The Cars

My first car was a 68 VW Karmann Ghia. I drove it until it died. Had the engine rebuilt for 700 bucks. Drove it until it died a second time, gave it to my little sister. Probably the most unsafe vehicle ever. I know what it's like to grind disk brakes until they're almost useless.

 

After that I was a BMW dude. First a 1976 2002 which was great until the fuel system went kaput, then sat in my front yard for a year. Then I finally bought a 1984 325i. Perfect. I moved to the east coast and needed no cars for several years. But during the 80s, the perfect car for me would have been a Celica Supra. I hated American cars during the 80s; the one exception was the 1988 Ford Escort GT. When I moved to Atlanta in 1995, I needed a small family car. I got an Alitma. It was surprisingly fast and reliable. I wanted a Camry but they were selling for more than sticker and took over as the most popular car in America.

 

For a while I delayed the inevitable minivan and entertained all of the large American four doors, including the Impala SS, Chrysler Concord and Buick New Yorker. In the end I sold the Altima and got the minivan. Loaded it up and moved back to LA as a family of 5. After some time, I saved up enough to get back into BMW territory. I bought a 535i. It too was a freaking lemon. I had to replace the head gasket and it cost somewhere around 1500 bucks. Then I could always smell gasoline. I finally gave up on it and for the first time leased a brand new car. It was a 2000 VW Beetle Turbo. Most fun car I ever had, cooler than anything. People would stop and talk to me about it all the time. It ate up brakes though. I drove it from LA to Georgia and back twice. It never gave me any problems.

 

Then for a time I was broke, I ended up driving a $750 car -  a super old Mercury Sable Wagon. The kids liked it. Right about that time, I really wanted a new BMW 540. It was my ultimate dream. I test drove one and it blew me away. Unfortunately, my wife talked me into getting the larger 750iL. It turned out to be super nice. It served its purpose for about 5 years with no problems until the rear windows seized up. (Except it was rolled down.). It would have cost me $900 to fix it. Then the second one went bad. Finally, it threw a timing belt. It was just after 2008 and I found that I didn't want to be driving a luxury auto any longer. So I had been thinking about a Hummer H3, a GMC Denali or a Toyota FJ Cruiser. I went for the FJ, fully loaded. Best decision ever.

 

Meanwhile the family car was a new Chevy Impala, and later after the FJ, I bought my wife a Mazda 3 with all the gadgets. I have 115,000 miles on the FJ and it's pretty much exactly the same as when I bought it with 24,000. I've never been impressed with purchasing new vehicles or leasing. The one exception was the Beetle. Right now I'm looking to get a Porsche while keeping the FJ. I've pretty much decided on a 2014-16 Cayman GTS if I can get a good price, but I'm in no hurry right now. Depending upon how much cash I can save up, I might even go with an older model and have it custom built. The only other thing that appeals to me is to build a track car, but a convertible Carerra or Targa has its appeal too. Still, I just want a Porsche.