The Ultimate "First car I ever owned" thread

[James Brown]

The ever popular Renault dauphine R-10, had this one in high school (1970-74) what a superb French engineering gem. but it did get me from home to school. Left it on the side of the road with a half shaft failure. Was in it about $300.00 for 3 years, not bad!


stock photo, not mine (needs more rust and primer)

[Tsunamiboy]

1959 TR3 (hippy chick magnet)

[lgb240]

I still have my first car ... 1971 Datsun 240Z, bought it when I was 18, and 23 years later, still have it.

[bourgeois911]

64 Plymouth Belvedere, 225 ci slant 6 with a pushbutton automatic trans. Rev it up in neutral and push "D" and the tires would spin for as long as 2 seconds. Burned nearly as much oil as the 25 cent/gallon gas it used and would leak out all of the antifreeze within a week. It set me back 100 bucks but I got 2 years out of it. before "moving up" to a '70 Road Runner.

[Garp]

Originally Posted by lgb240

I still have my first car ... 1971 Datsun 240Z, bought it when I was 18, and 23 years later, still have it.

That's a fantastic car. I stood beside a race version during the Classic Endurance Races in Spa two weeks ago.
I had an 81 Ford Mustang as a first car, great memories.

[tmsautoart]

My first car at 16 was a 1985 Omni GLH in 1988. Great car for a 16 year old. It was pretty peppy, like a 8v GTi. Not really fast, but it was a fun car to learn with. Then came the 1985 GLH TURBO in about 91 or 92. That car was nuts! Still have it today!

[DL Lawrence]

My first car I owned when I turned 16 was a Blue 1966 Ford Mustang- 289 V8, three speed on the floor, no power anything. Nice car; I remember it fondly.

[ljowdy]

I started working part time when I was 13 years old. I always had a job and I saved up my money. By the time I turned 17, I had 4,000 bucks saved up. (Salary, gifts etc) About that time, (April 1965)Ford introduced the Mustang fastback. Shelby also introduced his GT-350. I toyed with the idea of saving more money to by a GT 350 (base price was $4550)

After weighing the cost of the car, tax and insurance, I settled on a 1965 Fastback Mustang with a C code V8 and a 4 speed. The following year, I added a cam, high compression pistons and a stock Ford 4 barrel manifold and carb.

I should have saved up and bought the GT-350 and kept it but Oh well.

[75USCarrera]

Here is an ad for my first car....1976 MG Midget. It was tiny and a blast! According to this ad to...quite fuel efficient. That was a huge concern as gas at the time was $0.51 a gallon!!!

Fun post!!

Greg
--------------
03 996 Cab 2
75 US Carrera
69 Camaro Z11 Pace Car

[longhornchris04]

I didn't own it, by my parents "gave" me a '94 Ford Explorer for my college years. I was responsible for all the maintenace, and it was only worth a few thousand so I could have bought it outright.

Shortly before graduation I bought my first car, an 05 Ford Focus ST (sporty ). I own it outright now but at the time had to finance.

But, the first car I owned outright, no strings, mine all mine is my '75 911. I still had 5 payments left on the Focus when I bought the Porsche for cash.

[Esa911sc]

1970 Ford Escort 1,3 with GT engine, Dunlop steel wheels from Lotus Cortina in 1983.
Picture taken in Polar Circle close to Rovaniemi, Finland, about 700 km from home.
We went up to Hammerfest Norway on that trip.
Going to make same trip again on Porsche next summer

[t951]

Wow, I think I have the worst first car here by a mile!!

A baby blue 1983 Renault Alliance L (not the fancy DL!)

Worst piece of junk ever made. My dad gave it to me when he was done with it. (He bought it b/c it was Motor Trend's 1983 Car of The Year).

I could, at will, take the steering wheel off. I would hand it to whoever was bugging me and say, "Fine! You drive".

The seat belts would detach from the car.
It had a flap for heat....either burn your pant legs or outside air.
Am radio....5 pushbuttons.
1 speaker.

44hp and they were small horses.

The engine died at 48k miles.

Sold the car for 250 to some lady that wanted it for some reason.

Here is a pic of a similar car.....but this is a loaded Limited 1.7L.

Mine was far worse!

[jkarolyi]

Renault Alliance...LOL

Glad to see my 5-year-old thread revived...keep the stories coming!

[FastCarFan]

It was 1976 & I acquired my grandmother's '69 Ford Galaxie 500. It only had about 19,000 miles on it. My grandmother was no longer driving & when my father & I went to pick it up it had 2 flat tires & a dead battery.

Technically it was owned by my father, but it was my car to drive. It was a 4-door hardtop -- red with black vinyl top & black vinyl bench seats. 302-V8 with 2-barrel carb. 3-sp auto.

While it was far from cool, it was probably a good choice for a 16-year-old kid -- big, & relatively safe...although you could pile a TON of kids into it!

When I was in college I wanted a better (i.e., cooler) car. I wanted a TR6, but Dad didn't think small cars were safe & he was loaning me 1/2 of the $. We settled on a '77 Trans-Am. It was the most fun car I could find that met his bigger car requirement. It, too, was red with a black vinyl interior & it had the huge screaming chicken decal on the hood.

It had a 400 c.i. (6.6 liter, I think) V8 & a 4-speed Hurst shifter. It had a ton of torque, but the 400 c.i. only made 220 hp! It wasn't really all that quick.

After college I spent one summer commuting in a suit in the non-air-conditioned T/A with vinyl seats & it was traded for a '82 RX-7 GS...with A/C!

[911boost]

1966 Mustang, 200 ci straight 6, 3 speed on floor. Bought it 18 years ago.

I still have it, it is on my lift sitting above the 911 turbo as I type this.

Bill

[jinos]

My ultimate first car war one of the best bmw e30 m3

[tmsautoart]

Originally Posted by jinos

My ultimate first car war one of the best bmw e30 m3

One of my favorites.

[72T]

1965 Buick Skylark, purchased in 1985 as a junior in high school, for $1,650, with new paint, interior, and top. Engine was a dog, but the beach didn't care. Still in the garage today.


Lives next to the T. Wife loves the Buick, the Porsche? No comment.

[Bob Butler]

Still got my number one car too, a 1968 VW Beetle. I was offered something like $100 trade in when I went to upgrade it way back when, so I said no way and kept it as a toy. Over the years it's been a lowrider, dragster, baja, rolling stereo, etc. I've also flipped it 8 times, drug myself under it in the mud until it hit a tree and stopped (yes, that put me in a wheelchair for a while). And it's been hit by a Mack truck, a Plymouth Satellite, two ford vans, and an Olds 88. (I've gotten pretty good with body work over the years and people swear it can't be the same car.) When my youngest son was a toddler trying to help daddy he crawled up between the engine and the cage and burned himself on the exhaust pretty bad. Nothing permanent, but it gave me a really good scare so I put the car into storage for a while. As he and his sister got older I did a lot more coaching, scouting, karate, dance, gymnastics, band, etc and a lot less playing with wrenches. Now the same kid who scared the crap out of me when he wasn't even two is almost on his last year of high school. His immitations of Dad these days are what wore out the clutch in my SC last week. About two years ago I decided that the bug had sat long enough and it's been going through a major overhaul. We've welded back in a lot of new steel, done some glass work on it, and just this past week did a full re-wire on it. If all goes well its getting new paint this weekend then I'll drive it until the clutch gets replaced in the 911 (would make a nice fathers' day present incase certain people are reading this). I'm really hopeful the bug works out Ok after sitting for so long because I'm working a VW race next weekend and I'd love to take my old bug back to the track.

Wish me luck.
--Bob
PS: I know... a single picture could have saved me a thousand of those words up there. I'll try to dig some up and post one.

[Playa76911S]

Here's my first ride a 2001 salvage title Eclipse in jet fockin black LOL it was a theft recovery. All that was stolen was the rims and stereo, and I got it for only $7000 which left a couple grand to spent on nice rims, stereo, cold air intake, big throttle body w/chip, and the body kit.

Car got totalled by some beeyotch in a Caddy hittin the side and the insurance paid me $7000 for it after I drove it for two years! And I used the payout to buy my 911 so it worked out good for me...