Post by: Highmac on January 27, 2013, 01:42:47 PM
My first car was a Ford Consul Mk1, like the one here, but a lot rustier. It had 60.000 miles on the clock but it became apparent very quickly that was at least the second time round the clock. It had a 1500cc four-cylinder engine and needed a pint of oil for every 4 gallons of petrol.
It was (of course - this was 1960s Britain!) a manual shift, but from a lever on the steering column, American style. The linkage was so slack that if you moved it too quickly it would lock into the neutral position while leaving the gearbox in third (top gear). This meant switching off the engine and opening the bonnet and reaching down to pull it out of gear. It didn't like starting when hot, though it was none too keen on starting in any condition
In turn, there were times I was not very popular at traffic lights. On the other hand, having a car, even a six-year-old heap, was popular with colleagues. One time, we set off from west London for a 70-mile trip to a party in Brighton. Four of us set out but we picked up five others at Crawley, about half way to our destination. Goes without saying, we were all slim young things back then. The column-change and bench seat meant the driver and three passengers could sit in the front. Some of the folk in the back did complain about the bumpy ride - but since the springs had nowhere to go....
After two years, by which time the rust was moving considerably faster than the car, it was sold for a quarter of what I'd paid. My old motorcycle came out from out from under its cover in the back garden. It started first kick and got me around for a couple more years until I could afford a much better car.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on January 27, 2013, 03:45:04 PM
That was the advantage of the lever extension, you could see that you'd switched to the reserve line since the end of the lever was visible just below the dashboard! Otherwise, the only indication was the little lever on the firewall, down at your feet... in the dark! 
Post by: Frances144 on January 27, 2013, 05:29:23 PM
My first car was an A reg metallic blue 1.3 Mini Metro. My dad gave it to me for my 21st birthday. It was a reward for not smoking, taking drugs or drinking spirits until I was 21. I stuck to my side of the bargain (not easy I can tell you in the 1980's) and was duly given the car. I had learned to drive at BSM Clapham Common a few months earlier and this brand spanking new car terrified me.
My dad said I drove like a London taxi driver and I duly smashed it up in Week 2 of its ownership by going to fast round the Queenstown Road roundabout.
I would never give my kids a brand new car as a present.
Anywho, I basically learned to drive around London so nothing scares me as long as I am driving in a left-hand-side of the road country.
Apparently there are people in Shetland who have never driven anywhere else. They get off the boat in Aberdeen and freeze, park their car up and take the train to their destination.
Post by: jwboyd on January 27, 2013, 09:28:24 PM
During college years, I owned a 1930 Chrysler sedan, a 1935 Ford five-window coupe, a 1936 Reo Flying Cloud sedan, and a 1945 Chevrolet pickup.
First car we bought after we married in 1953 was a 1947 DeSoto sedan that needed an engine overhaul a month after we bought it. First new car was a 1955 Plymouth Savoy. Worst new car was a 1959 Plymouth Belvedere. Almost as bad was a 1972 Pontiac Catalina. Also, for a time, had one of those 1962 Rambler Classics. Favorite cars were the 1982 and 1984 Dodge Omnis. My three most recent cars have been 1997, 2002, and 2006 Chrysler minivans.
I've had commercial drivers licenses most of my life, having driven taxicabs, delivery trucks, heavy trucks, school buses and charter buses. I could tell lots of stories.
Post by: gunug on January 27, 2013, 10:16:03 PM
First car that was mine was a 1965 Mustang fastback, a deep dark maroon in color (like the one above but with a much rougher paint job). I drove it from the Kansas City suburbs on a move from there to the Montgomery County Maryland. It was a convoy with my dad and sisters in the other car and my mother (who didn't have a drivers license) and I in the other. We were taking I-70 almost all of the way and got separated in St. Louis, Missouri. I knew that "it wasn't that far" to Vandalia, Illinois where we were going to touch base with my great-uncle Kermit (really) so as soon as I got out of the St. Louis area I opened the car up and drove into a rain shower at as high a speed as the 289 engine could manage. We beat my dad and sister's to Vandalia by about an hour and a half; but they had stopped to ask the Illinois State Police to keep an eye open for us!
When they caught up with us my Dad asked how fast I'd been going; but my recollection was that I'd been doing something close to the speed limit!
Post by: kimmer on February 07, 2013, 04:14:18 PM
Pretty blue 1965 Chevy Biscayne, 2 door, cloth seats, and it was a tank! I loved it. Bought it from one of my dad's customers. He'd serviced it from the get-go, so knew it was in great shape. When I got it in 1969 it had a whopping 1000 miles on it. This lady literally drove it to church and home, the store and home, and to her daughter's and home. I paid $500 for it. Got my first bank loan, and I paid $50 per month, had it paid off in that first year, and I sold it in 1971 for $450!!! Loved that car.Then I bought a new Dodge Colt, pumpkin orange, in 1973. Never cared much for it, but it was reliable. Then I got married and "we" picked out cars that I didn't care much about until we got the teal VW Passat in 2004. Loved, loved, loved that car and was sad when we had to trade it in. If there was a dealer nearby, I'd still have that car and Sneakers would have his grey Mitsubishi.
Post by: Paddy on February 07, 2013, 04:59:59 PM
At some point about 6 months after I acquired it, I noticed strange "thunking" noises every time it went over a bump, and particularly streetcar tracks. A friend of mine who worked as a researcher at a local hospital was a bit of a car buff and agreed to have a look at it for me, so I drove up to the hospital parking lot on my way home after work one fine June day and Dave crawled underneath. He emerged shortly thereafter and placed a very rusty bit of metal in my hand and said "That's where the jack is supposed to go. And I recommend that you not drive this thing over about 30 MPH, and avoid bumps. The engine mounts are so rusty I'm afraid the engine is going to fall out!" Oh.
Here's an amusing blog post about a 1972 Datsun that someone had stored for decades in a garage in Seattle, and then put it up for sale in 2010 - for about 2.5X its original suggested retail. (And you thought cars depreciated!
) http://jalopnik.com/5580960/for-6500-wake-up-rip-van-datsunNeedless to say, I drove very carefully for the next few weeks, while another friend, who was a Toyota salesman at the time, looked for a new car for me. My first *new* car was a gray Toyota Corolla, which I kept until we moved to Oregon in 1991. I wasn't about to drive it across the country at 7 months pregnant, and we were worried that the emission standards in Oregon would have made importing it difficult (groundless worries, as it transpired). Another Corolla - a new '91 lasted only 2 years, until my husband fell asleep at the wheel and drove into a ditch and a fence post - luckily he and son #1 were totally unscathed. The car was (remarkably) drivable and he drove it an hour home, but it wasn't reparable (bent post between window and windshield etc.) and the insurance company wrote it off. Off to the dealership again, hoping to find another '91 5-speed, but that proved next to impossible and I made the mistake of taking a test drive in a new one.
That '93 Corolla lasted until 2009 - making the move to Massachusetts and then to Toronto. It was getting a bit rusty and had no AC (not worth spending the $$$ to fix it), but it ran like a top. We'd might still be driving it if we hadn't bought my mother's 2001 Accord from my parents after my mother had to stop driving. It's a great car - but son #1 is now its principal driver having recently gotten a part-time job stocking shelves (and setting up the new store) at Target in the wee small hours when there is no bus service in Guelph. Its AC died last spring and isn't worth fixing (he doesn't care, which is good!) and so, we may be looking for a new/new to us small car in the spring. Richard wants a hybrid - but we'll see. The move to MA from OR in '97 necessitated the purchase of another vehicle as riding a bike 12.5 miles to work wasn't a possibility in the depths of January for Richard, and we bought a friend's 1996 Dodge Caravan for me and the boys and I officially became a "soccer mom." It started costing us serious money in repairs in 2007 after we moved back to Toronto, so we bought a used 2004 Toyota Sienna XLE which seemed to have been driven only rarely, having acquired only about 20,000 miles in three years. It's been great - other than the sliding doors that have an annoying habit of freezing shut in the depths of winter.
Post by: Xairbusdriver on February 07, 2013, 05:49:27 PM
QUOTE
It's been great - other than the sliding doors that have an annoying habit of freezing shut in the depths of winter.
There's a recall repair order on that, but it requires you move south of the Mason-Dixon Line. My first car was a '51 Ford:
Last I saw of it:
Actually, this must be one of those Ford "Meteor's" There seem to be a few too many letters on the hood...
And they are certainly from different years... You just can't believe anything on the intermess anymore!!! 
Post by: kimmer on February 08, 2013, 11:57:59 AM
QUOTE
Last I saw of it:
Now that's sad.
Post by: jwboyd on February 08, 2013, 12:57:38 PM
Post by: krissel on February 09, 2013, 10:57:25 PM
Finally it started to rust out in the trunk area and I sold it in 1987 for about $400 less than I paid for it. (Of course there was that little thing called inflation over that time period. Still...
)My second car was a 1986 Celica which also gave me good service. I traded that in after 19 years in 2005 for my present car, a Murano. Aside from the dead battery a few weeks ago (after nearly 8 years) it hasn't let me down.
I had trouble finding pics of the Camaro and wondered why until I remembered we didn't have digital cameras back then.
This was before the "new" roof:
[attachment=2814:Camaro_early.jpg]
Celica on the day I traded it in:
[attachment=2815:Celica_last_day.jpg]
Murano (and moi):
[attachment=2812:Murano_Tewks.jpg]