by "arl" (arl1968)
Published 01/07/2017 at 09:39
by "arl" (arl1968)
Published 01/07/2017 at 09:39
No Tags
STARS: 5
All aboard the bandwagon! It’s snowing and I’ve had 3 espressos. Please have my top 5 vehicles.
#5 2007 FJ Cruiser
I bought this new and sold it after three years when I got a bug up my ass to buy a V8 Murican’ car (see #4). It was dead reliable and unstoppable. It laughed at snow, and with those little blind spot stick-on mirrors installed I had no problems with merging into traffic. It was easy to drive, got decent gas mileage for something so huge, and my son loved it. Why did I sell this again?
#4 2011 Dodge Charger R/T RT
Yes, the R/T with the Road and Track package. Or the RTRT. Stupid name. But it had all the torques! 5.7 liters of glorious American V8 power. Luscious torque. I loved that car. It was loaded with every option too - sunroof, heated front and rear seats, heated and cooled cup holders for God’s sake! And the integrated Garmin Nav spoiled me. Any other car’s infotainment is measured against the Dodge’s; and none have matched up. Ah, but here’s the rub. Electrical issues. Started in year three at around 30k miles. Nav went out. Second Nav went out. CD player went out. Third Nav went out. Then the backup camera went out. All right before the 36k mile warranty was about to expire. You can guess what happened to the unreliable RTRT. I traded it for a soul-sucking Honda Accord. I still miss roaring around in the Dodge....
# 3 2017 GTI. My current ride is pretty awesome. I couldn’t take the soul-sucking Accord any longer. I needed something to stir the soul, make the lips turn up to a smile, something fast, something with a decent stereo. And having a penchant for unreliable cars (see Dodge above,) I went with VW. They’re practically giving these damn things away (thanks Diesel-gate!), so I decided to grab a loaded 6-speed GTI. It has all the doors (4!) and all the goodies us old guys like, heated seats, Nav, and Satellite radio. Nothing better than a summer day with the sunroof open, stereo cranking, and driving on some back roads. This little car is pretty great. So far. We’ll see how the reliability holds up. Turbo VW with tons of electrical doodads - what could possibly go wrong?! P.S. The Nav sucks compared to the Dodge’s.
My actual car. The other pics are stock photos.
#2 1965 Buick Wildcat 2 door coupe.
This giant beast holds a special place in my heart. I bought it back in college in 1986 for the whopping sum of $300.00. It was rusty. It was beat down. But it ran. It ran like a scalded dog if you got on it. I’m sure it lost power over the years, but it still had that torque. That red light get up and go.
You have to picture the 1980's to appreciate this car. I had long 1980's rock and roller hair, an earring, and a pack of cigs on me at all times. I was lean and still athletic from high school. The windows were down as my friends and I would cruise the college strip blasting punk rock from the aftermarket speakers - the clash, the sex pistols, and maybe some Led Zeppelin (because we weren’t cretins, after all). The giant Buick would lump gloriously at the intersection outside of the local bar. One finger was all that was needed to pilot the giant steel steed around the dark city streets. Your right foot ready to unleash the big block’s ability to roast the half-bald rear tires at any time. We smoked, drank, sped, laugh, cried, and lived life in that rusty, glorious, big-block big beast....
#1 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R
This is still the best drivers car I’ve ever owned. I bought it new and drove every back road known to man in that car. It was the classic example of the sum being better than the individual parts. It was so perfectly balanced! The engine was so smooth, the 5 speed was perfectly balanced! The handling was sublime. It was light, and the feedback through the steering wheel made you feel like one with the road. And yet it was quiet and composed just tooling around town. It was every cheesy “sports-car-cliche” written, and it was wonderful. I was young and broke and had to sell it back in the 1990's. My friends and I still talk about the roads we conquered in this terrific little car.
Edits for espresso-induced grammar fixes
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
01/07/2017 at 09:59, STARS: 1
Is Jake still trying to sell his SE-R? You may want to get in touch with him. It is kind of a basket case but he bought t from another Opponaut for $1 fixed up quite a bit and I don’t think was asking much for it.
"V8Demon - Prefers Autos for drag racing. Fite me!" (v8demon)
01/07/2017 at 10:07, STARS: 1
Chrysler SatNavs are HORRENDOUS as far as reliability. I actually got about 70k out of the original one in my Dodge. Replaced it with an aftermarket unit and haven’t looked back.
Not a single person I know with a Chrysler product that has the SatNav has not had to replace it at some point. An ongoing issue for a few year now, one would think that they would remedy it.
Researching shows it’s most likely some type of capacitor issue and is PROBABLY cheap to fix. It’s impossible to find wiring schematics for these. I still have the old unit. If I could find some schematics I’d pull it apart and attempt a fix.
"arl" (arl1968)
01/07/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 0
I’ve heard that from other owners as well. It’s amazing to me how good the infotainment system was, functionality-wise. The UI designers really got it right.
But as you noted - the damn reliability just kills it. I mean, who the hell cares if it’s the best thing since sliced bread if it won’t power on?!
"arl" (arl1968)
01/07/2017 at 10:20, STARS: 1
Yea, I followed his threads since the beginning. I love that he bought it for one dollar! For some reason that always brings up images of the Dukes in Trading Places saying “One Dollar”. But I digress....
I don’t have the time or space for a project car. Wish I could!
"V8Demon - Prefers Autos for drag racing. Fite me!" (v8demon)
01/07/2017 at 10:39, STARS: 0
Oh, mine would power on.....And then reset ad infinitum about every minute and a half. Upon startup it would flash the Dodge logo normally. One day it decided to show an actual Chrysler logo instead. I have a picture of it somewhere.
"arl" (arl1968)
01/07/2017 at 10:42, STARS: 0
Ouch! Too funny about the Chrysler logo. That must have been a WTF! moment.