The automotive affliction is one that often takes hold at a particularly young age, and as youth as a time of experimentation, we often make some mistakes in our journey to being the car people we are today. However, what if you could potentially, maybe, perhaps attempt to stop some of those mistakes before you even started? Yep, today’s Autopian Asks involves time travel, so fire up your Mr. Fusion and let’s get cracking.
Imagine that underneath the seat of your latest second-hand ride, amongst crumbs and other debris, you found a magic envelope capable of sending precisely one letter to yourself in the past. What would you tell young enthusiast you? Obviously, you could mess up history and indeed the future considerably depending on what you write, so exercise extra care, but a little anonymous message probably won’t hurt, right?
Admittedly, if I had to do this, I’d probably write just three words: “Trust the process.” Everything I’ve done and haven’t done has led up to this point, for better or for worse. Everything about where I’m at right now, from writing about cars to owning the cars I do, has been a massive moonshot, and perhaps out of an abundance of caution, I wouldn’t want to risk messing that up. Of course, the alternative is “find space for that RX-7,” but then I’d be tempting fate. Our own Mark Tucker, pictured in the lead photo, would send a message along the lines of “The rust isn’t worth fixing.”
So, what would you tell your younger enthusiast self? Would you drastically attempt to change history, assuming the Novikov self-consistency principle won’t save you, or would you do something else? As ever, share your thoughts in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Mark Tucker)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
How Would You Define An ‘Affordable’ New Car?
-
What Iconic Car Just Never Clicked For You?
-
How Low Do You Let Your Gas Gauge Needle Go? Autopian Asks
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
Buy that $500 buck 69 Road Runner from your friend. It will still be there in your driveway after your license is reinstated, dumb ass…
Second don’t let your Dad off the hook for selling your 69 Super Bee.
Buy the Ferrari, don’t be a wuss.
Start buying the best version of the cars you like now, because by the time that you are older and have more income, those cars will be out of your project car budget range.
When I was a teen and just got my first job as a technician at a Ford/VW/Infiniti dealer, all of these cars were affordable:
“Go ahead and buy it. You’ll figure it out.”
So many opportunities passed because I didn’t feel like I was ready for the time, the space, the challenges. Once I started buying, I started finding ways to make space and time for all of the project cars I’ve enjoyed, and I don’t regret any of them.
Don’t bother with that cold air intake and stop wasting money on that Restore can every oil change, just do a normal oil change and your 93 MR2 will hopefully not blow it’s engine like it did to me.
“Fixing cars isn’t really that much fun as a job, even if it’s just some oil changes. Think harder about where you want to go in life, and don’t get stuck with the quite bothersome debt the comes from being an out-of-state student in a specialty college program, even if it’s for the products you enjoy the most. You could just buy a car from that company to show the love you have.”
Don’t get me wrong: my job that I got through the college has been entertaining and I’ve proven myself in my position (I’d say at least), but I probably could’ve gotten here at some point in time if I had stayed in town for the 2 years after college. The debt is truly a killer, and the benefit really isn’t there.
Hang onto that project car. I’ve gotten rid of so many project cars over the years that if I had held onto and finished…
Go to Charleston and rescue your sister’s CRX.
Just about the time I was going to get my license back in the mid ’90s, my sister decided she wanted an SUV, and found herself a nice used Mazda Navajo. She had been driving around in a red CRX Si with a 5 speed that was in OK shape mechanically (she could have done a better job on routine maintenance, but it is a Honda, so probably would have been fine) and pretty good shape cosmetically. I was just too dumb at the time to connect the dots and realize that it would have been a fantastic car for me to kick around in. Instead, I got to share my other sister’s Plymouth Acclaim (until I wrecked it in the infamous Springfield, VA “Mixing Bowl” during a downpour).
I actually don’t know what happened to that CRX, but I kick myself every time I think about how easily it could have been mine.
Take auto shop instead of drama and debate. The later may have more girls but they are just drama queens.
When I was that age, my “forward thinking” school decided it needed to mix things up – so it forced the boys to take home ec, sewing, etc. and the girls to take shop.
So yeah, pretty much everyone was miserable. I did learn to make a pretty good omelet though.
Actually growing up my regular sitter grandmother took care of teaching cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting, card games, and canning preserves. My older brother who had grandfather as a sitter learned the more manly of pursuits. Our little brother never learned shit.
“Buy something more fun and stupid now, because it might never happen otherwise.”
Do not sell the 1978 CJ7
Do not sell the 1980 Dodge Aspen
Do not sell the 1979 F150
Do not sell the 1991 K1500
Do not sell the 1991 K5 blazer
Do not sell the 2004 Rumble Bee
Do not sell the 1987 YJ
Do not sell the 2001 TJ
Do not sell the 2007 Wrangler
Do not sell the 1991 Miata
Do not buy the 1989 Bronco 2
Do not buy the 1991 Toyota Pickup
Do not buy the 1999 Mustang
Do not buy the 2001 Taurus
Do not buy the 2007 FJ Cruiser
Do not buy the 1992 K3500
Do not buy the 2011 F150
Do NOT buy the 2007 FJ Cruiser?
There has to be a really good story to justify this advice.
Maybe he had to sit in the backseat during a road trip. That happened to me seven years ago and I can still remember how claustrophobic it felt.
Oh, I remember how badly the back seat sucked and I’m still questioning it at least a wee bit.
It wasn’t too shabby. I was already used to Wranglers and I had a few trackers as well. If I’m burning the gas, I don’t wanna hear the whining lol
I’ve held the keys to a toyota twice my life, and somehow they were both money pits.
Long story short, Back around 2012 I had driven and owned a LOT of Jeeps, but they were always 150,000 mile plus Jeeps that I picked up cheap. While being super reliable (I SWEAR!) I wanted to start traveling big distances to go off-roading. This was all inspired by overlanding starting to show up in off road magazines.
Common “knowledge” was (Still is) that if you want something that’s just not going to break, get a Toyota. So I decided I wanted the Toyota “Jeep”, the FJ.
Despite flawless maintenance records and absolutely zero red flags, the FJ ate it’s entire timing system JUST out of warranty. If I’d have stayed in the old TJ I traded for it, I probably could have made it out to Moab that summer. Because I listened to the internet, I lost any shot at affording even a quick beach vacation.
The next year, while planning our trip, I came home to a positive pregnancy test on the counter.
So if I’m REALLY reaching, that damn thing cost me my only shot at going to Off road Mecca for the next few years lol
So yeah, that was my last Toyota 🙁
Do not sell the 1980 Dodge Aspen
I have extremely fond memories of the 1977 Aspen Wagon with the mighty leaning tower of power since that’s the car I learned to drive on and I feel like it was a better car than history has remembered it. But, really?
Dude! Mine was just a Slant six automatic coupe. But somehow it was just a joy to drive. The engine sounded like a typewriter, but that thing would fire up every single time, from 100 degree days to -5 out, tap the key and it was running. The heater worked great. The seats were comfy. It handled like a dream. I think maybe I had $1500 in it, and drove it for about a year and (foolishly) traded it for a plain old Ford ranger.
Gas mileage doesn’t matter when you are 18. You literally have nowhere you need to be! Who cares if it breaks down, you can learn to fix it
“Buy that ’67 Corvette convertible at West Acton Sunoco they had for $500” in 1979.
And while you’re at it, buy something exotic out of those ads they used to have in the back of Road & Track, preferably a Porsche. Even more preferably a 908.
My father once did exactly that – in the early ’70s, he bought a ’50s Jaguar XK140 he saw for sale, sitting on a lift, at a gas station. I always hold that up in my mind as the way to be.
Look for a different van. That one is pretty, sure, but it will use the aesthetic to ruin you. See if you can find one mechanically better off.
Or: maybe don’t get into DJ’ing/band stuff and just get a used Camry instead?
IDIOTA! Don’t sell the race car. Sure, times are tough right now but in 3 years you’ll have a new job with $$$$ and you will regret selling it for the rest of your life. (circa 1990)
I was a weird kid in school, and getting a 1972 Super Beetle at 11 years old (I’m 30 now) didn’t help. I was damn near obsessed with it, old VWs are all I wanted to talk about. Naturally “Clark and his VW” made me an easy target to make fun of, and I took a lot of abuse on that front. It sounds stupid now, but when you don’t have a lot of friends and people make fun of you for one thing you really care about, something you’d wanted your whole life…it gets to you. (Yes, I’d wanted a Beetle since I was about four and saw the Herbie movies).
Anyway, what would I say to my middle/high school self? Fuck everyone who doesn’t like it. They don’t matter. You’ll forget who most of them are not long after graduating high school. By the time I was 18 most of my classmates suddenly thought it was cool, when I was in college everyone wanted to see the Beetle and go for a ride. As an adult out of school and on my own, all I get are compliments, smiles, and stories about VWs people had when they were younger. Getting that car, corny as it sounds, was one of the most important moments of my life. Just knowing that one day people would find it interesting instead of something to be shitty about, would have helped me weather it all a bit better. Not like other people’s opinions matter in general, but it’s hard to think that way when you’re 12.
I love how at this point, Beetles are perhaps the ultimate I know cars signal. Few people who own one are having a shop do the work all the time, and it’s not like anyone is taking them to a dealer (the very idea of someone trying to do that makes me smile. “No, I don’t mean the 2011…I mean a Beetle…”).
To own one conveys immediate gearhead street cred with everyone. Can’t say that about, say, a new Lamborghini.
What’s funny is I think I actually met the exception to this rule, probably 14 years ago. Talked to an older guy at a gas station who had a VW Thing which was his only car. It wasn’t a showpiece by any means. I mentioned how easy they were to work on and he told me he had no idea how to work on it, and that he took it to the one shop in the area that still specializes in air-cooled VWs. I still think about that guy, because I can’t imagine daily driving an old car and not knowing how to fix it. But more power to him!
Other than that one guy, you are absolutely correct. If you see someone driving an old VW, chances are they know their way around a car.
I had a friend, a retired cop who even a few years ago, owned an ’80s Mazda 626. It even had antique plates on it. I used to work on it for him b/c otherwise, he’d take it to a shop. I don’t think he knew anything about it.
His MO was being cheap, so things worked out great all around.
Buy a cheeeaaaap first car!
And cars become less fun past about 100hp/1000lbs
Dear 24 year old Andrea in November 2012,
You’ve wanted a Fiat 500 for about a year now and congratulations, you got one! What seems like a fun and convenient car for now is actually going to change your life. You have just embarked on the journey towards becoming a car person. You’ll love this car, but you’ll want more so in a couple years, you’ll get a 500 Abarth. You’ll learn stick to get it. You will learn to maintain it and buy the tools to do so. You will meet so many people who will help you along the way, some of them will become your closest friends; people you will consider family.
You don’t know what it is, but in about 9 years you will adopt a Lancia. Really, it will find and adopt you. By then you will have stopped being afraid of walking into a shop. A shop will see your passion and adopt you, teach you, and give you more than you can ever repay. You’ll end up working in a shop across the street, helping others to feel less scared when they walk in.
In short, the choice you’ve made will give you a new life you could have never dreamed of just a year or two previous. You will dream every day of finding new ways to tie yourself to these cars and push yourself farther down this path. Holy shit girl, you are so in for the most incredible life. Sometimes painful and difficult, but never boring. Now go out there and know that you are blessed by Saint Gianni Agnelli of Turin.
Sincerely,
2024 Andrea
Andrea this is bloody fantastic.
Certainly deserving of COTD!
Calm down. You will eventually have a hot 2 door hatchback, and a hot wife that enjoys driving said hot 2 door hatchback.
You are and will forever be too poor to really be enthusiastic about cars.
Buy the best most reliable transportation appliance you can, so it can get you to places and events where you can extract more enjoyment with whatever is rolling around in the perpetually too thin bank roll
Buy once, cry once. Don’t get cheap parts or the cheapest desired project car for sale. Better to pay more for a non-wrecked, rust-free car than think you’ll be able to fix it on a budget.
I couldn’t disagree more. My daily is a free f150. My other car was $800 and I rebuilt the motor with the cheapest parts on Rockauto. My mom’s daily was about $1200.
My advice would be, buy the crappy car. Jump into the deep end mechanically, it’s the best way to learn. You don’t need to spend much money to have fun.
I feel like I have a Rockauto magnet on my fridge that has your car on it…
After my drive tonight, I’ve gone 87 miles on that motor, which is my first engine build. I’m pretty proud of that.
I keep thinking that I should see if I can submit that car to be on a Rockauto magnet because it is most definitely Built with RockAuto Parts.
Unlike the ones with say a Ferrari, where you know the guy just bought some wiper blades and that’s it.
Three things. Not particularly in this order.
As I approach age 60… if I could address my younger self, I would say that “car enthusiasm” just isn’t worth it. “Hey, younger Eggsalad… you’ll waste a lot of money trying to buy interesting cars that you can afford, because you’ll forever be trying to keep them running. Take a 4-year loan on a Corolla, pay it off, drive it for another 6-8 years, repeat.”
I’m not approaching 60, but I’m not far behind. My advice is the exact opposite. Buy that basket case and keep it running. You will learn skills that they will never teach you in college. I have passed the skills I learned on to my daughters, who hated working on stuff when they were 10 year old but who now tell me how valuable those skills are in the workplace.
I get the opportunity to hire engineers and I always hone in on their mechanical aptitude. I’ve seen far too many engineering students who have a 3.9 GPA, but can’t tell the difference between a ratchet driver and a hole in the ground. If someone with a 3.0 GPA tells me that they worked on cars growing up, I’ll hire them over the same student with better academic credentials so fast it will make your head spin.
That doesn’t even count the lifetime of memories I will have driving my 79 Scirocco instead of a Corolla
All are really good, but #2 very much speaks to me.
Part of what got me into wrenching was a gut feeling, first small but then growing, that I didn’t really know my car.
Sure, I drove her, paid others to maintain her, like many people, but I began to feel I didn’t really understand much about her in a visceral, hands-on way, and wasn’t making what seemed to be a meaningful connection, beyond simple ownership.
So I took the plunge and enrolled in night school. It was fantastic, and I proved to myself that my hunch was right – I had been previously missing out on so much. So I wish I’d done it when I was younger (and am always jealous of those who grew up with it), but I’m nonetheless glad I did, eventually.
Reminds me of the DIY / right to repair idea…
“If you can’t take it apart and put it back together yourself, you don’t really own it…”
Kind of like seeing a beautifully maintained / restored or custom car. It’s different when said car was maintained / restored or customized the owner themselves vs. being thr guy/gal writing checks/CC/vendors.
And yes Both certainly can still be auto enthusiasts
Visiting relatives, there’s a neighbor who owns a Ferrari 599 GTB. It’s amazing to behold, and represents a world of automobilia so far from my own. I almost drool just looking at it when their garage door is open…I can’t imagine having a car like that to simply jump in and go.
But…at the same time, for the owner, it’s this sort of beautiful black box. They don’t work on it, or seem to know much about it except driving it. Any problems are a drive to the shop and/or a flatbed tow away from solved.
To each their own, but it always strikes me a little bit as less intimate, and more like renting than owning.
100%
Sell the kidney and buy that immaculate ’69 Fiat 1500 with the Nardi steering wheel. You still have another kidney, but you won’t find that Fiat anymore.
Also, with only one kidney you will learn how to lead a much healthier life.
“So, what would you tell your younger enthusiast self?”
Keep doing what you’re doing by buying cheap manual cars… and don’t get married. Or if you do decide to get married, for the love of god, only marry a woman who has a good career and makes at least close to what you earn.
Oh and load up on Network Solutions, Amazon, Apple and Tesla shares… dump all your spare money into them.
This. When incomes are off balance, it doesn’t give your partner a lot of incentive to try to make things work.
It depends on the two people. My wife ALWAYS made about 10 times what I would on average. In a good relationship money is only a tool.
I was a lucky bastard. YMMV.