First car

[TheFugitive]

Taking a little survey/some memories about everyone's first car.

Mine was a 1971 Pontiac Ventura.  Basically a Chevy Nova with the pointed Pontiac grill
on the front.  Bought it from an ad in the newspaper when I was 16 yrs. old.  The guy came
to the door and the very first words out of his mouth were "well.....I hope you like green!"

And truly, this car was the most HIDEOUS shade of green you could ever imagine.
The kids at school all nicknamed it the Lima Bean Machine.  It had a black, truck-like interior
with molded rubber mats instead of carpeting. 

But, much to my delight as a teenage guy, it also had a V8 307 engine which, combined
with the very light unibody construction, meant that thing could really move!   :o

Did not have air conditioning but it had those little triangular tip-out vent windows that would
disappear from cars a year or two later.  And it had an AM radio.  Although plenty of AM stations
were still playing music at the time (and I actually had a good friend who was a DJ on one of them)
you just could not be one of the cool kids without FM.  So the very first thing I did was go to Kmart
and buy myself an FM Converter. 

(to the uninitiated that was a device about the size of two cigarette packs that could receive
FM signals and rebroadcast them into your AM radio at 1400kHz.)

Of course the only place where I was able to mount it on my dash was strategically right where
my knee was likely to smack into it as I went for the gas pedal. But it seemed worth the pain.

Paid $550 and drove that car for five years.  Will never match that amount of transportation per dollar
again in my life.  Had to get rid of it when it would no longer pass Pennsylvania state inspection (though
if I had lived in Ohio I might have been able to get three or four more good years out of her).

We sold her to a friend of my brother's for a hundred and fifty bucks.  He entered it in a
Demolition Derby.  He came in second.

[ynkeesfn82]

I'm going to be 33 on May 23rd. On May 2nd I will have had my license for 8 years. I am still on my first car basically because I can't afford to get a different vehicle.

It's a 1995 Pontiac Sunfire that my Mom bought in April 2004. She bought it after her prior car a Pontiac Gran Prix (a 94?) mysteriously died. One day i April 2004 she was driving me to work. We had just turned left onto Broad Street from Emmett Street when all of a sudden there was a loud BANG and the car just died. She and my Dad were separated at the time so she bought the Sunfire without him.

In 2006 my parents got back together and my Mom began driving my Dad's 02 Hyundai Elentra. He had gotten 2 other vehicles - a pickup truck and a Saab Station wagon. The Sunfire went to storage at my Dad's friend's house. (Parked on the side of the house). The Pontiac Sunfire is a beast.

I got my license on May 2nd, 2007 and The Pontiac Sunfire became mine. Got the car registered in my name that day and we went to pick it up from My dad's friend's house. Right away had to get the muffler replaced so I couldn't drive it for a few days. Tuesday the 8th was the first day I drove my car on my own. Pulling into the driveway on my way home from Walmart I side-swiped my Dad's car trying to park in-between his car and a tree. Two days later when I was coming home from work I didn't start slowing down soon enough and I rear-ended a woman in a Toyota at a red light in front of Queen Plaza. (Where AMES was back in the day). I didn't even want to drive after that. That whole thing was a matter of bad luck. I left work half an hour late because as I was leaving a friend of mine was going on his lunch break so I spent time talking with him.

In later 2008 (or 2009) it was another thing of bad luck when a woman in a Chevy Trailblazer backed into me as I was backing out of a parking space in Queen Plaza. No damage to either vehicle. After having lunch at Buffet 2000 instead of getting in my car and heading home I stopped to look around at Dollar Tree. Then when I got in my car I spent a couple minutes playing with the radio.

In November 2010 (2 days after my Dad's funeral) I was driving to Illusions Dance Club (where I had a gig as a DJ trainee) with a friend and a deer ran into the side of my car. It put a big dent into the side of my car. Neither one of us saw the deer coming. It just scared the crap out of both of us.

A couple months later in early 2011 it was an snow/icy Tuesday. Lucky for me it was a day off. I moved the car once in the early morning so they could plow the parking lot. About 12 hours later I went to move my car again only to find that the snow plow had hit it. No one saw it happen. The landlord doesn't have cameras in the parking lot. The landlord was on vacation in Florida. I couldn't prove anything. There was a great deal of damage to my car. I had to use a bungy cord to keep my trunk closed. Now I use rubber straps bought at the close out retailer Ocean State Job Lot to keep the trunk closed.

I had no other incidents (not counting mechanical things) with my car after the last incident in early 2011 until November 1st, 2014.

November 1st was a rainy and foggy day. I got out of work at Hobby Lobby at 9PM. I was leaving. I stopped at the Stop Sign in front of Wendy's. I looked down to adjust the defroster and I guess I hit the gas and I drove right up on to the curb, almost hitting a tree and flattening the 2 passenger side tires. I drove my disabled car across Farmington Avenue into the parking lot of the Taco Bell and called for a tow truck. I was parked at the side of the parking lot out of the way, but not in a space. As I was waiting for the tow truck a guy backed his Honda into the side of my car. The police officer told me it was my fault because I wasn't parked in a parking space even though the other guy backed into me! The car still runs and is drivable.

The car is a beast, but it's also very costly to fix. In fact when I get my income tax refund in a couple weeks I got to use part of it to fix an exhaust leak so the stupid thing will pass emissions (which was due last year) that way I'll be able to renew the registration in May. I also need to get a broken wheel bearing fixed, but I can't afford that right now either.

I was hoping that my job at Hobby Lobby would've lasted so I could've upgraded my vehicle. Alas it was not meant to be.

[TheFugitive]

Be sure to keep that wheel bearing very liberally greased until you have a chance to replace it.

I miss Pontiac.  I also had a 6000 when I was working for Ames in Michigan.

[EddieJ1984]

2013 Mazda 3, bought it April 2013 new.