To me, the most memorable vehicle my family has owned was a white Ford Econoline van. It was a twelve passenger “extended”–which meant that it was the size of a 15 passenger vehicle but with only enough seats for 12 passengers.
Nebraska student drivers have an option of taking driver’s ed or of logging 50 hours of supervised driving in a variety of settings prior to getting their driver’s license. I logged most of my hours in our Ford van, driving it to church and back and back and forth from Lincoln to my grandparents’ farm in northeastern Nebraska.
So I’ve always sort of identified my parents as Ford folk.
Then, one day my brother and I got to talking. He said, “You know, the folks are pretty much GM people, aren’t they?”
I was aghast. Seriously?
Timothy began to count up the cars.
Currently, they own a Chevy Suburban, a Buick, and a Chevy Lumina.
Before that, they owned several Chevy Celebrity wagons (was it two or three?). Mom’s previous car, “The Silver Mullet”, was another GM granny car. And the precursor to the white Ford van was a red conversion van, undoubtedly GM as well. Those are the only cars Timothy remembers–and I wasn’t paying attention to makes and models of their forerunners.
Mom enlightened me in a later conversation. Turns out the second most memorable car of my childhood was also a Ford. It was a two ton all-steel Green Station wagon–a hulking behemoth we named the “Zucchini Car”. I think that might have been the car we ran into a light pole with–the light pole came down but the car didn’t have a scratch. The “Zucchini car” finally met its end when we were driving to church and saw smoke rising from the hood. We rolled into a gas station and piled out of the car while Dad made tracks inside for a fire extinguisher. We ended up walking the rest of the way to church.
So my folks really weren’t (and aren’t) brand loyal at all. They bought what was economically feasible, what could fit our family. Given the tiny tendencies of foreign cars, it’s not unsurprising that they have generally owned American-made vehicles.
I’m not sure if any of us kids have developed any brand loyalties–but it’s clear that we’ve tended towards foreign cars.
My first car was a Chevy, but I’ve since owned a Honda and a Subaru.
Now, of the four kids who own cars, only one is domestic:
I guess we’re not exactly what you could call Auto Loyalists.
I drive a Ford Tempo right now. I got it from my nana when she passed away. I didn’t know what it was for years, but after a coworker asked me and I admitted I didn’t know what kind of car I had he went outside to look and figured it out for me haha.
LOL. Interesting post. I’ve only owned two cars – a Hyundai Accent (was totaled) and a Honda Civic (my current car). Our next car will probably not be a Honda as we don’t like the newer models, but we’ll shop around. No loyalism around here! ;)