It had also been my dad's car. I'd just gotten my license and my dad came home in a new car.

He handed me the keys and told me we were driving to go pick up my "new" car.

Parents were done driving me to several rehearsals every week.

That was a tough stick to master but I can still hop in the seat and drive any stick shift today!

Except that mine was a 1964 with what then was a standard Corvette engine. Great car for a time of cheap gas, that unfortunately was stolen and never recovered. It probably ended up in a chop shop.

My father spent a lot of time in his car for work, so he bought new cars every five years. I was in college at the time and needed a car to get to school. The timing was right.

Bought it while stationed in Plattsburgh, NY. Traded it in fairly soon for a Toyota SUV, more practical.

I'd only been working for 3 years and still living at home. Took out a loan. Now today $2500 wouldn't even be a down payment.

probably the 4 door version of your impala. paid $50. uninsured, taught myself to drive and tune up the damn thing before i traded 'up" to a '67 pontiac bonnevill.e

a newer version. of a car. At one time, I remember the family having a bel aire..

Paid a whopping $1,360 that I had saved up since I was about 10.
Thankfully gas was about 49 cents/gallon then.
I miss that ride.

I drove my dad's 1970 Maverick before that.
I was about to go to college and, being a commuter, needed my own car.
I had a bit over a thousand bucks saved up and was going to buy a relatively new Super Beetle.
My dad hated that idea. Thought the bugs were too dangerous.
So, he says "Give me the money, and I'll add what I have to to get you something better." I balk, but I trusted him, so ok.
One day my friends & I are playing pool and my mom says "Can you come outside, your dad needs some help."
I go outside & there's a brand new Pinto in the driveway.
Now, I'm thinking this means my dad has a new work car & I'm buying his Maverick.
Nope. The Pinto is mine. My parents made up the $1,000 difference.
Now the funny part: I got the Pinto (with Firestone 500 tires) because the VW was unsafe.
Pintos caught fire in rear end collisions & Firestone 500s had sidewalls being cut through by the belts. But the VW was unsafe!
I never let my dad hear the end of how he tried to get me killed.

1&1/2 after I was working & in grad school.
My cousin bought it, & she drove it another 4 years or more. But, it was still running fine when she replaced it.

I had it 4 months before someone slammed into the side of my car at an intersection in Albany, NY.
A little later I got the car that I see as my real 1st car, a 1960 Chevy Impala convertible. I had a lot of fun with that car, and sold it in 1969 when I joined the Air Force to avoid being drafted.

I bought it for $175 dollars at age 17. 😂

it took more oil than gas, then the brakes gave out so it sat for months on a street in Pullman WA before finally being towed away

I always described it as “like driving a waterbed”.

It was a four-door sedan with a 5-speed manual transmission. I bought it new when I was 25; since I lived in NYC, cars were either a nuisance or an extraordinary expense. It had the highest trim level so everything was electric and fancy. I drove that baby for over 250,000 miles before moving on.

It was not a great car and required far too much maintenance. As a result, I've never bought another Nissan. Currently, I have a Subaru Crosstrek and love it!

65 Chevy Nova with three on the tree.

Chevy unfortunately named the nova...which in Spanish means 'no go.' I'm sure you've heard that a million times.

They had aluminum engines, and if they overheated the heads would warp. It was a beautiful car, but a pain in the butt.

Union. Had to pay that off while making payments on the other car.

It was already six years old. It was a graduation present from my uncle. I learned to drive in that car. The evil stepfather wouldn't let me take driver's ed in high school. I was probably the only person in the state of Tennessee who had a car but didn't know how to drive!

Gas was around 25 cents a gallon in the early 70s. Remember gas wars?

The first semester was the book park. the second semester was driving on the road. At 15 I got a Cinderella license where I had to drive with an adult in the car. At 16, I had my regular license. Father would not allow me to drive his car, Mother was afraid I would get killed.--that is for another post. I got my Impala, when my father decided that it was three years and he needed another new not used
car. I started work and drove that at 17,

White with a black ragtop and a wide, iridiscent blue "sport stripe" on the side. My dad gave it to me when I went off to college and he had just bought a 1973 Cutlass Supreme.

Named for the Deep Purple song.

It was a 1966 Chevy Bel Air four-door
-- the kiss of death for coolness back then because four doors were an instant giveaway as a "family car." I did what I could to shake that -- Thorley headers, 60-series rubber on Cragar SS wheels, black diamond upholstery -- but it was still a four-door. (Dad had bought it, two years old and beautiful, for
our summer vacation/family reunion in Estes Park, Colorado.)

Nevertheless, I have more great memories with that car than I could ever recount, or even recall. I put thousands of miles on it cruising South Main. I lost my virginity in it. I learned auto mechanics and body work with it. I came of age in it.

I loved it.

and saw a '65 El Camino in a doctors' office patking lot with a "For Sale" sign in the rear window. I'd lusted after an El Camino of '60s vintage since I was around 12 (a neighbor about five years older had had a nasty '64). So, long story short, I bought it. The first day I drove it, a guy on the sidewalk did a huge double-take and yelled, "Nice truck!" I flashed a big, proud smile at him. I'd waited a long time to hear that.

A few months later, a friend was gonna move back home to northern Illinois and needed a car, so I sold the Mule to him. I can still vividly picture him driving away in it, me unable to hold back the tears. (The same thing happened when I sold the El Camino 37 years later.)

frame but way different otherwise

a Navy Blue 1964 Chevy Impala 327 SS from a coworker in 1972. I loved that car.

It had a stick shift, which I learned to drive by driving that car. The transmission survived.

Lime green. A/C that barely worked and AM radio only. No tape player or even FM ... Drove it until 1989 and learned a lot about music from the 50s and 60s thanks to listening to oldies AM radio throughout the 80s.

That car ran and ran and ran.

Austin Healey Sprite

Ford Galaxy 500. Powder yellow, green vinyl interior. It only had an am radio that was on the left side of the steering wheel. At night you could pick up radio stations from across the country. It was a gift from my Dad. He paid 500 dollars for it in 1980. Maintenance, insurance and gas were my responsibility.

in Evening Orchid. Beautiful, but what a money pit.

Gas guzzling, rust bucket from Detroit's salted streets. Gas gauge didn't work. Dubbed the Beige Bomb by my friends. It's chief benefit was a spacious backseat for my girlfriend and I to use

Silver body, white top, gorgeous blue interior. Fit 8 girlfriends and my Great Dane.

Birthday gift from my fiancé, senior year of high school. Learned that "GTO" stood for 'how to meet lots of new friends really fast'. I already knew how to drive stick, learned in the family car, a Chevy Greenbrier van. A year later the GTO was stolen and wrecked, shortly before the engagement ended.

The first car I purchased was a bright red '63 Corvair convertible. I had a blast driving topless up and down the California coast. Sold it a couple years after moving back to Colorado; it needed a new top and I couldn't afford a replacement, much needed in Colorado winters. It was great in snow, otherwise; never had to put snow tires on.

The only new car I ever owned was a '72 VW bug, loved driving that thing all over the country. Managed to smoosh the front end when I rear-ended a sailboat. In Albuquerque.

These days I drive a 23-year-old Caravan, plebian, auto transmission (thanks to cranky knees). It gets me where I need to go, which is neither far nor often. Of all the cars I've had, though, my favorite is still that red Corvair, Nader be damned.

.

Last edited Fri Jun 27, 2025, 04:53 PM - Edit history (1)

John Delorean of GM's Pontiac division...later of Delorean and 'Back to the Future' fame.

Blue 4 door ugly POS but for 30 bucks it got this 16 year old from point a to point b for about 6 months before going belly up.

Stick transmission, ordinary steering, canvas top, generator for heater, would go almost anywhere. I had to give it up because I coudn't get parts anymore.

Drove it through HS. It was great.

Had a huge backseat

... station wagon with 3 speed column shifter. COST $175 in 1973. I saved up my money from my factory job and had the engine rebuilt and bored out. She took myself and 2 or 3 friends to the west coast from LA to Portland and many other states from my Indiana home. I truly loved that car.

Loved that car

"First car" is a frequent verification question for online accounts.

Mine was a used '72 Capri which was a total lemon, not helped by the fact that I abused it terribly. But I swear it was a once-totalled car that had been put together with scrounged spare parts. At any rate, it died when the drive shaft literally fell off in the middle of the road one afternoon. After that, I never again bought another used car.

If I'd been able to spend about another 500 when I bought it, I could have had a Mustang. I wish I had.

-- Mal

Last edited Fri Jun 27, 2025, 01:44 AM - Edit history (1)

I bought it used off my father and overall it was a good car.

Beauty, my Dad bought for me used. I was at work at my job at the movie theater and he drove up and brought me out to see it. He left it there for me to drive home and he walked home. ( we lived 3 blocks from the theater and I walked home most nights). I loved that car.

My first hubby and I bought it for $200 in 1972. That was a damn good little car. We drove it all over, took several road trips in it.

first year in college. Traded up after three years for '57 Chevy Belaire convertible. That was the car, fast, small block Chevy, .283 V8. English racing green with a white ragtop.

It was wonderful. A stick, of course.

And at trombones years old (76 for those of you who don't get that reference) I'm still driving a stick, currently a 2017 Honda Fit. I rarely bother to lock it, as I figure car thieves today can't possibly drive one.

I have recently considered that I might possibly purchase an automatic, were I to acquire another car.

automatic,

If nothing else, it's not going to get stolen. Then again, a Honda Fit is not really a car that car thieves are likely to want.

I should have never gotten rid of it. That car actually fixed itself on more than one occasion.

Push button gear selector
It died in an accident when a drunk hit me.

He wrote it about his parent's car that he used to drive once he got his license. I believe it was a 1960 model.

A little yellow studebaker

borrowed $125 from my mom to pay for it. Dad brought it home towing the frame and all the parts, fenders etc. in the back of his pickup. Spent two years rebuilding the power train and mechanicals. Mom made the upholstery. Started driving the car my Senior year in Hight School (1965) and drove it for four more years while going to college.

With V8 Engine. How that car could move!

Huge boat of a car. I could “full length” lay down in the back seat without touching the doors. 18 miles per gallon … was considered “average” for the times.

She was not a real aunt, just an honorary one.

It was a 1960 Plymouth Fury, a car with fins and a push button transmission. It was sort of beige. She gave me the car because she was not allowed to drive any more. She did terrible things when she drove. She drove through creeks and ditches. She drove down the middle of construction zones and over bridges that had gaps in them due to repairs. It was a wonder she was alive.

That car did not last long. The brakes went bad. Those push buttons were a mess and did not work well. It did get me back and forth to work for a while.

Straight 8 cylinder engine, weird semi automatic transmission, huge back seat.

Bought it in 1968 for $25. Sold it a week later for $35.