I was just thinking how cool first cars are and how I wish I still had mine. I drove a 1982 Volvo 240 station wagon. I bought it after working my ass off for two summers and picked it up for 1000 bucks. Ran it into the ground after 250,000 miles. Silver with black leather seats (the ones with the buttons in them that woud rip your pants if you sat up to quick and burnt like hell on hot summer days. Had a tape stuck in the cassette player since I bought and was too cheap to have it taken out and too lazy to pry it out myself. So it was just me, my thoughts, and the sweet sound of that 4 cylinder beast. Had quite a few awesome times in it. The best was when I thought the Volvo needed to gain some offroad cred, and took it around the woods around my hometown. Got stuck after 5 minutes and had to walk home. Called up my buddy the next day to pull me out with his truck. Tell me some good stories about your first car, and relieve me of all this architecture talk.
still have mine, probably always will, bright yellow '66 chevy malibu i got with only 58k miles on it, all original parts and ran perfectly. got really lucky with that purchase, and i felt like the coolest kid in the high school parking lot.
87 taurus wagon - beige. $2000 in '94. bought to move self and all my books cross country. piece-o-shit radiator leaked, transmission leaked, air conditioner leaked and didn't worked. never got laid in that car - sigh.
Mar 28, 08 1:26 pm ·
·
1963 Mercedes Benz 220S
white with red leather interior
got it in 1973, remarkable stirring and shocking speed gauge
'89 honda crx. 5 bucks of gas would last 2 weeks. 2 seats so you only have to pick one other person on the way to wherever but i've once driven it with 4 other people in there. i've hauled my bass guitar equipment (amp, speaker cabinets, etc) in there many times. reliable as hell...
it got stolen. when the police found it, i had to drive it back home while sitting on a cmu that the thiefs put to replace the driver's seat and start it with a screwdriver...
damn, all of those cars (well, almost all...) sound a whole lot cooler than mine. I've actually bought my first car a couple of months ago, a Volkwagen Polo. It's not the prettiest car in the world, but it's cheap, it's reliable and all that.
It's this one. Except without German License plates...
It was amazing, i loved that thing to pieces... 1st gear was insane, it would jump of the line so quickly...
Only problem was it was purchase very cheaply with high miles, and only lasted about 8 months until the turbo went out... After that, it was no fun to drive...
but i loved it, and i miss it still...
1978 International Scout II with a 492 v8. 3 speed gear. 4x4 3 ton truck.
Primary use was to move Farm Combine Tractors out of the mud before I brought it for $800.00 back in 1991.
I believed it got 8 miles per a gallon no matter what. Towing a boat/tractor, Top off, Doors off, Fully Loaded, Unloaded, Up-Hill, Down-Hill, and crawling along at .25 mph....still 8 mpg.
1936 Plymouth rumble-seat convertible. Gift of a family friend (wife of architect Andre Halasz, a contributor to the old "Graphic Standards") before I had a license. I drove it in the driveway. Then a college-bound friend left his 1948 Mercury humpback 4-door in our garage (painted like a giraffe -- Millikin College Giraffe Society "staff car" -- lost its grille in a push-start accident). I tuned the glove-compartment door, drove it in the driveway. Then I got my license, drove the family Ford wagon (1956). After college:
1940 Ford Fordor, very rough, bought from a Providence cop -- $200
1940 Nash sedan, beautiful, black, straight eight with dual ignition, and a cracked exhaust manifold -- Taunton, MA -- $175
1952 Dodge sedan -- a kid in Sagamore Beach, MA -- $60
another 1952 Dodge sedan -- an old guy "down the Cape" -- $100
1957 SAAB 93 two-cycle -- suicide doors
1958 SAAB 93 -- front-hinged doors
NEW 1968 VW bug -- $1776 with AM radio
1963 Impala convertible, red with purple hood and stereo !
1954 Pontiac wagon -- terra-cotta w/ green and white vinyl -- $225
1969 FIAT 124 Sport Spyder -- sweetest driver of them all
NEW 1974 Celica GT
1962 VW bug -- rough -- $600 (arrived in CA w/ $900)
1975 FIAT 4-door wagon (same drive train as the spyder) -- second sweetest
NEW 1988 Honda Civic wagon -- $10,248 -- 12' flying wedge lumber rack -- 20 years, 150,000 mi -- good car
damn....memory lane. i bought the Z24 from my older brother for $1500 in 1997, when i turned 16 (money made working construction in the summer and at a pizza restaurant during the school year). i put a sound system in it that cost more than the car (about $1700, alarm included). those were the days. after less than 2 years i blew the engine, along with some of the speakers and 2 or 3 alternators along the way).
my next car was a 4 cylinder toyota tercel that could barely get out of its own way...but i still managed to keep getting speeding tickets (before blowing its engine my 2nd or 3rd year of college).
Toaster....That looks like my land yaught! Mine is called Taj, 1984 Grand Mercury Marquis.....with 47,000 miles. It has a little label on the glove box which says "Engineered Ride" and let me tell you it is
like driving your living room down the Highway. Big as it is it does better on gas milage than my Jeep Cherokee.
Love your Malibu, phuyaka. My grandma had one, I loved it.
snook, "driving your living room down the road" that's brilliant!
The first car I drove with any regularity was a 1974 Toyota Landcruiser. I want to get a vintage one now and have my husband fix it up as a custom for e - but he's reluctant. Actually just saw one on a flatbed trailer, covered in rust, on the freeway - someone else must have bought my project car!
But that was my parent's car, as were all the subsequent college cars. I honestly feel that my current '92 Miata is the first car I can call "mine" - we bought it for me, it's not "our" car, it's mine. And I'll drive it until it falls apart under me. I love my Miata.
First car I drove 1983 two tone blue Lincoln Towncar. My friends called it the boat, b/c it drove like one. Very loose steering and brakes that sucked ass. But how easy can it be to stop something that monstrous.
Like Liberty though, it was my parents. The car I currently drive is MY first car. 1999 white Volkswagen Jetta GLS. Named her Gretl. I love her and will be sad when she dies.
The Miata was apparently designed specifically to evoke the same sensations that driving an MG or a Triumph or an Italian roadster used to give -- according to what I read when it came out. I've never been in one. I've never driven an Alfa, either. My loss, I guess. That 124 just felt so good: the seats, the shifter, the wheel, even the damn choke knob felt good. . .and the PininFarina body was very subtle. Did you know that the cowl panel just came right off, with the wiper motor and linkage attached to it ? Who else ever did that ? And that little dual air horn -- sweet. Not a sports car; a gentleman's sports roadster. . .
SDR, we had a '68 MGB-GT for awhile which is why my husband got me the Miata - I loved driving that MG but so often it wasn't drivable! Also had a Fiat Spider growing up that was a blast to drive. Give me a little, tight, manual transmission and I'm in heaven. The Miata truly is a roadster.
Yup, the FIAT lasted me a year and a half, then the doors started dropping (body rot). And it had looked so good: new blue paint, new top and radials, but it came from Minnesota (it turned out) and was a salt sponge. Shame. . .
I want another one, the earliest bumpers and hubcaps. Maroon, or dark green, maybe. And I'd love to feel one of those little SAABs again. Sturdy little seed-pod, with a dashboard pull starter and a chain-operated winter-start windowshade in front of the radiator. Three on the tree, plywood floor, unit body, free-wheeling. Cast alloy grille. Light and stiff and happy. . .
What was your first car?
I was just thinking how cool first cars are and how I wish I still had mine. I drove a 1982 Volvo 240 station wagon. I bought it after working my ass off for two summers and picked it up for 1000 bucks. Ran it into the ground after 250,000 miles. Silver with black leather seats (the ones with the buttons in them that woud rip your pants if you sat up to quick and burnt like hell on hot summer days. Had a tape stuck in the cassette player since I bought and was too cheap to have it taken out and too lazy to pry it out myself. So it was just me, my thoughts, and the sweet sound of that 4 cylinder beast. Had quite a few awesome times in it. The best was when I thought the Volvo needed to gain some offroad cred, and took it around the woods around my hometown. Got stuck after 5 minutes and had to walk home. Called up my buddy the next day to pull me out with his truck. Tell me some good stories about your first car, and relieve me of all this architecture talk.
1978 mazda glc (great little car!)
beautiful rust patina on that thing ..
77 Pinto that was blazing orange...just like the one in the pic above.
Man I'm young, red '00 ford focus, which i'm still driving and probably will drive until i'm forced to buy another car.
damn apu you are young
mine was a 1991 burgundy Honda Civic sedan. We affectionately called it redz, until it started giving trouble thence we called it the "heart ache"
oddly I've only owned burgundy vehicles since (less the blue corolla)
still have mine, probably always will, bright yellow '66 chevy malibu i got with only 58k miles on it, all original parts and ran perfectly. got really lucky with that purchase, and i felt like the coolest kid in the high school parking lot.
1959 baja bug
1987 SAAB 9-6, white.
87 taurus wagon - beige. $2000 in '94. bought to move self and all my books cross country. piece-o-shit radiator leaked, transmission leaked, air conditioner leaked and didn't worked. never got laid in that car - sigh.
1963 Mercedes Benz 220S
white with red leather interior
got it in 1973, remarkable stirring and shocking speed gauge
all that's left
1973 pontiac gto -- canyon copper with white roof - bucket seats!
'89 honda crx. 5 bucks of gas would last 2 weeks. 2 seats so you only have to pick one other person on the way to wherever but i've once driven it with 4 other people in there. i've hauled my bass guitar equipment (amp, speaker cabinets, etc) in there many times. reliable as hell...
it got stolen. when the police found it, i had to drive it back home while sitting on a cmu that the thiefs put to replace the driver's seat and start it with a screwdriver...
damn, all of those cars (well, almost all...) sound a whole lot cooler than mine. I've actually bought my first car a couple of months ago, a Volkwagen Polo. It's not the prettiest car in the world, but it's cheap, it's reliable and all that.
It's this one. Except without German License plates...
1974 Dodge Charger - Red 318, slap stick...
1992 White Honda Accord
'73 Beetle Convertible - my dad just finished restoring it. It's like a brand new car now...
mine was a 1990 Eagle Talon TSi AWD
It was amazing, i loved that thing to pieces... 1st gear was insane, it would jump of the line so quickly...
Only problem was it was purchase very cheaply with high miles, and only lasted about 8 months until the turbo went out... After that, it was no fun to drive...
but i loved it, and i miss it still...
...just allot less safer ;)
my baja was free and i fixed it up myself all disc breaks IRS tranny welded in pivots.
now i drive a TDI bio-diesel with 50mpg, still have the baja and would like to put a TDI veggie powered motor on it
here's a picture of the malibu as of last summer
1992 Saab 900 hatchback
1970 VW Bug
'67 mustang with a 289. it's a miracle i'm still alive. i miss that car.
Nissan 350Z
except it was red and not nearly as shiny.
Fiat 124 Sport Coupe...fun car to drive.
let's go siesta in your Ford Fiesta
1978 International Scout II with a 492 v8. 3 speed gear. 4x4 3 ton truck.
Primary use was to move Farm Combine Tractors out of the mud before I brought it for $800.00 back in 1991.
I believed it got 8 miles per a gallon no matter what. Towing a boat/tractor, Top off, Doors off, Fully Loaded, Unloaded, Up-Hill, Down-Hill, and crawling along at .25 mph....still 8 mpg.
I miss that Scout. It had soul.
86 VW Fox wagon, surf racks, moonroof, red paint and a lot of model transportation space... nice
1936 Plymouth rumble-seat convertible. Gift of a family friend (wife of architect Andre Halasz, a contributor to the old "Graphic Standards") before I had a license. I drove it in the driveway. Then a college-bound friend left his 1948 Mercury humpback 4-door in our garage (painted like a giraffe -- Millikin College Giraffe Society "staff car" -- lost its grille in a push-start accident). I tuned the glove-compartment door, drove it in the driveway. Then I got my license, drove the family Ford wagon (1956). After college:
1940 Ford Fordor, very rough, bought from a Providence cop -- $200
1940 Nash sedan, beautiful, black, straight eight with dual ignition, and a cracked exhaust manifold -- Taunton, MA -- $175
1952 Dodge sedan -- a kid in Sagamore Beach, MA -- $60
another 1952 Dodge sedan -- an old guy "down the Cape" -- $100
1957 SAAB 93 two-cycle -- suicide doors
1958 SAAB 93 -- front-hinged doors
NEW 1968 VW bug -- $1776 with AM radio
1963 Impala convertible, red with purple hood and stereo !
1954 Pontiac wagon -- terra-cotta w/ green and white vinyl -- $225
1969 FIAT 124 Sport Spyder -- sweetest driver of them all
NEW 1974 Celica GT
1962 VW bug -- rough -- $600 (arrived in CA w/ $900)
1975 FIAT 4-door wagon (same drive train as the spyder) -- second sweetest
NEW 1988 Honda Civic wagon -- $10,248 -- 12' flying wedge lumber rack -- 20 years, 150,000 mi -- good car
1987 Chevy Cavalier Z24...that v6 got me a ton of speeding tickets.
resize...
man some of you had some pretty amazing first cars...
im jealous!!
i dont have a car now, but if i did, id try really really hard to find my first car in good condition...
mine was a stock two tone India Ivory, Matador Red 1956 Bel Air Belville 4 door station wagon.
damn....memory lane. i bought the Z24 from my older brother for $1500 in 1997, when i turned 16 (money made working construction in the summer and at a pizza restaurant during the school year). i put a sound system in it that cost more than the car (about $1700, alarm included). those were the days. after less than 2 years i blew the engine, along with some of the speakers and 2 or 3 alternators along the way).
my next car was a 4 cylinder toyota tercel that could barely get out of its own way...but i still managed to keep getting speeding tickets (before blowing its engine my 2nd or 3rd year of college).
1977 Ford Grenada. I had to reach under the dash to get the defrost to work. it was powder blue and my friends called it the "smurfmobile."
V8 engine, though...
'67 Volvo station wagon, 4 speed.
Lotsa fond memories and very versatile interior for the over nighters on the side of a road :-)
Toaster....That looks like my land yaught! Mine is called Taj, 1984 Grand Mercury Marquis.....with 47,000 miles. It has a little label on the glove box which says "Engineered Ride" and let me tell you it is
like driving your living room down the Highway. Big as it is it does better on gas milage than my Jeep Cherokee.
"Imagine yourself in a Mercury. . ."
88 Horizon
Phuyaka's Malibu is hot. Moak's AMC -- what was that called ?
Looks like a Javelin.
What a fun thread.
Love your Malibu, phuyaka. My grandma had one, I loved it.
snook, "driving your living room down the road" that's brilliant!
The first car I drove with any regularity was a 1974 Toyota Landcruiser. I want to get a vintage one now and have my husband fix it up as a custom for e - but he's reluctant. Actually just saw one on a flatbed trailer, covered in rust, on the freeway - someone else must have bought my project car!
But that was my parent's car, as were all the subsequent college cars. I honestly feel that my current '92 Miata is the first car I can call "mine" - we bought it for me, it's not "our" car, it's mine. And I'll drive it until it falls apart under me. I love my Miata.
lb, I see plenty of rust-free Land Cruisers out here.
First car I drove 1983 two tone blue Lincoln Towncar. My friends called it the boat, b/c it drove like one. Very loose steering and brakes that sucked ass. But how easy can it be to stop something that monstrous.
Like Liberty though, it was my parents. The car I currently drive is MY first car. 1999 white Volkswagen Jetta GLS. Named her Gretl. I love her and will be sad when she dies.
The Miata was apparently designed specifically to evoke the same sensations that driving an MG or a Triumph or an Italian roadster used to give -- according to what I read when it came out. I've never been in one. I've never driven an Alfa, either. My loss, I guess. That 124 just felt so good: the seats, the shifter, the wheel, even the damn choke knob felt good. . .and the PininFarina body was very subtle. Did you know that the cowl panel just came right off, with the wiper motor and linkage attached to it ? Who else ever did that ? And that little dual air horn -- sweet. Not a sports car; a gentleman's sports roadster. . .
SDR, we had a '68 MGB-GT for awhile which is why my husband got me the Miata - I loved driving that MG but so often it wasn't drivable! Also had a Fiat Spider growing up that was a blast to drive. Give me a little, tight, manual transmission and I'm in heaven. The Miata truly is a roadster.
Yup, the FIAT lasted me a year and a half, then the doors started dropping (body rot). And it had looked so good: new blue paint, new top and radials, but it came from Minnesota (it turned out) and was a salt sponge. Shame. . .
I want another one, the earliest bumpers and hubcaps. Maroon, or dark green, maybe. And I'd love to feel one of those little SAABs again. Sturdy little seed-pod, with a dashboard pull starter and a chain-operated winter-start windowshade in front of the radiator. Three on the tree, plywood floor, unit body, free-wheeling. Cast alloy grille. Light and stiff and happy. . .
73 cutlass supreme
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