First Cars

[CH3EZ]

Hi everyone,

I'm collecting car stories for a class project. Can you please take a few minutes and share any interesting stories about your first car? Interesting things may include but not limited to how you obtained your first car, some special place that you've driven to, or stuff that you've done with your friends that you would not have been able to do without a car.

Thanks,
CH3EZ

[Jeffbx]

My first car was a '68 Buick LeSabre that got 2-4 miles to the gallon. I got it when I was 16 (this was in '86) in return for doing some work for this guy. He said "I can pay you, or you can have this old car of mine". Well, being 16 at the time, you can guess what I picked.

It actually worked for about a year and a half before the engine blew. It was a great car to have as a teenager - I dinged it up a little bit, but no one ever noticed - the body was already in pretty bad shape. Insurance was cheap - we gave the car a replacement value of $1.
The only downside was the mileage, but even that wasn't too bad - during the time I owned the car gas prices were the cheapest they had ever been in my lifetime - as low as $0.65/gallon for regular leaded gas.

I always recommend that any first time driver start out with a car that can take a few dings without causing panic on the part of the owner. It makes learning to drive quite a bit less stressful.

[Ice-9]

My first car (actually my mom's car that I drove) was an '84 Mercedes 300TD station wagon. It's nickname was either the Tank or Old Bessie depending on whether you asked a male or female member of my family. I prefer the Tank, because of an accident I got into after having my license for only 2 weeks.

I was driving down a road near my house that I know well, a road that has a sharp right-hand turn and is very poorly lit. There is no shoulder on the road - it drops off about 4 feet into a ditch. There was some guy in a Cavalier tail-gating me as I was going into the turn, and as I came around, I saw most of a huge truck tire and rim lying in the middle of the road. Having only been driving for two weeks, I didn't think I could go over it without tearing up the bottom of my car, and there were cars in the other lane, so I slammed on my brakes.

The guy behind me slammed into me, of course, and after I got over the shock of the fact that I had just gotten into my first accident, I got out to check out the damage. As soon as I got out, I knew I was in deep **** - his car was completely compacted, almost up to his windshield. His door would only open when he kicked it, and he was lucky not to have his legs mangled. Then I looked at my car. It took me a second, but I realized that the only problem with it was that the small plastic strip on my bumper had fallen off. I'm just glad I restrained myself from laughing.

[StarvingCollegeStudent]

Mine was a '88 toyota tercel. The car had a 4 cyl engine and I worked on it in auto shop all the time. I took good care for the car (maintnence wise) but i would abuse it like crazy on the road. the car had only 60K miles in 10 years cuz my mom drove it most of the time. Everytime i go on the freeway i would downshift (auto with 3 gears) to gain more speed as i go up the ramp. Once on my way back from an indian casino, the tranny gave out on me, i think it was all that downshifting, and had to get it towed back home for about $300. The car looks like a piece of junk now but i still love it, too many memories. I should've put it in the riceboy pages but didn't have a picture. Had neuspeed, nitto, dc stickers all over the sucker too. Had an RS Akimoto sticker on the windsheild for a bit but I thought that was too much.

[c64user]

Well, my first car was a 1986 Hyundai Excel. Let's just say that Hyundai's first cars in the US were not exactly high performance machines. I used to take my mom to work before school, and on cold mornings, the car would refuse to go past 35 mph, which was fine until I got on the highway. Also, every time I came to a stop or intersection, I would have to roll into the stop in neutral while simultaneously revving the engine to keep it alive. Once it died, it would be about 2 or 3 minutes before it would start again.

The worst times were coming to school in the morning and having the car die at the crosswalk, so that I'd have to push it to the parking lot with my fellow high school classmates honking at me and laughing as I brought traffic to a dead stop.

It was nice, however that I didn't care about the exterior, so I would have lots of fender benders with other guys who had old decrepit cars. We had a great time.

Also, I once drove 9 people to lunch in that thing. I'm just glad I was driving as I was easily the most comfortable person in the car.

Because of this car, I have learned to really appreciate any car that runs fairly consistently.

[speedracer120]

Hey c64user that sounds like my old Cavalier. I couldn't take that bugger on the highway, cause it would stall. Once, I had to run three red lights just so the car wouldn't stall on me. Come to think of it all my bad driving habits developed in that car. I used that car for one semester and it died on me. http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/frown.gif That car was put through hell, and I'm thankful I had a car at all. My dad drove that bad boy hard, the odometer turned over once, and then some... (167,000+ miles). Brought us over from Chicago, to Los Angeles and back and forth from San Francisco 3 times, (not to mention commmuting miles.) Yeah, it was a work horse alright. Used to take school buddies in that car, not as crammed as a Excel, cause it was a station wagon, but yeah I packed it in.

Well that's my tribute to good ole American engineering. Now I got me a lil' Civic that I can rely on. http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by speedracer120 (edited 04-26-2000).]

[Leon]

1987 Nissan Sentra SE

It had about very little horsepower. I mean, Geo Metros were passing me up.

[speedracer120]

That is sad, very sad. http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/tongue.gif

[prtlewd]

http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/eek.gif My first car was an olllld ???? Chevy Nova that me and my cousin bought in Pullman WA for $50, we were 16 with no budget. It was fine for 2 days and then it started acting up. It woud turn off every time we came to a full stop, then one day it caught fire. It was so funny. I wish all my car experiences with cars were funny! My next car was a 1982 Toyota Tercel, a friend of my moms gave it to me for free. Once I nearly fell into the Potomac river because it was raining and I lost control of the car, I killed a bunch of bushes and treelings and was an inch away from the river when it finally stopped spinning. I let my unlic'd Bro drive it he got into an accident gave my ssn to the police and the lady he hit sued me for $500,000.00, half a million, she settled with her ins. but the litigation cost me $9000.00
I drove my father's Oldsmobile, eventlessly, for a long time.
The first car I paid for was my 1994 VW Jetta GL it got stolen in 1996 and they took the whole dashboard and left the car at a mall, ins. paid $6000 to get it fixed. I traded it in last year to buy a '99 Prelude.
I have no luck with cars another eerie coincedence was that I remember my Tercel's lic. plate had the # 666 in it and another car had # 4266. I have to personalize my plates. http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

[hapoo]

That really sucks prtlewd. http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/frown.gif http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/frown.gif
Its also damn funny from my point of view but i'm not going to laugh in front of you.

[StarvingCollegeStudent]

jeez prtlewd, can't help but feel sorry for u... and leon, metros passing u up??? Now that's just sad.

[This message has been edited by StarvingCollegeStudent (edited 04-27-2000).]

[Spec1al K]

someone puked in my car..but the good thing was she caught her pukein her hands...if thats a good thing.

i will always love MY first car...once i get it...i've been driving my mom's avalon everywhere, and i have no complaints.