First cars and their quirks

[DwightFrye]

My first car was a 1962 Chevy Biscayne 2 door with a 6 cylinder and 2 speed powerglide transmission that I was handed down in 1971. It was the biggest POS I ever owned. It only had 42,000 miles on it when I got it and was constantly in need of things like brakes, suspension components, electical system components and other issues. The engine blew at about 80,000 miles. I still have nightmares about that car.

The second worse was my second car, a 1974 Fiat 128 that I bought used in 1976. By 20,000 miles first gear syncro was gone, when it rained water would pool in the passenger footwell, when I went to the coin operated car wash the pressure from the nozzle would blow flakes of paint off of it and one day the sending unit on the block for the oil pressure sensor just blew right out of its threaded hole.

I swore I would never buy another used car. But the1982 Camaro that I bought new was the worst new car I ever bought and swore me off GM products for the rest of my life.


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[scrowley]

My first car was a '71 Nova I inherited from my Grandma. It had too many quirks to even remember them all. I'll just list a few I remember.

The car was a 250 straight-six with 3-on-the-tree. The carburator was equipped with an idle-stop solenoid, supposedly to prevent run-on or "dieseling" when you shut off the car. The trouble was, the solenoid didn't work so the car would run on forever after you turn the key off, creating clouds of foul-smelling smoke. My "fix" was to stall the engine with the clutch while simultaneously turning off the key.

There were various wiring issues and the brake lights never worked. Not only that, but the turn signals didn't flash; they'd just come on steady. My "fix" was to manually flash the turn signal in the direction I wanted to go. And when I wanted to stop, I'd just turn on one of the turn signals constant. People following me just thought I had a taillight out! Once in awhile someone would come up to me at a light and tell me I had a taillight out, but I never got a ticket for it.

The column-mounted stick shift could be finicky at times and was very unforgiving of lazy or careless shifts. You had to be certain it was engaged all the way, or else it would make a bang and kick the car out of gear when you tried to let in the clutch. Once in a while I would get the whole linkage messed up such that I would have to open the hood, reach down, and un-jam itself by hand. This happened once on a really long, slow bumpy railroad crassing (like 6 tracks) and I had to stop right in the middle of the tracks to open the hood!

As it turned out, the car had severe rust issues. Grandma lived way back in the woods and I don't think the car ever saw sunshine. The trunk was becoming increasingly less-useful as rust holes grew in both size and number. And one day, I was driving along after a severe storm and I ran over a small branch on the road. The wheel kicked it up and the end of the branch poked up right through the passenger's side floorboard! In the end, I finally had to retire the car when the rear spring shackles punched through their mounts into the trunk. There was no longer any sheetmetal left to attach to.

I know this is a true story as My father gave me a 250/6 3 speed floor shift 72 Nova. Rust-through around trunk and tail lights,for no good reason,Florida car never driven around salt,ever. Blown head gasket, etc .I learned about how to repair cars from that pile.

 

[CB22]

First car was a 77 Rx3sp. Loved that car, and had no issues with it for 3 years. That was 1981. In 84 I got a 79 Rx7.

I really loved that 13b Rotary engine.

 

[Malo83]

57 Ford Custom, straight-six, and 3 on the tree, smoked like crazy until the Highway Patrol said to park it.

 

[Andrew1972]

$500 Subaru XT coupe with automatic and 90hp weakling motor. Had terrible rust/body rot which required $75 state inspection in 1988 because you were paying them off to pass it.

 

[brages]

Please also talk about your mother's maiden name, your favorite sports team, best friend growing up, first concert, first pet, and ideal vacation destination. And your SSN if that's handy..!

 

[Malo83]

Please also talk about your mother's maiden name, your favorite sports team, best friend growing up, first concert, first pet, and ideal vacation destination. And your SSN if that's handy..!

Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed today.

 

[wander2039]

90 Festiva in 96.. no quirks but I did total the poor thing twice. None of my vehicles has any quirks, my OCD makes me fix what's broke.

 

[1uz_4me]

1993 Mustang GT 5spd. Bought it with 72k mi in 2001. I wanted a notch but those sold so fast. I remedied nearly all of the quirks. Maximum Motorsports suspension, subframe connectors, 5lug & 4wheel disc brakes, aluminum headed stroker & T56 (not really issues but they sure made it more fun). Sold it to a friend a few years ago with nearly 480k mi on it. Drove it everywhere . Daily driver, auto-x, test n tune drag nights, HPDE weekends, San Diego to Seattle & Vancouver BC & back, San Diego to Omaha NE & back. I miss it

 

[01rangerxl]

My first car was a 2001 I4 manual Ranger in 2004. Newest, least problematic vehicle I have ever had. No real quirks I didn't cause. Sold at 93k miles in 2008 because I mostly drove my rotted out Explorer on 31" tires and couldn't keep two vehicles at that time.

 

[PF52]

Please also talk about your mother's maiden name, your favorite sports team, best friend growing up, first concert, first pet, and ideal vacation destination. And your SSN if that's handy..!

You're forgetting one - what street we grew up on. Don't all credit card applications ask that one?

 

[brages]

You're forgetting one - what street we grew up on. Don't all credit card applications ask that one?

I never answer that one because I grew up on a rural route, so I don't know what I'm supposed to say.

Anyway, I'm not really serious about this, BUT I know one of the rules of operational security is not to underestimate an adversary's ability to piece together seemingly innocent bits of leaked information, so it always raises a red flag for me to talk about anything on the Internet that could be related to a security question.

 

[R_W_M]

My first vehicle (in 1958. I was 16.) was a '33 Plymouth 2 dr sedan. Two friends & I bought it from the grandmother of another friend.

The good:
Only cost us $50.
It ran and was reliable. That's all that mattered to us.

The bad:
Learning to drive on a non-synchromesh tranny!

The ugly:
Somewhere in its previous life, it had been painted flat black with a 4" brush.

Obviously, this is not the same car! Same model, though.

 

[Duffyjr]

1964 Impala four speed, if I shifted to fast from 2nd to 3rd it would sometimes bind requiring me to crawl under it with a hammer and smack the linkage. I also had a 1971 C10 with a three on the tree that would do that from first to second. That 71 also had a clutch rod that would bend, the one from the top of the pedal going out thru the fire wall, it would bend so far that the clutch would not engage.

 

[Yohann WT]

My first car was a 1989 Plymouth horizon 5 speed. I bought it in 1998 with 24k on it for $500 off my neighbor who only used it driving a few mile to work. Only thing it needed was tires because they were the original. That car had the coldest AC I've ever had. I had it for 3 years before some lady hit me in the back and totalled it. I definitely Miss that car and have so many memories in it. My friends made fun of that car ( nickname was the twinkie )I was 18 and had my own car . So I had the last laugh....lol.

 

[Marcozi]

My first car was a 1968 Austin Healey Sprite. Bought it in the spring of 1974. Basically, it was a rebadged MG Midget. Had 50k (supposedly) on the clock. Needed a new master cylinder after 4 days. The dealer put a new one in for free. I ended up replacing the front calipers, rotors, pads. I put 4 new tires (Bridgestone IIRC) on it. Broke a half shaft pulling into a gate as NAS Norfolk. Had it towed to the NS Norfolk autos skills shop. Replaced the half shaft and both rear wheel bearings. Sold it. Bought a used 1971 BMW 2002. Needed rotors! Haven't looked back.

 

[GMFan]

2001 Saturn SL with the SOHC 100hp go kart engine mated to a 5 speed manual. Was my college and post college car. I got 42mpg with it. I bought it with 88k miles and drove it until around 140k miles.

Quirks: Engine coolant temperature sensor failure and bad intake manifold gasket causing a misfire. Burned oil like the BP Deepwater Horizon as they all did due to stuck rings. I suspect the previous owner was a bad driver and the clutch was toast shortly after I bought the car so I had to have one put in. Manual transmission actually specified ATF lol.

 

[joekingcorvette]

My first car was a 1958 Oldsmobile black 4 door. It had a 371 cubic inch engine and a 4 speed automatic transmission. It ran great and had lots of power. The radiator blew up and I sold it to a neighbor for 40 dollars. The car was actually in pretty good shape but I found a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda that fit my wants much better. I had to replace the driveshaft on the Olds because the hanger bearing was bad. I bought one from a junkyard and installed it myself on a gravel parking lot. I really liked the Oldsmobile and would like to have a 1958 Olds 88 two door but they are so ungodly expensive now. Most of my old cars and work cars were very reliable mainly because I would research the dependable vehicles. The inline 6's were always are sure win for dependability.

 

[Nick1994]

My ‘96 Chevy C1500 I bought when I was 16. When the previous (original) owner owned it, the tailgate was stolen years prior. I put a junkyard one on it, but never put new plastic clips on the tailgate handle, always had to use pliers to open it one rod at a time. What a pain. Then when I went to sell it I bought the clips and put them in for $5 and less than 5 minutes and it worked like a dream. Crazy how that stuff works .

 

[paulo57509]

'63 Pontiac Bonneville, HT. The shift quadrant on those old cars was P-N-DL/DR-L-R. When I started driving more modern cars, it took a while to unlearn reverse wasn't at the bottom.