1996 Chevy Silverado. It was a good truck. But trucks don't really fit my personality.
First car?
- Thread starter retroenzo
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Well we have to remember that the Ford Escort was the Best selling car most years of it's life in the UK and is the 2nd best selling car of all time in the UK, the Ford Fiesta has since surpassed it.
1981 Toyota Celica... Cherry red with a black underbody... My dad bought it new and I inherited it... Was an amazing car... Finally sold it when it was going to start costing more than I could afford to maintain... sadly, the boyfriend of the woman I sold it to wrapped it around a tree several months later... I cried. 
The first car I owned was a 1963 Dodge Dart. 6 cylinders, with a push-button (!) automatic transmission. I bought it around 1977 when I was 16 for $125. The previous owner had planned to repaint it, but never got around to it. But he had taken all the chrome and trim off the car and stuck it in a box in the (amazingly large) trunk. I never painted it either, but I put all the trim back on, so it didn't look so much like a black bomb. Oh yeah, and the trunk lock was missing, so I had to use a screwdriver to open it. 
It was a great little car, handled well, and got me everywhere I needed to go around town. It couldn't go with me to college a couple of hours away, so it stayed parked at home. When my parents moved to another state shortly afterwards, it was loaded with stuff and towed there. Sadly, it sat there for several years until they sold it for salvage.
Other notable cars I grew up with include a 1969 Chevrolet Bel-Aire 9-passenger station wagon that I learned to drive in, a 60s-era green VW Beetle in which I learned to use a standard transmission, and a wide-bodied GMC Pacer my parents owned for a while. With all that glass, MAN! that car got hot in the summer...
It was a great little car, handled well, and got me everywhere I needed to go around town. It couldn't go with me to college a couple of hours away, so it stayed parked at home. When my parents moved to another state shortly afterwards, it was loaded with stuff and towed there. Sadly, it sat there for several years until they sold it for salvage.
Other notable cars I grew up with include a 1969 Chevrolet Bel-Aire 9-passenger station wagon that I learned to drive in, a 60s-era green VW Beetle in which I learned to use a standard transmission, and a wide-bodied GMC Pacer my parents owned for a while. With all that glass, MAN! that car got hot in the summer...
Surprised at this, I've owned 2 Kias over the last few years and have found them to be excellent cars.
The first car I owned was a 1963 Dodge Dart. 6 cylinders, with a push-button (!) automatic transmission. I bought it around 1977 when I was 16 for $125. The previous owner had planned to repaint it, but never got around to it. But he had taken all the chrome and trim off the car and stuck it in a box in the (amazingly large) trunk. I never painted it either, but I put all the trim back on, so it didn't look so much like a black bomb. Oh yeah, and the trunk lock was missing, so I had to use a screwdriver to open it.
My second car was a 1974 Pontiac Ventura with a bungee cord holding the hatchback closed.
I think I just got really unlucky with mine because it just kept having expensive faults. The last straw was the air conditioning unit. Because for some reason it was connected to the power steering it meant that I'd either have a loud horrible sounding noise in the engine or have no power steering. For a little car it was a swine to drive with no power steering.
That was when it was traded in.
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All my cars so far have been manual. I've driven a couple of automatics, but with driving manual all the time, auto just doesn't quite feel as comfortable for me. After the Chevette, I went Astra, Mazda 626 then the VW Golf. So far, that last has been with me the longest.
My first car was a hand-me-down Ford Taurus from my father. That lasted a few years but ultimately fell apart because of salt damage. The only car I have ever purchased for myself is a Ford Focus, which I am still driving, having paid it off about 10 years ago. I am saving up to pay cash for a full electric Focus when I need a new vehicle.
I do not know how to drive manual transmission. The idea terrifies me.
I do not know how to drive manual transmission. The idea terrifies me.
Having always had a manual car, I would say they are easy to drive. But in the UK we tend to learn to drive in a manual so we are taught how to use the clutch. Besides if you pass your driving test in an automatic car you can only drive automatics, if you pass in a manual you can drive both manuals and autos.
On the rare occasions I have driven an automatic I find the experience weird because I am so used to a manual.
My first car was a hand-me-down from my parents, a 1978 Datsun 510 (i.e., "A10" or "paleo-Stanza"). Her name was Arabella. She gave her metallic little life for me on the 5 freeway, in Commerce, CA, somewhere between the Airfan Building and the Uniroyal Citadel. Somebody stopped short in front of me, I locked the wheels, skidded in a question-mark-shaped pattern, and ended up across my traffic lane. Then a guy in a Tercel slammed into my just-rebuilt front-end, pointing me back in the right direction, but no longer capable of moving under my own power.
When Arabella was hauled off to her final rusting place, she had an artificial cala lily attached to her antenna, and an epitaph on her hood: Rust in Peace.
I'm still driving my second car: a 1998 Camry, which hasn't developed enough character to rate a name. I've taken a vow that it will be the last hydrocarbon-burning vehicle I ever own.
When Arabella was hauled off to her final rusting place, she had an artificial cala lily attached to her antenna, and an epitaph on her hood: Rust in Peace.
I'm still driving my second car: a 1998 Camry, which hasn't developed enough character to rate a name. I've taken a vow that it will be the last hydrocarbon-burning vehicle I ever own.
I've always had manuals since passing my test in 1991. Last year I took the plunge on a 2015 kia optima automatic, white, with all the toys - it even self parks, and I'm not sure if I want to go back to a manual, unless I bought something sporty, which I can't see myself doing any time soon. I do drive 20k a year and it's just took so much stress out of my commute
I enjoy driving a with a stick shift, but my wife, despite having grown up on a farm, never learned to use a manual transmission, and has no interest in ever doing so. Likewise, my daughters have shown no interest, either. If the lotto ever comes through, maybe I'll get a classic Mustang as "Dad's toy".
Back in the day...I tried to learn how to drive a stick shift.
I managed to crash into a utility pole.
So that was the end of THAT failed premise...
I managed to crash into a utility pole.
So that was the end of THAT failed premise...
All that needs to be said was my first car was an embarrassing blue piece of crap.
My car was a 1989 Nissan Sentra, which my sister bought used as her first car and which was bought for me a few years later -- for the modest sum of $500. Unfortunately someone stole it after the car died on the interstate and I got a ride to a tow-truck place. I was gone for perhaps 40 minutes, and the cops didn't tow it so someone else did.
Back in the day...I tried to learn how to drive a stick shift.
I managed to crash into a utility pole.
So that was the end of THAT failed premise...
With one of my mates another friend was trying to teach him to drive, so they spent the first hour just practicing on the gears and clutch before moving for the first time. All the practice went straight out of the window until he was reminded to change gear. Fortunately, he just bounced it off the curb a few times.
The only place where an auto could be better than a manual is if you do a lot of city or stop-start driving, which I don't. But city driving is a slightly different skill set to driving more rural (or less congested roads).
Once you've learned clutch control it becomes muscle memory and you do it without really thinking about how to do it
1979 Chevrolet Camaro. Loved that car. We've been through near-death and life together. Sadly, salty east-coast winters rusted it out so bad that it would have cost me over $15,000 just to properly repair the cancer - not including the full interior, outer body and drive train resto-mod I wanted to do - a full Z-28 upgrade. I wound up breaking it down and parting it out along with the pieces I collected over the years back in 2010. Very sad time for me and difficult decision to let it go. I still have the original horn button, spare tire and lug wrench.
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