Car Lust

Penske Pulls Out, Saturn Now Likely Dead

Various media sources are reporting that dealership and motorsports magnate Roger Penske is pulling out of his tentative deal to acquire Saturn from GM after an unknown manufacturer declined to manufacture donor vehicles for the brand. I never completely understood Penske's business model--a dealer owns a brand that exists only to rebrand of cars from one or several separate manufacturers?--but I'm a little sad that we're not going to see him try.

Saturn has more than its share of loyal fans that will be saddened by this. I am, to understate matters slightly, not one of those people.

However, I am watching the Koenigsegg/Saab deal with some trepidation--the Swedish government is refusing to extend some loans that were central to the deal, and so the transaction is now clouded with doubt. I'll happily wave goodbye to Saturn, but the loss of Saab just might crush me. SaabsUnited, as always, is all over the story.

--Chris H.

Sept. 28 Weekly Open Thread

As always, this is the place for the random, off-topic conversation.

What did everybody think of Our Cars Week Undetermined Period of Time? Personally, I loved it--Car Lust is about cars, yes, but more than that it's about how we relate with those cars. A car can be just awful when it's released; but that's just an abstraction. What's important is the person who buys that car and loves that car; the car becomes a member of the family, loved while it lives and mourned when it passes away. It's The Velveteen Rabbit in an automotive context, and I love it.

--Chris H.

Test Drive--1948 Frazer Manhattan

A sense of impending doom haunted the night as I got behind the wheel of the big sedan. I straightened my fedora and pushed the starter. I had a loaded roscoe in my shoulder holster, and beside me in the passenger seat was a dame with trouble written all over her. We were headed for a gin joint on the wrong side of town, and we'd soon be caught up in a tale of betrayal and greed written in blood and alcohol. Before it was all over, there'd be a caper gone wrong, a corpse face down in an alley, and a desperate chase down a road that led straight to Hell....

Truthfully, it wasn't quite like that. It was a sunny summer afternoon without any impending doom in sight, I was unarmed, the "dame" on the seat beside me was my wife, who is as trouble-free as they come, our destination was a local Mexican restaurant, and we would face there nothing more dangerous than steak fajitas with a side of refried beans. Otherwise, the previous paragraph is completely accurate.

Thing is, when you're driving a car like a 1948 Frazer Manhattan, it's hard not to slip into your best film noir hardboiled detective imitation. Just looking at this magnificent artifact is enough to transport you back in time to the days of Harry S. Truman, the Berlin Airlift, the DuMont Television Network, fedoras, and Look magazine. Actually driving it is as close to a working method of time travel as you can get.

Our Cars--1948 Nash

Submitted by RebeccaH for Our Cars Week

In high school, during my junior and senior years in the mid-1960s, I owned a black 1948 Nash that my dad bought for $50. It ran great, although the upholstery was pretty much shot (did you know they used to line the seats with the same scratchy wool they used for WWII Army blankets before they put the leather on?).

My dad said he could always tell I was in school because he only had to drive past and he could see the roof of the Nash sticking up above all the other cars. It was taller than the 1950s and '60s Ford pickups. One of my classmates did have a cherry-red-painted Model T, but her dad was rich and I hated her.

I loved that car. It was built like a tank. You put a key in the ignition, turned it, and then you had to push a button to start it. If I had ever hit another car, I would have survived and sorry about the other guy--but fortunately that never happened.

The worst thing that happened was, on a fairly buzzed trip with friends back from the liquor stores of Wichita Falls, Texas, the summer before I was to go to college, the electrical system went out and we didn't have headlights for about 15 seconds. Trust me, rural Texas on a moonless night in 1964 was pitch black, like the inside of a cave. Luckily, in those days those roads were seldom traveled at night, and I managed to get stopped while we were all screaming. I turned off the car, turned it back on again, and got lights. I confessed to my dad, leaving out the illegal liquor purchase, which he, being no fool, probably guessed anyway. He sold it soon after for $100. If only he'd known.

I wish I had that car now. I'd either be rich, or I'd still be hanging on to it.

--RebeccaH

Our Cars--1991 Isuzu Trooper II

Submitted by Nick Dimondi for Our Cars Week

My father was a fan of American steel, so growing up we had a gaggle of some forgettable and infamous vehicles grace our driveway. Coming from a big family, I started driving on my own in the mid 1990s at the age of 14 in a Ford Aerostar. I never really had my own car that I picked out; I always had what my father had picked up for cheap or was working on as a project (Saturn SL1, 1987 Chevy Nova, Ford Taurus etc.). It wasn't until I was 23 that I got to pick my own vehicle and had the money to buy it myself.

I was scouring Craigslist and happened upon a short blurb of an ad talking about a silver Trooper for $1,500. I met up with the seller, who immediately dropped the price to $1,000 as soon as I attempted to haggle. I got a pre-sale inspection that was satisfactory to my standards and paid the man in two installments of $500. It was like me and this truck were meant to be.

I soon found that the Trooper's inline four cylinder engine was easy to work on, reliable and offered pathetic power. It put out a mere 120 horsepower when new; God knows how much it produced at the 198K miles I bought it at. It was torquey, though; emissions regulations are lax where I'm from, so I had a fun time boring out the catalytic converter to add some horses to the mix. On the drive home, the exhaust manifold down-pipe entirely separated from the exhaust system and brought volumes of emissions almost directly into cabin, along with many, many decibels of un-muffled engine noise. It took awhile for me to figure out a piece meal way to fix it, so in the meantime my Trooper earned the nickname of "The Sherman" after the WWII tank.

Our Cars--1988 Buick Reatta

Submitted by Roger Klein for Our Cars Week

First off, I've always found it somewhat shocking that the Reatta hasn't been a subject for Car Lust. I have been obsessed with the Reatta from day one, but my paltry earnings when the car was released coupled with the Reatta's high price when new made it an unobtainable lust-object. Fast forward 13 years and my income had increased significantly--and obviously the cost of a Reatta had dropped considerably as well. 

At that point I had been leasing an Audi A6 and woke up one morning and said to myself, geez, for considerably less than what I've been spending on lease payments I could drive a car that I really love. I have since dropped out of the 2-3-year new car buying cycle with its unending car payments and only drive older iron.

My current Reatta is my second, the first being an '89 that had a string of very bad luck at the end of its life; considering how inexpensive it is to start over with a "new" one it was not economical to continue with the '89. I nicked my current '88 Reatta off eBay for $3,800, and it is in near-perfect condition.

Our Cars--1987 Chevrolet Sprint Turbo

Submitted by Kenny Heggem for Our Cars Week

Growing up, I always had a fascination for hot hatchbacks. Even as a 12-year-old, while friends spoke of their future dreams of owning a Porche 911 or Lamborgini Countach, I was eyeing Ford Fiestas, Rabbit GTIs and Escort GTs.

In middle school I had a friend, a science teacher, that also shared a love for cars. He once had a Le Car (I always thought he must be cool to have once owned that car) and was driving a Honda Wagon 4WD. He wanted something sportier. The Toyota Corolla FX-16 and Acura Integra were too much money, as were the VW Scirocco and GTI 16v. I told him how fast the Sprint Turbo was supposed to be and that they were very cute. He bought a new 1987 cue-ball-white Sprint Turbo with a pop-up moonroof and AC for $10K.

I recall taking the car up the Santa Teresa Hills of the South Bay. It moved out, and it had a nifty Rainbow Brite-like seat style. Later he added Enkei 13-inch wheels with 175/60 tires and had the springs cut an inch and a half. It stayed quite flat while handling. He owned that car until 1998 and then sold it to his son-in-law. I still knew that one day I was going to have my own hot hatch.

After a brief ownership of abeige 1979 Honda Accord (a royal POS), upon graduation I received a new Montana Green 1992 VW GTI 16v. It was my favorite car of all time, next to the Sprint Turbo. Since this post is not about that car, I will wait until a later date to get into more detail. Let's leave it at this brief description. My parents divorced, there was no money to pay the payments, and I was naive and obviously over indulged with having been gifted such a nice car at a young age. The car was repoed with $12K still owed on the car two years later with 30K miles on the clock. 

Sept. 21 Open Weekly Thread

As always, this is your home for random off-topic chat this week. I know we've been running the Our Cars theme for a few weeks now; we have a few more really good ones we'll run this week, but we should be back to normal service after that.

Our Cars--2004 Scion xA

Submitted by Roy "Griff" Griffis for Our Cars Week

This 2004 Scion xA is the first brand-new car I ever bought, and it came standard with air conditioning and power windows. I have a daily round trip commute of more than 100 miles, and the car now has more than 192,000 miles. It has returned a steady 30 MPG.

I have kept it topped up on fluids, and the only issues with the car have been a few components wearing out-- the alternator, water pump, power steering pump, and rear wheel bearings  Other than the power steering pump, I was able to change the rest myself. Other than brakes and other regular maintenance activities, I’ve put maybe $1,500 into the car to keep it running that long.

It's a damn fine vehicle. It has lots of head room for a tall guy like me, and room to throw my bike in the back if needed.  In fact, at 250,000 miles, I’ll pass it on to my teenage son, and find myself another 2004 Scion xA with lower miles to drive. I know it’ll last me another good, long, dependable time.

--Roy "Griff" Griffis

Car Lust--1971 MG MGB GT

Submitted by Jason Howell for Our Cars Week

What is it about a car that compels you to make changes in your life, often repeatedly, to obtain or maintain it, and what kind of car is it that has this power? Every car enthusiast has a different answer. For me, the car has always been British, and always been an MG. Unable to afford a Jag, a big Healey, or some of the more exotic or unusual MGs, and simply not being a "Triumph guy," I have always gravitated toward MG’s B model. My latest MGB GT is the best of them all, and one that has developed into the car I always wanted the car I lusted after to be.

I bought this 1971 MGB GT in 2005 in part as a gift to myself for graduating law school. It was the third MG I had owned, after a basket case of a ‘71 roadster I owned in 1993 and a ’74 BGT in 1994. The previous GT lasted five years as a daily driver and took me to all corners of the United States. Sadly, graduate school and finally moving for law school resulted in its demise. But, why else pursue higher learning if not to achieve more automotive ambitions?