1980 Mercury Bobcat, maroon w/silver stripe. It didn’t explode.
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.
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.
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.
Brand new one of these. Equivalent of exactly $3,333 in 1986. About 60,000 rupees at the time.
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).
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).
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.
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.
My first was a 1965 HD 50cc motorcycle, 1965 aermacchi harley davidson M50 restored by sonny's m/c repair lowell, ma (take 4) - YouTube 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.
[QUOTE=blondebear
68 VW Bug[/QUOTE]
Mine was a VW Bug from '62 or '63. Grandparents bought it in Germany and drove it in Europe when they went back to visit; brought it back and gave it to my brother; who then passed it on to me after some time went by. It only started with a lot of sweet talk, you couldn’t turn the heat off, and practically had to push it up hills, but I loved it until it crumpled like tinfoil when I was rear-ended.
In 1970 I paid $25 for a '59 Ford Fairlane that had sat out with a blown freeze plug through a Montana winter. Fortunately it was a straight six, so there was plenty of room to get at the block to replace it (I had never been under the hood of a car before). Got the replacement in, filled the radiator, cranked it up, and saints be praised, it started! Then I turned the heater on and water started pouring out of a blown heater core.
I drove it for a year or so, by which time the proprietor of the local junkyard and I got to be on a first name basis (starting with the aforementioned heater core). It was one of those cars where you’d pull into a gas station and say, “check the gas and fill up the oil.” But I learned a lot about car maintenance from it, and I still remember it with affection.
The first motor vehicle I owned was a 1971 Honda CL100 - same exact paint job as the one in the picture. My first four-wheeled vehicle was a 1971 Datsun pickup that could be consistently relied on to burn 2 quarts of oil for every tank of gas.
SS
1970 Ford Maverick. Blue and totally rusted out in the rear wheel wells, which made the blasting stereo (worth more than the car) that much louder externally. Still remember the front bumper falling off driving up the street 
Chevy Vega. Named as the 3rd worst car ever in a Life Magazine survey.
Mine was a 1969 Chevy Chevelle with 3 on the column. Had lots of fun in that car. I wish I still had it.
A used Yugo (yes, some of them made it to the secondary market). It actually wasn’t a bad car for the $500, I paid for it and had considerably less miles on it than anything else I could afford at the time. However, the most awesome thing about it was it was mine and I didn’t have to answer to anyone else about it or ask anyone’s permission to drive it. I lorded it over my siblings that I had a car while they were groveling to our parents to borrow their cars. Looking back I don’t think I have enjoyed any car so much since then.
A gently-used black 1989 Chevy Corsica. A 16th birthday present from my overly generous parents. (OK, admittedly, they spoiled me.)
Loved that car. Ran great, but more importantly - got me and my girlfriend around. All of my first sexy “fooling around” happened in that car.
Crashed it about a year after. Entirely my fault, I was driving recklessly. Scared me straight - nobody was hurt, though I did do about $5k in property damage. $4k to the city and $1k in fixing the car. That was 15 years ago and I’ve been an excellent driver since, no accidents.
1970 Ford Maverick.
It was dead in my dad’s driveway for about six months with a bad engine knock. Dad said if I got up the money to fix it, it could be mine to drive. I detassled corn that summer to get the money and read a Motor’s Manual to learn how to change the engine. One Saturday in early August '77, several friends and I swapped out the bad engine with one from a salvage yard. Drove that car for 2 1/2 years until it blew a head gasket and I junked it.
The years from then until 2008 were filled with a myriad of used rides, some good, some bad. In 2008 I bought a new Yaris. In 2009 I added a new Ranger pickup. I’m feeling the urge for a new ride now-
I’ve had only one car. It was a Datsun (1974 model I think). I bought it when I was in second year at uni (1983). I’d just got my driver’s licence and I drove to and from uni because it was quicker than using public transport. Once I’d finished my degree I sold the car.