Friday, August 29, 2008

Your Turn

Here in the US, we have a holiday on Monday. This is basically the last gasp of summer and people will be hitting the roads to enjoy that last bit of freedom before the reality of school or work comes crashing back down on their heads. Lots of people will be doing so in a car, and I am remembering some really cool road trips I took in my first car. Of course it couldn't go far, because it went through a battery every three days, and was always leaking air in the tires. So, really the best road trips were when I "borrowed" the parents car.

Even though my car was a pile of junk, I remember it fondly. Never had sex in it though. Other people did. It was big, and cheaper than a hotel room.

So, for today, I would love to know what your first car was. Whether you got it at 16, or 60, it is something you remember. You can tell a road trip story or whether you christened the back seat, or just jammed ten people in the trunk so you could go to the drive in theatre on the cheap.

55 comments:

jax said...

my first car was my grad present..a 1990 white Ford Escort with red interior. i had it all of a month and wrote it off coming back from a grad campout. no one was injured but me and i missed my prom becasue of it :o(.

the good news is we got insurance money and i went out and bought a red chevy sprint..that lasted almost 10 years. but it's no prom.

i freakin LOVE road trips! the last we took i threw out the map and only allowed left turn or right to be our guide.

wood1107 said...

Ah...the Thunderbolt Backslapper. That was my first car. It was an ancient Camaro, held together by rust and hope, with a rear end that dragged on the road. My boyfriend and I attempted to christen the back seat in a park - it was the most awkward and painful near-intercourse I've ever experienced.

Reese said...

First car was gotten at 16 and was a BMW 740i (family hand me down). Nothing to get excited about because my family and friends all had similar cars, and some hadn't even been broken in by a parent beforehand.

Most road trips were taken in friends' cars, but I got pulled over for doing 115 mph in a 65 mile zone when I was 17. It was out in the middle of the desert so there was no one else around (except for the CHP officer hiding behind the big rock). I didn't realize I was going that fast and had zero appreciation for the fact that this is a "go straight to jail" offense. The cop ended up writing the ticket for me doing 75 and I had the ticket sent to me at college so my parents wouldn't see it. By the grace of God it somehow never made it to the DMV computers and my insurance rates didn't go up.

Many, many good road trip stories, but as I said, those were mostly taken in friends' cars.

Kara said...

1976 Volkswagen Rabbit. In order to make the horn honk, there were two pieces of wire that you had to connect. It had an 8-track player.

I got it for 100 bucks in 1990.

jlb said...

LOL I paid off my very first car only a couple of months ago - just in time to make braces payments.

I got married kind of young and always had my exhusband's vehicles...and my parents would never have given my anything, let alone a car (my brother on the other hand - I think he's on his 5th vehicle given to him by them). For grad I got a card that said too bad you don't have a car. Good times. LOL

I have done a few road trips - most are very, very fuzzy and involved conventions and days and days of drinking and no sleep. LOL I loved those ones - when you needed to sleep for an entire weekend when you got home just to be human again.

portlandgirl said...

My first car was a baby blue Volkswagen square back stick shift. It was my mom's car, then my brother's car, then finally my car.

I used to drive all my freinds to the beach in Santa Monica. I remember those black vinyl seats were HOT HOT HOT after a day at the beach. We would all jump in and the car was full of sand, towels and clothes - smelling like the beach. It was a blast.

trashtalker said...

A big-ass Olds. Looked like this:
http://tinyurl.com/5ebph6

It was a hand-me-down. No way in hell I'd pick that out! At least I learned how to parallel park like a pro.

Nichole Fisher said...

My first car was one I bought entirely on my own - with a little help from my grad school financial aid. It was a Saturn SL-2, blackberry, and I named it Josie (after Josie and the Pussycats). I loved that car and I loved Saturn. They were such a great customer oriented company, especially for a girl who knows nothing about cars.

I'm from New England, but went to grad school in Ohio and that car made the trip like a champ every time. It got great gas mileage and was pretty comfortable considering it had electric nothing. But I loved it because it was mine, totally and completely.

digawina said...

A '78 Ford LTD passed down through my grandfather. It was a TANK. I HATED it at the time, but now look back on it fondly.

Which power lock would work would change from day to day so sometimes you would have to crawl over to the driver's side. You had to manually move the turn signal bar up and down for the light to go on and off. If the air was on and you accellerated around a turn, it changed to heat. The steering was so loose you had to spin and spin the steering wheel like driving a bus. And your front seat passenger, I swear, was a solid 4 feet away from the driver.

I got in an accident on the first day I got to drive to school. I hit a little Plymoth Horizon. Obiviously didn't see it and didn't even realize it was a car that I hit. I thought I had just run over a snow bank. The thing was just a monster of a car.

Kim said...

My dad gave me when I turned 16 and got my license (1983) his car. He drove a 1974 Ford Capri from Germany, before Mercury took over the model.
It was the most obnoxious, most difficult manual transmission I have ever driven, and I learned how to drive stick on it. I live in San Francisco. While I was cussing out my poor father, he was telling me that once I learned to drive this car, I could drive any stick shift car I got in, and so far, he's been right.
He was not a stupid guy. It was too small to have sex in, and while it went fast, it didn't go too fast and it was not the easiest car to maneuver so he knew I'd stay attentive to it.
I gave it to a friend when I got my next car for graduation, an 84.5 20th anniversary Mustang, which did go fast and was large enough to have sex in. My dad thought the car was cool, so he bought it "for me". My boyfriend flipped it one afternoon when I was working.

I did lose my virginity in a car, though...does anyone do that anymore?

Unknown said...

Dark blue Volkswagon Jetta named Angelina. God, I loved her. Didn't get my first care til I was 20 (not to mention I waited til 18 to get my license b/c I just didn't care about driving).

Best roadtrip was DC to Miami with 2 additional carfulls of friends, sweet tea & barbecue in S. Carolina, a stop at South of the Border, funny-smelling cigarettes and arriving in Miami at sunrise.:)

Unknown said...

BTW, the first time my older brother drove to school he locked his keys in the car. HAH. nerd.

TV said...

78 pontiac le mans with a 351 Cleveland engine.

Cheryl said...

Picture it. Rahway, NJ. 1987. I'm driving my dad's old 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo. It smelled like Chesterfield cigarettes and it was like driving a boat down the street. I can't drive more than walking distance because it won't restart when it's time to go home. I would always leave it somewhere and walk home. When my dad got home we would go get it and he'd start it and drive it home. We did this all summer until I went back to college.

jax said...

theresa my bro had a white one with red leathe rinterior lol.

califblondy said...

We drove from SoCal to Washington, D.C. years ago. My Mother read Tom Sawyer to us to keep my brother from bugging the crap out of me. Now I look back at it as an awesome trip, but at the time it put a whole new meaning to "are we there yet?"

Digawina, your story is hilarious. My Mother had a huge Mercury Marquis and if you'd go up a hill, you could not see over the 20 foot hood!

I got my first car as soon as I got my license. A 1964 Chev. Impala, a hand me down. I was only supposed to drive to school and back (all of five blocks).

Ent's comment about sneaking people in the trunk of a car at the motor-vu is funny. I never did that, but had lots of friends who did. I was a good kid back in the day, I don't know what happened.

Wack said...

i actually just got my first car after 2 years of saving up my paychecks from barnes and noble, which is perfection for my junior year.

my car is a nasty, really old, red jeep wrangler.
it makes funny sounds when i turn corners and its really hard to get the keys out of the ignition.

It also smells like cigarettes and lost dreams, but i guess thats my fault.

Maybe that will change when me and my friends drive into DC tomorrow and to scare tourists throughout the weekend.

life is but a dream said...

my first car was an audi 5000. the brakes squeaked, the muffler rattled and neither of the outside front door handles worked (so i had to climb over the front seat to open the driver's side door). i was 16 and have fond memories of that car... i didn't christen the back seat, but i did have my first experience with oral pleasure in that car.. fond, fond memories. :)

LRS said...

1991 Olds Cutlass Ciera -- Gold interior AND exterior. It was my grandmother's car -- I got it after she died. At 16, you don't really care what your car looks like, as long as its yours to drive. Thanks grandma

Jesse D said...

Woohoo wait for it guys...

1980 powder blue, Ford Pinto station wagon. It was a hand-me-down from the parents, who paid $1300 cash on the lot for it brand new (I think it was a show model or something HAHA). When it finally gave up the ghost, it had over 250,000 miles on it. It drank more oil than gas (seriously, I bought it by the case), but you couldn't kill that car for anything.

Unknown said...

First car was a 1980 Buick Century that I inherited from my grandmother and it only 35k miles on it, in 1995. My brother and I had to share it and being that it was 2 tone brown within 2 days of driving it to school our stoner friends had nicknamed it the Taco Rocket. The car became a popular mode of transportation to parties because friends would ask to smoke in it... the seats were that comfortable. (I grew up in a small town, most parties were out in fields and barns - not houses)
My brother and I drove that thing into the ground. By my senior year of high school it would idle so high when you started it that you had to wait maybe 3 minutes or so until it stopped revving on its own. If you didn't and put it into drive it would shoot out of a parking spot at maybe 25 m/h. Nuts.
No road trips and no hanky panky in it. I was a prude back in those days. My sluttiness didn't kick into high gear until college...

I never took a road trip in it

selenakyle said...

First car I drove when I got my DL in 1980 was my Dad's old 1963 Chrysler 300 convertible with PUSH-BUTTON gears--really! So cool. Steering wheel was so big it felt like a tractor.

First car I bought/was bought for me was a chop-shop half&half Nissan Sentra. The front half was a 1983 and the back half was a 1982! It got a zillion miles to the gallon and cost us about $3,000 which seemed like a million back then.

Ahhh...a trip down memory lane!

Molly said...

1981 cutlass supreme, white with blue vinyl brougham roof and mag wheels. i travelled all over the country in that thing and cried when it died.

Lucky777 said...

my first was a Nissan Sentra..1990-ish...I came home from school one day, and it's in the driveway and my folks are toasting champagne (I guess they were pretty happy and proud of themselves). My (older) sister totalled it about a year later!

Anonymous said...

My first car was an orange, 1978 Datsun B210. It was in 1987; my uncle was an insurance adjuster and got it for a song, I'm sure. He called to tell me he had a pretty little red car that needed polishing; I tried so hard not to cry when I saw it! I named it the Ninja Pumpkin. It was a really good little car but I took a LOT of teasing about it.

junglekitten said...

My first car was a new Mustang Cobra!! My parents should have thought twice about giving it to a 17 year old, in the dead of winter in NY!!! I crashed it a week later on new years day. It technically wasn't my fault. It was snowing and really icy. This woman braked in front of me on a hill, failed to indicate and made a right turn into her driveway. I was unable to stop. As I pumped the brakes, I went over a 3 ft. stone wall, hit the side of her house and hit a tree!!! I was pretty much unscathed, just a few cuts and bruises. I was more upset about my new car!! So................, I don't really consider that my first car since I had it for such a short amount of time!! My Dad then gave me one of his company Astro vans. LOL!!! It was great!! I'd pack about 15 peeps in that thing and took many a road trips. I hit everything in that thing!! It was sooooo... BIG and I was so small!! I remember driving to Boston on one New years eve to see a Phish concert. It was a whiteout outside!! It was the biggest blizzard I can remember!! All I really remember is a HUGE glass bong, 2 of the MANY friends I was with and NEVER making it to the concert!! Instead, we wound up at some rave!!! Good times!! Although, I wouldn't do it over again. Even if I could!!!

kimmypie1 said...

A 1994 Red Ford Escort, a hand me down from my older brother. The only thing I think of when remembering that car was driving to the beach with the windows down with my friends blasting Sublime out the windows...ahh fun times.

Molly said...

junglekitten those were so much fun to drive!! (except in icy weather or when the snow was piled high)

selenakyle said...

Awww---y'all's stories are all so great!

The car I was NOT allowed to drive alone was Dad's 1972 or 73 Mercury Marauder, with a 429 that sounded like a frickin' airplane taking off down the runway.

In it's oldest days, it had so much built-up carbon it wouldn't cut off! It would sit there knocking and lurching in the driveway which was somewhat embarrassing...

kim--my college bff had that damn Capri--the clutch was hydraulic and so hard to let out that your left leg would be spasming in stop & go traffic;

digawina-I drive a boat and that's just what it's like--spin, spin, spin, spin!

PotPourri said...

My parents gave me their 1975 Cream Yellow Plymouht Valiant. It was due to drop dead any day and they knew it. But my parents made a big deal out of it. It was a piece of $hit! I took no road trips in it. But I did cruise Texas City, Texas every Friday and Saturday night, and drove it in to Sonic and ordered my Cherry Cokes! Ah, 1979!

*Miss_P* said...

My mam gave me her Renault 5 when I went to university, it was pink.
I loved that car. Then I got a Renault Clio, only had it for 10 days until it was stolen from outside my house, had my dissertation and saxophone in the boot.

Molly said...

omg, jamie's girl, my mom had a plymouth valiant and one day she left the keys in the car and the car running while she went food shopping. when my dad came home she yelled, "this car is such a piece of shit nobody even wants to steal it." must be true, you both used the same phrase.

BATnTX said...

'67 Camaro RS, 327 Automatic, gold. Bought it in 1972 for $700 when I was 16 years old. Monthly payment $49, gas 38 cents a gallon, Doobie Brothers on the 8-track, Priceless! LOVED THAT CAR. My girlfriends thought we were so cool cruising in that car. Had lots of offers to buy it over the years but ended up selling it to my brother who restored it and wins car shows with it. It's a beauty. Wish I had held up as good as the car. Thanks for stirring up the memories.

Ms. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

My first car was a 1987 Dodge Caravan that I got in 2000. The car had been passed through about 5 relatives before it made its way to me. We called it the Silver Bullet. It would go from 0-60 in about 3 minutes, and when it got up that fast the whole thing started to shake. The entire front seat was a bench, and I'm 5'2", so whoever sat in the passenger seat spent the whole time with their knees against the dashboard. I got pulled over once, and the cop told me that my car was a piece of shit and completely falling apart and that I really should get a new one. God, I loved that car.

Jazz Hands said...

Red Chevy Nova hatchback. Love.

Ms. said...

Awesome stories, everyone. Thanks.

I've never owned a car. In fact, I rent out my garage. That's downtown living for ya.

brendalove@gmail.com said...

1969 Ford LTD. $100. The previous owner lived at the beach and the salt air had rusted the car almost completely out, but a sander and a coat of primer took care of that. The thing would fly like the wind. When I finally got another car, me and several friends went out one night and drove the living HELL out of it till it stalled in a field. The last time I checked, it was still there, falling apart. Good times!

Brenda22 said...

White, 90-something Honda, Accord when I was 17.

I was working at an Elementry school in East LA when I was in college when I came out of work to find that it was gone. I went it to tell the school office and they nonchalantly said "wow, that hadn't happened in a while." Eventually got it back, but it didn't look quite the same once they were done with it.

Carte Blanche said...

Well, I'm late to the party as usual, but...
My first car was a white 1986 Toyota Tercel hatchback

Strongest memory was hotboxing the car with 6 friends jammed in and then I was too high to drive, so my 15 year old friend (the only smart + sober one) took over the wheel. Of course we got pulled over (the car stank of weed)and the cop asked my friend for her drivers license. It was in my back pocket and I was in the back seat. I pulled it out and gave it to her. He pretended not to notice and asked her her age. She said "15, I mean 16". Then, the policeman shined his flashlight at me in the backseat and back at my friend. Then back at me. Then back at my friend. Then, he walked away back to his police car with my drivers licence and stayed there for awhile. We were freaking out. He came back to us and addressed my friend by my name and said, "Um...Nature Girl, I just pulled you over to let you know that you were driving without your headlights on."

lutefisk said...

a used 1984 Pontiac Sunbird--I didn't want it, but I was getting married, we had no money, & my husband insisted on it.
Every time we drove it to MA. something on it went--a muffler, the alternater, tires, you name it. Of course always on holiday weekends. The final straw was when we were driving to a wedding in a snowstorm, & the transmission went. We had to have the car towed, leave it for the week, take AMTRAK back to NY, my husband had to fly to Chicago straight from the train for business, fly back to MA at the end of the week to pick up the car, & drive it home.
I HATED THAT PIECE OF CRAP!!!

Chris said...

I had a metallic blue 1968 Pontiac LeMans with a .455 engine...that car moved...unfortunately some 14 y.o. spoiled brat from about 4 towns over decided to take his father's cadillac on a joy ride at 2 a.m. in the morning and sideswiped my car, totalling it...I came out the next morning to the devastation and was heartbroken...with the insurance money I bought a 1959 Jaguar Sedan - junky but way cool til my dad "bought" it from me by placing ridiculous restrictions on me cos he wanted it for himself :-P

shakey said...

My first car was a 1985 Chevette. A friend of a friend lent me a line, "I drive a 'vette. A Che-vette." It lasted 5 years even though it crapped out at 3. I've had many, many road trips (thanks to relatives living a province away) but nothing notable in any car of mine. Bus, yes.

Lost my virginity in the front seat of a Rabbit.

Ms. said...

Hey Enty, Shakey has given you a new topic... for your other blog... on Fridays. Ask readers how they lost their virginity.

Unknown said...

My first car was a 1973 AMC Gremlin. I didn't go very far in it because it freaked me out a bit although I did hand it down to my little brother who drove it until it fell apart. Then he bought a Yugo.

bionic bunny! said...

1972 ford pinto. yellow. purchased new for less than $3000. learned to drive it when i was 13, formally inherited it when we came back to california in '76. that thing went across country TWICE (georgia) plus putting up with me. in georgia we used to cram as many kids as we could into it, leaving the hatchback up with legs dangling out the back (seatbelts? no law.
cops? i had a georgia DL)! i was a goody-two shoes, never got pulled over, nobody ever got hurt. drove that poor thing 80MPH at midnight home from work at six flags, often. i loved that car SO much!
when i hooked up with the asshole, it got traded in on an olds calais, '79, with t-tops. my neighbor's boyfriend stole the tops one night. she knew it, we knew it, couldn't prove it.
no really good road trips. our '94 firebird formula was fun driving to vegas/laughlin, just for the speed ("hey, mom, you know you're doing 95?" "yup"), and my '97 firebird i just traded in (t-tops again, only 54k miles, still cherry) was my baby. if i hadn't fallen in love with (see avatar) this one, i would've kept her.
had a bit of an accidental roadtrip today, slightly sunburned. life is good when you get older and insurance is cheaper!!
have a great weekend, everybody!!!!!!
--the buninator

Wil said...

1976 Dodge Royal Monaco Brougham Coupe .. like this one .. but Forest Green Inherited it when my grand-aunt passed away and my cousin Sue didn't have kids old enough to drive. So my Dad bought it from her to give to me .. let's see .. that was February of 1983 .. so I was 17. Only had it for a few months because I went to University in the Fall and my parents wouldn't let me have a car on campus. Nothing of note ever happened in it .. but I loved it. Didn't even mind that it only had a AM radio .. WLS was still decent back then.

Miss X said...

A 1978 Buick Century. It had no a/c. I was so embarassed to drive that car. Why? It wasn't cool enough or new enough for where I grew up.

But, I paid for it myself!

Maja With a J said...

Never had a car. Never had a driver's licence. I should probably get on that.

daquirigoddess said...

Mine was a 1984 Chrysler Laser. It was gold with a sunroof so I thought I was cool.

k9sportchick said...

A 1974 Datsun 280Z (fire engine red), bought brand new for $7400.

mooshki said...

Okay, this one just makes me want to cry. I had a Volkswagen Rabbit, and it was my baby. Oh, did I love that car. I kept it until it was 22 years old, and so rusted that I was afraid the whole thing would just collapse on the freeway. It drove me from Minnesota to California and back again, over all those mountains, when it was 15 years old and had 180,000 miles on it. I still dream of going to Mexico or California and finding a rust-free one to bring home. I kept the Rabbit logo from a floor mat as a souvenir. That thing was about 6 feet long - I could park ANYWHERE, but I could also literally fit a couch into the back of it. Shakey, the front seat? You must do yoga.

shakey said...

lol! The front passenger seat folded all the way back. Got caught by the cops once in that thing. Talk about embarrassing.

mooshki said...

I forgot about that! That car was perfect.

NicScott said...

My first car was also at graduation ('90), and my great grandfather made me pay for it. it was a 1966 Chrysler 300... 8" longer than a standard cadillac... I fit 11 people in that car to go to Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt... Kept that car for about 4 years.. Good Times...

http://www.moparpowerclub.com/Shelly_Gs_1966_Chrysler_300.jpg

Advertisements

Popular Posts from the last 30 days