TLDR: 73 Fiat 124 Coupe and a 1969 parts car); 1966 VW Beetle, 1976 Pinto, 1979 Subaru GL Coupe 5 spd, 1983 GL Four Door hardtop, 1989 XT; 1970 Mercedes 280SE, 1972 Mercedes 280SE, 1983 Mercedes 300SD, 1967 Mercedes 250SE/C and a 1983 BMW 633CSi.

All my friends had motorcycles and I was bombing around on the back of a dirt bike in grade 8 through fields between my house and the Burlington mall in 1968. As soon as my friends began turning 16 - bang, they got a license and a motorbike. I was no hurry all my friends had bikes, and then cars, but I decided at about 17 to get my license, did and then thought I'd get a bike like my friends, much cheaper than a car. MY parents, who had owned some of the least safe vehicles ever and therefor know what that were talking about said if I buy a car they'd "help" but if I bought a bike, then they would not. That made it easy and I bought a $700 '73 Fiat 124 Coupe the next week. Now, they had owned a Vespa and a Messerschmitt three wheeled car, that, one time had its brakes fail on a hill in Wales, and dad went UNDER a large truck in it. One inch higher and he would have been decapitated. So it might make sense to them an Italian sports car was the safe alternative. I glad they rarely got to see me drive. Typical of pre-college cars it went away.

I briefly owned a 66 VW Beetle when the fiat was getting its engine rebuilt after a timing belt failure and foiuld it just awful. It seized on the way home from Picketing cause the 16 year old stoner that put it together left a part off, the one that deflects the air over the right bank of cylinders. The Mechanic who unseized it also pointed out the kid had left the spring out of the front suspension, so I sold it to him. Good riddance.

The next car was NOT MY CHOICE. I got home frokm school and had to go to a new jnoib pretty much the nxt day so my mum offered to buy one and did - a Ford Pinto. It wsas the only thing shou could find that night in budget. Horrible car, but I did froivbe it to Calidfoenia with onoly two minor incidents that did not set us back. I used it for a few months in Los Angeles but before the end of the year I'd met my first wife and, well, she had a better car, a 79 Subaru coupe. When we were married I drove this into the back of a Dodge which left no trac on a 68 Charged but smashed the front of our , well, her car and crumpled the hood. That means it's a write off and we got an 84 Subaru coup and then an 89 XT. Now that was a nice car from personal observations it seems to be faster than an Alfa Romeo of the time which I have learned is no great accomplishment and it was very very quiet at sped owing to the low drag coefficient.

Then I moved back to Canada and leased a Chrysler for a while. My second wife drove it to Florida with her mother and never cheeked the oil so mileage halved after that; good thing it was leased is all I can say about that.

Dad had a Buck he wasn't using so he gave me that. Then he drive it into a deer, I fixed it enough to drive it then one day without warning he took it back and sold it to my neighbor for two cords of wood.

In a newspaper classified I found a 1970 Mercedes 280SE-6, went to get it and had to spend the night in the city as the lights were not working. Actually a lot of things were not working, although tit never let us down in the year we drove it. It was at this point the net was now large enough you could other poor schmucks with old Mercedes and there was an explosion of mailing lists in the ate 90s concerning these cars

A better example, a 1972 280SE-6 with leather seats and full history, that cost 5X as much as the red wreck. Well no, that is vinyl not leather and at least he red car had a working sunroof this didn't have a sunroof and the "complete service history" was just a litany of woes - two accidents, the dreaded blower motor repair; rust repair, it was not a good car at all.

As 1997 rolled around to flew to Georgia and picked up a 1983 300SD and drive 24 hours from Atlanta to Bannockburn. Now this was a good car, peanuts to run and it not once let us down. For 15 years it was the perfect car. Then some prick stole it. I had obtained a BMW 633 as well not that long ago, the second wife got that and totaled it. There was a 1967 250SE Coupe as well which I drove once, and it ended up being stolen as well.

When some other prick set fire to my house while I was away, after first cutting the phone lines, the blue 1972 Mercedes had a barn fall on it; but with a rebuilt motor it was still worth quite a bit in parts. Sadly, the city plowed it into the ground, despite written instructions not to do so. The Junker of a red Mercedes still sits in that field its cousin is buried in. They talk about thar car on Reddit from time to time, it still sits there proudly in that field, refusing to fall.