What has been your shortest period of car ownership?
I was studying the automotive market for Pony Cars yesterday, and I was reminded of a Mustang that I had briefly. I don’t remember the year and I don’t think I have a photo of it… but it was blue and had a V-6. It had a 5 speed manual, nice stereo, and every upgrade known to man to get more power out of the V-6… which was rated from the factory at only 210 horse powers and I don’t think it had any torques. Exhaust and cold air intakes, this V-6 was actually pretty energetic. It might have had upwards of 250 horses. I had it a day. I bought the car in Provo and then thought better of it as I brought it back the next day and traded it for a Subaru Legacy. And then a couple days after that, I drove it to Virginia and back, through some serious snow storms. I don’t think the Mustang would have allowed me to survive that. Thinking that was my shortest ownership of a car, I then remembered my Saab 900 Turbo. It was black with some rust and cheap wheels and the interior smelled like bubblegum. Back when I was working in IT in Salt Lake City, I found a guy selling a very nice SAAB 900 Turbo. It was low miles and then engine was great. Asking 1500 for it, it was probably worth that, but he was desperate to sell it. I only had 900 dollars, and said, I have this much cash so take it or leave it.
He took it. He filled out the Title and handed it to me, along with the keys, and I was off. I drove it around Salt Lake and started to really like it. I found myself flying south to Lehi, and then west… heading out to the West Desert. Where I wrecked it.
I was doing power slides and larking about like a jackass. It was in the middle of a pendulum turn, the car sliding sideways at full opposite lock when something happened. I’m not sure exactly what it was. Maybe a tire lost it’s bead and the wheel hit the ground. Maybe something broke. Or maybe Heaven’s Office Manager said that I can’t have a Saab. Which is fine, and I’ll explain why later. So anyways, there I was, sliding sideways around a curve… when all the sudden the horizon flipped over. And continued to flip about 9 more times. Maybe 11 more times. I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly counting. The Saab came to rest on it’s wheels. Or where the wheels should have been. One of them was just gone. I think it ended up in Nevada. The others were hiding up in the wheel wells. Out of the top of the hood protruded what I think used to be the struts. I was very lucky and pretty much unhurt. I was mostly scared of telling my bride that I just blew 900 bucks cash on a roller coaster ride.
I was contemplating how my wife was going to kill me, when another motorist who had a cell phone stopped and asked what happened. I said, “I don’t know, but I think I broke it.”
About an hour later the tow truck arrived. It was of course a flat bed wrecker driven by a man who was almost brought to tears by the site of the ruined Saab. He was a Saab fanatic and was rebuilding one of his own. One with a blown engine. As the story goes and luck would have it, by the time we reached I-15, he agreed to pay me 900 bucks for the remains of the car so he could take out the engine and use it in his car… and maybe any other useful bits that I didn’t destroy. Like the shift knob. He was happy. I was happy I wasn’t killed or going to get killed.
I’ve decided after that instance, that I hate Saabs. Total time of ownership… just over 2 hours.