As someone who’s has owned quite a few cars over the years, and continues trading up on a regular basis, I occasionally get to see a former vehicle of mine in the hands of its latest owner.
Sometimes it makes me smile. A few of my ex-cars have gone on to continue leading long and pampered lives after I sold them; seeing them rolling around, shiny and well cared for, makes me proud to have found and revived them when I did.
Sometimes it’s a bit more disturbing. Like when you see a formerly treasured ride in the junkyard, thoroughly abused and with nothing left to give. Or, worse yet, seeing it in a degraded state but still on the road, being actively abused and/or neglected by its current owner. (I always make a point to sell any car with sentimental value, to people from outside my area, for this very reason.)
But sometimes, it’s just the small surprise of seeing an old friend again.
While the rest of the world was waiting in lines at Black Friday sales, I was on my way to the U-Pull to check out a newly arrived B-body coupe (yes, another one in the same yard – watch for it in this Friday’s Junkyard Outtake). As I was rolling down the freeway, just over a mile from the yard, I was surprised to see a white ’90s Cutlass Supreme coupe with five-spoke wheels and composite headlights pass me in the opposite direction. I knew immediately that it had to be my old one.
(Disclaimer: kids, don’t try this at home!)
Without a moment’s hesitation, I whipped a tire squealing U-turn and gave chase. Its driver almost immediately signaled to take a left, and became the first car in the turn lane; four other cars fell into line before I could get there. Once the light changed, we all took the corner, and I was left to watch as the Olds sped away while the four other stragglers slowly gained speed.
Throwing my better judgement to the wind, I let the faux Touring Sedan off its leash. Three of the four cars were passed in the mile that followed; the fourth took a right just as I was preparing to pass it as well. There was nothing between me and the Cutlass but a mile of road. He was making time, but I still managed to reel him in in short order. Now we were riding together – and I needed to figure a way to get a good shot without startling the driver.
Finally, after going several miles out of my way, the Cutlass decided to take a right. Cross traffic forced him to stop for a moment, which I capitalized on by taking this picture through my bug-streaked windshield. I really wanted to get the car’s nose in the shot, but short of trying to get the driver to pull over, that just wasn’t going to happen. (I suppose I could have followed him to his destination, but I had no idea how many dozens of miles away it might have been.)
So there you have it – one more of my re-creations still out there and earning its keep.
How about you? Have you ever encountered a former car of yours, long after you’d moved on? Was it a good experience, or one you wish you’d missed?
I bought a cinnamon-colored 1980 Chevy Monza coupe new. Horrible car, little better than the Vega it was based on. I traded it early at 40,000 miles. Twenty years later I spotted the car, battered but still rolling under its own power, the odometer reading 138,000. I can only guess that the excellent maintenance it had early on gave it a good start on a long life. The college student owner hated the car because it was ugly and wouldn’t die. She purposely ran it with little oil to kill it and force her parents to buy her a better car. Yet, it kept going.
That is pretty cool. Must make car spotting around town, so much more interesting.
About two weeks after I privately sold a Plymouth TC3, I saw it being driven in town by the new owner, with no apparent mods.
When I first saw these Oldsmobiles on the road, It thought it was a mash-up between a Pontiac (cladding) and a Saturn. I think the late 1980s and early 1990s were too early for GM to start adopting such generic styling. Really helped sink Oldsmobile.
Yes. Here, in fact: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/stories/the-many-cars-of-my-life-1989-cadillac-brougham-hello-old-friend/
I have seen several others, as well. I especially remember the 88 Honda Accord that my wife bought new. It was the best car we ever owned from a repair standpoint, and was instantly recognizable from hail damage that was never repaired. It got caught in a flash flood, and I wanted to get rid of it after the insurance repairs. I disclosed the car’s history and sold it inexpensively. Then, just to prove me wrong, that car hung around my area of the city for YEARS. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Nice Cadillac! This has to be one of the best years for this ’80 and up body. 307, no door mounted seat belts, rear shoulder belts, some kinks worked out, none of the awful “updated” trim that they would later slather on with a trowel on this car. Really, a perfect family car. Cadillac’s selling theme for the year should have been “Hey! We got this one right – hurry before we mess it up!”
Glad you enjoyed your ownership of it. I didn’t realize that a version of this body that I would actually like was produced for a few years. If I ever see a nice ’89 come my way, I may have to think about it.
I have never found one of my own cars, but I did find a car once owned by a friend, which I had a role in “modifying.” This friend had an extreme strippo VW Golf (5 speed, crank windows, power almost nothing) which he took a perverse pride in not taking seriously. One day, after some discussion, we decided that a “KOMPRESSOR” badge off of a Mercedes C230 or SLK would be the silliest possible act of customization, since it was the silliest badge seen on a car in the US in our lifetimes. So I bought one for him off of eBay for him to glue on. He later sold the car to a young college student, and years after that, I found the car in the parking lot at a local independent garage. Sadly, it turned out that the college student had died of cancer, and his father was getting the car serviced before putting it up for sale. I told my friend, and we each considered buying it, but neither of us could handle having another vehicle.
I once bought a 96 Ford Escort station wagon (the price was right $200!) to flip. Since it was a five speed, I ended up keeping it for about 4-5 years. I upgraded it w/ fancier bits from its’ RARE Mercury cousin (interior, rear wind deflector, wheels, chrome door handles, etc); and @ 30+ mpg it was a great little car. It was going to need a carburetor in order to pass emissions, and I simply did not want to fool w/ it any longer, so I put it up for sale. It was purchased by a female who WANTED the stick shift. I saw it only once a while later, still looking good! Like you, I would prefer not to see any car that I had any attachment to after it has been sold! 🙂
A carburetor?
When I was 14, my parents let me buy my first car, an AMC Eagle. I poured a lot of money, sweat, and tears into that thing, but there was still a lot wrong with it by the time I turned 16. I decided to part ways, and of course since it had quit running two weeks prior, I sent it to the local junkyard. (With internet resources now, I would NEVER have done that….too many Eagle people out there!). A year or two later, I was sitting at the local Denny’s with some friends when I spotted a black AMC Eagle outside. I casually said to them, “Hey, remember when I had one of those?”. Then, the guy sitting next to me said, “Hey, that’s mine.” I said that I used to have one, but sadly had to junk it.
“Dude, what yard did you take it to?”
Me, “D&L, in Medina.”
Him, “White/Red?”
Me, “Yeahh….?”
Him, “Dude, I used your entire car’s interior in my car. Plus some other cool stuff from it. The frame and such were pretty shot, but your cars interior was perfect!”
Sure enough, I walked outside and looked. My gauge cluster, immaculate headliner, seats, etc. were all inside of his. He restored his interior with my car. I felt a lot better about sending it away after that. I wonder if he still has it.
Pre-CC but yes. Kind of.
I stumbled on my Mum’s old ’92 Volvo 480 LE parked outside my work in 2003.
The 480 LE was pretty distinctive (pale metalic blue with teal green detailing and blue/green leather interior… VERY 90s but actually kinda worked.) so the fact it was an LE caught my attention first but then I clocked the registration plate (in the UK these travel with the car) and realised it was exactly the same car.
Since Mum had parted with it down in Yorkshire about eight years earlier it was a surprise to find it parked outside my work in Edinburgh… never found out who owned it but I did see it around for a few years after that and it always made me smile.
This one’s a little different and slightly creepy. It’s about some guy recognizing a car that I once and telling me the awful story behind it.
Around 05-06 I owned a 1985 Nissan 300X turbo, 2 seater, 5-speed. I planned to turn it into a SCCA Improved Touring racer or Silver State Classic runner. I bought it from a friend’s co-worker ( we all work for the same place, but different departments ) . It was actually the co-worker’s son’s car. Unfortunately the son was a violent hardcore gang member who wouldn’t be needing it since he was doing time in the pokey.
In retrospect, that car was a huge mistake. Biggest pile of crap I ever owned. Turbo missing, accident damage, failed smog twice, nothing ever worked right. After a year I gave up. That car had some seriously bad mojo on it.
One day I was at Pep Boys feeding it more parts ( and oil ) when some biker dude in his late 40s / early 50s coming in rolled up and approached me. He had a look on his face like he’d seen a ghost. He said he recognized that car as his then-girlfriend’s car. He even remembered the license plate. She bought it new, and he crashed it one night. He then told me the ugly story.
The two of them had a tumultuous relationship made worse by substance abuse. One night they both got boozed up and had one of their ugliest fights ever. He jumped into her Z and tore off. Both extremely drunk and extremely angry, he tried to run past a police DUI checkpoint and ended up accidentally striking and killing one of the officers- in that very car. He wound up doing 11 years in prison for manslaughter. The car was impounded and auctioned off.
It wasn’t long after that I traded that car in, using it as the down payment on my ’01 Crown Vic. When I asked the sales guy later what happened to that car, he told me they didn’t even try to fix it or even wholesale it. They sent it straight to Pick-A-Part.
I fear for the safety of anyone who purchased parts off of that cursed hulk. 🙁
That could open up a whole ‘nother subject, about whether there’s bad mojo in using parts from so-called “death cars”. Around the shop that topic has come up a few times over the years.
It’s perhaps the worst part of junkyarding – coming upon wrecks where you just know they didn’t walk away. Most yards now take them straight to the crusher, but I know back in the day it was more common to find ones with Jaws of Life scars, major inside-out windshield impacts, and other such things that tended to creep me out a bit.
My old man had a ’62 Chevy pickup back in the mid-late ’80s. Much of the front clip was sourced from a truck which, according to the yard where he bought the parts, had rolled downhill and crushed its former owner in some sort of mishap (seem to recall something about him working underneath it at the time). No bad juju followed my dad for it – but he didn’t mention it to my mother or us kids at the time.
I’ve had parts off of three vehicles which are currently coming to mind, wherein I didn’t know for sure there was a fatality involved, but I had a strong hunch. No bad luck there either, just a bad feeling at the time.
Most recently, I got sold some seats from a late-model Silverado that was T-boned hard on the left side. Saw the wreck afterwards; injuries likely, fatalities not so much (from what I could tell). Made me a little uncomfortable thinking about the bad day had by the last guy to sit in that seat, but like all used cars, you try not to think about it. (If you tried to calculate how many times wind had been broken in an average 10-year-old car’s driver seat, for instance…!)
Strangely, about a day after putting those seats into a newly acquired Suburban, the oil pump began to fail. Coincidence? Probably, but who knows?
This reminds me of the Eastern Airlines flight 401 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1972. 101 people died in that crash, but many parts were salvaged for use in other L-1011s. A book followed alleging crew on these craft experienced supernatural encounters, including seeing members of the crew of the downed plane. More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401
The whole time that I had that car, bad stuff kept happening. My mom’s Lupus tried to come back ( after being in remission for 10 years ), a close gal friend was evicted from three apartments ( due to both shady landlords and her own bad luck ), my crazy downstairs neighbor who parked in the garage space next to mine started beating his girlfriend, and the friend who helped me buy the car was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression / anxiety.
The day that I finally chucked that car, everyone’s fortunes- including my own- drastically improved.
Looking back, I’m strongly convinced that car was truly cursed. Before buying that car, I thought the whole concept of a vehicle being cursed was absolutely ridiculous and completely stupid. Now I’m not so sure.
“If you tried to calculate how many times wind had been broken in a…driver seat, for instance”
Or, why you can no longer get a BMW with cloth seats. Made to be leased, indeed.
Last year I came upon a white 2009 Scion XB that had the front of the car crushed in and in written on the passenger side rear door was “Blood In Car”
Here is a pic of it and yes the drivers seat(or what was left of it) was covered with the stuff
Here is a pic of the front
Around here, law enforcement has always been good about sterilizing cars they investigate before junking them. Never seen blood, hair, etc left behind in even the messiest wrecks. I’ve sometimes wondered how they manage it.
I have, however, seen cars full of bullet holes – ones you know weren’t out in a pasture and practiced on by 12-year-olds.
Less morbid, and possibly even slightly amusing: Somewhere I have a picture of a 2005 9C1 Impala that arrived at a local junkyard, in full County Sheriff livery, which was turned into Swiss cheese by some sort of smallish gauge rifle. (Supposedly someone took out their frustrations on it while it was parked and unattended.)
Speaking of bad juju, I’ve often wondered how President Johnson felt the first time he climbed into the backseat of JFK’s SS-100-X limousine following the return off the car to the White House after extensive modifications by Hess & Eisenhardt. He did demand that it be painted black as the distinct dark metallic blue was thought to be to closely associated with that dark day in Dallas.
I would never knowingly use parts off of a fatality car.
I’m in the school of thought that fatality cars should go straight to the crusher. Way back in the late 70s an acquaintance of mine had a job at the SGI (Saskatchewan Government Insurance Salvage). One day an older man came in to get the plates off of lightly damaged Audi 100LS, light prang in the drivers corner.
The guy remarked to the owner how lightly it was damaged and could be put back on the road. The guy, somewhat uneasily replied that his daughter had died in it. Freak accident, her head hit the A-pillar in what should have been a survivable incident.
From the fall of 1972 to the fall of 1978, my parents had a brown 1973 Pontiac Ventura 2-door hatchback. Around 1984, we spotted the car in a local supermarket parking lot. It caught our eye because there weren’t a lot of RWD GM X-bodies in the hatchback style — let alone brown ’73ish Ventura hatchbacks, and this in a cold-climate part of the country — and there were a few other clues we were able to use to determine that it was definitely the same car (I think it was still wearing a bumper sticker or two that we had put on it). My father struck up a conversation with the woman who was driving it, who indicated that she had bought the car from the person my parents sold it to.
In 1997, rather than pay for a head gasket job on an ’87 Chevy Cavalier 2-door hatchback I was driving, I accepted my parents’ offer to give me an ’87 Plymouth Sundance they had sitting in their driveway (they had taken it off the road when they bought a new car a couple of years earlier, in anticipation of giving it to my younger brother when he got his license, but that hadn’t happened), and sold the Cavalier to my mechanic cheap. He must have fixed it himself and sold it, because for several years after that I would see it around the area, being driven by a little old lady; in fact, she lived in an eldery housing complex located across the street from the supermarket where we had come across the Ventura years earlier. Again, it was definitely the same car; the hatchback wasn’t a common body style, and the car had a student parking sticker in a rear side window from when I had owned it.
This reminds me of when I sold my MK2 GLi 16v. Car was running very poorly with a large oil leak, idle issue, and shift linkage so messed up only I could find first gear… though it had under 100k miles. A young kid, not even 18, came and test drove it and immediately fell in love. He had no reservations offering me my full asking price and leaving a deposit. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass smog, but he wasn’t deterred.
When he came to make the final payment, I understood why. His Dad brought him in the absolute most cherry MK2 GLi I’ve ever seen. This beautiful metallic green color, looked like it came right out of the dealership. Pretty impressive for a 1991 car in ~2005. Came to learn he’d owned it since new. His mom showed up too, also driving a Jetta (MK4)! Sold my GLi for a song, since it didn’t pass smog… frankly was glad to get rid of it having just bought a ’97 Tacoma (the vehicle that sold me on Toyotas).
Anyway, getting to the point of the story, I was driving through my home town a few months later and I saw a super shiny nice black GLi. The kid had tinted the tail lights, added a nice exhaust, and it looked to be on lowered suspension. I knew from a previous conversation that he’d also replaced the clutch. Looked awesome. Comically, he was smoking weed with his friend when I passed and gave him the thumbs up. I was glad to see the car in good hands.
Yes: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/old-flames-do-you-ever-encounter-your-former-cars/
But that’s been a while, and I haven’t seen it in the past year or so.
My cars have all went far away when I sold them.
The closest I’ve been is seeing a car that should have been mine. I knew a couple who had a ’66 VW Squareback in their backyard. A friend of mine was supposed to get it and I told them and him that if he decided to pass I would happily take it. When I say he was supposed to get it I mean they were giving it to him for free and this was a decent car, not running of course but decent.
Apparently he kept dragging his feet and a while later I saw the car at our local Pull A Part yard. I was not happy.
In 1978, my parents bought my sister a used sky blue, 1976 2 door Buick Skylark. It was handed down to me later in 1987. I used it a year or two, then the transmission went. I sold it to a junkyard, and got 50 bucks for it. A couple of months later , I saw it on the road and someone in the next town over had it! Saw it for a few years afterwards. That was a solid car, 231 in. V6, very reliable until the trans issue ( if thats what it was). I do remember the engine detonating from time to time though. Thats the only car that I previously owned that I saw afterwards, and I’ve owned close to 20 cars since I got my license 28 years ago.
I had my Nissan Pulsar for about 10 years, finally trading it in on something else. In the next couple of years, I saw it in the town where I worked, on TV driving by an accident scene, and finally, when I came home one night it was parked across the street from my home. It was as if it came to say goodbye; I never saw it again after that. It was starting to look used up.
Our beloved ’94 Passat sport wagon (VR6, 5-speed) had way too many electrical issues and kept dying on the highway when we finally donated it to a local car recycler in 2008, who fixes up old rides for lower-income families…they scrap or get the old things running. It was surprising when my mom saw it six months later, cruising through traffic…we thought it was too far gone. Still miss it!!
In early June I stumbled upon my old “Karma Kar” while driving through Rio Rancho. As luck would have it, I was driving the Escape that I’d traded it in on. Although the Mazda looked a bit worse for wear – missing bumper reflector, cracked windshield – I was still happy to see the owner was keeping it clean!
Just remembered this one, too. A few years before, I discovered the 2002 Focus ZX3 I’d traded in (on a 2004 Grand Am… don’t laugh, it was a decent car!) four months earlier in the parking lot of my boss’s apartment complex during an employee BBQ. In addition to its somewhat-rare Malibu Blue color, I also recognized the subtle Ford emblem-stickers I’d placed at the corner of the rear windows.
My first new car, a 1965 Barracuda, was fairly easy to spot – a V8 4-speed car with the Valiant wheel covers rather than the fancy Barracuda options, black on gold. I had continual problems with the rear end howling, and when it was close to the end of the 50,000-mile warranty we traded it on a new red VW bug. A couple of years later I saw it parked by a convenience store, talked to the owner, who swore that it couldn’t possibly have more than the 28,000 miles on it that it showed when he bought it – from a different dealer than I’d sold it to.
I saw my old Rover 2000 on a car lot in Tacoma four or five years after I’d sold it – it still looked decent. I told the guy it had been my car; when he asked me if I wanted to give it a test drive I took a pass.
I suspect that there were a lot more miles on engines back in the old days than for which the manufacturers were given credit.
I’ve only seen one of my “significant” cars after selling it – my former ’69 F100. The high school kid that bought it lives far enough away that I’m not likely to see it in my normal travels, so it was a surprise when I spotted it in the town about 30 minutes north of us.
I keep looking for Herbie (former ’00 New Beetle) when I’m down in Peoria (the new owner lives in the Pekin area recently hit by the tornado), but haven’t spotted it yet.
Writing this out does bring to mind a double-take I did in the late 1980s. I was driving through the Georgia Tech campus when I was passed by a yellow and dinoc ’68 Ford Country Squire LTD wagon going the other way. It had a prominent pink spot on the hood, which was a feature that our family car had after suffering an under-hood fire. Dad had sold the car when we lived in South Carolina, so it’s not likely it was the same one, but then again…
I like when you post this pic of your family’s ’68 Country Squire.
The background is perfect. These are nicer than the later versions IMO.
It also reminds me of the ’67 Country Squire, Drew (Ronnie Cox) owned in the movie ‘Deliverance’.
Thanks… I was around ten when this was shot, so early ’70s… The car was young, yet – Dad bought it used (a year old or so), and we had it until I was well into college. Lotta memories in that car. We called it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because of all the lights and knobs on the dash.
Apparently I haven’t owned enough cars since the closest I got was a letter from the City of Hillsboro regarding the impound charges for the 84 Jetta I had traded in on 95 Escort 6 months earlier. I guess the dealer had been lazy about transferring the title, and the city didn’t push the issue when I called them. I liked the Jetta, except for the tendency to fill up with water when it rained, but my wife ha short legs which makes getting a clutch to the floor difficult so she insisted on replacing the 5 speed Jetta with an automatic.
I did once encounter a car I almost bought though, it was an 82 Scirocco with distinctive missing radio knobs and a workman at a neighbor’s house was driving it a few months later.
Only once. Many years ago I traded in my trusty ’89 Sedan DeVille on a sweet low mileage ’90 Mark VII LSC. A month or so later I saw the Caddy dead on the southbound side of I-77 in the Cleveland suburb of Cuyahoga Heights. Guess I got rid of it at the right time :D.
Yes. My ’76 Cutlass Supreme Brougham reappeared. When I saw rust reappearing through my two year old paint job, I sold it on consignment through a local Ford dealer. I was in college and worked part time for a local 11 store grocery chain. I was a rover and could be assigned to any store at any time. I frequently worked just down the street from that Ford dealer, and my old car appeared in the employee lot of that store. I did get to know the new owner.
He did not put the same love into the car that I did, and it was nearing the start of its second decade, so I saw it deteriorate rather quickly.
I had a 97 Mitsibishi Galant while I was in college, biggest peice of junk in the world, took everything I had to keep that thing on the road… I didn’t see it again, but a machanic buddy of mine worked on it after I traded it on. He knew it was mine by my broke college student repairs. I was driving home one night and someone left an ammo box in the road. So I hit it and knocked a giant gash in the oil pan. Went online to get a new one and it was over 170 bucks and this was almost 10 years ago when our dollar still had value. So I took the pan to a welding shop and they welded a giant brass slug into the bottom of it for like 20 bucks got a new gasket and it ran until I traded it. My friend tells me a couple years later a galant with a brass slug in the oil pan came into his shop because it was leaking oil, lol. Between a new pan, gasket, and labor the guy spent almost 250 bucks to fix it. Wonder if he fixed the 15 zip ties that held the bumper on?
I sold a shitbox Mitsubishi Mirage 89 to a kid cheap to get rid of it and I continued to see it for several years, not recently though I guess the unburstable Cyclone engine finally bit the dust
The short answer, yes. And uncannily, here in L.A. and Southern Cal, several of them. I sold my first car, a ’64 Pontiac LeMans, to another college student after I had graduated and started my first job. A few years later, there it was, in the lane next to me stuck in traffic on the 405 freeway, same guy driving it whom I had sold it to. Years later, two Mercedes Benz’s, my ’83 300CD sold to one of the shop guys where I took it for service, and it reappeared in downtown San Diego a couple of years later where I lived at the time, turning a corner ahead of me. My ’91 300CE, traded in at the San Diego Mercedes Benz dealer, reappearing there at the dealer a year later, presumably for service. My mom’s ’77 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, sold locally in West L.A., showing up a couple of years later parked in her doctor’s office parking structure. My parents’ ’65 Lincoln Continental, visible for several years after selling it to a guy in Santa Monica, parked at his house on Santa Monica Blvd. where we had delivered it, but now repainted from its original black to silver. And perhaps most uncannily of all, my parents’ ’55 Oldsmobile 88 Holiday coupe reappearing some twenty years after selling it in 1959, sitting in the parking lot of the West L.A. Galleria shopping center, looking pretty tired, but still the same, instantly recognizable by its original frost blue paint and the two-foot long gash my mother had put in the lower left rear quarter panel back in the mid-50’s, still unrepaired. That was an amazing encounter, couldn’t believe my eyes. So kind of fun experiences, always coming out of nowhere, old friends returned from the automotive ether.
Amazing stories, Don – especially the Oldsmobile, one of my favorite cars of all time. My aunt put that same gash in the left rear quarter of her 55 Holiday 4-door hardtop (yellow over black, if you can believe it) a couple of years after it was bought new. No doubt the benign climate of SoCal allows our old cars to be on the road a long time. Though the only one I’ve seen after it left my hands was my 72 Maverick LDO that was stolen, thoroughly trashed, and abandoned for weeks on an isolated side street by thieves who, according to police records, used it in several break-ins and robberies. A year or two later I saw that car, with its distinctive paint and license plate (now nearly falling off the front bumper), chugging along a street in West LA with lots of blue smoke coming out the pipe. Doubt that it would pass the next smog check and probably was on its way out but who knows.
Wow, what a sad story to the Maverick. That’s one of those “wish I hadn’t seen that” moments. Yeah, the ’55 Oldsmobiles were pretty neat cars, it was the first one that my dad bought with me just old enough to tag along and pester him about how to order it. Ordering a car, what a novel concept! I can well imagine your aunt and uncle getting the yellow over black, I still remember leafing through the salesman’s booklet with great fascination, with all the transparent colored plastic overlay sheets, you could come up with all kinds of combinations, roof, body, and the “flying colors” side trim. We took a lot of family vacations in that car, including a long trek to El Paso, Texas to visit my grandparents for Christmas of 1955, when it was still new. Great car, fun memories. Funny that your aunt would have had a similar gash on the same quarter panel, my mother would have occasional minor mishaps on the family cars, seems like my dad would never get them repaired. It was such a shock to encounter it twenty-some years later, I remember walking through that parking lot and having it leap out at me, like some sort of epiphany, instantly recognizable.
I saw my 70 Vauxhall Cresta about my Dad’s town for 4 or 5 years after I sold it,it was looking a little frayed around the rear wheel arches and had a few scrapes but it was 21 then.My 78 Mk2 Ford Granada(European model) I last saw in the car park of my brother’s rugby club still clean and tidy apart from where someone had spectacularly blown chunks on the bonnet.I used to see a Mk3 Cortina that had the glass from my flood damaged car.I sold the complete car to a mate of my brothers who’s psycho girlfriend smashed every window in his car.The glass was probably the only part that didn’t stink!
Yes, saw my old 1990 Mitsubishi Montero on the freeway, 5 years after selling it with 274K on the clock and again a few months later.
Before I recently moved I saw both of my ’87-’91 era Bonnevilles driving around town. I really liked both those cars. So much so that I bought a third one.
Back in 1980, my brother and I rediscovered my parents’ 1967 Electra (they’d traded it in at Mossy Oldsmobile in 1971 when they bought a Ninety-Eight). It was tired and worn, but clearly still being driven. We were at a shopping center out by the airport in Kenner, when we saw an old Buick. He and I went over to check it out since it was the same color as the one we’d had. Upon closer inspection, we saw our old school stickers in the back window (amazing that no subsequent owner bothered to remove them) and the dent where my sister had hit the house when she was learning to drive. So it had been ours! The vinyl top was shredded, there was rust all around the back window, the paint was oxidized, the fender skirts were missing and the wheel covers were gone. Don’t know who was driving it, and I highly doubt it was able to hang on much longer.
My grandmother’s rare 1987 Fleetwood d’Elegance – she sold it to neighbors of hers that drove it into the ground. When she sold it, it had about 60k miles on it and it was 15 years old, still in showroom condition. She used to keep it garaged at all times, with blankets on the seats so the velour wouldn’t get dirty. She even polished the woodgrain on the dash and doors as it had the real wood trim – not the plastic stuff. I was never so sad to see a car get used and abused as I was whenever I saw that car. NEVER sell a car that you care about to a neighbor or friend!
I’ve seen three for sure. Saw my old 70 Cougar some months after I sold it, recognized by the rust pattern. Saw the 78 Mercury Zephyr Z7, which I posted about on the CC Z7 thread, several times before the night I talked to the new owner…the car had continued it’s habit of breaking monthly. The last was my 80 Renault Le Car, which I had sold as rust was starting to break out all over. Saw it several times over the next two years. Last time I saw it, the bottoms of the rear fenders were gone, and I was at a loss to see what was holding the front fenders on.
I dumped the 02 Escort at a local used car lot. That Escort was so genaric that I could be seeing it every week and not recognize it. That dealer never put it on their web site though, so they may have sent it to a galaxy far far away the next morning, when they heard the rod knock it had when cold.
My 93 Amon Toyota Corona lives nearby still gathering dents it still appears to run ok I sold it 6 or 7 years ago
My first car was ’73 duster -black with a white halo roof and a bent frame – I saw about 6 years after I sold it for college funds crabbing down I-30 outside of Little Rock.
The next car I had was a 82 Pontiac J2000 hatchback which my parents got for my grad. gift(they made the down , and I made the other payments) How many folks in Dallas have cars from Cape Gmc-Pontiac in Cape Girardeau? (Dean Taylor was too expensive).
Also had an 89 tracer (Mazda Clone) that I ran across. Can I count used car lots?
If used car lots count, I’ve got a couple. Perhaps the funniest was a ‘97.5 Regal GS, which my brother sold to a private party with 175K on the clock and a tranny that was, shall we say, a but funky. He sold it cheap, and the new owner was eager to ignore its imperfections.
It appeared eight months later on a lot which was well known for their shady practices. True to form, the odometer showed 125K and the price had been raised to nearly double what he sold it for. (I still wonder if someone managed to kill the original transmission, or if they had a creative explanation for the long 2-3 shift and torque converter’s refusal to lock up!)
Oh man! I have seen one of my former cars, I forgot about it until just now.
In 2006-7 I had a 1984 Jetta GLi. While it was a fun car, it needed some work and I was in the middle of my 1964 Panel bus project and well, if I have to be aircooled or watercooled, aircooled is going to win out. Air came before water afterall 😉 So I sold it in September of ’07 and bought a ’88 Jetta 1.8 8v that was an awesomely reliable car.
Anyway, in April of ’08 I was at a VW show in Chattanooga, TN in the ’64 Panel bus. I put the Bus in the show and had been away from it for a few hours at our little campsite when a few of my friends and I went to walk back through the show. We get up to where my bus is and there’s a silver mk1 Jetta parked behind it, “Hey that looks kinda like your old car.” My buddy says. I walk up closer to it and see the strange places on the trunk where the paint was chipped off and a few other things gave it away. “It IS my old car!” I said and the owner was right there and of course we struck up a conversation. We both thought it was strange that in this show of nearly 400 cars, he ends up parking right behind my bus.
It made me smile to see it had most of it’s problems now sorted out and appeared super clean and well cared for.
I still miss that car. It sure was fun to toss in corners.
In 1966 before my senior year of college I traded in my 1962 Corvair Monza for a ’62 2-door BelAir HT I fell in love with. The Corvair was running well, but I needed a larger car and the BelAir was sitting on the lot of a local Pontiac dealer.
About two years into my first job after graduation I saw a co-worker pull into our parking lot in a Corvair that looked awfully familiar. White 4-door? Yup. ’62? Yup. 3-speed? Yup. Trailer hitch? Yup.
I approached the guy and told him that I used to own his car. It was getting a bit rusty, but he said it was running well and it was a great work car. I asked him what the mileage was, and he said “Oh, about 50,000.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him it had 78,000 when I traded it in three years before!
Frequently imitated but never duplicated! 😉
At the one monster truck show I’ve ever been to they flattened a friend’s ’77 Chrysler Newport. It was a car I had ridden many miles in. After the show I went down on the field and paid my respects.
I thought I had a few wild sightings (gotta save a few for the future) – but that one’s tough to top!
My beloved ’77 Plymouth Fury Salon. I had my eye on it at work for some time, and when the car was 7 years old they pulled it from service and sent it to auction. I couldn’t wait to go back in to work on the following Monday and luckily I was able to park it in the same space it had spent most of the prior 6 years. I did overhear someone in purchasing asking about why “that Plymouth” was back when it was supposed to have gone to auction.
Anyway, I had it for 15 years, but in the end the rust and other issues were becoming too much for someone living in a condominium. So I donated the car, and a fellow who looked amazingly like “Onzlow” from the Britcom “Keeping Up Appearances” hauled it away. I watched the roll back haul my old friend off, certain that I’d never see it again. About 3 months later in the town where I worked (about 20 miles away) I was driving along near a middle school. There was a slight hill between the school parking lot and the street which partially blocked my view of the car, but I could recognize that weathered roof anywhere. Thereafter, I drove by whenever I could, but the car was there only for about 2 months. Many months later I received an impound notice, and later an “opportunity” to repurchase the car. I still miss it.
In 1992 we bought a ’92 Civic Si hatch for my wife. She insisted on having a small flower design etched onto the rear windows by a friend of hers who did etched glass work. A few years later we sold the car for about 90% of what we paid for it, and moved on. In 2009, which was 13 years and 4 moves later, I saw it in a parking lot a long way from home. Same colour, same etching, same car. Looked pretty well used up, but it left me wondering where it had wandered since we handed the keys over.
In my fleet manager days, I had it happen more than once that a unit I had in one employer’s fleet years ago turned up again at another’s after an auction buy or some other type of exchange. Sometimes they’re old friends, other times bad pennies.
Wow. That last reply just reminded me of an incident…I always rent from Enterprise, and I often tour the midwest. One time, in February, I flew to Minnesota for a conference, and needed a rental for the 80-mile trip to and from the site and to transport folks. I got a gold Chevy Malibu — one of the first good ones in the mid-2000s with upgraded interior…had fun piloting it up and down the Minn. hiways and more than one person who I rode with said, “This is a Chevy?” in surprise. It was a nice little car, but had a distinct pull to one side on the steering. Three months later, I was in Chicago, going on a four-day tour. I rented a car…another gold Malibu! Didn’t think about the coincidence…then I drove it down to Indy, and…the same weird pull in the steering. Didn’t think about that, either. Then, after my show, my buddy Otto got in, and said, “This is a Chevy?” And it all clicked…
Jung called this Synchronicity. “Meaningful coincidences that are more than mere chance”. God is talking to you……the message is up to you to decide. It might be a reminder that ” if cars are jinned with your positive vibes” that energy might be creating a reunification with your loved one (the little gold Malibu). So….talk to your vehicles… And…you’ll send good energy out that bounces back.
Prove this hippie new age wisdom? You just did prove something….no?
Hmmmmmm…..read up on torsion energy. Watch your tongue and thoughts. Build a pyramid as a garage to jin your car for good operation?
Herbie the Love bug was in a dialogue with Dean Jones?
http://sutherlandsalute.blogspot.com/2012/03/torsion-fifth-force-as-explanation-for.html
I saw one of my old cars (a ’90 Corsica that I sold a while back) just this past weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. I was at the local u-pull-it getting a rear caliper for my old Volvo 850 and I saw it sitting in the front row looking like it had just arrived. It was running pretty good the last time I saw it. If the puddle of oil underneath is any clue to its ultimate demise, I’d say that the lady who bought it grenaded the engine somehow. I put a lot of work into it before selling it…what a waste.
Yes, I spotted my first car, 1991 Volvo 940SE at a charity auction back in 2010. I’d sold it to a friend of my father’s in 2004 and it was near mint at the time. I thought he was getting it for his wife but their teenage son got it. You can imagine what happened next. Yes, it was much rougher than when I sold it–the factory Alpine stereo and speakers were gone and there was rust on the top of the strut towers underhood–but not completely thrashed. I briefly considered bidding on it but I was out of work at the time and the car was going to need at least $1000 to get it reasonably decent. So I let it go. It was sad, but better than seeing it in the junkyard! It appeared on a car lot a couple of weeks later and disappeared a month or so after that. I hope it’s still on the road!
My recently-acquired Town Car is the first vehicle since that has really filled the hole that car left in me when I sold it.
Here she is at Sunset Park, spring of 2001:
And the inside. It had the accessory rosewood door panels, a built-in cellular phone, and factory 6-disc CD changer in the trunk. I loved the colors too. Dad ordered it new. I went with him to pick it up the day before Thanksgiving, 1990. I drove it from 9/97 to 1/04, and sold it in 8/04.
You mean you left your beloved car to the loneliness of a strange used car lot??? Thats like Lassie leaving Timmy in the well sigh 🙁
Nah just kidding, sometimes one has to let an old car or old memory go
In 1989 our mechanic refused to put my dad’s ’77 Jeep Wagoneer on the hoist because the rust was so bad. It also needed brakes and a fan belt, but it still ran so my dad gave it to our local handyman in exchange for painting our house. He drove it for a while then sold/traded it to the owner of a local tavern just down the road, who was still running it four years later. By that time my dad’s ’89 Dodge truck, which he bought new to replace the Jeep, showed it’s first rust hole in the drivers door.
I did a reverse on this theme. I wanted to meet a previous owner of a car I currently own. Someone who owned my car 36 years prior to my purchase. I was hoping to gain some additional information about the car’s history. here’s the story:
http://jalopnik.com/5660207/man-reunites-with-long+lost-1955-pontiac.
A friend of mine saw a car that looked suspiciously like the first car I actually bought myself, a 1974 Roadrunner not far from where I used to live in Las Vegas. I ordered it in May ’74, and finally got it in November, one of the last of the ’74 B-Body cars built. It came on a truck with a bunch of the ugly as hell ’75s. Every time my friend saw the car, it was going the other way and he didn’t have time to try to catch it, or he lost it when he did try. Finally, one day he got behind it, and followed it to a drug store parking lot. When the owner when inside the store, he read me the VIN, and it WAS my car! It looks better than it did new, and has a big stroked 440 in it now, with the original 360 sitting in the owner’s garage rebuilt and ready to go. I talked to the owner on my friend’s cell phone and he offered to let me drive it, if I can make it out to Vegas. I doubt I ever will, but it would be nice. This is almost identical to my car:
Well i have had alot of cars but these last 2 months i have seen 2 of my old cars. 1 of them i wish i didnt see. It was my 1997 camaro z28 on back of a car hauler totaled. And my 2001 montero sport. I sold montero 5 yrs ago 119,000 miles and the girl who bought took care of it. She lives 10 miles away from me now and long story short i am buying it back it has 167,000 miles. She has some rust and sentimental value but gunna fix it up and enjoy montero being back.