My Favorite Ride: Car stories? After more than 20 years, columnist still has plenty to share

The Mercedes-Benz Model 219 Bill Portteus bought in Germany with his military discount six decades ago.

The double-clutch farm truck that stirs up a painful memory for April Legler, who broke all five fingernails on her right hand trying to wrangle the manual transmission shifter.

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An old and rare Porsche Ron Knight's brother salvaged from a junkyard for $4,500, restored and then sold for $1 million.  

The early 1900s automobiles members of Jean Furlong's family owned, including a Model A Ford she learned to drive when she was 10 years old.

A fire-engine-red 1998 Volkswagen Beetle, the one Julianne Fridley won in a Tyson chicken sweepstakes.  

Marge Howell's fondly remembered Subaru Justy hatchback.

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An eclectic mix of vehicles, right? I heard stories about them all when I was the guest speaker for the Bloomington chapter of the Military Officers Association of America's first gathering since before the pandemic.

Two dozen people convened at the recent dinner meeting at Indiana University's old ATO fraternity house. After drinks, salmon, pork loin, vegetables, salad and cake, the focus turned to cars. Me talking about My Favorite Ride was the entertainment portion of the evening.

I explained that I never set out to write a car column, that it fell into my lap when no one else wanted to take on the assignment more than 20 years ago. I volunteered, and figured it would fade away with in a year.

It did not.

The first My Favorite Ride was published on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001. “This is a column about cars — favorite cars — cars with personality, style and flair. Cars that have long rusted away in junk yards. Cars lovingly restored, parked in heated garages.”

So it began.

Ten years ago, a reader suggested My Favorite Ride had over time lost its shine. "This column has run its course. An article about a car located in Mississippi? Not only that, but the '70s era GMs were arguably the worst vehicles ever built.”

I got over it, and have continued writing the column almost every week, about 500 since that anonymous complaint landed in the reader comments.

At the military officers' dinner, I mentioned the shortest column I had compiled, an auto obituary about a 1989 Subaru Justy whose engine burst into flames while the owner drove it down the road. An attempt to extinguish the blaze with a garden hose was unsuccessful.

"I had a Subaru Justy, and I just loved it," Howell told me. "I wish I still had that little car. I could park it anywhere, even in a  motorcycle spot."

Subaru manufactured this five-speed manual transmission subcompact hatchback, with its 90-inch wheelbase, from 1984 to 1994.

Before dinner, Portteus handed me a copy of a packet U.S. armed services members in Germany received from Daimler-Benz about a special discount they could receive when purchasing a new Mercedes.

"Take full advantage of your presence here by capitalizing on these terms and at the same time obtaining a practical and worthwhile souvenir of your overseas stay," the materials said.

Portteus bought a Model 219, a four-door sedan with a six-cylinder engine and a maximum cruising speed of 92 mph. The discounted price was $2,395. He could have purchased a fancy 300 SL Roadster with a fuel-injected engine that would reach 155 mph. It was less practical, with a $7,405 price tag.

"On all models, sun visors, direction indicator and and effective double heating and ventilation serving both sides of the car are standard equipment," the military offer said.

I intend to find out more about that old farm truck April Legler said her husband, T. Rex Legler Jr., tried to teach her to drive. He apparently failed as an instructor, but she finally got the hang of that double clutch, after the fingernail debacle. They promised to search through thousands of color slides to find an image of the truck for me.

I need to drive out to Unionville and get a closer look at the century-old black-and-white family photos of cars Furlong brought to the dinner meeting. And Knight said he would mention to his brother my interest in that Porsche he saved.

And Fridley's Volkswagen Beetle? She won it after sending in six entries to a 1998 Tyson Foods sweepstakes where the winner would receive a new and revised version of the iconic car.

"I got a nondescript letter in the mail that I almost didn't open," Fridley recalled. "Then I told my husband, 'Gary, I think I won a car. Really.' I took the letter to an attorney to make sure it was real."

The VW got delivered in January 1999, tied with a big bow. "Out of 165,000 entries, mine rose to the top," she said. "I had a run of good luck there for awhile." The family kept the Beetle 10 years, then traded it and a Ford Ranger pickup for a giant Ford F-250.

So, more than two decades into this car column gig, it appears I won't be running out of vehicles to write about. Not any time soon.  

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-318-5967 or 812-331-4362.