Tell us YOUR story about your favorite Hoopty, or maybe a Hoopty adventure you & friends or family had! Share the Love and you too could win an Emergency Car Kit from CPCU! Click on the word "Comments" below (next to the envelope icon) to tell your story!
If you would prefer to email us your story click on carolinapostalcu@cpcuonline.com !
To share the love and email this post to a friend (and invite them to share their very own Hoopty story!) click on the envelope icon below.
Hoopty Submissions for the Emergency Car Kit will end November 30, 2007.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
My hoopty was first purchased after my graduation from college - in a desperate attempt to cut down on bills I traded in my new car with its high monthly payment and bought a piece of.... well a car.... for $150. It was dented all around, an odd color brown....and to get the radio to play I had to "spark" two wires hanging below it. I had to cover the AC vent in the winter with aluminum foil so that I wouldn't freeze.... I parked it on the street in front of my apartment building and one Saturday morning a man started banging on my door apologizing profusely. The night before he & his friends had been out drinking and he had run into my parked car on the way home. He insisted I take $200 to get the car fixed. Thing was, I couldn't tell the difference between where He had hit it and all the ding, bashes and dents it had to begin with....some years later I sold it for $200. So I not only save money to begin with, I actually made $250 off of my hoopty!
Cathy's Story!
“I’ve had a few hooptys over the years, but my favorite has to be the early 70s Chevy Monte Carlo I owned when I was just coming of age. Having just graduated high school not too long before, I decided to leave NC and strike out on my own. I ended up in Los Angeles, my hoopty with me every mile of the way.
This hoopty was literally quite a piece of work, and cash was hard to come by. These two facts made for one story I will never, ever forget. One day, I was flying down the freeway in Los Angeles, when I suddenly realized that the car was losing speed. Pulling over, I soon realized the problem – the transmission was out, with one exception … I could back the car up.
So, reverse it was … all the way off the freeway to the nearest garage! Backing in to the garage and getting out of my hoopty, I had the mechanics look over the car. As a Latino-owned business, there was a bit of a language barrier. But I understood the phrase “$600 bucks” all too well.
Not really knowing if they would understand me, I told the mechanic “I don’t have the money right now, but I will come back later and get the car.” They nodded and said, “you come back.”
Like any idealistic teenager in the 1970s, I did what I could to adapt. So I bought a bike and started riding everywhere I needed to go. And I saved my money.
It took me six months to scrounge up the money to reclaim my hoopty. But scrimp and save I did – and so I went back to the garage, not knowing if my hoopty would even be there.
The mechanics laughed … “we remember you!”
And there it sat – my hoopty -- waiting for me! I plunked down the $600 and grabbed the keys. My hoopty not only had a forward gear again … it took me everywhere I needed to go.
It even brought me back to NC when I was ready to come home.”
avb - Hoopty Family Tradition....
I think from the time I was born my parents have owned a hoopty. They had six children in the family with a 20 year age difference from first born (me) to youngest (mom thought she was going through the change)! Anyway, to this day, they are still caring on the hoopty tradition and I've asked them to send me a picture of their latest for your website- white chevy. On their last visit to North Carolina, mom did not see a truck coming out of the toll booth area in Illinois and it side swiped them slightly, not enough to do the hoopty in - they are tough you know! Well, the hoopty is still going, with 145,000 miles and duct tape as a bandage holding the driver side mirror in place. They might bring it back down from the mid-west soon - - both kids (twins) are taking their driver's education courses and my dad said what better - a hoopty for them to drive!! Kids loved it (right!).
When single I foolishly agreed to go out with a local "rock star"....on the night of our date he showed up in a shiny "older" car which actually looked somewhat impressive. He acted like the gentleman and walked me to the car and graciously opened the car door for me.
He then proceeded to walk around the car and jump in through the drivers' side window like Starsky & Hutch! I was shocked but figured he was just showing off.
When we arrived to our dinner destination he slid across the seat to my side and leaned over me to open the door. I thought he was getting "fresh" and jumped out quickly....seeing the look on my face he apologized and explained that he couldn't get out his door without wigglin through the window because the door was stuck.
After dinner as we walked back to the car I realized why he couldn't open the driver's side door. His side of the car (now I know it was a Hoopty!) was completely smashed in from bumper to bumper!!! ..... It looked like a Mac Truck had used it for a punching bag!
And I learned there are always two-sides to a story about a hoopty!
One nevers realizes just how important transportation is until you have none and no access to a bus. My first hoopty was a ninety something Le Sabre that had a cockeyed driver's door (I could fit my hand easily between the door and the roof) and in serious need of about $400 in parts. This seemed like a deal since a) I didn't have a car and b) the owner was only going to charge me $89.
This car got me from Oklahoma to Kentucky for my first job in my major. It worked well and I taped the cockeyed door shut when it rained or snowed. Unfortunately, the passenger side of the door decided to not remain shut (as I found out as I was going around a sharp curve) and after much frustration and rigging, got it to remain shut..it just wouldn't open.
After a couple of months of this, and driving with rain and snow coming in, the car stopped one day after going over railroad tracks and refused to start again. Fortunately I was able to roll off onto the side of the road. Based on my rescuer, it would have to be towed and fixing the problem would cost more than the car was worth but I would still have to have it towed somewhere.
After calling the towing company (only one in the area), it was going to cost $75 to tow it to town and the car wasn't even worth that so I made an agreement for them to tow it and keep it for parts sale.
Now.. I had not transportation again. Fortunately, I had very sweet and understanding neighbors and they gave me their mid 80's Nissan truck with no powersteering, holes in the floor and a rusting bed. I truely loved this truck. It was a huge effort to steer but I had transportation again that was road safe. That got me through another six months until I had enough credit to get a small loan for my next hoopty that kept us going for another few years till it blew an enginie on 485.
Do I have a hoopty now you may ask? Why yes I do though it is newer than my previous ones. And YES! I love my hoopty!!!
Awesome hoopty story Shaylin - and we love the addition of the Hoopty-truck. True Hoopties come in many flavors - be sure and email us your name & address at carolinapostalcu@cpcuonline.com so that we can mail you your very own "I love my Hoopty" bumper-sticker!!! - Hooptylicious
A 1988 Chevrolet Blazer (two-toned red and black) I called Frazier the Blazer...It would only go faster than 60 MPH when I was going downhill - and at that point the steering wheel rattled verociously. It was wrecked twice by friends, and once went "mud busting" despite having a spare tire on the back left wheel.
Chocolates' Story:
My FIRST car was a 69 Plymouth GTX and of course sticking to the tradition of official "HOOPTY" the year my mom purchased the car was 1977 for $600.00.
We (my younger sis, mom and myself) had never owned a vehicle of any kind before the "hoopty" and mom could not drive at all, so I was designated driver for all.
The "hoopty" was named Gertie and was a wierd greenish color. It had shiny "mag" rims (tire rims) and a 440 engine. The car was fast!! and could really run. The guys always wanted to race with me whenever I would pull up at the stop light(And race I did) with mom and a 18 month old baby girl in tow. Gertie was all "JACKED" up in the back with dual exhaust pipes and looked like something that belonged on the drag strip. You could hear that car comming BEFORE you saw it.
She was a (2) two door and the drivers side door handle did not work, so you had to reach inside the window and let yourself in or scoot in from the passenger side.
My "hoopty" not to be confused with a "regular" car as we all know a "hoopty to be was ALWAYS having mechanical issues (the freeze plugs were always bursting, and I was always breathing the carburator). That Plymouth broke down on me on a regular basis.
There I would be standing on the side of some road or highway with the hood up peering underneath looking like I knew what I was doing. My Auntie stated "That car has broken down on every street in Charlotte. I loved that car and eventually as is required of any true "hoopty" owner I had become pretty good at minor repairs, or at the least I could patch Gertie up enough to limp home.
Eventually Gertie was traded in for a more modern vehicle and my mom even got $1500 for her. I will never forget that car, who does.
A Hoopyt-lover writes:
I never knew what to call some of my old rides, didn't even know I was driving a hoopty till I saw your website!
It reminded me of a time back in college when I had a 63 VW and the bolts holding the driver's seat broke off, allowing the seat to move in ways the folks from Wolfsburg had not envisioned.
My best friend at the time had a Corvair and the clutch cable was secured to the clutch pedal with a pair of vice-grips, ahhhh …. the good old days. Hoopties Rock!
Oh My... does this every bring back the distant past! My first hoopty was a 1968 Plymouth Fury III. This vehicle had been the family car purchased used in 1970 and sold to my brother and me in 1973. When we accuired this special ride, it had 88,000 miles on it. It was blue and had an 8 track player (remember those?) We used to blast Billy Joel's Piano Man and Wings Band on the Run every chance we got. Of course there were the usual disputes as to who got to use it when and who put the gas in it and so on. All and all though, it worked out well. It did break down on occasion and we had to spend the some time at the local garage to work out payment details. It also accuired a green rear door after a close encounter with a tree after someone parked to close. (You can probably imagine what the car was doing in the woods.) It even raced a pair of Corvettes one time... losing badly! It did have the 318 engine, one of the finest ever made and gas was cheap then. We eventually sold the car to a bunch of Roman Catholic nuns with 156,000 miles on the odometer for $350. By that time we both needed our own cars. We often commented to whoever would listen... If those nuns only knew...
I still have a hoopty... a 98 Ford pickup. Almost too nice to be a hoopty...except the tailgate is all rusted out and I can actually take it off without tools. Replace it... no way!
Audrey
It was a 1969 Ford Custom 500 – although there was very little that was “custom” about it. It was white with orange rust accents and already had a dent in the passenger side rear quarter panel when we purchased it for $500. My oldest brother proclaimed that it looked like a big, white buffalo parked in front of the house, and the nickname “The Buff” was born. The trunk was rusted out and every time it rained two things happened: it would fishtail at the sight of water and if water actually touched it, it would cut off. We replaced the distributor cap and wires at least 10 times – it was simply a fair weather car. It had an exhaust system that split into a “V” about half way down. Of course, there was a hole in the “V” that never got repaired. Anyway when you reached about 50 MPH, the noise that emanated from the exhaust system sounded like there should be someone in the background saying, “Houston, we have lift off.” I will say, though, that it was a durable car. I backed into a pole at the 7-11 one night – knocked a chunk out of the pole – didn’t even dent the bumper! It lasted through half of my freshman year of college when I “traded up” to a 1977 Pontiac Catalina 4-door sedan. But that’s another hoopty story for another day!
Post a Comment