Your First Car

[Taomist]

Or motorcycle. Or major mode of transportation; if that was a plane, wahooo!

Mine was an old Chevy station wagon. It was uuuuugly! Puke green, extra seat in the back, and, apparantly, a radiator from a Ford Escort, which had me filling the radiator every 40 miles or so. I would fold down the seats and throw a mattress in there, sleep overnight somewhere rather than drive home and back sometimes.
I had the name 'SHAMELESS' put on the back, 'cause I just didn't care how it looked, or even that it really was a POS; it never let me down. Once, when I went down a dead end road, the road was so narrow and the car so damned BIG that when I tried to turn around, I ended up in the ditch; dang car went right through the fence. And right back up and out again, still on time for work. Station wagons CAN go offroad!

When I finally sold it, it was to a taxi company; they liked the fact that it could hold so much, and for some reason the fact that there was a heavy-ass SKID PLATE on the bottom tickled the guy's fancy. I paid 400 for it, got 200 back out of it, and at the end was encouraged by many friends to enter it in the local racetrack's demolition derby. I am quite sure that it would have obliterated anyone else on the field.

[Moonlitherial]

My first car was a 1967 Oldsmobile F-85 Deluxe. Dad bought a pair of them from an older couple who were moving south. They were 15 yrs old when he got them. They had under 100,000 miles each and the interior was showroom new. They were however the most horrendous colours of green (mine) and brown (spare) that exists. I was much less gentle than their previous owner but it lasted just fine until I left for basic training. While I was gone dad sold the pair of them and I bought a ... um.. well it was white car when I was posted in Ottawa.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

My first car was a used 1981 silver Mustang. It had a straight-six motor in it and burned copious amounts of oil. It was an OK car for a teenager. My friends that had cooler cars than me used to tease me about it being such a dog, and I went out and found "5.0" badges for it and put them on the car, but it didn't fool anyone.

My current car: a silver 2008 Mustang GT! Now I don't need no stinkin' badges as I've got the real McCoy!

[MacdaddyC]

1977 Ford Ranchero GT
Similar to this

[The Vorlon]

1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon handmedown. Claimed to have a straight 6 under the hood, but in fact went faster when you let off the gas. I think it was the second year of emmision controls. Good times

[mhendo]

1971 Volvo 142S two-door, similar to this, but white.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally Posted by Taomist

Mine was an old Chevy station wagon. It was uuuuugly! Puke green, extra seat in the back

Same here but beige.

[I Like Pie]

A sweet ass 1988 Toyota Camry. It was a 5 speed and had a cd player (after market of course).

[silenus]

1971 Dodge Tradesman van. In white.

Made high school fun.

[Rich G7subs]

A 1966 Chevy II station wagon with three on the tree and a straight six engine. Big gaping holes in the floor. My grandparents gave it to me (in 1982) and I drove it for a few months before I went in the service.

My first "real" car that I bought new was a 1984 Pontiac Fiero 2M4. What a hunk of crap! I paid $8900 for it with ZERO options. I drove it from NJ to my next duty station in Charleston SC. Who knew Air Conditioning was a must in the south? Apparently these cars have a cult following now. It was fun to drive when it wasn't at the dealers being fixed.

[Anaamika]

1990 Toyota Corolla. I named it Baby because it was my baby, and I loved that car. It was my FREEDOM. It was topaz coloured.

[blondebear]

68 VW Bug

[Chefguy]

My first motorized transportation was an Allstate Compact, a small scooter that was sold by Sears. It ran great right up until it was hit by a train.

The first car I drove with regularity was a 1960 Rambler Super, identical in color to this one.

The first car I ever owned was a 1959 Plymouth Suburban station wagon that I bought for $300 while stationed in Adak, AK. That thing was a tank.

[FairyChatMom]

Shortly after I moved into my very first apartment, I bought my first car - a 1967 Chevelle - for a whopping $200. I sold it a year later for $195. I think it was blue. I know it got terrible mileage, and I also recall that gas was $.49⁹ in San Diego when I owned it, circa 1975.

A year or so later, before heading to college, I bought my first new car, financed thru Daddy National Bank. It was a 1976 Datsun B-210 2-door, 4-speed, brown with tan interior. I seem to recall it cost around $3500.

[Rhiannon8404]

1971 Toyota pick up

It was pretty beat up, as I started driving it in 1989. It was a great truck, though.

[Morgenstern]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

My first motorized transportation was an , a small scooter that was sold by Sears. It ran great right up until it was hit by a train. . .

Damn that's terrible. Did you stop and offer aid to the train?

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

The first car I drove with regularity was a 1960 Rambler Super

Did its horn go "beep beep beep"?

[DCnDC]

Originally Posted by mhendo

1971 Volvo 142S two-door, similar to this, but white.

Nice.

My first car was a black '91 Volvo 240. Was still running like a champ when I sold it in 2004 with 140,000 miles on it. I'm certain it's still running today, somewhere.

[Athena]

1972 Ford Maverick, bought for me by my Dad for $200 when I first got my driver's license in 1986. Dad felt strongly that a kid needed a car, and they had just purchased a new car, so I wasn't driving that.

When I saw it in the driveway when I came home from school, I just about started crying. I HATED it, it was JUST SO UGLY. Shit-brown. I sort of fell bad about that now, because looking back, that was a really low time in my parent's financial and emotional life, and it was a really wonderful thing that he came up with the cash to buy me a car that was more than adequate for getting me around town. But at the time, I wanted something that at least looked a little nicer.

I gradually got used to it, especially since I was the only one of all my friends who had her own car. But I got rid of it as soon as I felt I could afford to buy a car - a 1984 Ford Escort, for the grand price of about $3K.

Between the two of them, they put me off American cars forever. After the Escort literally fell apart around me in 1990 (with about 80K miles on it), it was non-American forever after.

[MissTake]

I inherited my Grandpa's 1977 Chevy Impala after it was decided he was not safe to drive anymore (he tried to make our house a drive through). He bought it new in 1977 - receipt was still in the glove box. It was a lovely burnt orange, modified 350 engine, hauled ass like nobody's business.

During our Black Friday blizzard of 1989, I used it to pull 4x4 trucks out of snowbanks.

It was an awesome car. Finally, though, the doors rusted internally and the front end was doing the shimmy. I ended up selling it to a kid down the block for $500. He subsequently reno'd it and as of 5 years ago it was still on the road.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Originally Posted by Athena

Between the two of them, they put me off American cars forever. After the Escort literally fell apart around me in 1990 (with about 80K miles on it), it was non-American forever after.

You should actually revisit them. American cars have come a LONG way from the dreck produced in the 1970's and 1980's. There are some really nice, well-built American cars nowadays.

[Drunky Smurf]

Originally Posted by blondebear

68 VW Bug

Sweet! Me too.

[panache45]

I was a late bloomer; didn't learn to drive till I was 30 (hey, I lived in NYC). My first car was a brand new bright yellow 1976 VW Rabbit . . . for which I paid $3500. My friend had to drive it home from the dealer for me, because I didn't get my license till the next day.

[Zsofia]

1988 Buick Park Avenue. Blue. With the head liner falling down on you. It was a great car. Hell of a tank, nice ride, um, tape player... yeah.

Eventually I upsized to my mom's old 91 Park Avenue, which was white and had leather seats. Hells yeah, baby! Even more of a tank, which my parents loved because it put more car between me and everybody else in the world.

[Xema]

1971 BMW 2002 - red. I bought it used for $2000, taught myself how to work on it, put 100K miles on it, and sold it for $2400.

Though there was no practical way to have done so, I kinda wish I'd kept it.

[Bamboo Boy]

1980 Toyota Tercel, 2 door. That thing was a go-kart with a frame made of soda cans. So it seemed. It got blown all over the freeway on a windy day. You really had to compensate sometimes. This effect was noticeably reduced when the can was packed with friends. Was I imagining that difference? Either way, I loved that thing. It was small but tough, and had spunk.

[tbook]

1962 Vespa 125cc scooter. When my dad gave it to me he said it was the "Cadillac of motor scooters." I was fourteen and just gotten my driver's license. Life was good.

[Student Driver]

1979 Chevy Impala with a replacement 305 pulled from a GMC truck. Cost me $700 in 1992, abused the hell out of it for four years, then sold it for $800 when I couldn't coax it back to life any more. It was fun to drive, but it burned oil, the radiator rusted out twice, the transmission had to be replaced, no gas gauge and the speedometer would go wonky occasionally, the gas pedal linkage cable snapped, the windshield wiper motor and blower motor both failed, and the driver's side door handle broke off in my hand.

Compare/contrast with my boring current car, a 2000 Kia Sephia. Been driving it for 12 years and it's beat all to hell, but all the original parts (except belts and such) still work fine.

[Kimballkid]

1967 Chevy BelAir 4 door sedan I bought from a guy for $400. It came from the factory with a 325 hp 327 but had a 283 in it when I got it. About a month or two later I found out where the 327 went when the guy was selling an early 70's Camaro that was tricked out. When the 283 died, I replaced it with a 350 out of a Buick. Man that thing would haul after that.

[RealityChuck]

1969 Chevy Nova. Blue. Just what I needed at the time -- good, basic transportation. Never had any problems with it.

[Suburban Plankton]

Mine was a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring. It looked just like this one, but beige

462 JBV was the licence plate.

[Johnny L.A.]

My first vehicle was a 1973 Yamaha 100 LT2 (or was it LT3? Or LT1? I don't remember) Enduro when I was 12 years old. The motorcycles and minibikes I 'had' before that were kept at dad's place. The first vehicle I had when I got my license was a 1976 Yamaha 250 Enduro.

My first car was a 1966 MGB Roadster that my mom had bought new. By the time I got it, after high school, the Old English White paint was chalky and the red interior was faded to pink. Also, it didn't run. Nowadays I have a duplicate of that car -- only, this one has overdrive, 72-spoke chrome (instead of 60-spoke painted) wheels, and is in much better condition.

[control-z]

Originally Posted by FoieGrasIsEvil

My first car was a used 1981 silver Mustang. It had a straight-six motor in it and burned copious amounts of oil. It was an OK car for a teenager. My friends that had cooler cars than me used to tease me about it being such a dog, and I went out and found "5.0" badges for it and put them on the car, but it didn't fool anyone.

My mom had a silver 1979, with the 6-cylinder. It wasn't a bad looking car, but you'd stomp the gas and the engine would ROAR...and nothing would happen. Power was pathetic. And the brakes were terrible, they would lock up easily, especially with the skinny tires. It still made it through the 80's just fine, although the vinyl top rotted off and the red interior was plenty faded.

[mhendo]

Originally Posted by Xema

1971 BMW 2002 - red. I bought it used for $2000, taught myself how to work on it, put 100K miles on it, and sold it for $2400.

Though there was no practical way to have done so, I kinda wish I'd kept it.

I love the 2002.

There are three examples, in very nice condition, that live within about ten blocks of my house. I see them around here all the time, and sometimes wish i had one.

[gotpasswords]

My first car was an 1980 or so Pontiac Phoenix. Faded silver exterior, reddish interior. Supposedly, it was a high-end model of the X-car. (I'd hate to see the base model!)

It usually ran. Briefly, its faults were:

Bad carburetor that would not hold an idle from a cold start below 50 degrees.
Defunct rear defogger.
Bald tires.
Collapsed hatchback lift cylinders.
Radio knobs were merely suggestive of a functional radio.
Leaky radiator.
Rotted-out muffler.

But it was mine, and it got me most of the way from Chicago to San Francisco until throwing a rod east of Wells, Nevada on the one weekend twenty some years ago when Greyhound was on strike and UPS was on strike, so I could neither complete my trip on a bus or inside a box.

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by mhendo

I love the 2002.

Me too. If I were Leno, I'd have one.

[lazybratsche]

Mine is a 2011 Ford Fiesta, which is an outstanding little car. Between long highway commutes and a handful of trips from New England to the Midwest, I almost have 40k miles on it, with just a single hiccup that was fixed under warranty.

[Little Nemo]

A Chevy Nova. Not one of the muscle car versions; this was a later sedan version, a 1976 or 1977. It was my parents' car but I was the one who drove it most often as they bought newer ones. When I got a full-time job and moved out on my own, I bought it from them.

[StGermain]

Originally Posted by Drunky Smurf

Sweet! Me too.

Me three. 1968 bright yellow VW bug convertible.

StG

[florez]

Mine was a enormous fire engine red LTD from the early 1970's with white vinyl top, super long hood, and a bad suspension which made it look like a low rider car.

[kirk1168]

1980 Mercury Bobcat, maroon w/silver stripe. It didn't explode.

[Tamerlane]

1978 'Datsun 510' ( actually apparently a re-branded Nissan Stanza ), 4-sp. manual. Also in that ever popular puke-green ( why was that color so common once upon a time? ). And plenty of rust, can't forget that.

Immensely ugly, but sorta solid car in some respects. I put an awful lot of miles on it over five years and beat the hell out of it - more than a few of those miles were off-road. After the first year I had to drill holes in the bottom of the front doors to allow rainwater to drain out, as they had started sloshing. Eventually the heater gave up the ghost, as did the passenger-side wiper. When I finally traded it in I wasn't sure if I had gotten one over when they gave me $500 at dealership for it.

[Curiosity Kills Her]

1980 Buick Regal. Four-door, so not at all cool. I was 18.

Fun car to drive. I quite miss American metal land yachts, they were excellent for road trips.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally Posted by kirk1168

1980 Mercury Bobcat, maroon w/silver stripe. It didn't explode.

My first would have been my sister's yellow '71 Pinto, that originally belonged to Dad, but my brother (the pain in the ass, not the nice one) got to it before I did. 'Course, it was 14-years-old and burning oil by then.

[TheMightyAtlas]

Brand new one of these. Equivalent of exactly $3,333 in 1986. About 60,000 rupees at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Mehran

[Ignatz]

A pre-owned 1950 Ford 2-door sedan, stick shift, green (until I painted it flat black with several cans of Krylon spray paint). First drove it on the hilly roads in a local cemetery.

I'm not counting the really first car the family ever had, a brand new '49 Chevy that we won in a 4th of July firemen's raffle after I begged my Dad to buy the single ticket for 25 c. cents. The car was delivered the next day but Dad sold it immediately as no one in the family had ever had a driver's license or driven a car. Later, my parents lived until 72 & 90 without ever having driven (and that was 16 miles from Boston).

[suranyi]

Mine was a 1983 Toyota Corolla. My parents gave it to me when I went to graduate school. I didn't have a car when I was in high school or college (undergrad).

[mnemosyne]

1996 Toyota Tercel, bought off a lease. Base model, no clock, roll-down windows, no CD or tape deck, about 45000km on it.

My current car?

1996 Toyota Tercel...the same one. 324 800+km on it.

[picunurse]

I, actually, had two first cars. In 1970, I was in nursing school. My husband bought a 1964 Thunderbird "for me." I didn't have a driver's license, and didn't really know how to drive. The car was in terrible shape. The power steering worked, sometimes. The brakes were pretty bad and it changed its own oil over a week's time. I think I actually drove it 3 times.
Then, on my 26th birthday, the Thunderbird disappeared and in its place was a brand new Chevy II. It had 8 miles on the speedometer and took two people to steer. That first weekend we were going camping in south Missouri. We stopped at DMV so I could get a learner's permit, but those were only for teenage drivers. They made me take the driving test and I PASSED! That car lasted until 1977 when I traded it for a 280 Z.

[missred]

My first was a 1965 HD 50cc motorcycle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQyI...eature=related purchased with my own savings when I was 13 (under 100cc did not require a license where I lived then).

My first vehicle with four wheels was a hand-me-down 1967 Chevy C20. It was that light green GM color of the late sixties, burned oil, but was pretty reliable otherwise. I kept it for a few years, supplementing it with an actual car later, before selling it to an old farmer. A few years ago, his grandson pulled it out of the barn and restored it to much nicer condition than it was when I had it.