My Cars • Automotive Links

My Cars

Like most guys, I love cars. I'm not a gearhead, but I've always loved sports cars. I've been lucky enough to own a few cool, fun-to-drive sport coupes over the past few years. In fact the cars I've owned just keep getting better and better! I'm working my way up to eventually get my all-time favorite, a Corvette!

82 Buick Skyhawk • 84 Nissan 200sx • 86 Subaru GL-10 • 91 Plymouth Laser • 86 Mazda 626 GT
95 Dodge Avenger • 99 Mercury Cougar • 02 Ford Mustang Convertible 


My very first car!  What a chick magnet - hahaha! (Click picture to enlarge)

My first car:
1982 Buick Skyhawk

  • Color: red
  • Body style: coupe
  • Automatic transmission, front-wheel drive
  • 1.8L 4-cyl carbureted engine
  • Owned: circa August 1989 - November 1991
  • Cool features: Chrome luggage rack on the trunk (yeah baby!)
  • Totaled by my brother when he hit a deer, Thanksgiving 1991.

I was lucky enough to have parents who were willing to buy me a car to use for my Senior year of high school. The drawback was that I also had to share it with my younger brother, and couldn't take it with me to college. This was a great first car -- sporty and fun to drive, but not too much power to get you into trouble. And it didn't look like everyone else's Escort or Cavalier (even though it shares the J-body platform with the Cavalier). We went through two rebuilt carbs and replaced the alternator ourselves.

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This is the body style and color of my 200sx, but I had different wheels.  (Not a picture of my actual car.)

1984 Nissan 200sx

  • Color: silver
  • Body style: sport coupe
  • Manual transmission, rear-wheel drive
  • 2.0L 4-cyl fuel injected engine
  • Owned: circa December 1990- July 1991
  • Cool features: Awsome mag wheels, 5-speed rear wheel drive, sunroof, digital dash
  • Totaled by my brother when he was cut off and hit a utility pole.

I still have no idea how my brother convinced my dad to buy this car, taking us from a carbureted, automatic transmission, front-wheel-drive car to a fuel injected, manual transmission, rear wheel drive pocket rocket, but I'm glad he did! Even though this was a 4-cylinder version of the 200sx (there was a V6 available as well), this car could move! It was especially fun to drive in the rain and snow. Since owning this car, I have been hooked on manual transmission cars. We replaced a bunch of parts on this car too, including the washer fluid pump and the electronic dash computer. Unfortunately I only got to drive it a few months before my brother totaled it. (Noticing a pattern here?)

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This car is almost identical to mine, except for the stripes on the lower rocker panels, and different wheels.  (Not a picture of my actual car)

1986 Subaru GL-10 Turbo

  • Color: dark grey
  • Body style: sport sedan
  • Manual transmission, front or four-wheel drive
  • 1.8L 4-cyl Turbo engine
  • Owned: circa August 1992 - September 1995
  • Cool features: Four-wheel drive, electronic height control, sunroof, power everything

After my brother totaled my first two cars, my parents decided I should have my OWN car to take back to Penn State. (Smart move... my brother ended up totaling his third car as well!)  For a 4-door, this was a kick-ass little car! This was a great sports sedan with 5-speed tranny, shift-on-the-fly 4-wheel drive, turbocharged engine, and even a little spoiler! The GL-10 was a top-of-the-line Subaru, pretty much a "luxury car" by my standards. The 4-wheel drive was great for getting out of State College snowfalls, although it also made me a bit more cocky than I probably should have been. This little car lasted me till 1995, when one of the electro-hydraulic shock absorbers burst. Instead of replacing the entire hydraulic system (which would have cost more than the value of the car), I had the car converted to a fixed-height suspension, then ended up selling it a few months later.

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My '91 Plymouth Laser.  What a sleek, sporty car!  (Click picture to enlarge)

1991 Plymouth Laser

  • Color: gold
  • Body style: 2-door hatchback
  • Manual transmission, front-wheel drive
  • 1.8L fuel injected engine
  • Owned: September 1995 - May 1998
  • Cool features: Great-looking car, hatchback had good luggage space

This was a base model Laser but it was about all I could afford at the time. (Actually, I think my parents helped pay for this one too.) But I got the sporty look and handling of the Laser / Eagle Talon / Mitsubishi Eclipse for a lot less money, not to mention lower insurance rates. I always wanted an AWD Talon, but this was a nice alternative. This is also when my love of hatchbacks started. I kept this car until moving to Virginia, when my wife and I sold both our cars to buy our Dodge Avenger (see below).

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Our car looked very similar to this one, except white

1986 Mazda 626 GT "Touring Sedan"

  • Color: white
  • Body style: 4-door hatchback
  • Manual transmission, front-wheel drive
  • 2.0L 4-cyl Turbo engine
  • Owned: circa November 1995 - March 1998
  • Cool features: Turbo, fully loaded, cavernous trunk

This was my wife's (girlfriend at the time) second car, which I eventually "inherited through marriage". I actually helped her buy it! This was another fantastic car, certainly one of my favorites. Like my Subaru, it was a true sports sedan with a 5-speed and a turbocharged engine. The hatchback was the icing on the cake. Do you know how hard it is to find a 4-door hatchback these days, other than ugly wagon-style cars like the Focus? (Let's hope Mazda brings the Mazda6 hatchback to the US!) This car was so wide you could fit a twin bed (mattress AND box spring) in the trunk, although it did stick out the back a bit. The car was fully loaded (except for leather) and FAST too. If it weren't for having around 112,000 miles on it, I doubt we ever would have gotten rid of it!

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Our '95 Dodge Avenger. (Click to enlarge)

1995 Dodge Avenger

  • Color: white
  • Body style: coupe
  • Automatic transmission, front-wheel drive
  • 2.0L 4-cyl engine
  • Owned: March 1998 - August 2002
  • Cool features: Another great-looking car
  • Related website: Avenger-Sebring Owners Group

Both my wife and I fell in love with the Dodge Avenger when it was released in 1995, even test-driving one while in college. After moving to Virginia, we decided to sell both of our cars and get an inexpensive, low-mileage car to share. We found this '95 Avenger at a great price and only 58k miles. Although the car was a bit underpowered (16 valve, 2.0L I4), it was still fun to drive and a great looking car. It was also very comfortable, and surprisingly reliable! We kept this car to 100,000 miles and would have kept it even longer, except that we were buying a new car and couldn't seem to sell our Cougar (see below).

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Here's a picture of our '99 Cougar, taken while white water rafting in West Virginia.  Click here for more pictures.

1999 Mercury Cougar
Our first NEW car!

  • Color: dark "tourmaline" green
  • Body style: sport coupe / hatchback
  • Manual transmission, front-wheel drive
  • 3.0L V6 
  • Owned: March 1999 - present
  • Cool features: Cutting-edge styling, peppy and fun to drive, cavernous trunk space
  • Related websites: New Edge Cougar Owners (NECO),
    NECO Message Forums

When the new Cougar was released in 1999, my wife and I immediately fell in love with the styling.  We looked at a bunch of cars including the Saturn SC1, Cavalier, and the Hyundai Tiburon.  Besides the Tiburon, the Cougar was the only hatchback of the group.  It was also the only car in its class with an available V6. The sportier and faster imports (Celica, Eclipse, Integra) were too expensive, and both the Celica and Eclipse were going to be redesigned for 2000.  We considered the Camaro, another V6 hatchback, but decided to go with the front wheel drive and larger trunk of the Cougar.

Life with the Cougar has been a love-hate relationship. There are so many things I really like about this car, including the styling, the performance (probably just a hair slower than our Mazda 626 Turbo), and the cargo space. But being a first year model, the car had quite a few bugs to be worked out and was frequently in the shop for recall work. In addition, the seats are extremely uncomfortable on my back, even for short trips.  I've also heard a lot of horror stories from other Cougar owners about major transmission and electrical problems, but so far we've been fairly lucky.

In May we decided to put the Cougar up for sale in preparation for buying a new car. We had the car listed on Cars.com and Autoweb.com for more than three months without receiving a single serious inquiry. Even though our price was reasonable, there were just too many 99+ Cougars on the market, and a glut in the used car market in general. With only a week until our new car was to arrive, we decided to put both the Cougar and our Avenger in the newspaper and see which one sold first. Surprisingly we had only one phone call the entire weekend, but luckily he wanted to buy the Avenger at our asking price.  So it looks like we'll be holding onto the Cougar for a while longer... which is good, because the hatchback is SO convenient for making runs to Home Depot!

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Our 2002 Mustang convertible finally arrived in August. We still need to add the rocker panel stripes. Click here for more pictures.

Our new car!
2002 Ford Mustang convertible

  • Color: True Blue w/white top and interior
  • Body style: convertible sports car
  • Manual transmission, rear-wheel drive
  • 3.8L V6
  • Purchase date: August 24, 2002
  • Cool features: The top comes off!  Plus white leather inside and all the bells and whistles.
  • Related websites: Stangnet Forums, Northern Virginia Mustang Club

In the spring of 2002 we were bit by the convertible bug, after my brother and then my dad got Mitsubishi Eclipse and Chrysler Sebring convertibles, respectively.  We wanted to have something different and decided to go with a true front-engine rear-drive sports car.  Although it's a V6 rather than the V8 model, this car has plenty of power especially when coupled with the 5-speed manual transmission.  This is one of those cars I have always dreamed of owning.  After the Corvette and a few exotic performance cars, the Mustang is one of my favorite cars.  And I have always wanted a metallic blue car.

You would never believe everything we had to go through to get this car.  When we decided to get a Mustang, we knew we wanted a V6 for cost and insurance reasons. After driving both automatic and manual transmission versions, we decided we had to have the 5-speed because of the improved performance. We were also very particular about the color combinations we would accept -- blue or red with a white or tan top, or green and tan. And we also wanted ABS and traction control (with a rear wheel drive car), and hoped to get leather as well. Furthermore, a white roof (our first color choice was blue and white) is not available with cloth, only with white leather upholstery. Unfortunately for us, Ford offers a "premium" package that includes ABS, traction control, and leather, but also adds automatic transmission and a six-disc stereo.  Because of this, most dealers ordered Premium model convertibles, and those with manual transmissions rarely had ABS, traction control, or leather.

It was already late in the model year, and by the time we realized we would not find the car we wanted on a dealer's lot, it was too late to order a 2002 Mustang and we would have to order a 2003, thereby missing out on Ford's rebates and incentives. So we went back to looking for used 5-speed convertibles with the colors and options we wanted. My wife stumbled across a 2001 Mustang at a dealership in Florida and inquired about it.  It turned out the car didn't have ABS, but the dealer insisted that he could still order a 2002 Mustang for us, if we could come pick it up.  So we ordered the car and started planning a trip to Florida! That was at the end of May... but by mid-August we still didn't have our car!  It seemed Ford kept pushing the production date back, and we were starting to wonder whether we would ever actually get our car or not.  In fact we were incredibly close to scrapping the whole thing and buying this 1996 Corvette convertible.  But finally the car arrived, and we flew down to Florida and drove it back over the next two days.  Of course when we ordered it we thought we'd take some time off and make a mini-vacation out of it, but that was before Jen started her new job.  But we finally have our car, and let me tell you, it looks SWEET!  The 1000-mile drive back from Florida gave us a great chance to learn all about the car, and it is certainly one of the most comfortable cars I've ever driven on a long trip.  So far I have no complaints, and I love the looks we get from other people (including a horn-blow and thumbs up on the way home from FL).

There are a few things we want to do to our Mustang, including adding white rocker panel stripes (only available in the "premium" package).  We may also consider getting a dual exhaust.  We just joined the Northern Virginia Mustang Club and hope to participate in their cruises and drag days.  I can't wait to run the Mustang and Cougar against each other!

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Automotive Links

As I said, I'm a car enthusiast.  In addition to websites related to the cars I own (which are listed above), here are a bunch of fun and useful auto websites that I frequent.

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