Tuesday, June 11, 2013

MY/OUR CARS - 1962 TO PRESENT


Not our pictures, but the best representations I could find. Actual colors except where noted.

  Image result for 1956 vw bug
"Baby Bess" was Painted in Old English style letters on Glove Compartment
 

Lost Some Teeth in the Steering Wheel of the Chevy

1968 Cutlass

Image result for 1968 green blazer suv

Our Blazer was Deep Green and had a Black Top -  Much Cooler!!
 Image result for 1980 orange vw vanagon

Our Beast was White

Our International was Orange

 
Not this Nice!  Bought at Los Alamos Lab Surplus Auction 

 




Otis Spunkmeyer had a White Topper
2007 Impreza 2.5i Wagon - Garnet Red Pearl / Anthracite Black photo #14




Well, not a car, but it is my faithful Buddy 125.

The Red Subaru above was totaled by a big-ass pickup backing into the front end - so 2016 Subaru

 Image result for 2016 silver impreza

22 comments:

Bizzy Brain said...

Am on my tenth car. Am probably good for two more before they take away the keys.
About that faithful Buddy 125. My joke has always been when you see an older man driving around on one of those things, you can bet he has lost his driver's license for a very long time. Lol!

Douglas E said...

Well Bizzy - thankfully I have not lost my driver's license! I bought it when we lived in Malibu, mainly for zipping around campus. We are also at the age when some of our peers are driving the fancy sports cars, Vettes and such - we be the geezers that we used to make fun of!

Bizzy Brain said...

I won't laugh at you until I see you in a white belt. I will really laugh at you if you are ever caught wearing leather dress shoes, black socks, and Bermuda shorts.

Douglas E said...

Thankfully I own neither a white belt nor Bermuda shorts. As an aside, black socks with shorts are now acceptable, but not with leather shoes :-) Your comment brought back dreadful memories of my mom getting me some Bermuda shorts and long socks when I was about 7 - talk about uncool!!! I think that I even destroyed any pictures documenting said outfit.

John Riegsecker said...

Doug,

I bought my ninth car last year. And, if I never thanked you before, thanks for being my wheels at GC!

DES said...

JR - ninth, eh? That's pretty good for an old geezer :-) A couple of our purchases were directly related to transporting three kids, and a couple of the trucks in Los Alamos were primarily for hauling firewood out of the Jemez Mountains. Now, if I win the lottery, I still covet a 1953 Corvette convertible!!

DES said...

Oh, and John - you are certainly most welcome for the GC transport!

Bizzy Brain said...

1956 Chevy Bel Air
1964 Ford Futura Convertible
1964 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible
1965 Chevy Impala
1976 Chevette (pure junk)
1983 Plymouth Horizon
1986 Plymouth Horizon
1990 Dodge Omni
1997 Dodge Cirrus
2002 Toyota Camry

DES said...

Good recall on the cars Bizzy. John R - we'd be interested to know what all you owned over the years. Also, anyone else who might be so moved....

John Riegsecker said...

1968 VW Bug
1973 Toyota PU
1976 Ford Pinto
1983 Jetta (Totaled)
1987 Toyota PU
1988 Honda Accord
2002 PT Cruiser
2006 Honda Odyssey
2012 Subaru Imprezza

The Toyota Pickups were both bought used. We drove the Honda Accord for 18 years. When we bought the Odyssey, we gave the Accord to a friend. He drove it for another four years, and then gave it to the local SPCAA. It brought something like $1200.00 at auction.

Bizzy Brain said...

Might add, the '56 Chevy, '64 Pontiac, and '65 Chevy were bought used. The rest were bought new, except for the new '64 Ford, which I won in a contest.

Bizzy Brain said...

Correction: the 1997 Dodge was a Stratus. Would have bought a 2002 Stratus but they quit offering a stick shift option with the four door sedan. All my cars were stick shifts save for three, the 56 Chevy, 64 Pontiac, and 65 Chevy.

DES said...

Bizzy - we too have have had nearly all stick shifts. Driver's training car at NPHS had 3 on the column, and I guess it's just habit :-)

John - note that your latest is a Subaru. Our last two cars, 1997 and 2007, have been Imprezas. Great in ice and snow - and I suppose rain too, considering where you live!

John Riegsecker said...


Doug,
So far my Subaru Imprezza is my favorite car of all. You are correct that AWD is great on our road conditions. Roomy and gets great gas mileage to boot. Just returned from a trip to Montana and was getting close to 39 mpg on some of those nice open roads.

Funny thing. I have never gotten a traffic ticket. Last year, driving back to Indiana I was pulled over by Troopers in Minnesota (to see if I was okay) and then later that same day by an Illinois Trooper for going 65 in a 60 zone on I80 even though I was in the right lane keeping pace with other traffic and a semi tried to pass me until he saw the cop. He ended up not giving me a ticket. Either there is something about a Subaru Imprezza, the cops target out of state drivers, or they are profiling gray-haired white guys.

Douglas E said...

JR - I am betting on the 'profiling grey-haired white guys' and thus will be very cautious! Mighta been the out of state plate - helps the Department of Revenue.

We too get great mileage with the Impreza, and even though it passed 100K, it still drives pretty much like a new car. We should get an ad gig for this :-)

Bizzy Brain said...

I read where they are going to start assembling the Impreza at the Subaru plant in Lafayette, IN, just down the pike from where I live. Guess that means your next one will be built by rednecks as opposed to Buddhists.

Douglas E said...

Bizzy - a couple of things. Don't get me wrong; I highly recommend Subarus [our family has 3 at the moment] - the headlight thing is just a pain in the patootie. Second - Subaru has had a plant in IN for quite a while, so rednecks have been putting them out for some time!!

Bizzy Brain said...

They even have made some Camry's at the Lafayette plant, even though it is not Toyota owned. The Subaru models they make there are the Outback, Legacy, and Tribeca.
Years ago, went to a football game with my boss. He drove and was driving a Subaru. The defroster on the passenger side was not keeping the window defrosted and I chalked that up to poor engineering. Or maybe just a fluke. The one on the driver side seemed to work okay.

Douglas E said...

JR - your Accord story is amazing, but not surprising. We had a 1977 Accord that also had a long life. We loved how it handled the snow of Los Alamos, and we followed up with another Accord [that I forgot to put in, and will now add]. It did not handle nearly as well as the old Accord - Rhonda even got stuck one time trying to go up I-70 on the grade west of Denver; the 1977 would have had no problem I am sure!

Bizzy Brain said...

Am taking a second look at Accords. They quit making stick shift Camry's, but they are still available in the Accord model. A selling point for me on the stick shift Camry is they were assembled in Japan.

Bizzy Brain said...

Guess if I want to stay busy in retirement, all I have to do is get a truck. Truck owners get calls all the time for someone needing a washer or dryer moved, etc. "Hey, my brother's next door neighbor's second cousin has a truck. Give him a call."

DES said...

Bizzy - you are spot on about the truck. You could get one of those magnetic signs for the side - Maybe Bizzy B's Hauling [hablo Inglés]