Your first car..

In My Humble Opinion
1

My first car was a red 85 nissan pulsar. Had 147,000 miles on it and the front right flip headlight was stuck open when I first bought it. You knew you were going 65mph because the car would start to shake violently. The only wiper that worked was on the driver side, but I figured that’s all I need anyways right?. Saved over a year to get the 1500 to buy it when I was 17. In one year I put an additional 40000 without even changing the oil. Finally sold it to a friend who promptly ran it into the ground several months later. Man it was a good car, took a hell of a beating and kept on going.

Care to share the story of your first car? Best memories? Person with the crappiest car wins an “A” for the day.

2

My first car was a metallic brown 1978 Chevy Nova. It had been my grandmothers and she had given it to my mom when my parents first divorced. My grandma bought it right after my grandpa died, and it was the first car she had ever purchased. The car had not a single option. No power steering, no cigarette lighter, and only an AM radio. The seats were beige vinyl and horribly cracked. It was also about as rusty as an 18 year old car could get. Sometimes the accelerator would stick in passing gear and it would take off like a rocket. Real fun car in the Chicago winter.

3

1971 Chevy Vega, bought in 1983 for 374 Sheckles. Painted green with a paintbrush, with screen door slidy lock things to keep the doors closed because the police who stopped me said I couldn’t have a rope strung through the half open windows. Fascist.
Also had a bitchen Kraco 8-track with the cassette adapter so I could rock out tot Survivor and The Romantics. Rawk!

4

Cluricaun wins!! :smiley:

The first car I drove was a white Dodge Colt E, a four-door POS automatic. My dad bought it for my sister and I to share. It worked great until the day I ran it head-on into a neighbor’s brand new Pontiac Thunderbird -whoops! She was OK, don’t worry. My car was totalled, hers was scratched. I cried my eyes out and my license was suspended for one month - while I was out of the country so basically I went un-punished. Whew.
The first car I bought myself was a 1997 Hyundai Accent - a four door POS that gets over 30 miles per gallon. Yep, I’m still driving it!

5

'64 Dodge stepside truck, ex-forest service with faded green paint. 225 slant six and no syncros left in the four speed tranny. Burned oil like hell but I loved that old truck.

6

What a shame. The Pontiac Thunderbird is a very rare car.
I was stuck with a 82 Pontiac 6000, a clone of the Chevy Celebrity, Olds Cierra, and Buick Century. They seem to be rare these days too.

7

A 1967 Ford Mustang Hardtop, onlly the coolest car ever made. It was light metallic blue with dark blue stripes outlining the side “scoops” and had hood clamps. I had that car for 9 years until I foolishly let my mother talk me into getting rid of it in favor of a more “practical” one (i.e. one that wouldn’t break down on the scary streets of Atlanta). I cried for months after losing it and still regret it to this day…

8

1974 Olds Cutlass “S”. It didn’t have the formal roof of the the Supreme. It was white with a black vinyl top (which conveniently covered lots of rust.

It had the classic Olds Rocket V8 with a four-barrel carb. I got 9-12 miles per gallon on a good day (this was in 1983 when gas was $1.20 a gallon and minimum wage was $3.35.hr).

9

A 1965 Pontiac Tempest that I’d saved up $550 for in 1985. My Dad was into rebuilding GTOs, and he figured this would be a good car for me, since it wouldn’t go as fast. Fat lot Dad knew - I used to regularly fly down to college at 90+ mph. It was white, with a kind of a mint green interior. The seats were lovingly patched with semi-matching green duct tape, and I used to sand rust spots off and bondo dents on the weekends. Eventually, it was mostly grey primer from that.

I wrecked the fenders by using chains that were too long while driving in my first blizzard. The wires holding down the ends came undone, and I could hear them going “whump whump” all the way to Reno, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it. It used to eat tires and alignments. When the transmission went out when I was a dead-broke college student, I unloaded it on someone who wanted it for parts.

I’ve always regretted getting rid of that car.

10

Wow, my first car was an 86 Nissan Pulsar, red (5-speed). Driving on the freeway was like orbital re-entry. At least your wipers worked–I had to drive it from San Diego to San Francisco in December with my left hand holding a towel out the window wiping the driver’s side of the windshield. Finally had to donate it to charity because of its gross polluter status. :sniff: Loved that little thing.

11

1962 Nash Metropolitan hardtop. Mostly mint green. I was born in 1961 :rolleyes:

12

We had a '79 Impala wagon that had rolled over the odometer at least once, maybe twice. The passenger door on the driver’s side wouldn’t open and the one on the opposite side had a big dent in it. It had a wayback seat, an 8-track, pratically reeked of gasoline, but got us moved into our condo and took us to my sister’s for Christmas and back - about 15 hours each way. It did not like the cold weather, we had to flood the engine to get it to start. The trip back through the Appalachians took its toll on the transmission though and we ended up junking it.

13

Ever had trouble getting it out of 2nd gear?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.

14

my first “car” was a crappy barely-used '88 ford escort pony (only 10,000 miles on the odometer) with a 4 speed manual and whopping 88 HP of four cylinder fury, thing barely had enough power to get out of it’s own way

i “fondly” dubbed it the “murphy’s lawmobile”, it was an unmitigated piece of Ebola ridden monkey excrement, you name it, it broke, that “car” singlehandedly made me hate, loathe and despise ford vehicles for the rest of my life, i will NEVER own another ford as long as i live, henry ford could rise from the grave, assure me his cars are good, and i wouldn’t believe him (i also would have to kill him because he’d be a zombie, rising from the grave and all…)

just so you know, i treated the car well, oil changes every 3,000 miles, tires rotated every 7,500, all routine maintenance performed, yet it still…

had a major appetite for tires, “60,000” mile tires would be lucky to last 20,000, and i didn’t drive it hard, i couldn’t as it was a frelling crapscort

mechanical problems;
12,000 miles; the “adaptive” computer died, i could drive the top speed in each gear without touching the gas, push in the clutch and the engine would bounce off the rev limiter
20,000; left front tie-rod fails because ford decided tyo save .35¢ and not put in a ball bearing ring, and decided to use a cheaper and less structurally sound bushing
30,000; right front tie-rod
35,000; drivers side window shattered while i was in a service station paying for gas
35,020; drivers side window shattered spontaneousl WHILE I WAS DRIVING IT
40,000; brake system needed complete replacement, master cylinder, pads, everything
50,000; ignition system died, complete replacement
55,000; gas tank developed a slow leak, couldn’t keep more than a half tank in it
58,000; exhaust system failed at the manifold, needed a new exhaust from the cat back
60,000; throttle-body fuel injector wiring shorted out while i was trying to start it, stranding me at work until my parents could pick me up
70,000; i got rid of the piece of dren and got a lightly used '92 Dodge Shadow that lasted me for 130,000 miles of trouble-free driving

so, forgive me if i say…
DIE ford, you pathetically crappy car manufacturer, may the sand demons make nests in your engine blocks, may every car you make die for no apparent reason and may you go out of business permanently, sparing drivers from your piece of dren vehicles :mad:

15

A 1971 blue Toyota Corolla. I bought it for $100 when I was in High School. It had been rear-ended so the trunk wouldn’t close properly, I had to bungee-cord it down. This also had the neat effect of creating a vacuum that would suck exhaust fumes into the trunk, which would seep into the car, causing dizzyness and headaches if you drove for more than 30 minutes.

Fun times!

16

1979 dodge aspen station wagon

17

Reminds me of a Blazer one of my sisters had. One of the cargo-area windows shattered while she was driving - she later found a bullet back there. That window didn’t just shatter, it was shot!

18

A green Dodge Dart Swinger. I think it was a '72.

The poor mans Nova.

19

I worked my butt off when I was a teenager and saved up enough money (plus matching funds from Dad) to buy a six year old 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454.

I went through quite a few sets of rear tires with that car.

20

My first car was a red 1989 Chevy Beretta. I don’t remember how many miles it had on it but do remember that the damned thing wouldn’t turn off sometimes. It had no problem starting but it just wouldn’t stop when I wanted to.

I gave it to my aunt