What was the very first car/clunker you bought.

When I was 19 my dad co-signed a loan for me to get a used '63 Pontiac LeMans convertible. I thought I was hot stuff in that car. A year later it blew a rod! Then I got REAL smart and bought a '66 GTO. Had to stop for oil more times than gasoline. Then I got REALLY smart and bought a new VW. Loved that car! Still have a 42 year old VW.

Diana

Bought for myself- around 1984, a 79 Chevy Monza hatchback, red with black louver things on the back window. and the automatic transmission shift on the floor/ Loved it.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2008 7:01 PM

First car I had was an adorable little, baby blue, Toyota Tercell hatchback.(When I got it-It was 12 years old-but in perfect condition and very low mileage.) I loved it, briefly. 3 weeks after I got it, I had a freak accident and totalled it. (I had a watermelon on my front seat and it fell and rolled on my feet) I was a very unexperienced driver and I paniced. I hit a light pole and good bye cute little Tercell. (no insurance and a $1500.00 bill for the light pole). (Plus a ticket 90 some dollar ticket, for inattentive driving) (Plus emergency room visit bill, for cuts and scrapes).
I got a VW now, pastime -And LOVE it.

My very first car was a 4 door, 3 speed on the column Chevy Belair, my parents hand me down. I HATED IT! I traded it to my sister for her 1961 Ford Falcon Station wagon--'cos I wanted to put curtains in the back;) In 1982, before we left California-- I passed that old chevy, 21 years old and still going-- I recognized it by the "ecology now" decals I had put in the rear window.

My first car was a lime green, 1960 Valiant. Cost me about $2100 brand new.
It had push-button transmission-- right on the dash, and a button on the floor by my left foot to put on the high-beams.

To tell you how naive and ignorant I was----when I went to the Dealer to buy this car, he said he only had 2 colors available. A light blue and the green. I said---"I'll take the green one!". Then he was showing me all the "extras" in the car. He opened the trunk and said--"And...here is your spare tire"....And ME--all excited blurted out---"Oh, Does that come with it????"! ....AGH!

I probably had NO business going and buying a car--but I really needed it as every 2 weeks, i was taking the Grayhound bus from Baltimore to downtown Washington and then catching a regular bus from there out to Rockville so I could go to Volleyball practice with my Latvian team.
I would leave right from work here--and walk downtown to the bus station.
Then I spent the night with my girlfriend in Silver Spring and came home the same way the next day.

Now--the "craziest" thing I have ever done while driving a car down a high-speed Parkway is to change my clothes from work clothes to clothes to play ball in--pants-top-shoes-the whole thing--all while driving at 60mph! Hmmmmmm.......

Somehow--you NEVER forget your first car!....or anything weird you did in it......

Gita

Gita- you wild thing!!! And --NO cruise control


This message was edited Mar 16, 2008 10:46 AM

I can't mention the craziest thing i did in a car, but it was in a 1963 Stingray. He was about to leave for Viet Nam. God, I must have been tiny then! By the way, I did marry the guy 35 years ago and counting.

ROFL; nice to meet you Pastime!!!

My first car was a 1988 Hyundai hatcback GT. Dar kblue, 4 dorrs and the hatch. I got it from a friend and her kids, before I got it, had decided to fill the back with dirt from the backyard. They got about 5 gallons in there before anyone noticed what they were doing! We never did get all of it out. I drove that car from 1993 until I got my Nissan pick up in 1999.

Soon after we emigrated to Canada, I realized I needed a car to get to and from work, and I went to the dealership knowing nothing about North American vehicles. I found a car I liked the look of, and the salesman agreed to bring down to the price to what I could afford. When I drove it to the office, all my co-workers fell over laughing. I had bought a Pinto.

I can picture it now. Just like in the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, when her father showed up in a brand new Edsel.

I remeber that! That was funny! LOL

Gee Celia, Didn't think you were that old! LOL

My first car was 1989 Buick LeSabre. Oh I loved that car...Light blue.
Till she turned into Catherine and almost killed me.

Crazy story there.

My first car was a 1979 Chevy Malibu. I bought it from a co-worker who had bought it from a friend who had bought it from.... I only paid $75 for it. (This was in 1993, by the way.) The co-worker's friend's friend's kids had put a rebuilt BIG engine in it, so when it worked it was a blast to drive. They had also punched a hole in the dashboard. It was perfect! I hooked one of those plastic cup holders in the hole and it was in just the right place for a jar of salsa to go with my chips. The perfect driving snack!

The first time I had to put gas in it, I pulled up to the pump and walked to the side of the car. Hmm... no place to put gas there. So I walked around to the other side of the car. Hmmm... nothing there either. I had probably walked around the car 3 times before the guy at the next pump could stop laughing long enough to tell me to check behind the license plate.

After a new battery, alternator, water pump, tires, brake lines, another alternator, muffler, electrical system, assorted belts and spark plugs, etc, etc, etc... the transmission died. I gave it to a friend of my dad's who wanted it for the new tires. Ah, well. :-)

My first was a 1950 Mercury with a half-patched hole in the oilpan. Didn't last too long but it sure was fun while it did.Paid 50 bucks for it that I earned peddling newspapers.

My first car (1987) ws a 1972 Pontiac Lemans. I bought it for $200. I actually WANTED this car because when I was younger, my sister (new driver) drove us off a cliff in a 72 pontiac, and we lived because the car sat so low to the ground that the boulders on the side of the mountain slowed us down. Lemans is a HUGE car, and I thought that meant it was a SAFE car!?
I drove it twice. The second time I drove it, I pulled into the gas station and filled it up, went to back up so I could get out of the gas station and hit the gas pump... I got so scared I never drove that monstrous hunk of metal again.. I gave it away for free...to a single mom who needed a car and didnt have any money. LOL!
then I bought a ford pinto station wagon. I dont care what they say about Pintos, that was the best lil car I ever had! sold it for $50 to my FIL and his family still has that car!

Boy, GM must have really bulked up their LeMans line over the years. In 1965, my '63 LeMans convirtable was a relatively small car. It had this goofy gear shifter. Just a little lever on the dash (I think Corvairs had that kind of shifter too.) It had only four cylinders, a V8 engine cut in half. Nice idea GM, but bad engineering. I only drove it for 2 years before the engine started knocking. My dad made me trade it in. He said it was about to "blow a rod". Such a pretty little car too. I still love convirtables though! Been driving my Jeep Wrangler for 10 years. It's a convirtable in the summer, if I can get my DH to change tops for me. He gets this pained look on his face when he knows it's time to put the ragtop on.

LOL! Ya my LeMans was a huge 4 door TANK, I called it the Tuna Boat :o)

We only named one of our cars. In the late 70's we had a beat up, green '71 super beetle. We called it Burt. My DH would put tire chains on poor old Burt and drive around after snow storms and give people who were stuck rides home. He got a big kick out of it.

I gave a truck I had to drive at an old jub of mine a name. It was a Chevy dually I called Bertha.

63 chevy impala . Learned to drive in a 58 chevy .

We used to double date in a black '58 Chevy convertible. The guy must have left the top down in the rain because the car aways smelled lile mold. Great memories though.

I got you all beat. My first car was a 1940 4door Chevy. A farmer dug it out of his shed & I paid $50. That was 1959. Drove it for a time & sold it for $50. It held nearly a dozen assorted friends out partying. Though old car.
Only new car for me was a 1966 Olds Cutlass muscle car. 320HP V-8. paid $2550.00 with no trade in. Ran on 25¢ gas! It was some kind of factory goof, big engine & would get 20MPG. They only made that motor 2 years.
Bernie

Oh, the days of $.25 gas!!!

In 1969 gold was $40 an ounce too! We are about to resurrect our '66 VW that's stored in our barn. Hubby goes out and starts her every so often, but she needs a new generator. With gas prices the way they are now, I'm looking forward to driving a vechicle that gets 35 MPG again. Now, when the gas-hog SUV's try to run me over in my little car, I can just smile. GO HERBIE!

In 1979 - a puke green '69 Chevy Nova for $200 - with black pleather seats!

A 57 willies catering truck with right hand stearing. I bought it when we first moved to Hawaii. I think that the max it went was 55 mph but then the speed limit was right around that so I was okay. My dear sweet daughters hated me for doing it but I use to take and drop then off a school and they would beg me to drop then off a block away. Poor little things. I really loved that ole truck. It was school bus yellow with this huge windshield and huge front console. It was big enough for my youngest to sit up there when we were on the back roads heading off to out of the way beaches. That was when we were young and stupid about seat belts and all that jazz. I loved that old truck but it gave me lots of greif and my mechanic hated to see me coming. I think he would have closed the garage doors if he was a little quicker. I was only 23 so that is my excuse. A dumb widowed mother with 3 daughters.
Oh well, life goes on and so do bad car days.

I know the feeling. We used to have a red 1951 Chevy pickup that my DH won in a poker game in the late 70's. We drove that truck everywhere, but my daugher made us drop her off a block away from school so the kids wouldn't see her in it. I told her the boys would think the truck was cool, but she didn't care. That old truck was a riot to drive. 3 speed on the column and a little button on the floor you had to push in order to start it. Sometimes on frigid winter days that was the only vehicle that would start.

I loved my little Willy

Not a first of mine but my ex had a 1955 Dodge pick-up. You had to turn a nail in the ignition and give it a push. No seatbelts or visor on the passenger side. The drive line used to fall out all the time. I loved that truck. No really...replacing the drive line in the snow at 7000 feet, 35 miles from civilization with a crying baby was my idea of fun. NOT!!! Seriously, I do kind of miss that truck. Great conversation starter.

1991 Ford Escort 2 door... used, first "car of my own"....

never found out why, but it caught on fire on the way home from work one day. flames dripping from the bottom of the car. I saw smoke, thought it was overheating. I was about a mile from home, so I kept driving. people waiving me through stop lights, and so I found out later, calling 9-1-1 so somebody would find me. (they didn't want me pulling over at the gas station.)

car was destroyed from the dashboard firewall to the headlights.
Whatta mess...

the fates of motor vehicles repaid all that mess with a 1990 Toyota Corolla that I drove for three years after that, just about drove the wheels out of the frame. :)

WOW!!! Glad you made it through okay! That could have been disastrous!

I had a 1965 Chevy once. When I bought it, (used), someone bragged about doing their own overhaul. I drove it a long time, then one day the engine blew up. When we took it apart to see what was wrong, we discovered a piston missing. No wonder it blew up, except there were no pieces anywhere. It had to have been put together without the piston!
Bernie

Years ago my DH was driving to Chicago on Interstate 90 to play in a pool tournament. All of a sudden his car got a big power boost. He thought "go VW!" People passing by were waving at him. One passerby rolled his window down and pointed to the rear of the car saying "your car's on fire". When he pulled off the road a trucker came running up to him with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. His first priority was to save his que stick. That stick was probably worth more than the car.

My first car was a 1978 Audi 100LS. It broke down on a regular basis. This was in 1990.
The battery was under the back seat. To get to it, you had to pull the back seat out.
One day my dad was driving the car, I was in the back seat and flames started coming up between my legs! I was wearing a skirt and I pushed myself up to as much of a standing position as I could get in yelling at him to, "Pull over!"
"The car's on fire!" We had put a battery in that was a little too tall for that particular car.
Funny now, but scary then!

Mine wasn't as old as Bernie's, but still - used '52 Plymouth Cranbrook - bought for $75 in late '59. Standard 3 on the column - never had a standard before, so clutch did not last long. Traded it back to the dealer for $75, and put that with another $10 to pay for the clutch repair - good lesson for a high-schooler.

First new car - '65 Datsun Fairlady - everyday driver - raced it for a while - traded to dealership for a '66, and the dealer repainted and raced it for several years. Never burned another clutch, but have worn out several pressure plates.

PINTO....the car, not the beans (but than, both were somewhat combustable).

mimi

my first car i had was a 1940 ford that i got in 1949 for $150. it was a v/8 and very fast for its time.

'61 VW Beetle.

I was in the Army, in Germany - the car was 10 years old, and I got it for a song.

I was on the Autobahn, driving a friend who was being discharged to Frankfurt, and pulled into a gas station for a gas fillup and oil check. The attendant (yes, stations filled your tank for you in '71) told me I needed oil, so I gave him the OK.

Several kilometers up the road, the car died, for good. Out of curiosity, I checked the oil dipstick, and the oil level was out of sight - the gas station attendant way over-filled it!

Of course, when I went back to the station, nobody there spoke a word of English.

From that day on, I checked the oil myself - live and learn.

By the way, as soon as I was discharged (1972), I came back to the States and bought a brand new powder-blue Triumph Spitfire for $2000.

My first car was a 1964 Ford Falcon. It didn't like to start, and it rolled backwards on hills. I had a special name for it - but I can't post it here - LOL !