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My 1960 Plymouth Savoy was purchased new by my father on June 13, 1960 from Rossmeyer Chrysler/Plymouth in Metuchen, NJ Since the purchase of the 60 came not long after having moved into a new home, my father wasn't exactly flush with cash with which to buy, or run a new car. However, the 1949 Plymouth he was driving was on its last legs, and a replacement for it was imperative. Therefore, though a new car purchase had been decided upon as unavoidable, the car had to be reasonable in cost to purchase and operate, thus a six cylinder Savoy model became the vehicle of choice for my father. As time went on, and the miles rolled by, the choice made in 1960 proved to be a wise one, as the 1960 Plymouth provided many faithful, economical years of service as the family Taxi, grocery getter, etc. The Slantsix which powered what is now my Plymouth definitely gave the economy of operation my father needed from the car, while giving ample power to haul a full complement of passengers comfortably, (six at least), and their luggage. My Plymouth was the household mainstay until June 1972, when it was displaced from its top dog position. By 1972 my Plymouth was starting to show the effects of 12 years of heavy duty service, and my parents decided it was time to purchase a new family car. Unlike its predecessor though, my Plymouth was not traded in on its replacement, but as can be surmised, just demoted to second banana. Unfortunately for my Plymouth, demotion wasn't the worst fate it was to suffer. About a year after its demotion, a "friend of mine", convinced this then naive teenager that my Plymouth's engine needed to be rebuilt, and lucky me, he could help me in that endeavor. It seems that my Plymouth's engine would smoke upon start-up, and for short time thereafter. So knowing little about engines, or cars in general, I believed my friend had to be right about the need to overhaul the engine. Well, you know 20/20 hindsight is wonderful, in that now I can say, what a mistake that was believing my friend's astute observations, not to mention my unbridled faith in his mechanical abilities. After the "rebuild", the Plymouth's engine wouldn't even turn, didn't smoke, but it also didn't do anything else. The first thing that dawned on me at that point in time, was I should have checked with an experienced Mechanic regarding what to do about the smoke problem. The next thing I realized, was I should have asked my father if I should even think of getting involved in such a big job as an engine overhaul, without his supervision, after all dad was a Mechanical Engineer. After the ill-fated engine overhaul, my Plymouth sat for about a year. At one point during that year of sitting idle, my father considered simply junking the car, but the paltry $25.00 he was offered for the car, if he hauled it down to the junkyard, dissuaded him from doing so. At the end of the year of idle time, I made yet another not so good decision. I decided I was going to purchase a "good used engine" from a well know national automotive mail order firm. The engine turned out to be a piece of junk, and since it took my High School Auto-Shop teacher three months to get around to installing it, the mail order company refused to take back the engine. The end result of this latest fiasco, was still more idle time for my Plymouth, until I could find an engine rebuilder who would be at least willing to look at the used engine to determine if it was at all salvageable. I finally did locate an engine rebuilder through my Aunt, who happened to be doing accounting work for the rebuilder. The rebuilder looked over the used motor, and determined that it would cost more to salvage it than it was worth, and offered me core credit towards an already rebuilt motor. The rebuilt engine was installed, and the rebuilder also replaced the transmission they damaged due to errors made by their workers doing the engine installation. Six months after arriving at the rebuilder's shop, and what ended up being 1-1/2 years after my original fateful engine rebuild decision, plus some threats of legal action brought on by the rebuilder's foot dragging in the engine installation process, my Plymouth emerged from the shop under her own power for the first time. The year by this time was 1975, the month was February. I then embarked on the long, arduous task of restoring my Plymouth to her former glory. The task was complicated by my lack of knowledge as to where to source needed restoration parts from, (i.e. fenders, patch panels for the rear quarters, and trim pieces), and an over exuberant youth's driving technique. Needless to say that between what was already deteriorated from age, what broke by my pushing the old gal to the limit quite often, compounded by my lack of knowledge as to where to get many of the parts my car needed, slowed the rate of progress in the restoration of my car. Though it took a few years, some dented fenders, and lots of hard earned money, I did finally wise up, treating my aging Plymouth more carefully. I also started attending car shows, as well as joining a couple of car clubs, finding along the way, that through the car clubs and shows I could get information on where to locate parts for my car. I also made many new friends through my involvement in the clubs.

So how does a long time Mopar nut wind up owning a Pontiac Trans Am? Well first you have a friend by the name of Paul Neumann, (no not the actor). Then your friend goes out and buys himself a 1974 Trans Am, but doesn't quite posses the know how, and especially the proper tools to work on it. Of course, as you could guess by now, yours truly wound up being the wrench man on that 1974 Trans Am my friend Paul bought. I didn't mind though, as Paul was always willing to lend a hand if I needed spare set when I was working on my car. Well one thing led to another, and another friend of mine, Steve, also bought himself a Trans Am, a 1975 model. Steve was a bit better able to handle work on his T/A, possessing first of all the necessary complement of tools, and the ability to use them. However, since Steve had also helped me out with my car projects, I often helped him when he needed an extra pair of hands to complete projects on his T/A. All this assisting did pay off. For one thing, I had the chance to probe a vehicle other than my own, decide if I liked it, or not, and I wasn't stuck with the car if I didn't like it. I caught the bug, and decided I wanted my own T/A. After some time of searching, and with the help of my friend Steve, I came across a "carousel red" 1976 Trans Am, in October 1981, which was to become mine. The car had relatively low mileage for its age, approximately 49,000 miles, and the body was in fair condition. Upon finishing my inspection of the car, I sat down with its owner to discuss price. At first the owner was asking a rather high price for the car, considering it had rot in the bottoms of both quarters, needed all new hoses, belts, the interior a thorough scrub job, and the front seats some upholstery work. After some back and forth negotiations over what was, or wasn't in need of repair/replacement, the owner of the T/A came down to a price I felt was reasonable, $3,300.00. I gave the owner a deposit, and returned the next evening, mischief night, to pick up my new toy. I took care of the mechanical repairs immediately, (i.e. the hoses, belts, and a new battery tray), and then pressed my T/A into daily service, so I could get back to finishing a restoration project that was in the works for about six years at that point in time. Not content to leave things alone, and with just a little gentle persuasion from my friend Steve, I decided to engage in some amateur bodywork on my T/A about 2 years after purchasing it. What started out as a minor effort on just my T/A, turned into just a wee bit more. Seems a few friends decided that while the garage was open, and tools were available, heh, why not work on their cars too. By the time all was said, and done, I had five other vehicles scattered about the back driveway, street, and my car up along side the garage. We all took turns helping each other out, and by around 10:00 p.m. we had finished all our projects. Thank g-d I had understanding neighbors, and still do. The bodywork was, as I said, amateur, but it was an improvement over what the car had looked like before I started. The professional job would have to wait until much later when I could scrape up the money. The time line by this point in our story had brought me to 1987, when I had begun to realize that I needed to get serious about saving my money for bodywork, having blown a goodly sum souping up the engine. I also had expended some of my funds on some suspension upgrades, in the form of urethane bushings in the shock mounts, and front and rear sway bars. Finally, there was that nice set of gas shocks to top things off. Thus by the time would I be able to save the money for the body work, my T/A would have to endure ten years of service, in all kinds of weather, over just about every kind of road. Of course ten years of New Jersey winters, and gobs of road salt, eroded major portions of my car's structure. Some additional quick and dirty bodywork jobs kept things looking good on the surface, but the bondo was beginning to become the major component of the car. In addition to that, there was the growing problem of floor rot to deal with. Of course there was to be another development that impacted my progress on saving money for the T/A's bodywork, I started dating a young lady in late 1987. This is not to say she had any problem with my plans for my T/A. As a matter of fact this young lady I was dating, and who later became my wife, said- "she always wanted to date a guy with one of those sports cars". I oft wonder if that's why she married me. Do you think? Nah. However, given my tendencies to show off the T/A's cornering abilities, I think it's a miracle she married me at all. One thing though she didn't seem to mind, were the stints of straight line acceleration, other than to in later years strongly suggest I buy one of those magnet stickers that says: "get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on". No matter what though, I think the girl who was to become my wife would have vehemently objected to paying for her dates with me, so guess what, that's right, progress toward saving up for the T/A's body restoration slowed again. Oh well, but I did get the girl, and she liked the car. Finally, on August 12, 1991, one day after my wedding, my T/A went into V & F Autobody in Metuchen, New Jersey. I visited my car periodically over the next 2« months, both to check on its progress, and to authorize any additional work. It seems that each time a panel was removed, more rot was found hiding. By the time the job was done, the only body panels which were completely original, were the hood, roof, and decklid. Every other major panel had either been completely been replaced, or some portion of it had. The cost, let's just say I try not think about it for health reasons, mine that is! Looking better than it had after the numerous intermediate bondo jobs I had done, I took my toy home. The bodyshop's work got rave reviews from all, even Dad. About a year later I added a nice new set of wheels, which unfortunately dad was no longer here to give his review on them. I also upgraded the stereo. Now my T/A leads a life of quiet semi-retirement, only coming out of its snug garage on sunny days for shows, parades, and the occasional test blast after whatever work has, shall we say, given rise to the need for a test blast. There is one little extra detail though I haven't quite figured out how to fix. In June 1993, my wife and I, became the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy. This little boy, now ten years old, has decided, "he will have my T/A when he grows up", his exact words by the way. By the way, he seems quite determined to make good on his promise, if you can consider the fact he calls his pedal car his Trans Am, any indication of his interest in the big car. When the time comes, I figure if I crazy glue the car to the garage floor, that will slow him a little. If that doesn't work, I'll try praying.

well. I love that car. pretty. tobto.org

Find more info at http://myvr6.org/ When I got my VW 2.8L 12v Jetta VR6 I didn't waste any time to start working on it. My goals were to improve 3 factors: style, safety, and efficiency. First things first I start to research all about my car. Since I went from a very mechanical car (1.6l 1980 VW Jetta) with almost no electronics to my 97 Jetta with more sensors and other electronic systems then I can count... I had a little catching up on modern automotive standards. My research started at VWvortex.com where I quickly found myself spending way too many hours of my day learning about other VW enthusiast's cars. At the same time my knowledge of my car was at the point I could start working on completing my 3 goals. I began with one of the most common modification of replacing my fuel management chip. I installed a GIAC (http://giacusa.com/) which is actually one of the main companies that supplies the OEM fuel management programing for VW. After installing that I quickly saw a increase in MPG by 1-2 miles. In addition, the new chip removed top speed and rev limiter.... Neither of which I needed, but it's a nice bonus. Next, came the CAI (Cold Air Intake). I picked a Carbonio Cold Air Intake because of the weight saving and reduced heat transfer benifits of carbon fiber. Yet after the install I was not too happy with my engine actually quieting down a lot. Typically during WOT (Wide Open Throttle) my car had a very nice sounding growl to it... much like a old school V8. Yet with this new CAI the air filter was move to about 6 inches from the ground all of the sound was lost deep in the engine and front bumper compartment. On the up side with the CAI I have more open space in the engine bay on the passenger sides for me to have easier access to other componets. Continuing on, my current core suspension components we in need of replacing so I located a new company by the name of Patec and got myself Holeshot Coilovers via a reseller TmTuning.com. This coilovers gave me height adjustability that I needed. A friend of mine from college spent a full day and guided me through the installed. I also installed front and rear EuroSport Stress bars to increase structional integratie of the car. Basically reducing the flexing of the car's frame. With the coilovers and stress bars it was like driving my car on rails. Very little body roll even when I'm pushing it to the limits. With all of these costing under $1000 I was very happy with the results. A few months later I finally did my first styling modification. Nothing major but install a European Deep Front bumper lip (spolier). With this install the natural line of the car are enhanced greatly. Yet, it also meant I need to reduce my speeding going over speed bumps and in/out drive ways. No worries it's something I can deal with. During the same time of the new lip I also did one of my first safety modifications. I've yet to figure out why VW did not do this from the factory but oh well. If you look at my pictures below you will see my blinker and also orange side marker lights on each side of the front bumper. When the blinker is active the side marker light do not blink. The way the blinks are displayed in the bumper you can't see my blinker is active at anything more then 90 degrees or more angle. So I rewired the side marker lights to blink with ther blinkers. I feel much safer now knowing everyone at all angle can see the direction I'm turning. You may also notice that most new cars now have side blinks on the front fenders or side mirrors doing the same thing. One of my favorite modifications was upgrading to a Magnaflow exhaust. Took me a couple hours to install but the sound is awesome. It has a nice mild deep tone that does not attach cops but will turn a few heads if I'm driving by quickly. At the same time it's nealy as quiet as my stock system when keeping my RPM's low. With the chrome tips it added a nice little touch to my car's rear end. Next was improving night driving with upgraded headlamps. I acutally have gone through two different pairs of headlamps. The first where very similar to my stock headlamps but used a european beam pattern which greatly increased the light output. The only problem was I wanted to get HID system much like other BMW's, Audi's, and other high end cars. After spending a lot of time researching my options I could put a HID kit into my new headlamps but produce a lot of glare for on-coming drivers or upgrade to a headlamp with a sharp cutoff on the beam pattern. I just happen to find a site that was selling a brand new inPro dual projected headlamps. I got the headlamps a month later and the hid kit a month after that to have exactly the light system I needed. Match with yellow PIAA Ion H3 bulbs in my stock fog lights the output was awesome. The added bonus to safer night driving was that the HID kit used 50% less power then standard bulbs so that was less stress on the alternator and more power for the engine. At this point I've had my car for several years now and it was need of a good tune up. Installed new spark plugs, fuel filter, larger spark plug wire, my own grounding kit, front/rear O2 sensors, oil change, new oil filter, and cleaned intake air filter. Took my car out for a 300 mile road trip to come back averaging 32-34 MPG for a car rate for 26 high way my modification and tune up we going to save me a lot at the ever raising gas prices. Now here in the present I have finish doing what I want to do with my car with installing Porche D90 16x8 inch rims. In the VW community many people have installed the same rims on their cars but around town few have seen it done. I'm always getting comments about them. I really didn't want to make my car a show car but something a little better then the average VW Jetta. My only thing left on my to-do list is get my car repainted. I think the previous owner did not take very good car of the paint and it crack on the roof and hood... but I'm still overall happy with how my car has come out. Take a look at my site [http://myvr6.org] for more pictures and information!

Hi This is one of the cars I wanted when I was a teenager...but could never swing it...now that I'm a baby-boomer and a little better off...I can...although these cars are much more expensive now than when they were new. Especially when they are well restored, and this one is. It's a 1971 Mercury Cyclone GT and was one of only 444 made in 1971. It's a real head turner on the street because of the rarity and its unique front end. I purchased it about two years ago and have dropped in a new TCI Super Streetfighter transmission, 4.11 gears, Tru-Lock rear end and a few other goodies that really let it bark off the line. You see lots of old Mustangs and other muscle cars, but you very rarely, if ever, see one of these out and about.

Even though I am a certified master technician that does not exclude me from the car problems club. I bought my blazer new in 04. The first time I took her out on i295 a vibration was felt at around 70 mph. I balanced the tires and no changes in my vibration. After checking with All-data i found a bulletin on this complaint. No corection has been issued and the official statement from my chevrolet representative is that the vibration at 70 mph is inhirent in the vehicle. I pushed the issue until I had 2 choices. Turn the vehicle in for a big lose on a lemon law claim or keep the vehicle and live with the problem. Have you seen the picture of my lemon yellow blazer ? Mark R Gittelman is an ASE Certified Master Technician. Mark provides free answers to car questions on his web site. http://www.auto-facts.org

Hi, buddies! It's my first time to write a review about my car. I got a Moscvitch 408. A very popular make as well as vehicles it produced. So, I bought it two years ago ( $500) and I'm contented with it in spite of the fact I changed almost all the parts cause the car was 20 years old. The first part I had changed was, of course, tyres. Driven for about a month after which all the mirrors (3 u) cracked. I installed Merce-styled ones instead. The view is super! 3 months later the suspension broke down and I decided to mount the same of Audi 80, thank to the dimensions turned out to be the same. After such a tuning I got no problems with the car until headlamps burnt out. Without thinking twice I fitted headlamps from aircraft ( we got a former airdrome nearby), I suppose the headlamps were of MIG- 23 (there was such a Soviet jet long ago). The dimensions were not appropriate to my car's ones but I fitted them over the bonnet. You can't even imagine how bright they're shining! However, the car battery ran down, so I integrated a self-made generator with the engine (by the way, the engine broke down too, as it was too old and I replaced it with the BMW's diesel). After such a tuning I don't even know how to call my favorite car- whether Moscvitch or somehow else. I know the only thing – the vehicle is super powerful and none can be compared with it! I don't attach photos and performance as it's a war secret – the Ministry of Defense have taken interest in my car and now I'm chief engineer in the secret design office.

Merce is juss super. I driven 123 240 D for 8 years before, that time it was a good car. I had no problem for two years and then the car crumbled. Especially I was pissed off with the engine. After it got broken I made up my mind not to buy a car with a diesel. Then I bought Golf 2 powered by 1.8 petrol. Driven for two years and understood there was nothing better than Mercedes. Golf, of course, can't compete with Merce. The next car of mine was 190 2,0E. I got it for 5 years and passed four thousand km. Changed every part during its exploitation and when it came to repair an engine I sold the car- I juss didn't want to spend more money. At present I got 124 230 (1992). I'm content with the model. There is no tuning and that's good. The suspension was changed at once, so I got no problem very long. The main thing is to exchange parts with ones of a high quality otherwise you'll have to pay twice. Actually, I believe the 124 series is the most successful one. The 210 series is less qualitative, especially as to front suspension. If I have to buy another car, I'll buy the 124 2,2E (1995) only.

I bought Chevrolet AVEO LS in the salon with full package. The package is just super. The saloon is very roomy with everything on hand. Passed 2000 km. The drivability is excellent but a clearance is not suitable for cross-country roads. The fuel economy is 10mpg (urban) and 7-7,5 mpg (freeway). The great disadvantage is a small panel box (that's not so good for a woman). The only thing I'm very displeased is an expensive maintenance service. They do everything to rip off more money. They say if I have done in other car service station (not branded ones) I would have been deprived of the warranty service. So, it's a quite rambling story but the car is excellent despite anything.