show dogs necessitated space and so the fast cars had to go.  I shouldn’t complain because the upside is that the station wagon and the van were/are both very comfy travel cars.  The van has serious cruising speeds that are very pleasurable, but it takes a while to get to those higher speeds.

MacTad

bweels, did you get your Murano yet?  Post a picture when you get a chance!

Picked it up last night! I didn’t have time to post anything about it because I was too busy driving it all over town and reading the Owner’s Manual from front to back. I’m working at home this morning, so I’ll try and take a couple of minutes to take a picture.

It is one SWEET vehicle.

Ok, here’s my new baby!

Do they use license plates in Michigan? The second picture shows a car without a plate. It would suck to get pulled over by a cop because you don’t have plates yet.

bweels doesn’t need one for a Nissan.  If you believe Ford, GM and Chrysler there are only six foreign cars in Michigan, so it’s easy to keep track of them.

Sweet car, bweels!  Congrats!

Man-Oh-Man!  Looks Shweet Baby!

OK, now let’s all pile in it and go for a test drive

Only if you’re trying to convince people that you are someone else. And in Detroit (aka The Disneyland of Death), that ain’t a bad thing.

Looks nice!  Congratulations.

Unlike Ohio, Michigan doesn’t require a front plate.

-Dan

Heh. There’s a temporary “plate” - a piece of paper - taped to the inside of the rear window that makes it legal until the actual plate arrives in the mail. It’s obsured in the picture by the glare on the tinted glass.

[quote author=“Photodan”]Unlike Ohio, Michigan doesn’t require a front plate.

-Dan

Nice, that. Cars look so much better without a plate on front. Although I imagine law enforcement is hindered once in a while.

I think it was about 15-20 years ago when the State’s finances were in deep doodoo someone said “Hey, I know how we can cut the cost of license plates by half!”

[quote author=“bweels”][quote author=“Photodan”]Unlike Ohio, Michigan doesn’t require a front plate.

-Dan

Nice, that. Cars look so much better without a plate on front. Although I imagine law enforcement is hindered once in a while.

I think it was about 15-20 years ago when the State’s finances were in deep doodoo someone said “Hey, I know how we can cut the cost of license plates by half!”

In Europe plates on the front and the back are required. And EU plates are often bigger than the US ones. So people with a US car have to get a special plate which costs extra.

I think that the number of states that require both a front and black plate is really beginning to dwindle.  Most places I go in the US no longer require it.  I know Florida does not.  Does anyone know which states still do?

As for the paper temp tag, I used to have one of those for the WRX.  I think thats a relatively common practice too.

States that require front and back plates (a lot more than I thought…plates, that is, not states )

Alaska, American Samoa, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.