What do you drive…

[esteban]

I also have a 2008 Honda Civic. But it's a coupe, not a sedan. And a manual transmission. I've probably already posted somewhere in this thread about it. 100% paid off. That's my favorite feature.

I always love seeing others that still drive manuals.  Not counting my wife's cars, I've only owned two automatics in my entire life, and I owned each of them for less than 12 months.

82' Datsun 200SX manual
84' Ford Festiva manual

 

[SignOfZeta]

There's no such thing as an '84 Festiva!

[esteban]

There's no such thing as an '84 Festiva!

Hmmmm... it was mid-80's...that's for sure.

LX?

Maroon red.

I only sold it because I was moving back to NJ....

[Desh]

I also have a 2008 Honda Civic. But it's a coupe, not a sedan. And a manual transmission. I've probably already posted somewhere in this thread about it. 100% paid off. That's my favorite feature.

I always love seeing others that still drive manuals.  Not counting my wife's cars, I've only owned two automatics in my entire life, and I owned each of them for less than 12 months.

This!  I always own at least one vehicle with 3 pedals at all times.

[wildfruit]

I have only ever owned manual transmission vehicles. How I yearn for an automatic. Years of doing a clutch in stop start traffic is not kind to the left leg. Especially now I have sciatica. My new bmw rev matches the engine when you depress the clutch so it's like having an auto where you still move it yourself. On the plus side makes it super smooth.
Regarding the Buick Regal, I have it in its European guise and I'd say it's big enough for almost anything. Especially in sport tourer form. Wish the entry model had the same 2.4l that the US variant does. 1.8l struggles with the weight of the car.

[TDIRunner]

Once in college I was driving a friends car which was an automatic transmission.  At that point in time, I hadn't driven an automatic in like 4 years.  I couldn't figure out how to get the keys out of the ignition until I finally realized that I had to put it in "park."  What the hell is "park?" 

[crazydean]

1986 Pontiac Fiero. 2.5L 4-cylinder, 5-speed manual. I had to ship a guitar and this was the only way I could get the box to fit.



2006 Kawasaki ZX-14. I ride it to school pretty often since there is motorcycle parking and finding regular car parking can be difficult.

[SignOfZeta]

There's no such thing as an '84 Festiva!

Hmmmm... it was mid-80's...that's for sure.

LX?

Maroon red.

I only sold it because I was moving back to NJ....

You might be confusing Fiesta with Festiva. Both are pretty cool little cars, but there was a gap in 84 where neither were sold in the US.

[csgx1]

1986 Pontiac Fiero. 2.5L 4-cylinder, 5-speed manual. I had to ship a guitar and this was the only way I could get the box to fit.

Nice, clean looking Fiero.  Sadly, original ones are getting harder to find since a lot of Fieros were hacked up for Ferrari/Lambo replica kit cars

My Mom had a '84 Fiero that looked just like that.  It was the very 1st car I drove and basically learned how to drive with it.  I feel bad, it was a 5 speed manual and I burned out the clutch practicing on it.   


 

[SignOfZeta]

1986 Pontiac Fiero. 2.5L 4-cylinder, 5-speed manual. I had to ship a guitar and this was the only way I could get the box to fit.

Nice, clean looking Fiero.  Sadly, original ones are getting harder to find since a lot of Fieros were hacked up for Ferrari/Lambo replica kit cars

Is that the kind of story Fiero fans tell themselves?

The price of those gross kits combined with the installation bill exceeded the worth of any Fiero by 1992. Very very few people did this, and the Fiero sold many times however many of those body kits were made. I don't think any body kit manufacturer has sold anywhere near 163,000 kits before. I'll bet money on that actually.

The Fieros are all gone because they are old and nobody cares. Well, there is a guy in Sandford, Mi that has a few dozen rolling shells and one Diabo ver. Most things from that far back are gone, even the cool shit. Try to find a super clean '89 Civic Si. Just try. Seriously.

In the end, if you want a cheap MR supercar the Fiat X1/9 and Toyota MR2 (AW11) are a much better use of your restoration dollars, most people would agree, and that's why you see more Miatas than any of them.

[TDIRunner]

1986 Pontiac Fiero. 2.5L 4-cylinder, 5-speed manual. I had to ship a guitar and this was the only way I could get the box to fit.

Nice, clean looking Fiero.  Sadly, original ones are getting harder to find since a lot of Fieros were hacked up for Ferrari/Lambo replica kit cars

Is that the kind of story Fiero fans tell themselves?

The price of those gross kits combined with the installation bill exceeded the worth of any Fiero by 1992. Very very few people did this, and the Fiero sold many times however many of those body kits were made. I don't think any body kit manufacturer has sold anywhere near 163,000 kits before. I'll bet money on that actually.

The Fieros are all gone because they are old and nobody cares. Well, there is a guy in Sandford, Mi that has a few dozen rolling shells and one Diabo ver. Most things from that far back are gone, even the cool shit. Try to find a super clean '89 Civic Si. Just try. Seriously.

In the end, if you want a cheap MR supercar the Fiat X1/9 and Toyota MR2 (AW11) are a much better use of your restoration dollars, most people would agree, and that's why you see more Miatas than any of them.

My understanding was that the Lambo replica kits were not so much for Fiero fans who wanted a fake Lambo, but that it was more for movie studios and TV shows that needed a Lambo in a chase scene (and probably crash) and didn't have the budget for the real thing. 

[SignOfZeta]

Again, I don't think there were 163,000 movies with Lambo chase scenes in them. They sold 163,000 Fieros. That's a shitload.

It's not a very convincing kit anyway since the cars have way different dimensions. It's SD, basically. You'd have to shoot from just the right angle to fool anyone and you'd still need a wrecked one for the closeup. By the time you paid union guys for the conversion you could have nearly bought a real car anyway. A Countach was under $100,000 in the 80s.


(This technique has been going at least as long as The Italian Job. It's usually not hard to find a wrecked Lambo somewhere.)

[TDIRunner]

Again, I don't think there were 163,000 movies with Lambo chase scenes in them. They sold 163,000 Fieros. That's a shitload.

It's not a very convincing kit anyway since the cars have way different dimensions. It's SD, basically. You'd have to shoot from just the right angle to fool anyone and you'd still need a wrecked one for the closeup. By the time you paid union guys for the conversion you could have nearly bought a real car anyway. A Countach was under $100,000 in the 80s.


(This technique has been going at least as long as The Italian Job. It's usually not hard to find a wrecked Lambo somewhere.)

Honestly I don't know.  As much of a car guy as I am, I was never much into the Fiero.  I had heard that from a friend of mine who was really into them, but as you said earlier, maybe that's what all of the Feiro collectors tell themselves. 

[esteban]

There's no such thing as an '84 Festiva!

Hmmmm... it was mid-80's...that's for sure.

LX?

Maroon red.

I only sold it because I was moving back to NJ....

You might be confusing Fiesta with Festiva. Both are pretty cool little cars, but there was a gap in 84 where neither were sold in the US.

Must be '86 Festiva  (?)

It was a golf cart

[crazydean]

The Fieros are all gone because they are old and nobody cares. Well, there is a guy in Sandford, Mi that has a few dozen rolling shells and one Diabo ver. Most things from that far back are gone, even the cool shit. Try to find a super clean '89 Civic Si. Just try. Seriously.

This is the more likely scenario. It doesn't take much to total an old car, so if it gets hit or runs low on oil just once, that's one fewer car on the road. The Fiero is a mid-engine sports car which means that owners have a hard time not driving them in a "spirited" manner. This leads to more wrecks and shorter engine life.