300,000 miles under my belt. 5 crashes, 6 speeding tickets, 1 year 3 months loss of license.
1979 Ford Fairmont Futura - Parent's hand-me-down - 16 years old, 2 week old license. Coming down a big hill to a major highway. Get towards the bottom during rushhour and apply brakes, Oh, S**t, No Brakes!! Closed my eyes at the bottom and yanked the wheel. Openned my eyes and no cars to be seen. Eased it home and found a split brake line. Got it fixed and a few days later was cruisin with some buds and brakes went out again. This time on an off-ramp into the car stopped ahead. Totalled
1983 Ford Escort - Parent's hand-me-down - 16-18 years old. Beat this car to death, an early death. Had 9 others in the car at one point (two in the hatchback, LOL). Not a very good car for beating on. Blew it up at 46,000 miles.
1985 Ford Escort - My first purchased car - 18-20 years old. Bought this piece of junk because of parent's influence and money. Well, not to much of a piece of junk, but figured it wouldn't handle my crazy driving either. Pulling it into the shop for brakes and blew a quarter size hole in the tranny - 86,000 miles.
1992 Geo Storm - My first brand new purchase (actually my only) - 20-23 years old. I can see why they only made this car 3 years. Total piece of crap. I guess they sell the car cheap and figure on getting your money in repairs. Going the other way, though, I put a set of Pirelli's on it and man did that little thing handle. I probably drove this car above 100 mph more than I did under 100. 6 speeding tickets in this one. Racing all the time. My bud and I would race out of college every day (he had VW Scirocco with the odometer unplugged at 190,000 miles for 2 years). Built a stereo for this one, about $5000 worth. No rap, no beating and pounding, the stereo was built for one thing, listenning to David Gilmore talking with his guitar. Finally had it with the repairs and dumped this one off.
1989 Toyota Pickup - 23-25 years old. A buddy of mine drove nothing but Toyota pickups. They all had over 125,000 miles on them and you'll never find anyone who beats on a vehicle like him. I was impressed by the way they stood up to his driving, I picked one up. Indestructible. You can do anything to the 22RE motor in a Toy truck including leaving your foot floored in neutral bouncing on the rev limiter without smoking it. Took this thing everywhere. If I couldn't make it, I just threw it in 2nd and left my foot floored. Never got stuck, but hindered my forward progression many times. This was my camping rig, where me an a few buds would go camping for a week with nothing but our trucks, sleeping bags, a package of hotdogs and buns and a keg of beer. Totalled this one in the morning going to work. Ended up launching up over a Ford Probe as he hit me in the side. Actually had tire marks going up over a quarter of his windshield. 139,000 miles on her and I got $1800 more than book value because it was so clean and excellent condition (other than the smashed from the wreck)
1994 Toyota 4Runner - 25-er 25 years old. Took the $5000 I had left over from totalling the pickup (after loan payoff) and bought this. I planned on turning this into the ultimate camping rig. Never did though. I did take it camping alot, again with nothing much more than a few hotdogs and beer. 4wheeled this on alot too. I was wheeling with a bud (same one as above who hooked me on Toy trucks). He had a pickup, lifted, BFG mudders on it, taking it up a power line trail in the wet grass, raining. He went first, slipping and sliding up the hill. Had a bit of trouble, but made it OK. My turn. I slipped and slid up the hill as well. Got to the top and he came running over. "That's crazy man, you climbed that in 2wd!!" I'm like, ah, no, I'm in 4wd. Then looked and sure enough, my bud in the other seat was messin with me and pulled it out of 4wd on me.
1988 Toyota 4Runner - 25-32 years old. Shortly after buying the 94 at almost $400 a month, I met someone. That someone turned out to be my wife not long after. Well, I'm still at home having fun and not thinking of saving any money or anything, so the $400 payment had to go. Needed a place, pay for a wedding, etc, etc. Got rid of the 94 for the 88. 105,000 miles on her when I got her (the truck, not the wife). Of course continued my vehicle beating and the Toyota's continued to take it. This one, 7 years and 3 crashes and it's still out there on the road somewhere. 1st crash, leaving work, snow and ice, and the tail comes around on me shifting to 2nd. I swung the back end around a few times, recovering it. But on what would have been the last swing before regaining it, another car popped up over the hill. Instead of wacking the car, I aimed to put it in the ditch. As luck would have it, a telephone pole was in the way. Cracked up the front end a bit, no big deal. Bent bumper (replaced) and cracked up grill (glued back together). Then I picked up a bike towards the end of summer and on the 2nd day couldn't decide if it was too cold to ride in the morning. Decided to take the truck and a deer ran out 8 feet in front of me. 60 mph and no time to even hit the brakes. Really smashed up the front end, bumper (again) grill, both front fenders, pushed the radiator into the fan, radiator support. Someone gave me parts from his junk yard and I put it all back together. 3 days after fixing it, another deer. I was like "NOOOOOOOO!!!" Lucky for me, I only caught it with the front tire as I slammed the brakes on and turned slightly to the right. No damage. Finally sold it with 189,000 miles on it and it's still going strong.
1983 Honda Nighthawk CB550SC - 31 - current. The old lady said, you always wanted a bike, why don't you go out and get one. Ran out and had one the next day :-)
1999 Toyota Tacoma - 32-current. Nothing to write about with this one. Married now with house, wife, 2 kids (girls, 2 and 5-the 5 year old races S1 GTi on the other PC), 2 cars, bike, and now a new pup. I don't 4wheel, I don't go out, I don't drink, I don't do much of anything anymore other than play out on the swingset or the park with my kids and it's an awesome life :-) I do get my **** for speed with Live for Speed now!! :-)
Also not included are the 2 cars aquired through marriage, 1992 Cheverolet Corsica and traded for a 1996 Nissan Altima. Wife's cars, I don't even think they see the speed limit the way she drives, sooooo sloooooow.