The "What Do you drive?" thread....

[Rod Beauvex]

Wow, never realized there were so many cool car owners here. I just have a 1991 Ford Tempo with the 2.3HSC and lethargic 3 speed and a 1993 Ford F150 with the mighty 300 six inline six and five speed.



They're both a bit high on the milage, and they're not much too look at, and eahc has their own set of quirks, but they're both paid for.

I'm hoping to add this 1991 Grand Marquis to the mix, alledgely with just 41K on the clock. I had an 85 and loved it.

[technicolor]

[leadlike]

Ah, Rod! Your '91 Tempo brings back many wonderful memories of why I will never own a Ford again! My wife had that same year in red, and it was a dog through and through! Hope you never have to change a water pump on that thing!

It went to the shop over and over again for a deafening bearing noise-no shop could ever determine the cause, but all of the pulley components were changed over about a zillion times. It ate serpentine belts and bled oil everywhere-with only 60k on the odometer!

I did a lot of work on that car in the 18 months that we had it, and most of the respect I lost from Ford was how poorly their shop manual was written for that car. I don't know how many times I would come upon some cramped assembly that obviously required a special tool to change it out, and the Ford manual simply stated "take out the old one and put a new on in". Just shameful!

My last drive in it was nice. I had to drive it 5 miles to the dealership for a trade in. While it had been fine the day before, on this day, I started it up, and I had no power steering. I popped the hood, and was greeted to a running engine with no motion on the serpentine belt. So, I sped off to the dealership with no AC, alternator, water pump or power steering and crawled onto the lot with an overheated, dead battery mess. They still took it, though.

[Rod Beauvex]

Yikes, sounds like you got a lemon. Mine has been alright as far as reliabilty and driveability since I've had it, thankfully. I did have to replace the starter on it. The air doesn'r work in it though, and I've had little problems, like the AC switchbox not working properly, the headlight switch is also messed up, and has one hairtrigger position that lights bot hthe headlight and tail lights. It's one of Ford's lower end cars, that much is obvious, and with it's boxy appearence, OHV motor and 3 speed auto, was dated in 91 and especially 94 when it was discontinued.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Rod Beauvex

Yikes, sounds like you got a lemon. Mine has been alright as far as reliabilty and driveability since I've had it, thankfully. I did have to replace the starter on it. The air doesn'r work in it though, and I've had little problems, like the AC switchbox not working properly, the headlight switch is also messed up, and has one hairtrigger position that lights bot hthe headlight and tail lights. It's one of Ford's lower end cars, that much is obvious, and with it's boxy appearence, OHV motor and 3 speed auto, was dated in 91 and especially 94 when it was discontinued.

My brother bought a 1990 Mercury Topaz for his wife, at the end of the model year.
The car had many options on it for a $9,000 car. Air, power windows, auto transmission and stereo radio and tape, etc. Also a decent color exterior. Deep metallic red. They only drove it for fifteen years.
Crazy little problems like an accelerator cable that snapped in heavy traffic and a few other minor problems.
Good value for the money.

[StellarTV]

Here's me with my car Clyde, a 1957 Imperial. Aka "Clyde the Ride"



I built this replica of KITT from Knight Rider out of an 82 Trans Am. Sold late last year, sadly.

[Sandy G]

LOVE that Imperial...1st use of curved sideglass on a "Major" brand...That, & the heroic Exner fins...Possibly the BEST looking car of 1957..

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

LOVE that Imperial...1st use of curved sideglass on a "Major" brand...That, & the heroic Exner fins...Possibly the BEST looking car of 1957..

It's too bad so many of them were scrapped early in their life. The MoPars of the day, didn't have much of a demand on the used car market. Poor fit and finish, as well as an early rusting problem, sealed their demise.

[StellarTV]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It's too bad so many of them were scrapped early in their life. The MoPars of the day, didn't have much of a demand on the used car market. Poor fit and finish, as well as an early rusting problem, sealed their demise.

I hear a lot of guys mention how they made great demo-derby cars... that or the Hemis were pulled out by the hot rodders.

This car came from the California central valley... only rust problem is a spot about an inch round on the rear passenger side rocker. It was garage kept and still has the original vinyl padded dash and door panels.

[markdi]

I loved my grand am that i transplanted a w41 ho quad four into.
Drove it for over 20 years put over 450,000 miles on it
Very fast and cheap to own
I did all of the repairs and maintenance my self.
No prelude ever out ran me

[markdi]

My w41 was extrude honed had hollow aftermarket cams - - etc
Lots of modifications
It had about 230+ hp and it was reliable

I drove it very hard all the time like a idiot.
I drove it like i stole it

[truetone36]

I wish I still had my '59 Imperial.

[Jon A.]

My favorite Imperial is the 1966 "Black Beauty" from the Green Hornet TV series. It's also the only custom car I really like. The car I want most though is a base model 1981 or 1982 Mercury Lynx 2-door in medium blue metallic with a medium wedgewood blue interior, 4-speed manual and of course one of my factory 8-track stereos. Here's a pic of one, but in a different color.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

My favorite Imperial is the 1966 "Black Beauty" from the Green Hornet TV series. It's also the only custom car I really like. The car I want most though is a base model 1981 or 1982 Mercury Lynx 2-door in medium blue metallic with a medium wedgewood blue interior, 4-speed manual and of course one of my factory 8-track stereos. Here's a pic of one, but in a different color.

I had two of those, back 20 years ago. Wait, three....one was a wagon.

I liked them, they were kinda neat. I made a body kit for one of them too.....out of plastic gutters, and painted it same color as the car. It actually looked really good!

Although I did like the 85 1/2 Escort/Lynx style better....when they came out, I was amazed at the sexy European look they had. Well, after all, it was 1985......

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I had two of those, back 20 years ago. Wait, three....one was a wagon.

I liked them, they were kinda neat. I made a body kit for one of them too.....out of plastic gutters, and painted it same color as the car. It actually looked really good!

Although I did like the 85 1/2 Escort/Lynx style better....when they came out, I was amazed at the sexy European look they had. Well, after all, it was 1985......

I saw the wagon version of the one I want on Craigslist one time, seems that it sold fairly quickly. The '84 we had when I was a kid had some problems when we first got it that were mostly caused by abusive previous owners. Once everything was fixed it performed quite well, its performance in the snow being especially good. Unfortunately it was sold in favor of a hand-down Dodge Lancer that developed a myriad of problems, just because the Dodge was a 4-door. An upstairs neighbor had an '84 Lynx that held up quite well in a rear-end collision, only the bumper was ruined. Ford kind of shot themselves in the foot in regards to earlier models with the interference engine, they failed to educate the public to replace the timing belt every 60k.

I have a bunch of the harder-to-find, mostly NOS non-mechanical parts for the 1981-early 1985 models, including the little black hubcaps that were exclusive to the lower-trim models. A 1981-82 grille hangs on the wall above my desk. One good thing about this car's lack of popularity as that many parts can be had cheap. I figure it was better to start stockpiling these parts when I did, rather than trying to find the parts when the need comes up.