Do you remember being fifteen? In Illinois, that was the age one took Driver's Education in place of gym class. We first studied the Rules of the Road which described the official rules you were expected to know should you wish to drive in Illinois. Then you "drove" in the simulator which gave you a television for the view ahead, which you steered and accelerated and braked in response to what you saw ahead. There was much carnage and death in these simulators, but what happens in the simulator stays in the simulator. Next we were taken out to a large parking lot filled with cones that mimicked three-point turns, intersections, garages, and many other invitations to run over cones. And run over them we did. Only when all those steps were complete did we venture out into the real world with the driving instructor with his foot on the secondary brake over in the passenger wheel well. It was even scarier being one of the two fifteen-year-olds sitting in the back seat waiting your turn. Adding insult to injury, we were also required to drive with a parent for a total of fifty hours before we would ever be considered ready to take the driver's test. If you passed all that you felt ready. After all you were sixteen.
All this happened for me in the mid-seventies when there was much preaching in the church regarding the end-times rapture. You never knew fear as a church kid until you got home and nobody was around, leading you to wonder whether you had been "left behind." Those were very different times in the church, times that are being repeated even now as the world stumbles around without aim or purpose. I understand that singular focus today far more than I did back then. Even in the midst of that end-times focus, I still remember praying to God that He wouldn't return until I had the chance to drive on my own. That's how strong the call of the automobile was to a fifteen-year-old. It represented freedom and the chance to explore. And that is exactly what I have done from the time I got my license until the present. Great episodes of family life have been tied to our automobiles and the desire to travel and explore is still there. I've even spent the past four years driving rideshare for Lyft, though I'd have to say that driving others around for nearly 275,000 miles over that time period feels a lot more like work than youthful exploration. But the emotional pull of the automobile cannot be under-estimated.
Read on for a look at each car, and the stories that go with them!
1969 Pontiac Grand Prix Model J in Antique Gold (265 hp)
When you're fifteen, and you're me, you just want to drive. You don't really care what it is you are driving. I had been driving dad's 1973 Buick Electra 225 as often as I could and it was fairly new. It ran every time you wanted to drive it. My first car would be found on a different lot than the one my dad's came from. I remember when we stopped in this little used car lot one day and dad showed me my first car. It's not like he had purchased it and was wanting me to drive it home. It was that he had decided on this particular car and I needed to pay the $1000 for it, get the plates and insurance, and pay for the gas as I used it. To be honest, I don't remember if this policy had been shared with all us kids sometime before or if this was the start of the policy. I just remember that if any of us wanted a car when we turned sixteen, we'd better figure a way to get the money. Since I had been working for several years already I had the money for the car. The news filtered down to the siblings soon enough.
For those not in the know, this Pontiac Grand Prix was a big deal when it came out. This one was the standard J model which had the standard 265 horsepower 400 cubic inch 2-barrel V8 engine (6.6L, so yes it was big) which was the least powerful of all the engines offered. Higher horsepower engines were available but came with a 3-speed manual transmission. As you can imagine fuel economy was abysmal. I believe it was around 5 mpg, though that was only an estimate since the odometer didn't work. The EPA estimates were around 10 mpg. On the plus side, gas was cheap. Standard equipment was "deluxe wheel discs" instead of the optional Rally II Pontiac wheels I saw on almost every other Grand Prix. Eventually most cars came with full wheel designs that looked far better than most "wheel discs." I learned to repair broken parts on this car like the water pump and windshield wiper motor, and replace spark plugs and points. Dad had been a car mechanic in his teen years and I had hoped he would do these fixes for me, but instead he showed me what needed to be done and told me to figure it out. You know, teach someone how to fish and they can feed their family for a lifetime, or something like that.
I had three other friends (guys, just to be clear, as I was afraid of girls) who were also sixteen and getting their own cars. We would take turns riding in each other's cars and do crazy things. Once, around July 4th, one of them came equipped with fire crackers. He lit one and threw it out the window. It was that day we learned that items thrown out an open car window while the car is moving have a tendency to blow right back it. The fire cracker exploded in the passenger footwell and we were all deaf for quite some time. At least we never did that again. Sadly, this sporty car only lasted just under a year as I liked to rev up the engine in neutral and then pop it into gear. While great fun when burning rubber, it led to broken metal teeth on the transmission gears. Dad and I limped it down to the used car lot to look for the next option.
1972 Pontiac Grand Ville in Shadow Gold (220 hp)I'll bet I didn't get much for that Grand Prix but they took it in trade for the Pontiac Grand Ville. This was the largest car Pontiac made at the time and it was a four door hardtop. That meant the roof supported itself and there was no B-pillar between the front and rear doors. It left the entire side open when both windows were down, which you can see in the photo above. This car had sport wheels instead of the hub caps in the Grand Prix. This was more of a family car with a bench seat in front instead of buckets, and all I had to come up with was $2,000 this time. Dad picked out the car and I went along with it. That would not happen again, but that was our family dynamic at the time. Besides, I still didn't know much about cars. The one thing I did know was that this one had a 455 cubic inch V8 (7.5L) with a 4-barrel carburetor (which I rebuilt in my college dorm room; it stunk of gas for days). That would be the largest engine I would ever own but it would not have the highest horsepower of all my cars.
This car went with me to my first year of Bible College in Minneapolis, where repairs continued. The starter was a problem, refusing to work after the engine was hot. If you turned the car off after it was used, you had to wait a couple hours until it would start again. I was never able to completely fix that issue, no matter what I tried and how many starters I went through. Another issue was a rough engine that died while you were driving. You can imagine how unhelpful that one was. I had a friend who told me that Pontiacs did this and it required a new timing belt. One of the more foolish decisions I ever made was trying to repair it myself, in the school parking deck, in the winter, with below zero temperatures. I quickly realized this repair was not something I should be doing so I called a repair shop, who came and towed the car back for fixing. They replaced the timing belt as I had asked them to do. However, they also told me that the issue wasn't the timing belt, but rather water in the gas. There were actually four or five gallons in the gas tank! I found out that one of the local stations I frequented (probably because it had the lowest price) routinely put water in their gas. Lesson learned. After I told my dad the story, he gave me a word of wisdom that has stayed with me to this day. "The solution to your problem is likely the simplest." I could have saved myself time and money had I known that first. Only later did I learn that some guy named William Occam (an English Franciscan friar) developed a principle or rule of thumb (in his day called a razor as it "shaved away" unnecessary explanations) that stated "the simplest explanation is usually the right one." I'm sure the philosophers of the day complicated even that, but I'm not so sure my dad was aware of "Occam's Razor." And now you know the rest of the story.
While I liked this car, the constant problems made it less loveable. I held onto it for three-and-a-half years until another option presented itself and then wondered what I would do with it. My sister came to me and asked if she could buy it as it was now time for her to get a car. I carefully explained how difficult a car it had been and the issues it still had. She was not dissuaded and insisted on buying it. I reluctantly sold it to her for $750 and, in a crazy twist of irony, this car decided it would work perfectly all the time she had it. I'm not sure what Occam would have said about that, but I'm guessing he'd have been as confused as I was. That car lasted her for years and years, mercilessly taunting me every time I saw it.
1978 Buick Electra 225 Limited in White (185 hp)
During my junior year of college I began looking at cars I might possibly afford to eventually replace the Grand Ville. It's always good to be prepared. Plus I just liked looking at cars in the dealer lots. I had looked extensively at Chevrolet Z-28's as they were a sporty car with over 300 hp which would no doubt be great fun. They cost around $6,500 which seemed high to me at the time. I also looked at the Chevrolet Chevette which cost around $3,500 which also seemed high, especially for an economy car. But they were new.
I remember when dad was looking to upgrade his car and invited me into that auto conversation. I was getting more interested in cars and had subscribed to a couple auto magazines, learning a lot in the process. He liked the new Pontiac Bonneville (he also had several Pontiacs in the past) but was also looking at this Buick. I quite liked this one with its chrome wheels, half-landau vinyl roof, and the red velour cloth interior. This was a classy car, way too classy for a college student, but I liked it. I remember the scandal when customers discovered that this Buick had an Oldsmobile 403 cubic inch engine instead of a "real" Buick engine. Now we really don't care about the pedigree of our engines but I always wondered if other Buick owners looked down on me with my Olds engine. No doubt dad simply went with what he liked most, but my approval of the Buick may have swayed him just a bit. I kept it clean for him and changed the oil, telling him that I liked it so much that I wanted him to offer it to me first when he was ready to sell it. There was no guarantee he would, but I reminded him a lot.
I was back at Bible College for my junior year when dad said he was ready to sell me the car. (I spent my sophomore year with my family in Quincy, Illinois, attending Quincy College for all my general education classes and enjoying them far more than my friends who took those same classes at the Bible College. All those classes transferred.) The price was $6,000 which was quite a jump from the previous car, but I wanted that car. It cost nearly as much as the Z-28 but was likely more useful. So they helped me get a loan at a bank in Quincy and I prepared to go home during an upcoming weekend and make the switch. As you can imagine, I was super excited. Well, as excited as I get.
Trouble was, there was this little blonde haired girl that decided to waltz into my life the day before I was to go home. She flirted with me and asked me to play a game of pool (billiards, not swimming, though I imagine I would have enjoyed seeing her in a bikini) and then I got the feeling she was hoping I'd ask her out that weekend. Yes, I'm talking about Kathy. I patiently explained how I had already planned this weekend to get my car and that we'd pick this back up when I got back. But, if you know Kathy, this did not make her happy. As I went to get my car, she went back to her boyfriend over the weekend, and I figured that was the end of that little escapade when I found out upon my return. However, Kathy's roomate took it upon herself to get us back together and the rest is history. But, apparently, she still held it against me that I chose the car over her that weekend and she never had one nice thing to say about it. But she did ask to borrow it to take her girlfriends to the mall.
This was probably my classiest car. Kathy and I went on many dates together with this car during my senior year and it came with us to Belleville, Illinois, as we started in youth ministry together. We bolted a hitch to the bumper (made of chromed steel then), hooked up a small U-Haul trailer to it, and drove to Upper Michigan and central Illinois to get all of our possessions as we moved to our new home, which was a one bedroom apartment. But the beautiful Buick exhibited some of the same gremlins that possessed my Pontiacs and we kept it for only two-and-a-half years. One thing I do remember from that time was that cars were not kept for very long and were sold or traded off way before 100,000 miles. They just weren't built to last as long as they do today. Every car person usually has one car they wished they had kept way longer. This is mine.
1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 in Silver (135 hp)
The dream for the Z-28 lived on for a few more years and I spent at least three different times in a dealership trying to work out a deal. But the Z-28 was a very popular car and I learned that popular cars did not get any discounts. Sometimes they even had a surcharge tacked on. So that dream had to finally wither and die. I've never gotten over that one. Nonetheless, the Buick was not as reliable for our many ministry events so we looked for options. That's another thing I've learned. You're better off not locking yourself into one specific idea or you might be disappointed. We ran across this model while checking out Z-28's. This was the Citation, part of GM's new X-body front wheel drive vehicle line. And this particular model was the sporty X-11 with the High Output V6 instead of the 4 cylinder. Surprisingly, its 0-60 time was 9.0 seconds which seemed fast at the time. Not quite as fast as the Z-28 which did 0-60 in 8.5 seconds with it 350 cubic inch 4-barrel V8 engine. But it was fast for its smaller 135 hp "high output" 2.8L V6. This was the closest I would get to a Z-28.
This hatchback design was a departure from the standard three-box sedan but it had some practical benefits. The rear hatch opened wide to allow larger items to fit inside. Front wheel drive was being offered to the masses under the promise of better fuel economy and better traction, especially in snow. Kathy thought it was sporty and fast so that was that. The X-11 was a fun car for us, handy for transporting larger items, and invaluable on a trip with a little one who could sleep on the flat rear floor. Ah, the days of yore without car seats.
The Citation series (2-door hatchback, 4-door hatchback, and 2 door notchback coupe) won Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" award in 1980 when it debuted. It sold like hotcakes, at least for a couple of years. While the design of this car was ahead of its time in many ways (the hatchback in particular) the execution left much to be desired. It became the target of an NHTSA investigation because of problems with brakes and steering, and there were many recalls for other problems. I remember bringing the car in to the dealer under warranty at least two dozen times, some small problems and some bigger problems. By the time we had enough of these visits to the dealer, the X-11 was actually working well. But with stories of so many people having horrendous problems with their X-bodies spreading like wildfire, the seed was planted to make a change so we made the trade for the next car. One month after trading in our little sporty car, our salesman told us that the engine caught on fire and burned up for the new owner. While this car worked well enough for us while we had it and was a fun vehicle over those two-and-a-half years, it will always be remembered by the automotive world as a flop. Car & Driver, another car magazine, wrote that "the Citations slaughtered GM's reputation for an entire generation." Sadly, I would say I was part of that generation and I never bought a new GM vehicle after that, even though my first four cars were made by GM.
1984 Honda Accord LX in Light Blue Metallic (86 hp)
The 1973 fuel crisis (Google it if you're too young to have lived through it) brought on the proliferation of import cars, as they were called at the time. Japanese cars especially caught on with the car buying public and near the end of the 1970's these were the hottest cars on the market. I remember a 1976 Toyota Celica a couple cars down in the college parking deck. It looked sporty and seemed well made and it got much better fuel economy than the domestic cars. Japan, and later South Korea, were especially good at building the small compact cars where U.S. automakers found it difficult to make a profit on them. On top of all of that they were very reliable. Domestic car makers had been building cars that had terrible reliability and people were tired with buying new cars only to have them break down. As a result, everyone wanted an import car. And at the top of the heap was the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.
We looked at the Honda because a friend was a salesperson at the local Honda dealer. And, like many others, we were concerned with fuel economy and the price of gas. So somehow I convinced Kathy that we needed this car. Availabilty for these Hondas was very limited so you couldn't be picky. Enter the laws of supply and demand. There were two Hondas available when we looked. Only two Hondas in the entire lot! One was a dark gray two-door hatchback automatic. The other was a blue four-door sedan with a manual transmission. Perhaps because the gray hatchback looked similar to the X-11, Kathy preferred the blue one. Maybe she wanted four doors this time. Maybe she thought it was cuter. Whatever the reason, I don't think she was fully prepared for the manual driving experience when she agreed we should buy it. And that's when the fight started. I took her to the church parking lot at night to teach her to drive the manual and she just wasn't getting the hang of the clutch. The Honda became a bucking bronco or just died if she let the clutch out too fast. It happened one time too many and she just opened the driver's door and started walking back home. Since it was only two blocks away she'd probably have made it. I just sat there and she changed her mind and came back to the car, and in the next few minutes figured out the secret and drove back home. Or perhaps the cool night air cleared her mind. Either way, she learned to drive the Honda and can still drive a stick to this day. She's quite proud of that fact.
Hondas were very light and had small engines, hence their fuel economy was exceptional. I recorded 42 mpg several times with normal highway mileage in the high 30's. Nevertheless, all was not gumdrops and lollipops. I was not amused when we had to pay an extra $500 ADM fee. What does ADM stand for, you might ask? We were stunned to find that it meant Additional Dealer Markup. Because of the shortage of import cars dealers felt compelled to make more money. While they are legally within their right to do that, it left a bad taste in the customer's mouth, mine included. In addition, our Honda was not so reliable as they wanted us to believe. Our exhaust system rusted out at 15,000 miles and the radio quit working during the same time. The curb weight of this Accord was just 2,300 pounds as everything in it was lightened far more than domestic cars. Just leaning against the fender would deform it terribly, but fortunately it popped back. However, a hail storm of tiny ice pellets left visible indentations all over the car that I never got fixed. The heat of the sun brought many of them out but I always saw the rest. American cars were unfazed because of their thicker metal.
It goes without saying that Kathy is not a fan of Hondas to this day. When we traded it in we did not recoup that extra $500 ADM that the salesperson said we would. In fact, we seemed to take an extra hit. And no, she would never ever in a million years consider another one. Sorry if you've got one.
1968 Ford Mustang Coupe in Wimbledon White (195 hp)
This car is all on its own and inserted as its own story without connection to another one. Near the end of our time in Belleville we acquired this classic Mustang. Kathy's dad had bought it years earlier and gotten the body repaired. He gave it to us since Kathy was the only child that hadn't yet received a car from them. It's the only Ford we have ever owned though Jared and Joel have owned several. I drove it up to Warren when we made the move north and became pastor of the church there. That long drive and a few trips around that area ended up with the front tires at a 45-degree angle splayed out. The rears were not as bad. I took it in to get looked at and was told that the unibody structure was compromised with a great deal of rust which no longer supported the front suspension. Repair costs were estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars and that was just to fix the rust. That number could double to bring the Mustang up to spec. I had hoped to have this classic in the family for decades but the cost would be prohibitive.
2014 Mustang Premium V-6 in Oxford White (315 hp)
Jared bought a 2014 Mustang back in, well, 2014 and it reminded me a lot of my old one. His had the fastback roofline while the '68 has the notchback, but the body shape of Jared's new one followed closely to the 1968 Mustang. It would have been nice to see them together and get a photo of the pair. But now Jared's is gone after nearly seven years as the gremlins had been working overtime on his.
Sadly, we eventually put our Mustang up for sale in the front yard and a young man who was studying auto body repair came and purchased it for his own project. I don't know how that project ended up but I hope if brought him the kind of joy I had hoped to have with this one.
1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon in Blue Mist Metallic (97 hp)
While Kathy wasn't thrilled with the Honda, it had been suitable for what we needed. It held one baby just fine but in 1985 another son was born. Eventually we would need a bit more room in our one vehicle. Also around this time there was a new genre of vehicle in the auto world, a "minivan" built by Chrysler. That one looked like it would suit us well so I checked it out. Remember I talked about popular vehicles costing more? These three-row little vans listed for about $15,000 but dealers were adding $5,000 more in ADM charges and some made that number $10,000! That highway robbery was unacceptable so another option was found, the Nissan Stanza Wagon. Another import from Japan, this one was more like a mini minivan. It may even be considered as reminiscent of present day small SUV's. This deal would be remembered because Kathy broke down after a couple hours of dickering with the salesperson and blurted out, in my direction, "Oh, just take the deal already! I want to go home!" I never took her with me to another vehicle negotiation as far more than two hours are necessary for a successful deal.
There were only two rows of seats in the Nissan (the new Chrysler minivans had three rows) but it was bigger than the Honda, and there was a larger storage area in the far back. It worked very well for two children and all that baby stuff. That vehicle was also involved in a hailstorm but this time it was repaired since they were huge hail stones and caused deep damage. And just like the Honda, the exhaust system rusted out at 15,000 miles and the radio quit. But it was an automatic so Kathy liked this one. The rear doors were sliding doors, just like in the minivan so we did get used to that feature. This may have been the least exciting of our cars to date as I don't remember a whole lot about it, just that it carried the family everywhere we needed to go. That's saying something. Well, I guess there was the time Joel was sitting in the front seat and opened the door while it was moving, perhaps looking to escape. Fortunately he had the seat belt on but that was the last time he got to sit in the front.
1989 Plymouth Voyager SE in Claret Red over Black Cherry (100 hp)Surprise! Baby number three was on the way and the little Nissan wasn't going to handle all three boys. So I revisited the Chrysler minivans once again and discovered that the greedy dealer tactics had backfired on them and there were now plenty of them that needed to be sold. I was able to negotiate under-invoice pricing, plus we got a better trade-in price on the Nissan since this dealer in Madison, Wisconsin was both a Plymouth and Nissan dealer. Win win. True to her word, Kathy did not come for the negotiation standoff. She just said to pick any color but blue, as the two previous cars were blue. It was probably a good thing I started early in the morning as I ended up being the only customer at the dealership that day since a snowstorm kept everyone else away. I think they were determined to get a deal put together and have something to show from that poor-weather day. And I didn't get a blue one.
This minivan was a real game changer for us. It was our first vehicle with three rows. Kathy was able to separate the boys when they started to annoy each other. As a first generation model, it had just one sliding door on the right side. Both the second and third row seats were flat bench seats. The color was two-tone burgundy and it had a stand-up hood ornament (our only other car with one was the 1978 Buick), and removeable velour seats so we could haul more stuff. The down side? Even though this was the smaller size wheelbase version, it came with a small 2.5 liter 4-cylinder engine that had just 100 horsepower. This worked just fine when I was the only one in the vehicle. But going on vacation with all five of us inside, plus all kinds of extra stuff inside with us and a car-top carrier on the roof, the little engine just couldn't keep up. On our trip through the Pennsylvania mountains (you mean you didn't know Pennsylvania is almost entirely covered in mountains, ridges, hills, and plateaus?) we barreled down the mountains at 90-100 mph and then crawled up the other side at 25 mph or so. We stayed in a pack of semis doing the same thing. This happened whenever it was fully loaded. I made a mental note to never buy another one with the four cylinder engine. But that deep red color is probably my favorite vehicle color.
As the boys were little during this stage we tried to come up with something to distract and entertain them. The solution was to take our nine inch color TV/VCR, run the cord to the DC inverter, and then plug the inverter into the lighter socket. I built a little wooden stand that angled the TV up from the floor and our first personal auto video system was born. The Plymouth Voyager lasted nearly nine years and 160,000 miles. It hauled supplies for the church building program. It took us on many family trips. And it still looked good at the end. Speaking of the end, we traded it off at the local Chrysler dealer who promptly sold it cheap to another customer. Just like the X-11, the engine blew up a month later. I got my money's worth out of those two.
1981 Chevrolet Chevette in Burnt Orange (65 hp)Through the first two churches and twelve years of marriage, we had just one car for the family. This had worked fine for the most part, and not every family owned two cars at that time. As we entered the Lincoln years we saw the need for a second car so that we could go our separate ways at the same time. Plus, the town was larger and it was farther to walk. My friend Tom had this orange Chevette collecting dust and I asked if I could buy it from him. He didn't think that was such a good idea as he thought it might ruin our friendship when it started breaking down. My thinking was that any used car I might buy, no matter what the cost, was going to break down and need repairs so why not the Chevette? He sold it to me for $25. You might remember that I had researched new Chevettes in college so this was a bit of deja vu all over again.
This Chevette had a little 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine, a manual transmission, and most important of all it had air conditioning that worked. It's engine was the most anemic of all my cars. I put new tires on it, wheel covers, and repaired a number of issues under the hood. Because of its garish color the boys called it the "orange bomb." However, I thought the color suited the car. I never got higher than 30 mpg but that was expected and it was still more than the minivan. It was fun driving the manual and buzzing around town. The poor Chevette was universally dismissed by the automotive world as a dismal car, and yet I look back on it as one of my favorites. It may not have been fancy and it definitely was not a speed demon, but it was loads of fun. Thank you Tom!
1995 Plymouth Neon Sport in Emerald Green (150 hp)
After I started driving the Chevette, Kathy was relegated to the minivan. There wasn't so much of a negative stigma to the minivan back then, except by Kathy. Of course, she could have taken the Chevette and driven the stick shift but she declined. However, she soon let me know often that she was not enthused with driving the minivan. Her aversion to minivans would also rear its ugly head some years later as well.
In 1995 Chrysler built and debuted a new small car called the Neon and branded it under both the Dodge and Plymouth brands. There was a whole advertising campaign centered around its cuteness and Kathy took notice, as she's all about cuteness everywhere. This was probably the first time she really took notice of a car and decided she had to have it. She liked the Emerald Green pearl paint and the Driftwood color cloth seats. It was cute, and she had to have it. So after two-and-a-half years of me driving the Chevette, we traded it in on the Neon. And I got the Voyager minivan back, which was fine by me.
The Neon was not the greatest of small cars but it had charm. We were one of the first in town to get a Neon, and in the popular green, so people were always asking about it. Kathy was more than happy to regale them with stories of her baby. It also wasn't the most reliable with numerous parts replaced under warranty, others taken care of with a recall, and other items that we paid for. The biggest of those was a blown head gasket and corroded cylinder head which meant the engine had to be rebuilt. That cost a pretty penny (about $2,500 if I recall) but it was fixed. And, not to be left out, the Neon was also pelted by hail. But this time I used PDR, or paintless dent removal. I watched them to see how they did it and they used various length metal tools to massage the dent out from the inside. It was amazing to see all the dents disappear.
By the time the Neon was eight years old, we were much older and it was not so easy to get in and out of the front seats. It felt like you were sitting nearly on the ground and you had to crawl up and out. Like the Plymouth Voyager, the Plymouth Neon would almost make it to nine years which was a long time for us to hold on to a car. It was fitting that two of our favorite cars—one for each of us—made the trip for almost exactly the same amount of time before we moved on to another. Unlike the Voyager whose engine blew up after we traded it, the Neon lived on in our Mayfair neighborhood where a young girl had many years with the cute car. How's that for serendipity? Or possibly irony?
1996 Chrysler Town & Country LXi in Light Iris (166 hp)
After the Neon was paid off the Voyager was feeling its age. There was a persistent clicking sound in the engine that I asked the dealer to check out. He told me the complete mechanical explanation, something about valves and lifters, and said it would eventually doom the engine. So I began to look for a minivan to replace it. The difference between the standard minivan and the "Grand" larger minivan was only fourteen inches but still significant, especially when outfitted with the many options now available. Buying new was not an option right now so we bought this purple-ish (light iris in Chrysler paint-speak) Chrysler Town & Country. It felt light-years ahead of the Voyager, had so much more room, and the engine wasn't bothered by hills. This was also our first vehicle to have leather seats, which I liked very much while Kathy did not.
Family travel was far more comfortable, and the extra length of the Grand version meant that there was much more room behind the rear seats for luggage. And this one had two captain's chairs in the second row instead of the bench seat. There was also a sliding door on both sides, matching the doors on the Nissan Stanza Wagon from ten years ago. It may have been a minivan but it was a really nice minivan.
In our third year with it, which made it now six years old, the gremlins appeared. The serpentine engine belt would fall off any time you drove the van through a puddle. Whenever there was a rain storm it was impossible to avoid this problem. I had to carry a socket wrench in the van, along with a pry bar, to fix this when it occurred. Oft times it was while it was raining. Then there were electrical issues. The wipers started and stopped on their own. Power windows worked then didn't. The radio worked intermittently. And so on and so forth. I discovered that this van had been involved in an accident at one time, a rear-end collision. The rear bumper had been painted and was now flaking off. The dealer said he hadn't been aware of that. I wasn't ready to live with those problems for any length of time so I asked him to look for a replacement for me and find me a deal. Now I remembered why I didn't like used cars.
1999 Chrysler Town & Country Limited in Champagne (180 hp)
I kept an eye on the used car lot at the Chrysler dealer and saw this one day. It was the Limited version of the Town & Country. Mainly that meant upgraded features, but to me it meant the nicest interior I had ever seen, and the most comfortable as well. That was when I learned the color "taupe" as it applied to the leather seats, carpet, and trim. I also learned that I really liked that color. I wasn't so crazy about the gold exterior, just like I wasn't crazy about the purple on the previous minivan. But I spent more time inside driving it so I made the trade. You don't have as many choices in getting what you like when you get a used vehicle.
This van was a much more reliable vehicle and only had a few minor items to be repaired. Otherwise it just ran and ran and ran. Probably my favorite of all the minivans, mostly because of that interior. This minivan ran for six years and I was sad to see it go.
1998 Chrysler Concorde LXi in Deep Cranberry (225 hp)
I've already mentioned that it was difficult to get in and out of the Neon as it neared the end. We were getting older and popping easily out of the car was no longer possible. Since we had been choosing used cars lately, we asked the dealer about a replacement for the Neon. I had liked the Chrysler 300M but he had no used ones available. This Concorde LXi was offered as somewhat similar to the 300M, at least on the inside. You didn't sit on the ground like in the Neon, and the ride was a lot smoother because of the longer wheelbase. It looked sharp, but most of all Kathy said it would be a suitable replacement. There were also more options on it which also made Kathy happy. By this time in life, the boys were working their way out of the house and had their own cars. For Kathy and me, we now had our own cars. I didn't use her Concorde much and she wouldn't drive the minivan.
With our switch to Chrysler vehicles of late, some in the church also met with our dealer and bought their own cars. I never pushed anyone into buying something from him, nor did I receive any kickbacks on those referrals. But I did like the vehicles we chose and often shared the reasons for our choices. If those resonated with others, then so be it. Kathy drove this for four years and then sold it to a friend who bought it for his wife. It continued to be a good car for her.
2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT in Magnesium (200 hp)
Sometimes you get a vehicle because you simply have to. Maybe it has tons of problems. Other times you have a specific purpose in mind. This 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan was bought just before Thanksgiving of 2006 and the model and features I chose were meant to complement a family trip to Springfield, Missouri, to spend Thanksgiving there with my mom. Over the years we tried to incorporate electronics into our minivans, as video monitors were not offered in the minivans at the beginning. But this one had a special package that added a ceiling-mounted video system with a mammoth seven inch screen. You'd be right in thinking that's not very big. Some large cell phones are close to seven inches in size so you get the picture. Literally. There were also connections in the back seat to connect to the video screen, and a 120V outlet. The plan was for the boys to set up their XBOX in the back seat plugged into the outlet, and then the video/audio feeds would plug into the input panel that connected to the video screen. All three boys could see the screen (fortunately they had young good eyes) and Mario Kart was underway. They played games all the way to Missouri and back. It was a good trip. That was probably the first and last time the van was used to do that. But it was worth it.
This van also had a new feature called the Stow 'n Go seats. Those two captain's chairs in the middle row could be folded down into the compartment below, opening up the van floor for hauling 4x8 sheets of plywood. I hauled a lot of plywood, sheetrock, foamboards, and the like in all my vans. I had to run the driver's seat all the way up to the steering wheel to get the 4x8 pieces to fit in the back, but you do what you have to do when you need the usefulness of a pickup truck and all you have is a minivan. I've made many a trip crammed right up into the steering wheel. This van was the first whose sunroof exploded over our head while driving down the highway. We looked all over to figure out where the noise came from before noticing the sunroof. Fortunately the sun shade was closed or the glass shards would have exploded on us.
There was also a feature in the radio package that was fairly new in 2006, called satellite radio. Everyone has heard of it now but it was just getting started back then. Sirius and XM were competing companies of this service which included music, news, baseball games, football games, traffic reports, and other assorted channels. The addition of satellite radios into new cars hastened the adoption of their subscription services that have hovered at around $25 per month. But I noticed another option that Sirius sent me, since the minivan had only a Sirius radio. They were offering a package that gave you all of Sirius Radio for one price, as long as you used it in your car. You were able to transfer it three times to subsequent cars, so it wasn't quite as unlimited as the original deal the year before, but it was still a pretty good deal. Cost was $500 and I've been using it for 16 years now as 2021 begins. Right now each month has cost me about $2.60 and I still have the remaining years of the Jeep and one more transfer. Now that Sirius and XM have combined, I get all the stations of both. It's especially handy on long trips.
This generation of Chrysler minivans was called the jellybean because of its rounded edges. I really liked the look of these, though the seating and the ride were not up to the earlier Chryslers. Got an especially good deal on this one because they built way too many vehicles for the 2006 model year and offered cash back and 0% financing to move them all.
2006 Dodge Charger SXT in Inferno Red (250 hp)
Kathy got in on this over-building bandwagon six months after me. She was working as a realtor and wanted to buy her own car and this 0% deal was still ongoing. But of course she was not interested in a minivan, she was looking at the Charger. It was the first year for this new generation of Charger and it struck her fancy. She wanted it in Inferno Red and our dealer had to trade with a dealer from Detroit to get one for her. Me and Carroll Auer drove over there and brought the Charger home. I didn't want anyone else but me and Kathy driving the car. I have a theory that cars get used to the particular way they're driven, and that a used car may have problems if that particular way gets changed. It's a working theory but it has promise.
She wanted the Hemi badly, probably more for bragging rights, but it didn't seem all that much stronger than the version one level down. The Hemi had a 5.7L engine with 340 hp while the SXT had the 3.5L High Output engine with 250 hp. In the end she chose the 3.5L version as it cost less and the insurance was lower. She definitely enjoyed that car more than any other she's had. It was a great looking car with lots of power. We took it on many vacation trips as it got better fuel economy than the minivan. It was this car that prompted friends to give her the "Speed Racer" nickname.
2013 Hyundai Elantra GT in Titanium Gray (148 hp)
Kathy drove that Charger for six years, and then we moved to Rockford. So much snow there meant that it was difficult to drive the rear wheel drive Charger in the snow. It was with much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that she made the decision to trade in her dear car for a front wheel drive vehicle that could navigate winter weather. We were driving past the Hyundai dealer one day after church and she wanted to look around. She saw this Elantra GT (which means it was basically just a hatchback) with the roof bars and it looked like a little SUV to her. In fact, the Elantra is the basis for the Tucson model which has been reshaped and raised to look like an SUV. Most of all she thought it was cute. She bought it on the spot and drove it out of the showroom.
That car was a surprising athlete on snow and ice and worked very well during our four years in Rockford. Then we moved to Georgia to be with family and the Elantra GT did well in Atlanta traffic. So for five years it was her baby. And then came that fateful day. I had brought the minivan (the 2014 Grand Caravan by this time) in for the transmission to be replaced under warranty and was told it would be a couple weeks till they got everything in and the van finished. Kathy told me I should probably use the Elantra for driving with Lyft or we'd be missing two weeks of work income. It was different using a small car instead of a minivan, but it sure was easier to navigate the car in the city. I filled up the gas tank every day and I noticed that the total for gas with the car was just $20 where the minivan used over $40. That meant that every month I would be able to keep an extra $500 of the money I made because my gas expense was less. I had been driving the minivan for most of a year and it had never occurred to me that I was wasting money. It was another sad day for her as she saw her car go into the rideshare service but she knew that our livelihood and survival were at stake.
When I started driving the Elantra GT for Lyft, Kathy started driving the minivan again. As I had discovered while driving it around Atlanta, many of the corners of the streets were not rounded near as much as we were used to in Illinois and I ran over those corners in the minivan. Kathy was finding that out and she was having a tough time of avoiding those corners. She drove it for a couple more months, as I asked her to try some more, but in the end she just wasn't comfortable with it being so big. So after just four years with the van I needed to find her something else. After all, I did take her car.
As for my Lyft career, I've driven it for three years. I got it from Kathy with 38,000 miles on the odometer and after over three years I have reached 186,000 miles as I start 2021. God knew I would need this kind of car to be successful with Lyft and when I needed a better Lyft vehicle we already had one available, and it was paid off. I'm still using it and curious how long it will last.
Longevity Update: The 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT made it to the end of 2021 when it started making the kinds of noises that end up being problems. I didn't want to get stranded miles from home so I stopped driving it. We had received a warranty extension in the mail in case the clock spring broke which it had a couple years earlier. This particular part is deep inside the steering wheel and connects the steering wheel controls to the electrical connectors; it looks like a circular clock spring and will wind and unwind as you turn the steering wheel without ripping the wires. Since it was a free repair we had it fixed, then promptly drove it from the service department to the sales department and sold it to the dealership. Final mileage was 233,500 and we certainly got our money's worth out of this one.
2014 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T in Maximum Steel (283 hp)
Kathy got her Elantra GT at the beginning of 2013 and I got the 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T at the end of 2013. I was having troubles with the 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan and was learning that, in addition to making far too many vehicles that year, the minivans had been subject to a lot of cost cutting that marginalized many parts. As I went through the list of repairs needed it came up to several thousand dollars. I had driven the 2006 minivan for over seven years and I felt it might be better to trade it than to put so much money into the repairs. You never know if you've made the best decision but you do have to make a decision. In the end I chose the new car route with the Dodge Grand Caravan R/T model. I had many people question whether I had a hemi in it, but I had to tell them no. The R/T designation means Road & Track and this minivan was optimized for better handling, even though that made it a little stiffer. It was thousands cheaper than a comparable Town & Country plus it had the free subwoofer speaker option. Andreasens love free.
We used this minivan for long travel trips as the Elantra GT was really not that comfortable since it was a smaller car. But the minivan was also a bit stiffer so it was somewhat of a wash. The dealers around the Rockford area were rude and not willing to deal, so I ended up making the deal with my usual dealer from Lincoln. An Andreasen always saves money on as many transactions as he or she possibly can. One of the more unique features of this model was the all black interior. Not just the carpet and seats and door panels, but the dash and headliner and everything above that level were black as well. Car manufacturers usually use an off-white headliner fabric on every car as it brightens up the interior up where your eyes tend to be. But with the black interior it was very calm at all times and especially at night. It was the only car we've had with that feature and I wish it was used more often. As an aside, this van had the highest horsepower of any vehicle we've owned, though Kathy (aka "Speed Racer") still considered it too slow.
2017 Jeep Cherokee Limited in Diamond Black (184 hp)
In December of 2017 I asked Kathy---after she declared she no longer wished to drive the minivan---what kind of vehicle she would prefer so I might start the search for a replacement to the van. I was not hopeful that a deal could be done without raising the payment from what I was already paying. There wasn't any room in the budget for an increase, as one does not make much money driving for Lyft. But I said I would look into it and she told me she liked the idea of a "real" SUV. By real she meant one that truly was designed as an SUV and wasn't the faux imitator that the Elantra GT was.
Remember I said the Hyundai Tucson was made from the bones of the Elantra? She did like the Tucson so that was on the list as the front-runner. Jon and Myric had a Buick Encore as did Carol Taylor and Kathy liked that one as well, though it was a little on the small size. I added seven other models to the list that were roughly all in the same size category. Then I looked them up online to see what options they had, what they stickered for and what dealers were selling them for. Popular ones like the Honda CR-V and Hyundai Tucson had no incentives. The Mazda CX-5 and Ford Escape had a higher selling price than the others. The Buick Encore had the highest sticker but had more significant discounts of about $6000. I thought my path to a successful deal was with the Buick, but as I put the numbers together even the Encore had a cost out of reach with our budget. The Nissan, Subaru, and Chevy compact versions were also a no-go. I didn't even try dealing with Honda and Toyota as they were heading into ADM territory. I had asked Kathy what were the minimum options she needed, and made sure each model fit those criteria. Nothing seemed to work like I'd hoped.
As I looked over the online ads from the dealers, they all included the sticker price of a vehicle and then subtracted a list of discounts. These discounts ranged from minimal (like maybe $500) to significant (like $6,000 for the Encore) and everything in between. While going over these pages on the various websites I ran across an ad from a Chrysler dealer who had listed a 2017 Jeep Cherokee with $12,000 in discounts. I hadn't really considered the Jeep as it is even more expensive than the Mazda. You know what they say about things that seem too good to be true? So did I. But I was desperate so what did I have to lose by checking it out? That next day I drove over to the dealer to ask about that one particular Jeep and he said that it was the last 2017 on the lot as the 2018's had been coming in over the past few months. We drove around their various lots looking for it and finally ran into it way at the back, surrounded by other cars. We had to move vehicles around to get that one out but there it was. It was the Limited model which meant it had leather and other nice options, including the panoramic sunroof. As I figured out later, Jeep enthusiasts want a 4-wheel drive Wrangler with cloth seats and doors that could be removed and no sunroof. That's why this one was still around and why it seemed the dealer wanted to get rid of it. I called Kathy before trying to hammer out a deal as I knew she didn't like an all black car (gets too hot) or leather (sticks to her in summer) or a sunroof (we'd already had a van sunroof explode) but she said she would take it if I could get it. That's how much she didn't like the van.
I had brought that ad in to the dealer and said I wanted that deal. But even with the ad in hand they still insisted on going through the motions from the beginning since not all of those discounts might apply to me. But once you get up and start walking out they get the idea you're serious. And in the end I got my $12,000 discount and a payment that matched what I had before but with a shorter term loan. Kathy was shocked when I drove it home but she had her car. The Jeep has been with us for three years and we're not putting a lot of miles on it, so it could last a long while for us. I imagine it could be our last car. And it also happened to be the second vehicle to have the sunroof explode over our heads.
It's no pickup truck, but that's a story for another day.
2021 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4x4 in Billet Silver Metallic (270 hp)
When I bought the 2017 Jeep Cherokee for Kathy at such a good price, the idea was that this would be our last car purchase. When (if?) I retired we decided that one vehicle would do fine for the both of us. No doubt the Elantra would have self-destructed by then. But then 2021 arrived, and with it a rumbling in the auto world that would reverberate into the Andreasen household. COVID-19 had not only affected people all over the world but had been causing much disruption in household and food items available for sale. We soon would be learning that it had also caused a disruption in the normal manufacturing of the electronic chips used in automobiles produced today. While some knew about this as 2021 began, it would be several more months before it became a really big deal.
Jonathan and I started receiving letters from the local dealer inviting us to "upgrade" our present vehicle with the latest model of the one we already had. My letters were very vague and didn't represent anything I felt I needed. Besides, the Jeep I had was supposed to be my last vehicle and therefore I just tossed the letters in the trash. I got one or two every month and they were all the same, but then one day Jonathan asked me about his letter and whether or not it might be a good deal. His letter had more specifics and offered much more in the way of trade-in value and interest rate. So I sat down one night and ran the numbers on the specific kind of deal they were offering him. I told him I thought these numbers were too good to be true, but if they were anything close to what he could get then he should get right down there and make a deal. He asked me to go with him on a Saturday morning and do what I do best, that which I consider pure entertainment. While there were specific numbers used in the letter, the salesperson started from scratch in putting a deal together. One by one we pointed out the finer points listed in the letter, and one by one they adjusted the deal. It was becoming clear that this was a very good opportunity for an upgrade. In short order Jonathan had a deal.
If you know Kathy at all you know she doesn't miss a trick and she never forgets anything. So she approached me after hearing about Jonathan's deal and wondered if we might be able to do the same thing. I was confused as she was already driving the Jeep that was supposed to be our last vehicle and we had already settled that. But then she reminded me that I was supposed to get her seat covers that would keep her from burning her legs on the black leather in the summer. I thought she had come to terms with the black leather seating, but no. Silly me. This was her ploy to get me to consider trading for a vehicle with cooled ventilated seats. She mentioned a number of different vehicles that had cooled ventilated seats but I reminded her that these deals were contingent on upgrading to the same make and model we had. Fortunately, the Jeep Cherokee offered cooled ventilated seats and so I headed out to the dealer to check it out. What I found was the same thing that Jonathan had found, that they were begging for our trade-in and offering us the moon to sell us a car.
It turns out that there were a lot of upgrades in a four-year-newer Jeep including those cooled ventilated seats (I like saying "cooled ventilated seats" as much as writing it), power liftgate (not offered in 2017), all the various safety protections (our 2017 had none), Android Auto (a recent option), four wheel drive (never had it before), tow package (never know when you'll need to tow something, plus it included a full-size spare), and a turbo 4-cylinder engine with 270 horsepower. Kathy had been sorely disappointed with the anemic engine they put in our 2017 Jeep and was hoping for more power. It reminded her of that first minivan, though my scientific side tried to tell her that was not true. So I told the salesperson what kind of Jeep I was looking for and she retreated into the manager's office so she could start the search since they didn't have what we wanted on the lot. What I would discover was the scarcity of new vehicles along with the higher values of used ones. She came back with only two Jeeps available but it turned out that both had already been sold. I asked her to expand the search to include four wheel drive as an option and just one was available. This one, I was assured, was available to purchase and we made the deal. While silver was not our first color choice—in fact we had told them it was the only color we didn't want—Kathy decided she wanted those ventilated seats badly enough to get the silver Jeep. And badly enough to take it with its exploding sunroof, reminding me how the one we were trading in lost its sunroof that way. But it was standard equipment in this new model so she was stuck. I guess we shouldn't be surprised how much we liked this "upgraded" Jeep Cherokee because it had all the extras. What did surprise us was how the new cars were flying off the dealers lots because people were finally finding out about the chip shortage. I'm sure you saw the near-empty car lots during the summer of 2021 as manufacturers had to stop building their vehicles until they could find more chips.
So, was the color really a big deal? Each of us would probably say silver is not our favorite color, though it has grown on me more than Kathy. To me it seems the silver paint best represents the Jeep. Kathy just sneers and says it's another gray car among all the millions of gray cars on the road. When I look back at all the vehicles we've purchased over the years, I would have to say there were very few that were exactly the color we chose and could find. Of the twenty cars we've owned only six of them were exactly what we wanted. Somehow we survived the colors we didn't care for. If there's a lesson at all in there, it's that choosing and purchasing a vehicle often comes down to a compromise of some sort. Many of our compromises came with a bargain price attached and we all know how much I like a bargain. But this time, I think it's safe to say that we've got all the best options that we like and/or need in a vehicle and it should serve us well as long as we have it. I hesitate to say it will be our last vehicle because you just never know!
2013 Buick Encore Leather in Ruby Red (138 hp)
Yes, we still have the silver Cherokee, but as I said in the Elantra post up above I never knew when that little car would come to the end of its Lyft service. At 233,500 miles it gave me enough pause that I parked it and then sold it. Fortunately, there had been a contingency plan in place a few months back for this eventuality and it was this little red Buick Encore that came to the rescue. Jon had bought it to go back and forth to work in Atlanta but it was sitting barely used during the pandemic, so he agreed to sell it to me as my new Lyft ride. I also said that I would drive him to work if needed so that's his contingency plan for the moment.
The Encore debuted for the 2013 model year and became an immediate hit with buyers. It was one of the smallest of the crossover-type vehicles, with Jon and Myric using it for over seven years. It had a bit more room inside than the Elantra and was a bit more comfortable. Lyft riders loved the leather interior and I appreciated some of the extra features that the Elantra didn't have. I started driving it at about 67,000 miles and planned to drive it till it runs no more. Or so I thought.
Sadly, the Encore ran into issues at almost 120,000 miles with the catalytic converter and associated systems where they could not be repaired to the point of turning off the check engine light. And since the annual emissions inspection was only a couple weeks away, there was little chance of coming up with enough money to try and postpone the inevitable. As there were numerous other items needing repair and upkeep, the decision was made to clean it up and sell it off while it was still running. In the end we traded it off at the Chevrolet dealership on Jon's subsequent EV purchase, the Bolt EUV. By trading it in we not only received $6,200 in real money but also an additional $400 in real tax savings. Plus he got the additional $6,300 rebate from GM.
This also meant that I would be coming to the end of my career in driving for Lyft. I know nearly six years doesn't seem like a true career but it's also longer than other jobs I've held. In all I used three different vehicles while traveling around 350,000 miles across all parts of Georgia, and even into Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio. While never a lucrative source of income as some would have you believe (don't believe them!), it did provide enough to get by. For those of you interested in how the numbers panned out during those six years, do check out the blog "Driving Rideshare (Make $50 An Hour!)" elsewhere on this site.
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I'm glad we had the vehicles we did during our younger years. There was a greater passion for those things and for driving hours on end without stopping. Things have eased up as we have aged and we relish the time away but the driving is not as exciting. That is the lesson of life. Enjoy what you have while you have since life is always changing.
Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)
