What was your first car?

[AtomicEraTom]

Too bad it didn't have the 3.3 V6. Jon's had pretty good gusto for a front-drive car.

Mine was Powder Blue. I called it a Gutlass because it had no power. It could barely get out of its own way.

Another friend had an 84 Cutlass Supreme 4-door, the old body-on-frame, rear drive, with like a 305 or so in it. We called that one the Gutless Cutlass. It was a jalopy.

 

[Lily Powers]

That's another car I always wanted.

My dreams were never big. But many of them were unattained, regardless.

Just looking online for a photo of my old Ghia made me entertain the idea of having another one of those babies.

 

[Carl Miller]

The first car I owned was a 1974 VW bug. The first car I drove on a regular basis was a 1991 Chevy Caprice. That car took a LOT of abuse before the transmission gave up. I have many good memories with that Caprice. 350 TBI V8 engine, rear wheel drive, enough room for 6 people.... Everything a teenage guy could want. Sadly, the caprice was the last rear wheel drive sedan Chevy made in the U.S. I still have the car, though I'm going to pull the engine out and send it to the junkyard in the sky.

Not my car, but the same body style and the same...uh...activities I used it for...

 

[Sam Diamond]

My first car was an 80's sumpthin' Datsun B210 hatchback that my parents gave me to go to college. Oddly enough, when my son got his driver's license, my mom gave him a Mustang...

 

[Rathdown]

Just looking online for a photo of my old Ghia made me entertain the idea of having another one of those babies.

Do it Lily. They are great cars and life is way too short to drive around in something other than a convertible. (I've had both the 'Ghia and the VW beetle convertibles and loved them both.)

 

[Rathdown]

1962 Dodge Lancer, in retrospect, kind of a cool old car.

More like über cool. I've been looking for a good '62 Lancer for almost five years...

 

[Gromulus]

My dad told me if I did OK in college he would let me order a car. So after studying my life away, I was trying to figure what I could get, or what he would let me get. My older brother was 4 years older than me ann was married in the Air Force, and had bought a new Pontiac compact car with a so called GTO package.

So in Jan '65 I went down to the local Pontiac dealer and they me drive a new '65 GTO. I was hooked. I told my dad this is the car I wanted, he probably had no idea what a powerful car this was. In May 1965 I ordered my car from Pontiac, a 1965 Tempest with the GTO option. Burgundy, black interior, 4 speed Muncie transmission, Hurst shifter, 360 HP/ 389 cu in engine, with 3 two barrel carburetors, positraction, quick steering. I remember picking up my girlfriend the day I picked up the car. This started my life-long enamoration with cars. Sadly, Pontiac is no more.

Whether a first car or not, a '65 Goat is very impressive. How long did you keep it?

 

[Davey_Speedstar]

I had numerous bikes for a few years until I could raise the cash to buy:

A Royal Blue 1977 Mini - JVY 694S

She was 9 years old when I bought her in 1986 for £750 (came with 12 months MOT and 6 months tax), but keeping her on the road was crippling for a 19 year old with a heavy right foot - she ate about a weeks wages every month in servicing and repair bills...and that was before I'd put petrol in, and certainly before I'd paid my rent!!!

There's probably a picture or two at my parent's house, I must dig them out

 

[Jaguar66]

Whether a first car or not, a '65 Goat is very impressive. How long did you keep it?

Until I lost my license 2 years later. I had to promise to let my younger brother take the car for 6 months, and a year after I got it back, I traded it in '68 for the new Pontiac GTO, which was its own model by that time, not an optional package. It had a 400 ci engine, quadrajet 4 bl carb, no 3 deuces. In the end, I loved the '65 more but the draw of a new GTO was too much at the time.

The second one looked like this.

 

[Chasseur]

A $200 early 1980s Jeep Cherokee in red that my dad and I bought from a police impound auction during my first year of college. It had a busted fender and a half busted front piece. I went to the wrecking yard and found a similar model in dark brown so I cannibalized brown parts and strapped them on my red jeep. Oh it was pretty sexy. During various bumps and crashes in the Alaskan winter various other body pieces were progressive swapped out for more brown pieces from the junkyard jeep.

Like this one but missing the grill and with some badly added brown pieces on a red body:

After two year the transmission gave out and it could not go into reverse so the last year I had the jeep I used to push it out of parking spaces. One night at the restaurant I worked at washing dishes this particularly attractive waitress needed a ride a home. So I offered her a ride home. She sat in the jeep while I pushed it out of the parking space. When I got in she looked rather amused and asked, "You don't get much action with this car do you?"

After the transmision finally died I upgraded to a 1987 Chrystler Reliant K car $500 at the same police auction. This this one but in pretty snazy maroon:

 

[Gromulus]

Until I lost my license 2 years later. I had to promise to let my younger brother take the car for 6 months, and a year after I got it back, I traded it in '68 for the new Pontiac GTO, which was its own model by that time, not an optional package. It had a 400 ci engine, quadrajet 4 bl carb, no 3 deuces. In the end, I loved the '65 more but the draw of a new GTO was too much at the time.

The second one looked like this.

Wow, red stripe tires and all. They must have been the fodder of some great memories!

 

[Atticus Finch]

This isn't a photo of my first car, but it could be. My first car looked exactly like this one. It was a Carolina Blue, 1965 Mustang. It had the smaller 250 CI, straight six engine, a three in the floor, no A/C and a one-speaker AM radio. I bought it in 1970 or 1971...in poor condition for a five year old car...and my father and I spent weekends fixing it up. By helping me restore my old Mustang, Dad taught me how to maintain cars and how not to abuse them...both lessons that have proved worthwhile in life.

AF

 

[Boodles]

'52 Chevy 2 door with a 216 CID in-line 6 banger. Bought it from my father with the money from my part time gas station job, sometime in late '61 probably. I still stop and stare every time I see one of these, which anymore is almost never.

 

[Doctor Strange]

In the mid-80s, a used 1975 Dodge Dart. (I'd already had my license for a decade, but hadn't needed a car of my own: I typically borrowed one of my parents' Chevrolets or Corvairs when I needed wheels.)

It was a good car, but within a couple of years I seriously damaged the engine by driving the car for too long with the low-oil warning light on. (Proving my parents' belief that your first car should always be a used P.O.S., because you're going to make mistakes like this one - the kind you only make once, and learn from!) An expert mechanic managed to sort-of revive it, but it could only barely make 30mph, and wasn't highway-worthy thereafter.

 

[Atticus Finch]

...a used 1975 Dodge Dart...within a couple of years I seriously damaged the engine by driving the car for too long with the low-oil warning light on.

Doc, did your car have the slant-six engine? If so...and I almost hate to say this...it was a notoriously tough motor...capable of withstanding much abuse. Those engines were so tough that they were popular among local fishermen here. The guys would buy them out of wrecked automobiles and install them in commercial fishing boats...because they would run forever under the worst conditions.

AF

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yes, I believe it was still the legendary slant-six engine. But alas, driving it too far while/after it had essentially leaked all its oil damaged it sufficiently that even after major repair work, it ran... but didn't produce very much compression.

 

[Boodles]

Doc, did your car have the slant-six engine? If so...and I almost hate to say this...it was a notoriously tough motor...capable of withstanding much abuse. Those engines were so tough that they were popular among local fishermen here. The guys would buy them out of wrecked automobiles and install them in commercial fishing boats...because they would run forever under the worst conditions.

AF

Back in the old days I would see slant-six engines, factory equipped, in some commerical applications like chipper machines and air compressors. I could never quite figure out why the slant. It did seem to make some room under the hood for the long intake manifold Chrysler used. There must have been other purpose to the design.

 

[Justin B]

Back in the old days I would see slant-six engines, factory equipped, in some commerical applications like chipper machines and air compressors. I could never quite figure out why the slant. It did seem to make some room under the hood for the long intake manifold Chrysler used. There must have been other purpose to the design.

Better oil pressure and flow for one.

 

[kyboots]

My first car that I drove through college until graduation was a 1965 Plymouth Fury 1 ( out of 3 so pretty basic ) three speed on the column, dark blue former state of Kentucky car that my dad bought at auction for $800 with 80k miles on it. Only had AM radio. It had 318 cc engine and I drove it everywhere for three 1/2 more years. To Florida every Spring break ( no air ), ran forever went everywhere and no problems ever. That was one of those all time good engines. At the end of my senior year of college I bought at auction a 1968 Chrysler GTX four barrel 440 automatic with 20k miles for $880. Oh! man was I hot sh t. Drove it all through school for four more years, loved it. Do I wish I had it now!!!!--John

 

[jamespowers]

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air two door hardtop. I still have it and drive it. I never let it go. That would have been stupid.