Inspired by the "What are you driving" thread, what was your first car?

[RH | 4,908]

"First car" can be a tad relative. I say that because my dad bought me a 1979 Ford Mustang when I was 14 and the idea was he'd fix it up before my brother and I turned 16 and could get our learners permits. It was suppose to be "our car" and 100% our responsibility but since my Dad never finished the repairs, we sold it and that shouldn't count but my Mom to this day insists on calling it my first car.

After that we got a Plymouth Reliant for my brother and I to share. I only got to drive that for a short period of time. The summer I got my unrestricted learners permit, my brother took it for a spin one day and totaled it. I was in the car, and it was a bad wreck. I'll spare the details but technically, it was my first car for all of one month.

But last, the vehicle I consider my "first car" is actually a 1977 Ford F-150. After my brother totaled the Reliant, and I went through half a year of rehab, I needed a vehicle to drive to school. We didn't have the money for another vehicle, so I had to drive my Dad's F-150. It was the same model and color as the one below, except this was 1998-99. It was rusted out in the bed, and the hood was replaced with one with an original brown paint job.

As a kid, I was a big dork and had been picked on in my younger days. All I wanted was a car that may not be "cool" but didn't stick out and give cause to get laughed at. When I was first told this was my "new car", I was disappointed due to the shape it was in.

BOY WAS I WRONG! To this day it was the best vehicle I ever had. The thing drove like a tank, the red necks loved the "fishing truck special" and it definitely felt like I owned the road. It might have struggled to get up past 60mph but I didn't have to care about where I parked it or getting dings in the door, and I had a close friend at lived up a bumpy dirt path, and this had no problem getting over there.

To this day I want another. I know with game collecting, I want stuff original and in excellent shape. However, if I ever do find an F-150, it's going to have to be a bit crusty. I might fix up the engine and the inside so it's a bit nicer, but if the beds not crusty and the body a bit dinged up, I don't want it. And for sure if it's original blue, I will be hunting down an original brown hood to swap out. It was a great time in my life, and a great car to enjoy it with.

Edited August 31, 2021 by RH

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

A midnight blue 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis, my Grandpa’s car that he could no longer drive since he was mostly blind, in 2004. I almost slipped into a ditch during a horrible snow storm even though I was going less than 20 mph. I loved the seats on that car though. They were so comfortable.

 

[RH | 4,908]

@ICrappedMyPants
THAT is a honey wagon! My Relaint was what I call a "grandpa special" which your's is also in a more literal sense. My reliant was about 15 years old when we bought it but owned by an older gentleman who barely put a couple thousand miles on it each year. When we bought, I think it had between 35-40k miles.

Even though I didn't get to drive it much, I loved it and we'll into my adult years, I would try to find 10-15 year old vehicles with less than 50k, owned by older individuals that were getting to old to drive. My last such car was a Buick Le Sabre that I had to let go of about 5 years ago. Seats were awesome, the suspension was amazing and it purred like a kitten. Maybe when the Town and Country we one does, I'll look for another "Grandpa's Special". It's been to long and I need another Buick or Caddy in my life!

[TDIRunner | 2,742]

1991 Chevrolet C1500 Cheyenne W/T

It had A/C, but other than that, it was as basic as you could get.  Standard cab, long bed, 2WD, V6, 5-speed manual, crank windows, no radio (I later added one).  It had one long ass bench seat.  If you wanted to adjust the seat, it took two people to slide it forwards or backwards.  

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

91 rust blue Ford Aerostar.  
 

[Tabonga | 2,320]

The first car I drove wasn't mine - my father was an excellent backyard mechanic and he would get in trends of buying several of one type of vehicle and keeping a bunch of junkers  of the same for parts to keep those running.  

When I started driving he was into Pontiacs (Catalinas, Star Chiefs and Bonnevilles). The one I drove the most was a '63 powder blue Bonneville convertible with a 389. Even after he replaced the four barrell with a two barrel the thing still moved like a bat out of hell.

The first car I bought with my own money was a 1960 Fiat 600 - had a 26 horse power engine with an 800 pound body. Would not go over 45 miles an hour.  Got terrific gas mileage though - in an era when gas was super cheap.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Tabonga

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

mine was an ‘87 F150

 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

First car I ever drove was a 1983 Buick LeSabre.

 

Hindsight, it was awesome. It was like driving a couch. Terrible car for New England winters though.

First car I ever bought, however, was a 2001 Kia Sephia.

 

She drove great and was very reliable for what she was until she got totaled. I've been driving little 4 cylinder cars ever since. 

[doner24 | 1,196]

Mine was a 1976 Pontiac Grand Lemans, just like the picture below. I drove it from 16-17 years old and then sold it for $1000 because I was a stupid kid. Would cost me a hell of a lot more money to get it back in the same condition. 

[B.A. | 1,139]

1976 Pontiac Ventura.  I actually still have it.  It's rotting away in a barn at my dad's cabin. 

Edited August 31, 2021 by B.A.

[SailorScoutMandy | 782]

My first car was just an older version of current car. 

Older being a 97' Saturn SL1 in red and man did that thing guzzle oil. Had no obvious oil leak or burn, but I was always gifted cases of oil for birthday/Christmas lol. 

It died as the last car in a multi car accident on the highway. 

 

There was another accident behind ours because people weren't paying attention that a lane was shut down haha

Current is '02 Saturn SL1 in blue lol

 

 

[Jeevan | 8,912]

I had a frankencar

Imagine, the best of both worlds, but then imagine 2 tone and brown splotched around........

That's right, I had a Chevy 6000/Pontiac Celebrity......

$200 baby!  Had a chevy front end with a pontiac back end......similar to this car:

[Scrobins | 1,727]

1995 Dodge Stratus in red 

[RH | 4,908]

14 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

I had a frankencar

Imagine, the best of both worlds, but then imagine 2 tone and brown splotched around........

That's right, I had a Chevy 6000/Pontiac Celebrity......

$200 baby!  Had a chevy front end with a pontiac back end......similar to this car:

This is the way.

[guitarzombie | 924]

First car I had, I inherited from my uncle.  A 91 Mercury Topaz.  Just had to get a new car earlier this year so I have an '18 Hyundai Elentra

[fcgamer | 4,727]

I had use of a red 97 (?) Ford Ranger, which had been my grandfather's pride and joy. When he passed, my mom got it to keep it in the family and as it was the extra vehicle, it was the one I got to drive.

The one that was truly my first though (actually mine) was a Kymco Scooter, from about the year 2002. Bought it cheap, scrapped it last year as it had engine problems and wasn't worth the cost of repair.

[Tabonga | 2,320]

59 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

I had a frankencar

Imagine, the best of both worlds, but then imagine 2 tone and brown splotched around........

That's right, I had a Chevy 6000/Pontiac Celebrity......

$200 baby!  Had a chevy front end with a pontiac back end......similar to this car:

That deserves theme music:

[Brickman | 3,991]

6 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

91 rust blue Ford Aerostar.  
 

This looks like something a serial killer would drive haha. Looks so sketchy.

[Shawn | 31]

'85.5 Mercury Lynx and it was a POS.

 

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

2 minutes ago, Shmup said:

This looks like something a serial killer would drive haha. Looks so sketchy.

Hey now, that was the ultimate in family cruising back when MC Hammer was still gainfully employed.

[ZeldaFan042 | 1,181]

My first car was a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero, which suuuuucked to drive in winter.

Thankfully I replaced it with a (very rusty) 1992 S10 Blazer that was parked behind a shed at my grandparents' farm, which I still drive to this day.

The first car I actually purchased for myself was a (very rusty) 1957 Plymouth Belvedere.

[Ozzy_98 | 55]

First car was a... waaait,this is trying for my security questions, isn't it? Oh well, 1988 Pontiac GrandPrix LE, blue/grey two-tone, I was the second owner. 2.8 liters of "power", which honestly wasn't pad for that time frame.  And like @Jeevan mine was a frankenstien; I was rear ended, and the guy who fixed it for me used a 1992 Pontiac back end. So mine was unique. Ran the whole knight rider lights on the front, and neons under it, and some crappy ass pre built speaker boxes.

 

This one isn't mine, but it looked like this:

Mine had the same wheels, but I had a power antenna that I had to replace twice. The plates I used to run on it were Ozzy 98

Next car was a bit more expensive, a 1997 Pontiac GrandPrix GT, with 3.8 liter. A bit better in the power department, but no speed demon. Mine was "forest green", which was an odd color cause it was black under many lights. 

Like this but with the better wheels. I also added a stick on chrome trim on the bottom body line, was never 100% sold on it. Didn't like it with it, didn't like it without it. Changed the tail lights to a "euro" style, made a custom front grill, and still have the radio from it. Mostly cause the bass would alway cut out due to some sort of short, so I had to replace it. It had green neons, and the plate for it was Ozzy 2K. Kept that plate, it's in my shop.

 

Third car is my current "daily driver". Worked from home for 9 years, so yeah, "daily". It's the first and last car I ever got new, and can you guess who made it? Pontiac! It was a Pontiac G8 GT, I didn't get the GTP cause gas was $4 then and there was a recession going on, and at that time, I was driving an hour to\from work. The GT, while "only" making 361 HP (down to 355 for the 2009.5 model year, with bluetooth), was still pretty damned fun. This one I actually searched for and found a car with all items I wanted: Black body, GT trim w/fancy wheels, leather interior with CD. Only options I wasn't sure on was sun roof, and I think I'm glad I didn't get it.

Again, not mine, but close:

Only real mod I did was flash the computer for a video-in-motion hack, which let the full color video screen be used while driving above 5 MPH. I then hooked up a custom built car PC, ran Centrafuse software, and even had GPS on it. And let me tell you, adding GPS to a PC inside of a car is not fun. I ended up scrapping it all just because it started acting up in cold weather (This was before SSDs were big, the HDD lasted much longer than expected!) and I just started using android on my phone for GPS.

 

While I didn't own them, three honorable mentions.  My first truck was a "company" car, from my family's farm. A 1972 Dodge 1/2 ton. 318 c.i.d. and not much real power, but no weight on the back meant it burned up tires. Was harder than heck to drive at first, bias ply tires sucked. I don't known what official color it was, just a brown\tan thing. It was fun, but meh.

After a while I also got my dad's old chevy 1 ton truck. Black, like a proper farm truck. I do not remember the year, was a 350 in it. Gave it up when I left the farm.

And one car which isn't mine, but will be some day would be my dad's. Actually 2 of them. One would be his non-farm vehicle, a 2006 Pontiac Grand Am. Notice a theme yet? This car hate me, every time I have to use it, it breaks. It knows I make jokes about how Grand Ams are made from parts that fall off of Grand Prixs. 

The other car of my dad's I will get would be one from grandpa, a 1929 Model A ford. Again, not ours, but: 

Same color. Our wheels are different, we do not have the correct year wheels on it. Ours are later wheels.

 

Oh, and for the record, the cars my dad owned, reverse order: 2006 Pontiac GrandAm, a Ford Tempo (he got cheap from a friend, only reason he got a ford), Pontiac Phoenix (More for mom, was a tiny pos),   a green mid-70s Pontiac Lemans (Looks like it should be said as lemons but it's not)  and his first car, bought soon as he was home from vietnam: a 1969 Pontiac GTO. 

We like Pontiac here. 

 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

91 Honda Accord. Had a sunroof. Thanks pops

[fcgamer | 4,727]

4 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

Hey now, that was the ultimate in family cruising back when MC Hammer was still gainfully employed.

I bet it was great for picking up corpses.

[TDIRunner | 2,742]

23 minutes ago, Ozzy_98 said:

Next car was a bit more expensive, a 1997 Pontiac GrandPrix GT, with 3.8 liter. A bit better in the power department, but no speed demon. Mine was "forest green", which was an odd color cause it was black under many lights. 

 

My Dad had a 1997 Buick Regal GS for many years.  As I'm sure you're aware, it's basically the same car, but with the supercharged 3.8 V6 from the Grand Prix GTP.  That was a ridiculously fast car for that time.  

Your generation of Grand Prix was definitely my favorite for that car.  My wife had the last generation when we first got married.  We sold it when we bought her minivan.  I was never much of a fan of that car.  The styling was just too bulgy for me.  Not nearly as clean as your generation.  

 

 

26 minutes ago, Ozzy_98 said:

Third car is my current "daily driver". Worked from home for 9 years, so yeah, "daily". It's the first and last car I ever got new, and can you guess who made it? Pontiac! It was a Pontiac G8 GT, I didn't get the GTP cause gas was $4 then and there was a recession going on, and at that time, I was driving an hour to\from work. The GT, while "only" making 361 HP (down to 355 for the 2009.5 model year, with bluetooth), was still pretty damned fun. This one I actually searched for and found a car with all items I wanted: Black body, GT trim w/fancy wheels, leather interior with CD. Only options I wasn't sure on was sun roof, and I think I'm glad I didn't get it.

 

 

I came really close to buying one of these (V6 model) back when they discontinued Pontiac.  It was one year old with 30k miles.  They wanted $25k for it, but with the heavy discounts offered on leftover new Pontiacs I offered them $15k.  They came back at $17k, but I was pretty firm at $15k, so I walked away.  I enjoyed test driving the car, but it would have been a lot more fun with a manual transmission, but the manual was only available in the high performance GXP model, and I couldn't afford it at that time.  For anyone who has one, that's a car that will appreciate in value in the near future.