Tell us about your first car!

[RandallNeighbour]

We all drive a wonderful car now, but what was the first car you were given or bought to drive when you were a kid? Be sure to include your age at the time, what you paid for it, and take a few sentences to describe it and what you liked most about it and what you hated about it. If you have pics, post them!

I'll go first:

1972 Toyota Corona Deluxe, faded red paint, Crager mags (believe it or not), very wide tires on the back, red white and blue stars and strips racing stripes up the hood, over the roof and down the back. A rare RWD Toyota sedan. Looked ridiculous with the mags and stripes, had no power whatsoever, but got me to my job at McDonald's.

Bought it off my first girlfriend's dad for $400, and sold it for $700 after I put $500 into it in a year.

Loved the fact that it had a bench seat, which was very, very good for making out with my first girlfriend. All I can remember is how that woman could swirl her tongue in my mouth and drive me absolutely bonkers... because that's all she would do with me! I look back on that car with great pleasure as well as great frustration.

Hated the car because of it's automatic transmission, which was on the column... and poorly engineered at that. It sat in a parking lot for three days once while my buddy and I tried to figure out why the stupid thing wouldn't start. Discovered it was left in gear... no key-locking device was on the car in those days when you shut off the engine with the car in gear.

Anyone else? There's got to be a million great stories out there, and I'd like to read yours!

[jfmillr]

Hmmm...first cars.
My first car was an 85 Audi 4000 quatro coupe. Not a ton of power but was fast in its own right in those days. Was all wheel drive though.
It was a charcoal grey with a grey cloth interior. It was standard transmission. I will never forget putting, I think it is spelled....Fetapaldi(?) wheels and within two weeks managed to bend both of the front wheels. I was living in Stamford Ct at the time and the roads were terrible.
No bench seat for my girlfreind at the time, but will never forget having sex in the front seat of that car on a dark night in the local park or parking lot.
My next car was an 87 Audi 5000 turbo. Fast car but really bad sudden acceleration problems. nice back seat though

[YellowJacket]

Originally Posted by jfmillr

No bench seat for my girlfreind at the time, but will never forget having sex in the front seat of that car on a dark night in the local park or parking lot.

Yeah, everyone should include those stories, too. For us, it was the parking lot of the local elementary school. I remember my girlfriend wearing those knee-high leather stiletto boots for me one night, thinking that I'd like it. I did, of course, but I asked her to take them off before we climbed into the back seat -- I didn't want them tearing up the leather.

What a dumb move!

[Brucelee]

63 vette roadster in silver blue with dark blue interior, white top. Put some chrome wheels on it later.
:dance:
Ahh, that was a great car indeed! What a summer we had.

[PasadenaBoxster]

My first car was a 198something (forget which year, it was so long ago) BMW 318i. Was a great little car! Dark Grey exterior, black interior, and was just fun to drive.

[ranbar2]

1968 Firebird purchased in 1977 for $1,000. Navy blue with white vinyl roof. 350 engine. Hydromatic transmission. Goodrich Radial T/A's. Blew the head gasket tring to keep up with a 911. My first painful experience with Porsche...until getting the bill for my 30K service. lol Sorry, no sex stories....I don't kiss and tell. I'll only say that the logistics were WAY better than a boxster!!

[YellowJacket]

1986 BMW 535i

black leather, 5 speed, brand new grey/blue metallic paint. By the time I got rid of it, it had 20% tint, the new (like 2000 model) gunmetal M5 wheels, exhaust, custom all Rockford Fosgate stereo install, including custom upolstery (I still remember my mom's expression the day we were taking the cutting wheel to the rear deck...), and almost a new engine. Ahh... those were the days.

Of course, it had no working a/c when I bought it. 1 compressor, 1 dryer, 1 high pressure line, 1 low pressure line, 2.5 pounds of R-12, and 16 hours of back-breaking labor later, you'd freeze your butt off if you left it on high for more than a minute.

[cyclocross]

was a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria that I purchased in 1965. You may recall that it had the large chrome "roll bar" across the top. It was a V8 with 2-speed automatic. Cost was $300. I repainted it a metallic maroon (actually "Cordoba"). Interior was black and white tuck-and-roll. Wheels were chromed. It had a good sized back seat but nowhere as big as the backseat in the 1960 Pontiac Ventura coupe that replaced it.

The Pontiac was something else: 400 ci, 3-twos, flowed cast iron headers, T-10 gearbox with Hearst shifter, aluminum flywheel, 4-bolt mains, dual valve springs, Alfin drums, 4,000 lbs - all from the factory. It was geared to turn 3,500 RPM at 70 MPH (it was set up with street slicks). It ran a steady 11 MPG on Chevron Custom Supreme.

[jeffsquire]

I was 19 and bought if for $90 in college. It barely ran. Paid 300 to have the engine rebuilt. That helped it run for another few months. I have no clue what happened to it as I abandoned it somewhere on the university parking lot before I joined the army. Funny, I don't even know what color it was. I think it was blue/gray.

[NickCats]

I had a Honda CRX.

Blue and Grey, 2 door, 2 seater, bought in 1988 for $3000 ( used ) with 100k mi.

Great little car, great gas milage, handled great...

Too bad I totaled it my senior year of high school

Next vehicle, GSXR-750 ( college )

Nick

[bringer666]

It was very late in my life when I actually purchased my first car. For most of my early driving career, I drove my Dad's 1972 Pontiac LeMans. Great car for a newbie teenage driver. 350ci engine, automatic tranny, bench seats. It was pretty quick and I remember doing stop light races back in Montreal with various other cars, I only remember being smoked once by a late '70s Corvette.
Once I moved to Vancouver, I lived downtown and didn't need a car. Then I moved in with the lady who is now my wife and she had purchased a 1990 Volkswagen Cabriolet. We worked together as well, so we only needed 1 car. It was very fun to drive and got me hooked on convertibles. When our company closed the Vancouver office, we got separate jobs and suddenly needed another vehicle and that's when I officially purchased my first car, at 35 years old no less.
It was a brand new hunter green 1994 Mazda 626 Cronos, 4 door sedan. Very practical and what we needed at the time. The car was so solid, I never had any problems with it at all for 11 years.
It was last year when the Volkswagen was getting on in years that we decided to purchase a new "fun" car and that car is my 2002 Boxster S. I love this car and will drive it everyday until the wheels fall off!

[David N.]

'87 Chevy S-10 Blazer hand-me-down from the family. A little whimpy V6 I drove in college that was nothing but reliable transportation. Only way it's going faster than 80 is with a tailwind. It was a 4x4 but the 4-wheel shifter was stuck in regular 2-wheel the day I got it. The backseat was tiny and had an annoying seat-belt mount sticking up right in the middle, what a mood-killer. Twice in my ownership of it the battery cables lost connection while I'm at speed, and for the life of me I would never remember to use the parking brake when the power brakes failed, so I'd always end up running a curb and eventually sticking my foot out to stop.

Starting on a vehicle like that and having friends with nothing but little sedans, I had very little interest in a sports car. My next vehicle was a '95 Silverado before I moved to California, and I still had no concept of driving something "fun". In fact I was happy in my little world where cars were only transportation and I could spend my time with more important things.. up until a few months ago when I rented a Z4 for a weekend...

Driving a fun car for the first time is almost like robbing a bank, it's the biggest mistake of your life, and every month making a car payment to that new-found interest (all my other vehicles were fully owned from the start), or heaven forbid living without a sports car if you can't afford it, is like a little jail sentence. But each time I get into the Boxster, I start to realize that maybe it's more like the post-robbery police chase. Sure there may be hell to pay at some point, but as long as I still have gas in the tank, I can just zip ever on, and enjoy the freedom while I have it

[blinkwatt]

90' Jetta,5spd. It was my dad's old car,redone stereo,racing suspension(sway bars,strut braces,shocks & springs),overhauled brakes. It was fun to drive around in,when it started and your foot was 100% on the floor. It would kill a battery almost instantly,fuel pump whined,worse idling habits the list went on forever. It has the dreaded Digifant management system,which is 100x more problematic then it should be. Consumer Reports Top 10 cars to stay away from of all time(no joke). It's a shame I would have made it a rally car,stripped it of weight,give it some more ponies and I was good to go. Sadly I got fed up with it and searched for my first car to buy,on came the Boxster.

my first car, 1996 honda prelude.....driven to hell.

i sold it with 260,000km for $3000, huge windsheild crack, bumper falling off, side skirts scraped with minimal paint left on, air conditioning done, car was lowered 2 1/2 inches, struts done, clutch done(dude who bought the car should of test driven above second gear over 50km he might of figured that the clutch was messed up), on my second engine, rubber was bald, exhaust falling off hanging on one rubber hook....i could probably go on.......