Your first car!

[billtm]

I just recently got my drivers' license, and I learned that I will be getting my own car! It is a 2007 Honda Accord SE with 201,000 miles on it. To me, that's pretty impressive, but one of my friends has a '98 Camry with over 300,000 miles on it. I really like my car, and hope it will last me a long time.

So, I was wondering, what was your first car? And what did you love/hate about your car?

[US 41]

My first car was a 95 Dodge Neon that was $600. I think it had 116K on it when it was bought. Tbh it was a piece of junk, but I drove it everywhere (within 100 miles of home). The farthest I ever took it was Richmond, KY.

About a year later I got my second (and current) car and it was $2700. It's an 05 Neon. It's the first car that was put in my name. I've owned it for a year and a half and I've drove through 19 states, 2 provinces, and 1 estado in it. It's been an excellent car. I have had some trouble with it lately unfortunately. I just paid $800 to get it fixed and there is now some crazy vibration going on, so my mechanic is going to have to get that fixed. Unfortunately he can't get it in until next week. I think the new timing belt he put in is probably off a tooth.

As soon as it gets fixed I'm thinking about taking a 4 day trip up to Ontario. My North Dakota trip has officially been put on hold.

[freebrickproductions]

My first car is a 2004 Toyota Sienna LE with at least 100,000 miles on it. I'm still driving it, and I can honestly say it's a nice ride.

[roadman]

My first car was a 1984 Ford Tempo.  Had 44K on it when I bought it, traded it in at 102K.  The car was generally very reliable, but it developed an interesting quirk.  Had a tune up with change of wires and distributor cap at about 80K.  After that, the distributor hold down bolt would occasionally back out, which messed up the timing.  Never left me stranded, but one time it happened as I was entering the Everett Turnpike heading home.  Couldn't get the car above 40 mph, it was a long ride home.

[Max Rockatansky]

1992 Pontiac Sunbird with 60,000 miles on it....before then I was driving my parents cars until I hit 18.  That stupid Sunbird had rust in the door sills and I basically repainted them completely in the garage over the course of the weekend.  Don't think for a second that white paint doesn't have shades because it does. lol  Good news nobody really noticed since the colors didn't match inside the door sills rather than on the exterior.  I got rid of that thing for a Silverado after fixing a short in the headlight which would cause the car to die with the lights on for too long.

[ET21]

First car I drove: 1997 Pontiac Grand AM, 18 years and only 94,000 miles!

First car I owned: 2013 Dodge Dart RallyE. Started at 14,700, now at 28,300 miles

[Takumi]

First car was a 1991 Honda Prelude Si with an automatic. Man, it was a piece of crap. I have a different 1991 now, along with two other Preludes.

[oscar]

First car was a 1991 Honda Prelude Si with an automatic. Man, it was a piece of crap. I have a different 1991 now, along with two other Preludes.

I bought a 1986 Prelude new, with an automatic, which is ridiculous. I didn't weep too much when I had to sell it after about 20,000 miles so I could qualify for a mortgage.

But that was my third car. My first was a 1972 Datsun 1200, also purchased new. Cheap, and great gas mileage just in time for the energy crisis of 1973. But it could barely go 90mph, going downhill. Also tiny, with a cramped back seat, which my two sisters had to endure on family outings.

[cpzilliacus]

1966 Chevy C-10 pickup truck, 250 cid straight Six (leaked a lot of oil), three on the tree, AM radio, power NOTHING and a lot of rust. 

[slorydn1]

First vehicle I had daily access to drive was a 1974 VW Microbus; no power anything, AM Radio, and carpeting straight from the family room floor after my dad had hardwood floors installed. I hated it, but the chicks dug it, LOL.

First car I owned: 1978 Plymouth Sapparo. I had it exactly 3 days when my girlfriend totaled it when I was teaching her to drive stick. It wasn't her fault, the light turned yellow just as we were entering the intersection and the other moron turned right in front of us.

[spooky]

First car I owned was a 1983 Datsun (not Nissan) Pulsar.

Folks who are old enough probably picture this when they think of a Pulsar. Mine in fact looked like this - a hatchback.

The end of my ownership of it came when the insurance company classified it as a "sports car" with a higher premium, even though it was a hatchback and was not a performance car at all. It also needed struts. After owning it for approximately 6 months I sold it to an acquaintance for the same price I paid for it, minus 1/2 of the cost of the strut replacement, which he was going to have done.

This was the first of three cars I owned in my first year of car ownership. The 2nd was a 1985 Dodge Omni, the 3rd a 1980 Pontiac Sunbird. I had the Omni for only a couple months before it met an unfortunate demise when my brother's stupid friend led police on a chase and destroyed the car when he hit a curb while going around 75 mph. The Sunbird was with me all the way through college.

[jeffandnicole]

1987 or so Dodge Colt Hatchback, purchased in 1992.  Hated the look of the car, but it got me around. 

A/C eventually went, so I got one of those little 6" fans you see on school buses and such and bolted it right into the dash. 

Packed the rear with my stuff and a friend's stuff from college.  Put my bowling bag on top.  Slammed the hatch down.  Bowling ball shattered the rear glass window!

If you drive steep inclines often, you occasionally see truckers with issues getting up those hills.  That happens on occasion on the Delaware Memorial Bridge, especially westbound into Delaware (EB traffic into NJ doesn't seem to have that issue for some reason).  Well, my Colt had some sort of transmission problem one day, and I was one of those people barely doing 20 mph trying to drive the upslope of the bridge!

When I needed new tires on that car, I think I paid for all 4 tires what 1 tire on my current vehicles goes for!

[PHLBOS]

1969 Ford LTD (Brougham package) 4-door sedan 302 V8, 108k and had a different color hood and left-front fender (accident replacement).  Paid $300 for it circa May 1982.  Drove it for about 2 years during my latter high school years.

Similar to the one below except the body color of mine (sans the hood & left-front fender) was champagne gold:

[1995hoo]

1977 Ford Granada two-door with a four on the floor and a pedal-operated parking brake (don't see many manuals with a pedal-operated parking brake these days–and in the Granada, the high-beams were operated by a foot switch too). Bought the car for $325 from a guy in my dad's office, sold it to my brother two years later for $400. It was a piece of junk, no AC, squealing belts, a leaky rear window, and a Bondo repair to one side of the trunk, but it ran and it was hard to drive it too fast, which is probably good for a high school kid!

[Brandon]

The first I drove was a 1981 Dodge Aries.  It had 2 doors and the 2.2L engine mated to a 4-speed manual.  My parents bought it new in April 1981 and later traded it in for a new 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan in 1995.

The first one I owned was a 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser, bought new in October 2001.  It had a 2.4L engine mated to the 4-speed automatic.  That car served me well for over 178,000 miles until I traded it in on my current car...

A 2011 Dodge Caliber, bought new in June 2011.  It has the 2.0L engine mated to a 5-speed manual.  Currently, I'm at over 203,000 miles and counting.

[Henry]

1988 Calais (no Cutlass added to it), a gift from my parents after high school graduation; I kept it through college and the first few years of marriage.

[LM117]

First car I drove was a silver 2005 Dodge Stratus SXT (4-door) with the 2.4L DOHC 4-cylinder engine that had 23,000 miles. It was barely a year old when I started driving it. Man, I loved that damn car! I never had one problem with it. My only complaint was that it didn't have the optional 2.7L DOHC V6 engine, but the 2.4L wasn't too shabby, which I spruced up a little with a high flow performance air filter, Autolite Double Platinum spark plugs, and Valvoline SynPower 5W-30 motor oil (this was before I knew it takes more than that to add significant horsepower, but it was a tad peppier! ). The factory sound system was surprisingly good. I was living in Fremont, NC (right off of I-795, which was still signed as US-117 back then) at the time and although I never took it out of state, I drove the hell out of it. Me being in high school at the time with an interstate within biking distance from me...well, let's just say that I spent a lot of time on I-795 and 70mph was usually the least I did! At the time, hardly anyone knew that the highway existed, so it was mostly empty and barely patrolled which made it easy to qualify for the Daytona 500. I also took it on one big ass loop a few times by taking I-795 from Fremont south to US-117 in Goldsboro, following that to I-40 near Faison, taking I-40 West to Benson and taking I-95 North to I-795 in Wilson and dropping back down to Fremont. Too bad I only had the car barely a year. It got totaled in August 2007 two months after I graduated high school when my cousin drove it and a deer jumped in front of him. It had 45,000 miles went it went. Every time I see a mid-2000's Dodge Stratus nowdays, I think of the one I had. Good times.

[pianocello]

2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon, I still drive it. It was passed on from my dad, 8 years after we bought it new. When I started driving it, it had around 80K miles, now it has over 130K. It's pretty nice and reliable, gets phenomenal gas mileage, can fit all my stuff when moving to/from college, and it can fit a cello in the trunk . Only downside that I run into nowadays is that it doesn't have much leg room in the back. It's next to impossible to fit more than 2 guys over 6'.

[froggie]

First car was a 1998 Dodge Neon that was leased new, then later turned into a purchase when I started putting way too much mileage on it.

[briantroutman]

There are four cars in my history which have partial claims on "first"  status.

1991 Plymouth Voyager SE
First vehicle legally driven, first solo driven (400+ miles driving alone at 16 on one trip), though still the family minivan. Spartan, and with enough squeaks, rattles, and broken bits that it felt like a disposable transportation appliance past its prime. Automotive freedom nonetheless.

1990 Subaru Legacy LS wagon
Originally my dad's winter car (and therefore my summer car); later inherited completely. A rally wagon in comparison with the Voyager and a joy to drive–the perfect combination of fun, practicality, quirkiness, youth, and maturity for an off-center teenager.

1990 Dodge Spirit ES
First car intended for my use. The monochromed "eurosport"  version of a warmed over K sedan for the old ladies and Ed Rooneys of the world. Credit to Chrysler, though: after ten years of building K cars, they had the formula down pat, and the car shrugged off all of the abuse I gleefully heaped upon it.

1991 Mazda Protegé DX
First car bought with my own wages (but titled to my father for insurance purposes). As stripped as any Japanese car in 1991 but solid, tidy, and a hoot to drive with go-kart like dynamics. Driven for about a year but ultimately killed by unbelievable amounts of undercarriage rust (though none on the body) that killed many under car components.

[jakeroot]

The first car that I ever drove regularly was a 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada, which cost $6000 when it was purchased back in 2012, with 115,000 miles. I owned half, and my mother owned the other half. But, she did the purchasing, so her name was on the reg.

The first car that I ever bought was a 2015 Golf TDI (completely self-financed by my 19-year-old self), though, eventually, I think VW is going to buy it back from me, so I'm enjoying it while I can .

[dvferyance]

My first car was a 2001 Ford Focus I bought in 2004. That car was a lemon I had no end of problems it was destroyed in an accident in 2012 by a 19 year old driving a big pickup truck going way too fast. Then I had a 2005 Ford Taurus it was a good car I really liked it but after owning it for just 3 years the engine when out at just 98,700 miles. Now I have a 2011 Ford Fusion I have no problems since owning it for the last 9 months.

[jp the roadgeek]

First car in 1992 was a 1983 Buick Lesabre.  Built like a boat.  307 Oldsmobile engine had squirrel power, and got 10 MPG.  Very roomy though.  Got it with about 62,000 and put about that much on it before I sold it to a church group (guys name was Jesus, pronounced like His name).  Bought a '97 Chevy Malibu next, and learned never to buy a first year model (steering made a loud grinding sound within 10,000 mi).  Moved on to a '99 Lumina, then an '01 Impala, and an '05 Impala before I did something that I would be considered a Benedict Arnold for in my family (had relatives on both sides that worked for GM), and bought an '08 Ford Edge, which I drive currently.

[wanderer2575]

My first car was an '87 (give or take a year) Chevy Nova (essentially a rebranded Toyota from the joint venture days).  No cruise, no air, crank windows.  I bought it from my grandmother, who had put very few miles on it.  Back in the day I took long roadtrips nearly every weekend and I put more than 300,000 miles on it.  I was religious about changing the oil regularly and never had any major problem with the car.  Replacing the tires and the exhaust system once, and I think I had to replace a CV joint once, were the only major expenses I had. 

Have had a Saturn and a Jeep Cherokee since, both of which were disappointing.  Then I had a 2007 Honda CR-V on which I put 174,000 miles with no problems, and I'm sure it would have kept going a lot longer were it not for the deer I hit on I-96 at 3:00am Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  (Sigh.)  I've since taken over my wife's 2016 CR-V.

[corco]

First car I had as my daily driver was a 1997 Jeep Wrangler I drove from sophomore year of high school (2003) through my freshman year of college (2007). That vehicle was amazing - my older brother still has it. Just a 4-cylinder, manual transmission, soft top Jeep. It was great.

The first vehicle I ever held title to and had as a daily driver was a 1990 Dodge Colt I had my sophomore and junior years of college (2007-2008). My little sister got her license so I had to give the Jeep to her since she needed it to get to high school, so I was on the hook for getting my own car. I bought the Colt for $600 and sold it two years later for $800. It was a great car, for the money. Just a very basic 4-cylinder 4-speed manual Colt that didn't even have power steering or a functional odometer (Carfax indicated it had 246,000 miles on it at some point a couple years before I bought it, which seemed right given the wear on the driver's seat and steering wheel. The odometer had been rolled back to 93,000 by somebody). The inside was well worn, and it had a little body damage but the thing ran like a beast, and gave me no problems for two years. My uncle passed away and I inherited his 2002 Jeep Liberty after my sophomore year (which I still have as a second car), but I kept the Colt until the end of my junior year when I moved from Tacoma WA to Wyoming anyway.

My current primary car, a 2015 VW Golf, is the first new car I've ever bought.

In terms of vehicles I've owned/daily driven:
1997 Jeep Wrangler (2003-2007) - parents' car, technically
1976 Subaru (2006-2006) - bought it as a joke for $200 with a bunch of friends with the intent to destroy it. I drew the short straw and got the title.
1990 Dodge Colt (2007-2008)
2002 Jeep Liberty (2007-Present)
1997 Ford Escort (2011-2012)
2001 Honda Accord (2013-2015)
2015 VW Golf (2015-Present)