What Was Your First Car?

[Janus]

Mine was a 1962 Buick Special that I "inherited" from my folks. I started driving it in '74.
It had a 198 cubic-inch V-6 engine.
The Buick Special was also named "Car of the Year" for 1962.

Here's an image of a 1962 Buick Special:
http://www.canamauctions.com/images/11162005/97.jpg

So, what was your "first car"?

 

[Pyrrhus]

Well for my first car, i was really lucky . My father gave me his 2000 Lexus LX 470.

http://www.carseek.com/car_images/00lexuslx470.jpg

 

[scorpa]

My first car was a 95 Ford Escort...I hated that car...so incredibly gutless it wasnt even funny.

P.S I hate you Cyclovenom :P

 

[Astronuc]

I drove my parents used VW's, and the first car I owned was a 1971 Volvo 142E, which I also inherited from my dad. Nice simple 4 cylinder in-line, electronically fuel injected, 4 spd manual with electronic overdrive.

I got about 35-40 mpg. Unfortunately, a series of bad mechanics doomed the car. The last mechanic skipped town in the middle of the night with the local police department after him.

 

[Moonbear]

My first car was a 1984 Ford Tempo. The company my step-father worked for had already run it to the ground by not changing the oil, so it needed an entire engine overhaul, but it was a great first car...well, except for the zebra print seat covers my step-father thought would be a really cool surprise for a teenager and her first car. I never had the heart to tell him how NOT my style that was, so it was the subject of many a joke among my friends. I put up with it, because I was just thrilled to get my own car, which I never expected (apparently, the ulterior motive was that it would spare the family car from being put out of commission when I got in my first accident...not if, when...my parents did trust my driving, but they're also rather practical about things like that, and since most of my driving was on a VERY busy highway in NJ, they figured it was inevitable that I'd be in an accident my first year driving...and sure enough, I was, when someone rear-ended me in heavy traffic ).

 

[Integral]

My dad was a collector of sorts, so I learned to drive in '55 Chevy PU and and '51 Willys Overland (Jeep station wagon) oh yeah, dad had a mechanic friend drop (Wedge?) a Chevy 265 V8 into the jeep, it was great fun!

The first car with my name on the title was a '73 Toyota Corolla, nice little car which I bought about 1 month before the "gas Crisis" hit in the fall of '73.

 

[hypatia]

My first ride was a 1942 willys jeep, which I bought in 1973 for 125 dollars. Had it for about a year.

 

[franznietzsche]

1989 Lincoln Town Car. Big old grandma boat.

On the upside, six months later I had a 1998 Chrysler Sebring Convertible (from before they made them look like crap). Still have that car.

 

[ptabor]

late 80's pontiac phoenix, followed by a 95 chevrolet beretta that died (and I"m in the process of fixing with a friend) and now I drive an 85 olds cutlass - which is also dying due to various mini holes in the radiator.

beaters one and all.

 

[DaveC426913]

1978 Toyota Tercel. They even have the colour right.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/80Tercel.jpg
It was called The Pumpkin.

 

[brewnog]

My first car was a classic Ford, with the 79 cubic inch Endura block and fuel injection.

Ok it was a Fiesta, but it's still going, and it's still one of the fastest things I've ever been round a roundabout in.

 

[turbo]

64 Corvair 500 coupe. Never had to change the oil - just kept adding, and it changed itself. Next was a '65 Mustang 2-door that was rusting away before my eyes until one day at work, a careless guy smashed into it with a Grade-all.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A $500 '68 Datsun P/U - used primarily for thrashing on mountain dirt roads. In spite of the jumps, power slides, and even floating the valves a few times [nothing hit], I sold it running. My next car was a '72, 240Z. Now that was a very fun car!

 

[Echo 6 Sierra]

Mine was a '64 Impala 4 door with a 283 Power Glide:!) . I paid $500 for her. The engine caught on fire one day while stretchin' her and I haven't been the same since.

 

[jtbell]

Mine was an orange 1974 Volkswagen Beetle, handed down to me by my parents.

When I was an undergraduate, I didn't own a car. I went to a small college in a tiny village, and you could walk anywhere in no more than ten minutes. It was about a 45-minutes drive from home, so I spent about every second weekend at home, with my parents driving me back and forth, and I drove their cars while at home.

When I was in graduate school, I didn't own a car most of the time, because I rode a bicycle almost everywhere on campus and in town. My roommate had a car that we used for grocery-shopping once a week. When traveling out of town, I usually took a bus or train, and rented a car a couple of times.

Finally, as I was finishing my Ph.D. my parents decided I probably would need a car when I got my first "real job", and they had both retired so they didn't need two cars any more. So I got the Beetle that my mother had been driving around town. I had it for six years, and then the floor started to rust out. When I drove in the rain, my feet got wet!

It was kind of sad saying goodbye to that Beetle, because I had been riding in or driving Beetles for 27 years. My parents bought their first Beetle when I was nine years old, and we always had one in the family until I sold the orange one.

 

[Cyrus]

I have a 1998 Accord, which the transmission just decided to go bad on me today, again. This will be transmission number 4. All paid for by Honda.

Despite the transmission, it's a very good car. 120k miles on it.

 

[Moonbear]

I have a 1998 Accord, which the transmission just decided to go bad on me today, again. This will be transmission number 4. All paid for by Honda.

Despite the transmission, it's a very good car. 120k miles on it.

I don't consider a car that repeatedly has a major problem like a bad transmission to be a very good car (unless your driving style is unusually hard on transmissions, and it's not that the parts are defective). Is it still under warranty that they're covering it? If so, I'd sell it before that warranty runs out! You don't want to be stuck replacing a transmission out of your own pocket.

 

[Cyrus]

Honda has a recall on it, so they have to change it as long as it breaks. This one has only about 20-30k miles on it, so it should not have gone bad this soon.

But the car steers very very well.

"[URL

 

[Danger]

Mine was a '64 Impala 4 door with a 283 Power Glide

"Slip'n'slide with a Powerglide"
My first was that same engine combo in a '65 Beaumont. Most useless thing that I've ever seen in my life. It put a rod through the pan the first time that I took it over 100 mph.

 

[Janus]

After the Special quit, the first car I ever bought was a '65 Ford Galaxy 500 with a 289 V-8. (While shopping for cars, I looked at a '66 Mercury Comet, but when my dad opened the hood and saw the 427 V-8, he said " No way, You'll kill yourself!")
The car was very clean, but used a little oil. After I had owned it for a year, my dad suggested that we do a ring job on it; he'd supervise while I did the work. Unfortunately, right after we started he ended up at the VA hospital for a few weeks. I ended up doing the job alone with just the verbal advice I could get from him on visits.
I goofed up the job. One of the head gaskets leaked water into the oil, and it overheated on my first test drive. It took two attempts to solve the problem, but then it threw a rod (probably from the strain of overheating and running with water contaminated oil).

The car I bought to replace it was a '70 Ford Torino (With a 302 V-8; the same basic engine as the 289, with a different bore and stroke), which I had for a year or so before it started using oil. Spooked by my last attempt at major car repair, I traded it in for a '71 Camaro (350 engine).

The Camaro turned out to be a problem from nearly day one. First, I had to get a new carburator. Then it developed a leak somewhere around the rear window that I never could seal or find, so in rainy weather (which we get a lot of in Oregon) water would collect in the trunk and would soak the carpet behind the driver's seat. The suspension had been lowered to improve handling (It cornered like it was on rails), but this meant that everytime you drove over a speed bump it bottomed out, which tore a hole in the exhaust system. I kept having to patch it. Then it cracked a head, which cost me $400 to get fixed. Then it started having starter problems. You'd go out, turn the key and... Nothing. I replaced the solenoid a few times and even the entire starter and it would still suddenly decide that it wasn't going to turn over. After it stranded me in front of a convienience store 45 miles from home, I had had enough. I had a friend who lived in the area sell it for me.

Meanwhile, I was without wheels (Which I needed to get to and from work), short of cash, and had no established credit, so I bought the first car I could afford, a '70 AMC Ambassador.

I kept the Ambassador until I got married and we bought the first brand new car I had ever owned, a 1984 Honda CRX.

 

[turbo]

When I was a teen, I had fairly regular access to my father's Army-surplus Jeep, but I had only limited access to his nice '65 auto-tranny Impala SS (327ci, 300 hp). It was probably a smart move on his part (for my safety), since that rascal would smoke the tires with a stomp on the accelerator. He had a muscle-car tendancy, and only reluctantly sold off his 283 ci '57 Chevy Bel-Air when he decided that a station wagon was more practical for a big family. I learned early that I could get the speed thrill cheaper with motorcycles, and concentrated on buying junky cars for cold-weather transportation, while trying to keep the bikes top-notch.

 

[chroot]

I originally owned a Pontiac Sunbird, which was a pretty miserable piece of crap, but a good value at $7,000 for a car with 9k miles on it. I paid for it with high-school science fair winnings.

After graduating college, I had stars in my eyes and bought a 2001 Honda S2000. It's still a great car, and has required absolutely zero unscheduled maintenance for 110k miles. It's beginning to show its age, though it's still a great car. It was admittedly a lot of fun -- I joined car clubs, went to the track, and did all that kinda stuff.

Now, I look back on the ~$60,000 I have dumped into the car itself, gas, taxes, registration, insurance, maintenance, tires, and everything else, and realize what an enormous, silly waste it was.

I prefer riding my bike, and will soon be moving close enough to work that I won't ever need to drive to work again. I would be heartbroken if someone stole my bike, but I honestly would probably just laugh if someone stole my car. I've come full-circle, from being a "car enthusiast" to a disdainful anti-car activist. Life is odd.

- Warren