Cars I've owned, ranked

"Nibbles" (nibbles) 01/07/2017 at 13:57 • Filed to: None

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13

Y’all get this list now.

1 1987 Toyota Pickup SR-5 22R-TE 2.4
Best pickup ever. 2wd, LSD, every option save A/C. Totaled by an idiot in a ‘70s Mercury Marquis

2 2010 Volvo S40 T5 R-Design 2.5
Excellent, if innocuous, little beast. Surprising amount of go, endlessly comfortable

3 1987 900 SPG 2.0
First car checked off my bucket list. Nothing negative to say (except that it was totaled by a hit-n-run two months to the day after purchase). Loved every minute

4 1995 Dakota SLT 4x4 5MT SLT+ 5.2
Cash truck that has worked its way deep into my heart. Lurve this pickup. Most Jalop Truck Ever™

5 2001 Impala LS 3.8
33 MPG on the highway. Supple leather. Good power. Comfortable as all get-out. Loved it

6 2008 Lancer GTS 2.0
Second new car purchase. Like the 2002 before it, I liked this car a good bit. Fully optioned 5MT with the limited production 18" wheels and goofy spoiler

7 1988 Bronco Eddie Bauer 5.0
Bought (and used with vigor) for the heavy snow season. Plowed through everything and recovered so many cars from ditches

8 2005 xTerra 6MT 4.0
4.0, 6-speed manual, fun as hell SUV. 5/7, would buy again

9 1992 F-250 XLT 460
Powerhouse. Hauled a 33' fifth wheel without a care

10 2004 Mustang GT 4.6
“Owned” for two weeks. Shoulda known they couldn’t finance a 9 year old car. Still, loved every second

11 1994 Crown Victoria LX 4.6
Portofino Blue - best color ever. So grandma. So awesome

12 1997 Dakota 5.2
Good wife’s truck. 2wd sport with 5.2 automatic and long bed. Apparently a bit of a unicorn for 1997

13 1991 Shadow ES Turbo1 Vert 2.2T1
Guilty pleasure. Traded the 4Runner for it after the Yota blew its rear end

14 2000 Focus ZX3 2.0
Not unlike the Metro. Previous courier car, bought with 188k on original everything (incl. clutch). Replaced PS pump. Sold to friend at 205k. He killed it :(

15 2004 Jetta GLI 1.8T
Enjoyed this car until it got totaled (T-Bone). 1.8T, full kit, good car

16 2002 Lancer OZ 2.0
First new car purchase. I loved this car. Ex-wife destroyed it

17 1987 Cavalier base
Astoundingly reliable and never gave me a lick of trouble, sold with 220k

18 1991 EX-500a 499cc 
First (and only) bike so far. Good beginner bike

19 1996 Metro LSi 1.3
Little rollerskate. No PS/PB/PAnything. Gave its life to save my mother’s when a Chevy Express plowed into her from behind at speed.

20 1987 Saab 900 T16
Recipient for all the parts I got off the SPG. Died at 350,000 miles.

21 1995.5 Rodeo LS 3.2
Utility buy. Replaced shit wheels and stock-size tires with AR Outlaw 1s and 31/10.50s. WARN manual locker swap. Capable thing until timing jumped

22 1994 Accord Coupe EX 2.2
Full kit, nice car. Anemic SOHC-VTEC (yo) 2.2L

23 1993 Voyager Sport 3.3
Surprisingly fun little van. Nothing amazing though

24 1997 850 GL 2.4
Cash car after SPG was totaled. Had to replace air pump. Steering rack grenaded on me during a corner, smashed a curb, let the towing company keep it

25 1985 Camaro base 2.8
Gutless, rod knock, paid too much but it was my first car, first rebuild and MY BITCHIN’ CAMERO

26 2000 Mustang V6 3.8
I dumped so much into this car and it was never right

27 1997 Jetta GT 2.SLOW
Ex-wife’s car that I got in the divorce (she got the Lancer). At 100,008 miles I had to replace so much stuff I offloaded it for the Impala

28 1998 Ram 1500 5.9 4x4
Basketcase. Worst transmission ever. Not enough power out of the 360 to warrant its 12 MPG

29 1993 4Runner SR-5 3.0
A tad rusty, an emotional purchase, boat anchor 3.0 Automatic, 13 MPG

30 1996 200SX 1.6
Fuckin’ tin can. Everything was paper thin. Hated it

31 1996 Contour GL 2.0
Near-worthless but it was reliable

32 2007 Focus SES 2.0
Shitbox. Worst I’ve owned. PZEV apparently stands for “Practically Zero Enthusiast Value”

E90M3 > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 14:03

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5 2001 Impala LS 3.8
33 MPG on the highway. Supple leather. Good power. Comfortable as all get-out. Loved it

I assume it had this in it:

My dad had a 2002 Regal with that engine in it. The car itself sucked, but I will admit it was a great highway car. I got 30 mpg out of it and the seats where actually pretty damn comfortable.

jovimon7 > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 14:07

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#32 Should have gotten the ST. I loved this car.

Nibbles > E90M3 01/07/2017 at 14:07

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Yarp. Having owned a W-Body Impala I don’t understand the hate given. It looked leagues better than the Lumina it replaced. It was endlessly comfortable. The 3.8 is near-indestructible and the transmission - as long as you FOLLOW MANUFACTURER’S RECOMMENDATIONS - doesn’t fail anywhere near as often as the internet says. Capacitous interior, spacious trunk. Smooth on the road (almost Cadillac-like). And, in SS Trim, faster than that overhyped Caprice that shared the name back in the 90s.

Nibbles > jovimon7 01/07/2017 at 14:12

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ST not available. We were not exactly in the best of situations at the time (The Ram was fucking up every transmission we fed it and my 900 was in the process of being returned to driveability) so we took what we could get. Which was that 2004 GT my wife loved SO DAMN MUCH. When they couldn’t complete financing, we took the Focus because we needed something that ran .

And ran it did. And that’s about it. We took it on a road trip from Denver to Daytona and about 100 miles in I was desperately looking for something - ANYTHING - to trade it in on. SO DAMNED UNCOMFORTABLE!!!

Eventually we traded it for the S40 and couldn’t be happier that that god damned shitbucket is no longer in our lives.

E90M3 > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 14:12

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The Regal my dad had a bunch of electrical gremlins, all the dash lights went out, the seat heater switch broke and got stuck on (i fixed it with an ebay part because none of the regals in the junkyard had heated seats), and a couple of other things that I can’t remember. It’s transmission was on it’s last legs when it was traded in for a Hyundai. It also ate coolant, I’d have to refill it at least once a week the summer I was forced to drive it. My dad drove the explorer and made me drive the Buick, I wasn’t very happy about that.

Nibbles > E90M3 01/07/2017 at 14:13

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I moved the Impala from 76k to 196k (in two and a half years, do the math) and replaced the following non-consumables:

Thermostat

E90M3 > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 14:16

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I think it’s a bit like VW electronics, you either have issues or you don’t. The car had like 115k on it when the transmission started going.

Nibbles > E90M3 01/07/2017 at 14:26

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Fukkin’ VAG parts.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 14:36

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My last car was a 2007 Focus Wagon and my current car is a 2005 Focus Wagon.

They’re not too bad, but have some common issues that there are cheap solutions for that people/mechanics don’t fix properly. And not addressing the issues properly can make the Focus of this generation feel far more shitty than it should.

1. Tie rods. This has been a common Ford problem on many models for a long time. Mechanics often replace the cheap OEM shit with more cheap OEM shit one rod at a time. Spend a little more for Moog branded parts, do all 4 tie rods at once (2 inner, 2 outer) and then get a 4 wheel alignment done and it will stay fixed for longer.

2. Wiring that goes from the body into the hatch cracks and causes shorts and blown fuses. You can either spend $$$ replacing that section of wiring harness with a new shitty OEM harness that doesn’t have enough slack. OR you can splice in some higher quality after market replacement wire you can get at Canadian Tire... and splice it in so it has more slack on each end, making it less likely to wear/crack again.

3. Passenger side engine mount. The OEM one was a hydraulic mount which costs around $90 at Rock Auto. When this goes, it is often replaced with a cheap assed $30 solid rubber mount that will transmit far more noise and vibration... especially in cold weather. This is an area where you want to stick with the OEM part. Don’t let your mechanic cheap out on this. Spend the extra money and replace it with another hydraulic engine mount. Or better yet, order the correct part and just have your mechanic install it.

4. This gen of focus is sensitive to tires. Some tires makes the handling feel twitchy. My focus feels twitchy with the crappy winter tires the car came with. But with Nokian WRG3 or Nordman WR tires, there is a noticeable improvement.

And of course these are better with the 5 speed manual. The 4 speed auto isn’t terrible as far as automatics from that era go. It’s just that you’ll get a bigger performance and fuel economy hit in the real world than the EPA numbers suggest in my experience.

Nibbles > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 01/07/2017 at 14:53

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My biggest issues with the 2007 were that the PZEV 2.0 sucks at altitude - 122 sea-level hp through an automatic means we were putting out all of 70 hp (if even that) to the wheels - and the seats were uncomfortable as FUCK for any trips over 20 miles. I loved my 2000 ZX3 manny tranny which is why I agreed to get the 2007. Worst idea.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 15:22

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Yeah, the redesign the Focus got in 2005 was one of those “let’s make it cheaper” redesigns. The interior in particular was downgraded.

Even with the Mazda-sourced engine, Ford cheaped out by making a non-VVT version that made around 12HP less than the version of the same engine in the Mazda3.

Not a terrible car from my experience, but it could have been much better.

The seat issue is fixable by getting a used seat out of an SVT/ST.

And the 2008 redesign was an even further downgrade overall in my opinion.

Nibbles > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 01/07/2017 at 18:17

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Or all the issues are resolved by getting a Volvo S40 ;)

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Nibbles 01/07/2017 at 20:35

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Or better yet, the V40/V50!!!