Car 'coincidences' or 'ironies'- had any?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
16,379
Location
Canada
Not sure I'm using the right terms, but a couple I've had:

My father had a 1978 Chev Malibu wagon V-8 he bought in June of 1978. He had nothing but problems with it, and ended up hating the car. He told me that when he was looking at buying that car, the dealership was offering two cars at the same price - his V-8 Malibu wagon, or a 'newer' 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon with a 231 V-6. He passed on the Cutlass, b/c he though the V-6 wouldn't be enough for what the wanted to do (home reno's). He said that not getting the Oldsmobile was a huge mistake.

Fast forward to the late 1980's, and one of the cars my mom's second husband, my step-father, owned for a few years was a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon with a 231 V-6. It was a different time and place, but I always thought it was ironic that my step-father owned a car my dad wished he had bought.

Another one:

My mom bought a 1984 Honda Civic hatchback new in 1984, and drove it for several years before it developed problems, and she sold it for parts. I always liked that car, and had fun driving around in it.

Fast forward to 1996, and I'm in the market for me second car. I didn't have a set car I was after, I just wanted an import with a manual trans, to get away from my disaster of a 1985 Buick Skyhawk. I ended up at a car lot that had a very clean, low-mileage 1986 Honda Civic hatchback. I ended up buying it, and driving it around for two years before it got wrecked. I occassionally drove my mom somewhere in it, and we always laughed that she once drove me around in hers, now I was driving her around in mine!
 
When I was in college I drove a 1978 Chevette. (I know, I know, but it was all I could afford.) Years later I met my wife and found out she drove a 1978 Chevette in college.

John
 
Its no coincidence since there were conscious decisions on my part, but it is a bit ironic:

In 1999, a co-worker had negotiated most of a deal to buy a new Jeep Cherokee to replace his 93 Cherokee. He knew I was a "car guy" so he asked me to come along with him when he went down to pick the Jeep up. He had been planning to trade the 93 and leave it there, but when they ran the final numbers the dealership really cut back on the trade-in they were going to allow on the 93 so he decided to keep it and sell it privately. When it came time to leave I said "give me the keys to the old Jeep and I'll drive it back for you." He said, "nah, you can drive the NEW one back." And I did.

Fast forward 10 years: I bought the '99 from him as my daughter's first car. So I own a Jeep that I was the first person to drive across town when it was new, even though I never drove it again for 10 years.
 
Another one:

My dad's best friend, my Godfather, bought a 1976 AMC Gremlin new in September 1975. My dad though it was the ugliest POS he'd ever seen, and let his friend know it.

October 20, 1975 - my mom's in labour with me, it's time to go to the hospital. Ironically, his perfectly reliable ('till then) 1967 Mustang has a problem (don't know exactly what the problem was, but it wouldn't go)....and he had to go to his friend "Yeah, can I borrow your new car?"

I always had a soft spot in my heart for that car after hearing this story many times....
 
Originally Posted By: steve20
the 231 of that vintage-heck any vintage, was useful as a boat anchor--nothing else. I think the Malibu was the better choice

Steve


I think there are a lot of Buick GN owners that would disagree with the "any vintage" part of that claim. Owners of supercharged 3800s from the 90s and 2000s too. The Buick 3.8L is still a 231 at heart. The only questionable ones were the early ones with the extremely odd-firing non-splayed crank, and of those the carbureted turbos were the iffiest.


Pretty much ANY GM product from 1978 could be a jewel or a turd. Quality control was all over the map back then.
 
Not sure if this fits the topic, but here goes. FIL had a 95 Caprice Classic he was going to trade in for a 2000 Hyundai Accent. They offered him peanuts for the Caprice which had about 32,000 miles on it. My wife thought it was a good idea to buy the car from her dad, and I agreed but really wasn't thrilled. That car turned out to be one of the biggest POS cars I ever owned. As a result, I swore I'd never own a GM product again.

I ended up hating the car, but I did have fun selling it. The guy that bought it loves it, go figure.
21.gif
 
Married my first wife while on active duty in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, Va. She and her family lived in Richmond, Va. She owned a 1985ish Honda Civic that was in pretty good shape. Me, being all smart and full of [censored] and vinegar, sold it to her kid sister and i bought my wife a 1976 Pinto wagon for $200 from her parents. Wished i had that Pinto now!
 
I was coming out of a auto parts store and walking to my car and noticed someone had popped the hood on my Accord and messing with the engine. As I got closer I noticed that the guy had the exact same year, make, model, trim level and colour of my car, and had parked right next to my car and was checking something under his hood.

Your heart skips a beat when you see someone "violating" your car.
 
My fiancee swore high and low she'd never end up in a wagon after her 1995 Ford Escort wagon bit the dust. She bought an 09 Honda Fit Sport. It's a short, tall wagon. Yet somehow it's a hatch, not a wagon. She calls it a hatchback, not the wagon it truly is. Go figure.

I also swore I'd never drive a GM product, an automatic, or a sedan after my first car, a POS '89 Olds Cutlass with the Iron Duke and 3-speed auto. I'm currently driving a Buick LeSabre after my old Hyundai wagon with a stickshift bit the dust. It's GM, automatic, and a sedan. And I couldn't be happier, either with the car or kvetching about its faults.
 
My wife thinks you can't let your current car know you're shopping for a new one.

Sept 1999: I get a $1000 inheritance coming my way, I want to spend it on, drumroll, a 1982 cadillac cimarron for a second/hobby car. Driving my 1989 mazda 323 to get the letter notarized, I stop at a traffic light and can't get it in 1st gear. Turn it off, stuff it in 1st, restarted it. Mechanic said "bent shift forks", I think it was the clutch, junked it. (Today I think I could have fixed it!) Went without car for a day and got the cimarron!!

Got my saturn wagon that I still have to this day but still had a cutlass ciera (which I think was a great car: 3300 V6). (Ciera needed a little work for inspection and wasn't selling without a sticker.) Parked the ciera up on the lawn a little ways so my new saturn could have the driveway. Go to start the ciera a week later and it lost spark, never moved again!
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
My wife thinks you can't let your current car know you're shopping for a new one.



That's true! The car will fight back if it knows.

When I was a kid we had a 1968 Impala which we kept until 1980 when we replaced it with a 1979 Nova (my parents being cheap bought a dealer leftover). Since the dealer wouldn't give us much for the Impala, we decided to sell it on our own. On the way home from the dealer with the Nova, the Impala died at a traffic light and wouldn't re-start. With some misgivings, my dad placed several layers of cardboard between the bumpers and used the brand new Nova to push the Impala for a couple blocks and into a parking lot where he could work on it later. I guess it really didn't want to leave us!
 
Funny, I've found the exact opposite.

A car is running like carp, you're having problems with it, so you decide to get another. Just as you start shopping around, it starts running perfectly - starting better, running smoother, making less noise. I always thought cars start to 'behave' so you'll give them another chance!!!
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
My wife thinks you can't let your current car know you're shopping for a new one.


This has always been eerily true in my experiences. Let a car know you're looking to replace it and bizarre things will start going wrong.
 
Hey, I truly believe in all that. I can tell you NUMEROUS times that I'd get someones junk car, give it some love...i.e. minor things like plugs, new air filter, fluid changes, bath and wax and bada bing!!!!! Car runs like a dream. I'd give it back to them and within a week, same problem until I'd drive it, would run perfectly. I'm telling you, cars just "know." And yeah, that 3.3 V6 Cutlass was a great engine/transmission combination. I sold my '90 Cutlass S.E. in 2006 for the Accord for about 800 bucks. Had 220K on it and still ran like new, just needed about 1K worth of work and I didn't want to dump that much into it. I saw it in a parking lot at a local hospital about a year ago and stopped by and talked to it. Still looked the same but the new owners fixed all those little nagging problems and wished I'd kept her. I even told her that!!!!....plus, the new car bug just hit me and I absolutely fell in love for some reason with that Accord.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom