I really really miss driving a stick. I felt like I had more control...
Drove a stick for the first time in years recently at the auto show. Ford kid said he'd have to take over the driving if I killed the car.
After some high speed passing and a few well executed downshifts the kid said he "liked my style"
Manual transmission is hella fun when the traffic is light. Heavy traffic and a manual are a bad combo.
The new manual transmissions shift very smoothly. I was impressed even if it was a Ford!
I drove a Daytona before we found Baby...if you floored it for a peelout start, the turbo kicked in & pushed the car hard left, so you had to be an experienced, SMART driver in that car. It was something of a lemon, and we got tired of nickle & diming it (plus we found Baby, my dream car), so we put the Daytona up for sale. It was pretty sweet looking; the stupid original owner put a bra on it though, and that basically allowed gravel up under to destroy the finish on the front end. As long as you left the bra on, the car looked great. This guy wanted to buy it...for his son's 16th birthday. We have never tried so hard to talk someone out of buying a car as we did with that guy - told him about the finish, told him about the hard pull with the turbo, told him all the bugs, because we knew what was going to happen. He finally broke us down. Kid wrapped it around a telephone pole a week later. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt seriously. I really wanted to hunt that dad down and cuss him out for being so dang stupid, though.
Girl here had a somewhat similar story. Tried to talk a young marine out of buying her Corvette. By the sound of it the guy was lucky to survive. Wrecked it on his way back to Camp Pendleton is what I'm told.
My latest purchase 2014 Silverado (pic from web, but almost identical):
![]()
Forgot to add - pop-up headlamps are probably the dumbest design ever...
This guy wanted to buy it...for his son's 16th birthday. We have never tried so hard to talk someone out of buying a car as we did with that guy - told him about the finish, told him about the hard pull with the turbo, told him all the bugs, because we knew what was going to happen. He finally broke us down. Kid wrapped it around a telephone pole a week later.
Forgot to add - pop-up headlamps are probably the dumbest design ever...
Yeah....but they were cool!
I still find it hard to believe that today's Honda Accord V-6 could take the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am in a race.
I never, ever want to see this. A part of my soul would die
Aaaarrrgggghhhhhh!!!! To follow up on my Trans Am story, I regretted selling it and bought another one four years later that was nearly identical. Everything works fine....except the stupid, stupid headlights. I've had them apart more times than I can count, replaced the stupid nylon gears with brass, replaced both motors....they're still junk. I'm strongly considering putting in thin LEDs in place of the pop-ups. They would look nice, but it's stock and I don't want to mess with it. The complete housing for the lights is $850...for one. And almost all of them at the junkyard are junk too.
My first new car was a 1978 Cutlass, two door with vinyl over the back. It was one of the first "down sized" cars. Great car. Any rate, I eventually traded it for a 1986 4 door Honda Accord, 5 speed---with yes the pop up headlights. One of the first mainstream imports,,many new standard features, that are now universal. Changed forever how Americans viewed automobiles.Forgot to add - pop-up headlamps are probably the dumbest design ever...
My first new car was a 1978 Cutlass, two door with vinyl over the back. It was one of the first "down sized" cars. Great car. Any rate, I eventually traded it for a 1986 4 door Honda Accord, 5 speed---with yes the pop up headlights. One of the first mainstream imports,,many new standard features, that are now universal. Changed forever how Americans viewed automobiles.
Forgot to add - pop-up headlamps are probably the dumbest design ever...