I came across a couple of photos of two of the cars I once owned; both were purchased new off the lot. I’ve bought new exactly three times and regretted buying new exactly three times; here are two of those vehicles.
This is a photo of my 1981 Mazda GLC Sport, in Toronado Silver. I bought it two years out of high school while still living at home and working at Litton Microwave earning about $5 an hour. Not exactly one of my smarter moves. Dad tried to talk me out of it, but it took another 5 years or so for me to recognize Dad’s intelligence in matters like this.
Six months or so after buying the car, I cracked it up a bit. While doing something I really shouldn’t have been doing in the first place (don’t need to go into specifics) I zipped through an uncontrolled intersection against and hit the side of a great big boat of a car — a mid-’70s Plymouth Grand Fury I think. The front bumper was ripped from the car and and went skittering down the street. Got the thing fixed and tried to sell it, but was never really happy with it after that. I ended up trading it in on my second big mistake new car purchase; a 1981 Jeep Scrambler.
I haven’t found any photos of that one yet — don’t remember taking any of that truck — but it was a fun ride. The ’81 model was pretty plain jane; had a 4-speed on a straight six, no A/C, removable hardtop & steel doors, and a very minimal radio. And again, six months or so after buying this one I had another accident… Driving to the Credit Union near Morrell’s during a snowstorm, I slid into a truck while trying to turn a corner. The truck was just sitting at a stop sign, and I hit it just perfectly on the corner and my bumper slid under his; the corner of the truck pushed the radiator into the motor. Crap. The thing that really gets me about that I had been driving in 4WD not long before the accident, and if I hadn’t switched to 2WD, the accident wouldn’t have happened. Double crap.
Well, I got that one fixed, drove it for a while, then while I had it in the shop getting a leaky valve cover gasket gasket fixed, I made the mistake of looking at a nifty white go-kart they had on the lot; a 1982 Dodge Charger 2.2.
This is a slightly over-exposed photo of that car (I was into using antique cameras at that time, and am pretty sure this was shot using an old Brownie box camera) but the fond memories I have of the car give it a halo effect in my memories, so the glow is appropriate. That was one fun car. The engine only put out about 90 horsepower, but the gearing and a relatively stiff suspension made it a blast to drive. It had no muffler; only a catalytic converter and a resonator, so it sounded like a racer. No A/C. Simple AM/FM radio… Only the creature comforts inside. The build quality of the car was not wonderful, and you never see any survivors of this model anymore, so they were not built to last. But for the year or so I owned it, it was fun.
And yes, I had an accident with this one also. Driving home from my girlfriend’s house, some knothead from Minnesota came rolling off of I-90 and ran the stop sign at the end of the off-ramp. I just happened to be passing by on Cliff at just the wrong moment, and got broadsided. Boy was I mad. That got fixed up and I drove it for a while longer, but was looking to cut expenses so I could go back to school, so put it up for sale. It took a while but I finally found a cash buyer; paid off my loan and bought a used car (a 1976 Pontiac Bonneville).
Since then it’s been nothing but pre-owned iron for me. And you know, the incidence of fender benders dropped to nothing. Pretty much the right choice for me.