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:
First-gen Acura Integra in red. (The one with pop-up headlights.) I was young and it was available when I needed a car stat. I recall the interior to be typical Japanese quality of the era – plastic and cloth, but nice. Didn’t have it for long before an old woman pulled out and clipped me. (She had her walker in the back seat of her car. I had witnesses on my side.) Anyway that totaled it and I replaced it with my first Audi S4.
The one I never remember is a 99 Dodge Dakota. I honestly forget I ever had a pickup. Granted my wife usually drove it but we used it a lot for camping and hardware store runs.
It had a weird oil pressure sender problem that no one could ever track down so we got rid of it.
I also had a poverty spec 13 Kia Optima for a bit. It changed my mind about Korean cars so I don’t often forget it, but it was somewhat forgettable.
Saturn Ion. The most generic car that ever car-ed.
I had an Ion. It was perfectly cromulent
yup. by no means bad. Just gloriously, unapologetically boring.
My family has a 2008 audi a3 with a blown motor and hail damage somewhere on a farm in a different state. I think weve owned it for the better part of a decade because when we bought it that was still a car worth putting together.
Im sure its fixable but the last time anyone looked at it was pre covid and no one has ever wanted to drop 2 grand on an engine for the golf ball audi
I’m the exact opposite, in that I think about my previous vehicles fairly often, because they turn up on Bring a Trailer from time to time. Let me explain.
So despite my fairly advanced age that begins with a five, I’ve only owned five cars*, and still have two of them. Of the three remaining cars, I think about the 1976 MG Midget the least, but not by much, followed by the NA Mazda Miata (which I daily drove for 17 years or so), and the one that I truly want to buy again is my 1990 Honda CRX Si, which was black with black interior, was my car through college and a few years after, was perfect till it wasn’t, was my sole non-convertible, and which I am now utterly priced out of the market of. I can still buy a Midget or Miata, but a CRXi can afford is usually a small pile of rust flakes in a box.
*Ive never had a whole lot of money, so I’ve pretty much only bought good examples of cars I actually like and want to own, rather than buying cheap want ad beaters when I need another car. It’s a tactic that has served me well.
In HS I had a ‘88 Chevy Nova for a minute, or round about ‘88. It was a POS. It had zero acceleration, like where you pull out and it has to spool up its torque while you hope not to get t-boned. I crashed it into a retaining wall, transmission hit the ground as it puked fluids everywhere; at least the seatbelts worked. I left it and walked home. Good riddance.
Our 2021 Mazda 3. Obviously I can still remember it quite well as we only sold it a couple of years ago, but my wife summed it up well a few months ago: “You know, I don’t really miss that car.”
It was a great-looking thing, but the 2L engine was a bit gutless and noisy under load. Further, while critics praised it for its handling, it just didn’t feel as engaging as the admittedly high bar set by our previous (e90 330i) and subsequent (2013 Crown Athlete) cars. Even our “boring” family SUV (2014 Ford Territory) has a bit more character with its torquey turbo diesel V6 and RWD dynamics.
It was also victim of all the “new car problems” that just don’t hit as hard when you own a second-hand car: the first stone-chip, the scuffs in the stupid piano black plastic on the dash. It made me realise that I actually prefer buying second-hand in most cases, you don’t have to worry about marring something that’s brand new.
Was it the SkyactivX motor in your 3? I remember reading a lot about it when it launched but we never ended up getting it in the US, I think likely because it underwhelmed in the countries that did get it. Only our base model 3 got a 2.0.
I also had a 2021 3 but with the 2.5NA/6 speed manual combo that I think might have been a US/Canada exclusive (I know the 2.5 turbo was for sure).
Even the 2.5 felt a little sluggish to me sometimes so I can see why the 2.0 would have been even harder to deal with. I do still miss mine though and would have bought it at the end of lease if my financial situation was different.
Nah it had the regular ol’ SkyactivG engine, you could only get the X in the top-spec here. And the turbo wasn’t available at all.
I actually test-drove a friend’s 2.5L and, while it definitely sounded better, it didn’t feel that much quicker than the 2.0. I expect having the manual would have improved driving engagement quite a bit though (I only ever drove the auto).
The 2000 Mitsubishi Montero Sport I had. It was OK.
Peugeot 206
Peugeot 307
Both mercy take ins from family members, but got me from here to there [shrug emoji]
NUMMI Nova, died of girlfriend.
I don’t think about my old cars at all. I can tell you what I owned, but I don’t think about them.
I’m not trying to stir but genuinely I only remember that I owned a Miata when I see one in the exact same colour and try to remember the licence plate that mine had. It was 100% fine but I replaced it with an Elise and everything was better.
I had to stop and think because I absolutely forgot that at one time I owned a mint green Buick Skylark. Not a cool one, either. Nope, not that one, it was a 90-something one, you know, the one with that weird grille. I have no idea why I bought it. Totaled after sliding through an intersection during the winter and t-boning a Chevy Blazer.
I remember absolutely nothing about this car except the airbag went off.
I can’t really say I’ve forgotten about a vehicle I’ve owned as “my car”, but a ’94 Altima was probably my least favorite car I’ve ever owned and one I only give thought to when cataloging all the cars I’ve owned.
A fleet of various Ford Taurus and Mercury Sables might have been some tempos and topez or whatever they were called my dad kept that I used as a teenager sometimes and when I came back into town for a few days. I think I had one at one point too. I just can’t remember I think it was red or blue might have been silver. I think two of my sisters crashed a few only to be replaced shortly after with another. I only remember the 3 series I had because it was such a headache to sell. I seem to recall having some VW crossovers like a toas or something but it escapes me. I’m sure there are others I had for a time that completely escape me.
Easy, 2013 Honda Insight. Perfectly fine and boring commute vehicle. Anyone who knows the he’ll of NoVA driving , knows the commute is awful. It went about its business dutifully but you were painfully aware that a Prius was better in every regard. Did not hate the car but haven’t thought about it until this article
80 series Land Cruiser. I just greatly prefer my little Zook 4×4’s.
I hadn’t heard “Zook” before, but I do love me a Jimney. We tried to rent one on our trip last month but they were all out and so we got another not-available-in-the-US 4×4 instead – a HiLux.
Had one of those too! (91 Toyota Pickup). That one I do miss.
Sister had 60 and 80 series. The FJ40 is on my bucket list. Sadly, the prices have gone crazy on them.
Erm, that one. It was red, or silvery grey, might have blueish. Probably a Ford Sierra or a Vauxhall somthing, might even have been a Honda. I was very busy and needed a car that worked (my usual cars often do not work). Thinking about this, the car I think least about may be several cars, maybe I had one in each colour.
I think of most of them due to their cool factor or their spectacular way they left the my ownership but as for forgetful I’d say a Chevy Spectrum
I can’t forget about the Chevy Spectrum. It was the first car I ever drove.
At age 12.
It was my first new car. Yet when I go over my cars I have owned I always forget it.
This one wasn’t exactly one I owned but inherited through marriage; 1999 Kia Sephia. Probably the most unremarkable car I’ve had the pleasure of driving around over the years of car ownership.
The previous owner(s) knew nothing about stereo wiring harnesses so I did my best to salvage what I could with the wiring behind the stock connector to get a much more consistent connection to the aftermarket head unit after getting a proper harness that worked with the stock connector.
It was also the last car I had with no power windows.
As unremarkable as it was I can say this about it; it never left me or my wife stranded.
At least…from what I can recall…
My beloved 1975 Volvo 164E. Literally a barn find — a grandmother chose to stop driving and she parked it in a shack in the back of her property, and seven years later (this was 1994) her son sold it to me. I was used to driving late-60s muscle-ish cars, so I was very surprised at how solid the little car drove. It felt like a little tank. One notable feature was that it had such high clearance you could work under the car without jacking it up.
I never think about it anymore because I never really drove it that much. Only used it on weekends. A year later, some guy watching a bird veered into my lane and ran me into a culvert and that was that for the Volvo.
I sadly traded an awesome 1993 Mazda Protege LX with the 130 hp 1.8 liter engine and a 5mt for a 2000 Nissan Altima GXE auto. I still remember the Protege fondly for how quick and fun it was. I also remember the Honda Civic I had before the Protege and the Pontiac Vibe that came after it. But the Altima is like a void in my memory, it was fine but so boring I can’t bring up any real memories of my time with it. It was refrigerator white and equally exciting.
First gen Cadillac SRX. I remember almost nothing of this car, including the model year, which is strange because I do remember special ordering it as a V6 with magnetic ride control because I thought magnetic shocks sounded neat. It was a popular model for a while, you saw a lot of them around town at the time. I haven’t seen one for quite a while, where’d they go?
It’s hard to say about any of my cars, because they all represent some era in life’s journey. But I’ll say the AWD Caravan–not even sure now what model year it was. ’97? Odd, because it was a holy grail find at the time, when we really needed the space of a minivan over an SUV, but also really needed the AWD for winters on the nasty little hill where we lived. And it was remarkably reliable, getting us to around 170K before we donated it.
I think part of being an enthusiast is finding at least a lesson in every vehicle. I’ve loved and hated in various measure all my cars.
Even my current, dream ride has a single hate. See: 718 cup holders.
1996 Mercury Mystique V6. Probably because I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one in the wild, though I enjoyed driving that car for three years.