Does your first car hold a special place in your heart?

[Steeler75]

My first car was a 1974 Camaro with 4 speed tranny. Maroon with black vinyl top. Got it when I was 16 and we’ve never parted!

Fits me like a glove. Roll up windows, no AC. Great car to have growing up, cruising and occasionally racing. It’s our 40th anniversary this October. No one else drives it but me.

Seriously considering complete overhaul as I’ve never had it completely restored all at the same time (paint one year, motor, then interior years later, etc.).

I know it doesn’t make financial sense to spend that kind of money on an uncollectable year but you only live once and you only have 1 first car too. Perhaps this would be a nice way to celebrate this milestone year! DW on board but she hasn’t seen the estimate yet either.

 

[Telly]

My first car was a well-used 1964 Ford Galaxie 500. It had the 289 V8 with 2 barrel carb, a 3 speed automatic, and a clock. No power anything. The clock stopped at any temperature below about 15 - 20 F, and restarted at about 40 F. 4 wheel drum brakes that stopped straight just once, manual steering that was about 10 turns lock-to-lock, and like many cars of that era with the advent of salted northern roads, a rust bucket. The rust was the worst in the rear, but it was moving forward very rapidly. It got me where I needed to go, most of the time.

I sold it to another kid for $150, he loved the car, he always wanted a V8. I postulated (to myself!) that in about another year or two with the rusting, that would be all he would have... the engine, the transmission, and maybe the steering wheel!

No, I sure never missed it.

 

[swakyaby]

My first car was a used 1976 first generation Honda CVCC, bright yellow, kept ridiculously overwaxed, dubbed by friends “the banana-mobile.” It was a 2-speed Hondamatic. Seriously, 1st speed and Drive. Even back then, Honda’s were incredibly reliable. After 4 good years, I sold it to a child actor who had come of age. I recall the sit-com he starred in was called “Small Wonder.” That sweet car lived a sweet life.

 

[scrinch]

At 16 I bought myself a lime green 1970 383 Plymouth Barracuda with the money I had saved from my job at the local Kinney shoe store. It was sleek, loud, and fast, just like I wanted it. I'd had it about 2 months when I was taking some friends home one night, went around a corner a little fast, lost control in a street flooded by a broken sprinkler, spun out, went over the curb and into a concrete wall and then wrapped around a tree. We all had seat belts on and came out of it unhurt, but I can still remember that incredulous feeling wondering how I had done something so stupid while sitting on the sidewalk answering the cops' questions.

It didn't occur to me that we were all lucky to be alive, but I guess it did to my dad because he immediately signed me up for driving school at Orange County International Raceway.

 

[Winemaker]

Cars. THE social media of the boomer generation. There is nothing more to add.

I disagree. Social media is like a set of handcuffs, a ball and chain. We see people immersed in their phone, ignoring personal safety and contact, yearning for a ME moment.

My Chevelle was, and did represent my freedom. I didn't have to walk home from work, I didn't need to have my dad drive me, or i didn't have to ask for the car, and above all,it meant I didn't have to take a filthy bus to college. It allowed me to take a job 2,000 miles away during college as a co-op coal miner. It was the start of my FIRE.

 

[HadEnuff]

Hey Ray, what a coincidence, by brother had a Corvair, which he rebuilt. Can't remember how, when, or why he got rid of it.
My first ride was a '67 Beetle. Bought it in '74, with 75K miles on it for $700. Drove it 100K miles and sold it for $1,000. Only car I ever made money on.
Took it to Florida, Maine, Outer Banks, South Carolina, all over the place, and countless trips between Cincinnati and Columbus during my college days.

When I got a few paychecks under my belt after graduation I moved up to a Rabbit. I felt I was sitting in the lap of luxury in that Rabbit, because it had a curved windshield AND a real defroster!! Unfortunately it turned out to be an unreliable POS that left me stranded one time too many, and I traded it on a Datsun 310. About a year after I traded the Rabbit, VW admitted they had a problem with some electrical component, and did a recall, but it was too late for me.
But, yes, that '67 Beetle holds a place in my heart.

 

[CRLLS]

My 1st car was a '64 Ford Galaxy 289 too. Mine was a 4-Dr. What a dog, But it was mine. It was not the '64 Galaxy my big brother had, a 390 4-speed Inside of a year I replaced the trans and had major engine work done. But it was a dog! I followed that with a couple of more used dogs. Karmann Ghia and Chevy Vega. I thought I had really made it when I bought my 1st new car. I special ordered a '73 Ford Pinto with (almost) all the bells and whistles. Big 2 liter engine auto trans Front disk brakes, Sports Accent group with vinyl roof and Michelin radial white wall tires. I loved that car. After I had just done major rust repair, I then got hit by a cement truck. He totaled my car and I put a chip in his paint and a 1" cut into his 3" deep tire tread.

 

[Andre1969]

One of the earliest cars I can remember my family having was a '64 Galaxie 500 4-door sedan, with a 352 V8. When my Mom and Dad were married, Mom usually had a sensible car, but Dad bought sporty/muscle cars with big engines and manual shift transmissions. Mom couldn't drive a stick, and the cars Dad brought home were usually pretty beat on. So, on the weekends, Dad would take Mom's "good" car (a '66 Catalina convertible and later, a '68 Impala 4-door hardtop) and go out drinking and partying, and leave Mom home, alone, with a small child (me) and a car she couldn't drive. So if there was any kind of emergency, she was stranded.

So, Granddad (Mom's Dad) got tired of it, and found this '64 Galaxie that was just fine, but had a bad starter, and paid $90 for it. Back then, it was just an old car, and with the way the styles changed so often, nobody wanted it. There really was no classic car culture yet, unless you're talking some very specific models, like the old Model A's, '57 Chevies, and so on.

Anyway, the idea was that Dad would drive it, instead of Mom's car, so she wouldn't be stuck at home. Well, damn if Dad didn't STILL end up driving Mom's car, and Mom ended up with the Ford! That didn't set well with Granddad, at all. As a kid, I remember I hated that '64 Ford, but nowadays I think they're pretty cool. Most likely, what happened was that my Dad hated Fords, and that rubbed off on me as a small kid. Also, Granddad (again, Mom's Dad) hated them, too. But in his case, he did a lot of mechanical work, and was just used to the way Chevy in particular, and GM in general, put things together. So in his mind, the way Fords were built was "stupid".

I'm not sure what ultimately happened to that Galaxie. Even though we had it, I think Granddad had kept it registered in his name. I know when Mom and Dad divorced, it ended up at Grandmom & Granddad's house, as did Mom and me. I think it got either sold, or given, to some friend of the family, and then wrecked, but I was around 7 or 8 when that happened, so my memory's a bit fuzzy.

Shame they didn't hold on to it. It would have made a cool first car for me. I don't know how it would have held up over the next 8 or 9 years to make it to when I got my license, but I do recall it was in pretty good shape. In contrast, I can remember, when I was about 8, asking Granddad to hold onto his '72 Impala 4-door hardtop so I could have it when I turned 16. This would've been around 1978. I just remember Granddad laughing and saying the car would probably be long since rusted away by that time.

 

[Steeler75]

I disagree. Social media is like a set of handcuffs, a ball and chain. We see people immersed in their phone, ignoring personal safety and contact, yearning for a ME moment.

My Chevelle was, and did represent my freedom. I didn't have to walk home from work, I didn't need to have my dad drive me, or i didn't have to ask for the car...

^^^^^^^^^

+1000. Getting my car meant freedom and growing up. No more asking for the keys meant saying “ I’m going out now” verses “can I have the keys please? “. First major time experiencing Independence!

 

[Badger]

My first car was a 1965 Silver Plymouth Valiant Signet 200 2-door hard top with bucket seats and automatic on the floor I bought for $550 in 1969. It even had air-conditioning. I would love to have a restored one again or even a 1965 Barracuda outfitted the same way but they have become pricey at between $10-15k+. Nuts!


Cheers!

 

[Rocky mtn high]

First car 72 Vega, . Had to pull a spark plug and remove aluminum flakes to make it run alittle better. 40th high school reunion, the joke was I never drove a car that didn’t smoke going to school!

 

[latexman]

I saw "paradise by the dashboard light" a few times in my old '62 Ford Galaxie. And my ride during college, a '74 AMC Gremlin. Sigh, the good old days!

 

[LOL!]

No special first car, but I have put out a car fire for someone else before.

 

[Ronstar]

Yes. 67 4 door impala that my parents passed down to me upon high school graduation in 1973. Rusted, it started without a key, the trunk opened without a key. And the trunk got water in it when it rained. Visqueen seat covers.

Held 4 guys and 4 girls riding around. I only had it for a year. Traded it for a new Nova in 1974. Got $150 for the impala in a trade in. I should have kept it.

 

[Telly]

I'm surprised to see there are others that had a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500!

Mine was capable of chirping the tires from a standing stop. All of them I saw, mine included, got the saggy butt disease with age. I think the one novel part of that car was its tail light! A round recessed chromed can with a round red ring lens, with a chromed small cylinder that came outwards from the center of the ring, that housed the white backup light. Looked space age! The backup light was useless, it might let someone know that you are backing up, get out of the way, but it was incapable of lighting anything up for the driver to see!

IIRC, there was also a plastic lens on the inside of each taillight assembly that would shine a bit of light into the trunk if the lights were on, to use as a dim trunk light.

 

[shortstop14]

First car was a 1962 Chevy Impala, bought for $150 in 1972. Small block 327ci, nice and simple to work on. I drove it to college in upstate New York (replacing the generator along the way) where the road salt ate through the floorboards. Blown through glass pack muffler, so you could hear me coming from a ways away. Eventually sold it for $150. Wish I'd have kept it.

 

[FIREd]

I was 23 years old when I was finally able to afford my first car and it was a 12-year old Ford Taurus. What a piece of junk. I don't miss it at all. But no car I ever owned holds a special place in my heart. I don't get attached to things.

 

[scrabbler1]

The first car I drove was a 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88. The large car was dark blue, so my dad nicknamed it "The Blue Bomb." My parents bought the car on my 9th birthday, and I remember closing one of its large doors on my leg (I wasn't hurt). I happened to come across some old family pictures and one of them had the Bomb in the driveway, bringing back some memories.


In 1981, I drove the car for that summer after I got my DL. But it was on its way out because it was by then getting about 9 MPG, and my mom was tired of putting $20 worth of gas in the car each week just for doing local errands. They replaced it with a 1979 Corolla, so I had to learn how to drive a stick that summer before I began college, when they sold the Bomb.


The first car I owned was a 1986 Dodge Colt (a.k.a. Mitsubishi Mirage). Being a regular train commuter, I drove it little more than going to and from the station, so I didn't car if it was little more than a simple station car. It didn't have A/T, A/C, or P/S. But after unmemorable 5 years of that, including the hot summer of 1991 when I was able to use my mom's Honda Accord while she was away getting the first of several lengthy cancer treatment, I decided to upgrade to a car with the features the Colt lacked. I traded in the Colt in early 1992.

 

[Fabeetz]

‘67 Chevy Malibu convertible. Dad bought it for me used for $100, said to drive it to college and sell it to a junkyard if it quit. Drove it for 5 years 63,000 miles and sold it for $750. Loved it.

 

[Goawayrain]

I started to answer this question (with extreme passion) and then it occurred to me that some website password clues are 'what is the first car you owned.' I know it's extreme paranoia, and I'm not usually that way, but I just decided to hold back. I hate being that person :-(

 

[Koolau]

I started to answer this question (with extreme passion) and then it occurred to me that some website password clues are 'what is the first car you owned.' I know it's extreme paranoia, and I'm not usually that way, but I just decided to hold back. I hate being that person :-(

My third choice for tag line is: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. YMMV

 

[popntx]

My first car was a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda that I got as a hand-me-down when I got my drivers license in 1970. Don't confuse this with the muscle car 'Cuda's of the late 60's - early 70's. The 1965 Barracuda is nothing more than a Plymouth Valiant with a huge fastback rear window. Nevertheless, it had a 273 V8 and 3 on the tree and would burn some serious rubber.

About a year ago I saw one for sale that was almost an exact replica of the one I had, including the same color, engine, and 3 on the tree. It was in average condition, and as I recall they wanted $12K for it. I loved my first car but I've got to admit that when I saw the one for sale it was a little disappointing. I didn't remember how cheap and sparse these cars were, especially the interior. But they were built like a tank and almost indestructible. I will always have fond memories of my first car.

 

[euro]

Ford Pinto. Uh, no.

Yep, olive pinto SW with faux wood sidepanels!!!!! And: NO special meaning at all. Strictly a means to get from point A to point B. Certainly no chick magnet...

 

[Bir48die]

First car was a 64 Rambler. From grandma. Put a crazy sound system in it. But the first I bought was '73 Capri and killed me to get rid of it. Got a company car six months later but it was a v6 and though heavy was a quick car. Stick shift. Wish I still had it

 

[Ronstar]

^ the crazy sound system brings back another memory. I was cutting speaker holes in the back window panel of my 67 impala in my parents garage. I reached in the hole to feel how smooth it was. The saw was still going and cut up my left hand and fingers. Thumb was almost cut off. Buddy brought me to the er. Had somewhere sound 15-20 stitches iirc. Parents freaked out when they came home and there was blood all over the garage.