Wonder what could have been...
Reply #38 –
OK,
A few years ago, right after I built my 88 XR7, I purchased a 1996 MN-12 with the 4.6L as a daily. I loved the car for about 3 months, then couldn't stand it. It was a beautiful car, black with tan leather, and probably always will be the most reliable car that I've ever owned up to the day that it was sold with 186,000 miles on it. But after the "newness" wore off, the car just didn't excite me like the fox did even though it was significantly quicker than a stock fox and extremely comfortable. I then purchased another 88 XR7 to ultimately replace the MN-12 after only having it for four months. However, after the 5.0 did what they all do after 100,000 miles and started to eat the mains, it became very clear to me why I needed to keep the MN-12. Our cars are just getting old. A few years later I stepped up to my first Mark VIII, thought it was the greatest two door four seater ever created, that was until I got my first spin in a 2004 (they had just come out) pontiac GTO 6 spd. The mark was promply sold after that. All of this time of course, I still owned my cougar which was in non-running condition. After the pontiac "departed" I went back to another mark, which I then sold when my friend offered me a fantastic deal on a 1996 Impala SS which is my current daily now. What is the point of all of this?
I came to realize that the longer I stayed out of my cougar (the more different cars I drove), I was having less and less of the desire I had before to fix it up again. My love affair with the car still exists today, but with a different spin. We try to make our cars into the best of all worlds, sporty, sophiticated classy 2 door sedan, but they really don't have to be. I as I'm sure all of you here fell in love with my car when it was 100% stock. Sure I had fun building it up, and I had fun tearing it down and rebuilding it everytime something broke on it, but I really can't say that I got much more satisfaction out of it whether or not it had 155hp or 355hp, I just loved to be in it. I would much rather just go out and get a car that was meant to be abused rather than do so with my cat.
About 3 months ago, a very inconsiderate person backed into my SS's rear 1/4 panel while I was inside of a mall. I guess I shouldn't be too shocked, being that the car is what it is, but I'm not used to hearing this from a regular body shop when assessing a 12 year old car. The quote to re-do the driver's side rear 1/4 with all associated labor, paint, emblems and moldings was only $500.00. Why? because all of the above listed parts (as well as every other misc part for those cars) are showing as NEW and AVAILABLE from GM still, even after twelve years . . . Maybe that's a reason why those cars used in prime condition are valued for as much today as they were when they were brand new (please no comments about inflation adjustments, we're talking raw sticker price here). 1998 mark 8 owners cannot even replace those HID bulbs after less than 10 years. So I could pretty much drive this thing around like it's still in production and not have to worry about scowering through junkyards to find a car that doesn't have yellowed headlights if one of them gets chipped up. If that old LT1 decides to throw a rod? No problem! never mind how many LT1's there are around that can be found used, or vast amount of aftermarket 350's there are to chose from, I could easily just drop in an LSX engine and install a pre-made wiring harness and be good to go (being that they all use the standard SBC engine mount locations and bellbousing patterns). So what am I getting at? I think our cars should be geared more towards preservation now than anything else. I'm definetly not saying don't mod the hell out of your fox, but the more we mod them, the harder we drive them and the more we break them, more difficult it is to fix them afterwards as the years go on, and as far as it seems, the vast majority of the auto enthisiast world won't care if we could ever fix them again. My next fox is more than likely going to be a stocker, if I can luck out and find a nice clean one, or roll up the sleeves and try to find one to restore to originality (that'll be a project), but it's as Eric said numerous times, "some people are more than happy to just turn the key", just never though that would end up being me though . .
Topic: Wonder what could have been... (Read 7894 times)
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