My first car was a pinto! I bought it used and it had a hatchback. I loved it. No one told me it might blow up. I had to put bags of gravel and sand in it in the winter to get enough traction on the ice. Then I bought a Maverick - brand new! I think it was $4000. Someone ran into it (on a icy road and they were not even driving a pinto) so then I got a Mustang - picked out the color - sort of a copper and all the features. I loved it except everytime it rained and the temperature was between 35 and 40 degrees something would happen to it - the gas would just go through the motor and then it would stop. It would use about a gallon for every 2 miles, so then I'd let it sit for 15 minutes, find a gas station quickly and go on my way. They could never figure out how to fix it. It died with only about 70,000 miles on it. Oh the memories! I too have lots of "car stories" including having 2 cars break down trying to get my husband to a hospital for emergency surgery in a blizzard. Long story - but the surgery was successful! (Same thing happened to him 2 years ago when we were on vacation and the gas pedal in our Nissan van kept sticking - knew I should have had that looked at before we left) Again the surgery was successful and I think I've finally learned my lesson to have everything checked out before traveling.