Quicksilver
07-21-2021, 11:56 AM
In 1975, I bought my then fresh wife Rhonda a brand new 1975 Honda Civic sedan. It was light blue. A fun little car, especially for autocross, which I indulged in often.
It had one little quirk. There was a vent in the hood right over the distributor. Every time it rained, the distributor would get wet. The only was to start the car was to take the distributor cap off and wipe down the inside, then replace it.
We took to carrying multiple rags in the car, and Rhonda, who is the least mechanical person I know, became skilled at this procedure.
2 years later, I purchased a brand new 1977 Honda Accord coupe. Also light blue.
A year later, on an unimproved Warden ave at an equally unimproved highway 7, Rhonda spun the car and damaged the fender.
Some 6 years later, I bought Rhonda a 1984 Toyota Tercel wagon, with 4 wheel drive. Two months after that it was t-boned. It was repaired, but I wound up selling it. Guess what. It was light metallic blue.
The replacement was a 1986 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport Wagon with the high performance factory v-6. (A mighty 140 horsepower!) Midnight blue metallic. I factory ordered it, but it must have been built on a Friday as it was, and remains, the worst piece of sh-t we have ever owned. It had a short in the brake light system that took dozens of visits to multiple dealers to get it fixed. One morning, on our way to the airport for a family trip to California, the steering rack seized. It would not turn left. It took two visits to the dealer to fix it. Then the brakes were shot at 10,000km. GM's answer: learn to drive better.
I swore I would never buy another GM car. Ever. I sold it privately and replaced it with a grey 1990 Plymouth minivan. It blew it’s transmission at 1900 KM while driving to Florida. To it’s credit Chrysler got it fixed for us and even paid for a hotel room and rental).(we were in Georgia when it happened).
In 1987 I bought a midnight blue Toyota Supra. It had no end of alignment problems (you couldn’t keep it in a straight line no matter what), and then it got totaled.
I replaced it with a new 1989 Supra, but with a Targa roof. Blue again. This time financial reasons forced me to sell it prematurely (less than 2 years). My next new car was a fire engine red 1992 Ford Probe GT. (My first Ford)
In 1992 we bought a Dodge Minivan, ES (the sport model). We had no end of trouble with the brakes and with a dishonest dealer(who went out of business not long after). Guess what. It was light blue. Sold it after 2 years and a major scare when the antilock brakes failed. Traded that for a white 1995 minivan.
Financial reasons precluded any new cars, until 1999 when I bought my first Mustang: a red GT vert. (the first of 8 Mustangs: the 99; an '00 for Rhonda; an 03 cobra; an 04 cobra; a'12GT, a 14'GT; a 15 GT and a 17 GT. Oh. There was also a red 1986 4 banger coupe that I bought, and then sold, for $800. It was a winter beater for 2 seasons. My son Daniel also had an 89 Hatch, and Adam, my firstborn, had a black 91 convertible.
In 2002 I bought a dark blue Chevy pickup, brand new, with a plow. It had constant overheating problems which the dealer could never fix, and then my son Adam backed into something forcing a complete bed replacement. Sold that one too.
In 2004, I bought my then 17 year old son Noah a 1989 blue Mustang coupe, which ZR eventually built up with a v-8 conversion and 4 wheel disc brakes. That car was good for a few years until someone backed into it in a parking lot. It blew the 4 banger engine, and the first v-8 we put into it wasn’t very robust either. It then suffered a few more dings and dents and has now been sitting in the barn for 6 years. We're afraid to drive it.
By now, I finally figured out that the Steinberg Family had some sort of a curse about blue cars, so we didn’t even contemplate any more of them.
Until October 2018. We bought a brand new “Blue Denim” F-250 power stroke for Noah, and for plowing. It was a factory order, and that's the colour Noah wanted, along with a cream leather interior. It had been 16 years since we’d had a blue vehicle, so we all thought the curse would be over.
2 months old and it slipped on some ice and sliced a 3 foot long gouge in the side of the bed. The following spring, during a windstorm, a tree branch fell on the roof of the truck and put a dent in it. That winter, Noah slipped again while plowing and backed into a wall and dinged the opposite side of the bed.
We sold that truck yesterday. Without the repairs. For $65,000.00 (we paid $66,000 brand new) Noah is thinking of a Bronco. But not blue!
It had one little quirk. There was a vent in the hood right over the distributor. Every time it rained, the distributor would get wet. The only was to start the car was to take the distributor cap off and wipe down the inside, then replace it.
We took to carrying multiple rags in the car, and Rhonda, who is the least mechanical person I know, became skilled at this procedure.
2 years later, I purchased a brand new 1977 Honda Accord coupe. Also light blue.
A year later, on an unimproved Warden ave at an equally unimproved highway 7, Rhonda spun the car and damaged the fender.
Some 6 years later, I bought Rhonda a 1984 Toyota Tercel wagon, with 4 wheel drive. Two months after that it was t-boned. It was repaired, but I wound up selling it. Guess what. It was light metallic blue.
The replacement was a 1986 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport Wagon with the high performance factory v-6. (A mighty 140 horsepower!) Midnight blue metallic. I factory ordered it, but it must have been built on a Friday as it was, and remains, the worst piece of sh-t we have ever owned. It had a short in the brake light system that took dozens of visits to multiple dealers to get it fixed. One morning, on our way to the airport for a family trip to California, the steering rack seized. It would not turn left. It took two visits to the dealer to fix it. Then the brakes were shot at 10,000km. GM's answer: learn to drive better.
I swore I would never buy another GM car. Ever. I sold it privately and replaced it with a grey 1990 Plymouth minivan. It blew it’s transmission at 1900 KM while driving to Florida. To it’s credit Chrysler got it fixed for us and even paid for a hotel room and rental).(we were in Georgia when it happened).
In 1987 I bought a midnight blue Toyota Supra. It had no end of alignment problems (you couldn’t keep it in a straight line no matter what), and then it got totaled.
I replaced it with a new 1989 Supra, but with a Targa roof. Blue again. This time financial reasons forced me to sell it prematurely (less than 2 years). My next new car was a fire engine red 1992 Ford Probe GT. (My first Ford)
In 1992 we bought a Dodge Minivan, ES (the sport model). We had no end of trouble with the brakes and with a dishonest dealer(who went out of business not long after). Guess what. It was light blue. Sold it after 2 years and a major scare when the antilock brakes failed. Traded that for a white 1995 minivan.
Financial reasons precluded any new cars, until 1999 when I bought my first Mustang: a red GT vert. (the first of 8 Mustangs: the 99; an '00 for Rhonda; an 03 cobra; an 04 cobra; a'12GT, a 14'GT; a 15 GT and a 17 GT. Oh. There was also a red 1986 4 banger coupe that I bought, and then sold, for $800. It was a winter beater for 2 seasons. My son Daniel also had an 89 Hatch, and Adam, my firstborn, had a black 91 convertible.
In 2002 I bought a dark blue Chevy pickup, brand new, with a plow. It had constant overheating problems which the dealer could never fix, and then my son Adam backed into something forcing a complete bed replacement. Sold that one too.
In 2004, I bought my then 17 year old son Noah a 1989 blue Mustang coupe, which ZR eventually built up with a v-8 conversion and 4 wheel disc brakes. That car was good for a few years until someone backed into it in a parking lot. It blew the 4 banger engine, and the first v-8 we put into it wasn’t very robust either. It then suffered a few more dings and dents and has now been sitting in the barn for 6 years. We're afraid to drive it.
By now, I finally figured out that the Steinberg Family had some sort of a curse about blue cars, so we didn’t even contemplate any more of them.
Until October 2018. We bought a brand new “Blue Denim” F-250 power stroke for Noah, and for plowing. It was a factory order, and that's the colour Noah wanted, along with a cream leather interior. It had been 16 years since we’d had a blue vehicle, so we all thought the curse would be over.
2 months old and it slipped on some ice and sliced a 3 foot long gouge in the side of the bed. The following spring, during a windstorm, a tree branch fell on the roof of the truck and put a dent in it. That winter, Noah slipped again while plowing and backed into a wall and dinged the opposite side of the bed.
We sold that truck yesterday. Without the repairs. For $65,000.00 (we paid $66,000 brand new) Noah is thinking of a Bronco. But not blue!