What Was Your First Car?
Wednesday August 6, 2008
Classic Mustang at Hot August Nights, Reno, Nevada.
Photo ©Stan White
After the Anglia, I moved on to real British sports cars. I owned two TR-3s and had a friend with a TR-4. Others in our gang had Alfa Romeos, Porsches, and Austin Healeys. We felt quite superior to the uncouth masses cruising around in the detested Detroit iron. Unfortunately, they were quite a bit faster than our refined foreign machines, which tended to make us a bit jealous. Even so, speeding tickets were not hard to obtain.
What was your first car? Was it cool, a junker, or something in between? Was it something I might see at Hot August Nights or is it more likely part of a refrigerator?
Comments
Mine was definitely not hot!
It was a 15-year old Toyota Tercel. My mother made me sell it after it stalled in a Seattle intersection with her in the passenger seat; we were nearly killed by an on-coming bus.
Ah, memories!
My first car was a hand me down from my parents: A 13-year-old Dodge Caravan. Very uncool – I was 24 and my friends joked that I looked like a soccer mom driving that thing around. But it was came in handy, and I even used it to help a friend move.
My first car that I actually bought was a Toyota Prius in 2002. *Very* cool! It now has almost 100,000 miles on it and still runs great. Woohoooo! Go green!
My first car was a 1978 Chevy Caprice Classic wagon… in a sort of metallic rust color that had weathered to something approaching “rotting pumpkin orange.”
It was approximately the same length as a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine.
This was in 1989 or so.
My first car was a 1953 Austin-Healy Sprite. The car was as old as I was when I bought it for $125.
My first car was a 1990 Chevy Cavalier, 2 doors, in baby blue. The air conditioning rarely worked and it sagged to the ground when a particularly overweight friend rode shotgun. Definitely on the junker side of the scale. But I loved it because I bought it with my own money, which I had earned singing. Imagine, getting paid enough to sing that you could buy a car!
I had an early-’90s Mazda 323 SE. The only thing I cared about was whether the tape player worked and how the speakers sounded. I’m not much of a car guy, but I sure do care about my sound system.
My first car was incredibly cool, in a decidedly offbeat sort of way. It was a hand-me-down from my parents, a 1985 Chevy Cavalier five speed in bright yellow! This was 1992, so it was already seven years old.
I cracked the a/c block taking a bump at high speed about a month after I got the car. There was no power steering. The clutch had a super-tricky sweet spot.
I was a major goth/punk, so my friends and I covered the sagging headliner with safety pins. We bound, gagged and pierced a stuffed Kermit the frog and hung him from the rearview mirror. We named the car Gertrude.
I loved that car! When I went to college a few hours from home, though, my parents bought me a black 1989 Mazda RX-7. They kept the Chevy as a spare, and it lasted until it was hit from behind at 50+ mph, finally totalling it. That car had almost 350,000 miles when it was totalled, and probably could have gone another 100K or so.
My first car was a Chevy Nova. The only thing hot about it was the color — fire-engine red. I banged it up pretty good, but it was a good car!
Ahhhh, the things we used to do in cars! Somehow, I just can’t seem to fit in the backseat like I used to! Haha. Anyway, my first car was a 1966 Mustang, and no it was not stock. Mag wheels, jacked up in the back, glasspacks (or whatever made the muffler roar), that car was fast and so cool. Unfortunately, I ran into a mountain at the river in it and neglected to check the oil and there was a tear or something in the oil thingy and it all leaked out….the bottom line, I blew the engine in my baby and was no longer “Mustang Debbye”. Sad, but true tale….
Wow… you were all rich kids. My first car was a 1966 Dodge Dart. It was over 10 years old when I got it. But how many people can say that they’ve had a car whose automatic transmission was shifted by “radio buttons” on the dashboard instead of a stick of some sort?
My first car was a very used Opal Manta. I shared it with my brother and sister and we were so very cooooool.
My first car — 1929 Model A. It was 5 years older than I was. It was stored in a farmer’s chicken coop.
I learned to drive and got my first driver’s license with it.
Wish I still had it.
A canary yellow Opel Kadett. It was a real rust bucket, with a hole in the floor on the passenger side and a screetching fan belt you could hear miles away… but I was a student and ‘I had wheels’ so what did I care? I knew I had to give it up when my breaks failed one day and I had to go through the red lights in a really busy intersection (luckily I survived to laugh about it!)
Mine was a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix. By the time I retired her, the ceiling hang low, the A/C hardly worked and the brakes barely stopped at a yardstick let alone a dime. But she sure was fast and I loved ‘er long time.
I was born in the UK, i know Ford Anglias, I haven’t seen one in Britain for years…
My first car was when I lived in the UK. It cost $150, it was a Vauxhall Nova (not a Chevvy Nova) and several key components were held on with duct tape. It ran with no oil, no water, did about 35 mpg and I loved it to bits. Sigh.
Ha! Great rides. Mine was an aqua ‘65 Chevy Impala, and it wasn’t too bad until my sister smashed the front quarter and Dad replaced it with a blue one from a junkyard! Then it was a true two-toned junker. We’re talkin’ 1972.
A 2 year old black Geo Prizm which had amazing gas mileage. It supposedly rivals the gas mileage that hybrids have today but it felt like plastic so I’m glad I never got in a bad accident.
A 1960 Ford Falcon, baby blue. Definitely not hot. This was 1964. And I shared it with my sister. But wheels meant independence, so we loved it!
So klong ago I hardly remember the name – I think a Chevy Impala of my folks that I Share with brother or else something similar, my grantdomther bought, that I shared with my sister. I think the first car I bought my self was a VW suped up beetle, The last car I just bought is a TDI Bug which gets 55 mpg, In between I had 4WD SUV types which I really miss.
I had a ‘78 Pontiac Grand Prix, two tone blue and jacked up in the back. It broke down every time I tried to go somewhere, but I was just happy for some freedom from the ‘rental units.
The first car I bought myself was a 1973 Pontiac Firebird, navy blue with a white top. Used. I had it painted a prettier light blue and had the vinyl top dyed. Let’s just say I should have left it with its original colors. It had an 8-track, and the previous owners gave me their old 8-tracks. Through these, I discovered the Stones, Traffic (Stevie Windwood), the Guess Who (”American Woman”) and Yes…albums I never would have known about otherwise. If I’d kept those 8-tracks, I bet I could sell them on eBay for a small fortune right now. Or not.
Well I’m 17 so I’m still driving my first car. It’s a gray 1992 Oldsmobile 88 Royale. Made 1992-1993. My grandfather purchased the car around the early 90s, drove it for a few years until he turned 84, gave it to my dad, now I drive it. The upholstery on the ceiling and around the sides of the car has basically turned black and rotted, the steering wheel is cracked and the air conditioning doesn’t work. I love it, my mom has a shiny Kia Sedona but I still prefer the oldsmobile.