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Thread: What was your first car?

  1. #1
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    What was your first car?

    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!

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    Moderator Float On's Avatar
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    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.
    Float On: My "Happy Place" is on my little kayak in the coves of Table Rock Lake.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Float On View Post
    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 :-)

  4. #4
    Senior Member Miss Cellane's Avatar
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    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.

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    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.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Senior Member treehugger's Avatar
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    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

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    Senior Member dmc's Avatar
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    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.

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    Senior Member ctg492's Avatar
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    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

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    Senior Member KayLR's Avatar
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    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.
    My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!

  10. #10
    Simpleton Alan's Avatar
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    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:

    "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

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