Your first car

[Minibit]

tell me about your first car. Do you remember it fondly? Are you still driving it?

Mine was a 2000 Dodge Neon, and it was lovely except for the maintenance. I had to take half the engine out just to replace the water pump, had to take a wheel off to get at the alternator, and the door off to change a broken side mirror. But when it didn't need something replaced it was smooth, good on gas, small and comfy. Only played cassette tapes when I got it but I upgraded to a CD deck that I could plug my phone into.

Lo'ki died in a wreck April 2015, I've been a cyclist with a bus card since. I miss having a car sometimes but I'm in much better shape!

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

The Smurfmobile

That's not mine, but it looks exactly like the one I had. It was a 1978 AMC Concord that I bought for $1000. First time driving it the transmission went up and I had to search for a replacement for nearly a week. People laughed at it, but it was fun to drive and safer than most cars are today, mainly because if I crashed into anyone it wouldn't have put a dent in my car and would have crumpled their up like a piece of paper. I had to get rid of it after a year because maintaining it and finding parts was too difficult. :( I still miss that car.

 

[Dipper]

Black Suzuki Samurai with a jammed driver's side door. I still drive it because it works well and it's mine. I love and care for what is mine.

I think it's lucky, too. Not a single accident with that thing.

 

[Goldmarble]

The Smurfmobile

That's not mine, but it looks exactly like the one I had. It was a 1978 AMC Concord that I bought for $1000. First time driving it the transmission went up and I had to search for a replacement for nearly a week. People laughed at it, but it was fun to drive and safer than most cars are today, mainly because if I crashed into anyone it wouldn't have put a dent in my car and would have crumpled their up like a piece of paper. I had to get rid of it after a year because maintaining it and finding parts was too difficult. :( I still miss that car.

Uhm, just like to point out that just because the car isn't damaged, itself, in a low speed accident...means utterly nothing in how safe it is, for the occupants.

Simple physics: If the car is not absorbing the energy in the collision, and not deforming? Then you are.

In a high speed crash (highway, interstate, etc), it is likely to be exceptionally bad. The passenger compartment is very likely to deform, intruding on the space for the occupants, etc.

Modern cars use much stronger steel (high tensile strength), in the construction of a passenger "cell" which is designed to not deform under very high shock loads. Every thing around this cell, is designed to crumple and fail, so that it absorbs the energy of the collision, and spreading the impact over a much longer period of time. Yes, this means that modern cars crumple, and cost a lot to repair from relatively "minor" accidents. But it is cheaper to fix a broken car, than it is to fix a broken person.


Safety lesson over: I dig the matador!

My "first" car was a 1986 Pontiac Acadian Scooter(T1000 for Americans, or the badge-swapped Chevette). It was mine in theory, but aside from some learning drives....I never legit owned it. This was when I was 17-18ish, my father had just gotten a different car, so it became "mine". I failed to get past my L license, and it was eventually sold.

The first car I bought myself, was a 1972 Toyota Celica GT.

Gutted. Stripped. Not-running. Not street legal, Race car.

Spoiler

Made a lot of stupid decisions, bought a bunch of shit for it, sold it at a bad loss.


My first, legit, street driveable, working, car, that I do drive, is a 2001 Kia Sportage. It is an inheritance from my mother who passed away 2 years ago, though it became mine in practice, while I was taking care of her for the 2 years before that. Swapped the grenaded auto hubs, with some warn manual hubs, have a set of 235/75R15 Grabber AT2 tires, and that's it right now. Need to figure out why she overheats....

Spoiler

The first car I have bought, that I have actually, driven (LEGAL TOO!), is a 1985 Toyota Celica GT. Bought off a guy for $300 because it was burning oil, and had sat, outside, uncovered, for about a decade.
1 re manufactured battery + removal of old gas/fresh gas = Drove it home.

A set of used alloy wheels with decent performance tires mounted for $200, and I drove it for a month, before the car showed coolant on the side of the block.

Spoiler

4 cars in contention for the title of "my first car".... go figure.

 

[Boba Fit]

My first vehicle was a 2004 Silver Jeep Liberty, Rocky Mountain Edition. I made some sound system and lighting modifications to it. I had it up until a little over a year ago. I wrecked it on the tail end of a snow storm. The 6 lane highway was clear except for the entry lane from the on ramp. It was ice. I was trying to cross and maintain speed, knowing it was ice and not having my 4x4 engaged. I feathered the accelerator to hard, and the back end kicked around and I slid across the 4 lanes and hit the inside wall. Almost no cosmetic damage, but I broke the tie rod, drive shaft, and shattered something in the transfer case. I had it repaired, but it jolted everything pretty good and stuff kept going out after that. It wasn't good value to keep it, so I sold it. I now drive a 2009 (I think) Grand Cherokee. It has the nice Select track 4 wheel drive that automatically engages when the wheels slip. So that kind of accident will never happen again.

I loved my Jeep. It had a nice stereo. A screen folded out of the dash and you could play DvD's on it. The sound system was custom and I payed 600 for it. I know the guy who builds the subs and everything. It was an amazing system. I had some Led driving lights put on, and green underglow on it. It was legit. I had a go pro dash mount camera and everything. haha

 

[Aragorn12]

1997 Buick LeSabre that I'm still driving. Only has a few minor issues, but is certainly very reliable. I plan on keeping this car for a good while longer if possible.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

No gas, no maintenance, no insurance, I can alter the speed easily. These cars are totally underated.

Seriously, I never got my own car yet so this is the best I got.

 

[Dervish]

My first car was a 2000 Chevy Impala, a Jasper green beast with tan interior and a tape deck. I called it the Impalanation.

It was a great car, but alas Ontario's roads are cruel and the salt obliterated and rusted out the undercarriage, forcing me to pay thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. It was a comfortable and roomy beast with all sorts of awesome creature comforts (minus the lack of CD player), and when I traded it in, I kept one of my spare keys and a piece of the rubber from my tire blowout as momentos.

Now I have a red 2010 Ford Ranger Sport with the V6 engine and tonno cover for the bed. Only thing I have had to do to that thing was repair an axel seal and I need to recharge the air conditioning. It is called Clifford the Big Red Truck, which is intentionally ironic because it is one of the smallest trucks in town.

 

[Greenie]

This. Nice and small, perfect for me hah. It died like... back in 2008?

 

[Rain of the Night]

First car? 2000 Chrysler Intrepid. Lasted me a year because of crazy shit happening with it.

 

[Roose Hurro]

1971 Chevy Vega:

Chose this image because the green one is the same color as mine was. And the blue one shows just how much you can shove into one. Had its quirks. Funny enough, it was Car of the Year:

1971 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Chevrolet Vega

88 Photos

<img class="wp-image-1039941" src="http://st.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2012/11/1971-Chevrolet-Vega-front-three-quarter1.jpg" alt="">
Bob Bondurant may have said it best: "I've been away from American cars for about five years and it is pleasantly surprising to see how good they've gotten, especially these new little ones." In a conference room in Palm Springs, California, after a grueling 4-day ride and drive that saw then of Detroit's finest put through a 1,000 mile wringer, we — the CARS (Conference of Automotive Research Specialists) — Karl Ludvigsen, Roy Richter, Mike Jones and Bondurant) and the MT Staff — cast our votes and made Vega 2300 Motor Trend's 1971 Car of the Year.
The result wasn't altogether a surprise. Though the nominated cars comprised what we felt to be the ten best new automobiles in America, there was the bagging suspicion, that, in design, at least some of them were concepts whose time may have passed. In the final voting, it was close but sheer size held not the clout of former years.

-------

However:

Popular Mechanics

U.S.News

Ate Up With Motor

"Quirks"... hahahaha!

Given mine was put together from two junkers, in my uncle's barn, I could perhaps be surprised it lasted for three years... nearly got me through college, before it suffered a piston-head separation. But given it cost me around $525 or so ($150 for the body donor, $275 for the parts-car), I could say I got my money's worth. Especially since it got me to Sandpoint, Idaho, once. And several times down to Southern California (rear seat folded down, loaded with cargo)... well, I can't complain.

 

[Turtle of Doom]

My first car was a 1993 Chevy Cavalier.

It blew up. Smoke, fire, a little bit of a boom. The whole nine.

 

[Alan]

1988 Ford Ranger. I still remember the specs. 2.9L V6 engine. A4OD transmission. I know that because I had to replace both of those within the first six months of owning it. Remember kids, don't trust front yard salesmen.

It died. In 2002, a head gasket blew on the engine as I was driving down Georgia Highway 515 out of the north Georgia mountains. That's not where it actually died, though. I managed to drive it home, because paying 20 bucks for a case of oil to drive 100 miles was a lot lighter on the wallet than paying the nearly 150 bucks it would have cost me for a tow truck on a midsummer Friday afternoon.

It wasn't a pleasant experience, but neither would paying that much for a tow. Stopping every 20 minutes to dump more oil in the engine was worth it, even if it meant dealing with wall to wall rush hour traffic downtown. What was even more unpleasant was having to drive a 1985 Dodge Minivan while I looked for another car.

 

[Poe Dameron]

My first car, handed down from my parents, was a '98 Mercury Tracer. It was decent...

The first car I ever bought with my own money, though, was a '94 Nissan Skyline. I wasn't too much into photography back then so this is the only pic I could find of it...

 

[Kitti]

'97 Minty green Saturn. It belonged to a neighbor and was in all right condition. No electric locks, though. Manual transmission, which I quite liked about it.