My first car was a 1988 navy blue Toyota Corolla, purchased in September 1994. It cost me $3800. I was 24 at the time and still living with my parents but due to move out soon (hence the reason for buying the car). I drove it for 6½ years, taking the mileage from 63,000 to 121,000 in that time. It ran well until the last few months, when gas mileage dropped drastically and the engine was overheating after driving it for just a few miles. A repair estimate of $2300 in April of 2001 with a two-page list of recommended repairs from the mechanic convinced me that it was time to trade it in.
Warped head?
A 1986[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] Nissan pick-up (I was told they made two models that year, this was the second one, so “unofficially” it was a 1986[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] (I have no idea if that’s true, just what I was told.)
It was nice, because it was a stick shift. I think everyone should have a stick shift as their first car so they can learn to drive one (well, actually, I think EVERY car should be stick shift, but that’s a rant for later.)
It was silver and brown. Brown, because the back half (the bed of the truck) was removed and replaced with a wooden bed made of of pressure treated wood. For those that are confused, this is a common thing to do where I grew up, because people drove trucks until they died, and what’s the point in getting rid of a truck if all that’s wrong is a rusty bed that won’t pass inspection? Well, rip the thing off and build a bed yourself!
I didn’t build the bed, it came that way from the guy we bought it from. Paid $600 for it in 1999 (personally I think that was too much, but my dad got it and then told me the price and I had to pay him back. Ever heard of haggling, dad?) It was the summer before my senior year of HS. My friends laughed at me, because I was driving a “redneck” truck (of course, they all had 1980’s civics, corollas, and whatnot that were in no better condition) but when something needed hauling form point A to point B, who did they ask? Plus, having only one extra seat, I was never the one they asked to drive when we went to the movies, bowling, etc…
The worst part was that 1) it had no weight in the back, and 2) had rear wheel drive (no 4 wheel) and no snow tires. We put large sand bags back there, but I still got stuck in the occaisional dirt driveway in thw winter and had to be pushed or towed out by my brothers 1985 Jeep Cherokee. That car was actually meant to be mine (it also belonged to my sister before he had it, and my dad had it before then.) But my brother managed to convince my parents to let him keep it for college. I feel shafted that out of my parent’s three kids, I was the only one who had to pay for their first car.
1982 bruise-coloured Chevette, bought for me by my mom for about $600.00 I think (the little old lady who owned it before me never bought it, so it was in “good” condition). It would go 40 miles an hour before it began shaking like it was going to come apart. Man, the times I had in that car. Let’s see, there was the hole in the floor…the time we crammed eight people into it…all the phone numbers I let people scratch into the strange crumbly plastic surface of the doors…the rotten smell of the orange juice I’d spilled and let sit for many months…and then, of course, its final trip, when my ex-boyfriend was driving it and the steering just suddenly gave out and the wheel could spin around in his hands. I think we got $20 for it at a local wrecking yard.
I’ll never forget you, Speed Racer! sniff
1965 Mustang convertible like this but with a white top and interior and an automatic transmission in 1968. I think it cost about $2,000 and my car payments were $39/mo. Boy was I hot! 
A 1972 Olds Cutlass SS, bronze body with a white hard top. I paid $200 for it and drove it for all of 4 weeks before I was rear-ended and the car was totaled. I did get about $1000 from the other driver’s insurance company, but I’d have rather had the car.
My first car was a converted mail jeep. No seats inside except the driver’s seat which was on the right side of the car. My then boyfriend bought it for me for $1600. When we broke up his mother (we were just out of high school) insisted that he ask me for the money or the car. He ended up coming over and asking me for half the money. I gave him $800. Ended up trading it in for a chevy van. This was 1979 so Chevy vans were very cool.
I had a 1986 Ford Mustang LX Hatchback V6. It was the last of the V6s until the mid 90s. I had that thing from 1990 til around 1996 or so when I got rid of it. It had been in an accident and the right side was damaged. I had it towed when I couldn’t get it to start any more. The alternator on that thing was a piece of crap, I think I replaced it 10 times, but I got real good at doing it and could do it in about 30 mintues or less. Still it was a fun car to drive.
1949 Plymouth 2 door, flathead six, three speed on the column (of course). Paint totally oxidized, radio broken, interior somewhat worn, but worth every penny of the $50. I gave my Dad for it. It had this HUGE back seat, see…
Cool! My first was a '79 GLC that I bought in the summer of 1987 for $800. It was christened “The Land Speeder” and I drove it until 1991 or so when even the plastic parts were crumbling apart. Lots of memorable experiences in that car…I believe it is still down in the junkyard at Donaldson’s Wrecking in Orange Cove, Ca (I used to be able to see it from the road when I drove past).
Oh, my sweet, sweet first baby …
1974 Ford-Mercury Comet, 2-door. Orange body, with a white hood & roof. Black and orange interior – like driving around in a Halloween jellybean mixture. My folks bought it for me as my Christmas-birthday present in 1984, and paid $500 for it.
Law, how I loved that car. It took me from NY to Savannah, GA & back twice, and had done a Texas-NY trip X3 for the prior owner, my godfather, a mechanic.
It had a bumper sticker that said “URBAN ASSUALT VEHICLE,” but everyone just called it the Daithimobile. I owned it for 4 years, and then sold it for $250. The next owner owned it for a month before it gave up the ghost.
Excuse me while I mist up …
White '81 or '82 VW Rabbit – bought in the summer of 1990 for about $1600 (by my father); I drove it until 1994, when my mechanic said it wasn’t worth repairing anymore. The guy who sold it had installed a better stereo with a bass booster, and he’d put bigger wheels on it (cost a damn fortune to replace the tires!). It came with a crab shell on the dashboard, which I named “Christopher” and kept in place for as long as I had the car. I had to keep quarts of oil in the trunk, the passenger side door didn’t always close (a screwdriver lived in the glove box), and whenever it rained there would be a puddle under the pedals (a turkey baster accompanied the screwdriver). Sometimes I still miss that car. 
My first new car was a 1994 Mitsubishi Mirage, bought for around $10k (by me), driven for 10 years. No serious mechanical or structural problems the whole time, but I don’t miss that car at all.
!965 Buick Wildcat, four-door, purchased for $350 in early '73 from an elderly private owner.
The beastly thing was bronze with a white roof, sported four snow tires, had a huge V8 engine that put out something like 325 HP, and while solid overall had some corrosion around the windshield that caused it to rain inside whenever the weather was wet. For some reason it never occurred to me to try and seal up the leaks with Bondo or some such material. Kept it for about a year and half, at which point a number of mechanical problems began to present themselves. Sold it to a friend for $150; after a few months he sold it on for even less to another friend who bought it solely to drive round a horse track at derelict farm owned by his family. After a couple weeks of high-speed dirt-trackin’ the engine gave out, at which point it was abandoned.
I had a series of old cars in rapid succession. The first though was a '71 International Scout II with the 345 V-8. I bought it in college in CO for $600 and after bombing around town, rebuilding the engine, and falling in love with it, I decided to try and drive it home to CT. I made it to Kansas, barely. Stranded I bought a '70 Ford Econoline van, with the camper set up. The right side was smashed in, it had only one headlight, and the steering had 180 degrees of play in the wheel. But it was mine for $200. Drove that thing 1500 miles and sold it for $1000 when I got home. Then I bought a '80 Camaro RS for $600, but it never made it out of my garage under its own power. I loved them all, but I miss the Scout the most.
My first motor-powered transport was a 1978 Honda 550cc motorcycle. Paid about $600 for it around 1985-86. I had this until about 1993.
My first car was a 1958 T-bird (well, my girlfriend and I got it together). This would have been about 1988-89. Paid around $800 for it. It didn’t need much work to get it going. The damn thing was too big and I hated driving it. My girlfriends brother loved it so her parents worked a deal they would buy us another car and we’d give him the T-bird. She found a 1963 MKII Midget for about $1000 and I fell in love with it. She ended up driving the Honda something and I kept the Midget.
I only had the T-bird for about a month. That was about how long the brother had it until he wrapped it around a telephone pole.
Really, I consider the MG my first car. I only drove the t-bird once or twice. I hated that car. I had more fun cleaning it and getting it running than I did behind the wheel.
I had the Midget until I moved out of that town (1994) and I sold it to a couple guys who fix up old British cars and race them.
And yes. Almost everyday I kick myself for selling the MG.
Once I get moved in a few months I plan to stay put for years. I’m going to try and track down another Midget or Sprite as my “weekend” car.
A Toyota Corina I bought while in okinawa. $300. Had it for 4 months then the insurance ran out and I bought a 1980 Celica which I kept for a year and a half then sold to someone else when I left Okinawa. The Corina was meh but I really liked the Celica and wish I could have kept it.
What great stories in this thread! My first was a white 1968(?) Volvo 142. Man that little thing could go! Still to me, my ultimate summer car - hitting that long road up to Point Arkwright, like Neil Young once said “Get me to the surf on time…” My grilfriend got her in the split, and she sold her to help raise funds to go live on a kibbutz. I loved that little gal. The car, not the girlfriend.
mm
I’m only 19, so I’m still on that first car.
97 Mitsubishi Eclipse. White. Still really nice after all these years. My mom’s thing is that she gives us her car when we start driving and she buys a new one for herself. You wreck the car, you buy your own from then on.
My brother promptly wrecked the Pontiac Sunbird he was given back in 1997 or so. Ran through probably 20 cars since then.
My car should last me through college. I love it. It may be pretty old but doesn’t look like an old car (minus the fact that everyone knows they pretty drastically changed the body style twice since 97).
Calling it a “car” is a bit charitable, perhaps, as “lemon” might be more accurate, but… my first set of wheels was a Fiat 128 wagon. 1976ish, I think. My parents bought it used from friends in 1980, so I’d have transportation in college. I think they paid perhaps a grand, maybe less.
The Fiat dealer knew me by name before I had it a full year.
The clutch cable had to be replaced once, the entire clutch another time. The windshield wiper motor died twice. The head gasket once. Some wheelwork, several times. It only stranded me once (the clutch cable incident - common, as my brother’s Fiat did the same). I replaced it as soon as I humanly could - all in all, I owned it barely 2 years. Repair bills averaged 100 a month the entire 2 years. FOr a poor college student and newly-minted graduate, that was painful.
The next car was a brand-new Dodge Omni, which was an improvement (that says something about that poor Fiat).