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Great car mechanically. Interior wise it started falling apart the last year I had it and then it got rear-ended and totaled out. Good thing too cause the dash crack was a huge eye-sore and definitely affected resale. Dashboard started cracking and the cup holder cover split.
Now even an 08 TL Type S has the issue on acurazine, so they never fixed the materials.
Ehh, 2003 3-door corolla 1.6 3zz-fe... first car, had it for a year before I got the '08 450h last summer. Boring, I know... Needed something reliable and I'm kind of glad that I didn't go down the BMW/merc route now that I've read enough about their problems. Still kinda sad that the toyota crown (s200 2013+ facelift majesta hybrid... want in lhd>_<) is mostly JDM-only
And so it begins…a second time. The internet ate my first attempt to tell the story of my prior cars.
My oldest car belonged to my dad. It was a 1974 VW Superbeetle Cabriolet in Ravenna Green. I remember the day we went to get that car and I still have the bill of sale for it. The car became nonfunctional in 1988 and it sat in a garage for 10 years until had it restored. That was an Illiad of woes. But here is Greenie in all its awesomeness.
My first real car (titled to me) was a 1982 Subaru Wagon with a manual transmission (4 speed) and true 4 wheel drive. It had an Aztec Gold exterior and a truly weird feature: if you turned the headlights on bright, you could also activate a single floodlight that was located in the center of the front grill behind the Subaru badge. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of it scanned in yet.
I traded that car in for a brand new Toyota Camry LE AllTrac with a manual transmission and AWD. It had a maroon exterior and a dark red interior. I learned the difference between AWD and 4WD with that car. If I put the Subaru in 4WD mode (either high or low), then all 4 wheels were locked; if I was on dry pavement the wheels would start scubbing. The Subaru was awesome in snow. The Toyota was less so, but still very good.
My next car was a (model year unknown) Suzuki Samurai Hardtop. It was painted gloss black and had a gray interior. I bought that car because I took a job with the Justice Department down in the US Virgin Islands for 4 years. I left the Toyota in Ohio (and my mother would drive it one day per week). I don’t know the model year for the Samurai because I bought it from an island mechanic who rebuilt it. It got damaged in hurricane Marilyn and I had to put a new windshield and a new driver side door on it (I got the door in Ohio and brought it down as checked luggage). The door was silver with a pink and blue decal on it…that really went well with the black exterior. I moved back to the mainland in 1999 and sold the Samurai to a friend.
Next, I bought a 1999 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro with the Sport Package. I kept the Toyota because the dealer only offered me $1,000 for it on the trade. I ended up putting 60K more miles on the Toyota. I would alternate driving cars once a week. Later, I took a job in Washington DC for 3 years. I left one car in Ohio and drove the other for a few months. That way, I never lost that sense of thrill getting back in the Audi. The Camry was nice; but the Audi drive soooo nice. Here is a photo of the Audi:
Here is a photo of Greenie and the Audi, with the Toyota Camry in the background:
I got married to the love of my life. The Toyota finally needed to many repairs and I donated it to charity. They apparently junked it soon thereafter. My wife bought a 2001 Subaru Outback. In 2009 we bought a house and we built the “Garage-Mahal” – a 3 car garage with a complete second floor for storage.
Here you can see it with the Audi and Greenie in their assigned spots. Sigh…in 2015 I got a call from the USVI. They needed me again. We sold the house, the Subaru, and my beloved Audi. I sold it to a friend. He loves it.
When I first got down to the islands, I bought a lime green 2012 Ford Fiesta SE.
After my wife moved down, we went online and bought a 2004 Honda CRV AWD. We bought it sight unseen from a dealer in Florida and had it shipped down to the islands.
The Ford was my car; the Honda was my wife’s. In 2018 we moved back to Ohio. We sold the Fiesta but shipped the Honda back to Ohio. We were a one car family until we bought the 2008 GS-350 last week.
A 2008 Volvo XC70 with 140,000 miles. It had sofa-like seats, but broken A/C and a freight train load of problems. All of which having been hidden to me by the crooked at the used lot where I bought it.
One time it left me stranded (a coolant line burst), I, myself, exploded, and sold it, but it better went away fast because I was willing enough to dump it off a cliff. You can guess the kind of relief going in the Lexus it was. It gave me some minor problems but nothing like before. It's also so much better equipped from factory than the Europeans, where everything is optional (finding the perfect configuration, used, is between a PITA and impossible). It drives very well and I love its design.
A 2008 Volvo XC70 with 140,000 miles. It had sofa-like seats, but broken A/C and a freight train load of problems. All of which having been hidden to me by the crooked at the used lot where I bought it.
One time it left me stranded (a coolant line burst), I, myself, exploded, and sold it, but it better went away fast because I was willing enough to dump it off a cliff. You can guess the kind of relief going in the Lexus it was. It gave me some minor problems but nothing like before. It's also so much better equipped from factory than the Europeans, where everything is optional (finding the perfect configuration, used, is between a PITA and impossible). It drives very well and I love its design.
Volvos are great new cars but worst used cars. I had an '02 S60 very briefly before my mom took over it. Then I took over it again. All bushings failed, idle issues, electrical issues and oil leaks. Baby that thing until the day I told my mom to sell it.
11-23-17, 01:21 PM
