The first car I drove was my grandpa's old '72 Ford Maverick piece of shit. It didn't last long; the radiator had so many holes it that there were rocks in it. The heat didn't work, the A/C didn't work, the radio only came in AM, the license plates fell off if you slammed the door, and it ran on regular gas---not unleaded, regular gas. There was only one gas station in town at the time that still sold regular gas. The car finally died about the time the station switched to all unleaded.
The first car that was actually MINE was also a Ford---and '87 Ford Tempo. Basically, it was box on wheels with a hamster-powered engine. I bought it used and kept it for years. It got me from A to B and made college SOOOO much easier. It also, however, needed major repairs on a shockingly regular basis.
Thus began my long, devoted distrust of all things Ford.