Poll-The first car you bought yourself, not from Mom or Dad?

[M-technik-3]

73 Capri RS 3.4DOHC.

[Mark 88/M5 Houston]

My first one was a 1972 Dodge pickup with a 225 Slant Six and a "three speed on the tree".

[dcollin]

63 Ford Galaxie 500. Baby Blue. Blue interior. 390. 8-track!

Bought it from a friend of mine, in High School. I was 15, promised my dad I wouldn't drive it. (yeah right).

Needed an exhaust manifold. One window didn't roll up, one didn't roll down. Paid $30.00 for it (I'm not kidding), drove it..I mean had it for six months. Sold it for $50.00.

[Nana535i]

My first car was a 1984 Volvo 242 Turbo. Bought in 1994 and owned it for 2 weeks when I got rear ended and it was totalled. A couple of months later I bought a 1983 533i, which started my love affair with the E28.

[the Tanned One]

1968 Dodge Super Bee w/8,000 miles on it in 1970(junior in HS) for $1,200.00 :)to replace 66 Mustang that ate trannys ! Had it for 3 yrs. Traded it in on a New 74 VW super beetle for $750.00 Wish i still had that Mopar Randy/ 8) PS: the new bug only lasted 3 months till being totaled out ! 2nd car in 4 car pile up on I-94 Replacement for the bug was a 1966 Chevelle SS ! < Wish had that 1 too !

[RonW]

1973 Volvo 144, bought in 1985 with 135k miles.
Cypress green with a tan cloth interior.
Seats had adjustable lumbar support, but you had to get under them with a wrench to change the height.
Four-on-the-floor with a GREAT tight stock short throw lever.
Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection.
Four-wheel disc brakes, with dual triangular brake circuits.
Mechanical clock, which would wind itself periodically with a loud click.

I bought the '86 535i in 1992, and around 1995 I traded the Volvo for a VCR. It (the Volvo) had just under 250k miles.

I still have the BMW.

[Karl Heinz]

It would be a 1993 Ford T-Bird with 5.0 V8. Still have the bloody thing as a daily driver, although being out in the sunny Florida climate has done wonders for the paint and interior Overall, a good piece of transportation for what it is.

[bobby in Derby City]

I bought my first car when I was 22 in 1998. It was a red 1986 Make 2, VW GTI, manual with 151k for $1000. Sold it to my older brother in 2002. Bought it back from him in 2004. Sold it back to my older brother again in 2005. Finally, I sold it FOR my older brother back to the original owner in July of this year! Talk about coming around "full circle" Luv this topic. Cheers!!!

[Lancelot]

My '89 Lebaron convertible was given to me for a first car after my great aunt passed away. I am still dumping money into trying to keep it on the road (probably not worth it).

The first car I bought on my own was a 1982 VW Rabbitt 5 spd. for $200 senior year of high school. It was real POS and instead of fixing one of the rear brakes, someone had decided to snip the line and then crimp it off. I kept it in my friend's barn until I could get that fixed. As soon as the parents saw it, they banned it from the house. My friends and I are still pissed that i didn't keep it, since it was going to be our rally car.

[Karl Grau]

Mine was a '65 Ford Ranchero that I bought for $100.00 from my best friend’s neighbor. It had been in a fender bender so I had to put a new fender, bumper and grill on it.
It was the first year for the 289 (up from the 260) with a C4 auto. It was a pretty cool car. It only took me a little over a year to completely screw it up

[KillerPM]

1988 BMW 535i

Payed $2500 bucks for it 4 years ago.

So far i have put about 7000 worth of stuff in it.

Bot it with 344,252 KM on it, it now has just had its 460,000 oil change done.

Only one major thing (well major to me). Spun the car once and bent a lower controll arm. Had the car for 8000 KM. That would't happen now. LOL.

[yellowbullet]

My first car was split 50/50 with my parents...a 1999 M3. The M5 I just bought was paid all by myself =)

[Duke]

$900 for a 1972 FIAT 124 Spider. I was a junior in HS and my parents were PISSED.

[a]

started driving at 12, parents wisely didnt allow me to get my license until I gradeated HS. 1st registered vehicle was an orange '54 IH walkin delivery van. In black free style letters it bore the legend "INTERGALACTIC BRAIN POLICE" on its sides. Any guesses what decade this was?

[the Tanned One]

Any guesses what decade this was?

The Smokin 60`s Randy/ Don`t bogart that doobie,Man

[edgy6]

in '86 i bought a buick gs stage1 for $900.00 .
455 ram air,went like a raped ape!! i sold it for $3500.oo, went to Scotland and got drunk for a month straight with my cousins.had no idea what i had at the time, just a fast car that was fun to light up. what a friggin idiot, no wonder my dad hated me so much!!!!

[Ricky535]

The first car that I bought was a lemon yellow 1974 Opel Manta in 1983. Saved some money from my first deployment. Saw the ad in the paper for $500.00 and off I went. Change the carburetor to weber 32/36 downdraft carb. Put on a 13" luisi steering wheel.

[Dinan 5er]

Funny story;
mom gave each kid her previous car when we turned 19 or 20. I saw it coming and convinced her to buy a cherry '76 2002 in 1979. She kept it for 2 years and then sold it "because maintenance was to expensive". She got an orange VW bug convertible (same color as her hair) with a white top. I was bummed, but accepted it. It turned out to be a major chick magnet. I always had girls in it no matter where I went. But all I could think of was it was "mom's" car. I wanted a hot rod. Sold it for $3000 and bought a 73 Nova Hatchback, dark blue with tonneau vinyl roof, 350, auto, Holley double pumper, headers, Keystone wheels. Rebuilt the engine twice, learned all about wrenching on that car. Thing went like a bat outta hell. But it wasn't the chick magnet like the bug.

Mike C.

[lkfoster]

'59 Alfa Romeo Guilietta Spyder in '71. Parents thought they'd let me learn the hard way how much cars cost. It didn't work.

I almost bought a Morris Mini, but who wanted to learn how to drive a FWD car?

[roger1120]

The first car I purchased myself was 1970 Chevy Impala which a bought from a friends mom in 1974 for $25. I drove that car for 2 year until I entered the army in 1976. Actually, here's a funny story from my time in Germany. I lived in a small town off base and rpaid rent by buying liquor and cigarette rations from my friend and gave them to my landlord as rent. I drove a VW 411 but one of the guys had a BMW, must have been an early 70's. The next town over had a disco which meant lots of big breasted fraulines. In order to avoid driving on the main street (due to the amount of achohol we consumed) we drove through these tiny little paths that ran through the vineyards. One night we had my friend BMW and were debating who was the least drunk in drive back. Well, I got the nod. About halfway back I drove the his beemer off the side of the road and down the hill. We couldn't get it out that night and had walk back. The next we had to have the farmer who owned the land pull us out with his tractor. He could believe we were using his vineyard as path between the house and bar at 2:00 in the morning. Those were great times in Europe.

[Alan Crane]

I'm with Mark from Houston
1972 Dodge pickup(called a ute down under) with a 225 Slant Six and a "three speed on the tree"

The HARSHEST rear suspension I ever met
Mods- poured 2 inches of cement in the tray- Great ride then

[David Hunt]

It was caution yellow, and I traded my sister $200 and a ring I'd won in a contest.
I got foolish with the engine and bored out that split case to accomodate 92mm pistons. Ended up at 1834cc, I think. Tn cops don't like fast bugs, so I ended up with about 12 tickets with it. It would go pretty well, even with the original Solex on it. Yeah, it probably ran pretty lean, but it felt a lot faster than my skateboard!

[Shawn D.]

1st registered vehicle was an orange '54 IH walkin delivery van. In black free style letters it bore the legend "INTERGALACTIC BRAIN POLICE" on its sides.

That's the best post in this thread so far!

Do you have any pics of it? Even more so, do you have any pics of you in that time frame?

[oz535i]

Bought my first car in 1972..a 1964 Renault R8! 1000cc/4cyl of throbbing power. All I wanted after that was a R8 Gordini but it was never to be....

[Shawn D.]

All I wanted after that was a R8 Gordini but it was never to be....

Here you go:

[M-technik-3]

The first car I purchased myself was 1970 Chevy Impala which a bought from a friends mom in 1974 for $25. I drove that car for 2 year until I entered the army in 1976. Actually, here's a funny story from my time in Germany. I lived in a small town off base and rpaid rent by buying liquor and cigarette rations from my friend and gave them to my landlord as rent. I drove a VW 411 but one of the guys had a BMW, must have been an early 70's. The next town over had a disco which meant lots of big breasted fraulines. In order to avoid driving on the main street (due to the amount of achohol we consumed) we drove through these tiny little paths that ran through the vineyards. One night we had my friend BMW and were debating who was the least drunk in drive back. Well, I got the nod. About halfway back I drove the his beemer off the side of the road and down the hill. We couldn't get it out that night and had walk back. The next we had to have the farmer who owned the land pull us out with his tractor. He could believe we were using his vineyard as path between the house and bar at 2:00 in the morning. Those were great times in Europe.

Good story too bad all you older gents have caused the farm paths to be forbidden to vehicular traffic. J/K nah you can't drive on em anymore unless you are German.

US GI's will get cited in a heartbeat now. sucks as they have some awesome trails. Heck most of the Rallye Germany is on the farm trails around Trier.

[oz535i]

Thanks Shawn! Not quite what I had in mind... But I like it

[Damon in STL]

Let's see....first car Datsun 510...second car Datsun 510...uh...third car...Datsun 510....hmm...fourth car...yep...Datsun 510.....

Damon in STL

[m-racer]

My first transport wasn't a car. It was a Triumph 650 Bonneville and I drove it for three years before I put it under a city bus in a snow storm. I have fond memories of that bike. And then there are the other memories which include four weeks in the hospital, three knee operations, and is the reason I limp to this day. My first real car was a 73 2002tii which I bought in 75. Have had at least one 2002 ever since.

[C.R. Krieger]

Hmmm. The boring or the sublime?

First car I got on my own was given to me by my then-gf's dad. It broke a ball joint turning into a neighbor's driveway, burned oil nearly as fast as gas and the offer was, "You tow it away, it's yours!" So I did. 1963 Pontiac Tempest 4-cylinder (half a 389; I forget which bank of cylinders they hacked off to make this abomination) 4-door sedan; 2-speed automatic (Corvair transaxle under the rear). Baby blue. 12 days after I got the engine rebuilt by a buddy of mine in the local high school auto shop (where he swiped a high compression 421 GTO head to put on it - thus making the engine a boat anchor that required premium fuel!), I got hit by a drunken bartender and replaced the front body clip with a fire engine red nose off a t-boned '63 LeMans. My family drove the thing to its grave after I moved on through a couple of Chryslers and a Pontiac my dad provided while I was in college.

A decent Big Damn© picture from a brochure is here.

The first car I purchased (with my fiance) was a '61 DeSoto 2-door hardtop. Light blue over white, it was also our honeymoon car in 1975. Reverse the colors on this one (remove the roof trim, exhaust tips (duals were not standard), the right side antenna and mirror, and rechrome the fin tips (I think this guy painted his to match the prototype in the brochure. All production cars I've ever seen were chromed.)) and you've pretty much got it:



And for those who think it looks an awful lot like a '61 Chrysler Newport, here's most of what they did to set it apart:



Inside, it was basically a '61-'62 Dodge interior:



Drivetrain was nothing real special; a 361 2-barrel hooked to a pushbutton TorqueFlite (the bank of 5 buttons to the upper left of the wheel; 5 pushbutton heater controls were on the right and the radio had 5 more identical buttons for presets), but both were bulletproof. I loved that car for its unique looks. Rare as hell (911 2-door hardtops and 2023 4-door hardtops for the model year that ended in November of 1960), but the first time I washed it in my folks' yard, a guy cruised by in a '58 Packard Hawk (total production 588) and sneered. Two stories:

My folks had a miniature dachshund we took to a drive-in root beer stand one day. The dog stepped out the window off my wife's lap, walked back the body between the fin and the roof, crossed the rear deck, walked up the other body side and hopped in onto my lap. Other patrons thought it was hilarious. OK; it was.

I once picked up a drunk chick and her boyfriend hitching for a ride in downtown Kent, Ohio. She managed to focus on the interesting texture on the dash and slurred, "Thish ish a really nisch Chevy." I stopped and threw 'em out.