What was your first car ?
 

OK gang, lets see who is paying attention. <BR>The true origin of our love of travel is probably our first car. Mine was a 1959 VW bug bought for $500 in 1969. I had it painted purple, took out the back seat(pure adolescent fantasy) , put in curtains, put of wide tires and thought I was hot stuff! Now it takes a little more to ring my bell, like a little trip to Europe, and now I spend my free hours on this board. So, what was your first car? <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>the

Well mine was a 1951 4-door Pontiac sedan--bought second hand in 1956. I needed a car because I'd been hired to teach in a VERY rural part of West Virginia and a car was required to even get to a half-way decent supermarket. <BR> On a good day it gave me 7 miles to the gallon, but gasoline cost 25 cents per gallon in those days. I kept it until 1961 (when it seemed to be falling apart)--but it had moved me from West Virginia to Louisiana via Indiana. Thanks for reminding me. Joan

<BR>Mine was a '54 4-door grey Pontiac purchased for $200.00 cash when I was in college somewhere around l963. It was a tank!

My first car was a 1968 maroon Pontiac Catalina. That thing could move; It had a 400/4 barrel engine. However, it wasn't the most attractive thing on the road; That beater had more patches on it than a quilt. I couldn't have gotten through college without it though!

I can't believe I'm still an Anglophile considering that my first car was a black four door Morris Minor. (Imagine a four door auto smaller than a Beetle!) Amazingly the thing wouldn't start if there was the slightest hint of humidity or moisture in the air. I can't imagine they'd ever start in Great Britain. Over the years I managed to put 120,000 miles on it but only on those days when there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

..... <BR> <BR>1969 Volvo. Big huge steering wheel and a choke I had to pull out in the morning before it would start. <BR> <BR>Boy I'm glad those days are over. <BR> <BR>:-)

I bought a new 1950 Chevrolet -- and was recalled into the Navy the next month. A guy offered to take it off my hands for the payments. The way I figure it, Kim Il Sung owes me the down payment, which I lost.

196? Volkswagen squareback station wagonoid thing. Not exactly a smooth, quiet ride, but it was cheap, and there was a certain cachet to having a VW in those days, as long as one had the appropriate love beads hanging from the mirror. Hmmm.. perhaps this contributed to my later enjoyment of Bavaria?

A 1965 pale yellow Mustang! Bought it for $1000., put flower-power decals on it, was surprised when truckers honked at me all the time. (Could have been the miniskirt, too, I suppose.) <BR> <BR>Sold it in 1970 (for $1000.) when the radiator was giving up and it may have needed a valve job -- to pay for a honeymoon to Greece and Italy. Glad I went to Europe, wish I'd fixed the car and kept it (without flowers). <BR> <BR>PS -- the $1000. paid for the entire trip in 1971: 2 TWA student airfares to Athens plus a month of travel, lodging, food, etc.

Since my first car was a 1952 Pontiac, perhaps owners of old Pontiacs have a special desire to travel?

My first car was a lime-green, 1976 Volvo 240D sedan. Towards the end of its life it developed an odd electrical problem, in which the headlights would suddenly go out at night. Yikes! Unfortunately, it was totaled when I was rear-ended by a teenager in a Mazda (I'll let you imagine how fast she was going to total a 1976 Volvo).

Perhaps foretelling my move to England six years later, my first car was a used 1959 Austin-Healey. Its successor, purchased new in 1967 was another Austin-Healey which was transported back across the Atlantic for the four years I was there! In fact, I still have it after all these years (and still love England though I no longer live there!).

A 1958 MG "A", a true gem at only $150.00, this was in 1967. Still probably the best car I ever owned, even if only for a short time. Classy little number was totaled in a grocery store parking lot by an Oldsmobile station wagon. The lady decided to back up without looking (doubt if she could have seen the MG from her dinosaur if she WAS looking!) Owned several since then, but the first was certainly the best!

First car, in 1956, was a '53 Studebaker, design by Raymond Loewy, very aerodynamic. 2nd car, brand new '58 TR3, 3 weeks later it was a wreck (my fault) so I volunteered for a Med cruise on the Intrepid and thus started my love for travel.

<BR>Cassandra - I put pink and orange stick-on flowers on my second car - a brand new l966 VW bug I was so proud of! However, I couldn't drive a stick shift so I had to take a girlfriend along with me to pick up the car, my mother too, who had to co-sign for me since I was in college and had no credit, and my boyfriend had to teach me to drive it. Boy, do I remember those days - I'd get 50 cents worth of gas when there were gas wars of l9 cents or something like that, to get me back and forth from school! <BR>I see a trend here besides Pontiacs (and Vdub's), I've now had Volvo station wagons the last l3 years!

<BR>a correction - the gas wars were back when I was driving the Pontiac, and I got the VW after I'd gotten my first job!

'79 Dodge St. Regius, in '88. The only other time I've ever seen this model and make of car was on "The A-Team" and they used it to make a tank-thingy to save somebody's cab company from badies. I used to crash into shopping carriages in the mall parking lot at 40+mph. They only roll if you hit 'em right and sometimes you can get them to "power-mate" by locking them one inside the other at high speed. Ahhh, the twisted hormones of youth.

1969 AMX-bittersweet orange. Kept it 16 years. Now have a 1997 Red Miata -top down

My first car was a 1960-ish (early) Corvair. A hand-me-down from my father, who had used it as his oil field car. I loved that thing, which was blue, so I called it Gainesbourough, after that artist's famous painting, Blue Boy. I used to drive down the Kansas turnpike around 83 MPH (80 was legal then) and the car would fishtail, and then I would slow down. Then what day it occurred to me...THIS was the type of car Ralph Nader wrote the book about...unsafe at any speed. So I really slowed down and had no trouble whatsoever. When I graduated from college, I was given a brand new gold Camaro and I cried. My parents and grandparents thought it was because I was so happy. Actually, I missed my old blue car which I at least at the good grace/sense not to tell them. I did drive out to the auto dealer to say good by to my first car, driving in my second. I felt like a two-timer.

My first car was a 1961 Chevy Impala coupe purchased in 1965 for $1100. Drove that car all through college and sold it for $550. A great car and one I remember fondly. Another memorable car was a 1969 red VW that I purchased in 1970 while stationed in Germany. The car had 6000 miles on it and cost me around $900. My wife and I drove it all over Europe for a year and a half and put another 30,000 miles on it before selling it to another trooper for $650. So it cost me about $250 for a car to tour Europe in. We laugh about that when we pay our car rental fees for the trips we now use in Europe.I also discovered that a 1200 cc engine not too great for the Alps. I had never experienced that type of driving in my native Texas.