'76 Firebrd.. last of the single headlights.
Got it up and running with my Dad.
Was the fastest car in school.
I totalled it and bought a '72 Triumph Spitfire.
Then a '80 Porsche 924.
Got a great deal on a 5-speed '84 Pontiac Sunbird then...
Moved to Europe and my first car was a '89 Wartburg 1.3 then a '98 Skoda Felicia.

My Dad's will gave me a '80 Firebird Trans Am Indy Pace Car but I gave that to my sister when I moved to Europe...

The company I work at gives us cars so my first personal purchase of a car was in 2020 ... another Triumph Spitfire! Going through a body-off restoration now...

The Wife bought a Jeep Avenger that is base don the Fiat 600 and it is quite a lot of fun. 😀

My first was 1991 Yugo Coral 60. I've bought it in 1999 and sold after a year or two.

It looked like this:

johnvosh wrote on 2024-06-03, 01:25:

I see we have a "What vehicle do you drive" topic, so I figured we should have a "What was your first vehicle" topic!

I'll start us off! My first vehicle was a 1972 Chevrolet C-10 Custom Deluxe, V8 350, 3spd auto, 2WD, long bed. Truck had between 300,000 to 500,000 miles on it as grandpa didn't know how many times it had rolled over. I got it when I was in grade 12 from Grandpa and I drove it for a couple of years until I needed something better and way more fuel efficient. I ended up cutting out the old radio and installing a CD player and then I used computer speakers and a power converter for speakers and I still use those speakers to this day! Had to replace the carb, distributor, exhaust. By the time I got it the engine was tired and worn out, had to replace the plugs twice a year as two would soaked in oil, carb I didn't know how to adjust so under full throttle it would backfire in the air cleaner. Me and my friends did get the truck up to 100 MPH on a back road and that was pretty scary! When I got my new vehicle, I gave this truck to my younger brother who ended up rolling it. I miss that truck and I hope one day to get another. I still have the letter of when my grandpa bought the truck used in 1986, 3 months after I was born.

what a great old truck that was. i like that it came to you through family too. those big v8's can go on for so many miles, even when they start to wear notably. they can be worked on too, if you have the time and inclination - but the fuel efficiency, that just wont happen 😀 Still, you can haul lots in it. shame it was rolled, but hopefully protected occupant/s anyway

the cd player + speakers was a nice addition!

My first was a 1988 Suzuki Samurai.
1.3liter 4 cylinder and a 5 speed. Top speed was about 55mph-if there was a tailwind and you were going downhill.
It had a removable hard top and was a lot of fun for what it was.

Ended up selling it to my brother, I think he rebuilt engine/transmission both and traded it for a Suzuki Sidekick or something.

gerry wrote on 2024-06-03, 14:49:

johnvosh wrote on 2024-06-03, 01:25:

I see we have a "What vehicle do you drive" topic, so I figured we should have a "What was your first vehicle" topic!

I'll start us off! My first vehicle was a 1972 Chevrolet C-10 Custom Deluxe, V8 350, 3spd auto, 2WD, long bed. Truck had between 300,000 to 500,000 miles on it as grandpa didn't know how many times it had rolled over. I got it when I was in grade 12 from Grandpa and I drove it for a couple of years until I needed something better and way more fuel efficient. I ended up cutting out the old radio and installing a CD player and then I used computer speakers and a power converter for speakers and I still use those speakers to this day! Had to replace the carb, distributor, exhaust. By the time I got it the engine was tired and worn out, had to replace the plugs twice a year as two would soaked in oil, carb I didn't know how to adjust so under full throttle it would backfire in the air cleaner. Me and my friends did get the truck up to 100 MPH on a back road and that was pretty scary! When I got my new vehicle, I gave this truck to my younger brother who ended up rolling it. I miss that truck and I hope one day to get another. I still have the letter of when my grandpa bought the truck used in 1986, 3 months after I was born.

what a great old truck that was. i like that it came to you through family too. those big v8's can go on for so many miles, even when they start to wear notably. they can be worked on too, if you have the time and inclination - but the fuel efficiency, that just wont happen 😀 Still, you can haul lots in it. shame it was rolled, but hopefully protected occupant/s anyway

the cd player + speakers was a nice addition!

Yup, if I would of had the knowledge I have now then I wouldn't of given it to my brother and would of kept it, and tried to restore it. After grandpa got it, he used it as a daily driver for many years, then it slowly got driven less and less, then it was only a couple times of year, such as going to the dump. Then during the fall Grandpa, Grandma, Me, and my younger brother would load into it, go into the back woods, stop along the side of the road and get water for the day from the creek, then go and cut down trees, load the bed up way over the load limit for the truck (he had wood sides on it and it got loaded to the top of the cab), then take it back to there house. I remember a couple times he would have the truck up on blocks so he could fix the brakes. I don't know if he ever replaced the rubber hoses. There is just something about grandparents and never recalling them ever doing proper maintenance on vehicles (oil changes, fuel filters, etc.).

I know when I had it, my grandparents had moved and I would go visit them. I had to fuel up before I left and would have to fuel up before coming back home. It was only a 150 KM (95 miles)drive one way and the speed limit was 100 KM/H (62 MPH). I think I was getting around 5-8 MPG. Part of that was probably because the carb wasn't set correctly as I had no idea. I just bought an Elderbrock 650 CFM to replace the quadrajet when it was having issues starting.

He rolled it on a gravel road. The back window popped out on the one side, and the only reason the passenger window broke was because he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

johnvosh wrote on 2024-06-04, 00:43:

Yup, if I would of had the knowledge I have now then I wouldn't of given it to my brother and would of kept it, and tried to restore it. After grandpa got it, he used it as a daily driver for many years, then it slowly got driven less and less, then it was only a couple times of year, such as going to the dump. Then during the fall Grandpa, Grandma, Me, and my younger brother would load into it, go into the back woods, stop along the side of the road and get water for the day from the creek, then go and cut down trees, load the bed up way over the load limit for the truck (he had wood sides on it and it got loaded to the top of the cab), then take it back to there house. I remember a couple times he would have the truck up on blocks so he could fix the brakes. I don't know if he ever replaced the rubber hoses. There is just something about grandparents and never recalling them ever doing proper maintenance on vehicles (oil changes, fuel filters, etc.).

I know when I had it, my grandparents had moved and I would go visit them. I had to fuel up before I left and would have to fuel up before coming back home. It was only a 150 KM (95 miles)drive one way and the speed limit was 100 KM/H (62 MPH). I think I was getting around 5-8 MPG. Part of that was probably because the carb wasn't set correctly as I had no idea. I just bought an Elderbrock 650 CFM to replace the quadrajet when it was having issues starting.

He rolled it on a gravel road. The back window popped out on the one side, and the only reason the passenger window broke was because he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

sounds like lot of great memories. i'd guess that the 'optimal' mpg would only be about 15 or so anyway! looks ok in post-rolled state, a tough old truck. someone would have bought it!

saying that reminds me of this advert:

Citroën 2CV 6 Spécial 1982

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt1FAYv35GE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZE3i-r8dQs

Not quite a straightforward question for me...

When I was 12 or so, we got one of these for the family car..

Renault 12 TL, ours was a '76 and had different mirrors. Now, I did a lot of work on that car, learned car mechanics on it from my Dad who had had an industrial accident and couldn't do a lot of it by then. So by the time I could get my driving license, I knew every nut and bolt on it. About that time, the family wanted an estate/wagon/break for hauling light loads, since the 12 had been doing so well, we did look at the Estate version of that, but the only one we could find was very rusted out. Got a 1st gen Astra/Kadett wagon... annnnd the Renault 12 was all mine!!! However I got to drive it 3 or 4 times with my father on my learner's permit, then the MOT/Safety inspection was due... and it failed on some surface checking to a rubber bushing in the rear suspension.... this thing was unobtanium, could not get it anywhere.... annoying thing was it didn't even seem to be a particularly essential part, just some noise isolation... anyway, I did a lot of fixing the bodywork up, while waiting months over the summer for some Renault specialists and some contacts in France to track one of the damn things down, but nope... couldn't find one. These days I would have stuck a "boat trailer roller" into the freezer then machined it to fit. But those tricks we didn't know, and she had to go to the wreckers 🙁

So I passed my driving test, got a full licence and didn't have anything to drive... eventually, I found a high mileage for year, but recent year, one of these...

https://youtu.be/1oehLmer8dg?si=wjOm5dZj_LzvE1MK

And that I guess was my first car I bought and drove fully licensed.... yeah mine was the underpowered econobox version... so of course I joined the student motorclub and took it rallying... best finish was 5th 🤣 ... did have a decent amount of room in though, hauled my entire dorm room contents across England for a few years 6 times a year.

1978 Camaro.

Late 1989.

Got it for $500.

Fixed it up and drove it until 1994'ish. Burned up the transmission. Sold it.

Looked very close to the one in the photo below once it was patched and painted. Loved that car. 😀

'97 ford ranger

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-06-07, 22:45:

Renault 12 TL, ours was a '76 and had different mirrors. Now, I did a lot of work on that car, learned car mechanics on it from my Dad who had had an industrial accident and couldn't do a lot of it by then. So by the time I could get my driving license, I knew every nut and bolt on it. About that time, the family wanted an estate/wagon/break for hauling light loads, since the 12 had been doing so well, we did look at the Estate version of that, but the only one we could find was very rusted out. Got a 1st gen Astra/Kadett wagon... annnnd the Renault 12 was all mine!!! However I got to drive it 3 or 4 times with my father on my learner's permit, then the MOT/Safety inspection was due... and it failed on some surface checking to a rubber bushing in the rear suspension.... this thing was unobtanium, could not get it anywhere.... annoying thing was it didn't even seem to be a particularly essential part, just some noise isolation... anyway, I did a lot of fixing the bodywork up, while waiting months over the summer for some Renault specialists and some contacts in France to track one of the damn things down, but nope... couldn't find one. These days I would have stuck a "boat trailer roller" into the freezer then machined it to fit. But those tricks we didn't know, and she had to go to the wreckers 🙁

that's always frustrating, when parts are so specialised and rare that getting hold of it proves almost impossible, especially when the part isn't even that specific to the car - i.e. it could have been a mass produced part without changing the cars individual character

Yes, the annoying thing is that just a year later Romania opened up to the world, and I might have had a chance at getting the part for the Dacia built version of the Renault 12... though I hear that similar to Lada and other Eastern Bloc cars, very few excess parts were made, and cannibalizing other cars was the only way to get them. Was also before public web/internet adoption so gathering intel through that route wasn't viable, neither was I aware that Turkey had Dacias until years later. Though even if I had known it might not have been practically possible to do anything with that knowledge at the time.

Edit: Yah there's more things I didn't know about at the time keep popping into my head. Like there's a two part polyurethane that you can cast things in, so could maybe have made a replica that way.

Would you look at all these great first cars. Mine was just a beat up old 1963 Bank Security Question Mk II.

My first street legal motorized vehicle was a tired out Honda CB400F. It had been my brother's, but he bought something newer and better, so he and my father gave it to me just after my eighteenth birthday. I loved it, but; it had about 30,000 hard miles on it when I got it, so the motor was pretty tired out. He had done some work on it, which may be why the head gasket leaked a bit - at highway speed it leaked enough to leave your right shoe oily (this wasn't so bad when I first got it, but it rapidly got worse). He had replaced the shocks with some used ones which were slightly longer than stock, and this raised the rear enough that the rear fender was almost useless and when you rode in the rain (or even when the streets were wet) you would end up with a wet butt and sand and road grit on your jeans. I first got it in Oct. of '83, and I stopped riding it about a year and a half later as the head gasket leak became too much for me. Being a bit under powered was actually a good thing for a first street bike.

1977 Holden HZ Kingswood SL with the "red" 202 straight 6 and Air Con pretty much like the below pic but a metallic blue with white roof.
I got it when my grandfather passed away body and auto transmission were very good but engine was very tired and with the car only valued at $3000 in the early 2000's the family gifted the car to me instead.
A year or so later the engine finally seized but being such a common car and motor been used in Holdens for many more years it would only cost $1000 for the local garage to to a complete swap with a reconditioned bottom end.
A lot of money for me at the time but figured for $1000 I'd get a car that wouldn't require any work for many more years.

Sadly it wasn't meant to be as about 3 months later when dad was driving, he had to swerve off the road to avoid a head on with a car in our lane trying to overtake a line of cars, He ended up running into the side of our car behind our back wheel and sent us spinning into a fence and bending the chassis and just about every panel on the car.

It was a shame but honestly was a bit of a pig to drive and at least this forced me to get something a bit more practical, only I didn't, I got my bike licence instead and a Kawasaki GPX 250

^^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q424p7lWD-U

I loved this tricycle.

White VAZ-2101, something like this: