Do you remember your first car?
A friend of mine who's son is driving asked for a car recently. His parents laughed and said the same thing to him that Rick told his daughter when she was 16. Save your money for a car and I'll match it dollar for dollar. Rick's daughter never saved a thing so he was off the hook...just as he thought.
My friend said she didn't think her son will save either. He's only 16 so she told him he can continue to use the family car. He mumbled and with his shoulders slumped he walked away defeated. She looked at me and winked.
For my high school graduation my father gave me $500 for a down payment for a car as a graduation gift. (yes, I know it was a very nice gift)
Can you even imagine what $500 could buy today? Nothing. That wouldn't pay for the tires today! My car was $2,800 brand new baby!
Then I went and told the sales person I really wanted an FM stereo/ 8 track put in my car. (stop laughing - I had the Nilsson Schmilsson 8 track and I couldn't imagine driving without listening to that album)
So my car ended up costing me $3,100.
Here is a photo I found online of a 1974 yellow VW beetle just like I had. (glow in the dark yellow my father called it)
This car was a little tank!
I grew up where the average snow fall was 150 inches a year. You didn't miss school or work either. Life went on. This little baby was a tank in snow but it had one big fault. HEAT!
You see in the 1974 VW Bug there was no real heat or defrost. (don't even think of air conditioning - put your head out the window)
The engine is air cooled so you had no heat at idle and honestly it would take driving an hour before you got any heat let alone defrost. And I wouldn't call it warm. I normally could see my breath for most of my short trips. Not always so great when one lives in the tundra.
But I was a kid and it didn't bother me. (today it would)
I had my own car, my dream car and I loved it.
It only cost me $3.50 to fill 'er up. Wouldn't that be nice? I could fill up my tank and still go to Mickey D's for a cheeseburger, fries and pop and have change left from a $5 bill. Funny huh? (god I'm old)
I always had 2 blankets in the back seat of my car for my friends. They preferred being warmer and I obliged. My best friend Susan swore I only asked her places because she would use the ice scraper and scrape the INSIDE windshield as I drove. She basically was my defrost.
But the silliest thing I did with that car is buy it and not be able to drive it home.
I wanted a VW bug since I was a small child. I thought they were so cute.
But they were stick shifts and I couldn't drive a stick.
So the day I got the keys to my new car my boyfriend drove it to my house and I followed him in his car. I remember being so excited seeing the back of the car because it was MINE.
Over next two weeks in August of 1974 I had lessons daily on driving this car. My boyfriend was my teacher. He took me up and down hills until I could stop on a hill and not coast backwards. I was on this hill one day for so long because it wasn't perfect. I finally put it in neutral, put on the emergency brake and got out of the car and began walking home crying. He got in the drivers seat and was slowly driving next to me telling me to get in the damn car. I finally did. After that day we took 2 days off of driving lessons.
I loved that car. But I traded it in for a brand new Sparkling Burgundy 1979 Datsun 280Z.
It too was a standard. But oh so much more fun to drive. It was a 2 seater.
I thought it was soooo expensive. It cost $9,000 something. (this is not my car I found this photo online but it looked just like this)
I always had cars that required knowing how to drive a stick.
I loved the control you had in winter with a standard.
But then I moved to Seattle. No longer was I in the flat Midwest. Oh no these were real hills!
Not what I was used to. Sitting in traffic with my foot on the clutch forever made me realize I needed a new car and it had to be an automatic!!
1996 ended my run of never owning an automatic.
From then on my cars were always practical and not a stick shift.
What was your first car?
21 comments:
I had a '94 Lebaron Convertable. I LOVED it. It was the best. Even though it leaked whenever it rainged and I had to manually open and lock the doors it was the best. I miss that car!
Carolyn, that was a cool 1st car. better to leak than have no heat is my theory. :-)
You know what happens when you learn to drive at age 32 after 4 years of marriage and 3 kids under 4 years old? You get a white wood panelled 1990 Plymouth Grand Voyager as your first car. Ever see what Lois drove on Malcolm in the Middle? That.
WOW Karen you didn't learn to drive until 32? You must have lived somewhere with great metro/subways and public transportation.
A mom van is what a mom should drive!:-)
the first car i ever drove was my dads shitty american made car. (man that makes me sound anti american! im really not, but this car was brand new and a total lemon, falling apart within months of driving it off the lot. anyway, i think american made cars have come a LONG way since then and i think the quality is a lot better than it was 15-20 years ago.)
because the car was so crappy my parents made me drive around town with their car phone. not a cell phone mind you because this was before cell phones were something everyone owned. this was a giant clunky phone that my dad kept in the front seat, so whoever i drove with had to have this giant thing in their lap. plus, i wasnt allowed to use it unless it was an emergency because the rates for it were insanely high.
the first car i bought myself was a brand new toyota tercel and i LOVED IT. i was so stupid when i bought it though, i went into the dealership and said all the wrong things and ended up paying way more for it than i needed to. to this day jay makes fun of me, saying that i could have had a lexus for what i was paying for the tercel. i never really cared though because the car was the best car i have ever owned. nothing ever went wrong with it even though i could barely be bothered to perform routine maintenance on it. i wish i still had it today but we traded it in when we had lucy because it was just too small for a family of four.
occassionally ill see a green tercel on the road and i'll think "oh, i miss Tercie." which was what i had named my car. :)
Tam- Yeah Toyota! I think most of us love our first car even if we paid too much or there wasn't heat. :-) I love the name. Mine was not original - mine was herbie.
I shortened it to Herb...as in get in the herb. We tried to see if it would float one day after having some herb. The rumor was a bug could float. We got scared and got out of the water as soon as the water began seeping into the car. Honestly if i had had kids like me....oh wait maybe that is why I'm childless!!!
I got my step dad's mom's old car. A 1980 Pontiac Sunbird, appropriately "lemon yellow". That car sure was a pile. TG I married a mechanic who was able to fix the door so I didn't have to get in on the passenger side anymore lol. We eventually sold it for $600 which was freaking amazing.
We are letting my daughter use my old car, but basically it's hers. I have told her taht she is just using it because it can get taken away. And you're right, we spent $500 on new tires for it before she could drive it. It's about worn out too. I think it builds character to start out with a POS car lol.
A friend had a beetle too. After years of driving it there wasn't an original part on it except the roof.
Mike - having only had my beetle for 5 yrs i never put a cent into it except for brakes one time. Wish I had kept that car.
Julie - mine may not have been a pos but it had crank window and no heat so seeing your breath while you drive certainly build something - i don't know if it was character. :-) Besides I loved the car and it was all I could afford. my payments were 86 a month. isn't that a hoot?
Nice story. My first car was a white chrysler something. I can't remember the exact model, but it was so nice and smooth to drive, even though the doors were way too heavy.
also, i love harry nilsson and i had nilsson schmillson on cd-it helped get me through high school.
PorkStar - that's a hoot that you can't even remember what model was....a white chrysler somethin'.
Hey it got you from point A to B right?
Tammie - I am shocked that you know who Harry Nilsson is. You are a renaissance woman!!!
OMG....this has brought back so many memories.....In 1977, when I was 16, my girlfriend and I bought a 1970 Ford Torino from her aunt who we all called 'The Bird' (but not to her face!)....my friend had the license, and I worked at an insurance co, so I 'got' us insurance, and we had a ball! It was white with a red pinstripe on the sides, and red interior, and an 8-track.
Of course, it reaked of smoke.....hmmmm.....and all the guys wanted to drive it, cuz it had a 351 Cleveland engine.....we, of course, had no idea what the hell that meant.....but all the guys thought we were very cool with our beast of a car! It sounded very powerful....and every Friday night we would cruise the Renton Loop.....it was kindof like the cruising strip they had in American Graffiti....OMG....it was so much fun! Damn!
Thanks for the memories! lol
I enjoyed this story with my third cup of morning coffee!
I once had an old(bought second-hand) Beetle(which my boyfriend--husband now--patiently taught me how to drive), but it wasn't all shiny new and yellow(!) like yours.
It was boring beige(with a wooden dashboard), but still adorable since it was VW Bug..I always have had a soft spot for them, and even the sound of their "water-cooled" engine makes me happy. Mine never had heat, either--and yes, in the winter I would have to scrape off the INSIDE of my windshield, too!! Had to chuckle when I read down and saw you write about that, too. But, like yours, it ALWAYS started right up.
I drove it to Maine and back(from here in RI) in 1988 on 7.00 worth of gas, I recall. :-)
Oh, and my first car was a second-hand maroon Dodge Dart(I think I paid 300.00 total for it).
One more thing...I had an eight-track player in my first car, too(remember having Roxy Music and ELO eight-tracks to play in it)
And, I kid you not...my verification word for this comment is..." rosicar".
My first "me" car was a VW station wagon. I loved that car!
a Datsun 280Z was my ultimate dream care in the 80's. The hot skate guard at the roller rink drove one.
The first car I purchased was a Plymouth Champ with a leaky sunroof. Before that I had to drive my grandfather's old plymouth Valiant. So embarrassing!!!!! or the Dodge Omni that was a stick
“I wanted a VW bug since I was a small child.” – We are on the same page here, Margaret. The Volks always fascinates me. Back when I was a kid, I always look out on the road for this kind of vehicle. At that time, the popularity of this car is fading, but there are some car enthusiasts who kept this kind of vehicle. Thanks to them, my fascination with the Volks never waned!
Kersin - welcome.
you can still get one. The news ones are sure cute and have heat and air conditioning. :-)
That's a nice story about your first car. The rates during those days were really cheap! I wish I was able to experience that! Haha. My first car was a black 1994 Mitsubishi Lancer. It was a little throwback compared to my friends' cars back in 2005 but I really wanted that car since I was young. It was just like how you wanted your Beetle growing up. :)
Ellsworth Mciltro
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