How did you pay for your first car?

My parents loaned me the money for my 1960 Bel-Air 4-door.

 

Mine was a Dark Green 4 speed 73 Vega GT hatchback in 1979,

Paid $250.00 for it, that I made working after school and on weekends at

a Shell Station.

 

How'd I miss this thread?
Anyway....

It was the summer of 1969, just after I had graduated high school. Folks wouldn't allow us kids to have our own vehicles until after we had graduated - we had the use of mom's '63 Falcon.

I had saved up about $1,500 as I recall from a paper route and my first couple of 'paycheck' jobs - the local IHOP, and a cafeteriia type burger place called Woody's Smoorgasburger.

Dad and I went out one Saturday car shopping. I don't remember what other vehicles caught my fancy, but back then I wasn't specifically looking for a wagon. Found the '63 Olds Cutlass post coupe at Santa Monica Ford. Paid $800 for it as I recall. Kept it for maybe 8 months or so until I saw that '64 Pontiac Ventura batting its eyes at me.....I think it was the power windows that 'got' me. bought the Pontiac before I sold the Olds......

 

Back in 1988 when I was 14, i worked on a Dairy farm milking 89 cows, making $6 per hour, mind you, minimum wage was $3.85 back then. I saved up my paychecks and only spent money on gas and oil for the premix for my 1985 Honda 250R 3 wheeler that I rode back and forth to work and on the trails for fun with my older brothers and neighbors. I bought my 1968 GTO 4 speed with rotted quarters and no motor for $550 cash. I bought a 77 425 Caddy for a whopping $100 from my brother after he demoed the rotted out 35K original mile car that he bought from an old lady who just let it sit and rot for several years. The car got the heart transplant and spent the next 2 years getting body work during my body shop class at school and on my spare time when it was home from school being out. I hung new 1/4's and replaced the floors as they were getting weak. I sprayed it Dupont Centari single stage black(original color) and found some half way decent white seats and interior pieces from a bone yard in Florida when we went down to visit my oldest brother. It was a good looker, great runner and was even getting almost 18mpg with the fat block caddy torque monster under the hood. I could get posi rubber clear into 4th gear with the 3.73 gears and M-22 tranny. Best I ever got out of it was 13.64 @104.8mph on Cooper Cobra 275/60 street radials and full exhaust. That was turning the 275/60's hard off the line and braking them loose with each gear change. With some slicks and open exahaust, I have no doubt the bone stock 425 could push it deeeeeeep into the low 13's and possibly even break into the high 12's.

 

49 Lincoln Cosmopolitan limo. Got it free from a friend of my dads. He bought it from a funeral parlor with 55 thou miles on it. He wrecked the whole left side but still ran great. Drove it for another 7 thou, let it sit for 6 months and gave it to me.
One of the many that got a way!

That HUGE back seat was frickin awesome!!!

 

it was my sister handy down. it was 1967 amc rogue

 

Got a part-time job when I was 12 and started saving dough. After getting a "real" job after high-school I saved up $3000 for a 5 year old 1984 Reliant wagon. I got taken, but man I loved that car! My father tried pretty hard to convince me to buy the '71 Mercury Cyclone that two old ladies drove weekly to get groceries since new. Kids are stupid and rarely listen to their parents.

 

When I was 16, I bought a sportbike with money I saved working part time. Every payday, I would go into the dealer and pay down what I could. It took all winter but I finally did pay it off, much to my parents dismay! I still have the original sales sheet with every installment payment made.

 

My first car was a 1964 Thunderbird. I bought it with money from my first summer job, working in a TV/appliance store.

When I was little, I was obsessed with Thunderbirds. My aunt bought a new '69 T-Bird, and I was hooked. At 13, I was a member of the Big D Little Birds. I just wanted to be around them and learn all I could about them. I would collect the beautiful ads from National Geographic and Look. One ad, in particular, intrigued me...it showed a aquamarine '64 on the edge of a lake. I loved the color and look of it. This is the exact photo I was nuts about...



In 1979, I found a beat-up '64 sitting at a junky old gas station/repair shop, and I had to have it. It had a pretty dang good aquamarine metallic vinyl interior, and the unfortunate original color "Peacock", a solid aqua that was so bright and harsh, one had to look away. But it had the interior that would make the magical car from the photo a reality.

I would go by and look at this non-running junker just about everyday, and finally found out how much the owner wanted for it...$650.00.
Way too much, and I could have bought a much nicer car for not much more, but it didn't matter. I had to have this one.

It sat on my parent's driveway for a year, with me cleaning on the interior and planning the car's tranformation.

I enrolled in an automotive course at a community college and rebuilt the engine. Then I took their auto body courses, and painted this beast. Aquamarine Metallic. The car was beautiful.

But it was never a good car. When I first got it, it's trunk was full of peagravel, just a small indication of how abused this car was.

The lovely paint job I applied was soon to become a fractured disaster...the instructors at the college course were really bad, and didn't think anything of having a quarter-inch of red oxide lacquer primer over iffy bondo work. The gorgeous aquamarine lacquer under a lacquer clearcoat was a timebomb in the Texas heat. But it was sure beautiful for a short time.

This is the car I learned so much on, but it was usually what not to do.

I have an old slide of my first car, in a parking lot overlooking White Rock Lake, with a huge bolt of lightning in the distance. It looks like an ad. Maybe I can find it and post it here.

David

 

Bought a '58 Chevy Nomad Wagon in 1968 for $50. I was 15 and paid cash for it with money I made from a Paper Route. It had a 348 and a 3-Speed Trans.

There is a story that really goes along with it. I wanted a car since I was 12. We lived in the city in a rented house with no room really for an unregistered car. I pestered my Dad about it now and then and he finally said "You can buy a car if you want to, but you can't keep it here!" Two weeks later I came running in the house "I found a Garage!!" "It's on the next road and it's only $6 a month". "I'm finally buying a car!!" My Dad said "No you're not!!" I then said "You said......." And being the fair man he was, he said "OK". That car sure was fun.

Bill

 

A lot of these rides are high-end (in my book) Classics that I will never have a chance at owning in 50 years. It's a '98 Dodge Stratus here and a 2002 Taurus. Considering whats happened recently, I'm not selling EITHER car. I've dug around in barns, fields, etc. NEVER found a car. I honestly think those days are in the history books. I've found junkyards with classics, but they're all beyond repair or still out of my range. There is a 1950 Dodge not too far away, but the place wants a fortune for it I'm sure. I almost bought a '67 Corvair Monza convertible...the college kid (grand son) of the yard did NOT want to deal and came up with every excuse not too. His dad later sold it and another Monza to a guy in Indianapolis.

 

My first car purchase was a 69 Nova MMMMMMMMM loved it It took my whole paycheque but I got it...never drove it...but I bought it

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=1969+nova+pictures&qpvt=1969+nova+pictures&FORM=IGRE


But the next car that I bought I drove...1990 Blazer we bonded well...had alot of fun with that one...

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10269&page=3

 

Don't confuse the cars in this thread with Norm's reference. The posts your seeing in this thread are just walks down memory lane. Folks bought these cars years ago in some cases, when they weren't classics yet. They were just cars then, and in some instances, undesirable ones for the time. What Norm is referring to are the members here who post each month about having just found a sweet wagon for a great deal. This is still going on today. These cars are out there waiting to be found for those who are hunting. In many cases those hunts can go on for years before someone finds "just the right car" but they get found nonetheless. Don't give up hope. That pristine-'58-Corvette-stored-in-a-barn-since-new-by-a-grandmother-who-didn't-trust-herself-to-drive-it might be an urban myth or at least a rarity, but there are still many great cars at excellent prices available. I find that the most useful tool to keep in my garage is a box load 'o patience.

 

Funny you should mention not driving it, Fannie. Technically my first car was a '76 Chevelle Malibu that I bought for $300. I brought it home and swore to repair all of the holes and make it live again. After several months of tinkering with it and filling it full of bondo in my parents driveway I ultimately sold it to a derbier for just enough money to buy myself a pair of work boots to start a new job. I don't really count it as my first car since I only drove it twice and fought like heck to keep it running both times. It clattered and coughed all the way to the derbier's house before it died in his driveway. I smiled happily and said "Have fun!" as I walked away. It was another year before I finally bought my K-Car.

 

Oh yes, I understand that point. Back in the 60s, no one care for a '57 Chevy or a '55 Ford. No pity for a Plymouth Fury either. Those guys in those days wanted Model Ts and As. Back in the 70s and 80s, a '67 Camaro or a '65 Chevelle was considered junk and seen fit for the used lot or junkyard. Over time, interests changed we are in the world of today (sometimes a miserable change if you think about it, LOL).

right now, most will deny it, but the future Classics could be Dodge Shadows, Buick Grand Nationals, or perhaps a Ford Taurus. The days of the 1972 rule will come to a close as time passes.


As for my first car story...

The job market is down the toilet and I gave up about a year or two ago. I couldn't even get a job at the McDonalds. They have people in thier 30s and 40s working-"experience"-flipping burgers. All the stores want 18-yr olds. Phah! I finally got my first job working for the school part time. I was to clean up after halftime and after the game. I got to watch the football games for free! This was for my high school and only at the home games. It was only a part time job obviously. I did it every year. Meanwhile, I was a Hot Wheels collector and I don't buy much, but I still do a little here and there. Been in it for 10-11 years now. I expanded my interests. I began dealing in everything from vintage toys, to car parts. Old vacuum cleaners to antique cabinets. Picking around at the antique stores, barns, junkyards, estate sale, garage sales. buying anything I can make a buck on. Junkyard season is over here sadly, but spring time, I'm finishing stripping a rare '72 Montego GT. I don't make a ton of money, but its better than nothing. I also got into scrap metal in 2007. I quit when the market crashed. Too much work, too little moeny. When a job oppurtunity comes up, I'm there!

When I was 15 1/2 we had two cars, but my parents are divorced and gone a lot. So it owuld be stupid to get a drivers license and not a have a car...so, when I was 16, in Nov. My dad was unemployed due to a company collapsing. Our Dodge Stratus, a 1998 at 265,296 miles, died of transmission slipping. It can still drive, but not far. Well, it was perfect timing, he was hired a week later, and I kept him from junking the Dodge after he bought a Taurus. That became my motivator to get my license. I worked that and got to doing the repairs on the Dodge. I was going to do all the repairs BUT the tranny. That I can't do. The Taurus dumped a trans REAL bad last summer and dad was going to fix it and keep it awhile longer. He bought a used Escape shortly after moving into our new house. Turns out, he decided to give me the Taurus. I am keep both cars becuase I fear I may need a back up. This has ALMOST been the case several times.