The best vehicle I ever, or never, had...

[JoeM 7,873]

Wow, a guy (if he had them) could take his wife and girlfriend on vacation in that car, they would never see each other!

 

Nice ride!

 

 

 

That SS brings back memory of Friday night street drags. Had one kid Louie, go through 4 of those. Crazy kid in a crazy fast car. Had some kind of big block I am going to say 401? When he wrecked the motor always lived on. I think him and the one kid with the 440 road bird raced every weekend. Work all week on those cars trying to make them go faster.

Color i remember were orange and red. more orange. white strips on hood and trunk.

 

 

[squonk 41,079]

OMG!!! I have to amend my worst car statement! It's a tie with the Vega and how can I forget!! 

 

74 Dodge Power Wagon with the snow plow package. What a complete toilet. I called it the "DOG TRUCK" I even took a D and E letter off the hood so it said "DOG" I only had it like 3 months. I can't remember everything I had to repair on it. But I remember putting a brand new rad in it and driving it to work. The snowplow system was fully hydraulic so as I was driving the plow pulley broke off the crank and hit that brand new rad. I was able to fix that. Then about 2 weeks after that, as I was parking it at work the lifters were clattering. The oil pressure gauge read fine. I found out later if I left the key on long enough the oil pressure gauge would read normal.  Turned out a piece of a valve seal broke off jamming the oil pump and shearing off the drive spline.  After fixing that the voltage regulator  decided to have a melt down burning the harness. wife got bit by a dog at the junkyard wheb she picked up a harness for me.  

 

That was the last straw I put it in my front yard for sale. When I parked it a brake line blewSo I fixed that in the yard and sold it to some folks down the road. 3 month's later the main bearings went out and they replaced the engine. 

[Handy Don 12,216]

4 hours ago, D_Mac said:

My daily driver... 2004 Silverado... reg cab, short box,4x4 with 31k original miles on it

Wow. Nice truck, of course, but I wonder: Do you just drive around the block once a day for 18 years to cover only 31k miles?

I used to clock 20k per year when I was working.

[ri702bill 8,316]

1 hour ago, squonk said:

74 Dodge Power Wagon with the snow plow package

Called the "Snow Fighter" if I recall. My father-in-law and I used to work snow plowing for a local landscape contractor. He had one of those - with the God-awful Meyers factory installed plow. It used a Mopar power steering pump to run the plow hydraulics. In cold weather you could count to twenty before it would actually lift the plow - only put out 700 psi unlike the 1200 or so from our Western or Pathfinder plows...

[ohiofarmer 3,265]

  Coolest car I ever had was the 1970 Road Runner.  Also the luckiest. Met a cop on new years eve doing 115 . Went over a small rise and pulled over , waiting for him to come and arrest me. he did come and blew by me at a high rate of speed, so I shut off the lights and took a nearby cross road. Full moon was out, and it occurred to me that once a minute or two went by that there was no way he could identify me at all because we met so fast and the glare of the headlights. That cured me and i never went over 80 or so after that.

  The best car easily is the RAV4 we bought new in 2019. It's a hybrid, so the brakes do not wear hardly at all. 38.7 MPG avg .  It looks very nice on the outside, but the interior sot of reminds me of the old school vinyl of the Road Runner. It turns out that we bought at the perfect time before the prices went crazy. Absolutely no problems with this car.

   One thing to note about the new cars is oil changes and maintenance. These new ones have low tension piston rings for EPA mileage targets and do not do a great job of scraping the cylinder walls clean. Your job is to ignore the ten thousand mile oil change and go no more than six months or five thousand miles or they will start using oil which makes them get the oil dirty sooner. the Car Care Nut is a Toyota tech that has great info about how to make the new cars still go 300K .

[D_Mac 8,610]

7 hours ago, Handy Don said:

Wow. Nice truck, of course, but I wonder: Do you just drive around the block once a day for 18 years to cover only 31k miles?

I used to clock 20k per year when I was working.

My neices husband family own a salvage yard. Back in 2019 when I was going into the hospital for 2 major surgeries for cancer (throat cancer and pancreatic cancer) they got the call to pick up the truck for scrap. Owner said the truck was undrivable it had been sitting for 12 yrs. They agreed on the scrap price and went to tow it back to the scrap yard. Once my nieces husband saw it he called my mother and asked if she wanted to pay the scrap price they paid for it he would fix it and they would surprise me with it when I got out of the hospital. It needed, brake lines, gas lines, tranny lines, tires, wheels, brakes, changed fluids, battery. Then it was up and driving again. I ran into many complication and was in the hospital way longer then it took to fix the truck. I went in Feb and didnt get home until June.Then home a week in June and back in the hospital for another week. Then end of July I had to go for 33 rounds of radiation to my face and neck. No picnic any of it. They showed me a photo of the truck while i was in the hospital for something to look forward to. Was a great inspiration to get out of there. Means so much to me my family would do that for me. Also my nieces husbands family to even offer it up to me and to do all the work and supply the parts like they did. I get tears even now thinking about it.I call it my Cancer Truck. You can see a " F#CK CANCER " decal on the back window. I am still fighting the fight with cancer. This past November I had to go back in to have a tumor removed from one of my kidneys. 3 times now I have kicked its a$$. I will keep fighting the fight I will admit I a getting a little nervous as to how many more organs and things they can keep taking out of me before I REALLY start missing them. Since all the surgeries, I have also had two week long stays in the hospitals for Sepsis ( blood infections ) Because I have no spleen, gallbladder, and only half of a pancreas, and a kidney thats iffy leaves me with crazy diabetes problems that severly weakens my immune system. The Truck runs better then I do. I am not looking for pitty, I play the hand i was dealt but i will say it again... DO NOT TAKE YOUR HEALTH FOR GRANTED. Also go in for your check ups do not put them off. All my issues were found by accident. I am fortunate and blessed that I was able to have treatments for all 3 cancers. None of mine are related to each other. If things would have gone longer and un-noticed then I wouldnt be so lucky . Enough Cancer talk. If I have to I will kick its A$$ a forth time.

[Handy Don 12,216]

5 minutes ago, D_Mac said:

something to look forward to. Was a great inspiration to get out of there. Means so much to me my family would do that for me. Also my nieces husbands family to even offer it up to me and to do all the work and supply the parts like they did.

Thanks for sharing your story with us. Easy to understand how that truck is important in your life. You've been up against no holds barred opponents and holding your own--good on you and best of luck for the future.

I suspect you've been at Strong Memorial. I fondly remember the the extraordinarily talented and wonderful folks there during my mom's last years.

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

My daily (once a month if she’s lucky) driver…1998 Chevrolet Silverado 4x4, Z-71, 276,000 miles, 5.7 liter/ 350 cubic inch 

[rjg854 11,361]

One of the best vehicles I ever owned was a 94 Ford Ranger XLT 4X4, with a V6 and standard transmission.  I had that truck for 16 years, and close to 300,000 miles when I sold it. In all that time never had a problem with the engine.  I changed the oil every 5,000 miles with Walmart's Tech 5/30 and a Fram oil filter.  I put a couple clutches and a couple of starters on it through the years.  Great truck other that as they say, "old Fords never die, they just rust away" 

[Jrain 276]

before I retired , I would drive on average 50,000 miles per year traveling to work and back home daily , needless to say I could rack up the miles quick , I did that for 22 years , I would always have 2 cars  on hand and AAA premium plan . in case one broke down , so I have owned many makes and models , from imports to domestic , there are 2 cars that stick out in my mind to be very reliable , the first one is a 2002 Monte Carlo ss  with  3.8   384,000  miles  other then regular maintenance and front hub bearings every 100k that car would be my #1 .and it still runs and drives, I retired a long time ago just due to the fact the cost of new tires and a full once over would out weigh the cost of it value but cant seem to send it off to the crusher because it treated me so well. the other pick would be a mid 80s Chrysler k type small station wagon I bought from a USPS auction , it had a 4cyl jeep engine in it  had about 140k when I bought it, and when the transmission finally gave out it had around 330,000 on the clock,  other then exhaust and and general maintenance it was a solid runner . and really out of all the cars and trucks I owned in that time  I only had a few times I got stuck onside of the road in all those years ,most of them limped back home and got the attention they needed and were up and running by the next weekend.  some cars just wear out parts more then others if you maintain them correctly they all are good . well most of them .