JayG has a meme
So here's the meme. Long answers or short. 1. What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition? 2. What adventures did you have in it, good or bad? 3. What happened to it, what's the end of the story?
So here's the meme. Long answers or short.
1. What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition? 2. What adventures did you have in it, good or bad? 3. What happened to it, what's the end of the story?
My first set of wheels was a 1976 Toyota Celica GT in Primer Grey. The headliner was droopy, oil changes mean simply adding in new oil, and the tail lights were activated by plugging them into the cigarette lighter (brake lights worked find). I think I paid $500 for it and I couldn’t have loved a car any more than I did.
It got me from point A to point B reliably, had all the get up and go of a wind up toy, and was in the condition where I wasn’t as concerned about dings and scratches and could focus on learning to drive correctly.
As for adventures, a funny story revolved around the CB antenna base that had been attached to the roof. It was pretty much permanently affixed, so I always had this little stub sticking up top. Turned out, you could shove a McDonald’s cup on it and it would stay, even driving 60mph down the highway (60 was the safest top speed IIRC). One day, I was leaving work (imagine that, having to work at 16 to be able to afford a car, gas, and insurance!) and I hadn’t turned out of the parking lot when a cop turned on his lights. I, being a young driver, was scared shitless because I knew a ticket = the end of my driving days and I couldn’t imagine why I was being pulled over.
Cop just wanted to let me know I had left my drink on my hood.
We both had a good laugh over it.
Never got a ticket in it, never got in an accident nor any trouble (at least not in the front seat, driving), although I do think I accidentally got it up on two wheels once. I did replace the transmission myself with the help of my father at one point, and that was an invaluable lesson in life. Namely, let someone who knows what the $#*&( they are doing work on the important parts.
In the end, I managed to snag an ‘84 Volkswagen Jetta after the GTI simply stopped running (fuel & water pumps died at the same time and it leaked oil faster than I could pour it in) and I sold it to a neighbor for half of what I paid for it.
WizardPC will appreciate this part of its history (so will any Dave Ramsey acolytes) – I bought the car from a multi-millionaire. My step-mother worked for him as an accountant, and while he had millions of dollars, cars to him were utilitarian objects – things to get you from here to there. Everything he drove was a bucket of bolts he picked up for practically nothing. He didn’t become a millionaire by spending ridiculous amounts of money on what amounts to status symbols.
So, I went from 76 Celica GT (2 years), to an 84 VW Jetta (5 years), to a 95 Nissan Sentra (2 years & my first brand new car), to a 95 Jeep Wrangler (11 years), to my 09 GTI. I’ll have the GTI until it starts costing more to repair it than it would to buy a <$10k car.
I miss my Celica GT. Lots of good memories in it.
What about you?