Without a doubt, the second best purchase of my LIFE. The first is my house. Since its purchase in September of 1999, I have put nearly 100K miles on this truck (as of May 2006) and in this time I have changed the fluids, put new tires on it twice, replaced a u-joint and the plastic parking brake release lever. This thing is one solid vehicle! It is a two-seater with a standard cab and the 6.5' bed. It has the special towing and suspension package that stiffens the ride a bit, but make it able to haul just about anything. The one downside of it is the gas mileage. My brother-in-law's Expedition gets nearly the same gas mileage. Dodge knows how to build a vehicle, they just don't know how to make it stop drinking from the gas pump.
Update 8/30/2006
Here I go bragging on my truck and it starts having problems. A recent rear brake replacement didn't go so well and the parking brake is now having issues. The heater core sprung a leak and the AC unit has a clog in the expansion joint. This all happened within a month of rolling over 100K miles.
Update 9/20/2007
The addition of the Camry to the fold means the Dakota is seeing a LOT fewer miles than before. I probably haven't put 1000 miles on it in the last 15 months. Thus, the air conditioning unit will remain broken as fixing it really isn't a good investment of cash. The parking break has been improved, but still isn't as good as it came from the factory. Such is life.
1965 Ford Mustang Coupe
My first car is still going. Well, at least I still have it... but it will run again! And soon! Purchased by my family in 1987 as my sister's graduation present, she drove it for four years in college. During that time, it was side swiped, keyed, a hubcap stolen, numerous alternator/battery problems, a leaky radiator and eventually rear-ended and totaled by some old woman. It sat for a year during the insurance dispute and was rebuilt just in time for me to start driving it.
It was my daily driver for three years, and in that time it had a quarter panel smashed out, dropped in a ditch, dinged by a coworker, stranded me with a carb issue, broken window regulator, flat tires and finally rear-ended and totaled by a professor of mine. Don't worry, I did get an 'A' in his class... and he paid for the car to be restored again.
This time the vehicle sat for nearly three years, until my final semester of college, when my father had it restored as a college graduation present. After the first paint job came out Mary Kay pink, it was repainted to be white with a touch of metallic red flake.
Currently, the vehicle resides in my garage, where it has lived for the last five and a half years. It has had some major work done on it in the last three years. All components of the ignition system, minus the starter, have been replace. The fuel system has been replaced, all but the carb, for which we are currently trying to find a replacement. Hopefully this will fix its refusal to run properly and it will be back on the road soon.
Update 8/30/2006
We decided not to replace the carb, but replaced the exhaust header instead. The problems all went away... for about a day, and it started its old problems again.
Update 9/20/2007
The car still isn't running right. Such is life. Maybe soon it'll run. Who knows?
1980 Honda CB 650
If you enter my basement, you will see something that is supposed to be a motorcycle but is really nothing more than a glorified box of parts. Purchased two years ago as the beginnings of a hobby, work proceeded quickly during its first few months in my home. The frame has been modified into a hard-tail and two inches have been added to the downtubes. The engine has been cleaned and painted. All the brushed aluminum has been polished.
I still need to find a front wheel, find a gas tank, assemble the rear wheel, mount the forward controls and finish the mock-up of the bike. Then the neck needs to be raked out and then the frame can be sent to paint. After that, final assembly and wiring, then the bike should be ready to ride!
1983 Honda CX 650 Custom
Purchased from a consultant friend of mine for $40, this was definitely a good investment bike. Sadly, it doesn't run, either. There is a theme with my vehicles that most of them generally do nothing other than sit in the garage and collect dust.
While it was quite dinged up when I purchased it, most of the issues were cosmetic. The purple paint was quickly replaced with black. The gas tank had many dents that had to be pulled and filled before it could be sealed. The carbs needed a good cleaning and the starter motor needed replacement. Now all that remains to do is to find time to do the reassembly and this bike should be ready for the road.
1996 Toyota Camry Collectors Edition
Part of me balks at adding this vehicle to the page, but I feel that after having it for nearly 8 months now, it should probably be added. This vehicle was purchased from a friend for a mere $3,000 and is a commuter vehicle for me to get back and forth to work every day. Given that I have a 50 minute commute each way, I needed something that had at least a small bit of fuel efficiency and was also reliable enough to make the daily trek for many years. Given the price and immediate availability of the vehicle, it was a perfect fit for me.
Mechanically, the vehicle is in amazing shape. Thus far I have replaced one rim, put new tires on it, replaced the automatic antenna and radio and changed the automatic transmission filter. Other than putting in a lot of gas and changing the oil often, the vehicle hasn't needed a thing.
