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Cars Are My Passion
Buzz Blogg
Cars are my passion, and I have always had lots of cars. I started out in
High School in 1962 with a '53 Merc 2 door hardtop to which I added chrome
reverse wheels, 3 Stromberg 97's, Hurst 3 speed and 4:11 gears. That was in my
graduation year from High School; then in '63 I bought a nice brand new 63 Ford
Galaxy ($2200) RED 2 door hardtop with 4 speed 390, etc., and kept it for a year
when I needed a car that was better on gas for a while so got a '64 new black
shiny BUG ($1250), which I quickly became disenchanted with (duh!) and traded
for a new '65 GTO ($2500). THAT was a screamer and I loved it, but Uncle (Sam)
wanted me for other things so I raced the crap out of it, and sold it for a loss
after having it for a month, and headed for parts unknown.
As it turned out, I was stationed stateside, so bought yet another BUG ($1600);
this time a blue '66 with a sunroof and white interior, but as I should have
figured out, I really didn't like it all that much although it did the job of
commuting me around D.C. for a few years. The month I got discharged (July '67)
I went to the local Pontiac dealer to satisfy my need for speed and bought a
beautiful blue '67 GTO ($3000) 4speed 389 360HP GOAT..another screamer by the
standards of the day, and drove it home from Virginia.
After I had been home for a while, I rolled it and the Insurance company got me
another one, and it lasted till my divorce forced me to sell everything, so in
'69 I bought another big ole' sled; a new '69 Pontiac Grand Prix ($4100) with
4speed and everything you could get. Kept that for a while and started going
back to school in Corvallis and needed something other than 12 mpg for the daily
round trip, so bought a new 1970 MG Midget ($2250), which was a great little fun
car but the maintenance averaged $100 a month for the time I had it, which was 3
years, during which time I replaced 3 clutches and untold other parts.
Graduated, finally, in '72 and in '74 bought a new '74 240Z ($5200)..loved that
car, and kept it till '80 when I made my first Vette purchase, a brand new shiny
$18,000 black on black 4speed 190 hp treasure. Four speeds were very rare that
year and took a long time to find one that was not an automatic. Turned out it
was pretty much of a dog and I was only able to get book on it a year later
$10,000 (depreciated like a ROCK). Traded that in for a 1981 beautiful
silver/blue 280Z ($18000) which I kept for a whole 2 years when I traded it for
a Twin Turbo '83 ($26000) black on black 5 spd bomb..beautiful car and very
quick, but got tired of that eventually and traded it for a gunmetal grey '87
twin turbo 300Z 5spd ($31000). Noticing a trend in car prices here???
Once again I was disappointed with life in general I guess so bought myself a
pick-me-up car in '88 which was my 2nd Vette, a shiny new midnight blue roadster
6 speed with tan top, ($28,000) and this eventually began to feel doggy, and
drove like a lumberwagon (well actually lumberwagons had better rides) so my
next experiment was my very favorite of all cars to that point, a Candy-Apple
red 1990 300 ZX twin turbo 300 hp monster. For the day, it was pretty expensive
($38,000) but I kept it until 2003, and sold it for $9000 after driving it for
almost 14 years never spending a penny on it.
Fourteen years! What was I thinking? I have never kept a car that long and I
have money in the bank, so why am I driving this antique!? Well, guess what ?
The year is 2003 and it is what? The 50th anniversary of the Corvette! I should
get one, because they should be great collector cars! OK talked myself in to
that , and went down in May of '02 and ordered it ($56000). Long story short, it
took till December 2002 to actually take delivery after all the constraints and
divvying up the cars between dealers and allotments, etc. That was a bunch of
%$#%$. It was a beautiful loaded Anniversary roadster with every option you
could get and it was a 6 speed..the most beautiful color I had seen on any car
up to that time!..AND I got it for $3000 under sticker when everyone was asking
$5000-$10000 over sticker for them. Those guys that paid the premium are
probably kicking themselves all over by now.
Got it December 12th and toured the Western U.S. with it and used up 20,000
miles on about 3 vacations during 3 years. During this time I expected to see
great things with the resale value, but N-o-o-o-oo- chance. They were all over
the place and everyone was selling them. You could, and still can, pick one up
on e-bay with little or no miles for plain old high book. You know what happens
when you get a new car don't you? Well you may as well just take delivery and
while you are on the lot just kick the hell out of it so you get the first ding
in it and relieve yourself of all of that stress. I backed over a low curb and
dinged up the underside of the door sill the first month I had it and it was no
longer a virgin and was permanently and irreparably damaged. Had to get rid of
it cause it was bugging me every time I washed it and kept finding road dings
etc from all those freeway trips.
This leads us to January 2006 when the change in body style finally got the best
of me. I had been really unhappy with the pop-up lights which were too easy to
overdrive, and everything in general. It took a year for me to get used to the
new body but I knew that there were lots of things I would like in the new one
that were driving me crazy in the old one: road noise, bad radio (no mp3
player), bad headlights, no seals on body, transmission rattling all the time
(they say it is Normal), scraping driveways all the time (lower than the '06),
etc.
Picked the new one up on January 19th, 2006 and have not looked back for
almost 3 years, although the new car bug is nibbling at my pocketbook again, so
who knows what might be next, but this long boring recitation of my car buying
history is for no other reason than to show that I have always liked nice fast
cars and that the things I have found in the corvette are the things I have
always searched for in my cars: good looks, POWER, fun to drive, manual
transmissions, TWO seats (not 4). The corvettes have answered this need more
than any other of the cars I have had in the past. And that is my vehicle
history as it relates to Corvettes….whew!
When you see Silver haired folks driving most hot cars, the first thing you
think is what?? MID-LIFE CRISIS! WELL when you see one of us driving the vette,
the first thing you think of is what? Life is so unfair, I deserve that car, and
that old guy is the only one who can AFFORD it!! Living well is the best
revenge! I just spent more on two tires than I did on my first car! That is just
sad!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Buzz Blogg
WVCA member since 2006
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