What was your first car...???

[emigran]

One's first car is usually quite a memorable experience...a rite of passage and more.
Mine was a 1960 Corvair Monza Spyder. It was white with the "reddest" interior you ever saw. It had four carburetors and dual exhausts...!! Ralph Nader's dream car...

What was your first car...??

 

[LizzieMaine]

1969 VW Beetle. Bought it for $600, drove it until it rusted completely away. When they loaded onto the hauler to take it away after I finally sold it, it broke in half. But it was cheap, reliable transportation while it lasted, and when it skidded into ditches in the winter, I could push it back onto the road with no help required.

 

[belfastboy]

I knew Nader was wrong......a Corvair owner that is alive to tell the tale!
My first ride was a tri tone...white/black and salmon pink 2 door 1956 Mercury. It had 8 cylinders and a 4 barrel carb. Unfortunately it was an automatic.
I paid $500 for it in 1966 sold it in 1967 so I could by something more practical to go to university....a 1966 VW Beetle. A sad day, it was.

 

[belfastboy]

1969 VW Beetle. Bought it for $600, drove it until it rusted completely away. When they loaded onto the hauler to take it away after I finally sold it, it broke in half. But it was cheap, reliable transportation while it lasted, and when it skidded into ditches in the winter, I could push it back onto the road with no help required.

Yep, my 1966 was the same, drove it into a few ditches in its time. And I could jump start it on flat ground!! It had no gas gauge but an emergency lever on the floor boards that you could flip with your foot as you ran out of gas. It gave an extra gallon or so. My downfall was flipping the lever and forgetting so that when I ran out of gas, I really was out of gas.

 

[ingineer]

First car;
Mine was a 1950 Buick which had the heater delete option, vacuum wipers, no radio.
Florida salesman car
Come to think of it it had no amenities at all.
But i paid one dollar for it.
i miss the old 61 VW replaced the motor with a Porsche rollover.
Konis, Hurst shifter, etc
Bought it from an Air Force guy it had a Japanese dealership plate on it.
So funny to pass all the Caddies on I95

 

[Stanley Doble]

I had a 61 Corvair way back when. I read Nader's book, twice. I seem to be the only person in the world who actually read it. This was the beginning of my skepticism towards all self proclaimed experts and their media campaigns.

 

[Randy]

Nice to see so many VW firsts Mine was a 73 bug, which I drove for 80k miles before trading it in for the same $ I paid for it. I still have a '74 camper (mostly original), but that bug was quite something. Man, I really miss it sometimes..

- R

 

[ingineer]

Those early Covairs wree actually great cars once you installed the EMPI? compensator bars which prevented the rear wheels from tucking in, a 30 dollar part GM left out. missing from the VW also
And take care of the battery box.
The Turbo scooted

 

[Stanley Doble]

I drove mine with no "camber compensator" and never had a problem. Neither did any of the professional drivers who road tested them when they were new. Neither did the government testers who tested them in 1972, and issued a report clearing the Corvair of being unusually dangerous to drive, which report was quietly buried. The Corvair was a tail heavy car like a VW and the handling was different but not dangerous. The main difference being if you took a corner too fast the back end hit the ditch first instead of the front end, like a normal car. But the actual cornering power was equal to or greater than the typical Detroit car of the time.

 

[ingineer]

But if you did install one , you would have noticed the difference, made the Monza or VW track as if it was like something made by Ferdinand

I drove mine with no "camber compensator" and never had a problem. Neither did any of the professional drivers who road tested them when they were new. Neither did the government testers who tested them in 1972, and issued a report clearing the Corvair of being unusually dangerous to drive, which report was quietly buried. The Corvair was a tail heavy car like a VW and the handling was different but not dangerous. The main difference being if you took a corner too fast the back end hit the ditch first instead of the front end, like a normal car. But the actual cornering power was equal to or greater than the typical Detroit car of the time.

 

[belfastboy]

First car;
Mine was a 1950 Buick which had the heater delete option, vacuum wipers, no radio.
Florida salesman car
Come to think of it it had no amenities at all.
But i paid one dollar for it.
i miss the old 61 VW replaced the motor with a Porsche rollover.
Konis, Hurst shifter, etc
Bought it from an Air Force guy it had a Japanese dealership plate on it.
So funny to pass all the Caddies on I95

A'67 bug with the Porsche engine was my dream car. Worked in a garage and a guy used to come in with the dark blue '67, stock except for the Porsche engine. I drooled each time I saw it. Bought the same stock bug in the 80's but discovered rusted engine mounts and never bothered to install the Porsche engine.....to my eternal regret!!!

 

[vitanola]

1919 Ford Coupe. Bought the ramshackle thing for $500 when I was fifteen. My father would not let me park it in our suburban garage, or driveway, and as is typical of the suburbs on street parking was prohibited. Our next -door neighbior, an elderly man who had worked at a Ford dealers shop in his youth took it in to his garage and helped me to get the thing running. I took my driver's test in that crate. In 1977.

 

[BobHufford]

In 1976 my first car was almost a '64 GTO (389 Tri-Power, 4-speed, black with white interior) for $900. One of my Dad's co-workers was selling it. He had bought it new and was now shopping for a new Camaro. He changed his mind before I could convince my Dad that I would not kill myself in it.

What I ended up buying was about 180-degrees from the GTO. A 1951 Willys wagon (2WD, F-head 4-cyl, 134 cu in, 4-speed w/overdrive). It was $350 and was a back-row-special on a local used car lot. My Mom went with me to look at it. She stayed at the dealer while I took a test drive. When I got to the first intersection the brakes failed. I somehow got around the block and back on the lot using the emergency brake. Needless to say the dealer accepted my offer as my Mom was about ready to rip him a new one. She helped me repair the brakes that evening and I drove it for about six months (leaving a cloud of oil smoke wherever I went) and then bought a '69 Austin-Healy Sprite.

Not mine ... this one is much nicer.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

1955 Chevy, just like this one in 1964-65, as a Senior in High School.

 

[Stearmen]

I had a 61 Corvair way back when. I read Nader's book, twice. I seem to be the only person in the world who actually read it. This was the beginning of my skepticism towards all self proclaimed experts and their media campaigns.

Now that you mention it, I have never read it, and I know, none of my friends that actually owned a Corvair ever read it. Funny how a book, no one ever read, had such a profound impact on the auto industry! One thing I do know, many people have flown behind modified Corvair engines with little or no problems. Speaks volumes!

 

[Stearmen]

I did not buy a car until I was 21, (always had motorcycles.) I bought for the wrong reason, to impress a woman. I had a choice of a 57 T-Bird, 62 Corvette or a 71 240Z. Well, the first two were $500 more, and I could not beg, barrow, or steal the extra money, so 240Z it was! It was a lot of fun to drive, and would out handle the first two on it's worst day. When people ask me if I regret not getting either the 57 or 62 because of what they are worth today, I just say, I would have sold them the same as the Z to buy a more powerful motorcycle! besides, if Zs were good enough for the likes of Bob Bonurant and Paul Newman, they were good enough for me! [video=youtube;4Szj0gCkFuk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Szj0gCkFuk[/video]

 

[2jakes]

First car during my college days.

​It was a 60s something Beetle, I don’t recall the exact year.

Charlie Brown paperbacks were popular & Snoopy was my hero.
So I painted him on the side door.

The rear engine door reminded me of a shield...so I painted the “colors".

 

[Trapped in T-wilight Zone]

My first car was a 1929 REO master rumble-seat coupe. I drove it to high school in '69/'70. I sold it a few years later because I decided that it was too modern for what I wanted.
Vitanola has me beat for oldest so far.
W2

 

[Zombie_61]

Yep, my 1966 was the same...It had no gas gauge but an emergency lever on the floor boards that you could flip with your foot as you ran out of gas. It gave an extra gallon or so. My downfall was flipping the lever and forgetting so that when I ran out of gas, I really was out of gas.

The problem with that "extra" gas reserve was that it was nothing more than a depression in the bottom of the gas tank. If you didn't use it regularly any solid contaminants in the gas tank would settle in that "bowl", and when you finally used it more often than not those solids would get sucked into the car's fuel system and plug it up.

And I know what I'm talking about because my first car was a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle that had that "extra" fuel lever. lol I paid $2,500 for it in 1977, had the engine and transmission rebuilt, converted it from the stock 6 volt electrical system to a 12 volt system, had new seat covers installed, and had it repainted after I rear-ended an AMC Pacer. I had it almost three years before it was stolen. :Cry:

 

[Trenchfriend]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbz7NRQW1IY

The white one, with spoiler.

That car was fun!! Sporty suspension, great exact steering, easily turning Mazda B6-licenced engine. Just fun.