Your Most Humiliating Car
 

I was forced to drive a 1976 powder blue Ford Pinto all thru high school - even after I wrecked it into a retaining fence.

It was sooooooo embarassing. It was truly a stoner mobile.

at least you had a car in HS - I rode the Bus :eek:

Was it a long bus?

My grandma was almost killed in her Pinto. Unsafe freaking car.

I had an Escort back in the day..only thing good about it was it was manual transmission.

In HS I usually rode the bus too. I did get the car later a lot so my mom didn't have to come pick me up after whatever practice or extracurricular I had going on. Their fear of me driving was trumped by their absolute sickness of running us back and forth to events.

I never had my "own" car until the Escort, though.

I walked or rode my bike in high school. No bus or car.

I didn't have a car until after college. My grandfather's old Buick. a 1982 Buick Century. Once, in a crowded post-concert parking lot, when it was squealing really loudly, and smoke was pouring out from under the hood from a slipping belt, I had a cop tell me to turn it off because I wasn't "going to make it."

But it was a good car for road trips. As long as the passenger didn't accidentally kick the fuse box cover, causing the engine to die.

Heh...my Junior High School was probably 30 miles away (rural.) However, last day of class me and a bunch of my neighbors rode our bikes to school.

edit: may be exaggerating on distance, but not by much.

I walked. Uphill. Both ways.

It was just about a mile each way.

Me too.
In the snow.

No matter what I say, I come off sounding like a brat.

Well, that's your fault!

*stomps off*

I got rides with friends or boyfriends in HS and drove a toyota tercell if my dad let me. My most humiliating car would have been my white ford escort that Jim made a upc symbol on with electrical tape. That car shrugged off mufflers, spewed antifreeze, and broke down constantly. Had some cool stickers on it though...

First car was an ugly lime-green Pinto. Worst car ever.

I drove a banana yellow Volkswagon in high school.

Unfortunately it was ten years after the 60s and ten years before the 90s so it was right at the peak of VW dorkiness.

I co-owned an Austin Maxi which two friends converted, with the use of an angle grinder, into a convertible to demonstrate the effect a roof has on a car's torsional rigidity.

My most humiliating car is my f'ing feet. RFN.

My first car was a dingy yellow 1977 Plymouth Arrow with a green racing stripe. It leaked transmission fluid at a prodigious rate. The right front ball joint was worn out and it made a horrendous "kerthunk" if I went over the slightest bump. The muffler was held on with wire, but wasn't actually attached under the car so it was loud as hell. The right hinge on the hatchback had rusted through, so you couldn't open it, and the passenger door would occasionally fly open when I made a sharp left turn. If I came to a full stop, it would stall.

My dad gave it to me... I was 29, recently divorced with an infant and a toddler, and grateful as fuck to have it!

we had an OldsmoBuick that was like that, Tink. you had to keep it revved at stop lights or it would sputter and stall. We got it for $50 and ended up giving it away after I got hit by a guy in a firebird that dented the fender and totalled it.

We had an 87 Oldsmobile Delta 88. It leaked gas, the exhaust system was non existent...so we drove with the windows down even in winter in Illinois, the hood latch had completely rusted away, so our cream colored car had a red strap ratched across the hood to ensure it was secured down. Then we figured out how to ratchet it in the front so the strap was not so visible. Our friends called it the 'Ghetto Mobile.' We bought it for $250.00 and sold it for $250.00 after about 4 months. We felt it was good karma.

What's an OldsmoBuick?

First car I drove was my 'rents' Dodge Charger...though I can't find a picture that looks like it. They're supposed to be muscle cars but I don't remember that about this car. Maybe it was an off year.

My first brand new car was a 1979 powder blue Pinto. I bought it in August 1980, and my then (pregnant) wife totalled it on Xmas Eve. Our *next* car was a 1981 Mercury Lynx (an Escort, essentially).

Of course, neither of these were my most embarassing car, since they were shiny new. The Lynx was the first model year for that car, in fact. I bought another one after the first one caught fire.

No...my most embarassing car was probably the 1969 Buick Wildcat with the dual glasspak mufflers. Or maybe the 1970 Cadillac Eldorado with no trim and an Earl Scheib blue paint job.

I'm more embarassed by having no wheels at all than by the condition of whatever I'm motoring around in.

first car: a Gremlin. a green one. my mother bought it for me. uck.

OMG a guy in HS had a souped up Gremlin. What a hoot. To start it we had to push it so he could clutch start it. He must have bought the wrong soup.

an old Fiat, something like this in white. the seats protruded out of the bottom. I coulda pedalled it Flintstone-style. Probably shoulda, might've gone faster. :o

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...rrent=fiat.jpg

Thanks for the memory, monster. I remember a guy in HS had a Fiat and we thought it was the best. It was all, french and shit. I don't remember that it ran well. We were always pushing it back into the driveway.

:)

not so exotic in the UK

A $300 1981 stick-shift VW Rabbit convertible with sheepskin seat covers.

Ha... we drove around the damn country in a VW bus with the same starting feature. We had to park it carefully, and have one of the lighter people onboard starting it, lol... There was a parking lot on Boston that was flat enough that we had to try several times.... going back and forth across the lot. I wish we had video and youtube back then...

ML8 ML8

Now we've come full circle.

@ jinx...the best of times. :)

yeah, i had to bump start my Fiat a few times too. Fortunatley its pretty hilly in Birmingham, so not much pushing required. I had my one and old blow-out in that car at 80 in the fast lane on the M6. scary stuff.

My first car, really my parents' car but they pretty much let me have it whenever I wanted -- was a 1978 Chevy Caprice. Not a bad car, mind you; it was in good shape, ran well, light blue. But the damn thing was HUGE and I was (am) rather a small person. The dash stuck up real high, so if I just sat on the seat normally to drive it, the best I could do was to see a little bit between the steering wheel and the top of the dash. Yes, I mean THROUGH the steering wheel. :)

So, if I intended to use this car, that meant I had to sit on cushions, like a booster seat. My dad had these seat pads the doctor had given him for driving after his back surgery; one under me and one for my back.

I thought that was kind of embarrassing! But it beat not having a car to drive. :)

I totaled it late one night (not my fault - no one hurt) and my parents decided to get another car and let me "make payments on" their old one (meaning: it took me two years to pay $1,000) which was my BELOVED silver 1984 VW Rabbit. I loved that car! I drove it till 1998, when it very nearly croaked and stranded my husband on his way back from dropping our daughter off at my parents' when I was in labor with our 2nd baby -- I was so scared we wouldn't make it to the hospital! Yup, time to get a grown-up car. :)

My first car was a 1966 Plymouth Fury II. It looked almost exactly like this (sans fancy wheels), but in powder blue:

http://memimage.cardomain.com/member...05_10_full.jpg

It came to me after grampa died (1974-ish), and gramma didn't know how to drive. Grampa kept it immaculate, and he was a mechanic, so it ran like it was brand new when I got it. Unfortunately, no one ever told me that you had to put oil in a car (whaddya want from me, I was 16)... so I didn't. For about two years.

:eek:

Oh, the car never actually died. But it overheated a lot, so I learned that keeping the heater on at all times helped, and I discovered how to cool off the radiator when the idiot light went on, by using the hose on it while the engine was running, and once it was cooled down, refilling the radiator with water ("Anti-freeze?" What's that?)

I eventually sold it to a friend who put some oil in it (anti-freeze, too, I'm sure) and drove it for another five years before selling it to someone else (who drove it for at least another 3-4 years, as she saw it tooling around town all the time). That car is probably STILL cruising the streets of SoCal...

They don't make 'em like they used to!


P.S. Sorry for the gigantic image... don't know how to make it smaller!

Most of the cars I had before I graduated college were embarressing, but heck, this was the late 70's and early 80's; there were a lot of people driving around in shitty cars back then. My first car was a big bad 1974 four door maroon Buick LeSabre that my Dad got for me to drive to my Purdue Cal classes. It was a tank and I liked it because it *RULED* on the Borman. When I got behind a slow poke in the left lane, they usually moved over. When that car died (oil...huh?), my dad got me a 1976 dull gray Toyota Corona wagon. It was my first stick shift and my first compact. I loved it, even if I did lose all my muscle on the highway.

Gramma, God rest her soul, bought me a car when I turned 16.
Gramma was from the old country, and thought she was a shrewd bargainer.
Well, a family in her congregation at the Lutheran church had a car for sale.
And she thought she had made the deal of the century.
Bear in mind, Gramma didn't consider that I was (and remain) 6'3".

She was so happy, and I couldn't bring myself to say anything.

She bought me a Dodge Omni.

The car was, shall I say, modified.
For a girl.
A short girl.
The gas, clutch, and brake pedal arms had been extended by 4 inches.
The seat supports had been raised by 3 inches.
And it had a custom paint job.
Red plaid.
With pink upholstery.

My father made a deal with me.
"Keep the car for 6 months, until she forgets about it, and I'll get you a car."

The car sat behind the house for six months, and only moved to visit Gramma.
After six months, I was able to rid myself of the Omni, and got a Bronco.
I was going to get a Crown Vic, but couldn't get used to being in the front seat.

Bwahahahahahaha!

We had a Fiat back in the 70s. I loved that car. I thought it was soooo cool that you could turn around in circles without having to back up. My brother also had one. That sealed my love affair with small cars. Before that we always had really big cars. To this day, I hate big cars. I drive a 91 Geo Metro convertible. :D When I lived in LA, people couldn't believe the parking spaces I could get into.

My most embarrassing cars, when I was in high school, I had a yucky LeMans. When I first moved to LA, I bought a yucky mustang hatchback.

There is nothing yucky about a Mustang, woman! What are you thinking?

As much as I like it, I am somewhat embarrassed by the Red Baron.

The Mercury Sable is an ol' lady car.

Especially after the Talon.

I beg to differ..
http://media.motortopia.com/files/11...5MustangGT.jpg

I can't remember the most humiliating car I have ever had/driven, there have been several - It's what happens when your in a family of car traders - I can honestly say I have driven at least 3 different cars in 1 week. However, ones that stick out in my mind - was a dodge dart (the '70's era) an ugly green and dented, a chevette, don't even remember the year, but the struts were bad and that piece of crap would bounce like crazy. I have managed to put the past behind me and now drive this -

Attachment 22449

Nice. :thumb2:

Thanks

My first car was a Dodge Dart Sport it made me very cool in HS. My most humiliating car is my now 94 Explorer it is white always covered in mud , leaks gas, has no air, the drivers door barely shuts and is always full of Hub's junk.
I do have a PT Cruiser I traded for a puppy I love it. :)

Oh it wasn't a cool mustang, it was an ugly, crappy, uncool one. :D

Wow. I forgot about the humiliation of being seen in parental unit vehicles ... AMC Hornet Hatchback, Beige with Wood-tone and a Beige Chevy Chevette, awful car in the most humiliating color. The salesman indicated that he made it "sportier," as if anything could make a Chevette "sporty," by throwing in a brown pinstripe detail at no charge. I always assumed that they didn't have enough of that pinstriping kit left to decorate a full size car and just wanted to be rid of it.

My mother had a thing for beige.

Several contenders for the cars with, umm, the most personality. I really didn't find them humiliating, but one does notice & start to wonder when nobody will ride with you because of your car. I had a '67 Impala fastback that had been stolen from the previous owner several times. The thieves blasted the car through the garage doors, so it was banged up and looked terrible. My towering 5'0" self sitting behind the steering wheel, and extensions on all 3 pedals, plus all the exterior damage to the car, ensured that I had plenty of space around me on the highway, though. :p We also had an '83 Chevette, diesel, that had been shot at, rolled several times, and had plastic windows. No need to lock it, even in San Diego - nobody wanted to steal that cockroach car. We kept it a long time, then sold it for $200, same as we paid. I think growing up with a 1959 American Rambler* conditioned me to only caring about a car's innards, and not exterior.
*it was like this one, only bubblegum pink.

My very first car was a freebie - a Ford Fairlaine 500. Since it took at least 5 quarts of oil a day, I bought it by the case - "Around the World Re-recycled oil". CHEAP STUFF! But my MOST fav sheels came a couple years later, I got one of the first Yamaha 650 Specials - black with gold metal flake. I wore that bike out!

When I was in high school, we drove my grandfather's caddy (like this http://www.rrrclc.org/images2/80_Rankin%20(1)red.jpg) up from Florida. First, since it had been sitting in the sun, the top was bleached to a lighter color of shit brown than the rest of the car. The fabric on the roof was hanging down because the foam was rotted. The tape player ate tapes, one door didn't lock, one door didn't open.

The best part that at one point, my grandfather insisted on having a tap handle put in place of the missing hood ornament. I was riding around with an old school I.C. Light tap handle sticking out of my car. Yea, that was awesome :)

Iron City? - wow, haven't heard of that in forever.

Yea, he owned a beer distributor at one time that was in my uncle's possession. You should have seen it, big, plastic with the yellow triangle and everything. Luckily my mother got sick of it real quick.

Ok, who owned a Gremlin?

Keye Luke did, until he sold it.

Is there something wrong with me for having wanted a Pacer?

lol, me too..I thought it was cute.

I have never had a humiliating car. They've been old, cheap, shoddy maybe. But in this country you are judged more when you open your mouth. And in middle england there aren't enough people who can tell real quality these days, so I get by.

I've owned 5 (I think) and loved two of them. But a car is a car is a car. Actually, I've only owned one car that cost more than my watch. Said watch is currently unworn because it's a Tag Heuer and I can't afford to have the battery replaced.

I'm not ashamed of any of my old clunkers. Wish I had one now.

My first car was a 1985 VW GTI which I drove until 1994. By the end, the rear bumper had been thumped twice so it was kinda caved in, and the right door had been mashed so it had a big dent in it, and bits of the side molding were coming off. It had no power steering at all, and then it developed torque steer so hard, that to floor it meant the steering wheel could swerve hard to the right.

I think we traded it for $500. Should have kept it as a beater instead. Great beater car.

I loved my 84 GTI... only gave it up because Jim bought me the GLI Jetta... only gave that up because the damn baby seats wouldn't install right in it and Jim brought me home a Jeep Cherokee from work one day...

The Wife owned a Pinto Station Wagon before we started dating.

We speak not of it.

Wise CG, wise. Sometimes the indiscretions of youth are best buried in the past. :haha:

You found the bodies?

After a couple good cars and mostly not good cars, this is the one I'm drooling over. They had me at 6 speed manual transmission.

http://www.hidyhonda.com/Preowned-Inventory.aspx

The link takes you to the preowned site. If you sort by mileage it's the first car, red Civic SI.

I'm sure it's way out of my price range, but lumberjim or any car people, how do you find out their ballpark price without someone actively trying to get you to buy the car? I'd just like an idea what they're asking, so I can put my silly car dream to rest.

Which one shaw?

You have to be at preowned inventory and sort by mileage, lowest first.

It's the 2008 red Civic SI.