What was your first car?

1962 Chevy II Wagon - 3 on the tree - $200

 

Mine was my Dad's 1967 Mercury Cougar V8. Got it handed to me in 1976 -- folks had moved over to a Volvo.

A very good car for me, because:

• It was heavily shielded (not to Volvo levels, mind, but it's a 60's car, and heavy). Safety first at that level of experience.
• It was a muscle car -- at least, it was in the mind of a 16-year-old mathematics geek, if you ignored the auto transmission. Thanks to the V8, if you wanted to race someone and the road was long enough, you just had to push down on the gas pedal and wait for your car to pass the other guy's. That, or...
• ...wait for the gas to run out -- which happened pretty quickly if you accelerated quickly. As you may remember, the late 70s had a little thing called the "oil crisis", and I quickly learned habits of thrift and gas efficiency. (Which I took with my into the purchase of the first car I bought (and the current car I drive), an 87 Civic DX.)
  • 
    Gave it to my younger sister when I went to college. Three months later she broke the axle. Kids!

 

My first car I owned was a 1987 Toyota Camry.

I bought it from my mother in 1991 - paying off the remaining $2K on the loan. It had 120,000 miles on it already and I gave it up at 170K after a blown head gasket warned of other problems ahead. It had been in a major accident before I got it - my mother hit a bridge column at 50 mph so the alignment was never quite right. But she walked away from that accident so we always felt it was an exceptionally safe car. When I traded it in ... I got $2K for it.

It was the base model, crank windows, basic cassette stereo. The only upgrade was cruise control.

The Prius is only the third car I've ever owned.

 

my first car was a 1970 Ford Maverick, my dad's. 6 cylinders, automatic. dont get me wrong, i loved the car, still do, and i became a big fan of ford back then because the car lasted long. odo literally went back to zero after more than 20 yrs of driving (lots of engine work along the way). mileage was really low, would gas up twice maybe 3x a week.

My brother, sister, and friends were all into toyota, so i got a celica. it now has 140,000+ miles and still runs! only repair done under hood was on a/c and radiator! engine is great. mileage around 24mpg (would gas-up like every-other week), :wink: and the rest is history!

 

My first car was a 1956 Willys CJ-5 Jeep, bought used in 1973. It threw a rod about two weeks later. Had a rebuilt engine put into it and drove it for several years. I don't remember what I paid for it. It was actually a very solid car once it had the engine replaced. I picked it because I wanted 4WD for the snow and ice here in North Dakota. Willys built them solid. Not like American Motors, that bought the "Jeep" name and began making Jeeps that were junkers before they rolled off the lot.

 

My first car was an orange 1978 Chevy Elcamino. Yep, I said orange. It had cream colored lower panels so it reminded me of a creamsicle. It was a work vehicle on my grandfather’s farm. When my grandfather died my parents inherited it, then my older sister, and then onto me in 1993. It only had an AM radio so I made my dad put an old 8 track player that he had removed form a previous car into it. The material on the interior roof began to disintegrate so I installed carpeting on the roof in its place. My fondest memory of the car was its habit of stalling at lights. If I had a destination 40 minutes away from my house I would be able to find a route that was void of all traffic lights.

 

My first car was a 1965 Corvair Monza 2 door coupe. I bought it from my Dad when I was graduating from high school in 1971 for $250. It had 2 a two speed Powerglide automatic transmission that had the shifter lever on the dash almost in the exact same position as the Prius shifter! It was the first of three Corvairs that I owned up until 1989. For those of you that may not be familiar with or don't remember much about the Corvair, it was GM's answer to VW's Beetle. 6 cylinders, air-cooled, four wheel independent suspension and the occasional oil seal leak.

 

My first car was a 1965 Pontaic Bonneville that was bought from a neighbour. Price paid was $150. This is the pig that I got to learn how to drive in. 421ci V8, and three speed automatic. Drum brakes on all four corners. White with BLACK vinyl interior, and a big ol' dent on the driver side door.

Unfortunately, it ended up getting traded in on a turd coloured Mazda B2000 pickup. Same bad gas mileage, and NO semblance of power. Oh well, they were both transportation.

 

My first car was a bright yellow 1974 VW Beetle. It cost $3,000 brand new from the dealer. It looked like a lemon and was. During the five years I had the car, I burned up the points and condenser twice; once on the way to Las Vegas. It simply ran too hot. Burned oil like crazy as well and only got about 20 mpg. I think this was the first or one of the first years of the cadilidic (spelling) converter. It was really cool looking though. It looked like the picture below. Unfortunately, I don't have any digital pictures of it. I guess there were no digital cameras in 1974. :lol:

Jeff

 

Mine was a 1979 VW Beetle Convertible. White interior and white exterior. Bought it from my parents for $6,000 in '88 and used it all through college.

I gave it back to my parents and they still have it. I could still take a photo next time I'm up there. Doesn't run I don't think since they don't drive it anymore.

I hated white cars until we had that one. Everyone commented on how "clean" the car was. It could be filthy dirty but still everyone had an impression that it is clean. Ever since then, I've had white cars...don't know why. ...Guess it is my cross to bear.

Now saying that my motorcycle is red. (As most motorcycles should be!)

 

Red 1989 Saab 900S

Any other former Saab owners out there?

~Andrew

 

My first car was a rebuilt Army jeep in Germany in 1948. A few months later my second car was more interesting. It was a 1937 Horsch bought from another GI for $400 and sold a year later for $400. It was a magnificent beast.

Bob

 

1991 cavalier. It was crappy, no power anything, a broken drivers seat, clear coat failure, but I loved that car till the day the electrical system died.

 

First car I actually bought was a 1964 Volkswagen. I got that in 1972, shortly after buying a brand new BMW R 75/5 motorcycle. To this day, I will never understand why my father cosigned for the bike. I guess he had faith in me. I paid it off, and wrecked it on several occasions. I am lucky to be alive.
While in my senior year of high school, I got to drive my brother's 1940 Chrysler New Yorker. I could sit in the back seat and stick my legs straight out without hitting the driver's seat. Suicide doors. Running boards. Six miles to the gallon. I think I spent most of the money I earned at Arby's on gas.

 

A 1966 Ford Galaxy 500. My dad "sold" it to me for $100 when I was 18. It had 90,000 miles on it. My friends called it the "narc" car because it had a faulty headlight switch that would cause the headlights to flash on and off if I drove it at night for more than 15 minutes. Cars ahead of me would pull off to the side thinking I was an unmarked cop car. It had been in several accidents and the letters for FORD front and back had been knocked loose, so I turned it into a FRRD in the front and a FOOD in the back. It was repainted Earl Schieb ("I'll paint nay car any color for $39.95 - no ups no extras".) green, but it got me where I wanted to go (most of the time). Sold it for scrap with 135K miles for $50.

 

My first car was a Honda 600 Coupe. It had two cylinders, 10" wheels, 4-speed on the dash, and got around 52 MPG. However, it was a lot smaller than the Prius, and although it had a back seat, there really wasn't enough room back there for passengers. Besides, it had enough trouble making it up hills with two people in it.

It had power brakes, but that was it. It only had an AM radio, but I added an FM tuner, and later put an 8-track under the drivers seat. It wasn't very "cool", but it was economical and got me to and from school.

 

1978 Honda Civic. Got it as a hand-me-down from the parents.

Great little car - worked right up to 1993 when the transmission (clutch) gave out and I couldn't pay to get it replaced, so I picked up a cheap chevette in the meantime, then moved to a Toyota Corolla, which I quite liked to drive.

The Prius is nicer than all the others though (obviously).

Dave

 

A 1975 Datsun B210. Paid $500 for it in 1984. It had 135,000 miles on it and a big dent in the front drivers quarter panel. Within the first week the iginition switch lock broke. My Dad took the iginition switch out of the column and strapped it up underneath the dash. I wound up making an adapter to fit the switch out of an asprin bottle cap with a blade glued into the center of it. Put the cap on the switch and from then on to start the car all you had to do was reach under the dash and rotate the cap. In hindsight, I guess it was also really my first car that I didn't have to take the keys out of my pocket to start.