Another Car Thread: What was your FIRST car you bought with your own money?

[Smallville]

Reading Justin's thread about wanting his license and seeing these young guys talking about the cars they want made me wonder: What was the first car that you owned by yourself . Not one your parents bought you, but the very first car you bought completely with your own money (bank loans count as long as they were only in your name!) Stories welcomed!

I'll start:

I was 17 and wanted something brand new for my first car, but my parents made us kids buy our own cars on our own . . . no help. So my first car was a 1965 Chevy Malibu four-door with a 232 straight six and three on the tree. Got it in 1980 and drove it during college. Cost me a grand total of $600, CASH. My mom filled the first tank (about 8 bucks to get it full - - - which was about 10 gallons - - -it wasn't empty when I got it) and that's the only financial help I got from my parents for a car.

It was probably the best running car I ever had until my '91 K5 Blazer I got in 1994.

The complete list:
1965 Chevy Malibu (1980)
1977 Cutlass S (KC Mag 1 Limited) (1983)
1985 Buick Somerset Regal (1985, the only brand new car I ever OWNED)
1986 Isuzu Impulse (1987)
1987 Toyota Celica (1987, but I LEASED, not owned)
1991 Chevrolet K5 Blazer (1994)
1999 Ford Ranger (2001) Still have this one
(My wife's truck we bought together is a 2001 F150 4wd)
Now I drive company vehicles:
2001 Ford F150 (2005)
2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 4WD (2008)

[Klew]

1994 Toyota Pickup in Dark Blue Pearl.

242xxx miles and sold it. been looking for it in the trader every so often to buy it back.
Only car I really miss. There's been tons of motorcycles I miss, but that truck.....bummer.

since then:
2003 Honda Accord
2003 BMW 745 LI
1954 Ford Customline
2004 Tundra
2005 Tundra
2006 BMW x3
2008 Nissan Maxima

still have the 08 Max, and the 05 Tundra but the rest are all just a memory.

[chrt396]

1966 Pontiac Lemans in white w/ black vinyl top, black bucket seats w/ console and a 326CI V-8. Bought it from a little ol' lady in 1970.

1973 AMC Javelin AMX in 1975 while in college. 401CI cowl induction monster engine in maxi-blue. What a cruiser!! Hot car!

[Fraser]

2006 VW Golf GTi.

I moved over to the US and had no credit history so getting a car loan would have been problematic so had to buy something for cash. The GTi best suited my needs and I did look at upgrading it to something bigger or better once I started working but had come round to quite liking the Golf so kept it.

I did look at getting a new BMW 5 series with some of my redundancy money but my wife and I prefer traveling so did that for a few months instead. I certainly won't forget the trip, I'd probably forget the 5 series in a few years though!

[ks8829]

1967 Alfa Romeo Guilia Super
1974 Mazda Sedan
1984 Alfa Romeo Sport Sedan
1974 Alfa Romeo spider
1964 Alfa Romeo Guilia roadster
1967 Alfa Romeo Guilia Super
2002 Honda Accord (brand new)
1991 Lexus LS400
1998 Lexus LS400
2004 Toyota Sienna Van (brand new)

Future purchases
2003 BMW M5
2003 Mercedes S55

[chrt396]

1967 Alfa Romeo Guilia Super

Boy!! You had a lot of first cars!! You can see when it was you got older...got married and had kids...with the Sienna! Just a guess though.

[Fraser]

Future purchases

Unreliable as buggery. My father had an '02 S500 and after a couple of years the electronics starting dying and misbehaving for no reason at all. Same experience with my uncle and his E500 estate, SL55 and CL600 from similar period.

We loved my father's S500 but it became so unreliable he took my learner driver's car, as I'd put up with the hassles of jump starting it every morning to be able to drive it! There was one stage where he'd be getting up at 3.30am to go to the airport and find the battery flat, he'd then jump it and would get back to Heathrow at 10pm...to find the battery flat. Several Mercedes dealers looked into it and couldn't find the root of the problem. And this one was one of several issues he had He finally got rid of it and has since had trouble free motoring with a BMW M6 and Audi A8. He got the Audi fairly recently and I suggested the new S550 and even though it is a new model and supposedly much better built he couldn't do it. If you want a big, luxury, over-engineered car that is a few years old try the VW Phaeton. They were excellent cars but due to the VW badge didn't sell well and suffered from massive depreciation. They make a great second handy buy if you are looking in S Class territory.

[Dub]

Mid Eighties...summer prior to my 16th birthday. I had saved up enough cash over the previous years working summer jobs (cutting grass, janitorial work at my families furniture store, etc) to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang from a friend of the family.

Had enough of my own cash to buy the car and replace the headliner. My parents covered my insurance and most of my gas at the time.

That car was the key to my freedom. Started dating a beautiful gal that I had been wanting to talk to for some time. Wonderful times.

My 16th birthday present was a stereo for it....nothing too fancy but it did well. I think I must have played a million Van Halen and Led Zeppelin tapes on that thing....."Whole Lotta Love" was the theme song for that car and those days in general.

[gmc1950s]

19and53 Studebaker 2dr ht. I was around 16 at the time, early 60s Total price $100. on the easy payment plan about $4.00 a day. I remember because
I worked in a gas station after school for $1.00 per hr, and that s.o.b was
there every day to get his money. I had to beg him to skip a day so I could
put gas in the dam thing. Of course in those days $4.00 would fill it up.

[bogeyme]

First car I bought was a 1989 Chevy S-10. I bought it for $1,300. At the time I was working at a car dealership. We got it either as a trade in or for some reason we picked it up at auction but I think we took it in as a trade. Well I had a little bit of savings ($1,100) and the last $200 was taken out of my paychecks. My favorite car. I drove it for a little over a year before I blew the motor. Wish I would have put the extra $300 into and got a used motor. I miss that truck. Growing up that was the car that I wanted. I wanted an S-10 because my cousin had one. I also wanted it because it was a 5-speed and noone else in my house could drive one. That way no one ever asked to borrow my truck.

After that I have owned:

1984 Chevy Camaro Z-28 (still have this one)
1992 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition
2001 Ford Ranger XLT (currently driving this one)
2006 Jeep Liberty (wife's car)

[Masa]

Well, I'm still paying for it, but the first car I actually paid for was my 2008 Honda Accord Coupe.


When I turned 16 I ended up driving around my mother's car because I needed a car (1991 Sentra) to get to all my various things and the parents were too busy to drive me around. Then my father died a little over a year later and we sold the Sentra and I drove his 1998 Toyota Corolla up until the end of June this year. I have always paid for gas and repairs and things such as that, but I was in college working part time so didn't have the means to really buy a car at the time. Now I'm in graduate school and the Toyota was 10 years old and decided it was time to move up a little. Picked my Honda up from the dealer (had it special ordered and built) on July 1st and so far have about 6200 miles on it since then. Absolutely love the car, it's quite a step up from the previous vehicles. I'm 22 so obviously I haven't had the years of real jobs to say I've had a number of different cars, but this one is my baby.

[golf_junkie27]

The first car I ever purchased was a BMW 318TI. I was 25, had the money and got a great deal. It was used and I paid $13,000. Had only 25,000 miles and one owner.

Since then:

BMW x5
BWW 328XI

Yeah, I have a BMW, thing. Plus, I never have to pay for any service. They have a great warranty and service plan.

[Harry Longshanks]

Kawasaki Ninja 600R

[kekoa]

2002 honda s2000

damn, i miss that car.

[deronsizemore]

2003 Ford Escape.

[Bourbon and Coke]

2007 GMC Sierra SLT Crew Cab Z71.

Gas mileage could become an issue if I end up going to law school and remaining a poor student rather than getting a job after graduation.

[erwintrace08]

BMW 2006 528i:

Black on Black on Black on Black...lol

[alf174]

1964 Oldsmobile Starfire for $150