Things I'm glad I don't have anymore

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Scrambled Brains

The 72 Vega, the 92 Dodge Caravan, the 95 Buick Park Avenue, both ex wives, the Maytag I had for I week, in 1990 that had fast stroke agitation, The expensive stainless Revereware cookwear I bought in 1990 that was crap and kept one month, any cookwear with anondized exterior, self loathing and worry.
Kelly
 
Darn, I almost forgot:
I'm also glad I no longer have:

Carpeted floors and the big cumbersome machine needed to keep them clean

a job that requires me to work around high levels of radio frequency radiation

a heat pump furnace

an ISE "Badger" disposer

an unvented range hood

a 3500 sq. ft. home

The plastic bed sheet I needed till I was in high school. (Blush, Blush!) I know, I know: TMI
 
...not that Corvair

I wish I had a Corvair that spent its life out west someplace. My Corvair had lived in Michigan, and was rusted in some pretty curious places. I can't remember exactly what this looks like, but there were holes completely through the metal right beneath the windshield, and you got wet feet if you drove in the rain. The heater operating cables had rusted and fused, so no heat/defrost control except for manually setting it all on or all off. Engine leaked oil so that heating air was accompanied by oil mist which deposited itself on interior glass. I eventually got annoyed enough to install a manual choke cable to operate one of the heat control doors. (no money for dealer items) It was too short, and came out from under the back seat. I had to perform some pretty serious contortions to reach it while seated in the drivers position. And on, and on. I think the Corvair definitely falls into the category of Poorly Executed Good Idea.
 
The one thing I'm glad I don't have anymore is COCKROACHES!

My old apartment had them, the people downstairs brought them in and it was a nightmare. I managed to move all my crap and not bring even one with me by the use of Boric Acid.

Be careful when you drag that classic appliance home. Open it up outside and clean it out, you never know what's inside waiting to infest your home.

All of my cars have been good, the Ramblers, the Checker, the Ford, even the rusty Nova that I inherited. I don't buy new/modern cars appliances so maybe that's why I've been fortunate.

Ken D.
 
Oh gosh...

I don't miss:

The Underwood Electronic typewriter that broke twice in two years - the last time during a term paper. I did what I was SUPPOSED to do. I visited the local typewriter dealer and bought a different brand of typewriter from them... which works to this day.

The 1976 Ford Granada which I nicknamed the "GRENADE". Broke way too much. I blame the dealer.

The White-Westinghouse electric knife with "EJECTOR-BLADES". It would randomly eject blades during use.
Don't know what I was thinking when I bought that...
I DID have a Hamilton Beach electric knife. While walking through the basement I TRIPPED. The electric knife was flung to the cement floor - breaking the housing.
Afterward I bought another nearly identical Hamilton Beach electric knife. While walking into the garage after buying it, I TRIPPED. The new electric knife vaulted itself out of the bag, through the air and onto the cement floor - breaking the housing.
Realizing that due to some bizarre neurologic problem I tend to trip with Hamilton Beach electric knives I held off from buying another. Several weeks ago at an estate sale I found an unused 1960's General Electric knife. Having confidence in General Electric I bought the thing. I have suffered no stability issues nor have I turned myself into an amputee - which is a good thing.

I DON'T miss my Munsingwear Kangaroo-pouch men's briefs. No man with functioning genitalia would have designed such a thing. The inability to void reached such a frustration level with me that at work I tore the front of them open with my bare hands. YES! my BARE HANDS!
This occurred in a stall. When wearing Munsingear briefs I must check myself into a stall as working those briefs is an arduous task. I sure they heard me swear.
The inventor of XANAX must have worn Munsingwear briefs.
 
What I don't miss

Ford F-150 with the V6...so slow you could never attempt to pass anyone!

1996 plastic GE set. Washer lasted only 2 years.

Eureka Bravo upright and Oreck XL compact canister. Oreck XL9100 upright wasn't bad, though.

Maytag A-50 twinnies. The two that I had were both LEMONS!

BOL "Hotpernt" dishwasher.
 
These are a few of my hated things - glad they are gone!

1. My 1986 Ford EXP - ah the foolishness of youth
2. My ex Satan I mean Michael.
3. My townhouse - bad mamories there

Joe
jamman_98
 
cool thread...

Here are some things that I don't miss...

1. 1996 Saturn SL1...bad ventilation unit, bad distributor, brakes that went to the floor (yes that was fun!), computer that malfunctioned, inept service, an engine that was overhauled...all of this in under 12,000 miles of me driving it brand new off of the showroom floor! (They bought it back...see #2)

2. 1998 Malibu...unpainted rear door, badly scratched deck lid, leaked something strange, transmission lines that were reversed. I sold it and bought a 1970 Buick Skylark with 20,000 miles...that is a car I wish I KEPT!

3. 2003 Olds Alero...an automatic transmission that never shifted out of 1st gear on occasion (a complete mystery!), no defroster (in OH no less in January!), bad rotors, spongy brakes, stripped lug nuts, lost keys at the dealer after being towed, ventilation system went and was replaced...then bam totaled on May 19, 2006! I walked away unharmed and into the nearest Honda dealer...I have seen the error of my ways...out of the fires of Hell (GM) and into the cradle of a well built car (anything made by Honda or Toyota).

4. My Hoover bagless vacuum circa 2000...I have known tree stump removal equiptment that was less noisy and actually worked as they were supposed to. That was one big POS for sure!

5. 1993 maytag (Craptag) dishwasher...I think that 4 monkeys working down by the muddy river using only their opposable thumbs and a soiled rag could clean dishes better and with less fuss! The trash man got that one...I did not feel sorry for its squeaky, drippy, useless carcass one bit.

Those are my top five anyway...I can think of a lot of things I wish I had kept. Thanks for this thread I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts.

--Tom
 
Ex-Corvair owner here also

I had a '64 Corvari Monza coupe for all of one month back in 1970. I bought it for $300, and sold it for $280. I considered it a good deal.

The thing was downright scary. It wandered all over the road in a cross-wind. I wound up putting the biggest boulder I could lift in the front trunk; that helped a little.

Once it blew a rear tire going under an over-pass on a two-lane highway. It was like a short but narrow tunnel. A semi was coming in the opposite direction. I was sure the Corvair was going to do a 180, but luckily I just stayed off the gas and let it slow down on its own, and made it out safely.

Of course, now that I know how to work on cars, I probably could have fixed the front end and rebuilt the motor (it had low compression in one cylinder). Maybe even done something to stabilize the rear suspension. But it really was a scary car to drive, as it was.

Mor recently, I was very happy to part with a '97 Frigidaire MOL dishwahser. What a piece of junk.

I do have a lot of other stuff that I'd probably be thrilled to part with, but being part pack-rat has resulted in an over-accumulation. I did just recently part with a couple of 30" drop-in gas ranges, was glad to see them go - mainly becuase they were taking up storage space.

I was also glad to part with a 70's Harvest Gold GE side-by-side fridge that came with the house. It worked ok, and I was able to fix the ice-maker (twice), but it guzzled electricity (about 1700 kWH/yr). The KA that replaced it uses under 700 kWH/yr.
 
By comparison of many folks here I have been heaven blessed. I can't really think of anything in my life in which I've endured serial unreliability.

I smile and remember though reading about some of these cars. I swear, was there a decent car ANYwhere between 1980 and 1990? That had to have been the worst decade ever for the butt-ugliest, most unreliable cars in history, though reading above nothing much has changed at GM since. '76 or '77 is probably the last product they had that I would have wanted any part of. Fortunately I skipped, car-wise, from '74, to '79, to '92, never owned an '80s car, and I think my life is the better for it! LOL

I was really surprised to ready Cybrvanr's post about the Prelude. Honda largely had been one of the few halfway decent cars you could get in that time period, homely as (I thought) they were back then.
 
I had a lamentable '82 Chevy Cavalier. By '86, when it had a mere 90,000 miles on it, I had brake rotors replaced twice, two exhaust systems, a wiring fire and a CHECK ENGINE light that gave the dealership so many crossed messages they finally just disconnected it. The thing was burning a ton of oil. It was a terrible and terribly unreliable little beast.

The '86 Camaro Z-28 that replaced it was much better. Much better.
 
I have been lucky

I've never had an extremely bad appliance, and when I stil drove, I never had an extremely bad car, even the 1978 Plymouth Volare.

The one thing I really do not miss is my vir***ity.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Car - my first ever brand new car. (and the only one so far...)
A 1986 Holden Gemini, I think it was sold in USA badged as a Chevy Spectrum. I lived over an hour drive from work, working six days a week, my old 1971 Morris was clapped out so I decided I needed a brand new car to get me reliably to work...Constant trouble with gearshift jamming in gear or unable to select any gear, dealer kept changing the gear oil to different spec with little improvement, at one stage they said gear syncros hadn't worn in and I should change gears without using the clutch for a while...Also it ate brake pads, leaked water into the boot (trunk), it hiccupped and farted when driving slowly (86 was the first year of unleaded in AU and the manufacturers couldn't get the antipollution gear sorted)suspension at the rear bobbed constantly. On the way to work on the busiest day of the year - Christmas Eve breakfasts and I was rostered to cook - the engine seized up at 6.30 am on the freeway. It had to be towed - cam belt had broken, car was serviced just a few weeks before, I had asked if the belt needed to be replaced, dealer said, "these cars have longlife cambelts, they last the life of the engine." true enough, when the belt broke the engine was stuffed. I was not popular at work that day...by the time I got to work the excitement was over. Very glad to see the back of that car.
Anothe car I was glad to see go was actually totally reliable - a 1986 Toyota Corona wagon. It was vile to drive, sluggish, awful handling, I took it to suspension specialists everywhere to get the wandering steering fixed, they said "yes they are bad but they are just like that". Also worlds most uncomfortable seats. At 250,000 km I thought it was getting too old, I bought another car and sold the Toyota. My next door neighbour bought it, she still has it, it has now done 490,000 km and 500,000 km is coming soon - the car had a new clutch but the engine and gearbox have never been touched, still runs as reliably and horribly as ever. My neighbour still loves it, although it is getting scruffy it is the first reliable car she has ever owned...and she is 50.

chris.
 
I didn't actually own it, but I don't miss it anyway

I had an older friend that I used to do housework for. This guy was well-off, but he was SO CHEAP that everything he had was bottom-of-the-line.

Among the lowlights were:

* A nasty Galaxy (or was it Hotpoint?) Washer/dryer set that left everything linty and gray, and all the controls were broken and mended with duct tape.

* Matching stove, dishwasher, and side-by-side fridge, all from Grants (the only time I've ever seen appliances branded by Grants) all in the most ugly shade of yellow. The oven on the stove was wildly erratc, and didn't even have a clock, and half the burners were dead. The fridge was OK, but the doors sagged, and the dishwasher just redistributed the dirt.

I complained and nagged and b*****d about those appliances but since he didn't cook he didn't care. I finally got him to pry open his wallet wide enough to replace them, and he was amazed at how clean his clothes suddenly were and how he could have both ice cream AND ice! It was quite a revelation to him.

Of course, since he was SO CHEAP they were all that ugly bisque color that he got on clearence from Sears, but at least it all worked.
 
A long commute

During the 90's and into the 80s' I had the commute from hell - the Nimitz from the East Bay into Silicon Valley. Some Friday nights I just gave up on trying to get home in any reasonable amoutn of time. I'd work late, or go shopping or something down there. If I tried to get home on time, it would usually turn a 30 mile distance into a 2 hour ordeal.

Then I got laid off, and after a couple of other jobs I went back to school and retrained as a machinist. Now I have a job that I could walk to, although I usually drive the 2 miles to and from the shop. I get 30 minutes for lunch but I can still make it home and back (thanks to microwave).

It's funny, though, sometimes when I get home in mid-afternoon, I get the odd feeling that something was missing from my day - the gridlock on the freeway. Usually I take a nap to shake that feeling off ;-). Or go for a stroll in the back yard or sit by the fish pond. All infinitely more enjoyable than fighting traffic.
 
My 1980 9HUGE DIAL) D&M Kenmore--the same series Sears got in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, saying you didn't have to pre-rinse and things would come clean. Bolderdash!! My 1977 Forest Green AMC Pacer My 1984 Hotpoint PotWasher that came with the house.
 
An NEC VCR I used to have-when it died-it and I went to the shooting range-and then-BLAM!that was the end of the NEC-Other shooters liked to shoot at it too!the last time I saw its remains only a twisted headwheel remained.I tried several of my guns on it-was a HORRIBLE machine-the worst VCR on the planet-no wonder it was on sale the day I bought it-It lasted two years-Another friend who used the same range had one-his got the "Boom of Doom" treatment too-His 12Ga shotgun worked wonders on his."one shot" head alignment?
 
Lets see:

01 A Beko washing machine (got free from a friend, totally crap. The weight was loose and couldnt be fastened. It totally broke after a few washes, destroying the plastic tub)

02 A old cd-player (from 1984) that doesnt play the tracks in order, if it played at all. It could start at track 01 and then jump to 06 in the middle of the melody.

03 An old dishwasher (Atlas) that stood in the kitchen of my new apartment. I just knew i should have taken my Mielé dishwasher with me when i moved. Damn. Anyway, that Atlas dishwasher did everything then clean the dishes so out it went pretty fast.

04 An Sony vinyl record player that only played when it wanted. Otherwise it just stood there doing nothing. And it destroyed 2 records for me.
 

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