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chuckle, yeah this thread brings back memories, and you all are roughly my age as well, since i graduated in 1983.
#1 first car (that i bought) 72 chevy vega. it had 80k on it, and one tiny little rust spot dead square in the middle of the hatchback. It was a great car, had it from fall '82-summer 88.
I put a littel over 100k on it, and of course it was a "first car" so it had it's up and down but was very good overall, when you consider what i put it through.
Believe it or not, this was the only vega on the planet that didn't burn oil, no smog cloud at all. It _did_ leak it, but that was a user induced malfunction. I had a choie one night of cow or ditch, so i took the ditch and cracked the oilpan. didnt have the tools to fix it, so i just cleane dit up, and used RTV on the hairline crack, and reapplied whenever it came off :P
It finally died after i sold it to a army dormmate in 88, he pulled out in front of a big buick and totalled it, which taught me a lesson later, when you sign over a title, get a noterized copy, it will save your ass as it did mine, and i only did it on a lark.
#2 1987 ford ranger bought new, 147k miles (current).
oil pressure sendign unit went out at just under 2k miles, paint job was crappy, had it repainted 5 times, ford paid for all but the last, and it was prorated cause it had reached end of warrenty.
(i know the problem was a bad primer job, i proved it many time,s but they would never do more than sand and reshoot paint. it always started peeling again in the exact same spots, every time.
about 2 years ago, it started having a weird problem, elec in nature, but i dont have time to muck with it, so it's sitting till i either have time or moola.
overall not a bad vehicle.
#3 88 chevy cavalier, 285k miles current, i've put about 20k on it in last two years since the ranger died. It's a beater for work and home. needs more work than it is worth but if it lasts 2 more years i can either fix it up or put it out of it's misery.
back to that lesson about getting a noterised copy of transfer of title. I sold the vega ot a guy in the barracks. Our 1st sgt, mentioend getting everything noterised, didnt sound liek a bad idea, and i did so. When we switche dit over i had a noterised bill of sale, and a noterised copy of the title being transferred made since we were at the NP anyway.
It saved my butt.
We went to Ft. Erwin ( lovely place in summer:P) and the guy i sold it too stayed back causehe was going to ETS while we were gone. We were gone 45 days. About 40 days into the field problem, i get a snailmail from an insurance company, but no specifics.
turned out the guy i sold it too had pulled out in front of someone, and the accident was his fault, but he never switched the tags, even though he had the car for like 3 months.
so they were coming after me, for damages and medical.
The only things that saved my butt was the noterised copies of bill of sale and transfer of title.
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