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Spartana
12-13-11, 4:56pm
Now that most of my friends have kids who are starting to drive I've noticed a real change (even in this economy) in kid's first cars. Parents generally pay for their kids first car, and the insurance and registration, and seem to buy a fairly new (often times brand new) more expensive car. Back when I was a youngin' no parent bought their kids first car. If you wanted a car you bought it yourself and it was usually a very old clunker. You were also expected to work to earn the money to insure and maintain the car and pay for gas. That has seemed to change - alot!

So what was your first car and who bought it - you or your parents? At what age? Did you work to earn the money to buy the car? My first car was a 12 year old Ford Econoline van (to haul my motorcycles - dirt bikes- around). Nothing like a cute 16 year old girl with her own van to make you popular with high school boys :-)! It was a clunker and cost me $400. I had several other cars during my high school years (all bought and paid for by me) but the van was the first - and coolest - IMHO!

Float On
12-13-11, 5:09pm
I drove a trio of Ranchero trucks - made me popular with the guys in the vo-tech school. They were a hobby of my dad's and easy for him to teach me repairs on. I loved driving "3 in the tree".
When I went to college he bought me a little used Dodge Omni car ( 4 speed and good gas mileage for the mid-80's).
When I graduated college he bought me a used Ford Ranger truck (4 speed again) - it was a bright red/orange with sunroof and back windows. That was one of the reasons my husband asked me out on a date.....because I was a girl with a truck! Infact I didn't know how to drive an automatic transmission until after I got married and I never bought anything on my own until after marriage.

Spartana
12-13-11, 5:17pm
a used Ford Ranger truck (4 speed again) - it was a bright red/orange with sunroof and back windows. That was one of the reasons my husband asked me out on a date.....because I was a girl with a truck!

Ha Ha!! I have an older Ford Ranger truck now. Maybe that's the key to meeting great guys. Or to helping them move - not really sure what they want :-)

Miss Cellane
12-13-11, 5:18pm
I was 29 and had just moved from an area with really good public transportation to an area with virtually none, for grad school. The university was out in the middle of nowhere. I was saving up money to buy a used car, because I needed one to get to a grocery store and things like that. When my dad heard what I was planning, he freaked out--he firmly believed that all used cars were dangerous pieces of junk. So we worked out a deal where he loaned me half the money to buy a new car--I had already saved up about half the cost of a new car. The loan was interest free. Dad also paid for AAA for me for years. I think he was afraid that I'd be stranded somewhere on a dark, lonely road in the middle of nowhere and need the help. It took two years to pay back the loan. I drove that car, a 1989 Dodge Omni, for 13 years. It cost $6,500. It had a radio, and heat, but not much else. It was a hatchback, which came in useful all the time.

I replaced it with a VW New Beetle, which I'm still driving. I paid for that with cash, basically, following Dad's advice that once I'd paid off his loan, I should put the same amount of money away every month, to pay for car repairs and the inevitable replacement car.

Dad also helped my sister with her first car, but for some reason he did not help our brothers. Truth be told, my parents managed to stall on my brothers getting their driver's licenses until they were 17. I think they trusted my sister and I to be safer drivers than the boys.

catherine
12-13-11, 5:27pm
I had just gotten my first job out of college, and I REALLY wanted the Datsun 280Z (this was in 1974, before Nissan bought Datsun). So I went to my uncle to get his thoughts (my dad had died, and my uncle was the de facto family patriarch). He asked to see my budget to prove to him that I could make the payments. When he saw my budget, which I thought was great, he felt it didn't have much wiggle room in it. So he suggested that I buy my cousin's car--she was no longer using it--she had just come back from a cross-country trip in it. He thought that might be the better move--best yet, he was sure my cousin would sell it to me for $100.

Well, you didn't say no to this uncle, so I went along. I was kind of happy to only spend $100--even though it was a stickshift and I had to learn to drive it.

So, sight unseen, I bought it. And once I saw it I had very sad dreams of that 280Z just melting away. It was a Chevy Vega, and I don't know what my cousin had done to it, but it looked like it had gone through a fire. It was originally a copper color but there were huge patches where the paint was just gone. I have no idea why. So, it was pretty embarrassing driving it down to the train station in front of all those snooty Westchester NY commuters, but at least it was only $100, and my uncle had saved me from car payments.

In terms of my parents helping me--I actually gave the car to my mother eventually because she was in a terminal financial crisis, and she had no car. I had just gotten married so DH and I were able to share one car.

treehugger
12-13-11, 6:06pm
In 1990, 2 months after I turned 16, my step-dad bought a (very) used Datsun Maxima from a friend and gave it to me as a surprise. My mom was so angry that she didn't speak to him for 2 weeks!

I had already been working part time for a year, so I paid for my own insurance, gas, and car repairs. Plus, I drove my 6-y-o brother around, so my mom couldn't stay mad for too long. Although if she could have seen the future, she probably would have insisted he take it back (a couple months later I started dating a boy 3.5 years older who lived 30 miles away and our relationship probably wouldn't have progressed the way it did if I hadn't had a car! We are married now :-}).

I have bought all subsequent cars myself, but I will never forget that first car that equaled sweet freedom for me.

Kara

dmc
12-13-11, 6:12pm
First car was a new ford truck on my 16th birthday. My dad paid for it, he asked me what I wanted and I told him a Monte Carlo, but he talked with his accountant and I ended up with a "work truck". A few month's later he gave me a Cadillac, someone owed him some money so I ended up with the car. It was pretty cool at the time to be 16 and have a truck and a caddy, and dad paid for gas and insurance. Between 16 and 21 dad gave me several new trucks, the first car I bought with my own money was a 1966 Corvette convertable.

My sister on the other hand didn't get a car till she went to college. But it was a nice thunderbird.

ctg492
12-13-11, 6:15pm
in 1978 I got a third time hand me down Buick Skylark Special 1969, brown with white seats, 8 track that had to had a match book under the 8 track to keep it playing. I put Led Zeppelin on the back window. I got it from my parents. I drove it for the last part of 11th grade, yes I paid insurance. What they giveth the soon took away after the "jumping in front of me mail box incident" of the fall of 1979 12th grade. So a total of 6 months of freedom on wheels :(

KayLR
12-13-11, 6:41pm
When I was 17 I bought a 63 Plymouth Fury from a guy in our town who was on his way to Vietnam. I bought it with my own $200. It was a beauty, just like the ones they drove on Dragnet....black, jacked up in the back, Mickey Thompson wide tires, push button automatic transmission. Boy, I loved that car and wish I still had it. OH! It had a reverberator on the stereo!

I had good grades, and didn't go too far with it, so my parents carried me on their insurance til I graduated.

Alan
12-13-11, 6:58pm
At 16 years old, a 1962 Chrysler 300. It also had the push button automatic transmission, a dash mounted rear view mirror and the cool headlights at an odd angle. Paid $350 for it and made $20 a week payments.

Oh hell, ya gotta see it to appreciate it:

http://lefttoright.net/images/62 chrysler 300.jpg

bae
12-13-11, 7:36pm
At 20, with my own money, I bought a 1968 Datsun 510 station wagon for $300, and also bought about $250 in Craftsman tools to work on it that summer, so I could drive it across the country back to college. I kept the car for 5 years, actually buying a second Datsun 510 wagon for my partner to drive. There were usually enough working parts between the two vehicles to keep one of them on the road. My second car was a 1967 MG MGB, which I kept for about 15 years, and I think it cost me $500 to buy, and unfathomable amounts to keep running :-)

sunnyjoe
12-13-11, 8:19pm
Gorgeous car Alan!

My parents passed down a 1972 BMW 2002 when I turned 16. Not as fancy as it sounds, a smaller model and it was 12 years old when I got it. I helped with insurance and paid for all my gas. Sadly it was totaled when I was broadsided by an 84 year old driver in an uncontrolled intersection (I didn't even know those existed, do now!). After that I drove a ancient Volvo sedan which was bought cheaply but cost way too much to maintain.

herbgeek
12-13-11, 8:28pm
At 16, I got my brother's hand me down 1963 Ford Falcon (car was already 13 years old when I got it). This car had manual choke, which I really had a hard time getting the hang of. My brother had also decided to turn this into a race car, despite the fact it couldn't go more than 50 miles per hour. He put a hood scoop on it, and cut out holes for fender flares, and had built one of the fender flares up with bondo, but left the other side a big gaping hole.

The bad thing about this car was that if any of my parents' friends ever saw me doing something I shouldn't have in this car, there was no way I could say they must have mistaken me for someone else. :laff:

I paid insurance, gas and repairs on this beast out of my after school wages at Stop and Shop.

redfox
12-13-11, 9:16pm
65 Ford Fairlane 2 door. $300 cash. Gas hog, slant 6, baby moon hubcaps, rural MO in the 70's. Sooo fun!

PS...alan, yowza!

Zoebird
12-13-11, 9:33pm
I was one of these newer-generation folks.

My parents bought my first car -- a mitsubishi eclipse. the plan was for me to drive my parent's old mitsubushi, which was from the mid-1980s and I would have gotten it in 1993. But, the car had been through many repairs, and it just wasn't reliable. So, they traded it in (and got a good price for the thing because they'd spent so much money with the dealership's mechanic) and got the car that I got on sale.

I drove that car until 2001, when a car turned in front of me (made a left in front of me) illegally, and I smashed into the side of that person's car head on. The mechanic who happened to see the accident (a very nice man), thought that I would not likely survive the accident and was running out to assist me (while calling 911) when I popped out the the car to check on the other driver (also ok). I had a concussion.

My parents then gave me their old car (ford taurus from 1998), and used the insurance money (they paid for insurance, i paid for gas/maintenance) to buy a new car for themselves. They still drive that new car today.

After the taurus died in 2007, my husband's car also died (his first was a used chevy cavalier that we also took good care of), we bought our prius which was new (we looked for used). We were able to resell it for a good price when we moved to NZ, so that was good. It retained it's value.

Once we moved here, we went car free for about two years, and recently bought our 1994 honda accord station wagon. Full cash for this one, and of course we insure and maintain it. :)

---

We plan on having hawk buy his own new car when he is older. that's up to him, really, isn't it?

thinkgreen
12-13-11, 9:53pm
I bought a 1972 Datsun 510 wagon which was several years old. It had been towed behind a motorhome to Arizona for several winters so the odometer mileage wasn't the engine mileage. I used my own money and had to learn how to drive with a clutch and stick shift to use it as I had learned to drive with an automatic. It had really interesting screens in the windows that were silver on the outside and kept the sun out and the car cool. I'd still love to have those window screens.

mira
12-14-11, 4:53am
I'm nearly 30 and still haven't been able to afford a car! Well, I could afford an actual car second hand, but the insurance would eat up about 10% of my income, which would be ridiculous considering I don't need to drive everyday! Instead, I use a little one that belongs to my dad - a 2006 Vauxhall Agila. It's manual and very basic. It's a funny looking little thing but it's both roomy and small :) http://static.nearly-new-cars.co.uk/images/car_pix/DSCF5525_24821117132.jpg

iris lily
12-14-11, 8:19am
boy alan, that is spiffy!

I learned to drive on a volkswagon beetle, stick shift. In the early years I just used my parents' car.

When I bought my first car it was an MG Midget. It was expensive and unreliable, and I loved it.

Alan
12-14-11, 8:26am
boy alan, that is spiffy!


Thanks, but I can't take credit for it now. When I joined the Air Force, I turned it over to my younger brother, who kept it for over 20 years as a hobby car. After much money, effort and love, he restored it to a better than new condition.

When I had it, every time I hit a bump the muffler would fall off.



I learned to drive on a volkswagon beetle, stick shift.

That reminds me, my wife's first car was an old Beetle as well. She says that she had to be careful where she placed her feet while driving because there was a hole in the floor big enough to put her foot through, and every once in a while the back seat would catch fire when the battery shorted on the seat's springs.

She still loves Beetle's and just recently bought her 6th or 7th (I've lost track), after they were re-designed. In case you haven't seen one, this is what they look like now.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/04/18/automobiles/wheels-bug2/wheels-bug2-blog480.jpg

Greg44
12-14-11, 7:22pm
at 16, my dad co-signed for me to buy my first Ford Pinto. And the sad thing there is the word "first"...I have actually had two Ford Pintos. The second was a blue hatch back, with the back seat down I could fit in my snow skiis!

It cost me between $ 5.50 and $ 6.50 to fill it up! I have always liked smaller cars. One of my first credit cards was a Texaco CC, buying my own car, paying for my own gas. Freedom! The way my birthday falls I was one of the youngest people in my graduating class, so to finally have a driver's license (got on my birthday) and then getting a car -- it ment life was good!

iris lily
12-14-11, 10:19pm
...
She still loves Beetle's and just recently bought her 6th or 7th (I've lost track), after they were re-designed. In case you haven't seen one, this is what they look like now...

There is a new Fiat model that is rounded like a Volkswagon Beetle. When I first saw it I thought it was some kind of Beetle.

Nella
12-14-11, 10:31pm
Ford Fairlane 2 door.My first was also a Fairlane. Don't remember the year. It was a hand-me-down from my folks. Drove like a box wagon as I recall. I remember getting to "upgrade" to the family's used Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon. It felt luxurious after the Fairlane, but was built like a tank!

pony mom
12-14-11, 11:54pm
Ooh, I like the look of that new Beetle. My dad had a 1969 Beetle and, in 1984, I learned how to drive a stick shift on that car. It was easy to feel the clutch; couldn't drive my mom's 1980 Datsun 210 Wagon because it didn't feel the same.

My own first car was a 1980 Pontiac Sunbird, which was the only car I wanted and shopped for. I was working part time while in high school and paid for it myself ($1200), and my insurance. I had it until 1989, after having the engine replaced from a broken timing belt. It had vinyl seats that I would clean with Armor All---shiny but oh so slippery! Sitting in the passenger seat felt like sitting in a bobsled; it had low bucket seats with narrow legroom.

My next car was a new 1989 Acura Integra, which I had until 2003 with over 220K miles. Loved that car too. I hope to keep my Forester for even longer.

Simplemind
12-15-11, 2:28am
First car which was the family kid car was a Pontiac Lemans. First car that I bought for myself was a formula Firebird that was orange. What can I say.... it was the 70s.

DuraMater
12-15-11, 7:20am
I purchased my first car as I graduated from college, from someone who was moving far away. Paid (I think!!) somewhere around 2 grand-ish for a used Toyota Corolla, in the mid-80s.

When it died 4 years later (was killed actually - someone hit me!), I bought a new Civic. And when that died 12 years later, I bought another new Civic which is now 10.5 years old. I just keep the cars until they are no longer drivable for whatever reason.

daisy
12-15-11, 10:32am
At 16 years old, a 1962 Chrysler 300. It also had the push button automatic transmission, a dash mounted rear view mirror and the cool headlights at an odd angle. Paid $350 for it and made $20 a week payments.

Oh hell, ya gotta see it to appreciate it:

http://lefttoright.net/images/62 chrysler 300.jpg

Oooh, Alan, I love that Chrysler 300!

cdttmm
12-15-11, 10:53am
My first car was a Chevy Malibu Classic station wagon. It was my mom's car first, she passed it to my older brother when she bought a new car, and I got it when my older brother left for college. It was at least 15 years old by the time I got it and I drove that thing into the ground. Finally totaled it one night when I hit a deer on the highway. (I always felt bad about that deer.) From there I upgraded to a hand-me-down from my dad, a two-tone green Ford Horizon hatchback in which I learned to drive a standard transmission. I loved that car. Got my first speeding ticket in that car...and my second...and after getting stopped for a third time I learned my lesson! My parents were very generous in providing me with wheels and insurance through the end of my college years. But I was responsible for maintenance, which had me spending many hours and a lot of hard earned cash at the mechanic. So when it came time to finally buy a car for the first time I went off the deep end and leased a totally tricked out Toyota Forerunner. Loved that SUV, but leasing?!? What was I thinking?!? Never again. I negotiated for a company car after that.

daisy
12-15-11, 10:57am
I think I had it a lot better than most kids my age. When I turned 15, my dad and I started restoring a 1966 Mustang that he had bought for my older sister 10 years before. So my first car was a 1966 Mustang with the pony interior, a 289 bored out to 302, big 4 barrel Holley carb and a custom cam shaft that meant the passengers never sat still at a red light. It was very eye (and ear) catching!

During my senior year, Dad started to fear that I would go off to college and take the car with me, so we bought Mustang #2. It was a 1984 ex-cop car Mustang and we painted it an obnoxious orange red. It wasn't as cute as the '66, but it was faster (much, much faster), handled better and had air conditioning(!), which is a big plus in Texas. It was a ticket magnet and you could watch the gas gauge go down if you were stuck in traffic. It also had some sort of problem that wore the rear tires out really fast. Never could figure that out. :devil: Unfortunately, it was stolen and chop-shopped a couple years after I got it. :(

My third car was a 1991 Ranger pickup, which I bought. It was okay, but I really loved the '84 Mustang and the Ranger was my rebound vehicle. So, 4 years later I traded it in on a 1995 Mustang. I still have the '95 and since I have worked on reducing my driving, it only has about 80k miles on it. I live in the boonies now and do a lot of gardening, so the Mustang isn't really a great fit for that. I keep thinking I should get something with a little more cargo room, but I haven't been able to give it up just yet.

Currently DH and I have 4 cars for 2 people. My Mustang. A 1975 Triumph TR6 (the first car DH ever bought). A 1999 Expedition that we bought when we had to drive our parents around a lot. And a 1981 Chevy pickup dubbed 'Sally the Goat Truck'. It's a 6 cylinder with a 3 on the tree and it gets 30 mpg. It was given to us and delivered from Iowa for the cost of a large pizza with anchovies (some people say we overpaid). The original owner's wife informed him that the truck was not moving to their new home and he was afraid she would end up at the crusher, so she came here to be our farm truck.

Float On
12-15-11, 11:18am
A 1975 Triumph TR6 (the first car DH ever bought). I don't remember what year it was but a Triumph TR7 was my brother's first car. White convertable, 5 speed. I loved borrowing it. I remembered it took a lot of upkeep and expensive repairs.

My dad's favorite car was a 64 1/2 Ford Mustang in light yellow. It was the first one delivered to north Missouri. Dad worked for Ford and could buy it with his employee discount. He sold it two years later when he thought he was going to be drafted. He wasn't drafted when they found out I was on the way. He sure wishes he'd kept the car.

daisy
12-15-11, 1:45pm
I don't remember what year it was but a Triumph TR7 was my brother's first car. White convertable, 5 speed. I loved borrowing it. I remembered it took a lot of upkeep and expensive repairs.

My dad's favorite car was a 64 1/2 Ford Mustang in light yellow. It was the first one delivered to north Missouri. Dad worked for Ford and could buy it with his employee discount. He sold it two years later when he thought he was going to be drafted. He wasn't drafted when they found out I was on the way. He sure wishes he'd kept the car.

Oh man, I bet he does wish he'd kept that Mustang!

DH's Triumph hasn't been too bad in the expense category, but it does seem to need a lot of repairs. Mostly he has electrical problems, which are very common to the cars with Lucas electrical equipment. It is great fun to take a weekend morning drive in it, though.

Spartana
12-15-11, 6:49pm
at 16, my dad co-signed for me to buy my first Ford Pinto. And the sad thing there is the word "first"...I have actually had two Ford Pintos. The second was a blue hatch back, with the back seat down I could fit in my snow skiis!

It cost me between $ 5.50 and $ 6.50 to fill it up! I have always liked smaller cars. One of my first credit cards was a Texaco CC, buying my own car, paying for my own gas. Freedom! The way my birthday falls I was one of the youngest people in my graduating class, so to finally have a driver's license (got on my birthday) and then getting a car -- it ment life was good!

I also had a Ford Pinto. It was something - custom paint job of some kind of "Marsh-At-Night" night scene, fat tires, aluminum rims, tiny metal steering wheel, hydraulic lifts so I could jack it up. I think I may have a photo at home. I drove that back east from Calif to Penn. when I got out of high school and then sold it a few months later when I went into the CG. I even belonged to Pinto car club called the "Stone Ponys". Geeze... the '70's!! It di have a cassette player rather then the 8 track I was use to in my other cars -the '61 van, a 1967 pea green Cougar, a blue and red with yellow polka dots VW dune buggy, and a 1964 Mustang. All within less than 3 years from 16 to 18.5. http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=589&d=1323993235

Gardenarian
12-15-11, 6:50pm
I had a sky blue Karmann Ghia. Man, I loved that car, even though you could see the road through the rust holes in the floor.

Oh, and before that I had a motorcycle, a little Suzuki 125cc.

CathyA
12-15-11, 8:18pm
My first car was a VERY used VW Beetle. I bought it when I was about 23-24. (circa l973). I forget what I paid for it, but it was low. (but alot for me at the time). It had soooo much wrong with it.
As soon as I realized I got a really bad deal I went back to the dealer (a real scoundrel) but he wouldn't budge. (He was later stabbed by a customer on his lot and dangit, I was off work at the ER that night). Anyhow........I still loved that car. The horn would honk every time I turned left. It had no heat, so in winter I had to hold a scraper in my hand and constantly scrape off the window so I could see. The battery was under the back seat and falling through the floor. There was a hole in the floor under my feet near the clutch. I found a guy who said he could fix it cheap. He put a metal plate underneath the car. I was happy with it 'til I went to get out of the car one day and the screws were sticking into the bottom of my shoes. LOL! Ahhhh......the pleasures of being a poor student.
My parents finally lent me the money to buy a new car and I bought a VW rabbit. I've since gone through that one, a Toyota pick-up truck, a Volvo station wagon, and now a Honda Odyssey van. None of them has been quite so crazy as that first car! It has a special place in my heart.

DonkaDoo
1-9-12, 6:25pm
I turned 16 in the summer of 96 - and my parents bought me a 1974 Dodge Dart.

SiouzQ.
1-9-12, 7:31pm
My first car was a 1974 Pumpkin Orange Beetle, purchased in 1984. Oh boy, I remember those winter days of scraping peepholes to see out of the windshield! My very first road trip alone was out to Maine, from Michigan ~ I took out the back seat, which was a good thing because one night a torrential rainstorm rendered my little pup tent unfit to sleep in and I took shelter for the night stretched out almost full-length (I'm 5'9"), kind of diagonally with my feet hooked around the neck rest of the front seat. Yup, it was dry, at least!

crunchycon
1-9-12, 7:38pm
1973 Chevy Vega. You're all jealous, I know...

Rogar
1-9-12, 10:24pm
I inherited a '57 Studebaker President from a great uncle. It was pretty much a nerd clunker in the day, but I really liked it.

Wildflower
1-10-12, 4:11am
I never had my own car. When I got married at the age of 17 I acquired my DH's car, a Dodge Colt, which we proceeded to share. That was in 1975. I don't remember the year the car was though. It was a very ugly orange color with black interior. All of our friends called it the Halloween car. :)

lizii
1-10-12, 4:30am
My first car was an Austin A40. It had narrow wheels and flippers to show which way I was turning, also a stick shift and a small, metal gas pedal. This car was made of such strong metal, i felt safe and well protected in case of an accident. No seat belts then, the kids just had to rattle around!

My last car was a Mercury Tracer--it was the best car I'd ever had. The hatchback made it easy to open to put groceries in; it had a huge trunk. I always made sure to give it an oil change every 4 months, which I think made it last as long as it has. It was extremely easy on gas and I could drive it for 3-4 weeks on a tank of gas.

When I had to stop driving, my son gave it to a young single mother, so I know she is still driving it. It had all its' original parts except tires, the exhaust system (twice), brakes once, but the motor was the original. I had only paid $8,500 for a new car.

Juicifer
1-10-12, 6:17am
http://www.opel-kadett-c.co.uk/images/saloon.jpg
Opel Kadett. Mine was bright orange and very very old. It had a 1.6 ltr engine and that was special, most of them had a 1.2. or 1.4. I could only drive it in the summer. In the winter all the pipes would freeze up and it was always a big question whether the car would start in the spring. But it did!

Merski
1-10-12, 8:35am
I owned an used opel automatic painted this disturbing pumpkin metallic paint that was flaking. I called her opie little s__t-box. I would park her next to a new car and when the people were getting into the new car, I'd ask politely that they not hurt the paint finish, which we all had a laugh over.

HappyHiker
1-10-12, 9:29am
We used our wedding money gifts of $2000 to buy our first car. This was in 1969. We bought a 1969, bright red Fiat 850 Spyder. It had a tiny 850 cc engine. We had so much fun with that little car--wish we still owned it--it sipped gas and was a fun little auto.

Tenngal
1-10-12, 8:49pm
1972 green Opel GT, loved that car. It was a 2-seater, so if I had more than one passenger, they had to pile in the back. Fun times.

iris lily
1-10-12, 9:36pm
Oh man, I bet he does wish he'd kept that Mustang!

DH's Triumph hasn't been too bad in the expense category, but it does seem to need a lot of repairs. Mostly he has electrical problems, which are very common to the cars with Lucas electrical equipment. It is great fun to take a weekend morning drive in it, though.

I had to give up my TR6 some years ago, it hadn't run for years. I love those cars. When they run, they are the most fun car ever. Hands down are in the top 10 best looking cars ever produced.

puglogic
1-11-12, 4:35pm
A 1968 Chevy II Nova, painted metallic green. Very fast. I bought it. It died by the side of a country road and I cried when the tow truck took it away (I wasn't smart enough then to realize I could've probably gotten a new engine for it)

ljevtich
1-18-12, 3:57am
My first car was a Chevy Malibu Classic station wagon. ... It was at least 15 years old by the time I got it and I drove that thing into the ground. ...

Me too!, well sort of. I got the driver's license when I was 17 (New Jersey is 17 most everyone else is 16) and a senior in High School. Most everyone else had a car before me. But that huge car helped me just in getting the license.

So imagine this, here I am in this almost 20 foot long, big, fat blue station wagon, it is pouring down rain, moon roof is leaking, and the back passenger floor is wet. The license tester gets into the car with me. We are in a town that has small streets. Left, right, Left, OK, now do a 3 point turn. Hmm the street is more narrow than the car is long and the rain is coming down harder. Defroster has stopped working. Ok, Left, right, left, back to the testing office, oh wait, you need to parallel park. But wait again, the clunker you are driving is longer than the parking space I want you to go in. Rain coming down even harder. Forget it, you passed, there is no way you will be parallel parking in that vehicle.

It was a family car. I was put on my parent's insurance for that. The next car I got was an Honda Civic - very small but reliable vehicle. My dad got it for me for my senior year in College, when I was living off campus. The other three years I was on campus and did not need a car.

My first car that I bought was out of school, and had my first real job. A 1992 Saturn. Brand New. I waited a year before getting it to make sure they got whatever kinks (as the company was brand new in 1991) out of the new car the first year. It looked good in consumer reports so it was a done deal for me.

domestic goddess
1-18-12, 11:29am
My dh and I had a number of strange cars when we were first married: a Renault 4CV and a Simca are two that come to mind. Oh, and a 1944 Chevy. The Renault was small enough that I could push it when we couldn't start it, and my dh would drop the clutch because I didn't know how. Once I learned how, I didn't have to push any more.

domestic goddess
1-18-12, 11:37am
We also had an Opel Kadette station wagon that we called "Maximillian mini-brute", a reference to their advertising it as a mini-brute, that was the first car we spent more than $75 for. I loved that car. Much later, we had a VW Rabbit diesel wagon, and I loved that car, too. We had a Saab that I loathed (dh wanted that one)
The Renault also had a hand crank. I rarely cranked the car to start it, because dh liked doing it for some reason.

folkypoet
1-18-12, 5:22pm
I still miss my first car like mad. It was a 1967 VW bug - red. Oh, how I loved that thing. I drove it for 13 years... until the engine exploded on the way home one night. :o(

jennipurrr
2-6-12, 10:42am
My parents were split on the buying of cars for children, but my Mom won out as her parents had bought her a car when she was 16. My Dad thought we should have to work and buy one. I don't think my sister or I were especially spoiled or entitled with our cars. They bought us used, fairly practical cars.

I really really wanted this old work truck my Dad had at the time...it was a 1985 Ford F150. It was mammoth, smelled like grease since it had been used as a work truck for 20 years and had these horrible blue vinyl seats that I thought we just fabulous. I think my parents thought I was out of my mind. As they thought it was an unreliable death trap, I never got the old truck.

I had a 1992 Honda Accord. It was a great car! My parents bought it for me when I was 16 (1998), and I thought it was fabulous as it had a sunroof. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as less than a year later I was driving in the rain on a ramp on the interstate and fishtailed, hit a concrete barrier and went into a ditch :( Oh how I mourned that car, sniff sniff.

After that they used the insurance to buy an older Mazda 626 which had nothing but problems and lasted about 2 years.

When it died I bought a 1996 Toyota Camry that lasted me (and eventually DH) until January 2010 and had over 200,000 miles. I sold it to a guy who had just gotten out of prison (!!!) and I still see it around town, so I am always like, yay Cammie is running and the dude is keeping himself out of trouble!

Now DH and I are a two Honda CRV family. We've found that as the middle ground between his desire for a pickup truck since tote stuff around for our rentals sometimes, and also we can toss our labs in the back...good dog hauling vehicle too, and they get decent MPG around town.

Selah
2-6-12, 11:10am
1979 Dodge Colt hatchback. Mine was "puke green," so I called it, lovingly, "the green puke"! Then it was an awful 1984 Ford Escort, which I called "grandma," because it was SO slow and doddery and the paint was "powder room blue." Then, when living in Finland, I had a Russian Lada! Then my cars got boring...

HumboldtGurl
2-7-12, 5:30pm
I'm with you Spartana! I've noticed that my sister's kids all get newish, shiny cars. The parents rationalize "because they're safer!" Well, they do live in Los Angeles after all, where appearance is everything....

But anyhow, my first car was in 1986 and it was.....drumroll.....a 1978 Ford Pinto!

It was exactly like THIS:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Ford_Pinto.jpg/250px-Ford_Pinto.jpgMy parents already owned it, my Mom gave it to me (was she trying to tell me something?!). I paid for EVERYTHING. Insurance, reg, gas, you name it. My Dad was a mechanic so I didn't have to pay for repairs.

That car was the most humbling experience EVER, especially as a 1980s teenage Valley Girl in L.A.

I think more kids need to drive cars like this, don't you?