My cars, right or wrong

I was running errands with a friend the other day when we started talking about cars. During my pre-teen years, cars were my passion. I collected them (the Matchbox variety, of course), pasted pictures of them all over my bedroom walls and even attempted to understand how they worked.
During our brief conversation, I came to the realization that I've had a lot of cars in my life--though quantity certainly trumps quality.
I don't know, eight cars seemed like a high number when I first thought about it.
My very first car came by way of a very generous man.
Dan Rigan was a deacon at my church and a very strong influence in my life at the time. He always found things for me to do around his house to earn money, and he really helped groom my interest in history and politics.
I was 16 years old when Dan sold me a 1985 2-door Plymouth Reliant for one dollar. It wasn't a pretty car (ugly metallic blue-gray) and it didn't run, but once we towed that thing home not a day would pass that wouldn't go out to the back garage where it was parked and sit behind the wheel.
Eventually, we towed that car over to my grandfather's house where we (more he than me) pulled the engine that, as it turned out, had a busted piston. We found another engine at a junkyard that had only 60,000 or so miles on it and, after overhauling that engine, finally got it housed in my new old car.
(I can still remember seeing piston rods in my grandmother's freezer. I couldn't figure out why that was necessary, but I guess that's just how it's done.)
The engine ran great and, after putting some speakers and a new stereo in it, I was set to go.
I put many miles on that little 4-cylinder Plymouth, and even though the horn didn't work and everything rattled, I sure do miss my first car.

Full circle with four-cylinders

In late September of 2005, I moved back to Flint after a short stint in the MPP program at Pepperdine University in California--ironically it's a long story and not worth telling.
Before I left, I sold my car--a 2000 Chrysler Sebring LXI--because it just would not have been economical to take it with me.
Upon returning to Michigan, I needed a car--and fast. And so, like always, I turned to the internet.
By that time, I had already purchased two cars on Ebay and so the idea of purchasing a car in this manner didn't intimidate me. While I was in California a friend introduced me to a new online classified community, of sorts, that turned out to be the now famous (or infamous) Craig's List.
And so, I turned to Craig and his list and what looked like a deal in Rochester Hills, Michigan--a rich suburb of Detroit.
To make a needlessly long story short, I purchased a 1998 Dodge Neon with 61,000 miles for $1,600. The guy was moving to New York the next day and was desperate to get rid of it.
I didn't need Howie Mandel to clue me in: I knew I had made a terrific deal.
Since then, I have put more than 60,000 miles on that Neon, and it is still going strong.
And at between 35-40 miles per gallon on the highway, how could I part with it?
Well, maybe I could at some point--but only for another Neon.
All that to say this: When I was a kid all I cared about were the Porsches and the Aston Martins of the world. You know, cars I could never (or would never) own. Now I'm 28, gas is four bucks a gallon, and I've never been more proud to be a Neon man.

Jared's Vehicle City Harem

1985 Plymouth Reliant (2-door): You first car should not run correctly when you first get it.

1990 GMC Jimmy 4X4 (2-door): My Jimmy only burned about one quart of oil per half-week. This was the most troublesome car I have ever owned.

1990 Chevrolet Lumina (2-door): The 3100 (3.1 V-6) engine is one of GM's best.

1992 Chevrolet Lumina (2-door): Ditto.

1994 Pontiac Grand AM GT (4-door): I bought this car from a friend who was, to say the least, certifiably anal about the way his car looked. This thing was a beauty until I brought it home from South Bend, Indiana (where I was living at the time) for the weekend and my sister backed into it.

1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS (2-door): I got this car from some guy in Mishawaka, Indiana. I always liked the way it looked.

2000 Chrysler Sebring LXI (2-door): It was an ugly color (gold), but it was worth flying to Providence, Rhode Island...taking a bus to the train station...spending the night in Boston...and taking Greyhound to Nashua, New Hampshire, where I met a guy in minivan who prompty drove me to the small town of Kingston to buy it. When I asked him if he needed to see a copy of my insurance papers, he grinned. "Live free or die," he said in that classic Baystater brogue.

1998 Plymouth Neon (4-door): My pride and joy. My Neon got me to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on one tank of gas. I was pulled over by the cops 26 times before I got my Neon, and not once since. Flat-out B-E-A-S-T.