first car

The folks on the Today Show were discussing their first cars this morning...got me to remembering my first:

1970 AMC Hornet, yellow w/ olive green interior. Bought in 1977 for $600. Used more oil than gas, and I had to open up the carbuerator on cold mornings to jiggle the butterfly. The heater could not be turned off, no AC, the driver's side window could not be rolled down all the way, or it would drop down, the passenger side rear view mirror fell off, and more than once the bolt holding the driver's seat back came loose while I was driving! Drove it until 1982, when it finally died and could not be resurrected.

My first car was a 1963 MGB, that I bought in 1972. Had to push it and pop the clutch half the time to get it runing. Black with red interior (Sharp!), with a six volt system and wire wheels. Had a hard time finding parts and keeping the dual carbs balanced. I do miss that car.

1966 VW Bug, green, beige interior, 6-volt electrical system. Bought in 1970 for $500. Probably had 137,000 miles in it, but the odometer had only 5 dials to the left of the decimal point. I suspect the original owner NEVER changed the oil; the brakes were metal on metal.

My friends and I took the engine apart the first weekend I had it. We replaced a goodly number of parts, including all 4 rotors. brake pads, and the master cylinder. It ran great after that.

I could fit 3 full sets of drums in it - good for getting to gigs, and when I drove it from northern NJ to middle-of-nowhere, La. to visit a high school buddy of mine, I got 41 MPG.

Unfortunately, on the return trip, a woman came from behind me and took out everything from the right rear wheel well to the dashboard. Sure do miss that car!

My dad had a 1949 Dodge pickup, born the same year I was. The seat would not adjust, and the clutch had to be all the way to the firewall to engage. Since I couldn't reach to push it all the way in, I did the best I could, and pretended. In addition, the linkage was damaged (can't imagine how that happened) so it was tough to get it into second gear. I learned to power-shift first to third by the time I hit the end of the driveway. Impossible to sneak up on anybody.

1963 Galaxy 500.

It was supposed to be my mother's car after my dad got a new one in 1967, but she failed her driver's license test. I got use of the car and $5 a week for gas as long as I took her to work and anywhere else she wanted to go. I did have to keep explaining it was not my fault the front passenger door was smashed in. Mom managed to do that while the driver's test examiner was in the car. "But everyone told me I was making my turns too wide," she said to dad...

1963 Buick Skylark Bought it from an uncle. It was beat up cuz he used to race it down the narrow alleys in Chicago.
Was a nice car, though.

Oldsmobile Delta 88, and I don't remember the year. The color was baby blue and the rear fenders looked like wings!

1971 or 72 AMC Javelin. White with red stripes and green vinyl T-top. Interior had green corduroy seats, and green plush, almost shag carpet. It was a sight. Gigantic steering wheel. I still have guys I went to school with who remember that car. Unfortunately my sister flew it into the woods and that was the end of that.

A late 60s Rambler American that my father picked up really cheap! Quickly replaced by a 1967 Mustang convertible that made it through my younger sister and brother before the floorboards completely rotted out!

I still own and drive my first car. It's an '84 Toyota pickup that I bought from my former boss in '89. Has about 132,000 miles on it now. It's now my second vehicle, so I don't drive it much more than once or twice a week.

1967 Datsun 1600 Roadster. Rag top. 4 speed. It cost me $1100 in 1973. I loved that car.

Edited to add, based on jim53's message below, that I learned to drive on a 1967 Pontiac Catalina station wagon. One of the biggest ugliest cars on the road, as I recall. I had to learn to parallel park in that sucker.

I learned to drive in my Mom's 1966 Chevy Nova, and eventually took it to college. The first car I owned was a 1977 VW Rabbit.

1972 Dodge Dart Swinger, yellow with a black top. I LOVED that car.

I learned to drive in a late 60s model Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors (rear door opened out from the middle). What a tank! My mother almost had heart failure more than once as I sped around curves barely holding the road.

A '72 Plymouth Fury wagon. Totally uncool but it was a good car for driving back and forth to the barn and home from college.

I didn't drive till I was 25...a new 1982 Ford Escort with a 19.5% interest rate on the unpaid balance and an AM radio. Drove it over the 100,000 mile mark and got a new 1989 Ford Thunderbird.

My first car was a 1969 Ford Mustang Convertible. With a 351 Windsor, four barrel carb. It had a two step, silver based, candy apple red paint job, with a flat black hood, and black convertible top. It was an automatic with over drive 1 and 2. The back widow was plexiglass that had a rubber gasket through the middle to help it fold when the top was down. The interior was red and it was totally cherry. Then a little girl (she was 15 with a hardship license) in her daddy's half ton cut me off and I hit her right behind the cab. Needless to say the car was totaled.

I learned to drive on an 1971 (I think) Ford Torino station wagon...what a tank! But my friends always wanted to take that car when we went cruising...we could fit 6-7 girls in that thing! I had to share that car w/ my sisters until we had enough money to buy our own. That's when when I got the AMC Hornet mentioned above. Forgot to mention about that one...it had an 8-track stereo system in it (b'day gift from boyfriend). I would drive around town w/ the windows down, w/ Boston, Electric Light Orchestra, or Queen playing as loud as I could get it. lol

Now I'm 50, drive an '03 Mustang convertible and drive around w/ the top down, playing Queen as loud as I can! Sorta freaks out some of our church members where my husband is pastor, lol (I am not your ordinary pastor's wife!)

My first car was the same age as me: a 1956 Peugeot 403 estate in that lovely French blue. It weighed a ton and a quarter and had a 1500cc engine, so I very quickly learned to drive without ever touching the brakes. The number plate was TUJ 490. It had a column change and bench seats. My dad installed seatbelts, which annoyed me as it was too old to be required to have them. When you opened the bonnet, you could sit on the wing with your legs dangling inside the engine bay - plenty of space to get at everything. And the rear floor (solid metal) could be removed to expose the chassis; if you did that, you could get my brother's BSA Bantam in upright, which was very handy as that bike broke down a lot.

It finally died when my dad drove through a big puddle and the water came up through the floor and drenched him. It was completely rusted through. I did drive it for a while (very illegally) with a piece of plywood for a floor. After that my brothers had it to drive round the fields, to the terror of the sheep!

The one thing I really wanted to do was emulate the picture in the Haynes manual of a man driving it with the body completely removed. The chassis had a full floorpan, completely separate from the bodywork.

Dear old TUJ - I miss him! All sorts of things went wrong, but you could usually fix them and I learned a lot. I have driven: without a clutch (okay except for traffic lights), without an accelerator (use the choke - remember them?), without brakes (that was scary), without wipers (interesting), without headlights (very interesting), and of course without a starter motor. That was no problem - you just got out the starting handle, or bump started if you were on any sort of slope.

Edited to correct the typo that scared jeniieg

I have to assume that it was driving without brakes that was scary. Otherwise, I'm staying away from your neck of the woods.

It was a 1972 Plymouth Duster, white with a gold roof and interior. Rode like a champ with the slant 6 engine that outlived the rest of it.

We had a bright yellow Renault 4, new in 1982 (ish). The gear lever came out of the dashboard, the windows slid sideways instead of winding up and down and the ventilation was a flap at the bottom of the windscreen that was open or closed. I didn't learn to drive until about 15 years later and we had upgraded to a Renault 5 by then which was so ordinary in comparison.

I had a '62 Corvair. It got me where I wanted to go; luckily, I never went too far from home. The door handles and window roller handles all fell off, so to get out of the car you had to find a handle and somehow get it to work, or (if the window had been rolled down - a real process in itself!) you could reach outside and open the door that way. On the other hand, it did have seatbelts (the lap kind). That would probably have been a liability in an accident - strapped in and no way out.

I was a late learner so my first car was only about 20 years ago. She was a VW Polo called Gertie and of a dingy mossy green that I was probably the only person in the world who would be seen dead in her. Every time I pulled away at a junction she stalled and I'm probably lucky to still be alive but I still have very fond memories of her.

The first car I drove was my parents' green Oldsmobile Delta 88 (shout out to >7 loriephillips: loriephillips), which was dark green with a "ragtop" (convertible). It was a big hit with my friends.

The first car I owned was a much more modest Ford Falcon that a little old lady who rarely drove it sold to me.

A blue 1969 Rambler coupe, with a slant-six engine. I got it for $800 in 1980. It was a great car. Rusted-through floor boards. NEVER a single problem. A car-minded friend picked it for me, otherwise I would've bought an ancient Peugeot or Renault because I thought they looked cool.

A grey Ford Anglia. I bought it secondhand in 1972. I can't remember its manufacture date but it must have been mid-60s

Cor, a Ford Angular! My (older, handsome) cousin had one. So impressive in about the same year!