1997 Pontiac Sunfire Convertible

I guess I'm on a car kick here lately. So be it.

I'm not too happy with the sketch at left... it is a bit too rushed. (By the way, in the car is me and my then-fiance, soon-to-be wife.)

In any event, I bought my first "brand new" car in 1997. As I mentioned in my last post , I got a fever for convertibles after having the Suzuki Samurai. So the only brand new convertible that I could fit in my meager budget was a Pontiac Sunfire (price around $19,000?)

The convertible aspect of this car was fantastic. The top retracted in a very efficient, fun-to-watch, motorized way with the twist of a handle. The other really cool thing that I remember about it was that the stereo and CD player controls were on the steering wheel (awesome!). Other than that, the car was kind of a dog. Gas mileage was so-so (around 23 mpg?), and I had to take it into the shop a number of times for various engine warnings, etc. But the biggest pain was that the roof leaked in the driver's side corner. It would drip on my left knee, even in the lightest fog or haze. If it rained heavily, it was like a garden hose. I took it in countless times to get that fixed, but they could never take care of it. I even had the roof completely replaced. I finally gave up and just kept a towel in the car for the specific purpose of covering my knee.

I sold this car about three years later to a guy who was buying it for his college-aged daughter. I sold it for $10,500 (cash). I made the mistake of not doing the transaction right at the motor vehicle department, and as a result, she didn't register it properly.

I got her speeding and parking tickets delivered to my house for the next year or so (she got a lot of them!) and so once every few months I'd have to go into the DMV and prove the tickets weren't mine.

1987 Suzuki Samurai

After college, I bought a Suzuki Samurai. This is the car that was infamous for flipping over on any curve taken at moderate speeds. This car was also made before the days when cars were basically rust-proof.

In short, the car was a rattling death trap. But it was a total blast to drive in the summer with the top off. It was my first convertible and will likely not be my last.

I remember at times driving down the freeway, with people waving at me, trying to get my attention that a fender was about to tear off in the wind. One time, when I parked the car at work, I walked around and the front bumper basically fell off at my feet.

I sold this car to my younger brother... I forget the price. Maybe $500? He painted the entire thing camouflage and put on wooden beams for bumpers, wrapping them in barbed wire. It was the perfect north-backwoods vehicle - four wheel drive and small enough to fit on any old lumber trail, maybe even a deer path.

2004 Kymco Cobra Cross 50cc

This is my 50cc Kymco Cobra Cross. Kymco is a Taiwanese scooter maker. It certainly doesn't have the reputation or magic of a Vespa, but it's a ball of fun anyway. It's kind of like driving a snowmobile over city streets in the summer time.

I drive this scooter to work whenever I can. Since it can't go more than about 45 mph, I take back streets. It takes about 1/2 hour. It is supposed to be restricted to go less than 35 mph, but the previous owner had the throttle/transmission "de-restricted".

Technically this is a moped and licensed as such. A "moped" is a scooter that has an engine size of 50ccs or less. In Minnesota anyway, you can legally park mopeds on most city sidewalks and bike racks. You cannot do the same (legally) with scooters.

Huffy Rangler - 1970s

When I was a kid, the coolest bike you could have was a Huffy. And if you had it tricked out with an extra tall sissy bar and big ape-hanger handle bars, so much the better.

Down the street from where we lived was a family of about 7 brothers. You knew that you could always ride down there for extra parts if you blew a tire or bent your handlebars doing an Evil Knievel trick.

One of the crowning moments of my childhood was claiming the block championship by popping a wheelie all the way from the corner of the block down to our house... a distance of maybe 500 feet? The trick was to start real slow, because you could only pedal faster and faster to keep the front wheel off the ground. By the time I got to our house, I couldn't pedal any faster... and it takes real skill to pop a wheelie, pedal so fast your feet are a blur and keep the bike on the road all at the same time.

My glory was short lived however. Soon after that feat, my coolness factor was dimmed when my little brother got a Huffy Thunder Road, along with one of those boxes you revved up on the handgrip. It growled like a Harley (or seemed so to us) every time you twisted it.

Vehicle Memories - 1975 AMC Pacer

In the 70s, my parents bought a brand new AMC Pacer. Shortly after, my grandfather bought the same car in a maroon “wagon” model. Back then, it was just about the coolest thing ever. I understand that now these cars are so retro they are cool again… icons of 1970s design.

The Pacer was shaped like a big goldfish bowl on wheels, or, as my cousin once said, “it looks like a goldfish bowl with farmer’s over-alls on.” The “over-all” straps were the support beams that ran down the hatch-back.

Bright sunshine yellow, with a tan vinyl interior, you couldn’t confuse this car in a parking lot with any other car. It had huge bucket seats for the driver and passenger. The back seat was kind of an after-thought, and folded down to maximize the storage space for the hatchback.

Vehicle Memories - 1966 Ford F-100

1966 Ford F100.

I’m kind of guessing on the year here. The body style of the 1966 seems right.

In the early to mid 1970s, my dad got an older Ford F-100 and fixed it up. I’m not sure of the original color of the truck... it might have been a dark army green, but my dad painted it minty green.

I remember riding around town in the back of this truck with my brothers, cousins, dogs, etc.

That’s another thing you never see these days… kids (or anyone for that matter) riding around in the back of a pickup truck. But in the 70s and 80s, it was a fairly common sight… trucks hurtling down the interstate freeway with the back of it full of kids… sitting on the edge of the pickup bed.

Vehicle Memories - 1970 Suzuki 100 cc

My first motorcycle was a Suzuki 100 cc. I bought it from my older brother for $125. He had beaten the crap out of it, including once running over a neighbor's dog. The dog accident launched him over the handlebars ala Evil Knievel. He tore all the skin off of his palms as he skidded across the pavement. The poor dog died.

After that, I was surprised that my parents let me buy the cycle from him.

As a result of the dog accident, the handlebars never really lined up perfectly, but I didn’t care.

I used to run the bike in the woods around the tiny airport north of our house, much to the chagrin of the airport people, who never caught me. I also used to ride this motorcycle around the Crex Meadows for hours on end, exploring all of the dirt paths and gravel roads in that massive nature area.

Vehicle Memories - 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88

My first car was a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 hardtop coupe. I bought it from a great aunt for $500 when I was 15. My entire sophmore year, I took auto shop and spent dozens of hours grinding off rust and replacing large sections with fiberglass and Bondo.

For my 16th birthday, my dad painted it cherry red. It had bench seats, a massive trunk capable of smuggling about 6 teenagers into a drive-in, and an enormous 350 eight cylinder engine. I put in a smokin' eight track tape player and some kickin' speakers in the back.

One time, I got it up to 110 mph on a long country road. It was a very scary couple minutes.

When I joined the Army in 1983, I sold it to a local kid for $200. I'm sure he didn't love it as much as I did.