Learned to drive a stick in my dad's '67 bug.
First car was a German made '73 Capri V6.
It was a quick car, with a good 4 speed, and a blast to drive. Put 165K on it before it started terminally falling apart. It forced me to learn mechanical skills just to keep it on the road. The only shortcoming was that it was a bit tail happy (think early Mustang.) Got my first significant ticket in it at 16 doing 65 in a 35 out on a 4 deserted 4-laner in the country at 1:30 AM. Bought a very high-tech solution after that a Fuzz Buster radar detector (a huge black box with a white light - which could only sit on the dash - it successfully alerted me to my next ticket - doing 75 in a 55, great technology!)
A succession of German cars followed - mostly AWD Audis