What was the first car everyone in your family had?

[tvguy]

Me: 1974 Ford Pinto (new)
DW: 1970 Ford Maverick (used)
DS: 1990 Mercury Sable (hand me down from me)
DD: 1990 Mercury Sable (handed down again, from DS)
DF: 1928 Packard (new)
DM: 1960 Buick Le Sabre (new)

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Mom - '47 Dodge pickup
Dad - '50 Studebaker
Me - '56 Chevy Stepside
DW - Mustang II
DD - 2014 Focus

 

[PrincessShmoo]

"Had"? As in first one I owned? As opposed to first one I drove a lot. Can't recall the year (I think 1969) Chevy Nova.

 

[bcla]

My dad's was a '74 Buick Apollo. That thing was kind of on the border of everything that changed in the American car world. It could use leaded gas, but the next year was when pretty much everything required unleaded. It had a seatbelt buzzer that made a loud noise when the seatbelt wasn't latched. They got around it by latching it and sitting on top. My typical seat was in the front in my mom's lap.

I'll just say my first car had a manual transmission, That way, nobody in my family ever asked to borrow it. It was kind of fun the first month. Every time I stalled, I just yelled out the window that I was just learning how to drive a stick and nobody ever complained. I had a problem backing out of a parking space with a slight incline in reverse. I hadn't quite mastered the slight clutch slip to back out slowly. I kept on lurching, then stalling.

 

[MSLRAC]

Me: 1996 Saturn SC2
DH: 80 something Firebird

No clue about my parents and none of my kids can drive yet. But DD12 is already working hard to try to convince us that she needs a Mini or VW Bug when she turns 16.

 

[RedAngie]

The first car I drove in when I got my license in spring 1978 was the old family car, a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere.

That car died within 6 months, so I got another hand me down. I drove a 1973 Plymouth Satellite, (faster than the speed of light )

Kept that a few years, then bought my own car, a 1979 Dodge Aspen (it was dark blue, however, with that half vinyl roof)

In 1986 I bought my first brand new car, a Chrysler Laser.

Yes, my father was a Chrysler man. But the first car I remember him driving was a 1955 Chevy of some type.

Mom didn't learn to drive until she was 39 year old; we lived in the city before that. She got that Belvedere, while my father got the Satellite for himself.

I have no idea what exH or DH first drove; they may have told me, but I don't remember. Neither do I remember what cars DDs first drove.

 

[tvguy]

My dad's was a '74 Buick Apollo. That thing was kind of on the border of everything that changed in the American car world. It could use leaded gas, but the next year was when pretty much everything required unleaded. It had a seatbelt buzzer that made a loud noise when the seatbelt wasn't latched. They got around it by latching it and sitting on top. My typical seat was in the front in my mom's lap.
.

Oh god, my mom had a 1974 Buick Apollo. WORST CAR EVER. 3 transmissions in 12,000 miles paid for by Buick, and when it started going out again at 16,000 miles and it was only 2 years old, I told mom to dump it. She traded it in on a brand new Ford Pinto Station wagon. She drove the Pinto 27 trouble free years.

 

[Klayfish]

Can't tell you about my parents, don't know much on that end.

Me: First car I drove was an '88 Chevy Nova that my parents gave me. First car I bought with my own money was an '80 Subaru DL wagon. I'm now up to something over 80 cars owned...in fact have one on the way being shipped to me now.

DW: I actually don't know what her first car was, I think it may have been a '89 Prelude. When I met her in '97, she was driving a '96 Accord

 

[tvguy]

I'm now up to something over 80 cars owned...in fact have one on the way being shipped to me now.

Wow. 80? I'm up to 3 in 41 years of driving, 6 if I count the spare cars DW and I have had as "weekend/vacation/investment" cars. DW is up to 4 in 41 years of driving.
My mom had 4 in 60 years of driving.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Ford Cortina in Silver. We had several after that. We loved those cars. I don't know if it was just a European model.

 

[Klayfish]

Wow. 80? I'm up to 3 in 41 years of driving, 6 if I count the spare cars DW and I have had as "weekend/vacation/investment" cars. DW is up to 4 in 41 years of driving.
My mom had 4 in 60 years of driving.

Like I've mentioned in other auto related threads, I'm a car nut. My wife calls me obsessed. Work in the auto world, my favorite hobby is racing cars, been reading magazines since I was 7, etc... So when I was old enough to own cars, I just can't feed the addiction enough. A lot of them have been low dollar cars, but not all...had some really awesome stuff before we had kids. Before we moved south a few years ago, we had 3.5 acres of property and a house with a 3 car garage. I had 4 cars stuffed in the 3 car garage, plus 3 cars outside...and no, it didn't look like the mental image you may be portraying. It looked respectable. I even used a real car in my Christmas display back then. My wife is a very patient woman...and thankfully she likes cars too.

 

[tvguy]

Like I've mentioned in other auto related threads, I'm a car nut. My wife calls me obsessed. Work in the auto world, my favorite hobby is racing cars, been reading magazines since I was 7, etc... So when I was old enough to own cars, I just can't feed the addiction enough. A lot of them have been low dollar cars, but not all...had some really awesome stuff before we had kids. Before we moved south a few years ago, we had 3.5 acres of property and a house with a 3 car garage. I had 4 cars stuffed in the 3 car garage, plus 3 cars outside...and no, it didn't look like the mental image you may be portraying. It looked respectable. I even used a real car in my Christmas display back then. My wife is a very patient woman...and thankfully she likes cars too.

Yeah, my wife and kids nagged me for a year until I bought my 1965 Mustang in 2015.

 

[robinb]

Me: 1972? VW 406. I bought it in 1983 and it lasted about 6 months before dying. It was a real POS!
DH: 1985 Toyota Tercel. Aka the "Great Blue Road Machine" lasted for over 12 years and nearly 200,000 miles.
DD: 2006 Mazda 3 (her current car). Was my in-laws car and came to us last year from FL with less than 30k on it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I don't really know about other family members. I know my first was a little Oldsmobile Calais. I think the year number was 1987.

This is a google image because I don't have old photo albums here, and if I did, I would be too lazy to scan one. It looked like this.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Me: A 10 year old 1965 American Motors Rambler station wagon. I was embarrassed to be seen in it.
Older brother: Same as above.
Father: Don't know what his first car was; I remember a 1961 Ford Galaxie.
Mother: The Rambler station wagon was the first I recall.

DW says hers was a 1975 Buick LeSabre. When I met her in college she was driving a 1979 Chevy Chevette.

 

[SC Minnie]

DH- I think a 70's impala or something, not sure. I remember him saying it was huge.

Me- parents let me drive their manual transmission Dodge Omni- looked like a box. When that car dies they bought be an '88 Hyundai Excel when they first came out. Another manual transmission and no AC. The first car I bought myself was a brand new '91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. I've only had 3 cars since that Cutlass-- 2 Explorers and my current Toyota Solara.

DD's first car was a 93 Mercury Topaz (she was born in '94). It served her well during HS and her first year in college. She is now driving DH's old 09 Highlander.

 

[bcla]

Oh god, my mom had a 1974 Buick Apollo. WORST CAR EVER. 3 transmissions in 12,000 miles paid for by Buick, and when it started going out again at 16,000 miles and it was only 2 years old, I told mom to dump it. She traded it in on a brand new Ford Pinto Station wagon. She drove the Pinto 27 trouble free years.

It was just another GM rebadge. Nothing about it was really Buick, since it was just a Chevy Nova with minor styling differences. I think the Nova had been around longer with the body style.

I don't know about reliability. My dad was always bringing it to a local retired mechanic who worked out of his house. I don't think he charged much, and what he did may not even been legal. I think he just loved working on cars so much. And he was working on that car a lot. When my dad ended up leasing a Mercedes, this mechanic told my dad that if it ever needed servicing, he'd love to work on it.

 

[tvguy]

It was just another GM rebadge. Nothing about it was really Buick, since it was just a Chevy Nova with minor styling differences. I think the Nova had been around longer with the body style.

I don't know about reliability. My dad was always bringing it to a local retired mechanic who worked out of his house. I don't think he charged much, and what he did may not even been legal. I think he just loved working on cars so much. And he was working on that car a lot. When my dad ended up leasing a Mercedes, this mechanic told my dad that if it ever needed servicing, he'd love to work on it.

I think the 350 V8 was Buick in the Apollo, Oldsmobile in the Omega, Pontiac in the Ventura/GTO and Chevy in the Nova. And unique grills and taillights, other than that, identical and came off the same assembly line. Popular Science did a road test of one that came through with a Nova badge on the dash, and Omega badge on the passenger front fender, Ventura badge on the driver's side, and it was an Apollo.

 

[tvguy]

Me: A 10 year old 1965 American Motors Rambler station wagon. I was embarrassed to be seen in it.
.

One of my fraternity brothers had a 1965 Rambler wagon. He is a minister now, and at the time he used it to shuttle kids around from the youth program he was interning at. We used to get coupon books from the University from local merchants. Goodyear's coupon was an oil change for $3 (this WAS 1976). It was just a loss leader to get cars in and give you a repair estimate for other things. He kept the tires and brakes in top notch condition, and I took him over to pick it up after the oil change and they handed him an estimate for $1,500 in repairs he needed. NONE were safey related. He pointed out he only paid $500 for the car, and no thanks on the repairs.

 

[bcla]

I think the 350 V8 was Buick in the Apollo, Oldsmobile in the Omega, Pontiac in the Ventura/GTO and Chevy in the Nova. And unique grills and taillights, other than that, identical and came off the same assembly line. Popular Science did a road test of one that came through with a Nova badge on the dash, and Omega badge on the passenger front fender, Ventura badge on the driver's side, and it was an Apollo.

Was all that intentional? I've heard all about the problems GM had with quality in the 70s and 80s. They were about ready to shut down the factory in Fremont because of a pervasive culture of taking shortcuts. The one rule from the supervisors was that the assembly line never shuts down. Of course that meant that a lot of stuff may have been put on incorrectly and needed a costly fix before the car was delivered, but that was someone else's problem. That was before the factory went through the joint project with Toyota that originally made Corollas and the subcompact Nova rebadge.