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Automotive News & Views Cars of My Past
189 messages, Last post on Jul 05, 2007 at 2:53 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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My first car was a 1962 Ford Galaxie 500, 10 years old at the time with 90,000 miles on her. She looked like Andy Griffith's Squad Car on the Andy Griffith Show....4 doors, slow and ugly - But, she got me through my first year of college. Paid $400 for her...
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My first was a light blue 1980 Malibu coupe with a Chevy 229 V-6 that my Mom bought brand-new. I got my learner's permit in 1986, and that September, my Mom bought a new leftover '86 Monte Carlo, but kept the Malibu around and gave it to me in early 1987, when I had my license and insurance. It seemed like a great car at the time, but let's face it, anything with wheels that moves under its own power is going to seem wonderful to a high school kid getting his first car! Sadly, among my group of friends, I had the "muscle car" of the bunch. I could easily smoke their Pintos, Lynxes, rusted out Accords, 4-cylinder Mustangs and Fairmonts, Cavaliers, etc. But that ain't saying much. I liked the car though, because it wasn't all that big on the outside, but had decent room inside and a nice-sized trunk. It had about 78,000 miles on it when Mom gave it to me, and was in pretty nice shape except for faded paint and cracks in the dashboard. And there was a spot where the carpet tended to pull out from the door sill plate. But in the time I had it, it got hit in the rear quarter panel in the high school parking lot, and then one of my friends put a big dent in the driver's side door when he tried to park it one day. Don't ask me why I let that idiot drive it! I was able to pound out both dents to the point where you could hardly see them. In 1989 I rear-ended a 1982 Cavalier that slammed on its brakes in front of me. Smashed everything plastic up front, put a crease in the hood, and pushed the fender back far enough into the door that it would creak when you opened it. And from there on out, to open the hood you had to pull the inside release, but the hood wouldn't pop up until you got out and slammed the door! My Granddad and I found a 1981 Malibu in the junkyard, same shade of blue, and put its header panel on my car. And just left the hood and fender alone. I finally got rid of it around 100,000 miles. I would've kept driving it, but I bought a 1969 Dart GT, which was a superior car in just about every aspect, and couldn't afford the insurance on two cars back then. So I sold the Malibu for $500, in 1990. I saw it about a year later, at a local grocery store parking lot. I talked to the lady who was driving it (it was her husband who bought it from me), and she said they loved it. It had about 115,000 on it at that point, and the only thing they did to it was replace the headliner, which was drooping. I have fond memories of that car, but I have a feeling that if I had an identical car today, it wouldn't live up to those old memories. Y'know, that old saying about rose-tinted glasses, and you can't go home again? 
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| The first car that I owned was a 1969 Pontiac GTO, with a 4 speed manual, no A/C. The first car that I drove to any great extent was my Grandmother's 1950 Buick Special with a straight eight and dynaflow. | |
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Replying to: nvbanker (Jan 09, 2007 8:23 am) My first car was my Grandma's 1980 Citation, which was every bit the horror story one might expect. My next car was an '88 Sentra, which was a better car at 250,000 miles than the Citation was at 50,000. Those experiences sealed the domestics' doom in my eyes and set me on the road to being a (pre-Renault) Nissan fanboy.
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My first car was a 1962 Ford Anglia. It was a non-running heap at a British mechanic's shop. Nice fellow that my Dad knew, he offered to teach me about mechanicals via a rebuild of the one-liter Singer plant inside. I was one lucky little puke. Kept it two years while working on it and drove it for two months (legally) and gave to my Sister when Dad gave me the '65 Olds 98 convertible. Everybody who saw it said it was a great little car. I felt no serious emotional attachment, frankly. I liked it well enough because it was a car, and enjoyed the satisfaction of helping put it back on the road, but did you know you can fit five friends, six big innertubes and a full keg in and on a '65 Olds 98 convertible? Yes you can... |
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Replying to: bumpy (Jan 09, 2007 8:59 am)
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| ...six passenger wagon purchased for $650 in August 1981. It had about 74K miles on it, was teal blue mist metallic with a white roof, medium blue vinyl interior, and powered by a Buick 350/2bbl V-8. It was shod with narrow stripe whitewall tires on 14-inch rims with full wheel discs. The car was in excellent condition except the teal blue mist part of the paint had oxidized and it needed new tires. After a week of compounding, polishing, and waxing the exterior, a set of new Remington whitewall tires from the discount tire distributor down the street and a front end alignment - I had a really nice car for which I paid peanuts. I passed this car down to my younger brother who kept it until 1992. | |
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My first car was a '66 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop, 390 4bbl. Dark blue on blue, I actually bought it (via my dad) before I was 16, for $1000. Despite the price, it was in pretty nice shape, and was owned by an older lady. I was very intent on having a car when I turned 16, and I worked and planned for it. A few months after I started driving, the thing was struck by an errant minivan and totalled. I thought I could buy it back and fix it myself...as the damage appeared isolated to the front clip. So I took it home, removed the sheetmetal, and was told the frame was bent. I gave up then and sold it to a guy who wanted the powertrain - for $500. Not too bad I guess. No loss though...I found a wrench stuck between the inner and outer fender, so it had been whacked before. The car was also a horrible guzzler and was very cold blooded...it loved to stall. So I didn't miss it. I got the insurance money (which was about 3 times what was paid for the car), and after awhile found the fintail that I still own, and had a few bucks left over, some of which I gave to my dad for his efforts. So it all ended well. |
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1974 Dodge Colt (built by Mitsubishi) Dark Burnt Orange paint, light tan velour seats. A beautiful little car that ran without problems. I had it for about 3 years, and we called it "The Tank" because it had about 8 inches of ground clearance and although only a 2-wheel-drive car, it went offroad just about anywhere I wanted to take it. Never got it stuck in many trips into the Texas boonies.  Sadly, I let the radiator run out of water on the way to a party at the lake and ended up with a busted head gasket in 1981, and my mom sold it for junk in 1983 for $300. 
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Replying to: larsb (Jan 09, 2007 9:31 am) Red exterior, black vinyl interior with no A/C - VERY handy in mid-Missouri during the summer. It really helped me learn to ignore the pain from 2nd-degree burns. Manual transmission (adjustable for regular or economy mode), AM radio only. It met a similar fate... sold for bits & pieces for about $500 in 1993. |
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