There are sometimes moments in a car enthusiast’s life where everything changes. Maybe you try a car that’s outside of your norm, and it opens your entire world. Perhaps you’ve become a parent and you sold your fun cars for a minivan or crossover. Maybe, you did something with a car that put you on a totally different path. Cars are powerful in how they can change the trajectory of your life. What car changed everything for you?
The car that changed my life the most is the Smart Fortwo. My love for Smarts is such a huge part of me that I intentionally named myself after Smart’s parent brand, or, I suppose most correctly, the woman the brand is named after. However, that won’t be the car that I’m talking about here. I have a personal story that I want to tell at a later date!
Winter 2019 brought the car that changed me for another time. Earlier in the year, I bought my first truck, and first car paid for with my own money that wasn’t a Smart, a 1999 Ford Ranger. This $800 truck made me fall in love with Rangers, but I ultimately disliked my tired 4.0-V6 model due to its lousy 13 mpg and wiring short that took out the TCM. Then, I had a Ford Festiva that I tortured myself with.
Sadly, as winter fell, my 2012 Smart was parked and down due to a seized alternator, bad engine mounts, and what I thought was a bad starter. I worked a low-paying job, and local mechanics wanted to charge a small fortune. But I did have $900 on me, and I put the money into something I was interested in since I was a kid: diesel power.
My first diesel car was a 2005 Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon. Sure, it had a ginormous turbo boost leak that reduced 60 mph acceleration to 43 seconds (I’m not exaggerating there), but it was a whole new experience. For the first time in my life, I had a car with leather seats, room for five, and a trunk so huge that I was able to fit an entire Honda scooter in it. Oh, and it got 33 mpg, which wasn’t far off from what my tiny Smarts got. I saved the image from the Craigslist ad:
I found out that kid me was onto something. Diesel power is great! But this Passat was more than just a car. It got me through one of my roughest financial periods, never giving up on me even when I could barely afford to put diesel in the tank. It also got me through one of my worst heartbreaks.
But, I think, most importantly, it taught me that cars outside of my norm were actually really fun. I had never seen a Passat as a car I’d own, and yet, I loved mine. The Passat opened me up further. I always had a dream vehicle list, but I never thought that I’d be capable of owning dream cars like a Saturn Sky Red Line, Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI, or a Buell Lightning. Now, I also wanted to experience all kinds of cars. If that Passat was so nice, what else was I missing?
The Passat was Genesis. I sold it and embarked on an adventure that has led me to today, where I’m still shocked to say that I own a decent number of my childhood dream cars. I’m also so happy that I’ve been able to experience so much, from the Acura NSX to a gosh-darned diesel-electric locomotive.
I don’t want to own another Passat TDI again, but I thank it for being an important milestone. How about you? What car changed everything for you?
Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter
That would be my grandfather’s 1964 Ford Galaxie 500. We were never particularly close, but I was always fascinated by the old Ford he had parked outside in what could best be described as a sunken carport – it sloped downward, and had an access door to the house’s basement. In other words, the car had minimal protection from the weather. There wasn’t enough paint left for me to identify the color (a restorer would later take one look at it and inform us it was Chantilly beige), the interior was dusty with the vaguest hint of stale cigarettes, and the brakes were sketchy…but it still ran. Of all the vehicles my grandparents owned, this one was selected as the ‘keeper,’ and I have no idea why. It was my first hint, as a child who was no stranger to tagging along on a trip to the dealership, that you didn’t necessarily have to sell or trade a car. My mom inherited the Galaxie after my grandfather died; my dad liked the car enough that he had it fully restored. I even got to drive it some; one memorable occasion involved laying down rubber in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot. The Galaxie stayed in my family until we sold the house in 2006 after my father passed away…with nowhere to store the car, and not being crazy about driving it in the Raleigh area, we ended up selling it to a family friend.
It occurs to me that my ’97 Jeep is older now than the Galaxie was when I first saw it. I would definitely say that my experiences with that car taught me that maintaining is easier than restoring. Still, I wouldn’t mind having a project car – specifically, a 1960s Jeepster – at some point.
There have been more than one.
The 1981 Jeep Scrambler that I learned to drive in changed everything because I learned how to drive a manual right from the start, before I even got my license. It made driver’s ed easy.
My first car, a 1979 VW Scirocco, changed everything because it taught me how to wrench, and why rusty cars make terrible projects.
Almost thirty years later, a 1991 Mazda Miata changed everything because it finally taught me how to really drive. I learned so much about vehicle dynamics from that car. I probably still do everything “wrong” according to professionals, but I am a far better driver for having owned a Miata.
And last but certainly not least, the 1989 Chevy pickup that is currently marooned in my carport with electrical problems changed everything, because it put me on David Tracy’s radar, and led to me writing here.
1979 Scirocco for me. I was trending towards a Citation X-11 (based on swooning from Car and Driver), and went to look at one that was only 2 years old for sale, but it already had rust showing. Bought the Scirocco instead, which was totaled by an errant driver in freezing rain on I-75 who took our my car and 4 others. Michigan no-fault meant I go no money at all from anyone on that one. Replaced it with a 1980 Scirocco that I made better/stronger with the complete underpinnings from a wrecked 1986 16V Scirocco. That vehicle was also totaled; this time in Denver by an uninsured driver who did not even attempt to stop on the Interstate during rush hour and crushed my car front and rear.
At this point, I was so fed up with dumb-asses totaling my cars that I bought a diesel E-350 van so they could remember their stupidity a bit longer. This was my second pivotal vehicle. Alas, nobody ever hit that van, nor the one I replaced it with over the course of 30 years and 450,000 miles.
Those pivotal vehicles have steered me into numerous Volkswagens, diesel trucks, (and diesel Volkswagens) over my lifetime. As Volkswagen morphed into haptic buttons, SUVs, and automatic transmissions, my fun-to-drive ride transitioned to an ND MX-5.
On the truck front, that initial diesel experience of torque and (relative) fuel economy is something that left an indelible impression, all the more so now that they are quieter and orders of magnitude cleaner. When the diesels are gone, I’m going straight to electric.
I think I have a weird reverse story from a lot of enthusiasts. My first car was/is a 68 Valiant. It’s a perennial project car, there’s basically no part of it that I’m afraid of diving in to. (Ask my wife about me painting it just for our wedding having never painted/bodyworked a car before).
The car that changed the way I view vehicles is my 04 Golf TDI. I drive 35 miles each day to work and ended up realizing that a little commuter that you don’t care about us extremely liberating. The rest of my fleet is comprised of cars I feel a little bad putting 20,000 miles a year on, plus I care about them so I buy nice parts for them. The Golf is purely an appliance to let me commute affordably, and has let me view cars as ok to be boring as long as they have a purpose
….and 40 mpg helped too.
45+ in practice. Like I said, as long as it has a purpose. It’s purpose is to be cheap
This will be odd, but I think my car journey was turned around by the time I had to spend without driving a real car. A while back, due to circumstances outside my control, I couldn’t drive for a year – some paperwork barred me from hopping in the left seat of my 2-series for nearly a year. So, to scratch the itch, I got a Thrustmaster T300RS, a Logitech shifter, and started sim driving.
Getting to drive a near-infinite fleet of digital cars to their limit, without fear of consequence, was eye-opening. I knew of many techniques on paper and could explain how they worked, but didn’t have the space in the real world to try without endangering myself and others, or at least being super rude to the people that went through the work to set up the autocross events I attended.
Once I started sim racing, however, I finally got to practice the aspect of driving that was most terrifying IRL: understeer. Feeling the traction circle with my fingertips through a force-feedback wheel made the front axle finally click into place in my brain, and I learned how to really dance on the limit, and this time in a way that built up muscle memory applicable to real cars.
By the time I got back behind a real wheel, I had a completely new understanding of handling and was somewhat disillusioned with the high power+RWD solution to fun. I sold the Bimmer to get something more chuckable, and now I can actually push my 986 at autocross events, knowing I can handle what’s on the other side of the limit without massacring a dozen cones and severely annoying the corner volunteers. I also have a new appreciation for a well-balanced FWD platform, something I had always discounted. I’ve still never owned a FWD car, but I would actually like to get one some time.
me in may 2013: i will never do an engine swap
me in may 2023: check out this twin turbo 7.3 IDI swap i did
Thinking about it, it was not the Kawasaki motorcycle I had in the late 70’s. That gave me opportunity to explore places that I really hadn’t considered before. But it was just a little dirt bike.
I had cars starting with a mid-50’s Chevy BelAir. A Pinto wagon. A Winnebago. All good for getting things done. But the real game changer was getting my hands on an early 70’s CJ5. It was one of those moments where the world seemed to just unfold and open up. I could drive this thing out to places I could never reach, set up a campsite, then hike around, go rock climbing, cross country skiing. It was the perfect vehicle to let me escape and find excitement and fun.
The car that changed everything for me was my first car… a 1990 Ford Festiva that I bought in 1996 for CAD$2000.
Prior to buying that car, my options were:
-a bicycle
-public transit
-borrowing my mom’s car.
I traded my ’05 Charger Daytona R/T on an ’08 Mitsubishi Evo X. American Muscle? Bleah. Small, nimble cars? Bring it. That EVO was an absolute hoot to drive. Having to trade it for a ’13 Ram 2500 hurt, but I know I needed a truck for truck things at the time. WHen I added the ’10 Jetta TDI, it really made me realize how much I preferred smaller cars. Eventually this led to a ’17 Golf R, and now my ’18 Cayman. I still have the Bronco for winter, and when I need to haul more than the wife’s Acura TLX can handle, but the joy of driving a small, nimble, fast machine is so much better than a big muscle car like a Charger/Challenger/Camaro.
small cars rule!