What was your first car, and do you wish you still had it?

[TheFantod]

Mine was 1976 Mustang II. Yes, the worst Mustang Ford ever built. I have a book about Mustangs, and the chapter on the II is entitled, "They Shoot Horses, don't they?"

It was a family hand-me-down. First my dad, then my sister, then me. I got my license in the Summer of 1987. I treated that car like a classic. Polished it and waxed it often. Dropped in a killer (sarcasm here) Sparkomatic stereo system. The speakers just rested in the back seats because there was nowhere to mount them. It's not like people ever sat back there. I don't think a little person would have enough legroom in that back seat.

Oh, the only way my bass would fit in it would be to fold the passenger seat forward and rest the bass on the back of it.

I don't remember the engine size, but I think it barely qualified as a car engine. 0 to 60 in about 2 minutes. Get past 70 and it would start shaking like it was going to fall apart.

I think the worst part of it was the transmission. It was this convoluted mess of metal and rubber hoses attached with hose clamps. One clamp would come loose, and it would spew transmission fluid all over the road in a matter of seconds. I swear I spent more time either under the hood or body of the car than I did behind the wheel.

It finally died about 4 years later. At this point the flywheel was missing teeth. For about 1 in ever 5 starts, I'd have to pop the hood and give it a turn with a giant socket wrench until the teeth would engage. The engine finally seized up and it went to the Not-so-happy Junkyard in the Sky.

I always said I would go back and find it and restore it. It had the same engine bay as the Cobra and could take a Cobra engine. Alas, the junkyard has been flooded more than once, and I doubt it's even salvageable.

That car was an oil eating, transmission fluid spewing, hunk of junk, but I loved it.

So what was your first car, and do you ever miss it?

[frianbisher]

I think I had the worst Mustang ever built for my first car. It was a 1992 LX four banger....I think I was pushing about 88 HP with that baby. It was a dog especially on the highway but the outside was clean so I would get compliments on it sometime. Then the alternator went, it started leaking coolant and the windshield wiper motor died and I sold it to my buddy for like 500 bucks. Do I miss it? Kinda but it being rear wheel drive made it a death trap in slippery weather oh and no ABS.

[stratovani]

My first car was a 1971 Mercury Meteor 2-door. Vinyl bench seats, you'd freeze your ass in the winter and cook like an egg in the summer. The suspension was shot, and it was a gas-guzzling rust bucket. I don't miss it one bit. Bad as it was, at the same time I had this car my dad had an even worse one - a 1974 Ford Galaxie 500. What a piece of schlitz that car was!

[5StringBlues]

1973 Dodge Clubcab,much like this one,except uglier:






Mine was blue and white.I got it from my grandfather in '82 and it was already rusting.One fender was a different color than the others.


It was a brute of a machine and I called it Godzilla.


It may as well have had a "Pretty girls stay away" sign on it.....

[spade2you]

Mine was a '93 Plymouth Acclaim. Oddly enough, it was a great car until something went wrong with the electrical system. I'd be driving and lose everything from power steering to lights, and be unable to restart for a while. Do I wish I still had it? Hell no! Do I wish it would have still worked? Sure.

[GregC]

In college, I got my grandparents' old car--a green '73 Chrysler Newport. It was about 10 years old at this point. That thing was humongous--long hood, huge trunk, 23-gallon gas tank (really) and the vinyl bench seats seated 6 comfortably. I think we crammed in 8 one night of spring break in my hometown of Ft. Lauderdale.

Do I miss it? Heck no. It was on its last legs, so MPG around town was well under 10, and the gas gauge didn't work. I filled the tank every 100 miles and still ran out once. It also eventually ate brake fluid. I found this out driving home on US1 (a four-lane highway) around Jupiter, FL with my roommate in the car, when we went through a red light at 45 mph yelling at the top of our lungs. Luckily, it was about 10 at night, there wasn't much traffic and the drivers heard my horn blaring. It died soon after--good riddance!

[ulrich]

'67 beetle. Lowered, billet dash, Hurst shifter, Fender 2/15 in place of the back seat. Glad it's gone. What a POS.

Now, my second car a '73 Plymouth Satellite Sebring, I'd like to have back.

[tplyons]

1987 GMC Caballero was my first car and I LOVED it up until the day I sold it for something more fuel efficient and a hell of a lot safer. Sold it with 188,000 miles and the engine was still running strong, unfortunately the northeast climate caused such bad rust the truck bed was no longer attached to the frame rails, only by sheet metal.

I sold it to a guy who promised to restore it, and managed to only get $72 out of the deal, after I paid off the work that I had put into the car, but it did great by me for the five years I drove it hard.

I've vowed that one day I will own another.

[Phalex]

1974 Chevy Nova. Damn thing flew like the very wind itself! It looked like hell, had rust holes in the fenders and such, but man!

I do kinda miss that old rustbucket......

[Stinsok]

My first car was a 1970 Ford Galaxie. Faded aqua with black wall tires and no hubcaps. I bought it from a relative for $150.00. I was sure glad to have it though. Even though it was a hooptie.

[Deluge Of Sound]

98 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

I loved that beast--Handled my gear, my snowboards, and my bikes with ease. Great winter vehicle as well, and if I drove like an old woman I could get 20-24mpg. The fact that it had 225,000 miles on it when I got it, electrical gremlins, and a passenger door that never quite opened correctly (leading every single one of my friends to, at one point or another, leap in and out of it in a Dukes Of Hazard-style fashion) didn't diminish the awesomeness one bit.

I miss it, but I'm glad that its gone--too many headaches, and I don't really need to own a car at this point in my life.

[MadMan118]

My first car was a 1986 Toyota 4Runner. It was a good car at the time for the cost. I flipped it and it crumpled up like a tin can. I now have a 98 model that works a lot better and that wont kill me as fast.

[Thunderscreech]

1990 Toyota Camry. I had many firsts in that car, and will leave it at that. It was my grandfather's (he bought it new in 1990) and then my mom bought it from my grandmother after he died, and I took it over from '06 to '09, when the WARWAGON bust onto the scene. Now my dad drives it, and I giggle uncomfortably to myself.

The WARWAGON is a 2002 Subaru Outback.

[Wademeister63]

Had a '73 Nova hatchback. Rusty but it ran ok. I remember rebuilding the 2bbl carb but don't know why really since it ran fine before and the same after. I was a budding gearhead I guess! Had a tired 350 and powerglide tranny. That thing was pretty much junk but it did get me where I needed to go. One night a buddy was riding with me and we were coming home from work. He said "how fast will this thing go?" Hah! We should have been killed for sure. Buried the needle well above 120 mph on bald tires, worn out shocks and who knows what else. The next year I graduated high school and my parents gave me their 1978 monte carlo that had been parked for almost a year so I sold the nova to a guy who was going to make a drag car out of it. Don't really miss either of those cars though =)

I'm back to rebuilding carburetors though! I got tired of Hyundais and Mazdas I've been driving for the last several years and bought this one a few weeks ago as my only car. I rebuilt the carb on it today. This time I do know why and it does run better now =)

[bassteban]

66 Pontiac Tempest, in this color exactly. Miss it.

[MalcolmAmos]

1940 Ford convertible. Black with white top and red upholstery. Would love to still have it. But, I traded it in on a new Ford car (something or other) in the late 50's.

Do not remember what model, color, or anything else about it, just a new family car long forgotten. Course that was 50 plus years ago.

[malthumb]

Originally Posted by TheFantod

Mine was 1976 Mustang II. Yes, the worst Mustang Ford ever built. I have a book about Mustangs, and the chapter on the II is entitled, "They Shoot Horses, don't they?"

........

The first car I bought was a used 1974 Mustang, so I had your car's slightly older brother. It had a 2.3L engine. Probably what yours had. As lame as that car was, my next 3 cars were Mustangs, too. A 1976 Mustang Cobra with. 5.0 V8, then a 1979 Indy Pace Car with 2.3L Turbo and another Indy Pace Car with the 5.0L. And yes, I owned both Pace Cars at the same time.

And all the while I worked for GM.

[Pilgrim]

First one I bought was a '66 GTO in Barrier Blue. Love to have it again.

[drpepper]

First car I bought was a 1976 Pontiac Astre...Pontiac's version of the Vega with some Firebird styling cues.

140 CI with 70 horsepower. 0 to 60 was somewhere around 35 seconds. I liked it when I had it. I thought it looked cool, but I wouldn't want to drive it again.

I tried to do a neutral drop to race a friend's Ford Fiesta. That killed the tranny. A rod went trough a cylinder wall, killing the engine.

I had a 4 cylinder 1976 Mustang II as well (hand-me-down from my brother). The Astre was definitely the worse car.

My next purchase was an 81 RX7. I actually would like to drive that again.

[crucislancer]

A 1987 Dodge 600 ES, much like the pic. White with red cloth interior. My parents game it to me for a very modest cost. I had it for 2 years. As soon as it hit 100,000 miles the timing belt snapped, then not long after that it developed a case of blow-by. I donated it to some organization for a nice little tax write-off.

No way do I even think about that car. It was a PoS for sure.