quote:

Originally posted by wymple:
I was raised poor, so I bought cheap cars. Mostly well worn out, got what I could out of them & then moved on. Some of my cars were under a hundred. I once test drove a fairly decent, good running 58 Cadillac for 275 dollars. I didn't buy it because I didn't want to go into debt to get it. I took home 64 dollars a week. My 1st car was a 48 Plymouth Special Deluxe that cost 45 dollars in cash and a hog I raised worth 40 dollars. Times were very different.

This post on another thread made me think that the subject of first cars would be a fun topic.

I paid $250 in cash for my first car.

I was 16 and had saved up money from my first job as a dishwasher at $1.50/hour to pay for it!

I bought it the week after I got my driver's license.

It was a '63 Chevy Bel Air sedan with a 283 cubic inch V8. It burned more oil than gas.

I bought "recycled" oil in Mason jars to feed it.

When I picked up my girlfriend for a date, her father looked at the Chevy's bald tires and, out of immediate concern for her safety, gave me four "newer" ones he got from a friend.

I sold that Chevy after a year and a half (and a fender bender that was 100% my fault) for $50 and a Timex wristwatch.

Please share.

When I worked at a gas station in the 70s, we used to sell some of that "recycled" oil that we affectionately called M+N oil, for obvious reasons.

A 53 Plymouth Savoy Wagon.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/525654587733259336/

https://www.barrett-jackson.co...QSZ0PUFBQUFBR1lJMFVJ

Great topic.

The year was 1988. I was a dishwasher making about $3.50 or $4.00 an hour. My friend told me about a guy we knew that was on an LDS mission to Australia. He had a car that he wanted to sell as he would not be using it for two years.

The car was a 1968 Chevelle SS 396. It was mostly original. Asking price was $1,600. It was a lot of money for me and I believe my parents helped me a bit.

Lots of great memories. It ended up with my dad after I was married. I sold it to him for $2,600 in 1993 after I had put a lot of $$$ into it. The money ended up being used for a down payment on my first house.

I posted the sale of the car here. If anyone
from Midland Texas sees it, tell the owner that I want buy it back! Here is the link:
https://forums.accuratereloadi...971018191#3971018191

My first car was a 53 Chevy Bel Air. I paid $225 for it. It was in good shape, no rust no dents but was an oil burner so I bought Wigwam oil by the gallon to feed it. A couple years later a retired guy that lived close by bought it from me for $250 and rebuilt the engine. He drove that car for years after.

In 1968 I cashed in some savings bonds my grandmother left me and bought a 1962 Buick.

Don't remember the model but it was a full-size 4-door, so probably a LeSabre.

I later traded it for a 1967 Buick convertible, white with black interior. Had a hydraulic top--just release 2 latches and push a button.

Probably the best car I ever owned.

Mine was an Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane. Two door five seat three position drop head coupe. Immediate post war and first post war Brit car with independent front suspension-torsion bars. Had a Wilson pre-selector gearbox with a centrifugal clutch. And cam ground pistons!
Never did get to fully finish it and traded it on a Datsun 240K. I was a poor student (in many means!).

Apparently, those of us born in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s were all “fiscally challenged” in our youth. My first car was a 1963 VW bug bought in 1969 for $365.00 earned at the local Safeway store sacking groceries, stocking shelves, mopping and waxing floors, etc…for the princely sum of $1.65 per hour. The VW was a damned tough car, drove it across many pastures shooting rabbits in the headlights, chasing coyotes down gravel roads and hauling my best friend (still is almost 60 years later) and our fishing gear along creeks and the Trinity River. Wish I still had the car, too.
Didn’t even have a gas gauge, just a little “L” shaped handle sticking thru the firewall (?) from the front that one could rotate when you ran out of gas to access a small reserve tank. Thanks for bringing this up!

Lots of good old ca4 memories. In the 60s and early 70s here in the north east guys with good sporty cars would usually store them in winter rather than expose the car and chrome to salt from the roads. They would then by a “ winter rag “ for 50 to 125 dollars, Drive it all winter and sell it the spring. Those old rags always got them through then winter and we’re dependable enough for reliable transportation.

Another first car memory, the VW I had was my best friend’s an my hunting/fishing vehicle. We were big time into shooting ducks and had permission to shoot ducks on quite a few “stock tanks”, or ponds. Ducks, especially mallards and gadwalls loved these tanks. The process was to creep up over the dam and shoot whatever took off. My friend had (has) a 16 ga Model 12 with a Cutts Compensator, I had a $32.00 military surplus Rem Model 10 12 gauge. One cold Saturday morning we were “tank jumping” and saw a flock of ducks on a tank we could hunt that was close to the county road. I pulled over, slid my shotgun between the seats and hacked a shell (old purple-hulled-inch high brass #4 shot into the chamber and proceeded to blow a hole thru my new pac boots, right foot and VW floorboard. It was loud. When the dust settled (literally), we looked and decided I had F’d up. Long story short, we rode around about an hour before I dropped him off and went home to face the music. My parents weren’t amused…trip to ER, police interview, friend being accused of shooting me, sort of getting foot fixed, 10 days in hospital and 3 months on crutches (high school graduation on crutches) later, all good! Wish I still had that car, still have the shotgun

I'm sure you'll remember that for the rest of your life. I used to have an old type 1 VW + I remember going deer hunting in the early 70s + going to the lease + freezing my ass off in that car with the notorious VW heater (or lack of one). We had stopped at a 7/11 store + got a fruit pie on the way + that thing just sat in my stomach + refused to digest, it was so cold. Funny what you remember. Still had a great time though.

quote:

Originally posted by Norman Conquest:
I'm sure you'll remember that for the rest of your life. I used to have an old type 1 VW + I remember going deer hunting in the early 70s + going to the lease + freezing my ass off in that car with the notorious VW heater (or lack of one). We had stopped at a 7/11 store + got a fruit pie on the way + that thing just sat in my stomach + refused to digest, it was so cold. Funny what you remember. Still had a great time though.

Lots of memories of that car, VW’s must’ve played a role in a lot of peoples lives that are about our age…I have a photo of a very young Larry Weishuhn toting a very large alligator on top of a VW bug!

My first was actually my Dad's new F-150 back in 1977. It was really his but I drove it for several years almost exclusively.

That FORD started my long string of POS Fords that left me stranded on the side of the road so many times I must have worn out 3 pairs of shoes walking for help.

The subsequent 4 Fords I owned were no better. Often worse!

Todd, Found On Road Dead, Fix Or Repair Daily, sound familiar? At 17, I had been saving my money from mowing 6 yards a week and working part time at a convenience store and bought a nice 3 year old 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner from a regular store customer. $900 ran like a striped-assed ape and probably ruined my chances to be a world leader 'cause I still am a gearhead today with a couple of fast Mopars. Pick-up stoplight races all the time cause musclecars were everywhere and cheap! Those were the days!

I used to make $1.25 an hour cooking cheesesteaks in a hoagie shop in 1968. I bought a 1960 oil burning Impala for $50 when I was 15. You couldn't drive in PA until you were 16. I used to drive it up and down my parents driveway. Had three minor accidents in that car the first year I could drive it and sold it for $75.

Put that money towards a '63 Impala SS. I bought for $450.

I hit the big time in 1971 as a senior in high school when I bought a 1969 383 4 speed Plymouth Road Runner bucket seat console car in R4 red with black vinyl roof for $1,400, the amount left on the loan from a neighbor who just returned from Vietnam to find his wife was stepping out on him with her boyfriend who was the guy that talked his wife into buying that Runner with her husbands service checks. He just wanted it gone.

Pretty much been Mopar or no car since.

I was looking for a replacement for my '63 Chevy.

It was 1974.

I went into a Volvo dealership that somehow also sold Jaguars.

I had a full-time union job by then, saving money for college.

I was making real money.

Still a teenager and hauling in $11,500 per year.

Rolling in dough. Those were the days, my friend.

We thought they'd never end.

The dealership had a Jaguar E-Type XKE coupe in red right there on the floor.

The sticker price was something just a wee a bit over $17,000.

I had a down payment of less than one K.

If want could be measured on the Richter scale, my want was at 8.0.

Reality struck and I walked away, sad and broken hearted.

I went to another dealership in another town and bought a new red with a black racing stripe Chevy Vega for a little over $4,000.

It was the Motor Trend Car of the Year (you can look it up).

But it was truly a POS 50,000 mile throw away car.

Just a piece of marketing junk, not a real car with a real soul.

My '63 Bel Air was a far better car, at least until I bent it up.

I still have ecstatic dreams about that Jag.

A blue 1967 Skylark. To this day, I can't imagine why.

1973 Toyota FJ40, slow but could go anywhere

In 1974, I bought a 68 Chevy step side pick up with that straight six for $600.00 from a one time owner. I remember it so well because I had a quirk to buy it with my change. For a while I never spent any change, only bills; even for a piece of gum I would pay with a dollar bill + every night I would empty my pockets into a jar + at the end of 3 months, I had the $600.00. Amazing what we spend our change on + never miss it or remember what we spent it on.

My First car was a 66 Malibu 327 Chevy four speed car. It cost $500 in 1975.