Young Boys With Their First Toys

[HouWarrior]

My brother drove up to my house last week in his new Jaguar, and we went for a drive. At one point he said ..."you dont seem as excited for me as when we rode for the first time in my Stag..." I admitted..."well that's true because back then (in our early twenties) neither of us could afford a decent car and your Stag was more of an adventure....especially when it always died on the road.... ' We laughed long and hard.

Just after starting his first TV job, he had spent all he had to buy a used old Triumph Stag...only to realize the British electrics were so bad (alternator wouldnt charge the battery) he'd travel with a battery charger, and a hundred foot extension cord...plugging it in wherever he could, and hope the battery drain wouldnt konk out the entire car before he got to park near the next AC outlet. Why ? No money left in the bank for the expensive electrical repairs needed.

Our FIRST, or second car stories make for a good off-season topic. Those early cars you bought for a few hundred bucks. They burned a quart of oil every week, but you'd spend $$ on the cool steering wheel cover, instead. Please share your best Early car stories...no new car purchases...no bank financings....only the clunkers we bought before we were established....ie the simpler fun times. I'll kick off.

My first car was a $400 1968 Cougar Xr7. Cool sequential signal tail lights, bucket seats. I tricked it out with shag carpet on the dash. Christmas break MU freshman year... I slid in snow smashing the driver door into a friends car....pissed ...I went out drinking with my buddies. When I got home...My dad saw the car, smelled booze...but he would never believe me that the accident happened BEFORE I was drinking....cmon dad I know better.

My second was a $500 1966 Pontiac Bonneville...primo condition , prev. owned by the retired  father of a son who owned a gas station/repair shop. It was my party boat car through the rest of my MU years...easily held my 5 buddy gang, and a nickel bag. lol Of course, stereo speakers were my key add on.

 During a 1978 super slippery snow/ice storm on 43 south(?) near Lapin Electric) an entering/merging car spins out sideways...I unavoidably t-boned his car...it straightens out ....and the kid driver tries to escape fleeing the scene! I finally get the kid to pull over. Its Max Kohl's 16 yr old grandkid (maybe Herbs kid...I dont really know, as he only called grandma from the scene) ...very scared what his family might do to him! I parlayed the accident to a $800 insurance check, and I drove the crumpled car for over another year...pure profit. Beautiful family irony too ...as I then managed (asst manager) one of the new Pick n' Saves (store no.4, on Natl Ave), my mom worked at Roundy's, and Kohl's was our family archrival...Thanks Kohl's ...for paying for my car. lol

Please share your earliest clunker car tales, mechanical woes, bailing wire fixes, backseat adventures, etc.
 

[GGGG]

In 1990, I bought a 1980 Toyota Corolla station wagon for $500.  Had to carry around a bottle of clutch fluid because every month or so it drained out so I would have trouble with the manual transmission.  (Cheaper than fixing it.)  Plastic seat covers so the hot summer days without air conditioning was pretty awesome.  Only had AM/FM radio, and the FM rarely worked.

Totaled it in an accident in 1992.  To this date, that was the only accident that was my fault and the only time I have received any sort of traffic violation outside of a parking ticket.  By that point I had a job where I could afford a car payment so I got a car with air conditioning and a cassette player. 

[Coleman]

In 2005, the summer after my freshman year at MU, I acquired a 1996 Toyota Camry from a Catholic priest (family friend) for $1000. This was definitely a deal, it was probably worth a bit more, but it was time for him to get a new car, provided by the diocese, and he had no need for it. It had 170,000 miles on it, and ran as smooth as butter. This was the first car that was "mine," which I actually owned, paid for insurance and maintenance. In high school I drove a car owned by my parents.

I kept this car until 2013, when I made enough to buy a 2010 Corolla, which I still drive. The Camry had 230,000 miles on it at that point, and still minimal repairs were needed during my 8 years of ownership.  I transferred the title to my retired in-laws, who keep it to this day as their secondary car. It is rarely driven, only a weekly trip to the grocery store or when their primary car is in the shop. The radio and electric windows no longer work, but everything else, including the AC, runs like a charm. The body is rust free. Every time I am over at their house I take a look at it. They recently took it to a mechanic who said he expects it to run another 100,000 miles with minimal issues. It is now 21 years old.

That was the best $1000 ever spent. I will drive Toyotas the rest of my life

[Skitch]

In 1990 I bought a 1976 Chevelle Malibu. It had been yellow but got a primer grey paint job by Earl Scheib so when you opened the hood or trunk you could still see the yellow. The gas guage always said empty and it would start without keys. I hit and killed an adult deer one night and the only damage was one of the headlights got cracked. After that my friends named my car Sherm as in Sherman tank.

Paid $500 for it and sold it 2 years later for the same amount. The guy that bought it turned it into a dirt track racecar. I wish every car Ive had since worked out as well as that one.

[rocket surgeon]

not to take away from the great stories hou, but i don't think herb(senator and of the bucks) had any kids because he wasn't that kind of guy if you will

[HouWarrior]

not to take away from the great stories hou, but i don't think herb(senator and of the bucks) had any kids because he wasn't that kind of guy if you will

lol
As I noted ....the kid called grandma and said Max was his grandpa...guess your note would dictate he was merely a nephew of Herbie...thanks for the point/pick up

[brewcity77]

First car was a 1983 Chevy Citation with a broken speedometer that I bought for $350 with my Piggly Wiggly paychecks. Now I'm sure that as a 16-year-old kid, I probably would have driven like an assclown regardless, but I got pulled over going 20 over and freaked the hell out. When you're 16, everything feels far more dramatic than it actually is. Pretty sure I yelled at my dad for not getting it fixed and was convinced I'd lose my license. Ended up taking it to the shop to get the speedometer fixed and got documentation from the mechanic that the speedometer was broken. Went into court and they dismissed it because of the mechanic's note, just charging a minimal fine for faulty equipment.

[4everwarriors]

''maybe Herbs kid.."


Highly doubtful, ai na?

[Spotcheck Billy]

First car was a 1983 Chevy Citation with a broken speedometer that I bought for $350 with my Piggly Wiggly paychecks. Now I'm sure that as a 16-year-old kid, I probably would have driven like an assclown regardless, but I got pulled over going 20 over and freaked the hell out. When you're 16, everything feels far more dramatic than it actually is. Pretty sure I yelled at my dad for not getting it fixed and was convinced I'd lose my license. Ended up taking it to the shop to get the speedometer fixed and got documentation from the mechanic that the speedometer was broken. Went into court and they dismissed it because of the mechanic's note, just charging a minimal fine for faulty equipment.

^ That reminds me of the '72 Cutlass I bought for $300 from a kid who had replaced the tranny which resulted in the speedo being off about 25%. I got a speeding ticket, had the speedo fixed/certified and when I went to court the Judge opened traffic court by offering to change every speeding ticket in court to a defective speedo citation, true story.

[keefe]

I think the first toy every American boy discovers is named Dick.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I think the first toy every American boy discovers is named Dick.

just American boys?

[BrewCity83]

just American boys?

I believe in Spain they're known as "Ricardo".

[Benny B]

1985 Renault Alliance Convertible.  I don't remember exactly what the mileage was, but it was $2,800 from the sleazy used car lot on the other side of town.  Had been saving since I got my permit and had accumulated about $2,500 by that point... mom lent me $750 to cover the shortage plus tax, title, insurance, etc.  Over the next month (on the weekends or whenever I had time), I bought my first Haynes manual & changed just about everything I could, polished the paint to a mirror shine, shampooed the interior, added a couple speakers in the back, installed a car alarm, and totaled the thing about 4 months later.  Insurance proceeds, net of deductible came to - coincidentally - $750.  Mom was paid off first, and I got my first near-death experience with nothing to show for it except a scar on my right hand.  Good times, indeed.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

First car was a 1973 Plymouth Scamp with a Slant-6 engine that my grandmother gave to my parents for my brother and I to share when she bought a new car (mid-80s).
The front & back windows rolled all the way down and the side was completely open from dash to rear.
Something in the undercarriage rusted out and one day it gave over a bump in the road and the driver side was like  6inches closer to the ground.  Autobody shop said they couldn't help him so my dad took to a weld shop to have it fixed.

[rocket surgeon]

  1969 maroon, pontiac tempest with the smallest engine made-don't know much about motors but it was a dog.  started out with a 3 on the tree, tranny went so they changed it to a stick on the floor. NOW WE"RE TALKIN BABY!!  scratched the tempest words off the side and told everyone(especially the muchachas) it was a GOAT.  looked just like them.  good thing no one challenged me to a race.  gotta love those bench seats though...they were made for drive in theaters and deserted country roads

[keefe]

bench seats ... drive in theaters

Things of beauty, Doc.

America was once a great country

[rocket surgeon]

Things of beauty, Doc.

America was once a great country

those damn bucket seats with the console in the middle hurt man, but the stick shift did provide for some "extracurricular entertainment" though-HEYN'a?

[keefe]

those damn bucket seats with the console in the middle hurt man, but the stick shift did provide for some "extracurricular entertainment" though-HEYN'a?

Some men have stick shifts. I have a transmission shaft.

[Benny B]

Some men have stick shifts. I have a transmission shaft.

Automatic transmission, eh?  Is that the new euphemism for Cialis?

[GooooMarquette]

Automatic transmission, eh?  Is that the new euphemism for Cialis?

I hear it's good for trips of 4 hours or more....

[77ncaachamps]

First job outta MU...got a 1998 Toyota Camry new off the lot.

Still driving it.

[rocket surgeon]

  "My brother drove up to my house last week in his new Jaguar, and we went for a drive. At one point he said ..."you dont seem as excited for me as when we rode for the first time in my Stag..." I admitted..."well that's true because back then (in our early twenties) neither of us could afford a decent car and your Stag was more of an adventure....especially when it always died on the road.... ' We laughed long and hard.

Just after starting his first TV job, he had spent all he had to buy a used old Triumph Stag...only to realize the British electrics were so bad (alternator wouldnt charge the battery) he'd travel with a battery charger, and a hundred foot extension cord...plugging it in wherever he could, and hope the battery drain wouldnt konk out the entire car before he got to park near the next AC outlet. Why ? No money left in the bank for the expensive electrical repairs needed."


  on my 2nd jag-had a 1998 xj8 vanden plas i absolutely loved until i pulled in to the dealer for a routine maintenance/oil chg. etc and looking right at me was an 04 all black xjr supercharged bad boy.  they didn't even have the price tag on it yet.  guess what i came home with instead?  guy traded it in for a brand new xk8 convertible.  i bought it with 24k miles on it and at about 40% less than original value in 2006.  i have had very few issues with either of my 2 cats.  this one has 124k miles and it flies!  only one speeding ticket and one warning

  i actually don't like the look of the new jags.  they look too much like all the rest now.  AND they got rid of the kitty cat on the hood.  you can buy one(hood ornament) from the dealer for about $200 and have them put it on. whenever people see a jag, they wanna talk, when girls see them....oh, to be young again

  hint-DO NOT buy one of these brand new!!  you talk about depreciate, these things lose a chit ton of their value literally as they leave the dealer.  i haven't followed much about them since tata motors bought them from ford, but ford had them purrrring

[4everwarriors]

Back in da dey, had a spankin' 1990 black Sovereign. POS car stalled out on I-43 on da wey home from Jenkins. Shoulda cut my losses short right den and der. Rear wheel drive and da wurst mofo in snow. Oil change back den was $75. Dumped da pig wit 15k miles for da latest and greatest Jap crap.

[Spotcheck Billy]

nm