I really got interested in cars about 1946. That was when The War was over and you could get things like cars, gasoline, tires, sugar, coffee, and bananas again. Our family had some interesting cars and begining about 1955, I had a few interesting ones myself.
1946 Hudson (new) six cylinders, three speed stick
1948 Ford (new)six cylinders, three speed stick
1937 Ford (used) eight cylinders, 3 speed stick
The Hudson was a big comfortable high performance car. The '48 Ford was an uncomfortable, no performance car. I learned to drive on the '37 in 1949. It only had 60 hp.
1939 Nash (used)six cylinders, three speed stick
1941 Lincoln (used)twelve cylinders, 3 speeds
1951 Crosley (used)four cylinders 3 speeds
The Nash smoked. Smoking kills cars, too. The Lincoln was a great cruise-around-town car with four doors, fender skirts and push-button doors.
The Crosley was....well, interesting. It was a station wagon with two doors.
1949 Kaiser(used) 6 cylinders 3 speeds w/overdrive
1954 Ford (new) 6 cylinders, 3 speeds, green
Those were the family cars that I drove until I started buying my own cars. I started with:
1946 Ford Club Coupe(used) 8 cylinders, 3 speeds
1953 Packard Clipper(used) 8 cylinders, automatic
1960 Volkswagen(new) 4 cylinders, 4 speeds
Three great cars! They had nothing in common except that I really liked them all.
1965 Volkswagen Microbus(new)4 cylinders 4 speeds
1954 Chevrolet(used) 6 cylinders, automatic
1968 Chevrolet(used) 8 cylinders, automatic
The Microbus had room for a growing family. The '54 Chevy made us a two-car family. It looked good, but conked out a lot. We blew the engine on the Microbus in Colorado and traded it for the '68 Chevy. A very fast car!
1971 Chevrolet wagon (used) 8 cylinders, automatic
1974 Ford Maverick(new) 6 cylinder, 3 speeds
Two terrible cars. Cured me of Fords and Chevys.
1978 Subaru(new) 4 cylinders, 5 speeds
1980 Subaru wagon(new) 4 cylinders, 5 speeds
Two great cars. The '78 sedan was wrecked and we replaced it with the '80 and drove it 17 years!
1984 Nissan pickup(new) 4 cylinders, 5 speeds
1989 Toyota Camry(new) 4 cylinders, 5 speeds
1995 Toyota pickup(new) 4 cylinders, 5 speeds
1999 Toyota Camry(new) 4 cylinders 5 speeds
The Nissan rode rough but drove great. Rusted. Unfortunately it had the carburator from heck, so At 130,000 miles and 11 years,I sold it. Toyota cars and trucks ride and drive great and you can not wear them out.
I have learned that with fuel injection and electronic ignition, cars are on my side. Otherwise they are against me all the way.
You didn't need to know all this stuff, did you?
Howard