St. wrote:
>>>      Heh, I do. It was the Toronado - you LOVED that car!   :)
>> Still do. :)  Definitely couldn't beat it as far as comfort is concerned.
> 
>      Yeah, I bet, it did look nice, (and big for such a young guy!)

The Toronado was just my size, really.  As far as the Saturn goes, well, 
just just say I ended up getting the "big man, small car" joke a lot. :P

> Was it the 'Ghia' version?

That would be a negative.

>       Yeah, I bet. I think I've seen a few of those over here and I always 
> thought "I bet they 'go' a bit".

Indeed. :)

It's even more fun when you put it into "performance" mode.  As far as I 
can tell, it's the same basic experience as having a performance chip 
installed, but gives you the advantage of being able to switch it on and 
off (perfect for Ohio winters!).  The gas pedal is touchier, it tends to 
rev higher, and in some cases can give slightly better gas mileage 
(though if you're a lead foot it's probably going to plummet).

The company rental car that I ended up getting down here in Florida is a 
Ford Taurus SEL.  Not a bad little car (surprisingly quick for what it 
is) but I prefer my Satty.

>       Hmm, now let me see... <counts fingers>, my first car was a 
> second-hand Ford Cortina MkII, gold colour with a leather roof - death trap, 
> went to a wedding and the brakes failed coming up to a roundabout at 70mph. 
> Foot to floor on the brake pedal got the nose of the car just over the line 
> on the roundabout... The guy behind me helped me push it out of the way - 
> embarassing.  :o(

Ouch...definitely not good. :(

I was involved in my first traffic accident in a Ford, too.  My 
Pennsylvanian friends and I were driving in their Ford Escort down a 
freeway at 70mph when the front driver side tire suddenly blew out. 
Smacked into a tall concrete barrier going 70mph, pulled away slightly, 
slammed into it again, then skidded across the road and hit a guardrail 
at 35mph, then rolled to a stop.

None of us were hurt, fortunately.  I was actually the worst one hurt, 
only because I scraped my knuckled while trying to jack the car up with 
those damn crank things that they throw in the trunk.

The car made it to their apartment with the spare donut (!!) but the 
front end was so badly hammered from the crash ($4000+ worth of damage! 
  cripes) that the insurance company totaled it.

>  Second was a Ford Cortina Estate, (you'd think I'd avoid them by now), it 
> was damn lime green! Good car, but never again... ;)

Lime green... XD  Nice.

>  Switched to Vauxhall for my third car, a second-hand Hatch Cavalier. Now 
> that was nice, I guess at the time, it was my first 'modern' car, being only 
> about 8 years old, but then I had a problem with it and one of my friends 
> said thay knew someone that can fix it easily, and he proceeded to blow the 
> engine when testing it!! I can't remember what the problem was now, but to 
> be fair, he replaced the car with another Cav, and that lasted about 3 
> years.

I could see it now...

<Mechanic> Alright, there we go!  Let's hop in and make sure it runs.
* Machanic gets in the car.
* Machanic starts the car.
* Mechanic puts the pedal to the metal.
* Mechanic falls asleep.
* Car has quit IRC (AcK!!!!1)
* Steve has joined #life
<Steve> Dude, where's my car?
<Mechanic> Uh...whoops.
* Ian has been kicked (HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PUNS D:)

>    Hmm, what next? Oh yes! A Ford Mondeo, ex taxi cab - never again.

Ew.  Dare I ask how many billions of miles were on it?

>     And lastly, the Rover 820. Took it for its third MOT since I've had it 
> the other day... and it failed. Heh, they told me the number plate lights 
> weren't working, but when I got it back home to check, they were working!

Heh, the police in a town near me love to pull people over for "faulty 
license plate lights."  My dad was pulled over for that once and when he 
checked they were working fine.  Odds are the cop just wanted to know 
why he was out at 2am (he was going to work) and couldn't use that as a 
reason to pull him over.

> But, the windows that they shine through, (yes, 'they' because I've got twin 
> light bulbs see), ;) were really dirty, so I stripped it all down and 
> cleaned them, took it back and it went through ok. STRIKE THREE!  :)

Sounds like my headlights, heh.  I generally leave them popped up in the 
winter so that they don't freeze and break on me (because it looks 
really silly when cars are perpetually winking) and I have to clean them 
off regularly because of all the salt and crap that get stuck to them.

>>>    Cool... cousin, nephew, SON??  ;)
>> Son?!  Oh, heavens no.  Not yet, anyway!
> 
>     LOL! Yeah, I know, I was just 'kidding' around.  :)

Sure, sure... ;)

>> You guys have always gotten hosed when it comes to gas prices -- even 
>> before the recent fuel inflation -- haven't you?  I don't think I'd be 
>> able to afford to drive if I lived in the UK.
> 

> miles at the moment. Well, that's not true, but it feels like it. :o(

Yes indeed...

It's kind of crazy.  When I first started driving, gas prices were a 
third of what they are now.  I used to be able to fill my Toronado's 
twenty gallon tank for less than I can fill my Saturn's twelve gallon 
tank.  Amazing how things change in, what, seven years? :(

>      *Please* don't do those slidy skid manoeuvres in snow "just to get used 
> to it". Find an empty car park...  ;)

Don't worry, I've gotten [most of] that out of my system already. ;)

>>> but at 14 years old and with only 48,000 *original* miles on the clock, I 
>>> simply laugh at the broken down newbies on the motorway.
>> Woo, not bad! :O
> 
>     Yeah, it belonged to a Doctor that only used it for golf on Sundays, 
> seriously!

I was thinking more along the lines of "granny's car," but that works, too.

>> My Satty's got 96000 miles on the odo right now.  I fully intend to be 
>> sitting in that car when it passes 100K.  It's kind of hard to believe 
>> that it only had something like 62000 miles on it when I got it.  I think 
>> I'm the one who put the most miles on it in its life.
> 
>      Wow, you've done a bit of travelling around there Ian! Mine had 43,000 
> mile on it when I bought it, so that's 5,000 miles I've done in 3 years. I 
> should change my name to 'Hermit'. ;)

Meep. O.o

Yeah, I ended up doing a lot of little traveling over the years. 
Something like 100-200 miles per week between visiting my friends, going 
to work, going to school, and just going to places locally.

Going between Maryland and Ohio probably accounts for around 1000 miles, 
then there's all of the miles that I'd put on there for my new job.  Woo...

I've gotten very used to life without cruise control, believe me.

>>>>>      Nice to see you back.  :o)
>>>> Good to be back, sir. :)
>>>       Hey, stick around matey.
>> I shall, I shall!
> 
>     Goodo!

...goodo?  Nice. XD

> I did think about you lot's of times simply because you just did 
> the Genie thing, and disappeared!

That skill has taken me years to perfect.

> Kids these days... I dunno.... ;)

Yep...damn kids. :P

-- 
-Ian

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