Ever since I was finishing up my previous project car, I’ve been keeping my eye out for a new project to work on. One morning before going into work, I found a 2004 BMW 330XI with a 6-speed manual that was newly listed on Craigslist. I reached out to the owner, but didn’t hear anything back right away which is not uncommon.
Before my wife and I had kids, we always joked around about owning a minivan when we were older. Eventually as we needed more cabin space, the reality of needing to purchase one began to set in. We’d debate back-and-forth over who should drive the minivan. But, in the end it didn’t matter because as soon as we had our second child and knew our third was on the way, we both knew it would be likely that’d we be both driving it.
I recently came across some old photos of the first motorcycle I owned. Gosh, memories just started to flood back as I went through pictures of my old 1999 Honda CBR600 F4. I don’t know if I felt so much nostalgia because of all the good times that I’ve had with the bike, or if it was just because it was the first bike I’ve owned. Perhaps it was because of both reasons. Nonetheless, I wanted to reminisce of some of the memorable times I’ve had with my first motorcycle.
The Ford F-150 has a ridiculous amount of different configurations available, so I determined which things I was willing to forego and which things I knew was a must have. After that, I kept my eye on the pricing incentive offered by Ford and did a lot of online research/shopping at various Ford dealerships around my area. Until the purchase was finally made, it was a mad-dash to find the right F-150 as the one I was scheduled to go buy was sold the night before. Luckily, things worked out and I drove home in a brand new 2020 Ford F-150.
A little over a year ago, I picked up a 2003 Acura CL Type-S as I was looking for a new project car to work on. I honestly wasn’t even looking for a CL Type-S specifically, but I spotted this one on Craigslist with a 6-speed manual transmission. For those who are familiar with the Acura CL, and the Type-S model in particular, you will know how rare it is to find a CL-S in a manual transmission. It is estimated that there were about 2700 Acura CL Type-S cars ever produced in a 6-speed manual transmission.
I walk into AutoZone and ask the salesperson behind the counter for the specific brake line that’s behind the counter. He goes to the back for a few minutes and returns with a brake line that looks like it was used…
Every Saturday night, my parents would go to their friends’ house and stay there until late. I figured that if I could get my hands on my dad’s car keys when they left the house, I would have a good 4-5 hours with the car before they’d come home. My dad didn’t notice until he finally outsmarted me by recording down the car mileage.
I purchased my 2003 Toyota 4Runner on 6/29/2013 for $10,000 with 139k miles on the clock. 5-1/2 years later, I’m happy to still be trekking on with the same car with 240k miles on the clock.
Craigslist has primarily been my go-to when looking for a motorcycle to purchase. Unfortunately three different times, I arranged to meet with someone selling their Ninja 250 and I ended up walking away empty-handed. I’ve talked about Craigslist etiquette in the past and in these three scenarios, the sellers could use some, that’s for sure.
