The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: What’s the best vehicle you’ve ever owned?
Talk about it….
The Water Cooler – What’s The Best Vehicle You’ve Ever Owned?
’67 Mustang FB with all the options and a built 390 for a fast play car – ’74 Chevy Van with a built 350 for hauling dirtbikes, boats, camping, etc. 🙂
A tie between a Honda and Toyota. Very reliable vehicles that run a very long time, and cost very little to maintain.
I’ve owned 3 Subarus. Two I traded in after about 9 years each. I’m still driving a Forester over 25 years old. But then everything around here is a mile or two away so the mileage is low for all those years. The smog people don’t like it though. Subarus drive like a sports car particularly my first one that had manual transmission. The engines were designed by Porsche.
Best car was 1970 AMC AMX 360 V8, 4 speed, positraction & real fast.
Best truck … well, “Favorite” anyway, was a 1935 Ford.
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Life is too short to drive boring vehicles, tho there is alot to be said for driving reliable ones too.
I just can’t resist . . . . . . . “I Sure Am Boy!”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaqXxC0rhSw
I can’t believe nobody has built a clone of that Hornet.
Maybe I will.
And Gremlins have become very expensive.
Have 1970 – 2 door Pontiac Le Mans Sport Coupe in need of an engine rebuild, maybe some day. Only 1,673 were ever produced.
OG, you owe it to yourself (and future generations) to restore that car.
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All you guys who had Mustang fastback models made between 1965 -1970 and (for whatever incredible reason) no longer have those vehicles… you have my sympathy.
I’m sorry you have to deal with the regret and heartache for the rest of your lives.
I never owned a Mustang, but in I had a platonic male friend in Westport Ct. who had a 1968 Mustang (could be off a year or so) not sure of the exact model, whenever I visited Westport from NYC he would let me drive his Mustang. I wasn’t that much into cars then, but I do remember it was a very nice car. I had a boyfriend who had 1963 (again might be off a year or two) Corvette Stingray, great car, but he would never let me drive it.
87 Honda accord LX-I
1965 Mustang K Code Fastback, silver with red interior- Long gone, unfortunately.
1998 Toyota Landcruiser- Still have and may be my all time favorite.
My ’67 Stang FB GT was same color scheme – rare package as the chrome mag wheels with that color scheme had red inserts rather than black … I’ve only seen one other since
88 Volvo 240 GL & 06 Subaru Outback
Honda civic 2004 and Toyota Corolla
I’ve had something like 25 or 30 cars and trucks in my lifetime, maybe more. I started out
when I was a teenager, working on cars, building hot rods, and making them go faster. But
the most fun I had was with a ’62 Chevy pickup. She was a six banger with a three speed,
and the only work I did was to change the carburetor, other than that I left her stock. She
was not a 4-wheel drive, but I drove her like one, I took her off-road, up and down steep
terrain, and through shallow creeks, and she never gave up on me. She just kept on going,
and going, just like the Energizer bunny. Sometimes I wish I’d have kept her, they just don’t make trucks like that anymore.
In high school auto shop class we put a 501 Cadillac engine in a ’63 half ton Chev pickup with 3 on the tree – no posi – you could spin the right rear tire bald!
I love them old vehicles, anything pre-1970 (even though there are some 70’s vehicles I’d love to have). I definitely am looking at a ’55 Bel Air, Nomad or not for when I retire, something to tool around with and on. I also have to state, I love domo’s description of the Caddy engine allowing the balding of the right tire. Funny how entertaining that is (at least to the young male mind). I guess that was the safer, less destructive activity that morphed into what they call side shows.
Old cars and trucks are more than transportation, they are for fun. Drive the hell out of
them, and when something breaks, it’s an easy fix. Any car that was made before
onboard computers are easy to diagnose and fix.
The only difference between a boy and a man is the difference in the price of their toys.
Don’t wait for retirement; buy that Nomad now!
They’re getting more expensive at an alarming rate.
1952 Hudson Wasp.
Had to look that one up. Must be an acquired taste. 😎
best car was my 94 Ford Ranger. 2.3 with 5spd. 365000 miles without anything but common maintenance (shocks, breaks,clutch (at 175000), timing belt and I had to change the water pump ” I would let the timing belt break as it was a non interference motor”). Sold it running well and smog-able. Rarely changed the oil “30000-40000 between changes” (dino juice, Castrol 10-40 and Fram PH8A) Absolutely stunned that such a nothing truck would survive that long “owned it for 26 years”. Money well spent!
I Love My ‘Beast’ 92 Jeep, but she has some issues, … she dislikes this cold weather.
As far as the best, it has to be our 2003 Ford Ranger, Henry, we bought 2006, …we still have him.
Very little mechanical repairs ever and survived a spin-out and crash on the Benicia Bridge while Hubby was going to work. It was worth getting body parts than buying another truck.
Absolutely refuse to buy any car newer than 1996, don’t need some vehicle that talks or has GPS.
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Have 1994 Impala wagon and 1996 Impala SS,
Both have LT1 5.7L 8 cylinder engines, 250 HP.
They have great lines.
Just after getting 96 Impala SS was going to work grave yard shift on Antioch Pittsburg highway thinking I was doing 50 mph speed limit, glanced down . . . 105 mph. Got my attention.
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Chevy started making Impala SS in 1994, last year made was 1996 and first year they got it right when shift moved to center console.
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The impala ss they sell these days is an absolute insult to the name Impala SS
Remember the Beach Boys song 409? The song was about a ’61 Impala SS with a 409 big block and with a center console shifter.
I’ve had a number of cars over the years, but I was particularly happy with a 1995 Toyota Avalon that I bought to replace an Isuzu that gave me multiple problems. I later bought a 2011 Avalon that’s currently sitting in our driveway as a backup to our Toyota Highlander.
I know that both Hondas and Toyotas are considered highly reliable, but Toyotas seem to have had fewer problems over the years.
The best vehicle I ever owned was a 1974 Chevy Impala with a 400 small block, a car that had some stones. It had an open rear end, so that made some fun shortening the life span of the right rear tire. Ugly sand colored and rusted in a few places, but my first (and best) car.
While we’ve owned the “best cars” in the world, i.e. Cadillac, Lincoln, Jaguar, Mercedes Bentley & Rolls… the best car we’ve owned has been a 2016 Chevy Cruze. Here it is 9 years and 110,000 miles and nothing has gone wrong with it! Ever! Nothing! It hasn’t even needed a battery or brakes yet! Just oil changes and ccoolant change & one set of tires.. This car has never let us down! Something I cannot say for those expensive European cars.
I had a 2002 Ford Taurus SEL that I purchased new. Put over 200,000 miles on it and it never gave me a lick of trouble. Gave it to my niece in 2016 who insisted she pay me for it so I told her I wouldn’t accept more than $200.00. She drove it several more years before it gave up the ghost.
The car I own now is the best I’ve ever owned.
The best I ever drove was a USArmy 5-ton.
I loved driving that thing.
I drove a brand new 5 ton while stationed in Korea, ’92-93. It was shortly after Desert Storm and my truck was the only truck in Korea (that I saw) that was painted desert camo. It only had 75 miles on it when it was assigned to me. We took out the governor in the motor pool and I could get it up to 85+ mph. Drove like a champ but took a bit of time to get used to the air brakes. My Sgt named it “American XXXstacy” and stenciled it on the doors.
The most reliable car I ever had was an ’08 Camry Hybrid. Never had an issue with it. Gave it to my daughter in ’18 and it served her well until ’21 when she was rear ended and the car was totalled.
The best car to drive was an ’08 Cadillac Seville STS with a Northstar engine. Very comfy like a luxury car should be. Great stereo. Drove, accelerated, and cornered like a sports car. Then the rings went bad and the oil pan gasket started to leak like a sieve.
My Schwinn Stingray bike. The worst thing that happened to it was a flat tire.
It never ran out of gas, never needed a tuneup or a smog check, never got guaged by the state government for an annual registration……
Hard one…..in my really younger days it was a 73 Formula Firebird. My mid 30’s, a Honda del Sol. Currently in my mature stage of life it’s my Honda CR-V EXL. But my true love was the Firebird
My dad told me that if I didn’t smoke until I graduated college that he would buy me a new car. I didn’t and he did – a 1964 Gulf Strea Aqua Blue Pontiac Lemans Convertible. What a beautiful car until I crashed it on the Nimitz Freeway. Some idiot stopped in the fast lane. The car in from of me stopped. I didn’t and the 13 behind me didn’t. After that I went through 2 Truimph TR4s and a Triumph TR250. They were the best cars I ever had. Then I got married and had to get a Mercury Cougar.
A 1982 BMW 528e. My exhusband and I bought it from the factory in Munich. You go through a broker here in states, and pick it up at the factory. We were treated very well, I think we got one night free hotel, and when we picked it up, we were treated to lunch at their cafeteria, I think it might have been for the executives, it was not usual run of the mill cafeteria. We then toured Europe, so by the time car got shipped back to the states, it was considered a used car, so we saved on taxes, and we saved by buying the car in Europe. I drove the car for 11 years, was part of my divorce settlement. Since my divorce I have had 2 Honda Civic’s and 3 Toyota Camry’s. I definitely prefer the Toyota, wished I have bought Toyota’s instead of Honda.
Not all of my cars were favorite cars, but many of them were. And for each of them, they were the best car for the phase of life I was in at that time.
My first favorite car was a 64 MG Midget. I used to joke that it was so small, instead of getting in, I put it on. With a 1250cc engine, it was light and fast, but it tended to go airborne fairly easily. But after I got out of boot camp, I discovered that it wasn’t big enough for me and my seabag.
My next favorite car was a 70 Barracuda. For a singe sailor, it was a perfect car. It went fast enough to get me in trouble while looking and sounding great. But once I was married and had a child, it was a little less than perfect.
Later, I got a 73 Olds Delta 88 Royale that was like a living room on wheels. It was plush and comfortable. And with a 455 V-8, it could pass anything but a gas station. So its 4mpg became somewhat of a handicap with gas over a dollar a gallon.
My 80 Toyota Celica was a beautiful car that was very reliable, and I really loved it. But it was too small once my wife was pregnant with our third child. The good news was that it was worth more as a trade-in than I had paid for it new. The bad news was that it led to a series of station wagon and minivans that were not among my favorite cars.
My least reliable favorite car was an Explorer Sport. It was a great vehicle except when I had to replace the engine once, the transmission once, and the transfer case twice. Yeah, I knew what FORD stood for but still enjoyed driving it.
My most reliable favorite car was my Honda Crosstour. I loved its lines, its looks, and its performance. It had one fairly minor repair during the decade I owned it. But after last years snow storms, I decided I really needed something with all-wheel-drive.
Performance: Mercedes
Luxury: Cadillac
Reliability: Frontier
My 1952 Chevy Bel Air went for 255,000 miles before it finally died in 1970.
56 Chevy gasser.
Three stand out (all bought new): Our first Mazda, a 1991 Protege, which we donated at just over 250,000 miles and it had recently passed the SMOG test. The only clutch replacement was at 200,000 miles, the front brake pads were replaced at 135,000 miles, the rears at 184,000. No major repairs and it still ran great when we donated it; I did not hesitate to take it to its 7,000 RPM redline even then. Our 2003 Honda Odyssey is still going strong at 227,000 miles with very few repairs. Our 2006 Mazda 3 just hit 188,000 miles and got the original front brake pads replaced at 186,000 miles; the rears are worn to half of new. The clutch is still the original one and the leather seats are still in great shape with no tears or cracks, in spite of the car not being garaged for most of it’s life. Very few repairs, it still runs and handles great and is still fun in the twisties, as well as on long trips (we have been as far as Mt. Rushmore in it and taken many trips to Oregon and as far as Olympic National Park in Washington). When they finally wear out, the only question is what color will the new Odyssey be and the same for the new Mazda 3 (assuming it’s still available with a manual transmission).
Could someone please tell me how to post a photo of my car from photo in my cell phone??
This article was interesting.
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https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/study-reveals-favorite-cars-of-major-political-parties/