Throwback Thursday: Cars of Yore

Growing up in a family with a car salesman, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that in my life, I've driven at least 100 different cars. Perhaps, even, as many as double that number.

Even before I had my driver's license, my father taught me how to drive. Most of the time, we used our own vehicle, but because he was known for buying trade-ins from the dealership, keeping them for a short time, and then re-selling them at either a profit or for what he paid, we often rotated our family car several times in one year.

When I had my learner's permit, my father would often let me use one of the demonstrators that he would use as his day-to-day commuter car. In the early 80s, car sales were good, and it wouldn't be unusual to swap this demo for another one because it sold. One time, I remember my father heading to work with one demo, coming home for lunch in a different demo because he sold the first one, and then coming home for dinner in a third demo because he sold the second one.

Though I wouldn't drive his new demos every day, it would be fair to say that in the course of a month, I would drive 10 to 15 of them.

So, maybe I'm underestimating when I say I've driven at least 100 cars.

Not too long ago, I was reflecting on some of the memorable cars that I had driven—a 1985 6000STE, a 1986 Fiero GT, a 1987 Sunbird GT, and a 1989 Firebird Trans Am convertable, among others—but particularly, the cars that I've actually owned over the years.

(Side note: in creating this post, I realized that I didn't take many photos of my vehicles: only a couple of the following images are my own; the rest were plucked from Google searches and may not exactly match my vehicles.)

I didn't own my first car until 1987, when I got my job as a reporter at The Low Down to Hull and Back News, in Wakefield. Before then, I held jobs where I could either walk to work or could borrow our family car. Having to drive from Parkwood Hills to Wakefield, and also to drive to stories, I needed my own set of wheels.

I turned to my father for help, and I only had a couple of days to find myself a set of wheels—actually, as soon as I was hired, I was asked to start the next day: I had to borrow the family car until one for me was found.

On the day that I started my job in Wakefield, my father found a trade-in at his dealership that he thought could do, for now. It wasn't the optimum vehicle: it was a gas-guzzler, but it was safe. And it was in mint condition with low mileage. The car he found me was a 1981 Chevy Malibu: a four-door, V8-engine vehicle in two-tone brown.

Source: Google

It lasted only a couple of weeks. Right from the get-go, it was obvious that this was not the car for me. First off, it was too big. With its massive engine, it went through a lot of fuel. I filled the tank every couple of days. With some of the stories that I covered happening all over the area from Low, Quebec, down to Hull (as the paper was named), I could sometimes find myself filling my tank every day.

This new job was going to cost me a fortune.

Even though my father found the Malibu so quickly, he never expected me to keep it and he continued to search for something better. Two weeks after taking the Malibu, he found another car that was better.

A 1979 Pontiac LeMans: two-door, V6, in a light blue. For being two years older than my Malibu, the LeMans came to me with even lower mileage from its previous owner, and again was in like-new condition. With the smaller engine, I found myself going to the fuel pumps less often, but I was still spending a large portion of my pay on gas (even though, to some extent, the paper was compensating me for fuel).

Source: Google

My father, forever on the search for good used cars, found a third car for me, a few months later, after I left The Low Down. This car was much better suited to a 22-year-old: a 1984 Pontiac Sunbird. This four-cylinder, five-speed manual hatchback was a two-tone of dark blue and grey, and even had a sunroof.

© The Brown Knowser

I loved this car. I drove it everywhere: several trips to Mississauga, to visit a girlfriend. To Montreal, to New York City, and all the way to Fort Lauderdale, in Florida.

To date, it's still in my top-three cars that I've owned. I had it for three years, finally giving it up when I went back to school and couldn't afford to keep it while paying tuition and rent. With great regret, I sold it and went for a couple of years without a car.

Eventually, I got tired of renting cars for getaways, and my father was looking to sell one of his trade-ins that he bought at work. It was a 1980 Datsun 200SX hatchback. White, with a red interior, it was a fun car and reminded me, in some ways of my Sunbird, but this had an automatic transmission and was somewhat gutless. It also had a recurring problem with the brake pads seizing, and we did have the muffler disintegrate on a road trip to Cape Breton Island.

Source: Google

It was the first car that DW and I owned, buying it just after we got married, in 1994. (Oops, I'm not supposed to say how long we've been married.) We kept the car until we moved to South Korea, when we sold it for the same price that we originally paid for it.

When DW and I returned to Canada, in 1999, we needed a car so that we could get around without having to rely on parents for a vehicle (DW's folks didn't have a car to spare and it was a big ask for my folks, who only had one family car and a demo). Again, I turned to my father to find a good car in short order.

He found a 1994 Chevy Cavalier: red, four-door, automatic, base model. It was one of the most basic cars we owned. We kept it, until spring of 2001, but when our first-born daughter came along, we wanted something bigger and safer.

Source: Google

At the time, my father was looking to sell his 1994 Toyota Camry LE, and the decision to take it off his hands was an easy one. It had low mileage, was in nearly new condition, and I had already driven it a few times.

Source: Google

It was the best car that I've ever owned. Smooth, responsive, comfortable. It was a classic deep green, with lights across the entire back end and a spoiler on the trunk. We drove that car everywhere, including to PEI for a summer vacation. We would have driven that car into the ground, which probably would have been until 2010, or longer. It was a well-built car.

Sadly, a heavy downpour in heavy traffic brought that car to an untimely end in a collision. No one was hurt but I cried at the loss of that car, in 2006.

For a replacement vehicle, DW and I decided to up-size and get a minivan. We had two young kids and we often found ourselves schlepping a lot of over-sized things that taxed a sedan. We also liked to travel with our parents, and a seven-seater vehicle seemed the best choice. My father pointed us to a friend who managed a Honda dealership, and we got a great deal on a 2003 Odyssey.

© The Brown Knowser

We drove that vehicle into the ground and went everywhere in it (it was, after all, our only vehicle). While we owned the Odyssey, though, we did make the decision to get a second vehicle, one that I could use to commute safely to and from work. In 2012, we bought our first new car, my Ford Focus Titanium hatchback.

© The Brown Knowser

Enough has been said about this car.

In 2014, when our Odyssey grew long in the tooth and was costing us more to maintain than it was worth, we returned to the manager of the Honda dealership to get another deal: this time, on a 2012 CR-V. This car has been great, and we continue to drive it. We expect it to last us at least another four or five years.

Source: Honda des Sources

This year, when I finally got tired of the problems that wracked the Focus, we traded it in for a 2019 Kia Niro hybrid. So far, both DW and I love this car. It can go about 800 kms on a tank of gas, drives extremely smoothly, and has more toys on it than any other vehicle we've owned. Because it came equipped with roof rails (as did our Odyssey), we bought crossbars and have added racks for our kayaks. Even heavily laden with two kayaks, the fuel economy is better than any of our past vehicles.

© The Brown Knowser

While I've only owned 10 cars in my lifetime, I have driven (much) more than a hundred. And I didn't even touch on the dozens of cars and trucks that I've rented.

What about you? What are some of your memorable cars? Leave a comment.