Benny the Bravada

02Olds

Original poster
Member
Dec 29, 2012
91
The root of my name, 02Olds, comes from my 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada, Benny, who got totaled by a 65mph texter (Look for the irony). I was at a red light, heard a screech and then looked back and lost it. Now, I love my Rainier, but my Bravada, I owned since I was 14 years old, and it was heartbreaking to see her go, especially since it's the insurance company that declared it totaled.

RIP Benny.

Before the accident:
FBCCD7DA-39AC-4F49-BA92-6B4CB7A6F4FA-4003-0000036C668BFA05_zpsc12f8e7d.jpg


On her deathbed:
3DB847B3-0898-45E5-8950-25B3CDE72102-4003-0000036C48562AC2_zpsa6577a09.jpg
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
I always liked the Bravada...I've still got the sister Olds Silhouette minivan which of course was the Cadillac of Minivans. I thought I was the only person who had to buy their own car at 14 so I could get my permit at 15 since of course 14 is the age you start supporting yourself. lol
 

TollKeeper

Supporting Donor
Member
Dec 3, 2011
8,045
Brighton, CO
Damage doesnt look that bad.. Time to buy it back and RESTORE!
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
TollKeeper said:
Damage doesnt look that bad.. Time to buy it back and RESTORE!

Guessing the quarter was caved in. Would like to see it from the other angle. Betting the blue book value on one of those is miniscule compared to how nice a car they are.
 

TollKeeper

Supporting Donor
Member
Dec 3, 2011
8,045
Brighton, CO
Thats true..
 

02Olds

Original poster
Member
Dec 29, 2012
91
Jkust said:
Guessing the quarter was caved in. Would like to see it from the other angle. Betting the blue book value on one of those is miniscule compared to how nice a car they are.

Unfortunately, this is it. They had it totaled because the value was less than the damage, as it had frame damage as well as the quarter being demolished to the point where the inside plastic panels in the trunk were bulging. Here's the only other view I have. It was heartbreaking, but I plan to relive the joy I had with Benny by hopefully tracking down a Final 500 Bravada, and of course, the Rainier helps too.

20554DBD-B247-4BBA-95C1-8AE7AE8BE0DE-4003-0000036C523F4490_zpsd1fb8735.jpg
 

02Olds

Original poster
Member
Dec 29, 2012
91
Jkust said:
I always liked the Bravada...I've still got the sister Olds Silhouette minivan which of course was the Cadillac of Minivans. I thought I was the only person who had to buy their own car at 14 so I could get my permit at 15 since of course 14 is the age you start supporting yourself. lol

I loved my Bravada, far more than my Rainier. I bought my Bravada with the money I earned from a paper route I ran from the time I was 12. I used to save all the money I had. Worked on the car, restored it, put Infinity Speakers and a 15" Kicker CVR into it as well as a PCM tune and K&N filters and a Flowmaster Cat-back exhaust... Lots of work for a kid. Part of the reason I loved it so much was that I had to work for everything I put into it. Most kids I see now get handed the keys to a new ride and have no appreciation for it. It's sad.
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
02Olds said:
I loved my Bravada, far more than my Rainier. I bought my Bravada with the money I earned from a paper route I ran from the time I was 12. I used to save all the money I had. Worked on the car, restored it, put Infinity Speakers and a 15" Kicker CVR into it as well as a PCM tune and K&N filters and a Flowmaster Cat-back exhaust... Lots of work for a kid. Part of the reason I loved it so much was that I had to work for everything I put into it. Most kids I see now get handed the keys to a new ride and have no appreciation for it. It's sad.

Funny how it seems kids get things handed to them these days. In my day our time at home ended on our 18th birthday so the car came in handy to live in as well. As for the Rainier, I had a 2004 as my first 360 and the thing about it was that It had a v8 that the Bravada never got as an option.
 

TollKeeper

Supporting Donor
Member
Dec 3, 2011
8,045
Brighton, CO

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
willn513 said:
This is cool. I never knew they did this final 500.

I've seen maybe 2 or 3 final 500's Oldsmobiles. Recalling they were the Aurora maybe the same one each time, which I always thought was a cool car.
 

05EnvoyXL

Member
Dec 27, 2012
107
Sorry about the accident dude, I can imagine how u feel. Im absolutly in love with my Envoy i got day after thanksgiving....which replaced a 2005 maxima which was totalled by hurricane Sandy. I work at a Audi dealer and i see kids in high school whos parents buy them $40-50,000 european cars and they trash the f*** outta them or total them and it doesnt bother them.. mommy and daddy buy them a new one. No one appreciates and truly values their vehicle....now us GM owners it seems its different. We LOVE and care and appreciate and take very good care of our cars. No its not a euro luxury supercar but the car means the world to us. I can certainly tell by your tone of the thread here that u truly lou love your car and i really wish you the best of luck with your new car
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
05EnvoyXL said:
Sorry about the accident dude, I can imagine how u feel. Im absolutly in love with my Envoy i got day after thanksgiving....which replaced a 2005 maxima which was totalled by hurricane Sandy. I work at a Audi dealer and i see kids in high school whos parents buy them $40-50,000 european cars and they trash the f*** outta them or total them and it doesnt bother them.. mommy and daddy buy them a new one. No one appreciates and truly values their vehicle....now us GM owners it seems its different. We LOVE and care and appreciate and take very good care of our cars. No its not a euro luxury supercar but the car means the world to us. I can certainly tell by your tone of the thread here that u truly lou love your car and i really wish you the best of luck with your new car

I can empathise on the car dying in an accident. My wife rolled her first Rainier over on the highway 2 and a half times and of course completely destroyed every single body panel. She and the kids were lucky they walked away. We had gotten such a good deal on it that the insurance pay out was more than we paid for it two years prior. The down side was that to replace it I had to spend double the insurance payout. We got a much newer one still under oem warranty so low miles but I wanted one with the Stability control and rollover airbags that the original one didn't have. Stability control wouldn't have let it get the point of rolling over and the rollover airbags would have prevented the head trauma.
 

02Olds

Original poster
Member
Dec 29, 2012
91
05EnvoyXL said:
Sorry about the accident dude, I can imagine how u feel. Im absolutly in love with my Envoy i got day after thanksgiving....which replaced a 2005 maxima which was totalled by hurricane Sandy. I work at a Audi dealer and i see kids in high school whos parents buy them $40-50,000 european cars and they trash the f*** outta them or total them and it doesnt bother them.. mommy and daddy buy them a new one. No one appreciates and truly values their vehicle....now us GM owners it seems its different. We LOVE and care and appreciate and take very good care of our cars. No its not a euro luxury supercar but the car means the world to us. I can certainly tell by your tone of the thread here that u truly lou love your car and i really wish you the best of luck with your new car

Being sort of a kid still, at 19 and a sophomore in college, I still have friends in highschool that have been handed cars and trashed them. Most notably, a friend of mine who's father works for ford got a brand new 2013 mustang 5.0 and totaled it drifting by crashing into a fence, and then was handed another the next week. I've made my mistakes. I'm a kid. That was my first car. Of course it got beat on, parts were replaced, and then the cycle happened again. I did so much work on that car. I almost feel bad for the kids that don't have that. I had a project, a mode of transportation, a cool way to get ladies, and in a way, a friend. It wasn't disposable. I wish I could've bought it back, but being a broke college kid, I had to take the insurance money and invest it wisely in a reliable vehicle to take my commute with. It was a heartbreaking decision, but unfortunately it was the right one.
 

amweaver47

Member
May 15, 2012
122
I feel for you here. My TrailBlazer is my first car and I would be devastated if something happened to it. I take care of what many people would call "$3,000 junk" better than most people would take care of a brand new Benz or Bimmer because it wasn't just handed to me. I paid for it and I still pay for it (insurance, gas, parts).

RIP Bravada
 

mrphoenix80

Member
Jan 1, 2013
251
Got mine almost a year ago. MAN it's FAMILY. So is my 93 S10 and my 80 Pontiac Phoenix(my first car it needs TLC but hey). I tend to hang on to them for a loooong time. We miss the ones that pass on. There are exceptions but not many.
 

03envoy

Member
Dec 25, 2011
537
I feel for you here as I got my envoy at 14 and put a lift, Tune and put $600 into parts for it, and as a kid in high school that's (a lot). I couldn't imagine if that'd happened to me. It sucks, but be glad you came out with no injuries.
 

02Olds

Original poster
Member
Dec 29, 2012
91
03envoy said:
I feel for you here as I got my envoy at 14 and put a lift, Tune and put $600 into parts for it, and as a kid in high school that's (a lot). I couldn't imagine if that'd happened to me. It sucks, but be glad you came out with no injuries.

I can thank Benny for my lack of injuries. In that respect, I am happy, but of course, losing something that you spent so much time and money on still pains me.
 

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