Your most embarrasing car (truck)

[Jess from VA]

Since it just got done snowing 3 inches, and I'm bored sh!tless, I thought I'd start a fun thread.

My most embarrassing car ever was an early 70's Ford Pinto Squire Wagon (4 banger).

I was poor and in college commuting to downtown Detroit and needed something to do it in.

It was a pretty reliable car, until I got caught in a freeway traffic jam on my way to a final examination, got off and was driving side streets (over the limit) and got airborne over some bad RR tracks rendering it undriveable, and had to run a couple miles to Wayne State University on foot for the exam.    



Please share pictures and stories if you have them.  

[Serk]

1976 Dodge Dart.

Slant 6 engine, 4 speed manual.

My dad bought it brand new, and when I started driving in the late 1980's it was gifted to me.



When he first bought it he took a crowbar to the gas filler intake to widen it to take leaded gas, took the catalytic converter off, punched a hole through it and put it back.

AC didn't work. Windshield wipers didn't work. Had string tied to 'em and had to pull from side to side to move the wipers when it rained.

Frequently overheated, had to turn the heater to full blast sitting in triple digit weather here in The Republic to stop it from boiling off the water in the radiator.

Horn broke, I found an old style "Ooga Ooga" horn in the garage and put that in it.

Found a CB amplifier, old tube thing. So powerful when I key'ed the mic the light's would dim, evidently if I used it I was the only thing anyone on CB heard for miles around. I... was not responsible with that power.

One day while I was at a red light next to a school bus, light turned green and I floored it, gave it everything it had.

...the school bus easily pulled away from me.

That's when I vowed to start saving for my first REAL car, which I did... (1988 Toyota MR2, loved that car!)

[Chrisj CMA]

1982 Chevy Chevette. Bought it almost new (dealer Demo). Yes I was made fun of at work. But in the end it turned out to be a pretty good car for us. I took it to England for three years and ran the tar out of it. It never broke down and I sold it shortly after returning to the states

[John Schmidt]

I don't have a picture of my Dodge Dart, it looked like Serk's picture...mostly. I previously had the Plymouth version I had picked up for next to nothing and used it on my job as a State auditor so got good mileage running around the Orlando area. One day on the way to work, I hit a bump and the whole left front corner dropped with a loud crunch. That didn't sound promising. A good friend with his own car repair shop had his kid come get it with the tow truck and backed it into my car port...never to be driven again. Seems the entire undercarriage was rusted out. This left me with a problem; I had rebuilt the brakes and it had a fairly new crate engine which was installed by the prior owner. The interior was in nice shape, as was the body, but the frame was a mess. A gal I worked with heard of my dilemma and told me of an issue she faced. She had two sons and a matching Dart with a blown motor, thanks to her boys method of driving. They wanted her to get it fixed, she refused and offered it to me for $200. It had a newly rebuilt automatic transmission, decent interior, but the body looked like it had seen better days. I gave her the $200 and my friend at the repair shop towed it to my place and pushed it in facing the other car. This was done so I could pull the motor out of one, turn around and install it in the other. Fast forward...I now had a good running car with no locking trunk and the key hole all torn up in it. Plus, the hood was bent and sprung out of shape and had to be strapped down. But it ran great! My old car was green so...I swapped hoods and trunk lids. Now I had a "decent" looking car, white with a green hood and trunk, but with a lot of dings and dents in the body but the car ran and rode great. I got hit in a parking lot a couple weeks later, leaving a large dent in the rear fender and was complaining to my boss about it. He went out to look at it and had one comment; "you say someone hit you in the parking lot...how can you tell?" I sold the carcass of my old one to a local junkyard for $75 cash.

The newly "modified" Dart looked like a rolling disaster but ran like a champ. I drove it all over central Florida for years until my wife threatened me, she was embarrassed with it sitting in the driveway so I traded it for a Renault Dauphine with a sunroof. It would do all of 65mph...downhill with a tailwind. That one didn't seem to help the marriage either so traded for a nice Datsun. Those old slant six engines ran forever...at least mine did.  

[Serk]

Those old slant six engines ran forever...at least mine did.  

Heh, I either gave or sold dirt cheap (Can't remember) mine to a buddy, where it sat in his front yard for a year or two until his wife gave him the "Drive it or get rid of it" ultimatum. He gave it to a local junk shop who sold it to a Mexican that from what I was told drove it back to Mexico.

I'd be willing to bet some part of it is probably still driving around Mexico 'till this day.

[Jess from VA]

Those old slant six engines ran forever...at least mine did.

I had a 1967 Dodge van with the 3 on the tree slant 6 (220?), and that thing always ran like a champ.

It was stolen from University parking in MI and never (ever) recovered.  



This is not mine, but mine had the same bright green ($50 Earl Sheib) paint job.  

[scooperhsd]

I never put much vanity into what I drove - what I drove was what I could afford at the time (or what my parents found for me to take to KU).

[Challenger]

For a short while I had  63 Corvair  station wagon to drive to work. The heater was a can around the exhaust pipe to heat the air the fan pulled through it (factory). It had rusted out and would fill the cabin with CO. Had to use an ice scraper on the inside of the windshield while you drove. Pump the brakes three times to slow down. I wouldn't drive it around the block now, but it's all I had then

 

[Oss]

The 57 Olds was not embarassing as it was a tank that could run to miami from ny at high speed and was great in the snow in Buffalo.  It got lots of looks but it got me 4 yrs around and I sold it for what I paid for it   What was so funny was I could make almost a full revolution of the steering wheel and still be driving in a straight line  Rode real tight once I had an extra leaf put in the spring and added red ryder shocks in 1974   Had a sony cassette fm radio and good pioneer speakers inset into the back deck from the trunk  It also had a bench seat  I am a fan of bench seats with lots of room. Who needed a back seat in that tank at the drive in?


Had a 67 dart with the tiny v8 and 13 inch wheels  That thing was fast off the line but the west side highway destroyed any hope of alignment of the wheels  It was 2 different colors depending on what side of the car you were on after someone smacked into me.  Had a cb on those trips to down south
handle was snowman  (no not that kind of snow gig)

I gave it to a friend for free as he used the engine racing for titles   That small 273? v8 was so reliable I took it one year to West Palm for a week vacation  20 hrs to there from Orangeburg NY  (including a 2 hr nap somewhere in SC at a truck stop) not to shabby for pre radar detector days

[old2soon]

     Frsh outa the service I purchased a Fiat 850 4 spd manual. British racing green with an interior color that looked like someone had taken a dump in it. And while it Did indeed have a "back seat" iffin ya wuz over 3' 2" tall ya wouldn't fit back there! At 6' 2" tall I had to do some rather weird gymnastics just gittin in and out of it!   Case yer wunderin the 850 reffered to the engine displacement in CCs! And it came equipped with a centrifugal oil "filter"! Everytime I cleaned it looked like the outer part of the centrifuge had aluminum powder in it. And the 4 speed shifter had the longest throw I'd ever shifted! Even the 18 wheelers I drove later had shorter shift throws than the Fiat did! You could NOT give me a Fiat now or ever!   Even anyone of the 3 Corvairs I owned was a Much BETTER vehicle than that fiat! RIDE SAFER.

[bassman]

Those old slant six engines ran forever...at least mine did.

I had a 1967 Dodge van with the 3 on the tree slant 6 (220?), and that thing always ran like a champ.

It was stolen from University parking in MI and never (ever) recovered.  



This is not mine, but mine had the same bright green ($50 Earl Sheib) paint job.  

I had an accident in my 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 so after having a friend do the body work repairs I saw the Earl Sheib ad "I'll paint any car, any color for $29.95!"  That's what I did - entire car painted for $29.95.  A month later I had another accident about a block from where I just had the previous one but not quite as bad so just some front fender and hood body work needed.  Same guy did the body work repairs so I thought I would have Earl Sheib just do the front end where all the damage was repaired.  "Surprised" to learn they required the entire car be repainted. I asked why?   They replied they couldn't match their own paint from 30 days prior so they had to repaint it all.  Another $29.95 which I didn't really have at the time.  Dad came to my rescue with the $$ but let me work it off with chores.

[Rams]

I don’t remember the year but  VW pickup around 1981 or so,  my soon to be bride sold her almost new Celina and bought me that “pickup”.  She wanted to drive my Datsun 280Z.   I was embarrassed to drive it anywhere but had to if I wasn’t riding my KZ1000.

Hated that VW back then!

Wish I had it back now.

Rams

[ridingron]

You'd probably hate it again after a while. 

[Jess from VA]

I had an accident in my 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 so after having a friend do the body work repairs I saw the Earl Sheib ad "I'll paint any car, any color for $29.95!"  That's what I did - entire car painted for $29.95.

Bassman, I bought my 67 dodge van off a lot selling a fleet of used Sears service vans.  They were all $600, but one had less miles and in a little better shape was $700 and I got that one.  

My brother the carpenter helped me insulate, wood panel, carpet, and build a bed and bench seat in back.

I remember in HS going to pick up a girl for a date, and her dad came out and looked my van over then told me... I'm not letting my daughter go anywhere in that van of yours.  Go back and get your dad's car and she can go out with you.  Dad was reluctant to let me use his new Chevy Impala, but he let me use it for a date figuring I'd be being extra careful on a date.  

Speaking of repetitive commercials, Earl Shieb was all over the TV back then in the Detroit area (Motor City), and after the inside was fixed up, I took it to them for paint.  It was $29.95 for basic, but $49.95 for a better job (I can't remember the details).  I did some basic prep work myself too.  

Most of Sheibs colors were wildly non stock looking, and I didn't want white or black, so the green was the least terrible color I could get.  It was a pretty good paint job (for an older high mile truck) and I had no complaints.

I looked on line and it says Sheib died and the company folded, but then it was opened again by someone else, and still does business in 23 States.   

[Rams]

You'd probably hate it again after a while. 

Always possible but the fuel mileage it got was really good although its cargo capacity was very limited.   I don’t do the things I used to 45 years ago.

Rams

[f6john]

I’ve never owned a vehicle I was embarrassed to drive. But the things that I had to endure after wrecking them were. In high school I had a 62 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Not a muscle car but it was a 2 door coupe with the all aluminum 215 V8 high compression motor, bucket seats yada, yada, yada. All was kool until I wrecked it. Caved in the quarter panel just behind the drivers door and bent the door post. No money to fix it so I had to drive it with the door wired closed and get in and out on the passenger side, not so kool!

[Jess from VA]

Speaking of doors, the side doors on that dodge van of mine only snapped shut on the rear door, the front door only stayed shut by turning the door handle.  I took a number of road trips with college buddies in that van and told them about it.  But one day a buddy sitting on the floor in back forgot, and as I took off and turned a corner, Mike went out the door.  Fortunately it was an old dirt road and he only bruised his tuchus a little.

'Hey Jess, we lost Mike."

There might have been some beer involved in this story, but I can't remember.   

[Oldfishguy]

Where do I start?

An old tiny Ford Escort in West Germany.  A 4 banger with a 4 speed.  Glow in the dark orange that would shake violently above 120km per hour on the autobahn but took me throughout Western Europe.



A 1974 Ford LTD that when I filled it with gas I’d add 3 quarts of oil as well.

A 1979 Bonneville that was rusted so bad pieces would be falling off constantly.  But I made friends with a mouse that lived under the seats and we had conversations while floating down the interstate.

And then, my current ride for the last 10 years, a 1997 Range Rover.  The neighbors have nicknamed it a very inappropriate “short bus”.  Poor heat in the winter, 12 miles to the gallon, and an electrical system the Brits have nicknamed “The Prince of Darkness”.  But yet, we drive on.



My wife has always been in better vehicles, usually Honda’s.  My time with older vehicles is coming to an end as I approach retirement and my body is reluctant to crawl under and around these relics trying to keep them road worthy.  Another Honda I suspect.

[0leman]

My first car was a '49 dodge coop (no pics).  Had a flat head six with 3 on the column.  Drove it couple years in High school.  Not a great vehicle but got me to where I needed to go.   Even a few drive in movies.  Only real problem it ever caused me is when I blew out all 4 break hoses.   Went thru a red light on a road that crossed Hwy 66 in Tulsa.  Went thru between two semis. 

[Jess from VA]

The neighbors have nicknamed it a very inappropriate “short bus”.

When I was growing up long ago, 'short bus' or 'That guy probably rides in the short bus' referred to kids who didn't have all their marbles or retarded, and had their own little school buses to wherever they went.  Not nice, but funny.  

[Serk]

The neighbors have nicknamed it a very inappropriate “short bus”.

When I was growing up long ago, 'short bus' or 'That guy probably rides in the short bus' referred to kids who didn't have all their marbles, and had their own little school buses to wherever they went.  Not nice, but funny.  

That is still the case... The triplets have said they'd rather walk to school than be let out from one of the "short buses" they some times put on the routes.

[F6Dave]

When I was young I bought cheap used cars so I'd have more money to spend on motorcycles. I bought my first new bike in 1976, a KZ-900. At the time I was driving a very well used 1968 VW Beetle. It wasn't embarrassing but nothing you'd enter in a car show.

The first nice car I bought was a 1993 Taurus SHO. That Yamaha-built V6 was one of the prettiest engines made.

[GiG]

 
Not embarrassing at all. My 67 Buick Special
Had a blue Sheib paint job. Looked like a cop car
4 door, Special was closely related to the Skylark

[old2soon]

    And i missed the most EMBARRASING car I've ever driven. da prez just might agree! Right after I got my drivers license-16-and just before I got my 54 Ford Mom had a 59 Rambler wagon the color chart called dusty rose I believe But it was more kitty cat pink!   The Only saving grace I can recall was under those full wheel covers the wheels were a semi gloss black. After leaving the house and before we got to Genesee St. in Waukegan Il we pulled off all 4 wheel covers. Scoopin the loop was a thang when I wuz in my teens.   It were sorta comfortable BUT at that time the outdoor theatre we went to would NOT allow any American motors car in due to the Fully reclining seats feature of those vehicles.   Oh yeah 6 cylinder with a push button automatic transmission!   But it DID git me from A to B and C and then back to A!   RIDE SAFE.

[Willow]

For a while in the late seventies I owned a Chevy Vega.  

[GiG]

Rambler Wagon- cool! Well maybe not pink 
Never heard of drive ins banning AMCs     

[Jess from VA]

Not embarrassing at all. My 67 Buick Special
Had a blue Sheib paint job. Looked like a cop car
4 door, Special was closely related to the Skylark

Gig, I had a 1969 Buick Special GS, and it was the nicest car I ever had. (Not embarrassing)

Not mine, but same car and color.   

[GiG]

We always referred to that as “GS” - Gran Sport? Very nice, but “Special” was an actual model,
By Buick Boxy, not sporty. Mine had aluminum V6.

Buick Special Model produced by Buick across four generations from 1936 to 1969. It started as a full-size car in 1936, returning in 1961 as a mid-size model. The Special was offered in various body styles, including coupes, sedans, and station wagons. It was typically Buick's lowest-priced model and played a role in introducing the modern Buick V6

[Farside]

  Well no picture of this nasty Blue 1972 Datsun 510 I think - 4 door. My dad co-signed for a colleague friend who stopped paying for it so my dad got it and realizing that I just turned 16 and my sister was a 1 year behind me we drove this ugly blue 4 door ragged out, small sedan in 1977. If you run you finger across the paint you had blue chalk on you. It oxidized so bad, my sister and I were so embarrassed  to drive it to school. I'd ride with/ a friend and let her take it. It wouldn't go over 50 in a straight line - front end was shot.   If we wanted to hear the radio we had to open the glove box and pull the speaker out.  My last 6 months of HS I think he was embarrassed to have it in our driveway any longer and he then got us a Sporty White 77 Pontiac Astra. This was a great improvement over that nasty 510. What the heck! 

[h13man]

Since it just got done snowing 3 inches, and I'm bored sh!tless, I thought I'd start a fun thread.

My most embarrassing car ever was an early 70's Ford Pinto Squire Wagon (4 banger).

I was poor and in college commuting to downtown Detroit and needed something to do it in.

It was a pretty reliable car, until I got caught in a freeway traffic jam on my way to a final examination, got off and was driving side streets (over the limit) and got airborne over some bad RR tracks rendering it undriveable, and had to run a couple miles to Wayne State University on foot for the exam.    



Please share pictures and stories if you have them.  

Actually this exact model/color but ours was worse as it ran on 3 cyls. on the 2.3 motor. The paint was faded really bad also. The 2.0 was the better of the Pinto motors commonly found in our rusty 71' hatchback. A 59' Rambler wagon was my 1st. and worse car but lasted 9 mos.  

[Jess from VA]

Actually this exact model/color but ours was worse as it ran on 3 cyls. on the 2.3 motor. The paint was faded really bad also.

This was my exact model/color too (though I can't be sure of the year), and mine wasn't all shiny new like this picture, but not in bad shape until the accident in the airborne incident.

The wife and I were small and we took a couple trips and slept in the back with the seat folded down.   Motel money was short.

The wife had a nearly new Mustang II her dad bought her right after we got married (after seeing the old beater I was driving... before the Pinto).     She commuted to Detroit too.

[sandy]

Right outa high school, my father gave me my sisters car. It needed a radiator and a tire. I fixed those things and drove it. Cool car for an 18 yr old. Mine was baby blue with a white top. Here's avid of that car.

https://youtu.be/o6z9TB6OmAU

[Serk]

(Postimg seems to be having issues right now, not sure if the still image will come through but)



I know a lot of folks have philosophical issues with AI "Art", but digging up that image of my first car, parked in front of my parent's house got me curious... Just for S&G I fed the image into Grok Imagine and told it to have the car drive away. Didn't give it any details beyond that. This is what came out the other side:

https://rumble.com/v72tgj4-1976-dodge-dart-driving-away..html

[MAD6Gun]

 Around the mid 80s my 70 Pontiac Bonneville was my primary car but I decided to try to keep Indiana winters and salt from doing to much more damage. I decided to buy beaters in the winter to drive and then sell in the spring and drive Bonne again. My first beater was a very rusty orange 75 Vega 4 speed. Got it for $100, put on a new exhaust and started driving it while my Pontiac sat covered in the driveway. I had to start it in the cold mornings and put a brick under the LF wheel to keep it from rolling down the driveway (parking brake was broken). It had holes in the floor but hey it was cheep and kinda reliable.
 
 I didn't drive it very nicely. One day after pulling out of a driveway I did a hole-shot you know revving and dumping the clutch. right after the rear end started going back and forth. After some inspections I found my little escapade had torn the lower right axle trailing arm out of the body. It was un-driveable after that. I sold it to a guy for $60 who just blew up the engine in his.

 Years later I bought a 84 Dodge Colt. it was ugly and rusty but reliable. In Feb of 92 I rear-ended a 71 Plymouth and totaled the Colt, almost totaling myself in the process. Thank god for seat belts....

[Jess from VA]

As I suspected, most folk's most embarrassing car was an early one in their youth.  'Cause that's what we could afford.

My 2d car was a 61 Austin Healey Sprite (not the Bugeye, a MkII).



I paid $450 for it, and it was in rough shape, but it didn't look bad.  But 4 months after I bought it, it needed a transmission, clutch and center bearing which cost more than the car did, and I didn't have the money, so I mailed the shop that did my estimate the title (they wanted money, not the title and they were pretty pissed off about it).  That was pretty embarrassing.  

[Chrisj CMA]

As I suspected, most folk's most embarrassing car was an early one in their youth.  'Cause that's what we could afford.

My 2d car was a 61 Austin Healey Sprite (not the Bugeye, a MkII).



I paid $450 for it, and it was in rough shape, but it didn't look bad.  But 4 months after I bought it, it needed a transmission, clutch and center bearing which cost more than the car did, and I didn't have the money, so I mailed the shop that did my estimate the title (they wanted money, not the title and they were pretty pissed off about it).  That was pretty embarrassing.  

THATS obviously not an actual photo of your car  :roll

[Jess from VA]

Yeah Jeff, none of my pictures are of MY cars, just copy/paste of the ones I can find on-line.

But same car and color as I had, less some rust and dings and no hub caps.    

I usually write that my pics are not MY cars (or any other pictures I post), but I just forgot in that post.

I remember that you have a very nice Austin Healey.  (unlike mine)

In those years, the only difference between the Austin Sprite and the MG midget, was wire wheels on the MG (steel wheels on the Austin).

[Chrisj CMA]

Yeah Jeff, none of my pictures are of MY cars, just copy/paste of the ones I can find on-line.

But same car and color as I had, less some rust and dings and no hub caps.    

I usually write that my pics are not MY cars (or any other pictures I post), but I just forgot in that post.

I remember that you have a very nice Austin Healey.  (unlike mine)

In those years, the only difference between the Austin Sprite and the MG midget, was wire wheels on the MG (steel wheels on the Austin).

Yours was an actual Healey. Mine is a replica (factory built kit). The upside is it’s all American so parts are from autozone not England lol

[GiG]

The 57 Olds was not embarassing as it was a tank that could run to miami from ny at high speed and was great in the snow in Buffalo.  It got lots of looks but it got me 4 yrs around and I sold it for what I paid for it   What was so funny was I could make almost a full revolution of the steering wheel and still be driving in a straight line  Rode real tight once I had an extra leaf put in the spring and added red ryder shocks in 1974   Had a sony cassette fm radio and good pioneer speakers inset into the back deck from the trunk  It also had a bench seat  I am a fan of bench seats with lots of room. Who needed a back seat in that tank at the drive in?


Had a 67 dart with the tiny v8 and 13 inch wheels  That thing was fast off the line but the west side highway destroyed any hope of alignment of the wheels  It  : :police:police:was 2 different colors depending on what side of the car you were on after  :evil:someone smacked into me.  Had a cb on those trips to down south
handle was snowman  (no not that kind of snow gig)

I gave it to a friend for free as he used the engine racing for titles   That small 273? v8 was so reliable I took it one year to West Palm for a week vacation  20 hrs to there from Orangeburg NY  (including a 2 hr nap somewhere in SC at a truck stop) not to shabby for pre radar detector days

So, what was Captain Snowman hauling in the trunk of that huge car
On those many high speed midnight excursions NYC to Miami?!?    


 "it's been years isn't there a statue of limitations on that?". 

[Jess from VA]

As I suspected, most folk's most embarrassing car was an early one in their youth.  'Cause that's what we could afford.

My 2d car was a 61 Austin Healey Sprite (not the Bugeye, a MkII).



I paid $450 for it, and it was in rough shape, but it didn't look bad.  But 4 months after I bought it, it needed a transmission, clutch and center bearing which cost more than the car did, and I didn't have the money, so I mailed the shop that did my estimate the title (they wanted money, not the title and they were pretty pissed off about it).  That was pretty embarrassing.  

The rest of the story on this piece of junk.

When the trans and clutch went (all at once), the only shop that would even work on it was North of Detroit, a long way from home.  I couldn't afford to have it towed/trailered, so dad agreed to tow me behind his new Impala on a 10 foot chain.

Jess, I'll go easy and do all the accelerating, but you have to do all the braking for both of us.  
What I'll do is tap my brakes to show the lights when you need to brake.  Do it easy and steady.

If you ram that thing into the back of my new car I'm going to thump you.  

The trip was one of the most hair raising, white knuckle experiences of my 17yo life.  Tailgating my dad for 40 miles of traffic.

We made it with no collision.  A miracle.  

Dad was a chief engineer at the largest steel mill in MI, and nearly all their steel went to the big three Motor City automakers.  He believed in buying American, so he hated that car even before it self destructed.  Did not even like it parked in front of our house (an embarrassment).

Please quit buying these junky foreign sports cars.  So he was pleased when I got the dodge van (above).