87 mustang 4 banger notch: $700, never change the oil, cleaned the interior with a hose, put tires on it, brakes once, developed low oil pressure in lockport and ate the rob bearings, oil overheated and then the cams and rings died, consumed 8 quarts on the drive from lockport to west seneca. coolant system failed along the way, dumped all the coolant someplace in amherst. the exhaust was glowing cherry red by the time i parked it, took 15 minutes to hose it down to a reasonable temp. still ran the next day
89 grand am: $250, fusable link deleate, scrap metal rear strut towers, no oil changes for 20k. likker of shopping carts and kitchen appliances (stoves and refridgerators on trash day) themostate eventually died, drove it for 1/2 hour down sidestreets while it overheated. engine wouldnt die even w/o oil / coolant. 10+ hours of cold reving it in the driveway had no effect, engine wouldnt die.
92 chrysler lebaron: low oil on an ea cruise caused engine to micro-lock. towed home. started back up the next day. ran for 14k miles on waste oil, some of which was actually fryer grease. the last day of its life it was used to race (and beat) an early 80’s autotragic corvette. cause of death: suspected electrical damage from engine heat. only the radio and dome light still worked. a number of people can attest to the abuse this car took like a champ
He still loves his truck but we have an interesting situation. There’s natural gas deposits in our backyard. We don’t know how much, but when I was a little guy, they came to our house and tore the forest behind our house up to put this gas tank and pump in. Then my parents went out and got all new appliances, gas of course. When I was younger obviously I was just pissed they chopped down my favorite trees to climb, but I guess they cut us a check every month to buy gas off us. Long story short we get free gas. So now that the gas crisis is the talk, my dad researched getting a natural gas powered car and ended up looking to buy a Honda Civic (GX i think). We ordered one from a local dealer last summer, and we’re still waiting…when I moved down to CT we called a ton of Honda dealers from Buffalo to here and everyone said “come on in we can get it for you no problem” - so it seems no one actually has these yet. They keep putting it off and now they say we will get it X-mas time. My mother’s pissed, they are all base model white ones (she doesn’t want a white car) but I keep telling her she’ll be happy with it when she gets it. We have a gas pump installed in our garage, my dad said it cost a pretty penny to put in, but there’s a lot of tax write-offs that make up for it. I think if you make the pump public, the govt cuts you a 30K check! The resale on the GX is insane too, my dad was looking but they’re all in California…some of these are 150K miles and still selling for 20 grand…I’m hoping we end up buying one of these and selling it for a solid dollar years later and just driving for free. I think this might be the first year the GX are sold outside California.