What did you come from?

[Kent]

I've been thinking about all the different cars I've owned and noticed that it's never a very similar car going from one to the other.

In my most recent it was from a 2011 WRX STI Hatch to a 2018 Accord Sport 2.0t (at).
That's a pretty dramatic change, but nothing compared to my 2001 Corolla -> 2011 Civic SI.

So with that in mind, I'd like to hear some of the more interesting changes you all have been through, I'd also love to hear the reasons.

In my case, the Corolla to SI was simply having more money and wanting a fun car... Then from the SI to the WRX STI, money again. With the STI to Accord it was maturing and wanting less boy-racer and more mature adult dd.

What about you all?

 

[Beeblebrox237]

I went from an upside down Fiesta to a right side up Yaris. That was quite a big change.

 

[05XR8]

'98 GLI 16V/VR6 conversion to '01 Accord LX. Just wanted a reliable new car.

'01 Accord LX to '04 Civic SI. Wanted more sport back in my life with hatch versatility.

'04 SI to '05 Odyssey. Simply to take long trips with family & friends.

'13 Megane RS Trophy+ to '98 Mirage hatch. Sold the Renault due to closing my art gallery. Still haven't settled on what I want to get into next.

 

[Slash]

I've had a tendency to stay around the same or similar thing, mostly out of already knowing what to expect and what I can afford.

That said there's just so many things I want I have never been able to divulge into all of it yet.

 

[Bram Turismo]

'95 1.3 Corolla to a GT86. Happy where I am, and probably staying there until I have a good reason to change

 

[MatskiMonk]

'94 Peugeot 106 1.4D > '87 BMW 528i (E28) ... i.e. small, gutless, french tin ****-box that was quite agile, though slow as ****... to a relatively heavy rear wheel drive German 3 box saloon, with a big ol' straight six up front, about 3 times the power, and a steering wheel fit for a super tanker... that was quite a shock! Pretty miraculous I didn't end up backwards in a ditch.

I've since had 2 Coupes, 3 Saloons, 2 tourers and 1 5-dr hatchback, which is what I have now. Some have been diesel, some have been petrol, some have been auto, some have been manual. I quite like the variety, though they've all been BMW's.

edit: Thinking about it, I've come from a blue 4 cylinder diesel hatchback, to different, blue 4 cylinder diesel hatchback.... that is... depressing.

 

[Rallywagon]

Well, i started with a US version of an 88 escort. 2 of them that i made into another one at that. From there i moved on to a quarter ton chevy truck. After that i owned an 85 rx7 gsl, then went to a ford focus. Got rid of the focus and moved onto a 95 jeep Cherokee sport. Got rid of that an started driving a dodge neon. Got rid of that and went to basic training. Once all of that wrapped up i got an 06 Taurus. Got rid of the Taurus for another 85 rx7. Then picked up a 95 land rover discovery. Sold that and bought a 01? Chrysler crossfire. Sold that, got out of the army and once back home in MI i pickup a beater 96 subaru impreza wagon for 500. Fixed it up, sold it for 1000 and got a 98 legacy. Broke that and got an 88 gti. Got sick of fixing that and got another Jeep Cherokee. Sold the Cherokee and got an xterra. Also pciked up a mazda 3 in that time. sold the xterra and got an 2014 explorer. Also bought a 97 cougar. Thats where i sit now. 97 cougar, 06 mazda3 and the 14 explorer. That all took place over the span of 18 years and is not a complete list either. Just some of the big jumps in vehicle types.

 

[Joey D]

'03 Chevy Blazer - '07 MINI Cooper - '12 Ford Focus - '11 Volvo C30 R-Design - '15 Toyota Tacoma - '13 Volvo S60 R-Design

I had other vehicles mixed in there too, but they were either a race car, winter beater, or something other than a daily driver. These include a pair of '95 Dodge Neons, '98 Honda Passport, '96 Chevy S-10, '98 Chevy S-10, and '82 Oldsmobile Delta 88.

My favorite of the bunch was the C30. Something about a 5-cylinder turbo was just cool and it was the right balance of performance and handling. I did get pulled over a bunch with the car though and it was the most impractical vehicle I ever owned though. Also, the seats were white and I couldn't keep them clean. I still want another one though, but the S60 is quickly growing on me since it has more power and AWD, plus a backseat that can fit an actual human.

 

[ilikewaffles11]

So far out of 15 cars owned 14 of them have been Toyotas so I haven't had too much variation other than different models, but the only real deviation from that has been going from daily driving a 1990 Celica GT-S to a 1990 Volvo 740 turbo wagon. The old RWD Volvos have really grown on me and I just wanted something a little different, plus with winter approaching I was looking for something to use as a cheap winter beater. I miss driving the Celica quite a bit but the Volvo is a great car and plenty fun in its own right, I think the automatic is mainly what kills it for me.

There's plenty of different cars I'm interesting in owning other than old Toyotas but there's never enough time/money/motivation to own all them.. yet. Plus there's still too many old Toyotas I haven't owned yet.

 

[rex1825]

...well, here is mine:

1. Mazda 121 1.3 89, my first car back in 2001
2. Ford Puma, got it year later
3. BMW M3 E30 (2.8l engine swap), got it in 2004, sadly crashed it
4. BMW 730d E38 00' BlackLine M-Sport (still have it) got it back in 2008
5. Alfa Romeo 156 SW 1.9JTDm 05' (still have it), got it in 2013

So currently having the 730d and 156SW

 

[eiriksmil]

Car history time?

I bought an econo box and lowered it (on the left). 2008 ish.

Then I needed a daily, which I did loads of skids with because it was an RWD Toyota

It ended up being non functional and I got another RWD Toyota to replace it with

Which I tore down for a rebuild, which I never finished. Needed a daily so I got myself a big Benz because I had always wanted one

Now there is a chronological break because the first RWD Toyota was brought back to life for more skids. It did die eventually

I had helped a buddy modding his German econo box. He wanted to sell, I wanted something more fun to drive, sold the Benz. This lasted as a daily for a couple of months, when it quickly turned into a 'scene'/show car and I took it off the road to do some rust repairs

Then I was sort of without a driver so I borrowed a weird thing my parents had. Kinda liked it..

But I needed a car of my own so in came the sensible daily that couldn't be modded.. Except for US corner markers

Then another buddy had yet another rusty RWD Toyota I got for skids and daily duties

Then a buddy gave me a chance to own something else I had always wanted, a Japanese golden era mini truck

Then a buddy of mine in California wanted to sell his blue econo box so he sent it over. Note the red car in the background turned out well. So many scene points

Sold the sensible daily (Corolla), got another German econo box. Sometime later it ended up low

This was 2012.. I was dailying the weird van and some of the German econo boxes and sometimes the rat fink Cressida and the Hardbody was also somewhat functional. Sometime around here I realised I had a car problem.. Rusty, old, Japanese cars were sold or parted in combination with getting a new garage.

Then a non rusty, two speed auto econo box appeared

Then a turbo car disguised as a tarted up econo box appeared

The weird thing became mine around 2012, dailied it up until last year so this has been one of the primary cars I'd say

Was inherited a Beetle, it was in the cards for a while but I wanted to finish being an idiot with cars first

Decided I was done buying cars for very cheap and hooning them, figured out I had a pretty cool and solid fleet of cars and decided to just improve them.. Haven't really bought a car since 2012 up until last year.

Except for this, I got another sports car disguised as an econo box in Cyprus because you need a holiday race car right?

Where I also had a beater which originally was given to me. I primered a car once (and it also came out pretty good)

Last year I retired the Funcargo from daily duties and got this

Apologies for the pics.. But it was a fun trip down the memory lane..

Recap: I've had three and four cylinder econo boxes, RWD beaters and also six cylinder diesels. I haven't had an ordinary life with cars. I've bought cars more from want than necessity of getting from A to B. Oh, and random encounters and buddies who had cars.

 

[Clark]

2004 1.1 Renault Clio II
1989 BMW E30 325i sport
2005 BMW E87 130i M-sport
2013 BMW ActiveHybrid 3 M-sport.

One four pot then three inline six petrols

 

[homeforsummer]

Started off with a 1998 Ford Fiesta, because it was inexpensive in all the ways that mattered for a first car. That made way for a 1991 Mazda MX-5, which got stolen. To replace it I bought a 2008 Fiat Panda 100HP because I wanted something as fun as the Mazda but also less stealable, safer, better-equipped, cheaper to run etc.

While I had the Fiat I bought a 1974 Beetle because I started to miss the sensations of driving an older car. After owning the Fiat for a few years I started doing longer journeys so decided to get something comfier and more economical, which is how I ended up - briefly - with a diesel 2001 Rover 75.

The 75 didn't stick around long. It was a good car, but a bad example of a good car (I suspect it'd had minicab history) and rather than spend a lot of money fixing its issues, I decided to cut my losses and sell. The Beetle stuck around for a bit longer but I'd made the mistake of turning it from a driveable car into an inoperable pile of bits, which I got bored with and decided to sell.

A while after, I got bored of not having a car at all, and while initially looking for some cheap stuff - slightly quirky but otherwise unremarkable Japanese hatchbacks mostly - I found a 2001 Honda Insight for sale locally. As I'd always liked them and was still doing long trips that required good economy, I went to have a look... and promptly bought it.

I owned that for a year or two before getting my current job, where I started getting the hankering for something fun again, and bought a 1992 Eunos Roadster. I've now had that for about 3.5 years, but in the meantime also bought a 98 Peugeot 106 Rallye, another car I've always wanted. It was for sale locally again, in very good condition and for a good price.

The 106 is utterly brilliant but I've not yet driven it enough to properly bond with it, so I really want to do a proper road trip in it at some stage. I miss the first MX-5 the most, which I did do a bunch of longer trips in and loved driving, and I'd probably still own it today had it not been stolen.

And overall the Insight was probably the best car, on balance - nothing else I've owned has been as brilliant at its own thing as the Insight was at not using fuel, and nothing else I could have bought would have allowed me to drive that much and that often without me feeling the sting in my finances. All but the Rover have weighed under a metric ton, and amazingly the Rover is pretty much the most powerful I've owned too at about 115bhp, which is around the same as the Eunos. I don't really mind owning slow-ish cars as I drive fast ones for work.

Visual summary:

 

[cdubbbs]

First car was a 1993 Chevrolet Suburban. Light brown exterior with almost matching color interior, no airbags and gas mileage was laughable. Fairly reliable until the fuel pump died on the highway. Our family bought it new and it was handed down between my brothers and I over the years and finally sold to a family friend in 2007.
After the Chevy:
2000 BMW 323Ci (gave it to my middle brother) - our family is actively looking for the car to see if we can purchase it back. Still registered in the state of Virginia.
1995 BMW 318is - I really wanted an e36 after owning the e46, but shoulda gone straight to the inline-six models instead of the four banger
2006 Acura MDX - a very underrated SUV, sold it to my ex
1998 Chevy Malibu (worst car I've owned) - just stay away, never again and really can't justify why I had it....oh yea, it was like $150 on Craigslist.
1991 BMW 325IX (I loved this car so much I bought another one, unfortunately the first one was sold to a friend)
2006 Volvo S60 - pretty much given to me for free from a friend who didn't want to service it
1988 Volvo 240 - several hundred dollars spent on rock solid Swedish reliability,
2017 Mazda 3 - totalled by an idiot after 8 months of ownership.

Current fleet:
1995 BMW M3
1991 BMW 325IX
2017 Hyundai Sonata