I don’t reminisce about cars I’ve owned in the past very often, but I do think about them, nearly all of them, from time to time. Some are tied to nostalgia, which I’m sure is true for a lot of you as well. Who doesn’t think about their first car, or the one you fixed up like new, or the one you … lost something in.
Other cars I think about because I had a ton of fun with them, and at the top of that heap for me would be my 1974 Super Beetle, 1988 Plymouth Horizon, and 2012 Mustang GT. Oddly enough, the GT was probably the lesser of those three, because A.) having fun in it tended to get unwanted law enforcement attention, and B.) I was always afraid of money-shifting its Getrag MT-82 gearbox. Between keeping my eyes peeled for the five-oh and that gearbox, the car was pretty stressful, TBH.
Other cars I think of fondly just for being good cars, and they’re all Toyotas – 1990 Corolla, 1996 Camry, and a pair of RAV4s (2008, 2015). Also a Toyota: the one car I almost never think about despite having been a regular driver: my wife’s 1992 Corolla, our first new car. Make no mistake, it did its job of providing economical, reliable, comfortable transportation just fine, and in its champagne paint and dealer-gold-plated emblems, it was even quite deluxe by our newlywed standards. Unlike every other car I’ve owned or driven regularly, I was completely unable to recall what a ’92 Corolla looked like beyond the broadest compact-sedan strokes. Likewise I couldn’t form an image of the interior at all, other than beige cloth. Even when I looked it up, I wondered if I had the right car or not.
If there’s a recipe for the perfect good-but-forgettable car, that Corolla followed it to the letter.
Your turn:
Oddly, I think I can remember them all (20 or so in total) and most of them fondly. Starting with the first one in high school, a ’59 Volvo PV544 (which I traded in for a Sunbeam Alpine mk V when it became obvious that a 12 year old matte black Volvo wasn’t an effective tool for attracting the opposite sex). But the one I never think about? The ’04 Dodge Durango SXT. Base model, V-8 with the black plastic bumper covers that immediately turned matte grey. Boring and tedious but surprisingly over 17 years it just started every morning and never broke or left me stranded. Which created no significant memories whatsoever.
The 2012 Chevrolet Traverse LT (low trim) we purchased in 2015, just before the birth of our second child. I think it only had like 25k on it at the time, and had just under 100k when we offloaded it the summer of ’20. It was a perfectly cromulent car that gave us zero issues beyond routine maintenance over the time we owned it. Utterly reliable, and completely forgettable.
We replaced it with a 2019 Alltrack in Tornado Red (I’d also previously acquired a clean ’03 Suburban), which was a whole lot more fun.
Not sure the year, but a Toyota small truck with an 8′ bed I got while planning and doing some cabinetry work. I had forgotten about it for years. I can’t even remember if I ever took any of our small kids at the time in it. Only remarkable thing about is was the DMV contacting me about a week after I sold it as it had been in a wreck. I submitted a Release of Liability form to the DMV, and that was the last of it.
A 2004 Saturn Ion 1. I had to look up what year it was; it was, fine. I got it from a friend who had two car payments when I was fresh off an unemployed stint and needed a reliable commuter as my XJ was literally falling to pieces.
It was a godsend at the time, but I never think back about it being fun to drive, or amazing to look at. Ironically, after I swapped in the Kenwood from the XJ it sounded like I had a giant stereo in the trunk, that may have been the best part of that car really.
I’d say it was a 2005 Ford Freestyle we bought pretty much for my wife to use as the primary kid hauler. We got it new, and were pretty excited about it at the time…we “graduated” from the minivan years and set out for the adventure of the middle school years in a new crossover. Looks weren’t bad, but I started to loathe the groaning powertrain combo of the vulcan and CVT. It never bothered my wife, but I despised it. This was also the era of cheap upholstery that got stains if you looked at it wrong. Got totaled when it ran afoul of an XC-90. Gawd, thought more about that car right now than I have in over a decade.
The most forgettable car I’ve owned was probably my 2002 Cavalier coupe. Or maybe the 2019 Civic I didn’t own for long, but it has the dubious honor of being memorable as the vehicle that was rear-ended on one Monday and backed into the following Monday.
I always forget the 1995 Ford Ranger that I drove for a few years. It was pretty much the only “normie” car I’ve ever owned.
I’ve never owned an appliance car, so they’re pretty much all memorable. In good or bad ways.
I had a 2001-ish Mitsubishi Mirage. I had it for a couple of years. I bought it cheap when my CRX clutch replacement would cost more than scrap value (shoulda just done the clutch) and replaced it when I got my first real job. There was nothing memorable about driving it. It wasn’t even unreliable, even though it felt super cheap and build quality was not good. I gave it for free to my cousin when I was done driving it. I always forget about it when I list the cars I’ve owned.
1981 Toyota Corolla, brown, manual, ultra-base model, ultra-reliable, bought in 1982, sold in 1986. Replaced with 1986 MR2, which I kept for 17 years and wish I had not sold.
Probably my old ’06 Camry, perfectly durable and reliable. And as exciting as watching paint dry. A ’91 Sable ranks up there as well.
I was going to say my 2013 Cruze, but I often curse the memories attached to that, so it doesn’t really count, then I went back to reference my whole list of cars, and yes, I have an actual document that I maintain with a full list of every motorized vehicle I’ve ever had.
2000 Accord. It was an LX auto, and was beige. Just the most forgetable car one could ever imagine. There was absolutely nothing special about it at all, and I ended up selling it after 4-5 months because we were moving and there was no way I was taking it with me.
I too have documented my cars, and keep that list up to date.
Psychiatrists talk about repressed memory due to earlier trauma? Yes. That’s my Chevrolet S-10 Blazer.
What a fucking POS.
SO many I so disliked that I think of them so often. I forget we had an Elantra for a few years. I want to forget about the buick regal I had because it had better heat than my commando. I have owned 25 over the last 40 years and as a car fan I still think of them even if it is negative.
Mid 90s S-10 Blazer. Either 90 or 95, I don’t remember. And don’t care. Getting t-boned while trying to start an entrance ramp to I-275 was probably a fitting end to that ownership.
From the day of the test drive to the final bend-in-half trip, it was nothing but trouble.
(Maybe that means I do think about it occasionally?)
Honestly I remember all of them. I think that the Caravan left no impression, except it soured me on owning Dodge products. You can’t tell me all the paint flaking off isn’t a manufacturing defect, not when I’ve seen this exact same failure on so many other Caravans.
The Hyundai was affordable to purchase, and expensive every day after that. I assume they’ve gotten their shit together since, but I’m in no hurry to find out firsthand.
The Civic was a joy. No notes. I’d have one again.
The Truck is a grumpy, slow, loud workhorse, just like me. We’ve gotten old together.
The Subaru was fantastic except for the times it wasn’t. Interior space, the view out, the power – all more than satisfactory. But lots of niggling little failures really sucked the joy out.
The Volvo was fantastic. Inga sacrificed herself, protecting my son when he was rear-ended by an inattentive driver. My son was able to drive off the road and park; the Tahoe that hit him was destroyed. I saw pictures: destroyed.
That’s…about it. I don’t buy cars often. I buy one and drive it until it breaks or something considerably better comes along.
1993 Chevrolet Lumina Euro. I had to get a new car in a pinch and got rid of it as soon as I could. I didn’t like how it drove and even being the higher spec engine it felt gutless. I quickly traded it within a year for one of my favorite vehicles I’ve owned, a red on red 92 Olds Bravada since I needed more space to haul band gear. That thing took me everywhere and refused to die until I sold it to my brother as a winter beater.
I either haven’t owned enough cars to forget any or I’m not old enough to forget them.
Going to give the win to my second Miata. Not because I didn’t like it, it was just a very boring example of a 1992 NA – white with a black top and hand-crank windows. I got it because I really missed my first (and what would become my third) NA Miata – my black & tan 1993, but I missed my original Miata too much so this one didn’t quite measure up.
There is a funny story about when I sold it, though… I listed it on CraigsList and got a response from a local eye doctor offering me LASIK in exchange for the car. I let him know my wide and I had been considering LASIK and he replied that he would give BOTH of us LASIK for the car.
I offered to let him look it over and he did NOT care. His wife really liked to tinker with cars and would make him offer people LASIK in exchange for any car she found interesting. We went for it. It was awesome. This was something like 18 years ago and my vision is still great.
So yeah, the Miata was kind of forgettable (Sorry – I’ve owned a ton of interesting cars), but it is the only car I ever traded for eyes.
I had a buICK Rendezvous. Totally forgettable lump of shit.
A lot of them – I’m a delivery driver and have owned over 50 cars.
Partly due to being 41, I pretty rarely think about my cars from high school.
The most bland of them being the 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix sedan with the 3.1L V6. I did have a local artist paint a flaming skull on the hood.
“I did have a local artist paint a flaming skull on the hood” – as one does in these situations.
The car I tend to forget about was an ’02 GMC Envoy I had briefly. I bought it knowing it was a basket case but I thought I could fix it. Narrator: He could not, in fact, fix it.
Dumped it after less than a year which is out of character for me. The next least term of ownership for me is 11 years so I am not one to give up easily but that one got me. In the short time it worked it wasn’t a bad vehicle to drive, though.
I owned one for 5 years as winter beater, the amount of electrical gremlins and money I put down to fix things… I basically gave it away to someone that needed a car.
Electrical issues were the killer on mine, too. When I started pulling panels to troubleshoot things I found that people had hacked the crap out of the wiring harness all over the place – missing grounds, jumped fuses, goofy taps and splices everywhere. It was a mess. I don’t know how many hours I had into probing circuits but I saw no end in sight and traded it in (I did inform them it was a mess).
I often forget that I once owned a 2005 Ford Escape. It was a fine vehicle, but hardly memorable.
My 2009 Lexus GS460. It was a fantastic car, comfortable with the smooth V8. The previous owner put an X pipe and mufflers on so it sounded great, but it just wasn’t for me. No steering feel, no brake feel, and with 240,000 miles I was always worried about it on long drives. But it never gave me much trouble the few years I had it.
I sold it after it was totaled in a hail storm for $5k and immediately bought an NB Miata with the money. I forget I ever owned it, though its not like my other cars were that interesting; a 1995 Mazda MX-6, a 2014 Fiesta, and a 2004 Jeep liberty. Part of me thinks it was just too nice for me and I like a little bit of the shitbox feeling.