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Humor me a moment. In 1984, my first magazine Editor-in-Chief and I joked around at length about a new magazine we wanted to launc called Cars and Computers. What he had discovered, at a fairly early time in computer years, was the phenomenon of the parallelism between car fanatics and computer enthusiasts -- namely that many of them were one in the same people. Mike Nadeau (my editor) and I being the charter members.So if there's any spark of truth in this, I'm calling for your honest input on something: What kind of car do you drive? And what kind of car do you lust after (and would you get if money were no object)?I'm actually not going to start by telling you about my current vehicle just yet. But I promise it will surprise some of you, and I will come back and tell you farther along.In the meantime, I'll get the pump primed with a few facts about Finnie's Vehicular Experiences:1. I have owned more than 50 automobiles in my "brief" life time.2. I began driving at the age of 14 (but don't tell my kids this, ok?).3. My first car was a 1962 Corvair Monza, black, with the automatic shift on the dash. (The heck with Ralph Nader, because that thing could both get up and go and corner. Stopping was a bit of an issue though, as I recall.)4. My next five or six vehicles were all Volkswagen Beetles or their derivatives.5. I have owned everything from sports cars to giant trucks. And I loved them all.6. I've been reading Car & Driver and Motor Trend (among others) for multiple decades. I'm totally hooked on cars, warts and all.7. The oldest car I ever owned was a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle. It didn't have a gas gauge. There was a lever you turned over when you ran out of gas that allowed a spare gallon to drop into the tank, giving you enough to get to a gas station. (Apologies to my old friend Dorrie who actually owned this vehicle; I just rebuilt the engine and did most of the driving.)So what do you drive, and what would you drive in an ideal world?-- Scot

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Grasshopper

I'm a big Thunderbird guy. I was lucky enough, at 25 (I'm 31 now), to own the car that I will keep forever, my 1997 Tbird. I'm currently saving for a lot of goodies to make it faster. I've already put a supercharger on it. Some other things I'm going to do are put on several parts from the new Lightning pickup (it's supercharged so some of the electronic parts will work), larger intake system, custom transmission work, metal matrix driveshaft (the stock one is why there is a speed limiter at 105mph), and taller gears. All these things will need a dynotune to make the car at peak performance. There are few trained car/computer tuners out there that really know what they are doing.My every day driver is a 1995 Ford pickup.I also own (and am sadly selling) a 1968 Thunderbird. I bought it a few years ago as a project car. I still love the look of the car, but with a second daughter on the way, there's no room in my life for it.

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My first car was a 70 Olds 442. I was 16 and it seems I spent more time fixing it up than I did driving it. I loved that car.....and man was it fast. Too fast for an ignorant 16 year old who thinks they are immortal. How I never wrecked it is beyond me.......I was a very lucky fool on too many occasions to even mention. I ended up selling it for 3 times what I paid for it and put into it. My next vehicle was a 76 Camaro. Another speed demon. Though it could not hold a candle to the 442.A VW Bus came next. It was a total hippie van.....I truly loved this vehicle. I lived out of it off and on for 2 years. The stories that van could tell :) Mazda 626. It did not last long.Then came a Jeep. Had lots of good times in this one. Right now I own a 97 Ford Truck. My first brand new vehicle. It had 6 miles on it when I got it.My next vehicle....coming very soon actually, A Chevy Avalanche. I think these are so very cool. Getting all the add ons. These things are sweet.If money was not an object I would own many vehicles. The Avalanche, BMW Alpina Roadster V8, BMW M5 and another Jeep. Come on lottery!!!!!

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Guest ThunderRiver

I drive a 1994 PearlWhite Lexus, and I have always been impressed with its comfortness. Scot, I am quite impressed with the number of cars you have owned in the past :) Lexus03.jpg

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I currently drive this car:PT_Eric_sm.jpgI was about to buy a Corbin Sparrow electric vehicle to commute to work, but I just found out the company went bankrupt:sparrow.jpgMy first car was a 1989 Camaro IROC, which lasted only a few months before I totaled it. I've been a much more careful driver since then...I have also ridden motorcycles most of my life, the most recent being:gs500e.jpgwhich I sold a while ago.

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I don't remember all my vehicles I have owned, but my first one was a little Chevy Nova 2 with a big 194 motor - woohoo. Wish I still had that car.Currently I have a 86 olds 442 and a 79 GMC 4x4 dieing of rust cancer, but all rebuilt, just need a body. I don't want any of these new cars - to expensive too repair and too expensive to buy. If money was no object I would want an electric car, not sure how well they would do up here in North Dakota with the freezin cold and snow drifts, but than again money no object I wouldn't live in ND :)

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Well... I started out with a Dodge D50 Ram pickup that found a telephone pole only two weeks after getting it... (hydroplane on a curve with over-correction error) then cam my 'vette... Chevette that is... :) that was a good car then I got a dodge 600 turbo (that thing cooked) (totaled 4years later) then a "K" car (totaled by a mercedes driven by a dumb woman who did not have a stop sign at the end of a driveway... :) , and it (her mercedes) was totaled as well... ) then a ford taurus (sold that... 800 less than I paid 5 years earlier... now I drive a 90 plymouth voyager w/210K on it... (recently injured) and I'm looking at a 91'ply voyager w/ 94k I use my car for my windshield repair business....Dream car(s)... '63 split-window coupe black w/ white stripe... any of the hemi cuda's roadrunners, or challengers. Shelby GT mustang and 69'GTO--

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Wow! I started remembering the cars I've owned and had to start a spreadsheet!First car was a '68 GTO... AWESOME car, but maybe a bit much for a 16 year old! Drove for 2 years and totaled it. My biggest car-regret.Graduated with a '62 Fairlaine 500 2-door with a 289 HO, dual exhaust, and "3-on-the-tree"!Traded that for a '58 Chev... Best road car I ever had... Except for the '78 Mercury Grand Marquis - now, THAT'S a cruiser! A foot longer than my Dad's Lincoln Town Car!During a lull in logic, I traded the '58 Chev for $250 in quarters and a '67 GTX (First year for GTX!) Of course, it was missing the right front fender... Who says the '70's weren't interesting! I never have figured out where someone gets $250 worth of quarters...That car didn't last long - pulled the 440 Magnum and drive train out of it and sold the body for scrap.A '66 Dodge Charger followed, which was replaced by a '73 Chev Vega Sedan Delivery.Got married and went to a '70 Dodge Polara and a '73 Pontiac Lemans. Then got divorced and lost the LeMans - went to a '74 Ford LTD Wagon... With a sign in the back window that said, "Ex-Wife For Sale - Take Over Payments"...A '73 VW Bus and a '70 Monte Carlo followed... '70 Monte - Man! What a hot rod! '73 VW Bus I built into a camper and traveled to Colorado with my wife and new son... Great memories!A string of "Bic" cars followed. "Bic" cars are the kind that you run 'till they die and then get a new one. I actually had my own salvage guy who would call me every 6 months asking if I had a new "Hulk" for him... I usually did!The "Bic's" included a '70 Dodge Colt, '71 Opel 1800? (That's the one from the head-on-collision! Of course, I choose the smallest of them all to do that with!), '68 Chev Impala, '68 Fiat Convertible, '78 Chev Wagon (Family Truckster), '68 Dodge Charger, and a '63 Buick Skylark, Got Married again and had a '74 Dodge Dart 2Dr. Great car. Then got divorced and went to a '74 VW Bug...Third marriage brought a '68 Olds Cutlass into my life. Nice car, but old (this was in '90).Stayed married (I know you were worrying!) and got the '78 Grand Marquis, the '71 Ford Pickup, '71 Toyota Pickup, '85 Eagle Premier, '87 Dodge Ram-Charger, '88 Chev 1-Ton Pickup, and Jeep Grand Cherokee... Whew! I have to stop typing - the more I type the more I remember!Add in all the bikes (motorcycles) I've owned - probably 15..., and I could have been a dealer!Oh! I still have the '71 Ford Pickup, The '88 Chev 1-ton, and the '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee.Dream Car? First one, of course! 1968 Pontiac GTO - Super T-10, Hurst Linkage, 6.5 Litre engine, American Mags (Brushed Aluminum, of course), Krako Stereo :) and a high-school romance... Well, my wife might not want me to get the high-school romance back, but that's okay - at my age (yes, Scot, I'm older than even you!) I'll take the 35 year old hot rod... Less maintenance! And my wife would let me...Thanks for a trip down memory lane, Scot!d|:^)Dick

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:) ;) :) B) :) :) :) 1958 Chevy Biscayne that I bought from a widow (1 owner car). Flathead six. Great on the dirt! Learned to take t-bones at 60+ mph in that baby.1970 Dodge Coronet 500 with racing package, hurst linkage and a beefed 383 (tuck and roll, including the rollbar)...sold that pup before it killed me.1968 Toyota Landcruiser (needed it to get to my still)...one of my many high school "jobs".Got married and bought a Chevelle Station Wagon :( Added a VW Thing (one of my favoriet memories)Another VW...bug, AUTOJeep Wagoneer :) Doge Ramcharger, GMC Pickup, Chevy Pickup. Dodge Omni, Dodge Ram 50 (a Mitshubishi, actually), Ford Escort Wagon :) .I drove my 1983 GMC Vandura 3/4 ton van from 1992 - 1999, and then gave it to my oldest son...oh, the strories it could tell (including this one trip that me and the boys took across the Baja pennisula, powered by cervesa and testosterone...).1999 Dodge 1500 p/u, manual trany... and I traded that, my fave p/u, for a 2002,1500 4x4, cause I was movin to them thar hills. If we're goin to town, we take the wife's Cherokee (last of it's kind).Two weeks ago, the first warm spell hit, and out came the 750cc Honda Shadow Spirit. I would have bought a Harley, but I commute on the bike (5,200 miles last year), and I couldn't do that to an HD. I take the "Great River Road" along the Mississippi River to and from work, so it's a pretty nice way tp start and end a day.D***...I left out a little Dodge import, a Dodge dart, and both Hondas (Civic and Accord).I drove a Porche Carrera from San Jose to Los Angeles once upon a time, and if tune-ups weren't $1,500, I'd keep one around to weekend play.Scooter, you're toying with me here! :D
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Present car is a 1999 Hyundai Accent - purchased 7/99 with 15 demo miles on it ;) - now has 13,540 miles...I don't drive very far, mostly 5 or 6 miles in 3 directions (Lake Erie is North, so can't go that way! ;) ). It will probably outlive me.I have no 'dream car', sorry. ;)

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Guest ComputerBob

My first car was a 196x Renault station wagon. The car leaked every fluid that cars contain. And it cost $$$ to get simple things like spark plugs, because you had to pay for someone to fly to France and buy them for you. ;) Since then, I've probably owned 10+ cars -- an ecclectic mix that was influenced more by $$$ and availability than by preference, and included a Chevy Biscayne, a Chevy Nova, several 50s-70s VW bugs, a VW van, a few Plymouth Horizons, a Nissan station wagon, a Toyota Tercel, a Chrysler K-car, and a Chevy Blazer, among others.Currently, my wife and I own twin 2003 Saturns. Last summer, we sold both of our older cars and bought the Saturns on sale for $9995 each. Such a deal, and we trade cars back and forth every couple of months, to keep the mileage close to the same on both.There were times in my life that I would've liked to own a sports car or a luxury car, but now, if I had unlimited $$$ to buy whatever kind of car I wanted, I would use the money for a hundred other things that are more important to me. In the past few years, I've decided that, for me, a car is just transportation, so from now on, I'll probably always look for the cheapest car that will provide me with basic, reliable transportation.

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Guest LilBambi

My father taught me to drive in his 2-door Ford Fairlane (with a pillow behind my back and a wood block on the clutch). We always did some fun stuff growing up ... tearing down engines, finding out what was wrong and putting them back together and listening as they purred in response to our tinkering ... great fun. I haven't done too much personally with my car since I have had Hondas. I leave it to my mechanic these days.And yeah, I know, I was my father's first born 'son,' but I was also my mother's first born daughter ... so I got to learn how to tear down engines with my father and how to make my own clothes, crochet, cook/bake with my mother ;) Best of both worlds.My first car was a used but beautifully cared for (cosmetically) lavender (YUK!) Corvair with a white convertible top and white leather interior. I really was excited about it ... heck it was my first car ... despite the color (I like lavender fine but on a car!) My father drove it home that first day, and it really was a great looking car as I watched it speeding up the long drive. I already had planned to have it painted yellow with black racing stripes ;) As my father drove up the drive he really gunned it, you know, kinda showing off, and there was this sickening noise and the car just slowly died at the bottom of the hill ... yep, threw a rod .... oh, well, I never even got to drive my first car ... but how could I be angry .... my father felt horrible and he blamed himself because he said it never would have it happened if he hadn't been showing off ... he said he should have known better (he normally would never do something like before he had checked the engine out and made sure everything was in tip top shape) ... and he did afterall make up for it when he got me my next car which was a maroon and black Galaxy 500 ... a great car. My father and I worked on it till it ran like a top.A year or so later my Galaxy 500 met its untimely demise (the car was totalled by the guy who borrowed my car ... he was checking out the length of a '74 gas line ... trying to see whether he could get some gas without too much of a wait ... three car pile up later ... and gas was not an issue any longer).After that, there was a string of mainly unimpressive but functional used cars over the years, including a Pinto, Chevy LUV pickup, Chrysler station wagon, a Pontiac Grand Prix ... I won't go into how I ended up with that one :( ... and then I got an old Datsun B210 ... yellow with black racing stripes ;) In 1990 or 1991, I purchased a 1980 Honda Accord and fell in love with Hondas. That car was amazing ... you never would have known it was a 10 or 11 year old car.I was hooked on Hondas at that point.Several years later I purchased my first ever brand spanking new car; a '94 Honda Civic LX (white w/tan interior, pwr pkg and built-in am/fm/cassette player). I loved it but after 3 years I traded it for my current car, a '97 Honda Civic LX (Silver with grey interior, pwr pkg and built-in am/fm/CD player). OK, what was the other question? ... If I could have any vehicle at all, what would it be?I think I might be an older, well tuned, LandRover ... because they are built like a tank (at least they used to be built like a tank). I want a vehicle that can go anywhere and last forever :D We love to camp in out of the way places in the mountains....I think a LandRover would be nice ;)

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Guest ComputerBob
...I was hooked on Hondas at that point...
In the early 90s, a guy I worked with had one of those snappy looking little two-seater Hondas that was shaped like a bullet (CRX?). Anyway, he did a lot of traveling, so he had about 110,000 miles on it. One day, I asked him where he took it for repairs -- the dealer or a private garage.He replied, "I don't know. So far, I haven't needed any repairs."Good stuff, those Hondas. ;)
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I guess I am not into cars, although I like having comfort.I have black Mazda 626 '97 , nothing special.One of these days I'll get me car CD/MP3 player. At the moment I have RIO CD MP3 player but it's a hassle to plug two cables and I have no room where to hold it :(Before Mazda I drove Pontiac Sunbird '93.My next car will probably be Mazda 6 or Toyota Camry or if I have enough money at the time Honda Accord.Here in Canada cars don't last long due to salt and everything, winters are terrible to cars so at winter people are mostly driving old cars full of holes from rust and what not :D

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Guest LilBambi

Yes, those Honda's take a licking and keep on ticking! I bought my '97 in Nov '96 and it is still (knock on wood) running well ... it is also still on its OEM battery ... I take it in for maintenance, have replaced tires, and that's basically about it. Very reliable cars. I have never been stranded since I started driving Hondas :D I enjoy a nice car and comfort is something that is important to me in a car too :)Overall value and reliability is what makes me stay with Honda. I wish I could afford another Honda Accord ... I priced it out when I traded my '94 Honda Civic and I still couldn't afford it even with the generous trade-in allowance ... so I was back to another Civic. No complaints though. It just isn't quite as smooth a ride as an Accord, and I don't think it is as quiet as my Honda Accord was (road noise).As much as I enjoyed working on cars with my father growing up ... it isn't nearly as much fun, when something goes wrong on your way to or from work, alone on a highway in the middle of nowhere. It seemed to always be something with all my other used cars ... at least by comparison to even the used Honda Accord ... that's what sold me on Honda. I haven't had any 'down time' nor have I ever been stuck anywhere (and we've driven from here in Virginia to Lake Superior in Michigan, and back through the mountains; visited friends and family in Wisconsin, Illinois, and New Jersey as well as many trips to/from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Close to 120,000 miles on the '97 Honda Civic as we speak.Generally speaking cars are an expensive chunk of money (either up front or along the way, or both :D ). They are not like a house that appreciates over time, in fact as much value as my Honda retained, it was still worth considerably less than what I paid for it three years later when I traded it in, despite the generous trade-in allowance I received for my '94 Honda.In my book cars are just a big depreciation hole in the bucket that doesn't make a lot of sense. So once I find something that really works for me .... I have this tendency to stick with it :D

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I bought my first new car at the end of December '02. It's a Black 2003 Pontiac Grand Am GT with the SC/T appearance package(composite hood with scoops and a different spoiler). No pictures to post of it yet, but number 05 in pontiac's gallery has the car in red(Photo Gallery). As far as lusting goes, a new Corvette would sure be nice--although the list of great cars that I can't afford is very long.

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... one of my cars was a 1989 Honda Accord which kept me alive when a maniac rammed me on the freeway ... I owned a 1967 Chevy Belair w/a 283 me and a buddy snagged out of a 63 Impala ... I've owned many, many Volkswagen Beetles, but the one that stands out is the one that had the 3/4 cam, gray with one white fender, and a sunroof, wooden rear bumper ... probably my most storied vehice was my 1967 Chevy Van. I flagged a guy down on the highway one day and told him I wanted to buy his van. He drove a hard bargain, but it was mine. Did someone say three-on-the-tree? That's what it had. I delivered pizzas to pay my way through college. The van, with its inline-6 250 mounted between the front seats was the perfect pizza warmer ... so many cars, why? I don't know ... I owned a 1971 Karmann Ghia for a while ... a 1968 Dodge Coronet 500 wagon ... a 1967 mustang convertible ... sometimes it's easier just to think of the makes instead of the models: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Volkwagen, Volvo ... but I never owned a BMW. I always lusted after a that 2002 as a kid. That was the car I would one day buy. The perfect sedan. I've driven Jags, Mercedes, and BMWs, yes. But I can't see spending the bucks on the 500 series BMW that's probably my dream.So what am I driving now? A 2001 Chevrolet Suburban. You heard it right. Don't ask me why. I'm in my third truck phase. First two phases were Japanese compact trucks. Now I'm ready for the big iron (just in time for raised gas prices, of course). What I really want next is a Ford, Chevy, or possible a Nissan full-size pickup truck.Hey, I don't get it either. But this is why I've had so many vehicles. I never get tired of trying new ones.And then there's those 18 computers (or whatever it is now). Cars and Computers. They go hand in hand some how.-- ScotP.S. I envy you guys who got to be 16 for the muscle car period. I always wanted a 440 or a GTO or something. By the time I got there, the gas crisis had already happened, and people were tooling around in Pintos, Gremlins, Chevettes, K Cars, and it just got worse and worse and worse. I owned a 1976 Rabbit. It was the first econobox that was truly fast (and of course, I immediately mounted Weber carbs on it). But still, no comparison. Especially for torque.

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: I have had a good laugh at all the cars. My first car was a Honda 600CC Coupe. It was four hills into town or eight miles - you were always going uphill or downhill. Every day for a whole summer I went pace the police doing 65 mph downhill. They just waved at me. This was in 73 or 74 (not long after we went to 55 mph standards). They knew by the time I got to the top of the next hill I would be doing 45 mph. I told people that I had to pedal hard to wind up the rubber band that ran it. I think it disintegrated at 30,000 miles but it was fun to drive. I hit a deer in it one night but it just bounced off. I took off the rear speaker and poked my hand through and popped the dent back out. Talk about luck. I think my mom knew what she was doing when she picked this car for me to drive as a teenager.My oldest car was a 41 Pontiac Silver Streak. It was a tank. My brother talked me out of that one though. Now we just keep going through Toyota Previas. I think I am on our 3rd one. I finally moved up to a 95. After we get 200,000 miles on them my hustand thinks it is time to replace them. The first one hit a bridge in an ice storm with a 16 year old driver. The only things wrong were in the very front (read even in front of the engine) but the insurance company considered it totaled. It only had 225,000 miles on it so I did not complain. We now have two, but with my commute and the price of gas I almost miss my 600CC Honda. :)

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Scot,I've probably owned more cars than I can remember, but a few that were memorable:1964 Corvette Stingray with removable hardtop.1966 Corvette Stingray1971 Camaro Super Sport1996 Camaro Z-28.....155 K miles and still runs like a top. Rebuilt the A-4 transmission at 135K miles. Replaced timing chain, cam and crank sprockets, OptiSpark(GM's idea of a distributor at the time), ignition wires and water pump at around 150K. I do all my own maintainence.2001 Corvette Coupe, 6 speed manual. With the weather getting warm, guess I should be out there driving it instead of typing this. By the way, this thing has got computer modules out the wazzoo.I do like learning about computers, but I will never catch up....but I'm doing the best that I can. Thanks for this board. Only got registered yesterday and have already learned by reading threads and having Stryder answer a question that I posted.Mark

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The first car I ever drove was a 1981 Cutlass Supreme - it was a greenish-gray color, and it was HUGE!!When I graduated high school, I got a 1991 Pontiac LeMans, which turned out to be a big piece of junk - I won't even begin to list the repairs I had to make on it, because that would take its own spreadsheet, three excedrin, and four hours to remember it all!!My next car was a 1991 Ford Escort, which made it just fine until last Memorial Day weekend, when stuff began breaking left and right on it - finally, the arm the alternator bolts to literally snapped in two, and it would have cost more to replace the thing that I was willing to. Now I'm driving a 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier, which is a perfectly good car. My dream car is the Chevrolet Monte Carlo Dale Earnhardt limited edition. The local K-Mart had one on display (up until they were designated to be closed down), and the car was beautiful - inside and out... too bad I didn't have $35K for it...

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Do your parent's cars that you drove count?Powder Blue 1960 Cadillac Deville?Greenish 66 Pontiac Tempest?Yellowish 68 Pontiac Tempest?Blue 68 Karman GhiaMine:Red 70 VW Bug w/automatic trans 1971 Yamaha 305CC 2-strokeGreen 71' E-250 Ford Van (totaled by friend) 1973 Norton Commando 750CCGreen 73' E-350 Ford Van 1974 Yamaha 650CC Green (stolen) 1974 Yamaha 650CC Gold Blue 75 Fairmont WagonWhite 76' Ford E-350 VanBrown 78 Ford E-250 Passenger VanBlue 82 Ford E-350 Van Silver 87' Volvo 240 DL WagonWhite 94' Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon (to present) with 180KTo test the premise do computer and car obsessions correlate?Judging by the responses, not necessarily. By the above list of dogs and thing movers, I would seem at first glance to be in the "Nay" camp - however there is an unexplored corollary.What kind of BOAT do we like to drive????I currently have a 1991 Hydrostream Voyager Tunnel boat with a 200XP, hydraulic jack plate, solid mounts, floor pedal, lo-water pick-up, Land 'n Sea Nose cone.If money was no object, I would either trade up to an Eliminator or possibly a freshened -up new version of my same hull, but this time with a 300 ProMax or 2.5.So I guess you're right after all.

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I began with Renault cars in the late 70s. (My Dad ran a French car repair shop.) I must have owned at least 20 (that's right, 20) in about 5-6 years. I usually had 2-3 at a time, just to keep one on the road. ;) After I got out of college and got a job, I got out of old cars. We (I was married in college) had 2 Jettas, a Mitsubishi Galant, a Mitsubishi pickup, 2 Subaru Legacies -- all new -- in the late 80s/early 90s. Then financial reality set in and we sold a Subaru and replaced it with an 84 Ford T-bird. Two doors got old with two kids, so the T-bird gave way to a 94 Taurus. Then the kids got bigger and the Taurus gave way to a 96 Plymouth Grand Voyager. The minivan got old and tired, and was upgraded to a 2002 Chrysler Town and Country. (We both love it!) I am currently driving a 99 Daewoo Leganza, bought in 2001 -- just a year before Daewoo went out of business. My dream car would be either an Audi A-8 or a Mercedes S class. I also lust after a big sport ute (Suburban, Expedition) since we tow a small trailer. And my wife would love a Corvette (me too!)As for computers... currently 9 and counting. I actually run a sideline business out of my garage repairing and rebuilding old computers for people too poor to afford new hardware. I really get a kick out of helping people get into the 'puter thing! :lol: (I don't make any money at it... I'm a soft touch, I guess.)Scot, you are right. Car geeks and computer geeks are often one and the same.

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Guest LilBambi

Renault! Now that's a word I haven't seen in awhile ... and one that really takes me back!My father had one when I was a young sprout in Indiana ... wait ... no ... that was FireSign! :D ... I mean a young teenager at the Jersey shore.The Renault we had was a sedan and worked like a champ ... right up till we parked it one day and the front passenger side axel broke in two! Boy, were we lucky it happened when we were already stopped!Another fun french car my father had at one time was a Citroen (ours didn't look like this!) (with the little two dots over the e :D Very cool looking car. Ours looked more like this, but I don't remember it being a convertible and ours was blue/black.

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I really think that the correlation - at least in my case - is "What makes this thing work?"I bet (and this is just MHO) if you expand this concept to 2 different kinds of people, the first that just buy a car, have the mechanic fix it when it breaks, and have no idea what is under the hood; and the second being the gear heads, you would find that their computers are similar - I bet (I should really do something about all this betting...) that the gear heads are the ones that build/fix their own computers, and the others are the ones that buy factory boxes...Just an observation... I have a lot of friends with computers, and even more with cars. They seem to fit this theory pretty well.d|:^)Dick

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I started off with an '86 Honda Accord, and got hooked on Hondas. I have a '90 Honda Accord, and a sweet '92 Honda Prelude, the one with the bubble butt. ;) I do a LOT of driving, across country too. My Prelude has 412,000km and the Accord has 355,000km. Aside from spark plugs, tires, oil, and brake pads, both cars are rock solid with just a touch of rust here and there.No offence to anyone, american cars hit their peak in the 60s. The only other non-Honda car i'd consider is the VW golf or jetta.About renault/citroen/peugeot, why did these fine French cars not take off in North America? Has anyone seen the newest Peugeot 306s and Citroen Xsara racing in the World Rally series? We need to end this anti-French hostility and bring those sexy cars back to this continent. Even the British-made Vauxhall Astra is a D*** fine beast.The bad thing about Hondas though is their recent dive in styling. The new Preludes' lights are so ugly it killed that series last year, and the Civics are too Ford Focused. :unsure: The new 2-door Accord is so-so ok, but the 4-door one is nasty. I've seen picture of the new European Honda Accord, and it is a lot different and better looking! And lets not even mention that embarrassing BOX they just released.

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My Father owed an automobile dealship, while I was growing up. I learned to drive inside a five story building at the age of twelve, moving and parking cars. They had to be parked so close together between the pillars that someone had to climb through as many as three cars windows to get out of the parked vehicles, which is why I got the job...anyway when I turned sixteen I bought my first car, I had been saving for four years and had half the money, the old man financed the other half, (I think knowing I'd be an indentured servant), and bought a 1958 Corvette for $1,100. It had a 283 cube engine hooked up to 3 speed tranny, with a 3.70 rear end. I raced that car at Fremont Drag Strip. Best ETA was 13.90 at 101 M.P.H. The car never got into third gear to do that. (First gear to sixty, slam second and run her through the lights.) A year later I got one of the first 3 duce 442's, four on the floor hurst linkage, 400 d cubes, posi-traction rear-end. It was a dealer car (the Old Man owed it) I got it to race it. Advertising. That one was a high eleven's car at 111-112 M.P.H. It ate Goat for breakfast and 396 Chevelle's for lunch. I went through another half-dozen cars before the age of 21, and then bought a 1964 XKE coupe. It took me about six months to totally rebuild it, replace the top, the interior, and repainted it black. That little jewel would do 155 M.P.H. (Only got it up to that speed once, coming down Interstate 5 at six in the morning, somewhere North of Eugene Oregon.) Went though a marriage and conservative cars for a number of years, and with the divorce came a 1963 911 Porche, another rebuild project. Now, married again, I have a 1984 El Camino with 90,000 miles on it. It got a new interior last year, and other then two door dings, it's pristine. I use it for work. My toy is now a 1990 Cadillac DeVille (it has 75,000 miles on it).....I refer to it as the couch that cruises. My wife drives a 1999 Honda.

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