What Is The Most Beat Up Vehicle You Owned That Still Ran ?

Not such a POS as to compete in this thread, but a funny store none-the-less.

My second ever car was a bright orange '79 Mercury Capri... pretty much the same thing as a 6 banger Mustang. When I bought it (for $500), it had already been in a minor fender-bender that had damaged the right front. It wasn't really mangled up, but the damage was sufficient to let water in to rust out the headlight adjustment screws. The result was that the right headlight always pointed up into the treetops on the left side of the road. Not a huge deal, but try as I might, I couldn't straighten out that headlight. I drove that bright orange POS around for about a year and a half. Fun car.

One day, I was driving along a two-way street, there was a minivan oncoming, the road was icy, and there was a Ford Bronco approaching the road from the right side in the parking lot of an apartment complex. As always, I was watching the driver, waiting for him to look my direction.... waiting....waiting... I take my foot off the gas....he's not looking..... he's almost to the road... I ease onto the brakes.... he's AT the road & still hasn't looked..... I can't take the other lane because of the minivan.... The Bronco keeps rolling right out into the road....I stab the brakes..... the car goes into a slide...... right into the left front wheel of the Bronco.

Turns out, the guy is deaf. (and blind, apparently if he can't see a bright orange Capri!) He totally admits fault, and says he didn't even see me.... didn't look, is more like it, but I can see that this is going to go well for me and the car is already a POS, and isn't really damaged anywhere that it already wasn't. Even this damage isn't so bad. So I don't really get too mad.



Insurance adjuster showed up a couple-few days later, says he'll write me a check for $ 500 and I keep the car, or $750 and they'll take possession of the car. I opt for the $500, and since that's what I paid for it a year and a half earlier, with damage already in that same spot, I'm feeling like the cat that ate the canary!!!

A couple days later, I pulled up behind a semi at night ..... something looked..... different.... I couldn't figure out exactly what. Then it dawned on me.

I found an alley with a T... I pulled in, flicked my high beams.... flicked back to low beams... back to high... and let out a laugh.

The wreck had adjusted my right headlight perfectly.