The Inbetweeners – Cars that we have owned between all those Porsches

I have owned a lot of cars. Seems like there is a new one in the garage all the time. Funny thing though, a majority were used (or maybe more politically correct to say…pre-owned). What does this list say about us and our automotive choices? Well except for Porsches, we get tired of cars pretty fast, we say that we are going to keep them forever and don’t and for the most part, have owned a little bit of everything. But I will say that when I sell a car, it is usually in much better shape than when I bought it. It is a good idea to buy one of my cars, it will be spotlessly clean, the maintenance will be up to date and (especially with the Porsches) have some very tasty mods installed.

When it comes to Porsches, I have a problem. I call it the Slippery Slope and I cannot help myself, I just have to make the car better. I waxed on and on about it in a column I wrote for Planet-9.com and if you want to read about my addiction, here is the link (http://www.planet-9.com/robert-turner/56140-slippery-slope.html). My wife read it, and commented about my “hobby” and noted that my automotive excess tended to be very expensive. “But at least I’m not addicted to Golf !” I proudly pointed out and then went on to say that at least she was not a Golf widow. No, she countered, she was a Garage widow – which amounts to same thing and based on the cost of Porsche mods, she pointed out that we would probably come out ahead if I started playing Golf 2-3 times a week. Hmmm, she had me there…

So I thought I would compile a list of all the vehicles we have owned or been assigned (including company cars) since my first 1965 Ford Mustang (listed in chronological order from first vehicle owned to most recent). This list includes the car my wife was driving when we met as well as the cars that I have purchased for my two teenage sons (but still have title to). It is quite a long list. There are some pretty bad vehicles along the way…enjoy.

1. 1965 Ford Mustang
2. 1972 Chevy Vega
3. 1980 Puch Moped*
4. 1976 Honda CB 400F
5. 1979 Fiat Strada
6. 1972 Porsche 914
7. 1985 Suzuki GS550E
8. 1965 Ford Mustang (a different one that listed above)
9. 1986 Acura Integra*
10. 1990 Acura Integra ES*
11. 1986 Nissan Pulsar* (ouch we had one of those…actually was my wife’s car)
12. 1987 Porsche 944S
13. 1990 Ford Aerostar Minivan* (it totally sucked) – Company car
14. 1993 Mazda 626*
15. 1993 Dodge Caravan* – company car
16. 1990 BMW 525i
17. 1996 Dodge Caravan* – company car
18. 1999 Ford Explorer
19. 1999 Dodge Intrepid – Company car (shorted we had a car – 8 weeks)
20. 1999 BMW 528i
21. 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera – 930
22. 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo – 951
23. 2001 Ford Excursion
24. 1999 Porsche Boxster
25. 1992 BMW 525i Touring
26. 2001 Volvo S60
27. 1983 Mercedes 230E
28. 2005 Honda CR-V*
29. 2006 Audi A3*
30. 2007 Honda CR-V*
31. 2004 VW Touareg V8
32. 1992 Mazda Miata
33. 1993 Porsche 968
34. 2001 Porsche Boxster S
35. 2007 Ford F-150 (teenage sons car)
36. 1995 Jeep Wrangler Sahara (other teenage sons car)
37. 2007 VW Passat (wife’s current car)
38. 2006 Porsche Cayman S (my current car)
39. 2008 VW GTI (replaced Ford F-150 when gas bills got rampant)

Wow, that is quite a list! Almost 40 cars in a lifetime. And I have no doubt that 50 is easily attainable (I am sure my wife is cringing as she is reading this). So tell me, what should our 40thcar be? I suspect that my wife is due to get the Passat replaced next. How do I know this? Intuition….

So we had the Touareg and she said that we were going to keep this SUV for years, maybe until the boys were through with college. Problem was it was about to turn 140K miles and I dreaded the maintenance items that were no doubt on the horizon, but I was cool with it. It needed new tires: did my research and found the perfect set of tires (General Grabber UHP) on Tirerack.com. These were very highly rated, inexpensive too and were so much more quite than the previous tires on the SUV.

So we settled in for a long stretch of ownership. Then one day a few months after we had put on the new tires, we were watching TV and an ad come of for the VW Jetta and my wife looked up at me and said, they were cute and she could maybe see herself driving something smaller, more economical. And she decided that maybe, we should go drive one. Uh oh, that means that her forever is about to come due today. We went to our local VW store and tested the Jetta and Passat. She loved the Passat; we drove one home. I figure it is safe until we get a new set of tires on it….

Until next time…