Y'all's First Car?

[CDoherty95]

Hey y'all

I'm 17 soon,and in Ireland when you're 17 you're are able to apply for your driving test.

I've driven quite a bit before in big parking lots and on a beach,and my parents seem confident that I can pass my test (I wish I could be as sure as them haha!)

Unfortunately both my parents drive 2 litre cars,and rely on them to get them to and from work.

The same make and model as my dads car

The same make and model as my moms car.

I was speaking to my parents the other night about borrowing their cars, and we struck up a deal. Because there cars have relatively big and thirsty

engines,and only Boss Hogg would be able to afford to insure me with either of the cars, they said that if I can find a decent,safe,relatively cheap to buy,run and insure they would pay the insurance and 3/4s of the price,providing that I helped give people lifts to and from places.

Ideally I would love to get a charger,but because they are unbelievably rare in Ireland and cost as much as NASA to run, I'm going to have to settle on a small,modest 1.5 liter or under hatchback. I wont get my full license until mid , so I have plenty of time left to find a small car.

So far I have my heart set on two different cars.

The VW Golf (or more commonly known as the Rabbit in America). This is one of my all time favorite cars. My dad bought one for my mom while she was pregnant with her first baby (me) and she reluctantly sold it in 2003 to trade it for her current car. She said it was the worst decision she ever made.

Or a little Mini Cooper

So just out of curiosity,what was your first car? And did anything from your past influence what car you bought? Or was it perhaps a childhood dream car? I just thought it would be an interesting topic

[CNH-320]

Before I had even finished reading your post I was going to suggest a mini. It would look great in orange with a flag on the roof (other than the union jack) & 01 on the doors. Either car you have chosen would be a good 1st car. Mini's have tonnes of aftermarket parts available (can even buy brand new bodyshells) either way it would be a good idea buying a 'Haines' repair manual for whatever car you buy to help with increasing your knowledge on how to do basic repairs if needed. You will do great in your driving test!

Brad

[Brian Coltrane]

Brad has some good advice there. I also think you'd do fine with the VW, as those are pretty reliable. Your first car needs to be safe and practical and affordable.

How much driving do you plan to be doing, on the daily average? You might wanna ask yourself how badly you really need a car at this stage. For example, if you're going to attend a college out of town in the near future, and living in a dorm, it may not make a lotta sense to plunk down money on a car right now.

Me, I was completely stupid when I was 19. I not only HAD to have a car, (since I was working) I had to have a fast car. So I bought a used 1974 Chevy Nova that was mostly a V8 350 motor with some metal attached. It looked something like this, for the two weeks I had it:

Two weeks later, the car was totalled, and I was temporarily wrecked. I had been barreling down the highway when a station wagon pulled out directly in front of me, from a side road. I t-boned that sucker hard. I had just enough strength to turn off the still-roaring engine after the wreck. Then, I woke up in the ambulance when they were cutting off my clothes.

So...first cars. They can teach you a lot. Mine taught me to always wear my seatbelt. ( I hadn't been wearing one at the time, and there were no airbags in these things. I was lucky that I only needed a cast and some stitches and some weeks to heal.)

Anyhow! With today's gas prices and insurance costs, play it smart, whatever you do. Later in life, you can give yourself the luxury of a "fun" car while still having a daily driver, and you'll have learned a lot by then without paying too high of a price.

[RogerDuke]

My first car was a royal blue 1975 Mustang II that I took over payments of when my brother went into the Marines in 1977. The payments were 99 dollars and I had a steady part time job after school so it was no problem making them. I owned it for 11 years and it will always be my favorite vehicle.....

Unless I get my dream vehicle someday, a white 1973 F-150 Uncle Jesse truck!

[Meadowmufn]

My first car was a 1990 Honda CRX that my dad bought me used, actually salvaged, when it was a year old. I loved that car, named it Pancho. It was small, but had enough guts for some fun. We did manage to get 6 people into it once though, on a short trip to the softball field. Someone shifted position though, and threw us into neutral. LOL! Got it up to 105 in the California desert. I also caught air on some raised train tracks near the high school (if only it had a dixie horn. LOL) and found out much later I'd cracked a CV boot. Oops. Hehehe. My dad had the car for many years after I bought my current car, a 1998 Firebird Trans Am. I think we had that CRX for about 15-16 years and barely spent a penny on maintenance in all that time. He'd still have it if it hadn't been stolen and stripped. Grrrrrr...

That car was so light that me and a friend or two once picked up the back end and moved it when I parked a little too far from the curb. LOL.

[Val Strate]

Oh boy, first cars! My first car was a 1989 charcoal Chevy Capric Classic. It was a boat of a car, and built like a tank. I had it for only a week after my driver's test and I ended up putting it in an 18 foot drainage ditch after going home from a 4-H meeting. It was late and another car was coming at me down a narrow country road and I over compensated and put the car down in the ditch. I had my seat belt on but was trapped in the ditch and water was just starting to leak in. I probably could have climbed through the window but my folks told me to remain still in a wreck and try to get help, (that's an oximooran right there if I ever heard one). So trapped in the ditch in the late hours of the evening, I simply screamed for help until the nearest farmhouse resident came and shined a flash light down in the ditch and found me. They told me to wait there and 911 was on the way. I was then helped out of the car by a friendly fireman and examined by EMT's. The only thing the emergency room found wrong with me was a case of new driver bruised pride and some black and blue marks that showed up a day or two later. I was told because I wore my seat belt, I was alive and not eject out the window and possibly under my car. Yes, seat belts save lives and that's not the first time I can thank a seat belt for saving me, and it won't be the last.

So remember your seat belt! Buckle up for safety Buddy Roe!

[MaryAnne]

My first car was a 1988 Plymouth Horizon, known affectionately as "The Blue Horizon." LOL

My parents bought this car off my brother and I drove it through college and for the first couple of years of working. I helped pay for repairs and the registration. It was a good little car and I liked it. I can't remember what finally did it in but it was something that would have cost more to fix than the car was worth at the time. LOL

Now, as for the first car I bought myself, yes I was influenced by my childhood and past. LOL. I always wanted a Firebird. I especially wanted the Firebird like what James Garner drove in The Rockford Files...

Yes, I liked the Smokey and the Bandit TA as well, but the Rockford Firebird was just freakin' kewl. Understated, no nonense straight forward in apperance (no screamin' chicken on the hood, no t-top, no flares on the wheel wells, no spoiler) but able to handle whatever situation Jim found himself in (I love watching Garner drive this thing in the episodes because you can tell that he liked driving it.)

I loved all the "hot car" shows of the 80s. The Dukes, of course, but also Hardcastle and McCormick, The A-Team, The Fall Guy and Knight Rider. Yah, since I liked Firebirds, I dug KITT too.

When it came to getting my first car tho', I had never figured on getting a Firebird. (I had my mind set on finding a used Grand Am if I could at the time.) Then the mechanic who worked on all of our cars tells me one day that he found a Firebird. It was one he had towed in and the owner apparently had decided to abandon it (two rods were thrown in it.) The mechanic had to wait so many days before being able to take possession of the car and then I could buy it.

Keep in mind, I had no idea what year it was or what it looked like or anything. I didn't care. It was a FIREBIRD. Gimmie! LOL

When I went over to finally look at it with my mother she thought I was nuts. It was a 1986 Firebird -with T-tops. The car had a blown motor and needed a new one. The tires were flat. The interior was trashed and oh yeah, it was a stick shift. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

But I didn't care! I wanted it!! LOL I had the money saved up to pay for the motor and the car and new tires. A little elbow grease took care of the rest. And driving a standard? No problem, I had learned a little on my dad's truck, I'd practice more! And I did, literally by driving around the yard and house and up and down the street with it. Heheheheh!

Unlike some of the stories you've read here tho', I still have my first car....

I've had a lot of folks tell me it reminds them of KITT. LOL

Over the years I've done work on the car by bits n' pieces, fixin' this, replacing that. Since the above photo was taken I've had body work done (you can't see it here but the passenger side rear quarter panel had rust in the wheel well and there were rust patches on other places on the car), new paint, partial floor pans replaced and I'm in the process of redoing the interior.

I love the car and I intend to hang on to it for as long as I can but I still pine for that '77/'78 tho'...

[Alex-Dukes]

Mary, you could make a replica of car KITT.

[Alex-Dukes]

I like cars General Lee, KITT, Delorean and many others, because they are spectacular.

[HossC]

My first car was a 1984 Mk I Ford Orion - basically a European Mk III Ford Escort with a trunk. Unlike the picture below, which shows the top-of-the-range Ghia model, mine was a tatty mid-range version with the grille of an Escort (five horizontal bars instead of three). I think it cost about £300. It gave me my first taste of freedom, but at a price (luckily only financial). The original engine expired, mainly due to the oil and temperature gauges not working. I also had a wheel bearing go at 70mph and didn't know it had gone until I tried to stop and found it had shattered the brakes. It was involved in two accidents while it was parked up, and broken into twice - once to steal my tools from the trunk and once to steal a broken radio. It was sad to see it go, but also a relief.

My current car is 12 years old, and the other day I realized something. There are no vanity license plates in Ireland (unlike the US and UK) so all plates start with the last two digits of the year of issue (followed by a letter or two for the county of issue and a sequential number). My car may not be a blue Mustang with flames, but I can say that I drive a Double Zero .

[CDoherty95]

Well summers here (the Irish weather doesn't make it feel like summer though) and I've been busy fixing and scrapping bikes for cash. I've saved up a decent amount, but will hopefully be getting four or five old bikes soon which I could be able to sell for up to €350 each! Unfortunately I still won't have enough for a golf or mini, but I have found another car that I've grown to love that I can afford.

This a 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer, 1.3 liter. It was used for years as a rally car, and became very popular in Ireland. As a result of this, they are always in the auto classifieds for not very much. A 2000 1.3 glx model, for instance can cost from €350 to €1500. And because it's only a 1.3 its very economical.

And yet more good news!! I'm not sure what car insurance is like in America, and to be honest I'm not too sure about Irish car insurance either. But my dad works in insurance, and has both cars insured in his name. He also has a type of policy called "open insurance" which means anyone with a full licence between the age of 25 and 70 can drive the two cars as long as he knows about it. However because he works in insurance he has open insurance for all ages with any sort of licence. I think he only pays something like €500 a year to insure both cars. I haven't spoken to my dad yet, but I know it's not very much to add another car to his policy.

So in theory I could buy a Lancer, and only have to pay for tax and fuel, and not worry about insurance. Now all I need to do is pass the theory test!

[HossC]

Well summers here...

Are you sure .

So in theory I could buy a Lancer, and only have to pay for tax and fuel, and not worry about insurance. Now all I need to do is pass the theory test!

I'm surprised there are still cheap cars around after the scrappage scheme took so many off the road. In case you haven't checked, you'll be looking at €333/year for road tax on a 1300cc engine. Thanks to changes last year you'll also have to get an NCT (safety check) every year on a car over 10 years old.

[Uncle Jessie579]

I'm 14 and trying to get my ag permit. I practice driving every once in a while in a 1975 Ford F-750 dump truck that we use on our farm during harvest. I also have a 1947 Chevy Loadmaster sitting in the yard. It doesn't run but I'm trying to get it fixed. The first step is getting the oil and gas drained. That's a chore. That drain cap won't come off for the life of me. It's a 7/8 in. bolt head that is stuck. I've tried rust bomb, oil, a ratchet, a wrench, I've hammered on it, got sidetracked by bees, hammered it again............ The list goes on and on. Can you give me advice on how to get it off and how to rebuild the engine? I need it ASAP.

[Hobie Hartkins]

Try WD-40 and soak it real good and let it sit for a while before trying to take it off.

[Mark B / Scooter Davenport]

My first was a 1981 Mazda 626 coupe.  Shortly thereafter I had a 1983 Pontiac Fiero; a constant maintenance headache, but I loved the car!

 

[Roth Potter]

Looks more Knight rider then Dukes tbh.

[Mark B / Scooter Davenport]

Looks more Knight rider then Dukes tbh.

 

I was more in to KR at the time, so I agree!  I thought of it as a little KITT.

 

M

[JRC99]

I just got mine in November. 1996 Dodge Dakota. His name's Kipper. Friend said it's a good name for a D OG.

[Spike]

good luck with the Transmission, those 1990's Dodge transmissions are junk. Engines can run forever but the transmissions need rebuilt with good aftermarket parts.

[Hobie Hartkins]

My first car was a two door brown  1979 Toyota Corolla!

[JRC99]

Trans was already rebuilt once. It's a 5 speed too.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Dixie2004