What was your first car?

My first car was a 1987 toyota celica GT-S which my aunt sold dirt cheap to my father for $1000. I think this was in 1998 when I was 17. It sat in the driveway for a good many months until I both got my driver's liscence (after a 3 week crash course on driving an automatic) and finally learned to drive a standard. Unfortunately my father decided my first lesson driving a standard would be to back my very own car out of the driveway. I had no idea what I was doing and promptly backed into a tree, narrowly missing destroying the left taillight! I'm pleased to say that is the only dent I have ever put in a car. I loved that car. It got me through my teenage "drive as fast as possible in your hot sports car" phase. It really lasted fantastically and would still be on the road if it hadn't had such a big rust problem thanks to it's Chicago and New England homes. It sprung a gas leak about a year ago and the cost of fixing it was just not worth it. Poor thing.

My second car is the salsa red sitting outside my window right now. Being paid for with my first real job (ie post college).

 

First cars I drove were parents 61 Chevy Impala convert and 57 Chrysler 300C (392 cid and 375 bhp, 2 progressively linked 4bbl carbs). With the air cleaners off, the sound of the suck with wide open throttle was incredible: 1 barrel per cylinder. That was neat in those days.

First car I bought was a 63 Triumph TR3B. It had a 105 hp 4 banger with twin SUs that needed tuning weekly. Very nice power to weight ratio, but crappy track ... and this was before radial tires were popular. Lots of fun and noise without having to go like a bat out of hell.

Lots of interesting cars since. 66 Mustang, 71 GMC window van, 71 240Z, 68 912 Targa, 89 Safari van, 83 911 Targa. Each provided a neat fit to a percieved need until my Safari van died and I bought an 01 Yukon.

It serves my purposes, but my choice was a process of elimination among the brands until I was left with only one, rather than having the vehicle jump out at me.

The 04 Prius I'm about to buy jumps out as the perfect runabout I need now. The hatchback makes a big difference to me, too. With gas running up, the high tech solution (with goodies, too) seems right. And it feels like the same power to weight ratio I remember in the TR3 ... just a lot more comfortable. Back to my youth in my old age!

 

1969 Dodge Dart.....when Chrysler still new how to build the best engines around, the 225 cubic inch slant 6. Next one had an equally good engine, the 318 V8. They went down the tubes in the mid 70's though and have never recovered.

 

In 1971 when I was 17 I bought a 1933 Rolls Royce that I kept for almost a year and sold for double what I paid: $2,750!

That car had a sterling silver ashtray, for pete's sake!

(Sorry, Pete :mrgreen: )

Peace

 

My first car (now my GFs car) was a Suzuki Swift (don't know what it's called in the USA). It has a 1.3 litre engine with no injection or anything special. Only 70 BHP, but since the car weighs a meager 735 kilos it's still pretty nimble and quick (up to 120 km/h).

It's now 13 years old (just had its birthday on 23 of March) and has over 160000 kms on the odometer. Still going strong, bit of rust here and there and the shocks aren't that great. But the engine is lovely.

Still have my second car: Peugeot 206 1.9XTD (diesel, indeed . I traded it in on the Prius (which will come soon I hope, but I fear it will be at least 6 months away, if not more).

Got a picture of it:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.xs4all.nl/~krkr/peug/peugbatavier.jpg

 

First car was a Mars Red (code for reddish/orange) 1980 VW Cabriolet convertible. Got the car in '91, and drove it for 3 years until I was give a '85 Silver VW Cabriolet for High School graduation.

Dad stuck with the VW's because he used to have a Beetle and knew he could fix anything that broke on it. That was a good thing, too, because between the two VW's (the red and the silver one) we changed out or replaced almost everything!

I loved the car, though. There is nothing like driving through the mountains on a nice spring or fall day with the top down. Like Danny's Paseo, I knew every sound that the car made, and knew how to coax it to get me where I needed.

When Dad said "Son, you really should look at getting another car" I knew I had to move on. You know it's a bad sign when the chief mechanic on your car tells you to get a new one. I moved on to a '96 Camry, the second Toyota in our family (which now owns 4 Toyota -- 2 Camrys, an MR2, and a Tundra).

Tim

 

First car was Dodge Coronet. Had one Prius like feature: shift was on the dash (buttons).

First new car was a Saab:
It got about 33 mpg, 0-60 in 28 seconds,
top speed around 70
2 cycle engine 3 cyl
freewheeling to save on gas
Best feature was it started easily at 30 below 0 degrees F

 

My first car is this Silver #9 Prius. It is a beautiful car!!! Can't wait to be able to drive it on my own though. Going to take the drivers test on my 16th Birthday, April 23.

 

Got to love the slant six 225. Had one in a 67 Valiant. On blocks from Sept to Spring break...just put tires back on and oil and we were ready to head from Mich State to Fl. Never missed a beat.
First car was 64 Impala with 15,000 miles on it. Seemed back then that the rule was if it had more than 20k on it, you were buying someone else's troubles.
Best was original 64.5 Mustang. Some day once tuition payments stop I'll get another.
Tom

 

A sorta add on to the topic but still dealing with first cars...

My parents had a 1979 Red Ford 1-Ton truck for pulling horse trailers and my grandma had a 1979 Red Grenada. ('79 was a big car year in our family I guess.)

I would drive both of those cars from time to time (as I was learning to drive.) One day I forgot to switch keys and amazingly enough they both started with the same ignition key.

Now, if I can only get the same SS key to work on my Prius and upcoming Hylander!

 

1st car. My parent's old 82 Montecarlo. Got that in 1990... That lasted 2 yrs, until I got. My sisters' 82 Ford Escort, which only lived for 2 semesters (When all the guys at Sear's Auto Care know your CAR by name, there is a problem...) My parents then gave me my first 'new' car. A 92 Pontiac Sunbird... 'sunny' finally retired this year, my hubby traded her in for my yet unnamed Salsa Red.

The 1st car I actually chose to get... A 98 - 6 speed Trans-Am. Tons of fun until I hit that &^%$#* Sepulveda Pass every rush hour.

 

From the ancient one. Learned to drive a Model T around the cinder track at Cornell 1946. My brother sold me his 1937 Chrysler conv sedan for $50 in 1948. It had 5 cylinders one piston was missing and the intake was blanked off. Couldn't stand it and got a 1936 Plymouth conv coupe with rumble seat. Lasted 4 yrs. until 1954. Memories.......

 

First car I drove after getting my license was Cadillac Cimmarron (87 I think), my father's. Nice car actually, Dolby sound (cassette only), ran with a bad computer, transmission rebuilt several times, and recontruction after a deer collision by my father (he was OK). I was allowed to drive it to death (cracked radiator). I still have the gold-colored keys somewhere...

First car I actually bought was 93 Corolla. Awesome car, bought used in 96 /w 74K miles on it. Put a CD player in it in 2000, drove it during Hurricane Floyd (three times !), and even a flood puddle or two. Replaced alternator 4 times (one of them was rebuilder's fault, it blew a 100-amp fuse due to a short).

In Dec 02, the Corolla's service costs to keep it in good shape were larger than payments for new car, so my Green 02 Prius was purchased. Trade-in for the Corolla was a measily $500 due to its overall condition and milage (198K), but I'm happy anyway.

--TSK

 

Ah... I had a '88 Cavalier, which sounds exactly the same as yours. No power anything (except brakes), no rear defroster... it was ultra basic.

Odd that you mention that your electrical system died. I had the wiper control/turn stalk burn up on me twice. The first time it happened I was sitting in very heavy traffic and I noticed something that smelled like burning green peppers. Or plastic. Yeah, more like plastic. Anyhow I started sniffing and then noticed this really thin wisp of white smoke coming from out of the turn signal stalk. It got a little thicker and a lot heavier, went on for about a minute, and then stopped. I couldn't do anything about it, because traffic was stopped, and I didn't think I'd have much luck convincing people to move out of the way for me. I did decide that if the car caught fire, I was just going to run.

I lived with it for a few days, but the lack of turn signals and wipers was bad. The entire switch was just... fused together. Just a big plastic lump. You could feel it twisting and stretching when you actually tried to turn anything on move it.

Got it fixed under warranty (in 88 GM had a 10/100K warranty policy, which they quickly got rid of in 89), and then it happened a few years later. Got it fixed again and all was well for another year, then I noticed the all-too-familiar pre-fire smell one afternoon and decided it was time to trade it in for a new car.

Got 350 for it. About 300 more than it was worth at the end.

 

Andrew, new forum member here (first post!). My wife drove a 1984 Saab 900 hatchback when I met her. We upgraded to a 92 900 S 4-door in 1999 after our first child was born. We sold it for a 97 E420 but she's regretted ever selling the '84 to her 16 yo cousin who wrecked it three times right away. Someday I'd secretly like to buy and restore one and surprise her with it!

My first car was my dad's 1979 Forest Green Ford Pinto (neutered so no explosions). I called it the "lean mean forest green fighting machine". I bought one of those fake dash switches that said "smoke screen" (I was 16) and had a "triphonic" radion\ system put in on the cheap. Basically one speak in the front and two in the back. Went on quite a few dates and logged a few miles in that thing.

Looking to buy a Prius soon...or later it appears.

By the way, I live in Bellevue and met RobertO at the gas station where he RAVED about his car and got me more interested than I already was.

-Matt