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1984 Honda CBR 125
Summer, 1987

My Honda CB125 was a great motorcycle, and also my first street legal vehicle. I got it for my 14th birthday. In Oklahoma it’s legal to get a motorcycle license when you’re 14, and I took advantage of this with my little red bike. I even took my driver’s test on this bike — they placed a speaker in my helmet, and an officer followed behind me, telling me where and when to turn.

I never had any problems with this bike. It got great mileage, and would get up and boogie pretty well for a 125. The people we purchased this bike from toted it around on the back of their RV, and so it only had 300 miles on it when we purchased it in 1987. I kept this bike for two years and rode it daily until I turned sixteen.

1999 Isuzu Rodeo
Summer, 1999 – Early 2006

This is the third new vehicle we have owned, after Susan’s Saturn and my Neon. On both the Saturn and the Neon we skimped on some of the options, and later regretted it. With this one, we got it loaded.

Except for 4WD, the Rodeo is loaded. Power windows, power locks, 3 power points (extra cigarette lighter spots), 3 transmissions (standard, Winter, and Towing), Cruise, Tilt, 6 disc in dash CD changer, luggage rack, running boards, 17 inch wheels and tires, etc etc.

After only 2 years, this car had 38,000 miles on it and was going strong. Haven’t done any major modifications to it yet, mostly because my wife would kill me. She has to sleep sometime.

Note: The Rodeo currently has 99,000 miles, is paid off, and still runs and drives like new. Recently we had to have a new rear window put into it …

Update: After purchasing the Avalanche, we sold the Rodeo to a co-worker for $4,000.

1996 Dodge Neon
Fall, 1996-2003

This ’96 Neon was my first new car. I drove the car off the lot and next door to “Custom Car Stereo’s” and had a Eclipse CD player added to the dash. Later on, I added a Punch 75 amp, and 2 Crunch 12′s in the trunk in a crappy box with too many air ports. It would probably have be a decent box if it didn’t have so many vents!

The Neon was a screamin’ little machine. I’ve had it at 120+ mph on the straightaways in Montana.

At 35,000 miles, the car developed an oil leak which turned out the be the head gasket. Eventually Dodge agreed to fix it for free. At around 70,000 miles, the paint began peeling, and the transmission developed a leak. I had the leak fixed but never did anything about the paint. At somewhere around 80,000 miles, we sold this car to a co-worker’s 16 year old daughter. The last I heard, she was still driving and loving it. The Neon was a good car, we just outgrew it.

Update: In the spring of 2004, the car was taken from a party on a joyride and was totalled.

1995 Geo Tracker
Fall, 2001-Present

It took a whole month after selling the van before I got the itch again. This little Geo Tracker is a ’95 with 120,000 miles on it, but it runs and looks new!

I’ve already put new wheels, tires, stereo, hard top, and some more mods into this little pup. In 2002 I had over $2000 worth of stereo equipment installed into the Tracker. In 2003, all the stereo equipment was stolen while the car was parked in my driveway overnight. I’ve driven the car very little since then and am planning on selling it the spring.

UPDATE: I sold the car today (6/13/2006) for $1,800. The car had 139,200 miles, and I sold it to a guy from Harrah, OK.

1993 Saturn SC2 Sports Coupe
1993-1999

This was actually my wife’s car, but after the Festiva blew up and the Dune Buggy got stolen, she felt sorry for me and let me drive her car. This was a Saturn sports coupe, and was loaded. Leather interior, sun roof, power everything — nice car. Never did anything with the stereo in it (hey, wasn’t my car), but drove the heck out of it.

This car has a lot of good stories. While we were living in Spokane, WA, it was stolen. It was missing for the greater part of a day, and we found it later that day with a broken window and about 300 miles on it. Then, a few weeks later, the engine blew, and we had to replace the engine. Of course, neither of those were Saturn’s fault. For the most part, it was a good car that we drove the crap out of (100,000 miles in 6 years).

We sold this car in 1999 and the guy who bought it traded it in on another car.

1990 Suzuki Swift – AKA the $100 car.
Purchased Fall, 2001

This is an interesting story.

A coworker’s son (the guy who bought the Chevy Astro from me, in fact) picked up this beauty from a friend at school for $180. It was red. The kids decided to spray paint it white. Their goal was to take this car out to the woods and jump it until it died (probably not too many jumps, I’m guessing). Their mother decided this was in fact a bad idea, and came to work announcing the car was for sale. Another coworker decided to buy the car from the kid for an even $180. In fact, he drove it from OKC to Norman, approx 20 miles, with no problem.

Two days later, that coworker got a speeding ticket on the way to work (no, no in this!) and decided he needed to sell the car for cash. Always seeking a good opportunity (good is debatable) I decided to pick up the car for $120. My original plan was to cut the top off the car, remove the doors, and make a smash up derby car. My alternative plan was to fix up the car and sell it for a profit.

Here is a brief list of things that were wrong with the car: Front hood, missing (found later, beat to hell). Body had several dents, rust, was ripped at the fender. Tires were all showing metal. Two windows were uninstalled and in the back seat. Car had been spray painted white. 3rd and 5th gear were missing, 4th had problems. Most interior panels were missing. The battery, air cleaner, and wheels had been spray painted silver.

I told myself that if I had not touched the car in one month, I would sell the car on Ebay. 32 days later, I drafted up an ad and sold the car. I got $135. Subtract the $50 listing, and that comes out to $85 – a net loss of $35. Oh well.

1987 Nissan Truck
Purchased in 1994

I traded my father a computer for this truck, so I could have something to drive around town after the Festiva died.

This truck actually does have a lot of history. When I moved to Spokane Washington in 1996, I left the truck and was going to come back for it. That same weekend my sister had a car wreck and was left carless. She drove the tires off the truck while I was gone, putting around 50,000 miles on it in a year and a half I believe. When I came back, the truck was right around 170,000 miles. I drove it a couple of times while we were moving, and then parked it after that. I eventually sold the truck for $1000 to my wife’s cousin. It’s still alive and running fine! No modifications were done to this truck either, although some safety ones probably should have.

One time my wife took this truck in to Wal-Mart to get it inspected. Not only would they not inspect it, but they offered to call her a cab and really didn’t want her to drive it home. Instead, we peeled a safety inspection sticker off of a different car and stuck it on the truck. So there.

Note: My wife’s cousin recently sold this truck to a friend of his. At last date, it had 260,000 miles on it. Should’ve kept it.

1987 Chevy Astro
Spring, 1998

I have *always* wanted a Chevy Astro. My parents owned one, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Mine, as you can see, was black with gray trim and gray interior.

The van overall was reliable, but I never fully trusted it. I did two or three repairs on the van and it never regained my trust. I ended up selling this van for $2000, but I knew the money would go toward another toy – it did, my Tracker (see below). I sold the van to a co-worker’s son, who has recently repainted both the inside and outside of the van, and it’s still running today!

Update: The co-worker’s son eventually destroyed the van, and he sold it for $200.

1986 Yugo
Fall, 1990

My parents, being the loving souls that they are, decided I had been through enough pain and suffering and would help me purchase a new vehicle. New Yugos had gone on sale for $3495, and I thought it was kind of cool and could be fixed up kind of neat, so we decided to get one.

One month later I totaled it. It was raining, I was tailgating, wasn’t paying attention, blah blah blah … learned a lesson that night (the hard way – with my forehead into the windshield). In that month though, I had already added a custom box in the hatch that held 2 Fosgate 15″ subwoofers, still powered by the same Roadmaster amp I think. Whatever it was, it didn’t have enough power. I remember driving with my dad to the tow yard to go get the remains of my stereo system out of the car before they totaled it.

At this point in time, I went back to driving the Firebird. It had only been a month, so we hadn’t sold it yet!

1986 Honda Shadow
Spring, 2002-Winter, 2002

My father bought this motorcycle basically new in 1987. I have asked him every year since then if he was ready to sell it. In 2002, he gave in. Don’t feel too sorry for him, it’s basically because due to his Corvette, his new Chevy truck, and his ’56 Olds, he was out of room! I made room, and moved this bad boy to my garage.

In the winter of 2002, my dad has sold his Corvette and his Olds and got motorcycle fever again. I sold the motorcycle back to my dad for the original purchase price. He got his bike back, and I got to ride it for free basically for 6 months. While I liked the Shadow (and looked good on it, too!), I decided in the end what I really wanted was a sport bike.