OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - Your First Time
So we've definitely covered the "first car" bit, and while the first car you own is important, it's not the same as the first time. For most of us, it was one of our parents cars, as they, terrified, tried to tell us to let off slowly on the brake and not crash into parking lot lightpoles. For others, it was a sibling's car, or an uncles, etc. So - what was the FIRST car you drove? How'd it go? Pictures and stories highly encouraged, no one forgets their first.
And someone who really wasn't trying to make a sex-in-cars thread... I have to ask about the logistics. The Wrangler rear seat was about 36" wide. I'm only 5'11" but I drove with the seat all the way back...
How?
Really great question - and we actually made it happen in the driver's seat. I am 5'10''. I typically kept the rear seats out. We had the driver's seat all the way back and the back decently reclined with the steering wheel up as high as it would go. I was in the driver's seat, so you can figure out the positioning. Plus, she was tiny. Ahhhh, good times...
1999 Ford Econoline. The only, and I mean ONLY, benefit, is that after acing my driver's test in it I can parallel park virtually any car I drive.
My aunt let me drive her green 1999 Saturn SL2 around their development in Vermont when I was 14. Never went above 20 mph. My grandpa now has that car as his daily driver.
The first time I drove by myself was when I was 16 (in New Jersey, you don't get a license till 17) when I took my brother's car for a joy ride to a convenience store about 5 minutes away. That car was a 1995 Range Rover and eventually became my first car when my brother went to college.
Legally, with a permit and licensed driver besides me, a mid-80's Volvo station wagon (can't remember the exact model, but it was gray-silver colored). My dad let me drive all the time with him once I got my permit. I fancied myself a pretty good, safe driver. In fact, when it was time for the driver's ed in-car stuff, the dude picked me up, let me drive, and about 20 minutes later said he would pass me on the in-car stuff because I clearly knew what I was doing. If only he or my parents knew how I had gotten more experience...
Not legally, same Volvo, when my parents were gone and I took it out like an a-hole on the Dulles Toll Road from Reston to Mclean and back, or west on I-66 to Manassas and back. Not quite sure what I was trying to accomplish or prove. I also was trusted with my new-born nephew in a car seat to drive around the block a few times in a Toyota Tercel in downtown Philadelphia while my sister ran into a store. It was me and a buddy and the baby, and I went down Market Street (I think), which was closed to normal vehicular traffic. Very lucky my sister didn't end up in jail because of that little manuever.
It was my brother's. I was like 14 and drove it around the block. He was pissed! He later sold it to my mom and I used for my first date with my now wife of 35 years!
Probably 1967. I lived in the country, i.e. the land of dirt roads, and my buddies would come out to visit. We were cruising the back roads in my friend's sisters 62 Chevy Impala (we called it the 'Rat', you can imagine why), and they asked me If I knew how to drive. Being somewhat insecure, as growing up in the country wasn't particularly condusive to having a lot of friends, I said of course I did. I got behind the wheel, went about 100' to a right hand curve and on exiting said curve performed 3 sinusoidal overcorrections and deposited the car in the ditch. I have since improved my skills.
1970 Mustang - I thought I was pretty bad ass.
You were a badass !
My dad gave me that car later. It was pretty rusty, so I Bondo-ed it to within an inch of its life. Eventually sold it in 1978 to a neighbor with 140,000 miles on it. Three years later she sold it to a guy who was restoring one. After buying it, he ended up restoring mine and using his for parts. I heard about it but never got to see the finished product. That was one fast car in its day.
Then a farm tractor and then a pickup truck through the orchards before I hit puberty. By the time driver ed classes rolled around at age 15 I already knew I could drive just about any vehicle and the experience was anticlimactic.
The only car I was ever passionate about was the primo powder blue VW Beetle I acquired from relocated Californians at 17. Eventually I destroyed it by performing my own mods on the engine, which blew up and burned, and it was heartbreaking to sell it off for parts. Man I loved that car and now and then consider buying a vintage one, this time a cabriolet for summers.
But definitely no "night moves" as that just wasn't possible except for the one time with a circus midget.
Buick Electra 225. 19 feet long. WTF was I thinking? Didn't hit anything or have any funny stories other than it took me a whole day to wax that bad boy.
Tremendous back seat was excellent for learning those night moves as Bob Seger would say. Front seats were pretty nice too. I feel bad for the younger generation who try and score in the smaller cars of today that don't have couch like seats.
My first for both was a 1969 Chevy Impala. It was red with a black vinly top and had a 327 under Da hood. I wish I had that car back, but my ExWife not so much.
The car - was nice looking, always ran well and gave, and never talked back.
The Ex - nice looking, had spotty performance, and always talked back.
The Impala wins hands down!!!
My first drive was a 1980's K-Wagon. I made it about 80 yards in reverse across our yard, our neighbor's yard, and into a cornfield. I missed all of the big trees and only ran over one small tree. My mom made the entire trip with me, sadly for her she wasn't in the car. She was hanging onto the door handle trying to get in as her two year old stood behind the wheel.
She probably should have buckled me into my car seat before going back inside for her coffee.
I learned to drive in a Cutlass and Dodge Dakota.
That was a great car and lasted 15 years with my parents before they sold it. It was probably one of the hardest manuals that I've driven. Most of my learning curve was on my mom's 1989 Pontiac Lemans. It had power nothing, which made parallel parking the small car kind of hard. It had zero issues though and got 40 mpgs. The only time I had an issue was when I stalled out through an entire green light with my mom yelling at me to give it more gas and me yelling back I was giving it a ton of gas only to finally realize it was in 3rd gear. A classic rookie mistake.
My first car I drove was my dad's 1984 or 1985 turbo mustang. I was 16 years old, and it probably was not a brilliant choice of car to give to an overly-aggressive, angry kid.
I'm pleased to say that the car and I survived - somehow.
Edit: he followed that one with a turbo-thunderbird my senior year. I'm not sure he understood that I was an idiot.
which was still in the age of big Detroit iron.
So, the first car I drove was the car we used for behind-the-wheel drivers ed at school. I took drivers ed during the summer. The car was a big hulking Pontiac Parisienne. I don't think Pontiac made anything bigger at that time. It was huge, so they could load easily load 3 students into the car's back seat. Because I learned how to parallel park driving that monstrosity, I can parallel park anything., anywhere.
I'm pretty sure the first family car I drove was my mom's 1973 Buick Skylark.
My absolutely fearless Dad who told my Mom when and where I would be driving. He had me drive out to Lakeland from Southgate Downriver about 50 miles. Which presented me with every type of driving scenario a driver could be presented with and definetly not anything a first time driver should be subject to.
My father an ex police officer from Dearborn was the worlds best (arrogent) driver ever and no one need to think any differently. So here I was 15 and driving out of the neighborhood side streets, to Northline 2 lanes,Sp limit 45, to Telegraph 50 mph. 6 lanes including island to I-94 3 lanes west bound sp limit 80 mph. To north US Xpressway 23, 2 lanes to HWY 37, 2 laner, the worlds most dangerous rds.2 lane rds by far are the worst. According to the worlds foremost authority on roads (Dad) and the dangers presented.
After driving this rd trip both ways in the day and after we left cousins house at night with no bumps or should I say dents are a testament to my fathers patience and my natural ability to drive. I went through drivers training with my instructor saying (after my first time behind the wheel) I would not be participating in rd tests with other students and would be sitting quietly in the back seat because obviously I had been driving for a few times before. So that was my first time driving on a road or parking lot. Oh the car was a 1971 4 door Chevy Biscayne, a boat.
Bought this from my folks as a 16 year-old in 1977 for $800. Years of delivering newspapers and bagging groceries finally paid off.
My friends at the time were all older than me, so I drove a lot before doing driver's training. First time was a Chevy Citation around some back roads.
When I was 15, my dad took me and my siblings on a trip to Lake Tahoe with his "girlfriend" and her son. It was a Friday night and the two adults went to dinner, leaving us kids back at her cottage.....along with the keys to dad's1979 GMC Jimmy (he worked for dealer in Southern Cal). Naturally , I ceased the oppotunity to cruise up and down the main drag in Lake Tahoe, blaring my Foreigner 4 8-track tape. I was on the prowl. Remaining inconspicuous as an unlicensed driver did not occur to me. Luckily I didn't get caught or in an accident.
First time was with my cousin in a 95 Civic.
Didn't you?
Or was that "driving" your cousin in the Civic? Koalas have a certain reputation.
The first car my Dad let me steer was our '76 Caprice Classic Station Wagon. And yes, it was this orange color:
The first car I acutally drove was when I was 14 and I took my parents car for a little spin with friends when they were out of town and my sister was supposed to be watching me. It was a red & tan '83 Toyota Camry LE.
And yes, it was the first for that other thing too.
Ain't it a beaut?
Also the car I drove on my first date.
Chances are it will ignite during collision. At least our '78 Volare had a factory CB radio and we could call "smokey" to send the fire department if we survived impact ;>)
that came with a Factory CB. And 'Ford Premium Sound' which, now that I think about it, sounded about as good as a Sony Boom Box I had. At least that was a step up from the Duster with the speaker in the dash.
Ahh... the days when you could plug in the CB and listen to the truckers.
The CB was even color matched to the car.
It went fine. Except for my Dad pointing randomly at things and shreiking to freak me out.
I was a bit of a juvenile delinquent. When I was 13, my best friend and I took out my parents' Chevy Caprice Classic for a joy ride. Neither of us knew how to drive, and we were so short, we had to sit on a phone book to see over the steering wheel. I tried and failed to back out of the driveway, so my friend took over. We tooled around town in the middle of the day. It was a really small town so of course, when we pulled up to the center of town's intersection at a red light, she noticed her parents' best friends were right behind us. So she ducked down and gunned it through a red light. That's when I started to get mad. So I instructed her to head home. When she turned on to our street, she somehow managed to hit a judge's parked Cadillac. Judge Pasquantonio's Cadillac. She backed up and tried to maneuver around it, but hit it again. Finally, she got around the car and we headed home. When we pulled into the garage, I noticed the car was smoking. Nothing major, just a little smoke from under the hood. My parents never found out. I'm just glad my kids would never do anything that stupid.
Delighted that we didn't have social media or camera phones in our youth.
1976 ugly brown Gran Torino. What a rust-bucket, but nearly indestructible.
my parents 1990 Toyota Camry Station wagon. Ugly thing. I was 14.
First car I got laid in was also a 1990 . . . but this was a 2-door Chevy Cavalier. I was 16.
I still remeber both like they were yesterday.
The first time I ever actually drove a car was in driver's ed, and it was a 1999 Buick Century. I got yelled at for driving too fast, a theme that has lasted the past 18 years.
The first car I drove was a 95' chevrolet cavalier but I only drove it for like 500 feet when my dad said it was enough, I was like 11 years old.
The first vehicle I drove in traffic and eventually my errand vehicle (before I started taking it to highschool) was a 99' F150, I started driving with manual transmissions. I remember ramming a VW beetle with the truck while reversing, stealing the truck for a joyride....
a 1972 Chevy Impala. Blue with a white Vinyl roof. Thing was the size of an aircraft carrier.
Plenty of room for 6 or 7 or 8 friends inside and a ton of beer stashed in the trunk. My '65 Impala was also awesome that way.
I was 14 and visiting my uncle in Denver. He was teaching my 16 yo sister to drive a stick shift on his 85 Toyota Supra. After a few fits and starts, he let me try. It was a bit scary since I had never even driven an automatic transmission, although I had seat time in go karts (2 pedals, steering wheel). Not quite the same thing.
He gave that car to my cousin when he graduated college. Replaced it with a '93 MR2 Turbo which he gave to me when I graduated college. Great uncle.
1984 Ford Bronco.
My Mom took me out on a country road far out of town and had me start driving, even better, it was a stick shift so there was a lot of stops and starts, but I finally got the hang of it and was feeling pretty good about myself until she made me drive halfway up the hill and then stop the car, I damn near rolled off the road before I managed to finally hit the sweet spot with the clutch and start driving up the hill. Scared the living shit out of both of us, but my mom let me stick with it until I got the hang of it.
Sup bitches....
