When it comes to car ownership, there are generally two extremes: you either love your car or you hate it. We talk a lot about the worst cars we’ve owned, the ones we’d never even look at again, but what about the ones you loved and lost? The cars that, for whatever reason, you had to give up on.
Sometimes, you own a car that you feel is perfect in every way, but you just can’t justify having it anymore. Sometimes you crash. Sometimes you lose a transmission that would cost more than the car is worth to replace. Sometimes you have kids and graduate to something larger. Sometimes you can’t find a reason to own a massive beast. Sometimes it wasn’t even your car to begin with. Sometimes, life just happens, and that perfect car slipped right out of your grasp.
For me, that car was my family’s 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix Turbo, a car that pretty much every single person in my close family dailied at some point. It was never really my car, and it was never really a good car (certainly not by the time I got it), but it was a car that taught me how to love cars. From the time I was four years old and entranced by all the seat adjusting buttons in the center console to the time I was 18 and finally got the stereo to work long enough to listen to The Doors on the way to my friend’s graduation party, it was one of those cars laden with special moments.
But because it was the family car, I left it in Michigan when I moved to Texas for college, at which point my brother inherited it and at which point it also disintegrated into an undriveable mess. I still wouldn’t hesitate to hunt down another one, but I also have no idea if it would live up to my standards now that I use my cars for everything from urban adventuring to camping in the hatch.
What was your beloved car that you had to give up on?