I was reading a list of the ten worst cars ever made. Number one was the Chevy Vega, which beat out the Yugoslavian Yugo (total piece of crap) and the East European Trabant (made in Zwickau). In fact, GM had three cars on the list.Our own worst car was the Dodge Aspen, which looked something like the above. It was two-toned and I was suckered into thinking it looked as nice as June Wilson's Buick. June Wilson bought a new Buick every two years. June Wilson had money. We didn't.
This particular Dodge Aspen burned through alternators every other day. One day the car worked, and the next day it didn't start. Period. It still looked pretty good when we sold it for $500 a few years later. A nice young woman with small children was there with cash. "This thing eats alternators," Tom told her. She wanted the car anyway.
The Dodge Aspen's competition is the 1981 Ford Escort with front wheel drive. We still lived in Minnesota and could that thing cut through snow. Snazzy red. At twenty thousand miles, when Tom was driving with Edmund and Charles up to the Gunflint Trail with Lavell Henderson's canoe tied to the top of the car, all the dashboard lights blazed to life and the car stopped. Period.
The timing belt had broken and chewed the motor to bits. Tom and the boys were midway to nowhere in the black of night. In the distance was a light and they hiked towards it. It was a house with a lovely older couple in it who without knowing them took them in over night, fed them a large breakfast, called the tow truck in Grand Marais and saw them off with all good wishes.
In January of 1985, we drove to Utah in that same Escort and literally had to stop at every gas station and fill it with quarts of oil. The back of the car was black with oil. We traded it in for a Toyota Tercel. It's been Toyota ever since.
Now we have a fifteen year-old Avalon, which has brand new wheels and a new front suspension and drives better than ever. I'm glad June Wilson's not around.
What was your worst car?
I love it when you say "total piece of crap."
ReplyDeleteWorst car growing up: A sky blue Monte Carlo (a lot like the above, only with--if it's possible--a larger hood). It was ugly, yes. But it also didn't go in reverse. And the passenger side door wouldn't open. And there was a hole through the floor in the backseat--all the way through the floor (I used to imagine all the things I could drop out of it as we drove along). And best of all, if it got overheated (which was almost daily), it billowed huge clouds of black smoke. Enough smoke that you had to pull over and wait 'til it cleared to start driving again. My dad used to drop me off at early morning seminary in that car. If I could have died of embarrassment, I would have.
ReplyDeleteGoodness - I can write a whole blog entry on this one!
ReplyDeleteSuffice: the Aussie inlaws arrived on the West Coast. Purchased a giant hmm hmm Grand Marquis (I don't know cars). They spent 3 months driving it across Canada (west:east), and then across the U.S.A. (east:west). When they returned to the west coast airport of their departure, they called my husband to tell him the car as his: in the SeaTac Seattle airport parking lot.
So poverty-stricken grad student flew out to collect said car.
He loved it.
I HATED it.
I hope noone in our family reads your blog but me.
Two-toned Brown Volkswagon Bus. 1985-2005. Totaled twice (But my dad--Mr. Engineer--kept putting it back together with gum and duct tape. Sometimes literally.) Driver door didn't open so you had to climb in. Side door had to be tied shut with a bungee cord. We called it alternately "The Ghandi Mobile," or "The Party Wagon" (for when we were feeling ironic.)
ReplyDeleteWe've been lucky with cars.
ReplyDeleteI know my kids would probably say the van I'm currently driving because the door doesn't open, but in reality this is a great car! Reliable to it's core!
I have driven a rental car that you'd have to kill me before I purchased on my own...A Chrysler Town & Country. Total garbage.
I owned a Chevy Vega. Black smoke trailing behind me. Too poor to afford a new engine. So embarrassing. Every other driver giving me the evil eye. Knowing I was going to die in the desert when the oil light came on and I had to stop in the middle of nowhere. Kind truck driver who bought me oil and sent me on my way. So glad it's gone, can't even remember who I sold it to.
ReplyDeleteI had a 1984 Nissan Sentra that I drove from Provo to my first teaching job in Payson, Utah. It was a tin can and I'm lucky to have lived to tell about my escapes driving on the snowy freeway. Finally the Provo junk man came and offered me $50 to take it and tow it away. He was scary and flirtacious and frightening. His wife sat in their junk car and scowled at me. Hey Lady, I wanted to say. I don't want your husband or my car.
ReplyDeleteMy first car was a 1987 Chevy Cavalier named Howard. It drank oil, farted out gas and the paint was rusting off the hood in flakes. However, that was my first (and last) car with a really good sound system.
ReplyDeleteWorst car was probably the one my husband owned when we first started dating - don't know what kind of car, only that it weighed a ton because I had to get out a few times to push it with a couple of friends and we used to joke that we could walk and still beat it uphill because it had absolutely no power. I have to say the one I am currently driving is also " a total piece of crap" and we wish someone would destroy it enough to write it off - Saturn Relay - no wonder they went out of business.
ReplyDeleteOne van my daughter was particularly attached to and when we decided it had served us well and needed to go to the junkyard, she cried and cried (she was only four at the time) when the junkman came to get it. He felt so bad he took off the license plate and gave it to her as a souvenir. We probably shouldn't have given it a name - Sammy is still fondly remembered.