What was your first car...and did you love it?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My first car was a '56 (I think) Nash Metropolitan. Two-tone yellow and white, with no exterior trunk lid. The back of the back seat flopped down to expose what passed for a trunk. The back seat was too small for human beings, but I once drove six other high school students home from band practice in it with their instruments (I swear). We looked like a stuffed telephone booth with wheels.

It had a three-speed manual transmission with the shift lever on the steering wheel column.

I loved that little car because it represented my first real freedom. I lost it in an accident…total loss. I was hit from behind on a rain-slicked street while stopped at a stop sign. The guy’s master break cylinder went out and he couldn’t stop. My Metro was a sandwich between two sedans. Gawd! I mourned that little car!

What was your first car? Was it kinda like a first love to you too?

2

The first car that had the title in my name was a 1982 Mazda Rx7. It was about 10 years old when I got it. In near perfect shape, charcoal grey, leather, sunroof, powerwindows,etc. I DID love that car. It didnt love me back though. I think I di9d to many donuts in the church parking lot. It developed a bad shimmy between 25 and 55mph. It basically shook the 10 year old car apart and stuff started falling off. Spent a lot of money that I didnt have trying to fix it. I joined the Air Force and my brother in law sold it a few months later to some illeagal aliens he was working with in exchange for some sheet rocking tools. He said he saw it a year or so later(in Atlanta where we lived), with the 2 year expired IL tags on it, driving around. I’ve owned 2 more Rx7s since then and they both, for the most part, have been money pits. I still love them and will buy more.
dead0man

3

My first car was a brand new 1976 Chevy Vega. It was beautiful. Silver with maroon interior, and I did put that car through hell. That was the last good Chevrolet product I owned. Shortly after I paid it off ($6000!), I traded it in so that my (then) boyfriend could get his 67 Jag.
What a stupid move that was. We broke up no more than a year later, and he bought me a Chevy Monza. I had to drive it past the junkyard every couple of weeks to threaten it into running properly. (Of course, not knowing that you had to change the oil and do maintenence had nothing to do with it).

4

My first car was a 1971 convertible Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. 350, automatic, four barrel. It actually was my fathers Oldsmobile. I loved my car. The transmission was failing seriously in the last few thousand miles and the engine gradually lost its’ power until one day it just died of old age. I sold it for $300 bucks in '92.

dead0man , I have an '85 RX7. It is one of the best automobiles I have ever owned. 2 owners and 180,000 actual miles and it still runs great. I just replaced shocks, strutts, control arm and sway bar bushings, one frozen brake caliper and new disc pads. It does require regular maintenance but with a little TLC it is a great driving car.

5

64 Chevy Bel Air, 283 two barrel carb, two speed automatic. Passing gear that would make the thing sound like a jet on take off and throw your head back and give you whiplash. Aqua green. Still have dreams about it twenty years after I got rid of it due to too much oil being burned. I took the engine apart twice.

My next car was a 70 LeSabre custom with the 350 (like the Olds above.) That was the one I should have kept and put the money into, except it needed leaded fuel. Huge, huge car. Gave it back to my folks who had given it to me at 130,000 (gave back at 160,000)

Next was 89 green Honda Accord, 4 banger, two door. I put 182,000 on it before selling it last year. Brilliant design and engineering, lousy seats and air conditioning, which I got too old for. Got it up to 115 mph, would still do 110 in its old age.

On my fourth car now. Ford Taurus from hell, 1990, 3.8 liter. Paid $3500 for it and sunck $2300 into a new transmission in the first month. But, nice seats, great A/C, four doors. Good for a guy getting round in the middle.

6

My first car was a highly distressed 1972 Chevy Malibu. (I bought it in 1985) It was hand-painted day-glo orange. You could actually SEE the brush strokes!!! And it had a green license plate.

I called it ‘the Atomic Carrot’. :smiley:

7

My first car was a 1984 Dodge Shelby Charger. I got it a month or two before I had my license. I loved, loved, loved, loved that car. It was just so cool-looking, even if the engine was nothing but a 2.2, with no turbo, no fuel injection, etc. It was blue with a three-foot or so wide silver streak down the middle of the car, from front to back, along with silver trim all around. You don’t see too many of them anymore (or then either, for that matter).

8

My first car was a 1950 Plymouth sedan. I got the thing in 1954, when I was fourteen–got my driver’s license at the same time. You could do that way back then. It was an ex Dr Pepper company car and it was painted a horrible Dr Pepper green. I had to completely rebuild the engine and transmission, with a lot of help from friends. I wasn’t too fond of the car but I did love the sense of independence.

9

In 1975, I bought a '67 Chevelle from a “friend” for $200. It was a piece of crap, but it got me around for 11 months. I sold it for $195 to a guy I knew from work. No love lost there.

My first new car was a 1976 Datsun B-210. That was a fun little car. I sold it to a boyfriend 2 years later - that was a dumb move on my part. Live and learn, I guess…

10

I’m still driving my first car that I own. It’s a '91 Ford Festa (No idea if you have them in america, the Festa model I mean not Fords :slight_smile: . I’ve had it for 6 months now and I enjoy driving anywhere in it, turning up the volume and singing along :slight_smile:

The only problem is that it does not have a 5th gear so the max speed I am able to go is 70mph. Bit of a bummer when the average speed on the motorways here seems to be 80.

11

71 Parisienne here. I loved that car even tho I could barely see over the dashboard. We had a ton of fun driving it. Thank god cars can’t talk cuz I would have been a very dead teen ager who would be walking forever :wink:

12

1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. 383 ci, dual Holley 650’s, HUGE back seat, and that great old car smell. Damn I miss that thing.

13

First car: 1977 Triumph TR-7 (The shape of things to come)

I still have it; it’s the cannibal car for the other TR-7.

14

First car: 1988 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z.
Loved it. My favorite still. No longer have it, but wish I did.

http://www.auto-enthusiast.com/ShelbyDodge/Daytona/Pictures/2001/03_pleone.htm

15

I have a 94 Fiesta (my first car) and I love it (even if the insurance costs more than what the car’s worth :mad: )

16

First car was a '63 Chevy Nova station wagon–bought it in 1976 for $185. I loved that car, easy on gas, could hold a ton of crap, used to throw a futon in the back and the whole family could go camping in it. Had some major engine problems (as major as a slant six can have, anyway :rolleyes: ) and I asked my dad for help getting it fixed. Instead, he towed it to oblivion and did me a big old “favor” by giving me his old '69 Impala–350 V8, premium gas, total tuna boat…

Yep, sure wish I still had that Nova, the body was completely straight and it’d be a badass little show car by now if I’d kept it…

17

Yep. I hate that too. My cars worth about £1000 and insurance is £800 at the moment :frowning:

18

My first car was a 1971 Ford Torino, drab green. I bought it for $550.00, and my friends called it The Butt.

Damn, that thing was ugly. But that okay- its ugliness was completely offset by its fuel efficiency; it got eight miles to the gallon. When it ran, that is.

The only thing I really liked about it was that it had those swivelling triangular windows. Those were cool. :slight_smile:

19

My first car was a 1978 Baby Blue Thunderbird. I called her “Babe, the Big Blue Car.”

I got her in 1990. You can imagine the hilarity if you can picture me driving this car. I am 5’1" and weighed about 105 at the time. I had this long mass of curly hair. When I drove this car all you could see was a curly tangle barely poking above the top of the seat.

That car was hell to park but boy did it have pickup! I could stuff 10 of my closest friends in that car and still take anyone coming off of a red light! And hill-hopping? Wow!

As time wore on, our relationship grew strained as I moved to a college neighborhood with no parking and she refused to squeeze her big butt into the only spaces available. She eventually gave out on me altogether and I had her towed away. At the time I thought, “Good riddance!” but now I wonder where she is today.

20

I was talking just the other day to a 15-year-old (read: soon-to-be-driving) friend about “first cars”.

OK, I’m not about to offer a giant sobbing lament about having been a spoiled kid, but I think I kind of missed out on that whole “first car independence” thing, where a kid buys his/her first car with his/her own money, and experiences the pride of owning a CAR (even if the passenger side door won’t open and the backseat smells like cat pee)! My parents bought my cars until I graduated from college, and they didn’t believe in buying used, so I never had the cat-pee car growing up.

Now, however, I think I’m making up for it. After a couple of years in San Francisco (where I didn’t need, or have, a car), I inherited my brother’s 1988 Toyota 4-Runner . . . in 1999, which means I was 29 before I got a title in my name. My family tried to convince me to trade it in for a new car, but I wasn’t having it.

I. LOVED. THAT. CAR. His name was Big Red, and he was the most amazing piece of machinery you’ve ever seen. Big diagonal silver stripes, faded seats pink (er, “Oxidized Red”) hood… beautiful. Last year I sold him to a nice young fella named Travis, for three reasons:

a) I was spending about $1500 a year on repairs (on a $2K car), and

b) because it was my (late) brother’s car, watching it deteriorate was more of an emotional thing than it would otherwise have been.

c) I fell in love with a 1973 Lincoln Mark IV.

The Mark IV thing didn’t end up happening (long story), so I was suddenly in the market for a car.

I then schlepped my ass to dealership after dealership, looking at new cars, and was just sorely disappointed. All of the cars I test drove were so… sterile, so boring. Plus, they all looked like jelly beans on wheels. No character whatsoever. And for this, I should take out a loan???

So I started looking at ads in the paper for older cars… I made it a rule for myself that I couldn’t get anything OLDER than Big Red, in order to try to keep myself in line…

… but I ended up with a 1986 BMW. Cracked dashboard, ONE tinted window, passenger side window that won’t roll down, antenna that won’t retract… and the trunk smells like cat pee. (Now THAT’s character–and for cheap, too! :wink: )

I. LOVE. THIS. CAR. :smiley:

People think I’m nuts… but I think I’m just making up for having missed out on the typical Teenage Car Experience.

Really, it’s a very happy feeling. :smiley: