Doing the JPCavanaugh method of digging through old photos has yielded a few nuggets. This 2001 Ford Crown Victoria I found in 2013 or 2014 is one such nugget.
Why? I used to own this car and sold it in 2012.
I encountered it near Ft. Leonard Wood in the town of Waynesville, ninety minutes south of where I live. See the missing paint on the rear left? That came from replacing brake lines and lowering the car some with a tire leaned against it. Oops.
Incidentally, the driver was not the person I met when I sold it. Here’s where I once wrote about it. You can see the missing paint there also.
But this leads to my question: Have you ever encountered a car you used to own? Had it deteriorated? Was it an enjoyable experience? Or, was it irksome to see its condition?
There have been some that went to friends and family so I did see those on a regular basis.
For ones sold to strangers, there have been a couple, a Pinto Wagon was sold to a guy that lived down the street, though he moved away a few months later. I also had an 80 Mustang that the wife drove that was bought by a kid who lived just off of a main road several miles away that I frequently traveled. Since it was the kids car it parked on the street so I’d frequently see it if sitting at the curb if I looked down that street.
I’ve run into my old cars quite a few times over the years.
The first one was my handed down from mom ’72 Cutlass that I hadn’t seen since I traded it in Nov of ’74. I was in Bowling Green Ohio in June of ’82, where i had last seen it, and I was stopped behind it at a traffic light. At first, I didn’t think it was the same car, but I had added a rear sway bar to it and when I backed off as we pulled away from the light, I saw it clearly, and I followed it to the local Burger King, where I asked the driver about it. She let me look under the hood and I instantly recognized my handwriting on an old sticker. It was remarkably rust free. I never saw it again.
Next one is my ’79 Trans Am that I wrote about and the post was made into an article. Last time I saw it about a year ago, I guess, it was back running after sitting on blocks a long time. The guy I sold it to in ’87 had it running again with a new TH350 in it, and other than needing paint, it seemed to be running well. I passed a ’79 T/A a few weeks ago on a nice sunshiny Sun morning and after I passed it, I realized it was my old car with a pretty decent looking new paint job. I turned around and finally saw it moving through a Meijer’s parking lot. It was driven by the wife of the guy I sold it to. She let me drive it and it still has the same amazing throttle response it had years ago. The 403 is still a lot of fun to drive, and sounds great. The interior is pretty good in general, but the speedometer has the shaky needle that a bad cable usually causes, and the tach is messed up. The JVC stereo I put in back in ’85 still works great. I would say the paint quality is about 2X better than it was originally from the factory. Not bad, but not super great.
And once in a while, I see my 2003 Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4×4 driving around. The rear wheel area is rotting away, but it seems to be running well and last time I talked to the present owner, it was 155K miles on it with only a water pump, battery, and brakes/tires since he bought it in Dec ’07 with 63K on it. I miss that truck in the winter.
For 7 years I had a ’90 Civic hatchback, which I sold in 2010 with 255K on the odo. Years later in 2014 I saw it in someone’s driveway in Lafayette CO, where I used to work. Would still see it being driven around town into the following year, confirming that it still ran. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still running today.
The only car from the past that I got to see again was a 1971 Valiant wagon that was the family car when I was about 10 years old.
I saw it in about 1983, it was a bit of a shock to see it in such poor condition, mismatched wheels, dents, probably not been washed for years. I knew it was our old car, as it had the same registration, KZM 343.
I used to see my old 93 Amon Corona on a regular basis I sold it to members of the local Blackpower chapter and they ran it for years, I know where the Mitsubishi Mirage VIE X I sold has ended up its with a few dozen other JDM refugees in a front yard in Napier it took a long time to die and the high mileage Nissan Sentra I flipped last year drives past occasionably still giving its new owner reliable service, and my old Xsara still graces my driveway when my daughter comes back for a visit she even lets me drive it to explain any new noises its making and it still goes great and is fun to drive the whistle from the turbo and roofed in gocart like handling made it a fun car for yers in my ownership.
Only once. I briefly owned a Dodge Horizon RV that I sold when money was tight. I sold it to a nice guy who made it a quick and easy sale.
Maybe about 6 months or a year later, I saw the van in oncoming traffic heading north up the coast. He had installed a rack on the back and was carrying his bike. I was glad to see that he was enjoying the van.
Sometimes I’ll look through Carfax to see what became of my old cars. I’m proud when I see they are still going and sad when I see they have finally reached the boneyard.
Yes, my immaculate gold ’66 Falcon about 2 years after I sold it in the late ’80’s.
And here’s a thing. It just looked weird to have someone else casually driving my car! The thought really did flicker across my brain, “Do you MIND?”
Anyone ever felt a twinge of embarrassment because your own thoughts?
Reverse case:
In 2017, mechanics working on my 1958 Cadillac sedan unearthed a 1985 credit card receipt in the trunk with the name “Daniel S******”. I looked up D.S. and called him on the phone. “Did you ever own a 1958 Cadillac?” “Yes!” “Do you want to see it?” “Sure!”
Turns out the Cadillac was purchased almost new in late 1958 or ’59 in Reading, PA by Dan’s grandfather. The car remained in his family until the early ’90s when Dan sold it to a neighbor. That neighbor then sold the car to me in 1995. Dan hadn’t seen it since.
Nov. 2017: I visit Dan and he is reunited with his car after 25 years. Dan remarks that the car looks virtually the same as he remembered it and is in excellent condition. He gets to sit behind the wheel one last time.
Sept. 2018: I sell the Cadillac in order to buy a better one. After the sale, I learn that the buyer’s plan is to ship the car to Germany for full restoration and resale, possibly to someone in the Eastern bloc countries, “Where people have cash!” So a new stage of life begins for this old car.
Nothing is permanent, time never stops moving, and life goes on.
Photo: Me, Dan, and the ’58 Caddy back home at Dan’s house.
Actually never. I have had the use of 16 cars over my life. Four were company cars in the 70s so not really mine nor sold. One went straight to the junk yard. One was sold and never seen again in 1986. The other ten are still with me today.
I have a few times:
1) Traded in my 1985 Plymouth Turismo for my 1993 Topaz GS. I saw the Turismo about 6 months later on a used car lot, asking for $3K more than we got for trade in still sporting the bald tires and worn clutch. I saw it again a year later at a chance encounter in a parking lot at University of New Mexico.
2) After selling our “baller” 1995 S420 with 20″ chrome wheels, I saw it about 3 years later. We had sold it to a friend, who had sold it about a year after we sold it to him. I saw it about a half a dozen times around the same area.
3) We sold a 2001 Excursion. After several moves around San Diego, about 10 years later we bought a house and have been there since. We are about 2 miles from the family who bought it, and I’ve seen it a handful of times around the area.
I’ve never gotten rid of a car I own, BUT…
This week I’ve been in Denver helping my Mom transition my Grandma into hospice, moving furniture and whatnot in the Prius V my grandpa bought in 2014(he passed away in ‘16), which he traded in a 98 Sienna for that my Dad originally bought for him as a repayment/gift for helping my parents buy a house several years earlier. On one of the trips back and forth from building to car a similar looking Sienna was parked by us, and lo and behold it had a Schaumburg Toyota dealer sticker on the bottom left corner of the tailgate, the dealer my Dad bought it brand new from in Illinois that I happened to tag along with as a little boy 20 years ago!
It was not dented 5 years ago
Yes, weekly. That’s what happens when you sell your car to family. My Subaru Liberty (Legacy) wagon is actually a beloved member of the family. I got to drive it again recently and I forgot how light it felt compared to my Falcon. Perhaps a bit too light in the steering but it’s certainly an easy car to drive. It also scoots surprisingly fast for a naturally-aspirated four.
Never seen any of my other ex-cars in person. The guy I sold my Falcon XR6 to kept showing up as a Facebook suggestion because he was a contact in my phone and one day I finally looked at his profile. He was younger than I was (19? And I was around 23) and he enjoyed his XR6 for a year or so more before trading it for a dual-cab Hilux or something (makes sense, he lived out in a regional area and seemed pretty outdoorsy). I saw a post he published when he sold the XR6 thanking it for being such a great car. I was glad he loved it as much as I did! I wonder if it’s still roaming around regional Queensland.
Only once or twice did we ever see my mom’s ’83 Plymouth Horizon or ’97 Mercury Tracer still in town after we sold them. The paint was BADLY peeling off on the Plymouth. A guy in Florida bought my dad’s ’89 Lincoln Town Car but I still see similar-vintage models every so often. The ’06 Focus wagon that I wrecked AND my ’96 Aerostar both went to the junkyard. My grandparents’ ’88 Cutlass Ciera was donated to Goodwill; several similar models are still seen but I would know which one was theirs (haven’t seen it). One of my cousins bought their ’96 Dodge Ram & to my knowledge is still driving it.
Now if we include TRAILERS into the mix, I DO know of one for certain: an old red trailer that my dad used for getting up yard debris around our home up to at least a decade ago. Around the yard it was just fine, but pull it on the highway for any given time and the coupler would break loose even after checking it was secured to the hitch ball. This happened one time too many and dad declared “THAT’S IT!” & shunned it away deep into the woods. A guy named Lathan who’s in the woodworking business happened to find it several years later; dad practically gave it to him for free but warned: “DON’T pull it ANYWHERE on the highway!” No problem: it was simply loaded onto Lathan’s wood-hauling trailer–which has a grabber arm on the front for lifting heavy pieces of timber–and hauled away to his home where he does most of his work. I didn’t see it again until just this past February in the middle of his working area finally being put to good use after so many years being left in the woods: a wood-cutting platform was added to the top of the trailer to aid in his work. And it can STILL be pulled by a lawnmower for a utility bonus as shown below; I guess the mower was also repurposed as the mower deck’s gone!
I used to have a 1975 Mercury Comet GT. It was bright yellow with black racing stripes and a black vinyl roof (on the top of the roof only, the rear pillars were still bare paint). It had optional aluminum wheels (which I thought looked cool) and was equipped with a 302 V-8 and a 3-speed automatic.
Unfortunately, it was a bit of a lemon and I could never really afford to keep up with all the repairs it needed. There were problems with the front suspension (upper control arm bushings) what with the weight of the V-8 in a car originally designed for a 6, and with the automatic transmission (band adjustment they said). I gave up on the car when it threw a rod at 140,000 miles when I was driving to work one day in 1985. I put my foot down on the accelerator and nothing happened. I steered the car to the side of the road, eventually coming to rest in front of, I kid you not, an automotive recycling center.
I did get the car started again and I drove it home, but it was making a terrible racket and it wouldn’t have been driveable for much longer. So I sold it and didn’t see it for a year or so. When I did see it, I hardly recognized it. The new owner had replaced the original engine with a 289 from an older Ford Mustang (the state I lived in did not have any emissions control tests). The car had been repainted a kind of beige (no more racing stripes), but the vinyl roof was still there and the optional aluminum wheels had been replaced by nice-looking chrome mag-style wheels. I always thought the aluminum wheels were the best thing about the car, so I was a bit sad to see them gone. Anyway, it was weird seeing the car again and how much had been done to it.
My first new car was a blue ’75 Mustang II coupe. It was an alright car for the most part except for the dealer installed AC which gave me problems. However, I never really bonded with it. After a month of driving it to work I gave it to my wife to drive and went back to driving the ’67 Mustang we kept instead of trading in. In February 1979 we traded the Mustang II for the then new Malibu that I still have. I didn’t know who bought the Mustang II except that the dealer who was a friend of mine told me that it went to a neighboring town in another county. At the time I was in the restaurant business. One day a year or two later I was outside my restaurant checking things out. I walked by a Mustang II the same blue color as mine in the parking lot. I took a closer look and it was my old car and it was absolutely trashed! Although It was not my favorite car and I really didn’t miss it, it was sad to see it in that shape. That was the only time it crossed my path.
Owning a Mustang II must have not made too bad an impression on me, though. Years later we bought a nice ’78 Mustang II for our two older daughters to drive in high school. That was one tough little car and the factory air worked just fine!
Yes, a few over the years. I sold a ’76 LTD Landau back in ’82 while in college to my landlord’s mother in law, and saw it regularly until I moved away.
The sad one: about 3 years after I sold a ’68 Falcon Futura Sports Coupe, I saw it in a junkyard. It was the best running car I’d ever had — that 289 ran like a watch — and I’d say that the person I sold it to just mechanically abused that nice old car a bit too much.
– In around 2002 I totaled my “beloved” 77 Pinto and bought a brand new 2002 Hyundai Elantra hatchback that I had to sell only two months later due to an electrical issue I couldn’t fix. Lady that bought it ended up being my friend Kery’s grandmother who was nearing 75 and needed a better form of transportation. Three weeks later I saw it in traffic, but it turns out Kery was driving it to her funeral.
– In early 2005, I sold my bright blue 1975 Catalina Safari (with the praised 455 Big Block) to a rather suspicious and iffy looking pair of gentlemen who pretty much just gave me the 4K I was asking and trying to get my keys. I didn’t see it in person, but it was in a news report about some scandal with a string of robberies that they did using it.
-Finally, the wife’s first car was a bright yellow 1979 AMC Concord Wagon that she sold in 1995 to one of her friends. In 2007, the day we got married, we saw it on the way back home Parker right next to us. Her friend Toby was still driving it.