Kittie

Oh my, am I jealous of the great cars in this posting!!!! <BR>My first car ( of my own) was a 1980(?) Chevette. What a dump it was! It got me to dental school and was a great party car, though. I won't tell you what we brought back from Canada hidden under the back seat (the carpet rolls down and there is a space underneath). No border patrol reading this I hope &lt;g&gt;. <BR>I was supposed to get a 1964 Valient (my grandfather's car) with red interior and Black body...but my older brother got it into two accidents and totaled it...I will never forgive him. <BR>Also, my darling (blah) older brother recently sold his 1970 Challenger to someone for $6500! I would have loved to have that car! He never even asked me if I wanted it! It had 40,000 miles on it! He only drove it in the summer and bought it from an old man in 1979 when it had 7,000 miles. It is the #2 thing that I won't forgive him for. <BR>

Dayle

My first car: 1977 VW Scirocco - THE SCIROCCO FROM HELL! Paid $6,400 new and 3 years later the thing had had $4,000 of repairs and stranded me in (GASP!) Barstow twice. Later recalled by VW for a defect AFTER the engine blew up on the freeway. I was a proud part of the Class Action Law Suit against VW. It took 8 years, but I finally got my $1,500 back for the blown engine. I figure the $1,500 was worth about $700 by then. Tried, but never could come up with a believeable story for the insurance company -- how does one explain that your car went off a 2,000 ft. cliff in Utah and you excaped without a scratch? So I just ended up giving it to my ex in the divorce - Hah!

Byrd

Ah, looking back! The time-1963--the car, a first in the sense that it was the first we bought after our marriage, but not exactly a "family car!" A really beautiful brand new spiffy MBB. We loved it, and have photos of our then-one-year-old son in it. Year passed, another child born, station wagons in the driveway, but we kept the MGB. Later, vans, even an Alfa-Romeo Spyder, but we kept the MGB. During our son's teen years he took it over, and there was much rebuilding, repainting, and recovering of those beautiful leather seats. Now he has a minivan of his own for his two children. And we still have the MGB, carefully stored. His son is now two and a half---maybe the third generation will be driving that little car someday! <BR> <BR>

Bruxo

Well, mine was a 1978 Fiat147, a shit car. It was small and slow. I'm wondering to know if it exists yet. I did a lot of trips with that thing in 1990, from Sao Paulo to Jundiai (for about 37 miles of distance) till a friend's ranch. Might it exists, and if i find it out, i pick it up and...

Kittie

Dayle, <BR>You got stranded in Barstow-twice?! <BR>That car had it in for you! <BR>You are sooo lucky to have escaped that drop without a scratch! You have a guardian angel looking out for you! <BR>Kittie

Paul J

I guess I'm really showing my age, but my first car was a '37 Plymouth with a floor shift. What a dog!!.... Ah, but my second car was a '41 Ford coupe, pitch black, with an outside sun visor. Most of you probably have never seen one of those. It had a red vinyl interior and wide, wide, wide white sidewalls. It was the coolest set of wheels anyone could have in the early '50s. I can remember every detail about that car... Good stuff, Maynard!!! <BR>

Go

hhhmmm....first car (would a car that I had for 3 days before righting it off against a powerpole count), if so, then it would be an '84 Ford Telsta, which I had for 3 days, when it accidently be3come a little bit to friendly with a powerpole. Cost me $AUD3,000, and had enought to pay the loan off outright (Wooo-Hooo). 3 months later , I bought a '54 Valient for 1500, which was a major BARGİN!!!!.....and I still got it now which is about 5 years after buy,ng it

Lori

My first car was a 1969 AMC Javelin - Burnt Orange. I inherited it from my dad. I got rid of it when the transmission went and bought a 1972 Ford 'explode on impact' Pinto. It broke down at a picnic one day and a friend of mine bumped me the whole way home. The story of the exploding Pintos broke the next week. . Thankfully those days are over.

Hilary

Mine was a green Morris 1100 which I was given for my 21st birthday 23 years ago. I'd hoped for a stylish little Italian number, perhaps a Fiat 500, but got my grandad's cast-off instead. Not complaining of course, had many a happy time poodling around in it. After that I had a little black baby Wolsey (like a Mini) which I bought for £50 and which had a hole in the driver's floor so that when it rained my feet got soaked while driving. That was followed by a Morris Traveller (the estate with all the wood) which had toadstools growing around the wood, a driver's seat that collapsed backwards every time I sat in it, and only two gears that worked. After that, several different sensible boring motors until I finally got the stylish Italian Alfa which is now my pride & joy. All good things come to those who suffer along the way. <BR> <BR>

Dayle

Kitty: No, no! It was just a wishful half-way serious plot. Really, really wanted to push that car off a cliff in Little Cottonwood canyon, but couldn't think of a good enough explanation for the insurance company.....any creative plotters out there? Shall we start a new thread for likely stories?

Rod Hoots

My first car was a 1941 Studebaker Champion, bought in 1950 for $460. It was in great shape and had some interesting features for 1941. You only had to use the clutch to start in first gear, then just use the steering wheel gear shift for second and third. It had a 33 horse power engine and you could pull a lever on the dashboard to go into "free wheeling," which meant you were were coasting when you took your foot off the gas; got about 40 miles to the gallon but was very dangerous with mechanical brakes because there was no engine drag to slow it down. It also had heater vents under the front seats. The best car though was a 67 Mustang convertible that I owned for four years in Hawaii. My son learned to drive in that car and was "Mr. Cool" around the Army base at Schofield Barracks. Great memories! <BR>

dodger

Showing my age, but in 1958 I purchased my first car. A 1949 baby blue Ford. I crashed it on the third day. Sold it for junk and joined the Air Force. <BR>

Kittie

Dayle: <BR>Oh, I get it. I reread your post and realized that I had misunderstood it the first time. Well, I'm very glad that it actually didn't happen! <BR>Let's see...you could tell them that you were wearing your seatbelt and they really are life-savers....or you parked the car near the cliff to do some site-seeing and the car just rolled over. Are these too lame &lt;g&gt;? <BR>

Al

Earlier, I said I owned a 1950 Chevvie as my first car. Not quite. In 1947 I went 50/50 with another guy to buy a 1935 Olds coupe off a used-car lot on Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, thinking we could drive it to Chicago after working that summer for $.85 an hour in the Sierra Nevadas on a fire-fighting crew. Well, we crossed the Bay Bridge headed through Oakland when we noticed a strong smell, something like a burning fish. This ancient Olds had more coats of paint on its gray body than Carter had pills, and it struggled mightily to cross those hills toward Modesto. And the smell intensified. At a wide place in the road called Livermore, the Olds started to shudder. Then to shake. Then acted like an earthquake was happening. And there was smoke, and there was a roaring clatter, and then complete collapse. A main bearing had given out from lack of oil, a rod flew through the cylinder wall, and we sold that Olds by the pound to a shade-tree mechanic by the side of the road. How we thumbed our way across the mountains, the plains, and the cornfields makes another stirring tale. As a consequence, I have always been more than a little amused at the lack of "spirit of adventure" shown by succeeding generations of youngsters.

CHERIE

First car was a '69 Mustang (in 1974) followed by a Jaguar MkII 3.8 (in 1977). Thought I needed something to show I had gone to work. First trip to Europe? 1975. Still had that Mustang (one needs one to drive when Jag is in repair shop)up until 1984.

Stephen

A 1950 something Studebaker Lark. What a dump but at least it rolled!

Myriam

My first car was a brandnew Mini Cooper to which I spent the last franc I had. I bought it without even looking at it because I knew for years that it was THIS CAR that I wanted. I even forgot to ask the usual 6 or 7% discount the car companies usually grant and I still regret that! This was in 1976 and I sold the car - with tears in my eyes - in 1983 after it had taken us around a large part of Europe.

Kim

A black 1983 Reneault Fuego - fun to drive but repairs were $$$$ and frequent. Not fun to deal with when you're a poor grad student. Finally sold it after the heater went out on my way home to Minnesota during Christmas break with 5 hours still to drive. Brrrrr! The locks of my next car constantly froze during the winter - I never went anywhere without lockthaw.

Joe

In 1966 I had $500 and had to choose between a '64 Ford Falcon and a semester in Germany. I picked the Falcon and, while it took me another 16 years to get to Europe for the first time, it was the right choice.

bottomer

Yup, here is the old thread!