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

[Lemay427]

my first two cars my parents bought me. the first vehicle I purchased myself was a 1980 jeep cj7. No soft top so i could only drive it on days that it wasnt raining too hard!! Sold it to buy another jeep.

[HazardMagnet]

Personal Driving history... Got my licence in '76 in White Plains New York. Had it only two weeks when we moved to Ct. Didn't have it long enough to transfer for a Ct. one, so started the process all over again. Failed the written test on the first try, again I wait, and finally pass.

Driving a '68 VW at the time. Summer comes and now I got to take drivers Ed. for "the insurance break". It was prerry cool to drive myself to drivers ed though. Needed 8 hours of road time to pass. They used a V-8 Monte Carlo... very cool, big difference from a Beetle. You know the instuctor didn't find it funny at all that I got that car up to 80MPH?

Dad gave me his '72 Pinto with both optional packages... Exploding gas tanks and the transmissions that put themsevles in gear. Never got the gas tank to go off, but learned quickly to deal with the finicky transmission.

Bought my first car with my own money in 1980. "74 bright red Firebird 405 under the hood. Had it 39 day's when I wrecked it in the first snow storm of that year. No not my fault, came over the crest of a hill and some moron was coming in the other direction passing in a no passing lane... poof, gone.

So I did what any 20 year old male would've done... Bought a '76 powder blue Firebird 350 this time, 20,000 miles on her. Took me three months to save for insurance that time though. Had that car for 9 years, rebuilt the engine in 1983, finally put her to rest in 1988... god, I loved that car!

[sally]

a 1960 rambler straight 6 with a manual transmission. paid $75.00 for it. it was fun to ride and very kick back. the back seat would fold down and become flush with the front seat, leaving a big "king size" flat surface inside.... i miss that car.....

[ctmurrray]

1964 Mercury Montclair. Only car on the lot I could afford ($300 or $400). This is a sedan but the back window was electrically able to go up and down. Trunk large enough for a foursome to throw in the clubs and carts. Really drank gas, but gas was cheap in 1974.

[mikelz]

In 1966 I bought my brother's 1962 Ford Falcon for $150.
I thought I had a babe magnet.
I have always been a little bit overly optimistic.

In case you never saw one of these pieces of junk:


Mine looked "better" than this one:
Baby Moon hub caps.
Moon, Moog, Holley, Champion Spark Plug and STP stickers all over the windows.
2 1/2" spring lifter in the rear.
Looked like a racer.
Had a 144 cube 6 in it.
What a dope I was.

[JohnP]

Lexus GS300, was my first bought car. The rest before that had the influence of my parents.

[CosmosMpower]

1997 BMW M3 Sedan 5spd

My car history is:
1991 Acura Legend LS
2000 Civic EX turbocharged
97 BMW M3 sedan 5spd
1992 Sentra SE-R-daily driver with the M3
05 Mazda RX-8 6spd
93 Mazda Miata LE 5spd-daily driver with the RX-8
06 Lotus Elise 6spd
00 Honda S2000 6spd-daily driver with the Lotus/weekend track car
09 Mini Cooper S-new daily driver

[GaijinGolfer]

'85 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4x4. It had a 22R-E 4-banger with a 5-speed manual transmission, a solid front axle and leaf springs all the way around. It had 243,000 miles on it and it was a beast.
I paid $1,800 for it in '96. To this day I still wish I would have kept it, but it would have needed pretty much a frame-up restoration. Back in those days Toyota had some serious rust issues because in Japan they dont use salt on the roads so rustproofing was something that Toyota didnt put any thought to.
I swear, every time I washed that thing you could literally see the rusty water dripping off of it. I paid for it with all my own money though and thats something Im very proud of.

[Thomas Knox]

same car i still have after 6 yrs, and only car i've ever owned - 93 gmc jimmy. got married and my wife has the nice car! mine's just a work truck.