The List

"MichaelD" (michaeldutah) 08/18/2014 at 13:00 • Filed to: None

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So, every car nut has their List. You know, the one that matters; the one that tells their story... The List (of vehicles they've daily-driven). This is mine:

1977 Chevrolet Beauville van. It ran like a top, was quick for such a huge beast, and got 13-15mpg on a good day. The van, which we called "Big Bertha", had been the family vehicle before my dad bought our 1985 Chevy G20 van, "Murphy". Bertha was seriously loud on the freeway and her headlamps had two settings: dim, and not-so-dim. I eventually gave Bertha to my brother, who used her as a utility vehicle. He then gave the van to a friend of ours who used it for the same purpose until he got tired of fixing it (she was 26 years old by then). He was going to sell it for scrap and had it parked away from home, filled full of scrap metal, but it got stolen before he could get it to the metal recycler.

1987 Chevrolet Nova LT 4-door (aka Bob). Seriously gutless, but I loved the thing. When I bought it from my aunt, it barely ran thanks to three burned pistons and a blown head gasket, yet it still made its way from Layton, UT to East Millcreek, UT under its own power. Said pistons and head gasket were replaced, but the piston which wasn't replaced failed horribly a year later. All four pistons were replaced with slightly overbore units and the car ran better than it ever had. The radio could not be turned off as the power button had failed, and my cousin had decided it made more sense for the radio to always be on than never be on – which made it interesting to try to change the time on the Delco clock, believe me. I sold it to purchase my next car. In retrospect, I probably should have kept it, as my financial life would likely be far better today.

1997 Acura Integra LS 4-door (aka Natalie). I bought an Integra mainly because it was the last vehicle I test-drove with my dad before he died, and I paid too much for it as it was very much an emotional purchase. I loved it, and might still have it today if it hadn't been totaled in a wreck on the way to work the morning of Sept 14, 2002 (a guy in a Pathfinder ran a red light and broadsided me on the passenger side). I found it for sale a few months later at a dealer who had fixed it up (poorly, I might add). It was a very sad ending for such a great car.

2000 Pontiac Grand Am GT1 4-door (aka Spike). The GAGT ended up being a blessing in disguise as it saved me $70 a month versus the Integra's payment, got almost as good gas mileage while being more powerful, more roomy, and more solid-feeling while handling better. Didn't take as good care of it as I should have and drove it hard, but it still kept coming back for more. I wrecked when I was lookie-looing at another wreck while driving to Phoenix, but it was in good enough shape after the wreck that it got my wife and me the rest of the way to Phoenix, down to Tucson, and back home to Salt Lake City. I'm an idiot for having not been paying attention, and wish I still had the GAGT for financial reasons, but I really didn't see the point in fixing it back up to my standards as it had over 170K on the odometer when the wreck happened.

2012 Ford Focus SEL 4-door (aka Eddie). It has the much-maligned DCT (which has been awesome so far), averages 30-32mpg in mixed driving, handles very well (it's a blast to drive in our canyons around the Salt Lake valley), and is basically a luxury car compared to everything else I've owned thus far. However, while I really like it, I should have bought a Miata… after all, the answer is always Miata.