Turbocharged Memories – Melissa’s Road from High School LeBaron to Family SUV

Melissa revisits the automotive adventures that defined her youth and beyond. She earned the nickname “Turbo” in high school with her first car – a hand-me-down ’88 Chrysler LeBaron Turbo – and shares how that zippy hatchback gave her confidence and car culture cred.

Melissa's favorite episode features her baby daddy - "Shifting Gears – Adam’s Modded Imports and Track Day Tales" https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/8eddefd1724ff29d934da24090b0d2f2

From surviving college in a trusty, indestructible Jeep Cherokee (the classic XJ with a cult following) to embracing modern family life in a Subaru Ascent, Melissa’s story is packed with automotive nostalgia and personal growth. Listeners will feel the emotional connection in her car memories – the freedom of teenage cruising, the restoration of a broken clutch, the promise never to drive a minivan – and learn how each vehicle became a life lesson on wheels. It’s a turbocharged trip through time that highlights automotive history, family bonding, and the enduring love we carry for our cars.

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Chapters

• 0:04 CarsLovecom
• 9:38 Driving Memories and Car Stories
• 15:37 The Subaru Love Affair

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome back America. This is your podcast about your past and your cars, where American history and automotive history meet. Your history CarsLovecom this is to all the cars I've loved before, where you get to chat about cars that made a difference in your life, could have belonged to your parents. Your first car, second car, Did your mentor, did your best friend, drive a car? Did you have the best time in high school in this car? That's what we do. These are the conversations that we have, and I can't wait to introduce our very special guest today. I will kick it over to my co-host, Mr Doug. Good morning, good afternoon. Whatever the case may be, how are you doing Anything in the automotive news today?

Speaker 2: 0:51

Good morning, good afternoon. Only thing I saw is that Ford crushed their estimates and their reporting numbers. So they did really well. I haven't dug in to see where that is. Obviously it's not in electric vehicles.

Speaker 1: 1:04

As soon as they stopped, not in electric vehicles. Soon as they stop making the electric truck.

Speaker 2: 1:08

Yep, yeah, well, they certainly cut back. So yeah, ford is doing really good. It's probably F-150, like everything else that Ford makes. That's their baby. Nobody does it better.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Yep, and it could be some limitation on now that the Cybertrucks come out and everybody's disappointed and they're like we're just going back to the market, because I rented an electric car last time I was up in your neck of the woods and it was not a pleasing experience from an infrastructure perspective. So Hertz just is about to dump I'm going to say tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of vehicles on the market. So you know interesting times, early days in the EV realm. We'll see as we move forward.

Speaker 2: 2:06

I agree, mass adoption. You know, just imagine if you couldn't find a gas station right Back in the day, or there was no gas right. We on the East Coast have experienced that, and that's when myself, as an electric car owner, didn't run into an issue. But on traveling, yeah, it's tough. It's tough, a lot has to happen, certainly from early adopters standpoint. But hey, that's what America is about. We innovate, we regroup, we go back, we start podcasts, we invade.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Yeah, so let's Christian. If you would introduce our wonderful guest today.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Well, she goes further back into your past than mine, but I'm very pleased that we have Melissa, who is a tech executive from the great state of Texas, the Lone Star State. Welcome, how are you, melissa?

Speaker 3: 2:58

I'm great, thank you. Not a tech executive, but that's okay. I'm currently a personal assistant, but I also run my household, which is basically like being an executive.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Domestic chief executive is how I would say it is, but thank you so much for joining us and very pleased. And she is surrounded by her phalanx of gnomes. That is her security detail. Everywhere she goes she takes them with them to protect her from stalkers. Anyway, welcome to the show. And, as you know, as is our want, as is our habit, we have people on and we talk about their first few cars. But it's really your bit of a fielder's choice as to what you want to do. You can talk about your last three cars, your first three cars, your folks' cars, cars that made a difference to you, a car you want to buy, and we will just kind of sit that at your feet.

Speaker 2: 3:55

Could be a car you hated.

Speaker 3: 3:57

Okay, okay. Well, I'll start with my first car Yay, I like that. My first car Yay, I like that which was a 1988 Chrysler LeBaron hatchback turbo and it was burgundy and it had burgundy velour, not just cloth like velour interior.

Speaker 2: 4:19

Very nice.

Speaker 3: 4:20

The story behind the car. So I got it when I was 16, which was not in 1988. It was when was I 16? Whatever, 93, I guess. And my grandfather bought the car in 1988 with the intention of because it was, in his mind, like a super cool car. That, like it is a super cool car. Well, yeah, but I mean by but it was really cool in 88. 93 wasn't so cool and it was also burgundy and really ugly and, however, he thought it would be like the best, coolest car for me, for his granddaughter. My parents had no intention of getting me a car, so he bought the car with the intention to give to me after driving it for a few years. And he did, and it was. It was a car.

Speaker 3: 5:07

Uh, my grandfather was pretty rough on the car before it got to me. So by the time it got to me and it was not, I believe they only made these cars for like maybe one, two cycles, because most of the bar's at that point were convertibles. This was not and it was also this turbo yeah. So just an example like I would be driving down the street, I'd be at a light, a red light, and the car would just like shut off. That was turbo, and so basically it said turbo like on the bumper.

Speaker 3: 5:44

You know, in letters people at my high school I mean my nickname was Turbo, I mean it was a whole thing. Oh, really, most of the kids by the time I like I was kind of in a. My high school was sort of like I'm not not a wealthy high school but like a upper middle class kind of thing and so like a lot of like the cool popular kids had brand new like Ford probes or Honda civics and like those were like the cool or little Toyota Corollas, like just cool new cars. And I came in with my turbo burgundy, um, turbo turbo.

Speaker 2: 6:19

So it's interesting Did your parents have any concerns about you having a car with a turbo? And, if memory serves, I think it's still this way today. For young folks, cars that are faster have a turbo, big VA insurance costs, more.

Speaker 3: 6:35

I think back then I don't think my mom we're not honestly, like I love, I'm not such a like a car person, so and I wouldn't have complained, I was just happy to have a car and I think my mom didn't even care, like it wasn't even like a thought. That's how I was, yeah, so I feel like it was funny. I mean I think the funnier part about the fast car is that my grandfather was the one that drove it, because it really was not a car that you would picture Papa who's that's what we called him Papa driving Like it was like this little. I was just funny and he was a tall guy and he's in smushed in this car and I mean I think he just did it because he thought I would love it. So I mean, as far as fast, I mean yes, it was definitely. It was like you know it would.

Speaker 2: 7:21

It had some pickup but, like I said, it would turn off or like sometimes the door wouldn't open. I mean, it was the crazy car and I Doug you did remind me that it did talk. Oh, my brings back those memories of Ricardo Montalban doing those commercials.

Speaker 3: 7:37

I kind of forgot about it, but it would say the door is ajar or blinker on?

Speaker 1: 7:43

What kind of voice was it? Was it kind of an electronic voice? Was it a woman's voice? What is it? A man's voice? Do you remember?

Speaker 3: 7:51

I don't think it was super electronic, but I don't think it was a man either. I think it was just like a, you know, a standard voiceover kind of voice.

Speaker 2: 8:00

It was kind of robotic woman voice.

Speaker 3: 8:03

Robotic woman. It was definitely female no, okay it wasn't. It wasn't kit from um. What do you call it?

Speaker 2: 8:11

from. Wasn't that clean from night rider, but we could all hope we couldn't have a conversation with it. It was not siri okay didn't give me any information that was useful I just want to know why it called the door a jar. A door is a door. Oh, that's funny, it's not?

Speaker 3: 8:26

a jar.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Good one, not real. Those were the times when I probably had some digital instruments as well.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:34

Ladybies.

Speaker 3: 8:35

And I was also like a big deal because mine was four door and a lot of my friends just had two door cars, so like having a four doordoor was like a pretty, like it was a pretty cool deal.

Speaker 2: 8:45

Plus, it said turbo on it.

Speaker 1: 8:47

So were you older then Did you drive before most of your friends? Were you the ones ferrying them? That was the big thing when I was a kid to kind of get us to 7-Eleven so we could pump quarters in the video games, get us to Winn-Dixie so we could just buy raw cookie dough and eat it out of each hand.

Speaker 3: 9:07

I was mid year, my birthday's in January, so as far as like the school year goes, so like I had some friends that were older than me, some friends that were younger than me, I do know. So back in the day we had Dallas Mavericks tickets, season tickets, and it was like a big deal that I could drive, I could take a friend to the arena and like drive there Wow.

Speaker 3: 9:33

So yeah, but actually this is kind of yeah, this is kind of a funny little tidbit. Also, when I was learning to drive, my mom did not like me to drive with the radio on. So, and especially on the highway. So like when I would go and I was a really big rule follower. So like when I would take my friends to the Mavericks games, we would be driving and I would have to turn the radio off. We got on the highway and everybody made fun of me, but it was. I was so worried about following directions so I was radio off on the highway, drove in silence.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Drove in silence. So why was your mom concerned about that? I've heard a similar story from my dad via my grandfather.

Speaker 3: 10:16

I think just the paying attention you know it's like the precursor to no texting and driving was like if you're listening to the radio and there's other people in the car and you're on the highway like you're not going to be able to pay attention. So it was just funny.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Yeah, my dad's view was you know, if the song is fast, you're going to go faster to keep up with the song.

Speaker 3: 10:39

So I see that.

Speaker 2: 10:41

I was not a rule follower, so I just listened to the radio anyway.

Speaker 3: 10:44

So yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:48

Good old burgundy turbo. And so what happened to turbo?

Speaker 3: 10:52

Oh poor turbo, so turbo. When I went to college I did not take my car my freshman year of college, so this would have been in 95, I guess winter break and came home from college and turbo would not turn on. No matter what we did, we could not get turbo. Turbo went, turbo took a tumble, so we ended up like selling. I think we looked long story short. We ended not get turbo. Turbo went, turbo took a tumble, so we ended up like selling. I think we'd look long story short. We ended up selling turbo. But it was basically like please buy the car and get it out of our garage how did you sell a car that wouldn't start?

Speaker 3: 11:24

turbo did not fare well yeah, okay, that's a fee yeah, that's a fee. I someone came and like bought it and carted it off like in a. They trailed it off.

Speaker 2: 11:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 11:35

Yes, so that was that. Somebody wanted that. So she's out there somewhere, I guess, or she's in a junkyard.

Speaker 1: 11:42

It's sad, but no, she's a cube of metal about two feet by three feet by two feet.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Oh, it's been recycled into. It's's been reborn as a like a toaster maybe, who knows? Yeah, you could be using it at home right now, for all you know.

Speaker 3: 12:00

And so then after that my second car was a Jeep Cherokee and it was a. It was like right around when, like that grand Cherokee came out. But mine was just the Jeep Cherokee. I think it was called a sport and it was probably my favorite car I've ever had and I still am sad that I don't have it. But it was kind of an Emerald green and it had gray leather interior and I got it my sophomore year of college so that would have been 97 and it was the best. I loved it so much.

Speaker 2: 12:34

And you know those cars have a cult following. Not the grand Cherokee, but the Cherokee. Yes, people, I have a friend who has a probably similar vintage At least. She used to put a hundred thousand miles on it, never really had any problems and she could get premium bucks for it If she hasn't sold it already, because people love those cars. They and they are bulletproof jeep. Cherokee I think it is the xj, uh internal name.

Speaker 3: 13:03

yeah, I loved that car so much. I felt so cool, like everyone thought I, like all my friends were jealous of my cool jeep. I went to college in ohio so it was like a good driving around in the snow kind of car and I only had it like maybe two and a half years, three years until I graduated, yeah. And then when I graduated it was leased. My dad had leased it so when I graduated he took it away and I ended up with a. My parents bought me a different car for graduation, but it was, that was my favorite of all my cars.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Yeah, that's a great vehicle and a good story. Did you ever go off-roading, since it was a Jeep.

Speaker 3: 13:48

Do you think I would go?

Speaker 2: 13:49

no.

Speaker 3: 13:50

I'm not an off-roader yeah, rule follower. I'm an on-roader yeah, do you think I would go? No, I'm not an off-roader. Yeah, rule follower.

Speaker 1: 13:53

I'm an on-roader, yeah exactly.

Speaker 2: 13:54

I mean, this is tech. You know, texas People go off-roading.

Speaker 3: 13:59

Didn't go off-roading but I did definitely like it had a sunroof and it had. You know, I'd like blast the music. Nice, yeah. Jeep people are definitely like. Jeep people love other Jeep people. Jeep people are definitely like.

Speaker 2: 14:13

Jeep people love other Jeep people. Jeep people love Jeeps. Yeah, jeeps have a following and a wave. Yep, yes, you know it's a quintessential American. We were talking about Ford F-150. Jeep, same thing. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 14:34

So, speaking of since we mentioned, college and a little bit of high school. Given you graduated college, I no, that was. I graduated high school, high school.

Speaker 2: 14:37

Pardon me sorry, yes, got that totally wrong. I take that back, it's okay don't age me that much so for our listeners and you, the top selling car in 1995 was ford taur.

Speaker 3: 14:52

Unexpected.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Those things were selling like crazy back then. Yeah, everybody had one. We talked about Ford Escorts on a previous episode, Ford Taurus yeah, same thing. Those were amazing cars.

Speaker 3: 15:06

It's funny my brother, my older brother, my grandfather, did the same thing with him and got him, got a car and then gave it to my brother, but it was a Ford Topaz, the younger and smaller sibling of the Taurus and probably not as popular. And it was super dorky. So I think I really lucked out. Honestly, even though I make fun of my turbo, the Topaz was the dorkiest of all cars. Well, because his was gray and it had gray cloth interior you're.

Speaker 1: 15:37

You've really stumbled on something brilliant. It think of all the cars and a product line for a manufacturer, and and and cast them in terms of siblings the overachiever, the sporty one, that, the slow one, the dunce little brother. I think you're on to something here. I love it.

Speaker 2: 15:58

There's a podcast happening right there, or a sitcom. That's true, yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:04

Maybe my grandfather knew that my brother was more Topaz and I was more Chrysal or Baron.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Oh yeah, yeah, and then it would be great if they sized you up at the dealership and you said I want to drive this 41 in the. You know the sales guys like, yeah, I don't think so, take the topaz.

Speaker 3: 16:22

So it's interesting, that's an interesting thought. So it brings me to my current car, which is a Subaru Ascent, and I've long okay. So let me just go back for a second. I love a station wagon. I've always loved station wagons, like I always wanted one. My dream is like a Volvo station wagon, always Like. I just love them and I've never had one and so cut to like. I also love a good Subaru Outback, love them, I just they, just I feel like they're me. And but I need that third row because I have kids and because we travel from. Every summer we go from Texas to Florida on a vacation, so, and we like to drive anyway, bring in the Subaru Ascent, which is like the perfect melding of my dream for the Subaru Outback, but also the third row SUV. So that's my current car and I have to say I feel, for the first time, I feel like me in my car.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Oh no, wait a minute, I feel like I am a Subaru person. Now you lit up when you were talking about the Jeep.

Speaker 3: 17:32

The Jeep, I know, but I feel like the Jeep was like an era yeah. Oh, I see that was my, that was my Jeep era, yes, and then you know you go through like your chain, like you'd have this and you have that, and then like this car, and I've been through a multitude of SUVs over the years but I feel like I finally hit my, like my sweet spot with my Subaru. Highly recommend.

Speaker 2: 17:56

Nice. And what do you love about the Subaru, besides the fact that it's a Subaru which also has a very good cult following?

Speaker 3: 18:04

I just feel like it's. It's just. You know I'm not super like, I'm not super crunchy and like hippie, but I feel like it's. It's just a cool car. I don't feel like I have to keep it clean on the outside all the time if I don't want to Like. It doesn't say, like you know people I've never been one to be like, oh, I need a Mercedes or I need a BMW or I need this Like. I just like a car that gets me to here, from here to there, but also is like comfortable and looks good. And I just think it's a cool looking car. It just fits my personality. And I do think Subaru people it's sort of like that Jeep people, like Subaru people. You know, you know a Subaru person. Maybe I'm not like the. You know there's like a stereotype, obviously, like sort of the um, I would say like Merrill tennis shoe lesbian woman that lives in Vermont stereotype. That's not me, but I mean not that it matters, but like I think that's cool.

Speaker 2: 19:03

Yeah, I was. Uh, I was blown away. The first time I went to Vermont being a car guy, I saw Subarus everywhere. I'm like Whoa, this is weird.

Speaker 3: 19:14

I don't know what it is, it's some kind of thing. And like people, when they even when I first got it, they're like a super. You know, my friends would say like subaru. I'm like, yeah, melissa in a subaru do you want to? Are you moving to vermont? They don't have a factory up there. No, I just I think it's just like a. I think it's like a thing like people in vermont, like subarus yeah, no, I'm there people in texas like their ford f-150s or they like their yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:40

It's like that where I am too.

Speaker 3: 19:42

Yeah. So I don't know, I love my Subaru and I mean I'm really when I think about all the cars I've loved. I've loved pretty much all of my cars. I've only had one real lemon. So I'm really, I mean I've had good luck, I think, through the years.

Speaker 2: 19:57

So would you see, when the lease is up, getting another Subaru no-transcript it's a really comfortable.

Speaker 3: 20:35

My kids love it, like in my I might. When I say kids, you know my kids are 18 and 14, so they're they're big kids.

Speaker 2: 20:43

But there's enough room for everybody. Nice, nice, well, yeah, and you feel safe in it, right? Subarus are known for safety as well.

Speaker 3: 20:51

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Yeah, for sure Excellent.

Speaker 3: 20:54

So I know it's not the most exciting um car history, but that's what I got.

Speaker 2: 20:58

I don't know if you know, your Subaru has a turbo in it. Well, it doesn't say turbo, but it does. So see, there you go, we've gone full circle back to the turbo. We're back to Melissa, turbo circle of life.

Speaker 1: 21:15

So are you disappointed that we didn't get to any true crime or that there's not been death mentioned in this conversation at all? A little bit Okay.

Speaker 3: 21:27

I don't know. I do definitely like. I would love to like put you know. As we're sitting here talking, I'm thinking wherever Turbo is out there, did she ever have, you know, a body carried in her back? We don't know, hopefully not, but don't know, hopefully not, but you never know.

Speaker 2: 21:43

So, so for our listeners who don't know, right, you are a podcast. You're a friend of the pod, I think is the right term. Right? Yeah, thank you, and you're, and you are. We were chatting about it before the recording, but you are big into podcasts and what's your favorite type of podcast besides to all the cars I've loved before?

Speaker 3: 22:03

I mean definitely true crime. Am I allowed to? Shout out other podcasts.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Or no. Sure, we'll have to check with our legal. We just hired a couple of lawyers.

Speaker 3: 22:13

Okay. Well, I would say this Okay, I basically listen to podcasts that are weekly that either talk about different cases or it's like a multi-arc, eight-week episode thing. I'm not so into podcasts that are 12 episodes about one case and that's it.

Speaker 1: 22:40

I like the change yeah, why is it always the rule followers who are so interested in true crime?

Speaker 3: 22:47

you ever notice it's also, weirdly, it's not only that, it's also like adult women, like in their 40s.

Speaker 1: 22:55

We all love like murder and like like grizzly, like you all want to murder your husbands I mean, that's clear or significant other to open up the field. But you know what this might be, a this might be a line of discussion for season two, when we have you back, melissa.

Speaker 3: 23:13

Yeah, anytime, and I can when we, when I the next time I can tell you about I'm going to do a teaser. Okay, please do For my next appearance. I'll tell you about the brown bomb, which is my family car.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Oh, that that was growing up. We haven't had that yet, but I thought when we started the podcast and we get tons of mail, snail mail and regular hundreds and hundreds a day and they say you know why don't people talk about family road trips that they took in their, their cars? And you know, I want to talk about my folks car. But so yeah, definitely, Maybe we can have, maybe we'll do a season of family cars and you can be episode one. I love it.

Speaker 3: 23:55

I mean because I think those are truly, I think that's the story, those are the stories that are the best. Yes, that made us, that made america nothing stuffing 12 kids in a carpool, in one car, back in the you know. And no seatbelts, yeah, no seatbelts. Who cares seatbelts up, good luck, who cares?

Speaker 1: 24:17

you would just hang on to each other in the event something happened like, like a barrel of monkeys, you know, and just keep each other, like a tesseract or whatever the word is, from bouncing around.

Speaker 2: 24:28

Outstanding. It would be like a clown car that you would see at the circus right yeah, when the door opens and 4,000 kids run out. Yeah, people just keep coming out.

Speaker 3: 24:38

Well, thank you for having me. Well, thank you, thank you America.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Thank you, america. Thank you, america. Say thank you to Melissa for her time and her insight and all of her wonderful storytelling. Thank you, melissa, we're going to have to have you back, thanks guys, you did a much enjoyable.

Speaker 3: 24:56

It was fun, thank you.

Speaker 1: 24:58

Yes, and if anybody else, how easy was it to be a guest? Can you tell our millions of listeners?

Speaker 3: 25:03

Totally Like the easiest. There you go. Not a big deal, right.

Speaker 1: 25:07

Very fun, right? Yeah, so easy. Even a caveman could do it. So, america, this is your podcast about your cars. Check us out at CarsLovecom. You can see pictures of us, our guests, the cars, some ads that you could click on, which make us millions of dollars a year. I will pass the baton gently to the outstretched hand of my co-host, who can close us out here.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Thank you, christian. Melissa, thank you so much for the honor of doing this podcast. I appreciate that it was so easy and can't wait to have you back. My co-host mentioned our website, carslovecom, but you can find us on your favorite podcast platform to all the cars I've loved before and if you have a question, if you have some thoughts, if you want to be on our show, back to the website, there is a intake form, as my friend would say, or a contact us, and there is a form We'd love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 26:06

Yeah, or get a Bitcoin and write your question on it in Sharpie and mail us the Bitcoin. We will accept that also. We get millions of those a week. That would work too.

Speaker 2: 26:17

Yeah, if you could get us a non-fungible Bitcoin, that would be great.

Speaker 1: 26:20

A token of appreciation. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 26:22

Yes, all right, we're going to sign off. Thank you, america. Thank you, melissa, christian Wonderful. See you next week with another brand new episode to all the cars I've loved before.