I've just received my BahnCard 25 in the mail. It lets me get 25% off all my train trips in Germany (and a bit beyond) - will probably save me a couple of hundred Euros in the coming 12 months, which is not bad given it's €59 price tag.

I expect I will be using trains for most of my long distance trips on this continent, with Scandanavia being the probable exception. In town though, I just have a bicycle, and use the bus if the weather is too foul or I know I need to carry too much back when shopping. It's taking some getting used to, having had a car for my entire working life in Australia, but I'm generally enjoying it, and I'm definitely getting fitter thanks to it.

I know a couple of people who have used ferries regularly for work in Sydney, but I was never one of them. Boats have only ever been leisure craft for me.

So, my usual modes of transport over the years have been:

2005-2008
1992 Corolla Seca SX 1.8L. This little blue car got me through my later years of uni and first few months of work. Dad runs a retirement home and we got it cheap off the relatives of one of the deceased residents who owned it. Second time, actually. We did the same thing for my elder brother a few years prior when another oldie passed on. Almost like a tradition in our family...

2008-2010
2008 Golf Mk5 2.0 Diesel. Company car, first (and only) time I had even sat in a car that was actually completely brand new. Had never been in a diesel car before, they're not as popular in Australia as they are in Europe (but still more popular in Australia than they are in the US, it seems). Suddenly I was filling up the tank half as often as I used to. I chose black. Looked great when brand new. A month later I decided never to get black again.

2010-2012
Replacement company car. Same diesel Golf, but newer model (Mk6) and silver. Never really looked dirty, lesson successfully learned there.

2012-?
Bicycle. It cost me €400 which I thought was pretty damn expensive but it seems to be the cheapest that new bicycles come over here, while meeting all the regulations and standards. Nothing really notable about it except the brand name - "Falter". The chain has come loose once already with a gear change, perhaps it's in the name. We'll see how we go in winter... haven't experienced the snow and ice yet.

I had various beater cars, usually bought with cash and not much of that, until I bought a brand new Jeep in September 1998. I still have it. My policy with cars is to drive them until they die. No car payment and an insurance payment that's rock bottom.

I had a piece of shit Plymouth Breeze for 11 years until it died the day after my ex dumped me. I bought a 2011 Nissan Altima SL. I love my car. In terms of technology it was like going from tin cans tied with string to a smart phone.

2007 Suzuki SX4 with almost 70,000 miles on it. Now's the time to start thinking whether I want to trade it in, or drive it until it dies. It's kind of boring, but it's comfortable, and superb in snow.

On August 10, 1994 I got my first car, a tan 1986 Buick Shyhawk. It broke 2 1/2 months later... The radio in it didn't hold stations after being turned off anyway (didn't even have a tape deck), though it had the most comfortable seats I had ever felt in a car for a long time, and a huge trunk for such a small car.

December 1994 I got my second car, a black 1987 Nissan Pulsar with T-tops. I loved that car, and drove it as much as possible until it was getting too expensive to keep on the road anymore (especially after driving it through a flood in 1999). No trunk space, but it had a tape deck, and a manual transmission.

June 2000 I picked up my first car that I bought 100% on my own, a brand new black Pontiac Firebird, also with T-tops. This car was even more fun to drive than the Pulsar. It was like the Pulsar on steroids. The T-tops were glass instead of fiberglass, it had a CD player instead of tape deck, a V6 instead of a 4 cylinder, and it was just plain bigger. I loved that car.

Until I bought my 2010 Camaro in February of that year. V6 went to V8, black went to silver, 5 speed manual to 6 speed manual, T-tops went to a sunroof (downgrade, unfortunately), even more room inside, more comfortable seats than the Buick, and is the best car I have ever driven (I have driven a lot more cars than I have owned).

1961 Renault Dauphine
1963 Ford Galaxy 500
1960 VW Beetle
1972 Toyota Corona
1970 VW Superbeetle
1980 Mazda GLC
1965 Plymouth Belvedere
1988 Toyota Tercel
1998 Toyota Tacoma
2005 Mazdaspeed Miata
2007 Suzuki SX4

Past:
Nissan 200SX 1987 - My first car. Loved this car, had a new engine in it in 2000. I still want a 300Z or a 350Z someday because of this car, it had so much acceleration, and looked like it was out of Back to the Future.

Ford Escort 95ish - Hand me down from my mom. This car sucked balls, and needed expensive engine work twice in the 3 years I had it. Only plus side was it had a 7 CD changer, before I had an ipod. I've seen it parked at a college before for the new owner. Poor sap.

Current:
Toyota Corolla 1999 - Decent car, never has really needed work. It has no frills though, manual windows, manual locks, cassette deck. It looks alright though and does its job well.

Toyota Camry 1995 - Looks like garbage. Paint is chipping off the hood bad, two of the wheel bolt covers are lost, had a dent in the bumper from when someone rear ended me while parked. But the thing never quits. I've driven it to New Orleans, San Francisco, all over Utah, it just keeping chugging on.

Future:

Jeep (preferably Wrangler) - I want a Jeep bad, something to take on all those dirt roads my Toyotas won't cut it on. I think this will happen before the new year, so I can go explore Death Valley finally. Any tips on buying a used Jeep? I've heard conflicting reports. Some tell me they don't last long, others tell me they last forever. I want one of the last forevery ones.

I don't know years but this is the rough order:

First car, 17 years old:
90'something Pontiac Grand Am Sport
Probably the foxiest car I've owned. I bought it off my sister who thought she could buy a new car, move into an apartment and not work all in the same month. It was a sport tuned 2 door with all red dash lights, a 'stealth' CD player, full sunroof and drove like a go-cart (in a good way).

I was never a car person but I just happened on a really decent car for high school and early college. Axle broke at a stop light first year of college (very lame death). Back seat was tiny (still managed to bang in it), was low as hell (bumps were painful), and I got a 72 in a 25 school zone ticket that was transferred into "Failure to obey traffic control signs" so I didn't lose my license (it was my 2nd day).

1992 Chevy Corsica
This car went through hell. It was white (initially) with red interior and I drove it until it fell to pieces. I got $75 extra because I could actually drive it to the junk yard for cash-by-weight trade-in. It never left me stranded or failed. Just all the little things broke (window controls, dash stuff, arm rest, door handles, radio etc). I think taps was playing as it was driven off through the great mounds of metal.

1998 Buick Century
Hunter green and fuckin' awesome. I love Buicks. You don't go left or right in a Buick, its port and starboard. I could fit 6 people in this car and 5 dead hookers in the trunk. The thing ran forever and was so damned comfortable. The back AND front seats were bench seats (hence 6 people). This car had quite the personality at my work place and school, everyone loved the Buick.

Once my boss said I should think about getting a more respectable car since I was moving up in my career and I laughed at him, "That's what you would do".

The end goal for this car (and my girlfriend's matching red buick regal) was to have a demolition derby in a local quarry with shotgun passengers firing paintball guns out the window at targets painted on the cars. Sadly the Regal got totaled while parked and the Century's brakes broke a few years later (170+).

2000-somethin' Chevy Impala
Didn't last long as it was just a transition vehicle. Notable event is some plastic chain got caught on the exhaust (catalytic converter) melted, and got my girlfriend and I pretty fucked up driving upstate once. We had to pull over at a rest stop and just passed out on the grass for 45m.

2002 Buick LeSabre (Current)
Return of the Buick! This car is ballin'. Pressure sensitive windshield wipers, headlight sensitive mirrors, heated seats, heated mirrors, driver profiles, auto-everything. It even has an automatic feature to drive 55 in the left lane with your left turn signal on. The ultimate old man's car.

I really do love it. Again, seats 6, windows are splinted up in the back since they are off their tracks (I have better things to spend $500 on). This car has a nose ring since the hood-pop cable broke and wasn't long enough on the inside so I routed it out the front with a ring on the cable. Honestly, its the best place to have a hood pop cable.

1992 Harley-Davidson XLH 1200 Sportster (Current)
My vehicle of choice. I've put 6,000+ miles on it this summer alone. I love this bike. It is completely mechanical (not fuel injected or computerized in anyway) so I can work on every part of it without crazy specialized tools or expensive chips. I've ridden it down to Virginia and up to the finger-lakes of NY. It is loud, fast, powerful and just falls into corners; it's nimble as hell. For the longest time I didn't "get" motorcycles. Now I do, and I love them.

The bike has a lot of custom parts (it is hard to spot the model for most folks) including:
Forward foot controls (regular sportys have 'under the hips' controls)
Custom gas tank
Bullet signals (old style ones were huge bug-eyes)
Performance air filter (matches tank)
Corbin seat (with obnoxious flames, soon to be fixed)
Lowered rear suspension

This winter I am going to take off the fenders and tank and get them painted, not sure on the color yet. Also getting a new rear fender as this one is pretty worn out and I don't like the style of it. It'll be an opportunity to re-wire the whole thing as well.

The fun bit about Buicks and Harley's is if you ever met me, they're the last thing you'd think I'd drive/ride. I probably look like a guy who should be driving an Audi but fuck'em, cars are a necessary evil and bikes should be heard a few blocks before you see'em.

Last weekend's ride through west jersey farm country, I had the bags on (not typical) because I was bringing someone some wine.

I've gone from:

Crap Car
Not bad car
Cool Car
Not bad car
Crap Car

So hopefully my next car is better than my current hunk of shit...

I drive a 1998 Hyundai Excel, which squeaks like the death of children when you first turn it on, has a faulty driver side door that can only be opened from the inside, central locking that only works on two doors, and the persistent smell of a cheap hotel (cleaning chemicals + ancient cigarette ash).

It is a classy, classy vehicle.

Learned to drive in my Dad's Civic, mostly drove in my Mum's Panda.

Walked pretty much everywhere in Glasgow or used public transport.

Now I pretty much always bike everywhere. Got a cheap but decent single speed bike for scooting around town on the basis of easy maintenance meaning it shouldn't lose to much value for when I sell it on.

You mean you look like a cock? Well, at least you don't look like a Merc or BMW driver...

For the record, I thought your Buick was very comfy. It edges out Fin's Excel for the best fellow GSFer's car I've been in

The list goes something like this: (dates be damned I don't know them)

1982 Chevy Chevette
1985 Mercury Grand Marquee
1992 Ford Ranger
1992 Eagle Premier
1997 Mercury Tracer
1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue
1989 Jeep Wrangler
2011 Nissan Juke

Also:
1984 Yamaha enduro 250
1999 Honda Shadow ACE 750
2009 Harley Davidson Wide Glide 1500+

*pictures added*

In Reply To #8

Nice bike.