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.
Sweet! Me too.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1969 Chevy Nova. Blue. Just what I needed at the time – good, basic transportation. Never had any problems with it.
Mine was a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring. It looked just like this one, but beige
462 JBV was the licence plate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Me too. If I were Leno, I’d have one.
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.
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.
Me three. 1968 bright yellow VW bug convertible.
StG
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.