All Cars

All Cars

1983 Mercury Capri RS - Although a new nice car, fast and very manageable, I blew the carburetor while in Colorado and decided to trade it in on the 1986 Capri below, while I was there.

1986 Mercury Capri - Junked and forgotten.

1985 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 - Not a bad little sports car, but rough handling otherwise! Traded it in on the 1985 Grand Am below.

1985 Pontiac Grand Am LE - Family style car. Replaced by the 1988 below.

1988 Pontiac Grand Am SE - Semi-sporty, but still a family car. Gone in 1998. Gladly given to my ex-wife during our divorce!

1991 Plymouth Shadow - Thanks to my friend Herb, I got to drive this for a year, while I talked myself into spending BIG bucks for another bike! Of course, since he knew how anal I was about vehicle care, he knew I would take good care of it for him while he was gone! Too bad I had to give it back to him! <g>

1993 Ford Thunderbird SC - In late 1997, in December, after about a year of searching I found this... A 1993 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe!! Silver, as you can tell, it is a nice match to my motorcycle! Kind of reminds me of my FIRST car... Anyways, I've always liked this model of Thunderbird, and silver is my favorite vehicle color!

The big, yet semi-sporty, Thunderbird in Super Coupe trim. It was my daily driver for a few years as I become a fair weather motorcycle rider! I had this car for some time, but took to driving it less, hoping to keep it looking good (and the mileage down)! Little did I know what would happen down the road...

As I was driving to work one day a few years back, I found this in a car lot. As you can tell is is nice looking, in good shape, and great to drive in all kinds of weather!! (I had decided to get something for the "bad" weather days that have become more common recently). I just couldn't resist the price!! It is a VERY nicely maintained car...which I will continue to do...boy, it is nice to know other people are as anal about vehicle care and maintenance as I am!

The interior is leather, both seats are electric (of course), as well as the windows and door locks. The SC has the premium JBL Stereo System with cassette player, cruise control, and automatic seatbelts. The vehicle has a super-charged V6 engine with over 210 horsepower, and better than 22 miles a gallon! Online specifications listed at the Super Coupe Club of Iowa.

But I can tell you that I won't be working on this thing!! It is WAY too complex and crowded for me! Gave it to my youngest daughter in October 2003. Hope she takes good care of it and it should serve her well.

Ouch. So much for my hopes... Well, only five weeks later the car was totaled due to front end and frame damage from a collision with a loser with no drivers license, no insurance, speeding, AND warrants!! Needless to say, he did not collect $200 dollars, but went straight to jail!

The estimate was over $4,000 of damage. Items such as the complete front end cap as well as damage to the frame ensured that this vehicle ended up in some salvage yard as I don't have the room to store it while I search for parts that are VERY hard to come by. So it was totaled out and we used that money to buy the Mercury Mystique, two cars down.

The next vehicle purchased, was by my girl friend! She did a great job and got a good deal!

1999 Ford Taurus SE - Very nice car for traveling, with more than 2 people. My girlfriend had this one as her daily driver, and the car had ALL the options! The only thing NOT present is the slightly higher output engine that the Ford Taurus SVO has got. Other, than that, they look VERY much alike.

This car makes me wish I had put a CD player in the Thunderbird! Good ride, good handling and a great price made this too good a deal to pass up. We drove it quite a bit while we were on vacation (up in Massachusetts). It was purchased from a local dealership here in Arkansas, we traded in an older Toyota Corolla for it (1991 model), and like it!!

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This car has almost as much power as the Thunderbird had, but doesn't use it quite as well. Not that that is necessarily a BAD thing, after all, it keeps my girlfriend from spinning the tires too much!

With the arrival of the BMW below, we've decided to sell the Taurus... And my youngest daughter was seriously interested in it, so we let her have it at a family discount, of course, and then we had the next major scheduled maintenance done as a present. Unfortunately, it gave it's life to save hers shortly thereafter...so, the same daughter wiped out three vehicles... And no more cars from me!

1999 Mercury Mystique - This is the car I helped my youngest daughter buy after the 1993 SuperCoupe was wrecked...

They say the gas mileage is about 26mpg and that it runs nice. Not as fast as the Thunderbird was, but cheaper to drive for them than it was! It didn't last too long before it was crippled and then killed off by them.

2000 BMW 528i - Found this car in late January 2006 and decided this would be my next purchase. These are exterior shots from the day I bought it, I actually stopped on the way home and took these:

The car is in extremely good, and solid condition, and since I've been waiting a BMW for quite some time... I can say I found the one I want. Has the BMW venerable straight-6 engine and a five speed automatic, so Olga can drive it too!

Exterior shots after it was cleaned up and the dealership advertising removed from the vehicle:

Interior shots from the original drive home:

Interior shots after I cleaned it. These are the front seats and interior area:

Rich black leather, wood accents, and everything looks and works, like new...

This is the rear seat area. The back doors and rear windows have internal sun shades...the back window shade is electric, the window shades are manual. With the tinted windows, this vehicle is very dark inside

Some details of the trunk area:

And the engine bay:

Despite some work done over the years the car still doesn't squeak or make a lot of noise when driven and we just took it over 100,000 miles on 10/15/08. Hard to take a decent picture during rush hour traffic, but I got the information I wanted!

We're over 116K miles now, and later this year this car will go to Olga's oldest grandson as his first car. And with a little over 117K mile, on June 19th, 2011, the vehicle was given to him and he loves it! But I think his mom gets to drive it more!

2001 BMW 740iL - While thinking about buying a larger vehicle for a more comfortable ride and trying to do my part to help the local economy, I found this car. While I could never convince myself to spend the kind of money these cars cost when new, (for example, a 2009 740iL runs around $90K to $100K!), but buying a good, low mileage, used example gives us a chance to see what the attraction is.

Here are some exterior shots:

Some specifications:

Exterior:

Titanium Silver Metallic

Interior:

Gray Leather

Engine:

4.4L (268) DOHC EFI 32-valve V8 engine w/variable valve timing

MPG (C/H):

17 MPG/23 MPG

Fuel tank:

22.5 gallons

And some of the interior:

How far can you drive a BMW with no coolant? Almost all the way to the dealership! <g> An expensive lesson learned, but the car was repaired and traded in on the 2007 BMW 750i.

2007 BMW 750i - After a year of driving the 2001 BMW 740iL, I found a newer 7-Series on the local dealership's web site...enough to go by to check the car out in person. The car I looked at in person was attractive, being blue in color, but not quite what I wanted. So the sale person mentioned several others that had not yet been processed for sale and we found this beauty out back. We worked out a deal on the spot, and I drove the old one home and waited for the car to be cleaned up for delivery. I then picked it on up on 3/24/10, drove it home and surprised my girlfriend with a different commuting vehicle! She REALLY likes this one and we're surprised at the difference six years (and one model) makes in the car.

And on my way home, I stopped to snap some digital pictures of the car.

Here are some exterior shots:

And here some interior shots:

Back seat, left door, with both blinds down

Back seat, left door, with one blind down

Back seat, left door, with both blinds up

Inside view of the back window with blind up

Right side, back seat view of a/c controls

And additional details from Consumer Guide Automotive, with an extract below:

Engine Specifications:

	dohc V81	Supercharged dohc V82	dohc V123
Size, liters/cu. in.	4.8/293	4.4/268	6.0/364
Horsepower @ rpm.	360 @ 6300	500 @ 5500	438 @ 6000
Torque (lb-ft) @ rpm.	360 @ 3400	516 @ 4250	444 @ 3950
Availability	Standard	Standard	Standard
EPA City / highway mpg
6-speed automatic	17/25	15/23	14/22

1. 750 models. 2. Alpina B7. 3. 760Li.

Engine Key: l/cu in. = liters/cubic inches; ohv = overhead valve; ohc = overhead camshaft; dohc = dual overhead camshaft; I = inline cylinders; H = horizonally opposed cylinders; V = cylinders in a V configuration; W = cylinders in a W configuration; rpm = revolutions per minute; CVT = continuously variable (automatic) transmission; NA = not available; "--" = measurement does not exist.

Fuel Data:

EPA Fuel Economy Est - City	15 MPG
EPA Fuel Economy Est - Hwy	23 MPG
Fuel Tank Capacity, Approx	23.3 gal

Surprising, this car has the same rated horsepower as my 1999 Lightning, but not the same torque! Fortunately we are averaging slightly more than 18 mpg combined mileage, not too bad for my driving, and it is better (and quieter) than the truck!

Here is a copy of the Owner's Manual.

Some of my regular film photos have returned and I've added them below.

Right rear door view, both blinds and one window down

View of rear a/c and pull out accessorries

View of rear seat heat controls partial movement

View of rear seat heat controls and storage

View of the instrument cluster while off

View of steering wheel left side controls

Steering wheel adjustments and heat controls

View of the instrument cluster and steering wheel

Start and stop controls, and electronic key

Right side controls (top for drive selection)

View of steering wheel right side controls

Top view of the command stack with display off

Top view of the command stack with display on

Top view of the command stack with menu displayed

Bottom view of the command stack with phone extended

Bottom view of the command stack with cupholders

View of menu controller and support buttons

Storage for CD-ROMS and I-Pod hook ups under armrest

Front seats have extensions for leg support

And I don't tailgate...I'm just drafting!! So be courteous and move over...

Comic courtesy of Speed Bump by Dave Coverly.

These are some pictures of one of the 7 Series, done by Alpina, it is known as a B7... I think this blue may grow on me!

Although in the fall of 2013, I was able to take a test drive in a 2011 BMW M3...would be GREAT as a second car...but a little too noisy to have as a primary one! And I like the M6 much more!

Aha, good things come to those who wait. Checking out the local car lots, via the web, as I periodically do, I found this car, a 2010 BMW M6, on a local dealer's lot in February 2014.

I called and made arrangements to take a test drive in this thing...thinking it would be a GREAT car...makes me think seriously about trading in for it! Driving it was AWESOME!! Even in the city! Here are some quick cell phone pictures and shots from the dealership.

Will have to go home and think about it...

2010 BMW M6 Coupe - Okay, I went home thought about it over the weekend, and decided to get this car, quickly. Yep, I sold the 2007 750i to a co-worker and purchased this car. This is the first M6 I can recall on the lot here...the cars aren't as common as the smaller M cars... And this one is in great shape!

Picked up the car today (3/8/14) and before the rain had a chance to come in, went and took some digital pictures... Co-workers who have seen the car say that even these photos don't do full justice to the car,