Your First Car

[cougartex]

My first car was a 1968 Plymouth Fury II. My first new car was a 1975 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

[jimlongley]

1949 Plymouth Wagon, actually a field car, but I did buy it myself with my own money, at 13, and I drove it back and forth to work on a farm not far away. From our barn to theirs I only had to cross 1 public road, about two miles overall depending on "shortcuts" and messing around, and if I took the railroad right of way. My buds and I kept that hunk of junk running for almost a year and then we all lost interest. Used to have to bicycle down to the filling station to get cans of gas to fill it up.

My first real, honest to goodness, on the road, car that I owned myself was a 1966 Ford Custom 500 that was on the dealership floor. A customer ordered it and then changed their mind and bought a wagon, so I got it for a bargain price.

[terryg]

Man, what a great topic. I hope this isn't too long.

The first car I drove regularly was my Dad's Cutlas Ciera. Nothing to pretty to look at, plus it had a bad seal in the steering. Anytime you turned the steering wheel too far to the right, power steering fluid would dump onto the exhaust manifold causing it to smoke up a storm. Sometimes it was horribly embarrassing, but sometimes it was hilarious!!

The first car I owned was a used 1967 or 1968 Alpa Romeo Spider. I don't have a digitized picture of mine, but if you've ever seen the movie 'The Graduate', you know what it is:



This thing was 20 years old and not even listed in the Blue Book so I couldn't get an auto loan for it. My parents had to co-sign a signature loan (around $2 or 3k IIRC) for me. They tried to get me to get something else, but I was stubborn and they believed in letting us learn our own lessons as long as we were the ones paying for it.

It was pretty popular with all my buds and a few girls. My GF at the time (now my wife) wasn't a big fan because it didn't have AC. We broke up soon after, but fortunately we got back together just before Desert Storm.

I remember the alternator died once and I didn't want to pay for the import part ($$$) so we made an adapter bracket and put in a domestic alternator.

I also drove it from NAS Memphis to Ohio while on leave to take a buddy to his GF's prom. It did ok on the way up - but the clutch was starting to die. On the way back, it was slipping so bad, I had to gain enough speed going down a hill to make sure I could crest the next hill. The car never left Memphis after that- I sold it to some used lot rather than fix the clutch.

At 6' 3" and 150 lbs, I am sure I looked like Marmaduke driving a toy car.

[rustycase]

Thats wierd we were just talking about first cars at work. Heres mine, 1971 amc javelin my dad got me before graduation. I loved that car.

[Purplehood]

I still drive my first car, and it's an awesome car! I would post a picture of it, but it is very unique and I'd rather say semi-anonymous. In the four years I've owned it, I've only seen two others; one in California, one in Texas. People say I should "trick" it out, but I'm saving my money to buy guns instead

If Pimp My Ride was still airing, I'm sure they would love to have my car on the show.

Okay, this post is simply not acceptable. We need to know what it is. Otherwise we will all have to assume that we had the coolest cars, and you did not.

[Abraham]

My first "Ride" was a used 3 speed, 5 hp Vespa. (yeah, I know it was a car, but it was transportation, sorta...)

Cost $140.00 and never failed me.

I kept it for a year and half.

I re-sold it to the guy I bought from for $100.00 - not a bad deal.

[The Annoyed Man]

My first car - registered in my name - was a 1956 Dodge Cornet Lancer D500 with a Daytona homologation special motor in it which I purchased in 1973 from my ex father in law when I was 21 years old. My first new car was a 1995 Dodge Dakota pickup truck.

[flintknapper]

'66 Mustang GT.

Managed to keep it in one piece all through high school.

Bought a lot of rear tires for it though!

[karder]

I actually bought my first car later in life than most. I just never understood what the big deal was about riding the bus. It was a 1992 mustang sedan. Not one of the cool mustangs, I literally had the dorkiest year of production for the mustang series. Still, it was super reliable and I drove it into the ground. I have only owned two cars in my life. The mustang and now an old ford bronco I bought second hand. I am going to try and keep the bronco until the good Lord comes calling. Of course, I am a motorcycle rider...but that is another thread.

[C-dub]

First car - '75 Dodge Dart, 4dr, given to me by my Grandma after she got her sister's LeBarron when she died.
First car I bought - '79 Fiat Spider 2000 convertible

First Motorcycle I bought - '83 Suzuki GS1100E, red, brand new

I do not still have either.

[cbr600]

deleted

[C-dub]

First Motorcycle I bought - '83 Suzuki GS1100E, red, brand new

I do not still have either.

My first motorbike was a '94 CBR600. I wish I still had it. I love Honda reliability.

Always had Suzuki. Ride a Hayabusa now.

[Dragonfighter]

'72 Beetle. It would flat climb a wall but was lively in a cross wind. A neighbor was a VW fan and had raced stock cars. He helped me bolt a transmission cooler and scoop to cool the oil and a filter was in line...neither things did a VW Beetle have normally. Being a teenager I pranged it good and my Dad took it to bolt a MG kit onto it. It was a hoot watching him tool down the alley on a chassis sitting on a milk crate with a gallon jug as a gas tank.

He finished it in Florida after his retirement. A few months later a seat spring broke, shorted the battery and caused it to burn to the wheels.

I miss my car and my Dad.

[ELB]

The first car I drove after getting my license was my mom's brand new 1976 Chevette hatchback-- this was the first year they were produced, and Dad traded in Mom's 1969 Chevelle to get it. I thought that was a horrible trade! The Chevette had one of GM's first (I think) econo engines, a 1.4 liter four cylinder, and of course it had no power whatsoever -- Chevy had a long way to catch up to the Japanese engines. Mom hated cars, didn't learn to drive until she was 41, and wanted an automatic transmission. That auto tranny married to that little bitty anemic engine gave a top speed of about 60 mph going down the steepest hill in our county. When I was a senior in high school, we put 22 girls into the thing, and took a picture with me sitting on the hood. Wasn't until I saw the photo in the yearbook that I realized the weight had flattened all four tires.

When I was a sophomore in college, Dad decided that I "needed" a car -- this was an astounding decision on his part, my brother and sister were shocked, not sure what prompted it unless he wanted me to come home from college more on the weekends. He gave me a 1973 (I think) Ford Maverick with an inline 6 and about 100,000 miles on it -- bought it for $400. This was in 1983, I guess. It was actually a pretty good car for a college student, easy to park, easy to maintain, looked like crap so didn't attract burglars and I didn't care about what the weather would do to it (Indiana winters are hard on cars).

My real first car was a 1978 four door Nova that I traded the Maverick for, plus some cash and a loan, when I was a junior or senior in college, can't remember which. Dad co-signed the note, but I paid for it. I think he paid the insurance. That was a really good car, V-8, had A/C (the Maverick did not, which was bad news in Indiana summers). It was some kind of pale yellow or cream color, badly stained. I spent a weekend in the local state park under a shade tree rubbing it down with polishing compound and then polishing and waxing it, and man it GLOWED after that -- everyone thought I had it painted. I drove that the rest of college, couple trips out to Denver to visit my brother, and then onto active duty with the Air Force. Somewhere in there I had it painted, I think before I left college. The guy who did it told me that after he sanded all the rust out of the rear quarter panels, the remaining steel was probably not as thick as the coat of paint he put on. (As I said, indiana winters are tough on cars with snow, sand, salt, etc).

I kept it until I turned 25 and my car insurance rates dropped dramatically -- then I bought a brand new 1984 Pontiac Firebird with gold-flecked brown paint, gorgeous wheels with gold accent, tan interior, manual tranny -- and a V-6 to keep the insurance under control -- made a HUGE difference in payments from having a V-8, and it still had great acceleration and enough top end speed for me. Man that was a pretty car! I ordered it before I went on a deployment to Saudi, and when I got back it was at the dealer waiting on me. Did I mention it was a beautiful car? I loved that thing, cleaned it all the time, even bought a small paint brush to clean the lint out of the air vents. I sold it to my girl friend's dad two years later when I transferred to Germany -- she told me later that when he was inspecting the car and found the paint brush in the center console, he asked her what it was for. When she told him, she said that clinched the deal.

That was the last car I gave a dang about -- I got an Audi 200 Turbo in Germany, was fun on the autobahn, but I missed my Pontiac. Nowadays I think cars are just big money pits and more or less hate them.

[Keith B]

1967 Chevelle SS