Found this thread via the Cars! ? thread, so here’s my mostly unremarkable but interesting-to-me car history.
First car was a 1996 Ford Falcon (GLi if I remember correctly), in manual.
This thing was lowered by the previous owner so I dreaded going into shopping centre car parks for fear of getting beached on a large speed bump. Its 4L inline 6-cylinder engine had power for days though, which got me close to in trouble a couple of times but thankfully never in actual trouble. Almost slid it into a river learning in real-time about RWD traction on gravel roads. Oops.
Ended up having some issues with it. Just lost power in an intersection on the way to work once, as well as getting some clutch related issues in the middle of a 2 hour intercity drive. All fixable, but 19 year old me didn’t feel confident in it anymore so I got the issues fixed and traded it in for my next (and favourite so far) car.
A 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer VR-X in manual.
I loved this car to bits. Bright red, a little powerless compared to the old Falcon but it got me where I needed to go with a minimum of fuss. I was in the grips of The Fast and the Furious at the time so it was nice to imagine I had an econobox equivalent of an Evo 6. This one got written off thanks to a hailstorm in 2009, otherwise I’m reasonably confident I’d still be driving it.
Regardless, I loved my little Lancer so much that I replaced it with the car I still have to this day, a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer VR (this time automatic, which I loved when I bought it but have been finding myself pining for manual again in recent years).
This thing’s been my reliable companion for 15 years now, it’s just never let me down. I’m seriously considering replacing it in the next year or so with something manual, something sporty since I don’t ferry friends around in it like I used to, but part of me wants to drive it into the ground just to see how long I can make it last.
That said, when I see a nice Subaru BRZ or Mazda MX-5 out on the road, that thought disappears and is replaced with ‘I want that one’.