h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My most favorite car was and still is a 1963 Chevy Impala. I was the second owner, it was Adobe white, with red interior, four doos, hard top sedan. It cruissed over the highways like a cloud, you would never know you hit a bumpy patch in the road if you weren't driving.
We took that car to the *Car load* night at the drive in as we could get 3people in front, 5 people in back, and 4 in the trunk, so for 5 bucks 12 people got to see some great movies. You just put a blanket on the hood and rest your back against the windshild it was mighty comfortable.

I unfortunately had to sell it when I was in college because I couldn't afford to keep it running, and I didn't have a good place to work on it. Atleast I sold it to a lady who had one just like it when she was in high school, so I know it went to a loving home.

My first and only true vehicular love was my second car. She was a 1978 Ford Bronco. She was shiny and big and black when she was given to me as a gift by my parents. She was dented, scratched, and a patchwork of colors when I had to give her up.

I'm one of those guys who feels that his 4WD should be used and used often. I broke shocks, springs, tore body mounts clear off of the frame. I tore the rear bumper off getting hung up on a boulder. My first off road experience resulted in driving through a tree. Said tree was mostly rotten but left the first battle scar. I never found myself stuck...well, once I did but that is a horribly embarrasing tale.

She had a 400m motor which did the job nicely and the exhaust fell off every time I went over a curb. Which I realy shouldn't have done.

One year ago I had to sell her. I was just out of college and the student loans were piling up. I couldn't keep up with the repairs and I needed a fast thousand dollars.

It broke my heart. The man I sold my truck to has since restored her.

That is so nice to know...

I tell my husband when we are millionaires (yeah, like that will happen) I want to go find my car and get her back and restore her.

I knew all the ins and outs on how to fix her. These new cars have me sooo confused.

The other reason it ment alot to sell my car to the lady who bought it, had the exact car when she was a teen, in the late 60's. Well one day her sister took the car to go to the next town, it was raining and was a mountainous road. Well the sister lost control of the car and it wrecked killing the little sister...I hope she still has it, but if not I hope it has a nice home and not in a scrap yard somewhere....

I really miss that car...but then all I have to do is look at the gas prices and then I don't miss it quite that much...

I know exactly how you feel.

As for the gas prices...when prices were low (around $1.20 per gallon) it would cost me about $40 to fill up. And that would only last me three or four days.

I am an avid Volvo lover. My first car was a hand-me-down 1976 245 DL Station Wagon. I was actually the third generation to drive it (it was my grandfather's). I loved that car, it could turn tighter than anything on the road, it was rear wheel drive, and although it only had a 2.1 liter 4-banger it could run like a bat out of hell. I had taken great care to keep it in original condition, but I did remove the smog pump in favor of a few extra horses. My dad finally sold it a few months ago because the cluch yolk boke (as a result of a cheep-ass clutch cable our former mechanic installed). My beloved Viggen (Viking, the car's name) was replaced my a soulless 98 Toyota Camery. I miss my Volvo everytime I look at that white, sterile excuse for a car. In the Viggen I was in contoll, rear-wheel drive with a manual transmission, the way a car was meant to be. This damned Toyota has ABS brakes and duel airbags (Both of which I hate, although nothing more than the #)*#$% ABS) and it has an AUTOMATIC TRANSALXEL! Oh the humanity! Give me my green '76 245 DL 2.1 liter station wagon or give me DEATH!

The Viggen has been remembered with a complete set of original hub caps now mounted on my wall, two sets of keys and a new Volvo key fob to remind me of my past and future car.

I am an avid Volvo lover. My first car was a hand-me-down 1976 245 DL Station Wagon. I was actually the third generation to drive it (it was my grandfather's). I loved that car, it could turn tighter than anything on the road, it was rear wheel drive, and although it only had a 2.1 liter 4-banger it could run like a bat out of hell. I had taken great care to keep it in original condition, but I did remove the smog pump in favor of a few extra horses. My dad finally sold it a few months ago because the cluch yolk boke (as a result of a cheep-ass clutch cable our former mechanic installed). My beloved Viggen (Viking, the car's name) was replaced my a soulless 98 Toyota Camery. I miss my Volvo everytime I look at that white, sterile excuse for a car. In the Viggen I was in contoll, rear-wheel drive with a manual transmission, the way a car was meant to be. This damned Toyota has ABS brakes and duel airbags (Both of which I hate, although nothing more than the #)*#$% ABS) and it has an AUTOMATIC TRANSALXEL! Oh the humanity! Give me my green '76 245 DL 2.1 liter station wagon or give me DEATH!

The Viggen has been remembered with a complete set of original hub caps now mounted on my wall, two sets of keys and a new Volvo key fob to remind me of my past and future car.

Ahh...a kindred spirit. I HATE the ABS in the junk I'm driving now. It's the most annoting feature I can imagin. I miss the good old days when i had to crank the windows open. I would much rather have the heater that wouldn't work when it rained rather than the a.c. Today's cars...they aint got no soul.

I still find myself reaching for the shifter in the steering collumn sometimes. The car I have now has the shifter on the floor. The dashboard is plastic. My old trucks dash was detroit steel. And her name was Rebecca........*sob*

I feel for you, I really do. I have been driving this plastic car for a couple months now and I still find my self slamming my left foot through the floor board where my clutch was whenever I am trying to get into a tight spot. I have heard car companies claim that the new engines are more gutsy than older engines of the same size. Funny, my 3,600 lb. Volvo with the 24 year old 2.1 liter 4-banger could push my Volvo to freeway speeds much faster than the 4-cyl of the Camery (and I know the Camery is lighter). I miss my heavy-guage steel door and body pannels. I miss my 1/8 inch steep wrap-around bumpers. I miss the mean roar of a real engine under the hood, not the pansy-ass whimper of the toyota plant. I miss my 4 on the floor with the electronic OD (the only electronic system on the car, aside from an add-on CD player). but most of all I miss the Intimidation Factor of driving a 24 year old Volvo when a $60.000 Lexus thinks he can push me around ... WRONG! My respnse was usually along the lines of, "Hit me, I dare ya'!" You just can't do that in a white Toyota Camery. **sigh** Cars just arn't the same anymore.

You don't have to put up with it! I have owned my 1961 Hillman Minx since 1985 - (1.5 litres, 82 mph, fins and chrome - if you haven't seen one in the States it looks like a mid 50s Studebaker but much smaller) and I'm not about to part with it. OK, so if I want parts to repair it I have to have them mailed - but most are available and they arrive within 24 hours. Violet (of course she has a name!) has recently returned from a 1200 mile tour of the Scottish Highlands.

Cards on the table - I don't use her every day. So what do I use - a modern car? No - the daily hack is a 1970 Morris Minor (1.1 litres, 75 mph, 40 mpg - looks a little like a VW Beetle). There's no ABS, air conditioning, central locking, electric windows, heated rear screen - so none of that can go wrong! The windows wind down by hand, the doors lock with a key, it has lights, screen wipers and a heater (2 settings, cool and warmish). And if it does need a repair, you can take it to bits with a 1/2 inch spanner and a screwdriver - no electronics, no special tools, everything is simple and bolts together.

And every time I drive either of my cars it makes me smile. And every time I stop to fill up, people approach me with tales of how they had one years ago, learnt to drive in one, went on their first holiday in one, had their first kiss in one.

You *can* relive the past - go and find yourself a classic car, buy it, own it, drive it, love it.

If I had my way I would still have The Viggen, but the problem is that it was technicly my dad's car. I am a flat-broke college student I simply don't have the $ to buy the car, let alone keep it running (repairs are not that bad really, but I can't afford and oil change!) I want to hunt the car down when I have enough money and buy it from whoever now owns it. I don't have any records because it was donated to an oganization which then sold it for charity. *sob* I just hope that when I go to the DMV with the VIN the comperter will not read

Make: Volvo
Mod: 245
Year: 1976
Owner: None
Status: Destroyed

I MUST have my Viggen back!

We now have a much too small '92 PoS, er I mean Plymouth Sundance, two door, and with a baby, that sucks!!! In the past 6 months, I have spent more to fix it than the car was paid for. The back seat is so small, all you can fit in it is the car seat.

I would love a Volvo, my good friend had one and it rocked, it was older, but man, it was cool and you felt sooo safe in it!

A used 1965 ford econoline pickup, shiny yellow with a converted wood bed, strait six cylinder engine (170 cu.inch?), three speed on the column and a personality. The clutch took a dump one day and no longer dissengaged, the starter would start her while first gear was engaged and after a while I could change gears that way ( no clutch ) without a problem. The abuse never killed the starter and she hauled some heavy loads that way. They were known for problems with the starter switch, shorting out and burning up generators. I had that problem and after going back to the generator rebuilder 4 or 5 times to replace voltage regulators I finally isolated the charging system from that switch and it cured the problem.( all I had to do was add a couple of wires and a little toggle switch ) . Camping, hauling, daily driving, she was the best. A funny kind of cuteness was designed into those trucks back then and since the death of the volkswagon bus I havent seen anything comparable. God bless all who suffer thru my spelling.

My '68-'72 Volkwagen bus with the 1600 dual port converted Ghia engine.

I resurrected it from someone's yard.

I drove it and learned from it and patched it up until it made an expensive noise one day. Then I parked it in the garage until I could get around to it. When I got around to it, it was two years later and it needed resurrecting again.
I sold it to the local decent Veedub salvage place as a parts vehicle.
Julius ( that's what I called it. It had a bad picture of Groucho Marx painted on the nose) was my first vehicle that was totally mine.

Harpo, an 83 Dodge Ram Prospector Royal 150E van, sits in the driveway now. I am in the process of resurrecting him for the first time. It's the short van, with the big back door and the pop-out windows. It's got the 318 V8.
It has some of the same aura Julius had.

I have been lucky enough to grow up around cars, building, modifying and racing,and then chose an occupation that enabled me to be paid for driving very fast cars around racetracks(and other places!)erm very fast!
As I have been involved and have loved cars all my life, I have a reasonably good level of knowledge about a very wide range of cars both old and new. I driven everything from Dodge Vipers to a 5.4l 300+kw current Mustang Cobra(race spec of course) to the obligatory WRX and EVOs on the sport side to mention but a few (with plenty of AMG big banger Benzs thrown in), every 4WD imaginable and plenty of hot hatches.

I have many favourites, but one car which has always stuck in my mind was a Peugot 205 GTi in the early 90's. I was often 'given' cars to drive and at this particular time I had to drive from Sydney to the Gold Coast which was about 1000kms give or take. I had done the trip many times and it usually took about 11 hours, however in my little cracking Peugot loaner, it took just under 9 hours! It was one of the most fun cars Ive driven, very quick and handled like nothing else available at that time in the production small car range. I know why they are so popular in rally cos it was really well balanced with little or no understeer which is usually associated with the class.
There are plenty of arguments for this car or that car and I am priviledged enought to have driven more than the average bear, but the key to picking your favoutite is how you feel when you are driving the car and man I loved that little bugger!

j888
(powersliding through life with hands full of opposite lock )