How did you really feel about your first car?
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My first car was an almost new 1984 Mazda 626 LX with the oscillating center vents and joystick fader control. I loved that car. A relative of mine wrecked it, my second new car was a donated 1984 (out of pity) Toyota van that I liked so much I replaced it with the better, 1986 Toyota LE Van w/ icemaker. I also loved that car. It didn't go very fast and it wasn't very reliable, but it was very useful for a 20 year old guy.
1989 mazda 323. Was a hand me down from my mom. I liked that car when she had it as it replaced a Dodge 024 Omni Miser. Mazda was eons better, in only 8 model years. Then it was mine.
I was a snobby whiny kid at the time, and thrilled it was full of "Red dots" in consumer reports, was fuel injected, not carbureted like "poor people" drove.
It let me work a summer job out of state, which was a nice coming-of-age.
I did my first oil change on it, and small mechanical stuff, but a bad clutch/ transmission put it in the scrap yard. I put a sun-pro tach on the dash and upgraded it with a clock and trunk light from junkyard higher trim models. It leaked gas if I filled it, so I never filled it. 
I replaced it with a clapped out 17 year old cadillac cimarron, which I thought was AWESOME, and upon which I did more work.
I replaced it with a clapped out 17 year old cadillac cimarron, which I thought was AWESOME, and upon which I did more work.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2023
Originally Posted by Ws6
1993 P71 crown vic, bought at auction, built from junkyard parts (including the motor). My father, grandfather, and I built it in the driveway. This was right about the time low economic, high-crime parts of town were saturated with them. I was ashamed of it because I was 17, image mattered, and all of my better off friends made fun of me/it, but it worked. I bought a 1995 Trans Am 1.5 years later, and gave it back to my Dad. It's been 15 years ago. My grandfather has died. The car is who knows where. I don't want that car back, but I want the memories back, and they rolled off into the sunset with that car. We really don't know what we have when we have it, sometimes, and sometimes what we miss, isn't even what we thought we had. I wish I had been "less 17" when I was 17, but such is life. I now cherish all the memories I have with my father, and go out of my way to make more, when he visits. I purposefully let certain projects around the house slide, so that he can "fix them" when he visits (EX: Not installing a vent hood over the stove, even though it's 15 minutes work). He might well suspect it, but he plays his part, and I'm grateful to that, because one day, that vent hood is going to be so much more than a vent hood to me, I'm sad to acknowledge.
2005 Pontiac Vibe, as base as you can get. Manual locks, crank windows, 5spd. LOVED that thing. Great mileage too. Started me down the path of rowing my own, never looked back. Totaled by an impaired driver < 6 months into ownership, but got it for a steal and made money on the insurance payout.
Replaced with a 2003 5spd, now 6spd due to failing bearing in the original transmission. Still love it though the mileage is worse with the 6spd. Hopefully I run it into the ground.
My first car? A new 1975 Ford Maverick four-door, metallic green with a matching cloth-and-vinyl interior, 250 cid six, auto, power steering but not power brakes, AM radio, good A/C. To me it looked like a four-door Mustang. Got 15-16 mpg on regular (but of course gas was .55/gallon then).
Like it? After years of riding buses and cadging rides from increasingly-reluctant friends? I loved it. I learned how to change oil, coolant, headlights, fuel and air filters, and spark plugs on it. At least once a month we ran it along I-10 from Lafayette, where we lived, down to NO to visit friends and family, so it got lots of highway time. (It took over 2.5 hours to do that -- we had the 55-mph speed limit then.) Sure, I'd find it tinny and underpowered today, but in 1976-1981, it represented *freedom*!
I remember my first car fondly, loved it then. Yes it was what I wanted, not certain about the rest of the family.
My father is a car guy, mostly Mustangs and fiercely only domestic until the much later in life. Back in '81 when I was 15, Dad said that he would match me on what I saved for a car providing that I got something that we would fix up together over a year or so. I don't think that MG or Triumph ever even crossed his mind, but I was smitten with them and we wound up w/ two TR6's (one decent, but a little tattered, one for parts) that we turned into a very nice car that I drove through college. Mom drove it when I was away. We had a lot of fun and I have great memories of learning from him and my Uncle who was racing little British cars at the time. Lucky I didn't kill myself, convinced I was an 18y/o Niki Lauda, but so is childhood.
Here is a pic from '82 or so. My current TR6 is so close in VIN's that they most certainly were in the factory together.
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2022
I had a 1986 Renault Alliance aside from having enough room for extracurricular activities at 16 it was by far the biggest pile to grace North America. It was rear ended and totaled. Now my second car? An 86 Omni GLH. It was my first love
First car was trash. 72 Chevrolet Station Wagon. It had small block and won't climb a bridge unless floored. No power and handling was poor. Never missed that car.
85 Mercury Cougar. 3.8 v6 3 speed trans. Leaked oil, bypassed heater core. Big, slow, didn't handle well. Got us around and was pretty reliable, perfect first car for a pretty broke family. Making $4 an hour couldn't do any better for quite a while
1978 Chevy Monza with the miserable 2.5, bought in 1986. Thankfully, a 4-speed. That car nickeled and dimed me to death, which sucked on a Burger King paycheck. You name it...it broke at some point before I finally got to ditch it for a '86 Civic Si. A world of difference there.
Originally Posted by Leo99
Originally Posted by tbm3fan
I still have my first car. I wanted a Mustang when I turned 16 but my father was able to get a great deal in buying the 68 Cougar that he bought new when leaving Carnation, then sold it to his new company Westgate California 3 months later, then bought if back from them 15 months later. How could I argue? Besides I had taken care of the car from the first day he bought it in April 1968 so I was very familiar. I guess you could say I was happy. My father even helped find a good deal on some 14" wheels and white letter tires for me right after I got it.
Originally Posted by Benzadmiral
My first car? A new 1975 Ford Maverick four-door, metallic green with a matching cloth-and-vinyl interior, 250 cid six, auto, power steering but not power brakes, AM radio, good A/C.
My first car was a 1972 Ford LTD. It was a 4 door, triple green with a grey primered hood and had the 400 2 barrel. I loved it because it represented freedom. I kept it for 4 years before selling it. I had bought my 1970 Monte Carlo two years prior to that which I still own today after 32 years so the LTD didn't get driven much the last two years of ownership.
Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter
It was a Ford Tempo..how do you think I felt?
About the same as I felt about my 81 Dodge Omni.... Hamster powered and not attractive... But it did work for what it needed to.
After that I got my sister's Mercury Tracer.. much better... Then my senior year I got my mom's Ford Probe... Way, way better than the Dodge Omni
That Ford Probe was actually one of the better cars in the student parking lot my senior year... Outhouse to a semi penthouse.
Loved my 1981 Buick Skylark.
Had an oil leak but I was only 16
PepBoys was 99 cents or less a quart.
Some days she would sputter and i would pull over and dump three quarts in and she would purr.
Shocked she blew a rod eventually 
Originally Posted by WylieCoyote
1978 Chevy Monza with the miserable 2.5, bought in 1986. Thankfully, a 4-speed. That car nickeled and dimed me to death, which sucked on a Burger King paycheck. You name it...it broke at some point before I finally got to ditch it for a '86 Civic Si. A world of difference there.
