How About Your FIRST Car - when cost was an object | Page 3 | The Boneyard

How About Your FIRST Car - when cost was an object

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95 Dodge Neon. Got it in 2004. It's weird to think how old that car felt when it was 9 yrs old and an 07 wouldn't seem nearly as old today. My dad is in the parts business and we got it for 1200 bucks, had 120k miles on it. I was just stoked it had a CD player. Kept it for 6 years (last two years of high school and all of college, it somehow commuted three years to ECSU from Vernon) and saw it pass 200k before it just became too much of a money pit. Passenger door panel would always get stuck and I had to tape it to the door. Window was constantly falling off the track. Drove it for a solid year with thermostat stuck and just cranked the heat all the time. When I finally replaced the thermostat somehow the water pump and head gasmet and radiator were fine! Lots of great times in that little monster but I do NOT miss it.
 
CCinCT said:
First new car

Car # 3 1970 Renault R10 $1910 out the door

Drove this to LA and back in 1970. Harleys had bigger engines. Very sensitive to wind gusts - Had to keep the wheel cocked 90 degrees through the Texas panhandle to go straight. The trunk is in front. Had a manual choke and even sported a crank for starting if necessary !

Renault_R_10_Major_2009.jpg
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HardHatGuy#2 said:
1969 Dodge Dart, Leaning-Tower-of-Power 225, torqueflite. Looked fast as all get-out, but it was slow and got decent mileage, instead. Unbreakable Slant-6 went over 300k by the time we got rid of the car, and the mechanic that bought it used it for a winter car for years, afterwards.
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One of the few production engines that could run sans oil.:D
 
Chrysler really built some boats in those days. The Dodge Custom from the rear wheels back most have weighed 2000 pounds.
 
Rixxx said:
Chrysler really built some boats in those days. The Dodge Custom from the rear wheels back most have weighed 2000 pounds.
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My Pop bought his first new car in 1959. A Chrysler New Yorker convertible, with a 413 engine and a push button trans.

Great (and huge) car that went just over 300k before he sold it in the mid 70s.
 
I got shuffled around with my parents' old cars and then the first in my name was a 1984 Chevy Cavalier. The progression below:

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th
 
1995 Dodge Neon Sport.

I was shopping for my first new car out of college and a commercial for the "new Dodge Neon" was shown during the 1994 Super Bowl. (The "Hi" commercial.) The tag line at the end of the commercial was something along the lines of "$10,995, nicely equipped."

It was so much cheaper than anything else that I was looking at that I went to a Dodge dealer the next day and ordered one sight unseen. The salesman hadn't even heard of the car at that point, but once a manager told him it existed, we made a deal for a slightly upgraded Sport model that had nicer seats and some added amenities over the $11,000 model. I paid $12,550.

143 horsepower, lots of room for a small car, was like a mountain goat in the snow and the A/C turned the interior into a meat locker - it was a raging bargain.

Five months later, I had one of the first models produced. I put a 155,000 miles on it and then gave it to my brother who put another 50,000 on it. He sold it to a hippie who drove it until we lost track of it. (Car below is a '96 - the '95 didn't have the hood bulge.)

dodge-neon-13.jpg
 
A little OT but my parents had a 1961 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Man, what a car. Unfortunately they sold it about 10-12 years later when it needed a new roof. Damn thing must be worth a fortune today.
 
First car - 1978 Ford Fiesta that had been my uncle's.
Ford-Fiesta-1978-4.jpg


He started a fire under the hood trying to tune it up, then poured sand all over it to put the fire out. Not good considering the air cleaner was off at the time. My father and I cleaned it up and got it running by pouring a 2-cycle fuel/oil mix into the carb. Drove it daily after that until I left for college, my father hit some debris with it shortly thereafter that tore up the front end and pretty much totaled it.

My first NEW car, bought right after college graduation for about $13K, was a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R. Nice little 2-door sedan, plenty of power, drove it for 6 years and about 130,000 miles with plenty of autocross and race track mileage in that number.
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By the way, I find it awfully hard to believe the claim on the first page of 20 MPG from a Country Squire with a 390 in it. Maybe at a steady 40MPH downhill with a tailwind...
 
I used to think that someday we would run out of interesting OTs. Guess I should know better!:D
 
1964 Chevy Malibu for $ 500.00 in 1981. Candy apple red and the engine was painted and chromed out.I put new tires on it and my friends and I went to Riverside Park that Saturday. We got back to Bristol and were going to hang out at Cedar Lake. As we got to the top of the mountain the car switched to neutral. Transmission went and I said that is why it was so cheap. The 4 of us pushed it for a thousand feet and jumped in and coasted 3 quarters the way down the mountain into my parents driveway.$200.00 later ran like a dream until that house jumped in the way the following year !
 
Q. said:
First car - 1978 Ford Fiesta that had been my uncle's.

By the way, I find it awfully hard to believe the claim on the first page of 20 MPG from a Country Squire with a 390 in it. Maybe at a steady 40MPH downhill with a tailwind...
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And yet that's what it got highway, with a little help from drafting.
 
Lots of titles changed hands in this thread for $100 or less. But in those days, maybe 1958-1960, $100 went way farther than it does today. IIRC, a new Ford Galaxy could be had for $2,200, gas was $.19 a gallon, a new split level rancher in southeaster PA went for $22,000. Of course Dad was bringing home $8,000 from the local factory. "Those were the days."
 
Fishy said:
1995 Dodge Neon Sport.

I was shopping for my first new car out of college and a commercial for the "new Dodge Neon" was shown during the 1994 Super Bowl. (The "Hi" commercial.) The tag line at the end of the commercial was something along the lines of "$10,995, nicely equipped."

It was so much cheaper than anything else that I was looking at that I went to a Dodge dealer the next day and ordered one sight unseen. The salesman hadn't even heard of the car at that point, but once a manager told him it existed, we made a deal for a slightly upgraded Sport model that had nicer seats and some added amenities over the $11,000 model. I paid $12,550.

143 horsepower, lots of room for a small car, was like a mountain goat in the snow and the A/C turned the interior into a meat locker - it was a raging bargain.

Five months later, I had one of the first models produced. I put a 155,000 miles on it and then gave it to my brother who put another 50,000 on it. He sold it to a hippie who drove it until we lost track of it. (Car below is a '96 - the '95 didn't have the hood bulge.)

dodge-neon-13.jpg
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I never would have guessed we had the same first car.
 
First car I drove was the family 1998 Chevy Impala station wagon, first stick shift was a Fiat 124. First purchase was my Aunt's Dodge Dart with the slant six (with help from my parents) and the second purchase was a Fiat 650 sport spider convertible with a tiny 650 cc motorcycle engine behind the driver, and a six gallon gas tank. (It was fun as long as there were no hills!!!) And yes I could see the road through the rusted out sections of the floor.
 
1963 Sunbeam Alpine but with a more powerful engine then the original (but not as poweful as the Tiger). Lots of fun to drive.
 
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