The thing I remember most about my first car......

[pete3799]

61 bug no fuel gauge. A friend and I were headed down to Henniker N.H. to visit his brother at collage. Strapped the skis on the back and headed out one below zero Jan. night. Had to use an ice scraper on the inside windows in order to see. Got almost there and hit a frost heave followed by a most unusual noise. Better stop and check this out. Turns out the skis had jumped out of the pockets on the bumper and were dragging on the road.

[ckelly78z]

1977 Ford Pinto with the 2.3L motor...a great little car that was fairly quick (in 1982 terms). I ended up absolutely destroying that car when I got hit by a freight train...it didn't explode either !

[masraum]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

1977 Ford Pinto with the 2.3L motor...a great little car that was fairly quick (in 1982 terms). I ended up absolutely destroying that car when I got hit by a freight train...it didn't explode either !

That's something not a lot of folks can say.

[944 S2]

75 in second……76 capri

[LJ851]

Saved up $ for a half a year to buy this 69 Camaro. Still the nicest car I’ve ever owned. It was on 8 inch corvette rally wheels shortly after this picture was taken. Sold it to my brother to buy a Mini.

[dheinz]

I learned how to drive a stick on the test drive of my first car. Those tires chirping on first and second gears were music to my ears...
The car was a 1964 Ford Fairlane 2 door, 260 v8, 3 on the tree...

[GH85Carrera]

One of the great thing about my 1960 VW bug was the cops never hassled me at all. I was never once stopped by cops in it.

My buddy had a Monte Carlo that his older brother fixed up with a monster engine, and a fancy paint and loud exhaust. The older brother was drafted and went to Viet Nam and was killed. My buddy treated the car like a shrine, and drove it very conservatively and I never could get him to floor it even for a short run. The cops pulled him over all the time to hassle him in that car.

[jamesnmlaw]

Patty J. and the summer of '76. F85 had a big front bench. Miss it all.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by LJ851

Saved up $ for a half a year to buy this 69 Camaro. Still the nicest car I’ve ever owned. It was on 8 inch corvette rally wheels shortly after this picture was taken. Sold it to my brother to buy a Mini.

damn, that is beautiful .

[unclebilly]

I wonder what my son will have to say about his first car in 20 years time…

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

damn, that is beautiful .

+1

I always liked the two door Camaro best.



Pic must be around 1976-78 as that yellow Civic would have been rust perforated if later

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

I wonder what my son will have to say about his first car in 20 years time…

Cool. I see at 11 he can control the clutch as well and not even whine (like my daughter at 19)

[Seahawk]

Jack learned to drive in this 99 Tacoma, five speed manual.

He is 11 in the picture. All farm stuff, of course!

He drove the Tacoma until his third year of law school, then we sold it to a gents father from Pelican.

[ramonesfreak]

first car 1988 - 16 YO was a new shiny 1988 Dodge Colt. probably a good first car for someone but i hated that car.

The plastic seats and steering wheel got extremely hot in the summer and it felt like i was driving a tin can.

I remember one night in 1989 leaving a concert (Jefferson Airplane reunion tour I think), a woman guided me between 2 cars in the venue's parking lot...she must have been drunk or maybe I was because I got wedged between those two cars. I panicked and pushed on through leaving lengthwise dents on both sides of my car. I didnt stop to see what happened to the other cars. I was a kid. All I could think about was that my dad was going to kill me - he didnt because i told him thats the way i found the car after the concert :-)

The next morning on my way to work, the passenger side window exploded all over the interior probably because of the pressure from the door being wedged.

Despite hating this car, it got me started loving hatchbacks and I learned to drive stick on it and I had my first taste of freedom - the car went on to take me to to see the Stones, the Who, Eric Clapton, SRV, Steve Miller, Santana, Grateful Dead, CSN, Sting and more...until being traded in for a shiny new 1990 Mustang which was equally a piece of garbage

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

I ended up absolutely destroying that car when I got hit by a freight train...it didn't explode either !

I was a bit luckier than you. I was almost hit by a freight train.
I was first in line behind the barrier watching a freight train rumble by, right to left. I noticed it slowing down, then I noticed a set of train wheels tumbling end over end between me and the train. Then another set of wheels went by. Then a car went by without any wheels under one end. I was mesmerized watching this happen and fixated on the train coming apart in front of me. There was a bunch of smoke and dust and the train came to a stop. After the dust cleared I looked off to my left and the train cars were stacked up across the track like an accordion right up to the edge of the road. If one more car had rammed into the pile I would have been part of the wreck.

[GH85Carrera]

I can remember sitting in my bug with the great AC and fresh air system they have sweating like a race horse, as an insane long train rolled past and I noticed it was slowing down. Just as the last car got to the crossing, it stopped, and started backing up.

I was there for 25 minutes or more. I would have gone another way but that was a long way out of the way to be sure to be far enough away the same train did not block me. I was soaking wet with sweat and there was no shade in the area.

The law said they were not supposed to block a crossing longer than 30 minutes as I remember and they used every minute of that limit.

[Otter74]

I suppose three cars could be my 'first car' depending on definition.

Dad and I got my Fiat Spider (2L Turbo) when I was 15 as a father-son project. Still have it 31 years later, finally getting the body work done. Thing I remember about that is just how fun it is, and my memories of it with him (he died in 2005.) That was supposed to be my car in HS but that didn't pass the mom test so he drove it as his daily and i, then my sister and I, drove his BMW.

First car that was mine to drive was dad's '83 320iS. Things I remember about that - best seats ever (Recaro LX), which is why I have a pair in my 911 now. Worn rear tires, damp roads, and twisty streets of Atlanta lead to an off-throttle spin just outside my subdivision one afternoon, scared the heck out of me but I didn't hit anything or anyone. Remember the importance of good tires more viscerally when I was about to graduate from HS and I gave myself a BMW CCA track day as a graduation present, took it to Road Atlanta. Dad responsible for maintenance so I didn't know about the plug in the LF tire until I started losing a lot of air overnight saturday. Put the (original, 10yo) spare on the RR and then it destroyed itself in the Esses 10 minutes into my first session. Didn't hit anything or anyone, had just learned "when you spin, both feet in" the day before and an awesome stranger gave me his 2002's street tires to finish my day with. When I later did track events in my SE-R I got dedicated track tires on Miata wheels and took care of them.

First car that was really mine from the beginning was my '93 Sentra SE-R, which I got as a HS graduation present from my grandparents and also still have, 29 years later. I remember the fantastic 8000 mile road trip I took in it in 1998, driving from Altanta to Idaho to Wyoming, Utah, Bay Area, SoCal, across the desert and home. Drove it on the great salt lake at bonneville a week before speed week. Love that car!

[flipper35]

I remember all the gravel coming in through the T-tops into the back seat on my friend when we landed.

[GH85Carrera]

My dad told me I was on my own for a car when I asked him about a car when I was 15 1/2. He did give me an interest free loan, and paid for the insurance, but I paid for 100% of all car expenses. I paid off the $600 loan in 6 months. He did provide free room and board and all I could eat meals cooked by mom so there was that.

He did give me a laminated quarter to put in the glove box. I could call him if I broke down or was in a wreck. He then told me if I run out of gas, tough luck as that is too stupid of a thing to do to deserve help. I have never in my life run out of gas. Thanks dad!

I learned car repair was a lot cheaper than paying someone else to do it.