First Car?
 

Alright, I've been having a blast reading about first cars/best cars over on the 'week of the 20th' thread. Without the concept of 'best cars for "new drivers"', what was your 'first car' or 'best car' story.

My first car was boring but reliable; a 4-door Mazda GLC (Pre-zoom-zoom). Ran it till the AC and the heat both went out. I think I got about 200k miles out of that thing. Kept replacing the stereo with better, better, better. Did all the maintenance and learned a TON about working on cars.

Best story I've heard was my brother's. Inherited my parents 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit when he went to college. He drove that thing around MN/WI and the Dakotas until there was more rust than metal. Drove for a month with cardboard covering a hole under the clutch/brake pedal until it got wet and 'went away at about 60 mph'. Ended up having a friend who was a welder tack some sheet-metal to the floor so he'd quit getting wet. He loved that car for some reason. :confused:

1981 Buick Lesabre Diesel. 0-60 in about 12 seconds.

1985 Volvo station wagon. I bought it in high school for $2k and it lasted me until my senior year of college, when it caught fire driving north on I-5. Went up like a Viking funeral pyre.

You swapped your digits there

First car.. Opel GT that rolled away from the High School AP teacher’s house while he was on summer vacation and the kudzu covered it up so thoroughly that it was considered stolen and totaled by the insurer until the vine died down in the winter and red paint shone through the weeds. Bought and fixed it by age 14 and worked on it through age 15. Got legal at age 16 during the worst of the emissions era malaise. The high-po Corvette was 9.2 at 0 to 60 and a few big block Trans Am with a manual and a higher axle ratio could break into the 8’s.

Into that mess I discovered rotor motors. Take the exhaust manifold off a RX-7, install huge headers, ditch the intake and adapt a Holley 450 and … race car. They were banned in SCCA racing. With underdrive pulleys you could spin these to just under 12,000 RPM. Then the problem became structural. The rear axle locating links would fold, or rip out of the unibody. At age 16 I did not understand welding well enough to beef up the body to take the power, so I just had to drive more carefully to avoid the structural limits.

This caught the eye of a Lockheed Test Pilot who’s hobby was doing to airplanes what I was doing with cars. We worked out a trade on a Piper Pacer with 135 horsepower where 90 or 95 had been. So, at age 16 I had my first airplane.

How are herpes and selling a Buick diesel similar?

It’s impossible to get rid of them.

08 Corvette is still my most fun car. Need a couple to really verify the science behind my opinion :) .

We had a Ferrari (Fiat) Dino come into the shop with the cardboard over the rust hole fix. The seller had hidden it with copious amounts of tar and undercoating. Back then these were cheap and not really considered Ferraris, so my uncle had me cut out the floor and fix it. The First drama was that I managed to light all that undercoating on fire and almost burned the entire car up. After removing most of the interior and dash I started welding it back together. The second major drama was that a big glob of molten metal popped out and land3d in my crotch where your pants fold just above your wedding tackle. I still remember the ball of molten metal burning through my jeans. I started screaming every expletive I could think of while convulsing on the concrete to try to get away from the lava aimed at my pecker. The guy working the next stall over starting swatting at my crotch trying to knock the golden BB out before I transitioned from “he” to “they.”

We had a fancy shop with a glass wall separating the shop from the waiting room. Our customers got quite the show.

I owe that guy a beer or something….

1975 Rabbit. New. Indestructible. Survived multiple Spring Breaks to the Keys and FLL, plus camping everywhere out west. Tons of stories. Woke up one morning in the Badlands surrounded by a herd of buffalo. Rather intimidating when you’re laying down looking up. Rolled up the tent while they watched, threw it in the hatchback and drove away.

Faded yellow '85 Toyota Tercel hatchback (I started driving in the late 90's). From a parent's perspective probably the perfect first car. Couldn't go faster than 65 on the interstate even downhill. Butt ugly so perfect at repelling the opposite gender.

Edit: this thread is either a great story thread, or a phishing scam to find answers to people's security questions... :D

Which ones? 0-12 in 60 seconds?

"40 Ford coupe rust bucket, 444 track rear end. My mom stiched up a zebra interior, had to swat the chicks away.

First car was a '61 Fiat 1100 sedan that I bought from a neighbor for $150. Had a 4 on the tree shifter and suicide doors. Kept it for a year until my dad got tired of fixing it every weekend, then sold it and bought a MUCH more reliable '71 Pinto for $250.

Mine was a 1975 Manta. Bought it with a cracked head, got another from a junkyard and did the valve lapping myself. Clearance specs were in the owner’s manual. Now they tell you ‘don’t drink the battery’.

I wanted the GT.

1986 Chevy Cavalier…. Had almost 300k miles when it finally quit. Leaked EVERY fluid you put into it. Had a case of oil, transmission fluid, coolant, even windshield washer fluid in the hatchback.

First car was 1981 Chevy Cavalier hatchback, 4 speed . Shifting was such a pain on all the hills around Pittsburgh, LOL. My brother let me drive his 79’ Trans Am every now and then … Ahhh , the good ole days driving around blasting Journey on the radio and dreaming of flying for USAir one day . Gas was like 80 cents a gallon and we had a great president . Gee , what happened ?

i dream of glow plugs. Or is it a nighmare?

Haha, donchaknow everyone's oppressed and we have all the privilege?


Giving up 2 of my 3 security questions. 1971 convertible made by GM with 350 V8.

A guy wanted to restore it, and I didn't have the means to restore it at the time so I figured what the hell and sold it to him.

Then I bought the SUV recommended #1 by O.J. Simpson. I'm bad at public math but I think I went from 350 cubic inches to 351 and 10 mpg to 9 mpg.

Didn't care. The gas stations on the corner were tripping over each other to see who could sell gasoline for closest to $.67 / gallon.

71 baja beetle with rust holes in the floor pan. Most fun I’ve ever had in a car

77 Toyota hilux long bed 2wd. FACTORY air conditioning. Had to shut it off to get going. Ice cold. I'm sure it's conversion back to dust is now complete.

1982 Buick Titanic, one giant green pillow on the inside -- with electric seats (It caught fire driving home from work.)

Or we going further than the first?
1985 Chevy Cavalier wagon (carjacked: I went to college in the Bronx.)
1986 Chevy Cavalier hatchback (I was the thermostat. It lasted 8 years and finally rusted to pieces.)
1999 Civic: The most reliable car I've ever owned other than my current Accord (stolen from the LGA lot.)

72 Gran Torino

‘95 F150

its still in my garage

Not sharing my mother's maiden name, favorite teacher, the street I grew up on, or my first car. You guys do know this website is open for anyone to mine, right?

Yeah, my memory is fuzzy. It was awful ....Built character !

Edit: found it!

S.
According to the ProfessCars™ estimation this Buick would accelerate 0-60 mph in 19.1 sec,

Yikes......

I’d settle for your favorite ice cream flavor or first pet’s name ;) but seriously, unless the name on your credit report matches your APC username, which in your case would be neat, it’s probably ok to share a car story on APC.

I had a hand-me-down 88 Pontiac Grand-Am 2-door. It wa suppossedly gray, but we sanded down and primered so many rust spots that it looked liked my paint was a snow camo pattern. Lots of fun in that beast!

User Name checks out.....🤣

Got you beat! 1977 Mercedes 240D. Bought it from my parents in 1999. Estimated 0-60 in 22.5 seconds, but my recollectionis more like 25. Thing couldn't get out of its own way but sure liked to belch diesel soot when you really hit it. Engine was simple and bullet proof and it just looked awesome. Id been working on it with my dad since i was about 8 years old Great first car. Finally sold it to a restorer with 250k+ miles on it (estimated. Odo quit working at 217k).

I had the 72 beetle with the dual port 1600cc. Wanted the Baja but treated the street version like a baja

A hand-me-down red 1986 Nissan Sentra with manual everything including the tranny. I couldn't keep the chicks off me :D

My first car was 24 years old, a 1967 model. Now, my current commuter car is 24 years old. Weird.

22.5.....winner winner!

83 Buick LeSabre station wagon, yeah with fake wood on the side. 1 working speaker, headliner sagging and old tint turning purple. Great for "extracurricular activities" with girlfriends. rear facing seat well- beer keg fits perfectly!

A 1984 sumthing sumthing 4 cylinder manual.
A buddy and I wired in 16(!) speakers that I rescued from curbside trash.
Turning on the amplifier would make the windows rattle.
Eventually it would just about break 100mph on what were probably 10-11 inch rims.
*shivers*

Surprised you had girlfriends with that POS :D

Yeah me too LOL, worked out just fine

It used to be Jon Voight’s car

While true, if you answer such questions with personalized answers you may speak freely. First vehicle- Jeep. Now for when used for verification, it’s what I called it between 4 letter tirades when things weren’t going well. In the cyber age you bring up a great point, but it can be used as an added benefit for even stronger protection with a hacker using the wrong answer.

If you assume there is no anonymity here, you'll sleep better at night.