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I thought I'd include a page depicting the vehicles I've had the pleasure of driving over the years.  Well, "pleasure of driving" may be too strong of a description.  Some of them I've had to nurse along with no small amount sweat, ingenuity, and in some cases, plenty of oil.

So let's start at the beginning.  My first car was a 1974 Dodge Dart inherited from my parents, who acquired the car from my grandmother.  Immediately, you know that any car coming from "grandma" will lack a certain "panache".  Or, summed up neatly, it's a "grandma car".  With all the vanilla meekness that implies.  But, un-cool wheels are better than no wheels, and I was appreciative of what I had.  It had only a single barrel carburetor, but it was a BIG single barrel.  And you could get seven people in it pretty easily.  This thing burned up a quart of oil every ten days or so, but the 225 slant-six ran forever as long as you didn't let the sludge settle in the bottom too long.  I started driving it in 1986, and it became "my car" in '87 and '88, primarily because I was the only one who knew the proper sequence of events necessary to fire it up and keep the engine running.  Mileage at time of death: 156,000 miles.

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My second ride was a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit.  Diesel.  White.  The white wabbit.  This thing belched huge clouds of choking, billowing, James Bond-esque black smoke.  Step on the go pedal, and watch the people in your rear view mirror disappear.  Not because you were outpacing them in this powerhouse of a vehicle, but rather the vast clouds of diesel smoke quickly obscured anyone within 300 yards behind you.  It had 52 untamed horses under the hood, enough to pass a lumbering apple cart on a side road if you planned far enough ahead.  But it did get somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 miles to the gallon - perfect for the cash strapped college student.  I made it from Alexandria, VA to Austin, TX, and back.  Twice.  Numerous trips to El Paso from Austin.  New Orleans.  Dallas.  Oklahoma City.  Corpus Christi.  And from Austin to Huntsville, AL several times.  And countless lesser trips from here to there.  Riding on small, narrow tires, I took it onto the ranges of Ft. Hood, Texas on several hunting trips, going off road with the confidence of a Jeep.  I once piled everything I owned, to include the mattress from my bed on top, and drove across the country on my way to school.  Granted, the head gasket blew near Nowhereville, TN, but I did eventually get where I was going.

I drove it from my sophomore year in college in 1989 all the way to the fall of 1993, when I acquired my next vehicle.  It passed from me to my little brother Kent for a dollar, who drove it for a couple of years while he was at school, and finally passed to my friend Paul.  He loaned it to a friend in need of a car on a trip to Dallas who, not being very mechanically inclined drove it without noticing that all of the coolant had departed shortly after Waco, and the head gasket blew once more.  It was never right after that, and Paul sold it for $100 to someone in need of a cheap ride.  But all in all, a very satisfactory little car, if, once again, somewhat uncool.

Mileage at time of death:  192,000 miles. 

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Next came my third, and favorite, car.  1989 Volkswagen Jetta GLi 16V.  I bought this sweet little number from my friend Melanie in 1993, and drove it until the Summer of 2000.  This car was a blast to drive.  While not particularly fast, it was extremely quick and handled tautly.  The sound the 1.8L 16V made when you really got into it was a low grumbling at the lower RPM's that rose quickly to a screaming snarl at the redline of 6750 RPM's.  It sounded great!  Though its 123 hp wasn't enormous, it was geared low so that the steering wheel wanted to jump out of your hands as the front wheels fought for grip on aggressive launches.  It would cruise at 4000 rpm all day happily, and did so on several 15 hour trips from Texas to Alabama, and Ft. Bragg, NC to Vermont.  It had Recaro sport bucket seats and a fat, leather wrapped steering wheel.  I loved driving that car!

The first week I owned it, I got a little irresponsible and was driving too fast after a light shower in Austin, and promptly jumped a curb and ended up in someone's front yard, with all four rims bent and a cracked right front locator arm.  I eventually replaced the stock 14" rims with 15" alloy rims, and 195/50 "go faster" tires that lent the car a little more aggressive look.  The car saw me through my first years in the Army and the numerous road trips that a single guy will embark on.  It also, being Tornado Red and a hoot to drive, garnered me more than a couple of tickets scattered over several states.  But all that's long past, and I'm now the responsible conscientious driver.

I eventually sold the little red beast to my neighbor, because I'm married now and  was gently "encouraged" to get rid of it.  But I enjoyed the hell out of that car, and was sorry to see it go.  We all have to grow up some time, I guess.  This was my motorcycle.  

Mileage at time of death: 178,000 miles (it's still on the road today with a new family)

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Since the summer of 1998, I've been driving a 1990 Jeep Cherokee 4x4, which Tash and I bought from her dad.  I never thought of myself as a 4x4 kind of guy, but ohh, you'd be amazed at some of the situations I've gotten myself into in this thing.  The one great lesson that I've learned from Jeepin' is "Never go off-road without a buddy.  Or without a buddy in a vehicle heavy enough to pull your @#% out the the sticky stuff."  Because you will get stuck.  In fact, most of the fun is figuring out how far you can go before you get stuck.  4x4 means that you can get out 4x as far before you get stuck, making it 4x as difficult to get back out.  But it is a blast.

Current mileage:  114,500 miles.

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Tasha's Cars

And now it is my turn.  Bernd has been going on and on about his cars... blah blah bah.  Here are my cars.  They would be the "the good" and not "the bad" or "the ugly" of this web site.

The Toyota was the first car I bought all by myself.  It was a great car.  I sold it the summer of 2000 and opted for a SUV due to the weather conditions at Ft. Drum.  When the snow plow guy blocks you in your driveway in the morning with a 4 foot wall of snow, it helps to have 4-wheel drive to get to work.  And I must say, "I love my Trooper".  Bernd reminds me to say, "I love OUR Trooper."  Some call me Tasha Isuzu.

(A little note from Bernd: "I see how this works.  I sell my favorite car and Tasha gets to drive the new car.  That doesn't seem fair!")

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Copyright © 2002 by Bernd & Tasha. All rights reserved.
Revised: 12 Apr 2002 .