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June 14, 2005
Survey says if you owned a Dodge Omni you are likely to succeed!
I have been doing an informal survey of people lately and asking them about some of the not so nice cars they and their family have owned. The most popular answer I get amongst the folks i hang with is the DODGE OMNI! now mind you I hang with very few hilton rich kid types. Answers also include Chevy Chevette, Pinto, pacers, Dodge Maverick, vw bugs with flinstone floors, ford escorts, ford tempos and Chevy Caprice Classics without hubcaps. Oh and don't forget my favorite, the 1980's toyota celica that my friend well's drove for 2 years with the heat on in the dead of summer so the engine wouldn't overheat. Then I take a look at the person and how successful they are and frankly all of them have done very well for themselves!I'm talking managers at fortune 500 companies, vice presidents, lawyers, doctors and nurses. The survey also found that you would make an additional hundred K if you saved up for a junk car and then were not allowed to bring it to college, forcing you to sell yourself for a ride on "the board:. little did you know you were building your sales skills.
Jeannine and I have had a total of 4 omni's in our lifetime and we are doing alright. 3 for my family and one for her that took all 6 family members on a summer vacation. 2 powder blue and 1 two tone red and grey fo me. This was my sister's first car. I remember it had no rear defroster, so we had to buy a fan that plugged into the cigarette lighter. Why does growing up having multiple onmi's and other POS cars lead to success? First, you probably won't obsess over cars, which are the silliest investment in the world. Second, if you ever have to pick up a date in a powder blue dodge omni, you better have something else going for you. If you count on just having a car the first time, you will learn real fast that personality matters. Finally, eventhough the omni is great in the snow and reliable, you will dream of bigger and better things. In my town the "cool guys", on their 16th birthday got the toyota truck with a roll bar (upstate nY), american racing wheels and a system. I got the hand me down omni and am truly thankful and proud. What junky car has left a major impression on you and started your path to the promise land?
Posted by Patrick at June 14, 2005 06:19 PM
Comments
Re - You are hysterical...this is quality entertainment. On another note, now I am glad that my parents saddled me with a 1984 Pontiac 6000 LE with a broken tape player and AC. I have them to thank for my success.
Posted by: Chris Lopez at June 15, 2005 12:40 AM
So...given that my parents thoughtfully bought a 1969 s**t-brown-with-white-roof Chevy Impala for us kids to drive, shouldn't I by all rights be a millionaire now? Because...no. No millions.
Posted by: Bing at June 15, 2005 05:27 PM
My first car didn't drive in reverse. Luckily my advanced driving skills compensated. Also, on LI the cool car to get at 16 was a Camero
Posted by: Danielle Ryan at June 15, 2005 09:05 PM
I think sharkie needs to thank me for this entry . . . my family had the pinto, the pacer, the omni, the fred-flintstone VW bug, and even a big purple car affectionately called the "bat-mobile", oh sorry, how could I forget the Yugo! I remember one instance the headlights went out and we drove with a flashlight leading the way down the ol' country roads! But none-the-less, all four of us are successful in our own right . . . but I still have yet to see the millions!!
Posted by: J9 at June 15, 2005 10:31 PM
In 1990, at 17 years old I owned a 1979 (11 year old) VW rabbitt that could not be driven in reverse and would make an awful screech sound everytime I started it.
Today, at 32 years old, I own 1994 (11 year old) Saturn that has been nicknamed the "purple dragon".
I got to agree it does make you motivated, and ofcourse still working on the millions.
Posted by: Ed Winstanley at June 16, 2005 12:20 PM
succeed i did in the buying of cars. i now have two cars in the same decade 2000-cars. this is the first time that has happened. failure of j9 to mention the magnificant ZEPHYR, which means cool breeze, the only car i ever owned that was two decades removed. a 1978 bought in 1999. the worse car i ever had was an omni transmission blew twice, carburator, gas tank fell off, muffle thanks to metal hangers stood tall cost me 10 times to fix than what it cost.
Posted by: gran pa george at June 16, 2005 01:04 PM
My parents were the proud owners of a blue 1978 Ford truck, so proud in fact that they drove it until the entire truck bed rusted out only to be replaced by a wooden box, nothing was better then rolling up to school in a truck that’s half wood. Then in high school I got the hand-me-down caprice classic (’84, two hubcaps strategically placed on one side of the car, so at least half the people thought I had all 4) with 8 million miles, it was like driving a recliner around town, except most recliner’s cruise control didn’t randomly kick on and drop your peddle to the floor when you’re just going 15 mph through town. In college I was the proud owner of another 1984 classic Chevy Blazer, toughest car ever built, jumped it, rolled it, ran better after every crash, they don’t make’m like they used to.
Posted by: Beauvais at June 17, 2005 07:25 AM
What Pat did not mention was that not only was I driving a 1984 Celica with the heat on full blast at all times, I spent a summer working in NYC with this daily torture. Picture what my fat ass looked like showing up to work after an hour in a 90deg day on the FDR in stop and go traffic with the heat on...not pretty. I can remember one 2 hour backup on the BQE and one car pulled up next to me as I literally had my head hangning out the window and asked "are you alright man?" I should have asked the guy for the $500 for a new radiator.
Posted by: Wells at June 22, 2005 09:15 AM