The Negotiator

Since I'm relatively new to this site I figured I'd give you a glimpse of who I am through history and pictures of the cars I've owned from the past to present.

Enjoy!


Before I had a drivers license or a digital camera I owned:

1965 Ford Fairlane 500 - White with Blue interior 64k miles

This was a high school project car that I lost some key components to and later realized finding replacement parts was pretty much impossible to find. I ended up selling it for $100 I know.

1980 Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Black on Black 350SBC

Lol this was my grandmothers car that she had given me when I was either 14 or 15. I always loved that car. It looked so mean all black and the 350 V8 was super bonerific when I was a kid.

Sadly my mother made me sell it before I got my license because she didn't think it was safe for a first car


So... ironically enough through the magic of me being a natural salesman I convinced my parents that my very first "real" car was not only safe but completely practical...

1988 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 - Red on Red

I know red interior is fugly, but owning a 5.0 as a sophmore in high school was definitely fun. My first love...

Three days after buying the car I crashed it through the chain link fence of a baseball field ending right on homeplate. I had to get the whole car re-painted there was deep scratches all over the car and all the way down to bare metal.

Pics after the re-paint:




1996 Oldsmobile Aurora - Black on Black leather

I bought this car Junior year in high school because I was unable to drive the Mustang all year round.

The car featured a 4.0 Northstar V8 which was a smaller version of the Northstar found in Cadillac Deville's of the time. When she wasn't mis-firing (which wasn't often lol) she moved out pretty well.

Even though the car was a $2500 American Boat with 120k on it, it introduced me to the "luxury car" and how oh so different it was from a sports car.

As completely unreliable as it was I loved this car. We used to cram people in this thing and go from house party to house party (ahhh the good old days)





At this point I was graduating high school and realized the Mustang had seen better days at this point and the Aurora was held together with nothing more than hopes and dreams and some duct tape.

So me being the evil genius but mostly stupid person that I am I decided that it would be a great idea to take my college fund (savings bonds and CD's and whatnot) and buy a good reliable car and forgo traditional college and go to a cheap community college.

Henceforth I buy "Larry"

2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE 4x4 - Black on Black leather

I bought Larry with 45k miles on it and man was it gorgeous. I loved everything about this truck except for the gas mileage. 10mpg got old very quick.

This truck had all the toys, leather, heated seats, sunroof, shift on the fly 4wheel drive, 3.5 VQ engine. Every option except navigation.

I owned this truck longer than I owned any vehicle so far. I bought it when I graduated high school in 2004 and just traded it in for my TL in September of 2009.

At the time of trade in mileage was 143k

Nothing ever went wrong with it, ever! The most reliable car I've ever owned hands down. However, I went through 2 rear-ends because I never learned my lesson that Pathfinders weren't made to do burnouts. Thank you extended warranty!







1994 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 - Black on Black leather

I bought this car off of a friend on mine because I still had an itch for another sports car. Now that I had the Pathfinder as a daily driver what better time to get something impractical again!

I bought this car as a semi-project it just needed some finishing to get it going again as the motor was just rebuilt because of too much NOS and too much boost from a pro-charger. The crank gave out.

The stats on the car were impressive and I couldn't wait to drive her!

She was a six-speed car
Bored .30 over so it was a 355ci
Custom Heads
It had a huge cam in it, I don't remember the specs
Racing Clutch
4.10 gears
Long Tube Headers
True Dual exhaust with flowmaster mufflers

The list goes on and on...

So my friends and I finished the re-build and...... It didn't start. In fact we tore down the motor and rebuilt it 3 more times and it never started, ever.

The last time I will ever buy a Chevy.





1988 Ford Mustang LX 5.0 - Silver on Grey

So needless to say my thirst wasn't quenched with the Camaro so I went back to Ford.

I bought this rat as a winter project and my goal was a budget build so I could flip it at the end of the summer and make some extra cash.

This time it worked!

I bought this car with an automatic in it and my friends an I converted her to a 5-speed.

She had some decent parts in her but really nothing worth mentioning.

Pic of how it looked when I bought it:



And the finished budget build "Project Silver Slug"




2002 Ford Mustang GT - Red with Black Leather

"Sally"

After I sold the silver slug I wanted another Mustang. This time something more modern and reliable.

I found this car on Autotrader in NH and it was exactly what I was looking for!

I bought her with 34k miles.

This car really was my baby, I regret selling her more than I can describe

She had all the right go fast parts, and she was drop dead sexy.

5-speed
Centerforce Stage 2 Clutch
3.90 Gears
K&N Cold Air Intake
MAC Off Road H-Pipe
Flowmaster cat-back exhaust
Diablo Predator Hand Held Tuner
Ford Racing Lowering Springs
Custom Short Throw Shifter

I'm sure there is more but I'm getting tired... lol.

I took her to the track and she didn't do so bad for a relatively stock car (no major motor work)

She ran a 13.8 at 104 mph

I still had the Pathfinder and at this point it was paid off so the payment on this car didn't hurt. But the insurance did...













2006 Acura TL - Anthracite Metallic with Quartz Interior

So finally this brings me to my latest romance.

I ended up selling my 2002 Mustang in August 2009 to free up some cash for a new car and I traded in my Pathfinder for the TL.

I bought this car with 10k miles. It took me a good year of looking to find this exact car, the local Acura dealership hates me I'm sure!

She has all the goodies as expected and it is the Tech Package with Navigation.

I ended up not buying it at an Acura Dealer, but rather another local dealer because it was simply a deal I couldn't pass up.

I bought the extended warranty through Acura so I'm covered for another 8 years or 100k miles. That should last me a while









Well that's it!

For all of you who read this until the end, let me be the first to congratulate you!

Thank you for letting me share this with all of you!

AnthraciteAspec

iTrader: (6)

Too bad you never got the Camaro running it would have blown the doors off your GT

haha sorry former Camaro owner here

anyways nice list of cars

The Negotiator

Here's some Bonus Content!!

A video of the Pathfinder doing what it wasn't made to do:



The 2002 Mustang at the track - the 13.8 run. This was actually my very first time ever at a track, and this was my first pass ever. It was also my best time of the day, go figure. Don't mind my friends, they're assholes



And here's a little fun the day I sold the mustang, the last burnout

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Quite a list of cars!

The Negotiator

Lies Lies all Lies!!!

Lol, your right it would have.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

Awesome post man! I enjoyed reading through each story.

It's amazing that you bought your TL with only 10k miles. Hopefully it will last much longer for you

dwb993

iTrader: (13)

Another AM brutha!
Nice rides--cool story. Thanks.

Kro

great writeup (and title). your passion for readability may rival your passion for automobiles. its cool for me to see someone like you end up with a TL when i'm such a different story. i've only owned 3 cars my whole life and bought my TL completely spur of the moment on the way home from my grandma's house one night. wasn't even looking for a car at the time and did no research whatsoever. just randomly stopped at an Ac dealer, test drove it, loved it, bought it. this is one impulse buy i have never regretted tho.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Nice set of rides-I noticed the Mustang theme that runs somewhat consistent through your post.

Phambam12

big change from mustang to acura.

The Negotiator

Sorry I've been MIA from this site for a while, work has been kicking my ass.

Thanks man! It really is interesting how so many different people can take so many different paths and end up at the same place. I guess one things to be said, we all have great taste!


Your absolutely right! The itch certainly hasn't gone away it's actually getting worse with age. Once the TL is paid off I totally want a 2010 Shelby GT500 Red with no stripes to continue the theme

Thanks man! I certainly hope it will last a long long time lol.

Blazing GT

how did you adjust from a mustang to a TL?

The Negotiator

The mustang was just a summer car so the TL replaced my Pathfinder as a daily driver. I'll always love muscle cars, even though they're a pain sometimes and not up to par with quality and features such as an Acura. It's just a completely different sensation driving a muscle car that I'll never grow out of. I guess it could be described as a Clark Kent to Superman kind of thing lol. One's very sophisticated and demure and the other is just in your face ready to throw down at all times. To me, the perfect combo is having both

MAS

iTrader: (3)

I had the same Pathfinder.......I LOVED THAT THING!.....premium package looked great and as you mentioned, never a mechanical problem. In fact it felt like a regular car on the highway (very stable ride).

Here's mine:







Then this happened:







Dont let my TL hear us but if it wasn't for the accident i would still be riding my Pathfinder. Did i already say i LOVED it!

Great pics....Nice story.

The Negotiator

Wow, you got hit pretty hard. What happened?

I feel the same way, if my Pathfinder didn't have so many miles on it I would have kept it too. I was afraid something would happen like a tranny breaking (even though I know it never would) and not wanting to fix it. So I guess it was preventative maintenance lol

6spdtl-s

iTrader: (1)

backdrops in the pics look very familiar.

I frequent wallingford, if you see a SSM TL, aspec, dropped on tl-s rims, thats me, flash your lights or somethin.

DecaFe1

who woulda guessed you would end up with a tl after all those carslol

myron

iTrader: (4)

yea I was thinking the same thing haha But good to see that you did. I don't mind that first and last mustang you had, I'd drive those for sure.

mirceapop05

Enjoyed every bit of your story!!! Very nice

The Negotiator

I'm raising this thread from the dead!

After reading someone else's "autography" thread it reminded me that there was one more car I had and forgot to mention back when I made this thread.

1987 Isuzu Trooper

My buddy had given this to me at some point in high school as a winter beater. We had a lot of fun in this rig. We would just go out in snowstorms and do donuts anywhere we could. It was a 5-speed stick and slow as hell but it had a cam in it! My buddies father put a cam in it for some extra hp's to tow his boat shortly after he bought it new in 1987, go figure!

Funny side-bar: Everytime we looked at this truck it reminded us of something you would see during Operation Desert Storm on CNN or something. So one bored afternoon my buddy and I decided to do a camo spray paint job and affix a large "UN" to both sides of the truck and on the roof with electrical tape. From then on it was known as the UN mobile and people around town noticed and would always ask how it was.

Funny how the one car that I got for free, and was also the shittiest car I've ever owned garnished the most attention. Weird.

RonJonTL757

+1

turbocivic94

Nice story

NJ SHAWD

Good stuff man. You may end up passing me. That's scary sh@#

JonBeast

iTrader: (2)

I just got my TL a couple weeks ago...still have my mustang...its a perfect balance of cars

golfjwr

Great write up, I had alot of fun readin through this post. I live in NC now but grew up in CT and will be driving up with my wife in a few weeks, I'll keep an eye out for someone doing burnouts in a TL on country back road

05ACWHITE

That was a good write up u did