What's the SHORTEST time you've ever owned a car???

[patrick66]

To answer this one, it is one you MUST have had physical possession of, and it must have been legal and DRIVABLE!!!

For me, it was right after I turned 17. A neighbor had a 1950 Ford coupe for sale for the princely sum of $350...which in the mid-'70s would be equal to $1,300 in today's money. I rode my bike to his house to look at the car, which was nearly identical to the car my Dad met my Mom in in the mid-'50s. I made the guy an offer of $350 and he took it. The asking price was $500. He signed the title over and took his tags off the car, while I loaded my bike in the voluminous trunk and drove home. The "For Sale" sign was still in the window, as a man drove up the driveway and asked if the car was "still for sale"...to which I answered "Well, yeah, sure." He asked "How much?" and I told the guy "How's $1,500 sound???" He agreed, so it sold. The buyer drove off as my Dad drove up. Dad asks "Who's that?" I told him he was the buyer of the Ford I just sold him. Dad looks at me and says "Where did you get that Ford?" I told him the story and how I made nearly five times what I paid for it - all in my brief ownership period of roughly 15 minutes! Dad was pretty proud of me at that moment; though he was a little miffed at the fact that he didn't get to drive a car I sold that was very close to the '50 he once owned.

This was a 1950 Ford Deluxe coupe, baby blue with the stock flathead Eight and a three speed manual with overdrive and a working AM radio. The seller had added dual exhaust with 2" I/O Smithy glasspack mufflers - damn, this had the most wonderful cackle ever! Oh, and it had wide whites with the factory hubcaps, too. Neat car. I got to drive it two miles, anyway!

 

[67Monaco]

3 months. '84 T-Bird Turbo coupe. We hot rodded the engine in that bad boy, it was a handful to drive once the boost kicked in. It hit like a hammer. I don't remeber why I got rid of it but it was about the same time I was working for American Racing and had my '68 Bronco going around and doing state level shows. There was one time I vividly remember making a left across a state highway and was sideways for 4 of the six lanes.. Fun times.

 

[BJS racing]

Any car I have driven I've had for a while. I did buy a car (that was supposed to run when I got it but never found out if it did) It was a 67 Belvedere I believe, and on the 15 minute trip home on the trailer someone stopped me going down the road and I tripled my money on it and he paid me to deliver it to his house. So I never unloaded it at my house or found out if it ran! LOL. I know it doesn't fit the bill but that is the best I've got. Everything else I had for at least a year or two.

 

[Big_John]

Five minutes.... Seriously...

I bought a 76 Dart Lite from a co-worker's Dad. It was pretty much sight unseen, but it had a bad frame rail from the A/C dripping into it. I went to get the car with a friend and after I paid him, my friend hopped in the car to drive it home for me. He stopped me at the first stop sign... I thought there was a problem, but he got out and said "I have to have this car!"

He paid me what I paid on the spot and he drove the car to his house. A good frame rail and some welding later and he was driving the car.

This was 32 years ago and he still has the car!

 

[holle199]

Back in 67, the first year I drove I had a bunch of cars, bought all sorts of cars out of fields, ran them until I eithier wrecked them or the transmission or engine would blow, think the shortest though was a 60 Desoto, a friend and I had that, the first time he drove it, he didn't get the hood latched all the way and it flew up and off at about 60, think it was the 3rd day we had it that the transmision went in it and we sold it to another kid in school for 25 dollars, the same we paid for it.
That summer I had a couple 59 fords, 55 oldsmobile, 60 ford, 54 Chevy, two 57 Mercurys, a 59 Mercury I got my first speeding ticket with 125 plus in a 50, cost 50 bucks back then, two weeks pay at my part time job.Had a 59 chevy and a 55 pontiac too, sure wish I had those cars now.

 

[thrashingcows]

Not sure which was the shortest...but it's a toss up between a 66 Ford Falcon Futura 289/2spd, and a 72 Demon /6 auto car. I drove both of these car, and Don't think I had either of those cars more then a year.

 

[mmissile]

The time it took me to drive one from L.A. to Detroit, then put in the yard the next day.....POOF!! Gone!!! Had 3 guys fighting over it.

 

[tallhair]

The time it took me to drive one from L.A. to Detroit, then put in the yard the next day.....POOF!! Gone!!! Had 3 guys fighting over it.

OK what was it?

 

[thrashingcows]

OK what was it?

Yeah don't leave us hanging like that....:nono:

 

[Ironwolf]

Yeah don't leave us hanging like that....:nono:

 

[moonrunner1972]

Here is my story of the 1973 Plymouth Satellite that I owned for about 2 hours or less...

Back in H.S. I was a bit of a hell raiser. During my four years there, I took automotive at the local voc-tech. One morning during my junior year my teacher had a friend and I diagnose a no-start on a 318 on a test stand. He would pull the distributor out of the engine and turn it over a few times to see if we could figure out how to get the engine to run. Supposedly, it was a police engine donated to the school by Chrysler, meaning it was like new and had been run only a very few hours (i.e: no break in period). Well this engine was equipped with a four barrel and only had a y-pipe and a single muffler. It was very loud and sounded really cool when you opened up the secondaries.

Once we got the engine running, the teacher told me to shut it off and that we would perform a tune up and oil change on the engine after he returned from break. Well I bragged to my friends that I would hold the secondaries wide open. Little did I know, the teacher never left the shop for his break. It was at this time that I decided to make good on my promise and run the engine wide open. Within about 30 seconds of WOT, the engine failed. Oil dripped from the exhaust manifolds and smoke permeated the air, but not enough for me to see the teacher's disapproving look. He said something like, "you broke it, now tear it down to find out what you did." After I remove the heads, I discovered that one of the valves broke, destroyed the piston, forcing the rod through cylinder wall. The connecting rod was bent at a 45 degree angle. While my classmates found the episode amusing, I found myself in front of the principal, disciplinarian, and superintendent.

I was told I had to replace the engine and take a two day suspension. Coincidentally, a fellow classmate had been eager to sell his grandmother's metallic green 1973 Plymouth Satellite 2 door. It had fallen victim to the salted roads of Massachusetts so the car had a terminal case of cancer. The bottom skin of driver's side door was so rusty, that it waved back and forth whenever you opened or closed it. After the exchange of a mere $100, I drove the car to school and pulled into the auto shop bay to donate my replacement engine. In all, I think I owned the car for about 2 hours.

 

[F Preston]

2 weeks - a green '68 New Yorker coupe that I bought in Mexico with an Arizona title and sold at Carlisle.

 

[Fishfan]

Memorial Day to Halloween of 2009 I owned a Pontiac Solstice. Still love the look of those cars but I had to trade it in when I got separated. I needed wheels to drive my kids around in.

 

[Fishfan]

Here is my story of the 1973 Plymouth Satellite that I owned for about 2 hours or less...

Great story!

 

[70NPORT]

About 25mins., perhaps less. I bought (meaning money was exchanged)a 73' Plymouth RR with 340/4spd pistol grip combo from a guy who owned a garage in medford lakes NJ..$800. So my dad drove up to where I had the car parked, which was still on the guys garage lot. He knew I was buying a car to get back and forth to my two part-time jobs and school with, but not a RR. He popped the hood, took a quick look at the 340 and the mess o' wiring under there, looked at me angrily, then went into the shop office. I heard lots of yelling...and the words attorney a couple of times (can't be good). The shop guy comes back out hands me my 800 bucks back, I reluctantly hand the keys back over to him. I get to ride home in my mom's Honda. I don't care to discuss the rest after that point.