When I turned 16, my dad and I scoured the countryside and newspaper ads looking for a '70 Chevelle. We found one, we worked on it together, it was bad to the bone...until some kid at my high school almost killed my sister and I driving home one day. So, Mum said it was time to get something new(er), something with airbags and real seat belts. At this time Pontiac was taking Grand Am's Rolex series by storm with the GTO.R. I knew, coming from the Chevelle, that's what I had to have. I even drove one at a demo. It was just what my teeny little brain needed because it was so elementally the same as the Chevelle, but better. And it also cost about $33,000. So, needless to say we didn't do that. Dad and I left the dealership, the first place we went, with a 03 (at that time 3 model-years old) Grand Am. Why? It had scoops on the hood, fake ones, and an awful (factory) GT body kit with stupid fake four-outlet exhaust and chrome 16" wheels. I was like, "WOW, it has a stereo! It has a sunroof! I love it!"
 
At that point in my life, I became a real car guy. Why? Because the only people who become obsessed with cool cars and fast cars and race cars and the like are those that are trapped like I was in a POS Grand Am. It has never, ever, given me worse than 27 mpg in combined driving, never been in the shop in 30,000 miles that I put on it, nothing. It's been great as reliable transportation. But it is completely without a soul. Utterly trash in every conceivable performance category. It's a shame. Worse news is that last year, close to my 19th B-day, I collected up my money from working in retail for 3.5 years and drove four hours away to Jacksonville and bought a 98 M3 sedan.
 
I couldn't even drive it home because it had to go into the shop. And then there were the battles with the insurance people, and then it was still in the shop. It ended up costing me, all told, about 15-16K in cash over the course of a year of ownership if you factor in the initial cost to buy. And I bought it from a mechanic who used it as his daily car! It had to be repainted too, so there went another $1,500. It got so bad that as the summer moved on, my parents forbade me to take my car to university with me because they were afraid it wouldn't make the 5-hour trip to Orlando in one piece. So now my mom drives it to work once or twice a week and she and my dad go out ont he town in it, and I drive it when I come home for visits. What do I tool around in down here in Orlando? The crappy 03 Grand Am. There's something to be said for what exactly is a "bad car," and for a kid who didn't want anything from a car but for it to be his, in his name, bought with his money and cool, the M3 has been a total dissapointment because you can't afford to drive the thing because it goes in the shop about every month and comes out with a $400 repair bill.
 
So, now, here we are in a world where 87 octane gas runs $3.50 and I've got my heart set on that 05 GTO that got away. What a curse. Will no manufacturer ever build a rear-drive car with a back seat that is affordable and sort of powerful that isn't a Mustang? Hopefully, because I doubt I'll be able to justify the Goat's crappy 21 mpg on a college budget.