Your first car

tonyb

Since we talk cars a lot around here, what was your first ?

Mine was a 1966 Chevy Belair. Bought it for 30 bucks....yeah, 30 bucks. Ran like a champ too, had it for 2 years until I fell asleep at the wheel one night at 2 am. and rear ended a parked car. Tricky thing about this car was even though it had an automatic trans, it had no trans linkage. In other words, you couldn't shift. It started in drive so you had to keep your foot on the brake. You also had to be aware of pulling in anywhere that you would need to back out. If you did, you had to crawl under the car and switch the tranny by hand by hitting the lever. That was fun in the winter. Lots of good times in that car.

So what's yours ?

Sci-fi Polk Guy

Mine was a 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. It weighed in at a little over 5000 lbs., and it had a 500 cubic inch V8 in it. It was not in very good shape. The AC didn't work. Only the driver's side door worked (It was a 2 door.). And, as was common with the big GM cars back then, the rear quarter panel extensions were missing, along with the plastic parts that surrounded the taillights. It had a leather top that started to crack and separate. And, it had two rust holes in it so that if you looked at it from the rear, you could see daylight. It looked like it had been in many battles. So, because of that, its size, and because it reminded me of a Klingon battle cruiser from Star Trek, I called it the Battle Cruiser. BTW, it got a whopping 9 miles to the gallon. But, that sucker could fly!! If I stomped on the gas going down the highway, it would suck in roadkill and a few subcompacts. All that being said, it was mine, and I really liked driving it. One thing though, was that it was UGLY, and I thought that it wouldn't exactly be a selling with my girlfriend. One thing that really let me know that she would eventually be my wife was that she didn't mind it, rust and all.

astar13656

1960 Impala, for me. 6 cylinder with a powerglide. a/c was 2/60 as we used to say!

deronb1

1973 Mazda RX3 wagon. Wankel engine, 4 speed manual, no air, am/fm radio, called it the "Magic Mazda".

scubasteve4sq

1992 Chevy Camaro rs 25th anniversary yellow with black racing stripes. Known as "the bee" but I lived down a dirt road so it shortly became known as "the mud dobber"

Willow

I don't remember the year, but it was a Chevrolet Celebrity.

gce

Mine was a 68 GT Mustang coupe with a 302 4Speed 4 Barrel. Loved the car but did I take care of it at 16 years old....Noooooooooooo! What a dumb a$$ I was! LOL

Pastor Bill

My first used car was a '68 Dodge Monaco that my dad sold me when the tranny died. "Fix the transmission and put new tires on it and it's yours" or something to that effect. Promptly did just that...was working at GM, living at home and therefore had lots of discretionary income. Got 8-11 miles to the gallon. 383, auto,ps,pb, air. The brakes were so sensitive that they could stand you on your nose if you weren't genteel in their use. Manifold heat control valve used to stick when it was hot....made it real hard to start sometimes.

My first new car was a '77 Chevy Nova. 305 V8, ps,pb,air. Loved that car. Put a Midland AM/FM/cassette in it with some forgotten brand of coaxial speakers. Ran Mobil 1 in it...and drove the car till it basically died. Floorpan rusted out, despite being rustproofed (Michigan.) Tranny lost first gear. Used an experimental 200 metric transmission. GM actually called me and wanted to know if my tranny had failed...said average life of that tranny was 50-60K max. Mine didn't fail until 140K. Wanted to know what I did? "Just changed fluid twice...and didn't drive it with my foot in its butt all the time." They were amazed. I still get sentimental over that car when I see one.

oldrocker

1968, Red Ford Fairlane. Dad bought it from our pastor for me for “I think” 500 bucks. I was 15 years old at the time almost 16. I worked every evening at a grocery store after school. Since my parents were still at their jobs, I drove myself to work every day with Dad always saying “just be careful” until you get your license. One night heading home a buddy of mine was following me in his 69 Cuda, right on my tail. I actually saw the police in a parking lot hidden in the dark, so I whipped in the next parking lot which my friend followed me into to tell him there were cops back there so he better not follow so close. As I got out of my car, there they were right behind us with the lights on.
Terry the Cuda driver was about 5’ 4”, I was 6 ft tall. When the police ask for our license, they expected the shorter kid to be underage and me to be 16. It was the opposite, after stammering with my comments, I said, “I’m only 15 and I don’t have a license”. The cops laughed, gave me a ticket, set the court date for a week after I turned 16, and said “get your license” before you go. “see the man”.
I was scared to death.
When I did face the judge for “driving without a license” every question he ask, I replied “no excuse sir”, The judge finally looked me right in the eye and ask “why are you answering” the same answer over and over” and tell me the truth. My response was “my Dad told me to answer that” The judge just kinda grinned, said $20.00 fine. Next case..
I think at the time I made $2.70 hr at the store, I spent every paycheck on that car, the first stereo for it was a craig under dash 8 track tape player, 2 sparkomatic speakers with a separate big ole 8” driver that came out of my guitar amp that I cut the back the back panel to mount right between them.

jeremymarcinko

86 Ford Taurus handed down from my older brother. It was gold with a blue bumper because of an an accident he had. Car didn't last long, tranny went, then I got an nice 94 Jeep Wrangler.

dromunds

1964 Plymouth Fury, V8 with a pushbutton transmission. Paid $125, which was big bucks back then to a 16 year old kid. Worked on a farm a whole summer to get the dough. Put an eight-track under the dash and a guitar amp bottom in the back seat hooked up to it for awhile. Made out with a cheerleader one time in a park for a few hours listening to Led Zeppelin 4 over and over on the eight-track which kept looping the tape. Drove it for four years then got a 1967 Dodge Dart GT with a 273 four-barrel and bucket seats which I drove for another four years until a piston burned. Took a lot of ****e from my buddies for that grandma Plymouth especially for the pushbutton tranny but it was all I could afford and nobody was going to buy one for me. Now, I see them at old car shows totally restored. Unbelievable.

smglbrth

1977 1 ton Chevrolet Custom Deluxe, 400 V-8, Turbo 400 tranny, 4 barrel Rochester "Quadrajunk" carb in Fire Engine Red. Full time 4 wheel drive - regular was 30% pull/70% push. Low lock was 50/50. Trucks were built like a tank back then because we used them as trucks, not a fashion statement. Not a car, but it was my first vehicle...

Thorton

1976 Buick Regal I purchased when I was 15 from Tennessee. I drove down with my family on vacation and me and my dad went looking for a muscle car. I couldn't find a muscle car for the money but the Regal was absolutely an awesome car in great condition but the 231 V6 was a dog! I put 25000 miles on it in 1 year and sold it doubling my money.

Sci-fi Polk Guy

Sci-fi Polk Guy wrote: »

Mine was a 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. It weighed in at a little over 5000 lbs., and it had a 500 cubic inch V8 in it. It was not in very good shape. The AC didn't work. Only the driver's side door worked (It was a 2 door.). And, as was common with the big GM cars back then, the rear quarter panel extensions were missing, along with the plastic parts that surrounded the taillights. It had a leather top that started to crack and separate. And, it had two rust holes in it so that if you looked at it from the rear, you could see daylight. It looked like it had been in many battles. So, because of that, its size, and because it reminded me of a Klingon battle cruiser from Star Trek, I called it the Battle Cruiser. BTW, it got a whopping 9 miles to the gallon. But, that sucker could fly!! If I stomped on the gas going down the highway, it would suck in roadkill and a few subcompacts. All that being said, it was mine, and I really liked driving it. One thing though, was that it was UGLY, and I thought that it wouldn't exactly be a selling point with my girlfriend. One thing that really let me know that she would eventually be my wife was that she didn't mind it, rust and all.

The Battle Cruiser had big, soft leather seats. At speeds of 70 and above, it felt like I was sitting in an easy chair, floating down the highway.

nooshinjohn

1964 Buick Riviera here... and what a beautiful car it was. I completely restored that car, only to lose it to a 14 year old girl driving her drunk mother home from a bar on a rainy night in Millington Tennessee. I was run off the road and into a creek and several trees. I have owned three other '63/65 Rivies, but end up not being able to hold onto any of them. The last one still rips my heart out and she has been gone now for 6 years.

Nightfall

1990 F-150 Extended Cab Long Bed w/Straight 6 and a stick shift. Had two gas tanks and a switch inside to change between them.

Jstas

That's it right there.


Still have it too.

BlueFox

A 1965 Ford Falcon with a 3 speed on the column, a present for finishing high school, starting college, and getting a job. First car I bought was a 71 VW Super Beetle in British racing green.

tonyb

Had a lot of the cars you guys have mentioned. My all time favorite though....that I owned, believe it or not a 1969 Buick Riviera GS. Sharp looks, rode like a Caddy, performed like a Camaro with a 455 and turbo 400 tranny. That car unfortunately met it's demise when I lived in Kansas City and again.....drunk one night at 2 A.M. and came up on some barricades in the road doing 60 mph. Needless to say I went the wrong way and hit a manhole sticking out of the ground 2 ft. in a construction zone. Loved that frickin' car.

tonyb

BlueFox wrote: »

A 1965 Ford Falcon with a 3 speed on the column, a present for finishing high school, starting college, and getting a job. First car I bought was a 71 VW Super Beetle in British racing green.

We call that a 3 on the tree.....here in the Midwest anyway.

dromunds

I'll bet that brand new '71 Super Beetle put you back about $1,995.00 or so, huh? I had a buddy got a new '70 or '71, fun cars.

westmassguy

1962 Cadillac Town Sedan

boston1450

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix ModelJ 400ci 4b carb-with a his/her tranny on the console. Bought in 1979 put some new fatties on the rear & blew the motor down in Phippsburg Maine on the flats & coasted 3/4 of a mile to Jimma Totman's Garage at 2am in morning coming back from Popham Beach after drinking down by the Fort boy what a car-good ole' days
..
Not actual car. Same color & looks

BlueFox

dromunds wrote: »

I'll bet that brand new '71 Super Beetle put you back about $1,995.00 or so, huh? I had a buddy got a new '70 or '71, fun cars.

That is about right. I had been in the Navy for two years, and living in Virginia Beach. That car took a lot of abuse, and kept on ticking. Packed it up, and drove to CA in 76, modded the engine (bolt on cylinders, carb, etc.), and kept it two more years.

shawn474

1985 chevy chevette........DIESEL!!!! 'nuff said

Ran like a tank (literally), took 2 miles to reach 60mph with the pedal through the floorboard, emitted a black cloud of smoke everywhere i drove and certainly did not make me popular with the girls but got me from point a to point b and got 50 miles to the gallon.

Moose68Bash

1964 Pontiac GTO. 389 cubic inches. Four-speed with Hurst shifter. Four barrel carburetor. Standard radio with reverberator. Electronic ignition. Limited slip differential. Stiff suspension. No a/c.

Traded it in 1965 for a Pontiac Grand Prix with a 421 cubic inch engine, 4.11 rear end, tri-power (three x 2bbl carbs), electronic ignition. Four speed with Hurst shifter and limited slip differential. Oversized wheels and tires. Standard radio with a reverberator.

Best of all, it had the "Bobcat Treatment" from Royal Oak Pontiac in Royal Oak, MI. At that time the performance manager Dick Jesse, who had won the national drags in Pontiacs a few times, was performing this "mod" on new Pontiacs. I don't recall what it involved and what HP/torque resulted, but that car was a real screamer. Unfortunately, it got at best 7.5 mpg. Even with gas at $0.25 per gallon (or thereabouts) the car was too expensive to run for a college student. Dumb ride for a guy on a budget!

oldrocker

After the license thing, I decided to save up some money and try to make the music louder.
I moved up to cassettes with an in dash player “ I can’t remember the make or model”, I got some Sparkomatic SK-6950’s for the rear panel deck and a set of SK-650’s for the front door panels, “still had the 8’ guitar amp speaker in the center on the rear panel deck. In my mind, it was the “cats meow”! Then a buddy of mine who had a 68 Pontiac Tempest showed me an under dash, silver face 5 band graphic equalizer that put out a massive 60 watts. For the life of me, I can’t remember the make and model of that one either but man was I captivated by the power. Fast forward a few weeks and I had the money for one of my own. I remember to this day the look on “they were probably in their 40’s”, their face, my car windows were down and there’s were down, stereo was at full blast with Edgar Winters “Frankenstein” playing. Never seen someone roll up their windows as fast as they did.
Funny how things come full circle, now I’m the one with that “strange” look on my face sitting next to some kid in a car with the thump monster cranking some tunes. I just want to lean out the window and say, it will thump but play some good music you amateur. Then I think back to those poor folks I blasted out all those years ago, stay quiet and be thankful music will never die!

nooshinjohn

tonyb wrote: »

Had a lot of the cars you guys have mentioned. My all time favorite though....that I owned, believe it or not a 1969 Buick Riviera GS. Sharp looks, rode like a Caddy, performed like a Camaro with a 455 and turbo 400 tranny. That car unfortunately met it's demise when I lived in Kansas City and again.....drunk one night at 2 A.M. and came up on some barricades in the road doing 60 mph. Needless to say I went the wrong way and hit a manhole sticking out of the ground 2 ft. in a construction zone. Loved that frickin' car.

Was the engine in your Riv swapped out? Buick did not get the 455 until 1970, so your car would have been the 430.

oldrocker

Loved that car and all the fun times, spun the rubber off the tires way too much, actually not really tires more like re-treads but they rolled.
On another note “not first car” related, the wife is taking ½ a day off, swinging by the house to pick up a few items for a garage sale her sister is having. Wife’s is spending the night to help with the garage sale. So tonight I am spending the evening with some old friends the Parasounds and Sda’s

muncybob

61 Buick Lesabre...cost me $25. The thing would burn rubber with no problem but it was so heavy(needed both hands to lift that hood!) it could hardly get out of it's own way. Next car was a 65 Impala...engine had no dipstick hole. My dad and I spent what seemed like a long time searching for the dipstick and could hardly believe our eyes when it had no stick or hole! Would not want that Buick back but sure wish I had that Chevy.

Dabutcher

1964 VW bug. Mom bought it for me $250.00. 6 volt battery. Cruised all night on a buck worth of gas in 76'. Peace. D