Your first car.....

Here is my complete list:
'63 Impala, got me through the last year to high school and JC. It was a stock 283 2bbl.
'70 Camaro, 350 4bbl. I bought it in '72 with 60k on it. Color was bronze. Finished off college and kept it through the first 3 years of my full-time newspaper job.
'78 Camaro Rallye Sport, 350 4bbl. Bought it new. It was two-tone silver and black with an orange pinstripe separating the colors. Had a spoiler. Great, great car. Had it for 10 years and crashed it at about the 200k mark. Not serious, but too old to fix, especially with the original tranny.
'88 Chevy Blazer. My first SUV. Another great car. Took me into marriage and fatherhood. Liked that car a lot, but job circumstances gave me a commute of 100 miles a day round trip. Took a toll on me and the car. Had it for 13 years, but it developed a valve problem that I didn't want to bother fixing.
'00 Ford Explorer. My first non-Chevy and also purchased new. It was my DadVan for my kid's extracurricular activities. That one also lasted 13 years and 200k. I had a minor crash and fixed it, but it started running crappy. So I traded it in for a newer one.
'09 Ford Escape. Bought it from CarMax early in 2013. I only had it for a few months. I liked it and my kid is driving it now. I will always remember it for the last trip to Vegas with my brother and dad. My dad died two weeks later.
'13 Ford Explorer Sport. Bought it new and had to order it since it was the choice of law enforcement agencies and there weren't any available at that time. Took two months to get it. It is the best vehicle I've ever owned, a luxury SUV. It has the eco-boost engine, 3.5 liter, 6 cylinder, twin turbo, 365 hp on regular gas. Mileage is supposed to be 18-24, but I'm at around 18-21 mpg. I got every option except the TV screens built into the back of the seats and the towing package. It is damn cool.

 

White '69 Camaro. No power steering, no power brakes. You muscled that one home.

 

Retired LAPD Chevy Impala, painted all black. Was a sweet ride even without the supercharger.

 

Carolina-blue 3-speed Vega hatchback, circa 1971. Got it in 1975, lasted me until 1977. Almost totally rusted through at the end, thanks to road salt, the great killer of snowbelt cars.

 

1955 VW Beetle ragtop. Nicer green than the one in the photo. My dad bought it from a biker in the late 50s. I got it in the early 80s when I started driving. Loved that car.

Got hit by a Romanian immigrant with no insurance when I was 17. Totaled the car.

I learned not to love cars so much.

 

I had this same car. 1984 Cavalier. Hand me down from my mother, who bought it new and it treated her like garbage for eight years. It too had the head gaskets blow, among numerous other problems. She fought with Lemon Laws About this car for a year. It barely made it to 65,000 miles.

A month after I got my license the brakes failed on a slick, wet road and the car went into a utility pole. A month later I picked out this.

 

First car was a '78 Mazda GLC, handed down to 17-year-old me by my mother when she bought a new car. 0-60 was measured not with a stopwatch, but with a calendar. Only the driver's side door opened from the inside, which made it a great date car. It had a manual choke, and required at least 10 minutes of warmup in the winter before it could go anywhere. I later had a motorcycle that had a bigger engine than that car had. But it got 30 mpg in the city and took all the abuse I could hand it.

 

My first vehicle was a 1975 Honda 450cc motorcycle.

Sold that and bought a 1969 Pontiac Catalina. It was bigger than my first apartment.

 

Behold, the 88 Subaru GL hatchback, complete with spare tire under the hood. That's how puny the engine was. Drove it off to college in 1993. Less than three years later the transmission only had first and second gears left. No third, no reverse.

 

Now the neighbors come from near and far
As we pull up in our Brand New Used Car.
I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry,
And tell 'em they can all kiss our .... ahhh, fuck off.

I didn't take this video, but I was standing about 10 feet away from the guy who did.

 

When I was 14 and 15, I drove whatever was available in the family fleet that day, which usually depended on if my dad needed four-wheel drive or not, to school. When I was 16 I got a 1992 Ford Ranger. It was the year before Ford changed the body to a sleeker, more rounded hood and fenders, so it looked older than it was. But she was immaculate and I put nice wheels and a CD player in it.

 

76 Toyota Celica

Perhaps one of the first sporty styled economy cars. I bought the non-sporty styled entry level model.