For the TL;DR crowd sorry no gaming this time, check back Thursday.

Instead this is more my 'auto' biography. I'll skip the piece of shit 1985 Duster (a.k.a.: a K-car) I started with and go on to the good stuff!

What? You don't see these on the road anymore? That's because they're all right where they belong: rotting in a junkyard. This one wasn't mine, but it looks the same, colors and all. 

18', bumper to bumper. I still miss this cast iron beast.

For close to 20 years I've driven 2WD Dodge Ram pickups (I couldn't afford the insurance rates of 4x4's at a young age). The first an '89 long bed dubbed the USS Nimitz due to it's enormous turn radius (I was a master of the 88-point turn!), suffered thru most of my teenage and early twenties fender-benders. Did you know that the front bumper cost $225? I know that as I smashed 4 of them! This poor machine also suffered (seemingly without any ill effect) through my complete lack of understanding in terms of vehicle maintenance:

'Huh, the dipstick is bone dry...well I'll drive it to the auto parts store, put a quart in and we're good! I'll get the oil changed in the next week or two, maybe...'

(True story.)

When talking with old friends, some are still surprised to find I no longer have this truck.

Luckily for my 2nd Ram, I had grown up, and dramatically improved behind the wheel meaning it suffered no accidents in the 15 years I drove it! Buying it with approx. 27k miles on it and I sold it at about the quarter million mile mark to my buddy Rob, after a hailstorm 'totaled' it according to my insurance company. Rob put another 20k miles on it before the frame rusted out. He junked it, but the salvage yard apparently welded the frame as I later passed this venerable beast on the road after it's supposed demise... Rams are great vehicles in all respects aside from gas mileage but hell, aside from the latest engines (which tend to reside in $40-50k+ trucks), that's just the norm.

AWD IS AWESOME! (as is my Wolfy!)

However the past few years I've been riding around in a Chrysler Pacifica. Whilst technically its an SUV I've always thought of it as a station wagon. Again, its a great vehicle especially as I'm 6'6" tall, and FOUR people my size can comfortably ride in it at the same time and still have plenty of room for stuff. It will seat up to six (no room for stuff) though two need to be 'little people'. That said, I've had as many as 7 adults crammed into it (must've been murder way back in that third row seat...).

ugh...this is as uncomfortable to drive as that little K-car was!

Recently however, I've been driving my beloved Wolfy's '99 Ford Escort sedan. Just to recap incase you forgot, I'm 6'6"...in an Escort. Due to health issues, getting into and out of that little car became painful to the point of tear inducing to her on a daily basis. Tired of that I insisted in swopping vehicles aaaaaand guess how that went? Yup, only a few days later my free time was taken up searching KBB.com. autotrader.com (which isn't nearly as helpful as it's TV commercials would have you believe), and cargurus.com.

That last one I'd never heard of, but Wolfy found a few good prospects on it and in fact I bought one, picking it up this past Saturday morning, ta dah! my new 2005 Ram:

My new ride!

Its a 4x4, quad cab and only has 89.5k miles! Using my green Ram as the standard, I'm expecting it to last to the 250k mile mark as well. Whilst there will be few if any frivolous purchases until we adjust to the new payment (and get thru our upcoming wedding), one thing I do need to get for the truck is a set of running boards so my Wolfy won't need a step stool to get up into it, lol.