That’s a Pretty Baby. 

That’s a beautiful car and really makes me wish I was in the market for such a classic. I wouldn’t be doing it any favors, though, since I live in the Northeast. Hope it goes to a good home!

I had just finished replacing the rear struts in my Mazda MX-6 LS, and already took it for a shakedown run. I thought it was all right when I drove it, but I wanted someone else to give me an unbiased opinion. My father was the only other person around who could drive a manual, so I asked him. He more-than-happily…

The happiest I ever saw him was when he was wrenching on something for fun.

Several great Dad moments... he taught me how to drive a stick in our 1974 VW when I was 12. His patience was phenomenal!

Growing up, we were lower-middle-income, working class family (of 7 + whatever neighborhood children we were informally fostering at the time so usually between 7-10 people).

One day when I was 15, my Dad said “Let’s go for a ride”. We got into his 1979 Pontiac Grand LeMans, silver, with a red cloth interior, company car. He offers me a stick of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum (which the interior of the car smelled like), throws in the 8-track of Supertramp-Breakfast in America, and we were off.…

One of my favorite car memories with my dad was him teaching me to drive a stick. I turned 16 in 1989 and had some money saved up from my paper route and washing dished in a restaurant. I saw an ad in the local paper for a ‘65 Valiant at a dealership in the next town for pretty much the same amount of money I had. Dad…

You also remind me of my dad taking me to the Indy 500 when I was 15, so that would have been in 1989. One of my older brothers had won tickets in a contest and gave them to me, and dad agreed to take me. We spent the night before the race a few miles from the track at the house of one of my brother’s former college…

Dad and I were signed up for Bob Bondurant’s School of High Performance Driving out at Sears Point in California. We had to drive from Kansas City to California, and because of my dads work schedule we had to do it in a shortended time frame. The plan was to take off after dinner, drive all night through Kansas and…

I was 15 years old. I had just taken a job at a Baskin Robbins in a mall food court and after just a couple of weeks on the job, I was fired - and in the worst possible way. No warnings, no major indicators about my performance, instead the boss intercepted me when I showed up for my shift and let me know before the…

When I was very young (c.1968) my father owned a 1955 Mercury Montclair convertible.

My father was a wonderful father to my brother and myself. He taught us how to build model planes and trains and how to make bows and arrows. He was a race enthusiast along with my mother. They were both geniuses and would get themselves into difficulties on occasion with money and property. Being a city boy, he was…

My father was the Automotive Advertising person at the local paper. He was often provided a demo car for up to a week, which included an early Mustang convertible, a Red over white 60's model C1 Corvette, a 68 GTO and a 68 440 Charger R/T. Of course, the most fun were the British stuff like an Austin Healey 3000 with…

The blizzard of 79. I delivered the Washington Post at the time. My dad had a Ford Maverick (like the one Jalopnik posted a pic of in the bad interior slide show) and he tried to help me deliver. We went 200 yards and we got stuck. Next day I not only had to help dig his car out of a drift, but still had to deliver…

My Dad was a dealership owner and didn’t do a ton or work on cars himself. Except for once, we had a 1939 Plymouth truck that had belonged to his Dad for a time. My dad decided we should see if we can get it to run, he unhooked the gas tank and prepared himself with a small can full of gas that he could dump straight…

I think the most vivid memories I have were when my dad would let me shift gears while he was driving. I was between 4-10 years old. He was a manual guy and always had one probably until his late 50's.

When I first got behind the wheel with him in his Saab 9-5 and drove around Big Bend National Park... aged 13. 

it is hard to celebrate this car knowing that in 2014 a honda fit base price eas 15k. The mitsubishi Mirage is the largest reminder to the American people that shrinkflation is a real thing.   

Never owned one, but I’ve been tempted by the frequency with which they’re touted. In the past I’ve been swayed by the power in the Accord, but would love to get one for my daughter in a couple years.