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What was your first car? What happened to it?
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Next, 1975 Toytota Corona MarkII Wagon. Yellow, rusty, plate aluminum welded to the front end. $200. Had the 4M 2.6L inlne six, and 4speed. Great fun to drive. Engine seals did not last too long.
1972 Pugeot 504. $1,600+ Painted Brisith racing green. Had to repalce the clutch for $600. Actually found a dealer in Binghamton, NY to do this. Great riding car, but geared a little short. Blew head gasket.
1973 Dodge Coronet. 4 door Brougham. $850 plus $300 for new radiator. Driven by every memebr of my family over 100,000 miles totalled out at 180k. Beige, over perfect green velour. Green top. Indestructible interior, 3182bbl burned oil but had good midrange power. Topped out at 104mph as per speedo. Door frames begin to seperate at about 90mph. Put 40,000 miles on this car myslef. Changed fluids pretty often, and changed the brake calipers or whatever. Could not kill this car.
But I turned down a chance for a mint yellow 57 Chevy 2 door sedan for $150 with mint black black brocade upholstery, a 210, for a car that was newer. Should have got the 57 and held on. But who knew in 1967???
My second car, the 70 monte carlo, I still have to this day. I bought it in 87 from a guy I went to college with and drove it for 5 1/2 years untill I had the body redone in late 92. Its currently on its fourth engine and third transmission since I've owned it. Its been painted twice and needs to be repainted again. It currently has a 396 big block and 400 turbo trans in it. One day I will restore it again and keep it in good shape this time. I still drive it a couple days a week.
This car has so much sentimental value that I doubt I will ever get rid of it.
The car originally belonged to my neighborhood buddy's grandparents, who gave it to their daughter (my buddy's mom) in the early 1960s. She had driven it once with the hood unlatched, and the wind flipped the hood open and wrapped it partly around the roof. The family replaced the bent black hood with a salmon-colored one from a junkyard, and never bothered to repaint it. When he first got his license, my buddy drove the car for a while, and he didn't care about the 'two-tone' look. Then the family bought a house in an upscale town, and my buddy was told by his dad that they were NOT taking that odd-looking car to the new home, especially as it now needed an exhaust pipe and was very loud. So my buddy sold it to me.
After immediately spray-bombing the hood primer black, then replacing the exhaust pipe, I had many memorable moments in that first car (of course). Very soon after getting it, I also got my first girlfriend. Funny how that works.
One summer day remains vivid in my mind: I drove the Star Chief, along with 5 friends, up to New York City (drinking age there was 18, in NJ it was 21). We were tooling past the upscale restaurant Sardi's (known to us from watching the Merv Griffin Show on daily TV), and we were laughing because I still had masking tape on the hood chrome from when I repainted. And on the ride home down the nearly-deserted New Jersey Turnpike, we hit 105 mph according to the speedometer. I was not a reckless teenage driver; the car just sat down and cruised effortlessly. Then one buddy reminded me of the used tires I had on the car, so I backed off.
Gone but not forgotten.
Kaberere
It had recently been repainted and the body looked pretty good. I'd heard a little about the engine problems with this model but I figured how could I have any trouble with something that looked as nice as it did. What a mistake. I think that car used more oil than gas.
I eventually found some adaptors that fit on the end of the spark plugs to keep oil from collecting on them as often and fouling them out. I drove it for a year and sold it to another unsuspecting buyer.
-Rocky
That's a nice start. Makes sense about what cars followed it.
The first car I actually owned (i.e. - I bought it) was a 69 Volvo 142. If you ever saw the size of the shift handle you'd know that Volvo didn't have all the safety figured out yet, but it was a very safe car for its time.
It was also a slug. I'll bet I'd have lost to a VW Beetle off the line. It was dependable and comfortable. You did not want to hve a repair in that the parts cost a fortune.
I drove it into the ground which took 144K to do. Somebody still paid me $600 for it. It only cost me $1500 5 years earlier.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Dark green, 4-speed manual shift. Great car, could stuff four of my friends in it and off we would go, all over the place. To the beach, to the mountains, to the desert. Didn't use much gas, didn't have enough power to! Never stranded me though.
My dad had driven it into a wall some years before (low-speed collision) resulting in a new hood with one of those "Earl Scheib" paint jobs for $99.95 that looked good for 18 months and then faded off the car completely. So the hood was essentially bare rusting metal before too long, but I just drove it around like that. Apart from that, it had one of the usual 70s-Japanese-car problems: sagging headliner, shredded vinyl seats, and cracked dashpad, all because of that relentless LA sun. I stuck sheepskins on the front seats, ripped out the headliner, and just drove it around like that. :-)
Mechanically it was amazing. I drove it from LA to SF with no transmission oil as the result of an auto shop screw-up. At the time I didn't know enough to figure out what the problem was, so I just crossed my fingers that despite the smoke trailing behind the car it would make it to SF, and do you know, it did! (and ran for several more years)
In '92 it wouldn't start one day and I parked it for a month. Truth was, by then I was already experiencing early-stage CCBS! So it got sold to a scrap yard for $15, plus free tow. It had about 220K miles the day they towed it away. And given that it just wouldn't turn over, it may have been nothing more expensive than needing a new fuel pump or coil (both were the originals). It would have been so cheap to fix, I'm sure. But within 6 months I had not one but THREE replacements for it (all used), and thus began the many years of having a fleet of sometimes five cars at once...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I'll actually admit to having driven something slower - a friend's 63 VW Bug. You could get passed by someone walking on the sidewalk!
nippon - My mom had a 72 Corolla. Never gave us a lick of trouble. When she hit the point of wanting something else (actually I think someone she knew was selling something she liked) she sold it to one of my brothers for $500 with the understanding that she'd take payment when he was done with it and sold it. A few years later he sold it to his then girlfriend for $500 and handed it to my mom. I never get deals like that...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
LOL! Actually, I also admit to driving something slower than my Volvo 142S. The first car that I drove regularly was a '60 Falcon with the fearsome 144 cid engine/ 2-speed Fordomatic drivetrain combo. I believe that I was once dusted by someone walking with a cane. I do distinctly remember that engaging passing gear would usually get it to stop slowing down.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
On the other end of the spectrum, one summer my dad bought a 56 Ford Fairlane that just happened to have a Thunderbird V8 under the hood. The car was a dozen years old at the time and looked totally anonymous but took off like a shot. We only had it for a few months but it was a lot of fun.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
The alt fuels exhibit was indeed small, but I liked seeing the EV1. I think it's a shame GM not only dropped that car but worked so strenuously to destroy all the ones they had built, so I like seeing the surviving examples in the museums. Honda did the same with its EV1, another car displayed at the Peterson.
Right outside the Peterson and just down Fairfax a bit, I got stuck behind a surviving example of my first car, a '75 Corolla. This one was worn down by the years on the outside, but it was still chugging along for its owner, who was a senior whose preferred driving mode was SLOOOOWWWW.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Owning a car that got beaten by a school bus was one of those moments where you suddenly realize that you actually HAVE hit bottom :P
I do have to say that it was indestructible. It could always be fixed. Always. At one point the pot metal that held the butterfly valve in the carb wore out and I had to replace the carb.....but I got it fixed and it just kept on tickin' :surprise:
It was an amazingly comfortable car (at least the seats were) and all sorts of safety things for a car of the era but it did 0 - 60 in a couple of weeks. It would do 60 or better all day once you got it up there but it was noticeably louder once you did.
Got my first speeding ticket at 24 when I borrowed my dad's 72 Impala. I was driving along nice and quietly when I looked at the speedo and saw I was doing 80. I was used to the Volvo which would have raised hell at that speed. The cop didn't want to hear it. "but officer, I've never had a ticket." "You do now."
I don't think you could buy an underpowered new car if you tried today, at least not in the U.S. Even the slowest perform decently, and by the standards of the '60s the slowest '08 model is, at a minimum, peppy.
But you couldn't beat those Volvo seats for comfort as you sat on the side of the road waiting for a new rubber bellows or a tow. :shades:
I also remember being driven over the Golden Gate bridge in one of those semi-automatic VWs back in 1969 and almost getting blown off the bridge.
The manual Beetle was considerably peppier than the semi-automatic version.
It had a nice little tranny "access" port so now and then I'd crawl under with a big screwdriver and move the flywheel enough to find some teeth that weren't broken so I could get the starter engaged when it stopped on a gap. Bugs were like Timexes after running around in that era Vovlo. That sure changed.
The only traffic ticket I ever got in my life was in that baby in 1960, sold it and went to military overseas, came back and joined law enforce. for 32 years and luckily never got written up again. If I could have that car back I'd take a half dozen tickets right now.
In fairness to it it was not the slowest car I ever drove. I carpooled years ago with a woman who had a 63 Beetle and usually had me driving it. THAT was slow. It did have the old insanely big roll back sunroof which was nice once you got moving.
The best aftermarket addition was the Haynes manual I picked up a few months after getting the car. You had to really baby this thing to keep it running. That dual carb set up was a real PITA.
It was a fun car. I loved taking it up to the local cruising strip. All my muscle car friends laughed at it, but the girls always wanted a ride. Kept the car through high school into college. It was a hoot to drive on the twisties in the mountains of western NC.
A particularly embarrassing moment - a friend and I had our eye on the same girl we worked with. We both offered her a ride home after work one night. She chose my MGB over his Gran Fury. hahahaha Well, we got in, dropped the top, and went on our merry way. Got about 3 blocks down the road and everything electrical in the car went blank. No lights, no radio, no instrument panel. So much for all my romantic intentions.
I sold the car to a friend in college four years later for $200. He wanted a cheap runabout while he rebuilt his Torino Cobra. He in turn sold it to a collector a few months later when he was done. About a year later I heard from him that it had been completely restored and was stored away. Lost track of it after that.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
My first car ended up going to the junk yard too - it was 16 years old and had a quarter million miles or so at that point. They don't make Corollas like that one any more, although they still do a pretty good job. ;-)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Bought in the spring of '82 just before I graduated HS. Paid $3850 for it. It had less than 12K on it (an elderly couple were the original owners). I added the following "accessories" to it:
-> white fog (or were they driving?) lights
-> yellow fog lights
-> AM/FM Cassette w/ two box speakers - the rear shelf wasn't deep enough to allow for regular 6x9 or 5" installed speakers
-> aftermarket sunroof - my cousin and I did the installation - cutting a hole in the roof was a bit scary
Yes, I probably went overboard on the lights. They were wired independently, so I could turn them all on (with the high beams) at the same time. Got me into a spot of trouble with the cops on more than one occasion.
That car almost got me through college. I moved to Phoenix from SoCal in February of '83 - no a/c and vinyl seats were fine for cool California (I grew up close to the ocean), but not so good once the weather warmed up in Arizona. I looked into factory air, but that was going to cost over $700, so I convinced my parents to shell out $250 for a pair of real sheepskin seat covers. With the windows down and the sunroof open, it was tolerable in 110 degree heat.
Whilst living in Phoenix, I was involved in two accidents. First one was not my fault - a lady made a left in front of me and I T-boned her. The cosmetic repairs were fine, but the car never did run right afterwards. It had problems starting in hot weather and shifting became a problem - it wouldn't always find reverse. Took it into the shop multiple times - some of the issues I remember were a busted heater core and some broken motor mounts - but nobody was able to fix it and I was never really able to rely on it.
One morning about 3 months before graduation (summer of '85), I was on my way to a different repair shop to have the transmission looked at (again) and, while looking over my left shoulder to change lanes, the car in front of me slowed down to turn right into a driveway. I rear-ended the car (some sort of 70's battlecruiser) at about 20-30 MPH. My car went off on a hook, while the car I hit may have had a dent in the bumper.
The insurance company decided to total my car out. I remember getting about $2000 for it.
It wasn't fast, it wasn't sporty - heck, it wasn't even all that reliable towards the end of its life - but it was MINE!
'39 Chevrolet Master DeLuxe 4 Door