My first car was a 1968 Renault 10 that I got in 1973 when I turned 16.( I had had my learner’s permit for two years.) It was really cute with a white stripe. Mechanically, it was a piece of junk. Putting it into reverse was always iffy. I only parked in drive through spots just in case.

I had it for only a few months before it got rear ended by a kid about the same age as me. He was driving his dad’s big old Chrysler. My little Renault was a write off. ☹️

I then got a 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88. Light blue. It was pretty fancy. It even had a cigarette lighter in the backseat area🙄. It was a tank. I loved that car. In the summer of 1974 I drove it from Calgary to the Spokane World‘s Fair. I think about it now and realise that I was only 17 years old at the time. I can’t believe my parents let me do that.

My first car was a hand-me-down 1970 station wagon. I beat that one hard, hit a few things, when reverse stopped working I sold it for a case of Bud. I’m spotting that at 1987, at which point I bought my first car, a blue 1980 Toyota pickup. It was lifted, bigger tires than the engine could handle well, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I drove over everything. Then I learned it could fly, and as I’m think about it, maybe Tom Petty wrote about me:

”I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings, coming down is the hardest thing.”

Yeah, those landings took a toll! The front axle was decidedly curved, motor mounts broken, etc. by the time I gave that away for a few bucks.

Next I destroyed a hand-me-down Jeep CJ5, then a hand-me-down Mustang. Somewhere in there I had an Escort, that didn’t stand up to trees as well as my old wagon did.

In 2001 I became an adult and bought my first new car. It was the first year of Ford’s short bed crew cab F150. So darned practical. I’m on my third now. I really wanted to be done with pickups, but when the last one’s tranny went last summer and I spent a few weeks trying to think about what car to buy, just in that short time there were too many instances of missing having a pickup. Of it being annoying enough that my wife pretty much insisted I get another. My hope is to eventually park this one, keep it on the side for it to last forever, but that’s not quite in the cards yet.

So there you have my history, sans my wife’s cars of course. Someday I’ll buy something special to love and cherish, someday.

My first car was a Ford Pinto hatchback. Yes, the car that blew up. Mine didn't blow up.

I also owned a 1976 Honda CVCC. I have friends that called it a beer can, for to its appearance. I could roll down the passenger side window, from the driver side, while the car was moving. There was no leaning over.

They overlap. I consider the Pinto my first car. But the Honda is really the one I drove around from place to place. You choose, they're both idiotic!

I apparently was born car crazy. My father died when I was 9, so I recall little about him, but according to my mom, he was also car crazy. He had a 1950's something Kaiser that I do recall. She sold it when he died and I always lamented that she hadn't kept it for me! She didn't drive, but when I became old enough to drive, I was obsessed with driving...some of her friends would let me drive their cars (when I had my permit). She bought me driving lessons for my 16th Christmas and I learned to drive a stick shift in the snow in Seattle (read many hills). I became an intrepid driver and am until this day. First car was a 1957 Chevy (cool for my generation) then a 1967 Pontiac GTO, probably the coolest car I've ever owned. During the gas crisis in the ??? 1970's we traded it for an Audi, which began my love affair with European cars. I have owned a couple of BMW's (love, love, love them) another Audi, and I just bought a Mercedes, trying to beat the tariffs. I couldn't find an Audi or Bmw that I loved and the Mercedes was a better deal. I don't love it, but it's ok.

I passed my test at 18 but I've never had a car of my own and never liked driving. In those days the test included hill starts, reversing round corners and emergency stops but not motorway driving. I've only ever used a family car. For long periods of my life I've not needed to drive and I haven't done so for at least a decade. Luckily I can walk everywhere I need to get to or use public transport. I never needed to ferry children because they too could walk wherever they needed. My son insisted on driving lessons but didn't get his own car until in his thirties. No way we'd let him use the family car. My daughter never wanted to learn. She's started lessons now in her late thirties and hates every minute of it. We now have an automatic and I really can't get to grips with not having to change gear. I've tried it and felt out of control. Kept pressing the brake automatically, thinking it was the clutch. Starting on a hill was terrifying with no clutch. And dropping downhill backwards into a parallel parking space was also scary. We live on a very steep hill and I remember watching an American tourist attempting to set off in their hire car and constantly slipping backwards risking hitting our car parked behind. Clearly not used to a clutch or hills.

My least hated cars were my mother's Morris Minor and our Mini. Small. Easy to understand. Minimal controls.

The sting ray corvette will always be the coveted car I've never even ever sat in. In high school the '76 mustang caught my eye as it was similar to the stingray in my untrained mind. The first car of substance I purchased was an '83 mustang. The '76s did not last as they were small and the salt of northern winter roads chewed them up. Similar in shape to the '76 the '83 was larger so less sleek and stingray-esque. It remains the only car I ever special ordered and had 100% control over the choice. DH traded her for a more practical four door when the first baby arrived. Some teen bought it and I hear totaled it within a year.

Plymouth Duster - bought my senior year of college in 1970

Plymouth Duster - replaced the first one that died an early death

Fiat Spider convertible - fun to drive but leaked and rusted

1st. station wagon - Oldsmobile - traded the little convertible when first kid was born

2nd. wagon - Buick

3rd wagon - Buick

Chevy Suburban

Chevy Tahoe

Chevy Tahoe

Toyota Sequoia

Lexus LX - SUV

Lexus GX - SUV

kids all on their own so now I get to drive what I want

Porsche Cayenne

Mercedes ML 350

Porsche Cayenne

Porsche Cayenne -

I had a 1980 something green chevy citation, with a sunroof that leaked like a seive in the rain. I would get soaked driving it after it rained. It was also covered in rust.

My parents eventually took pity on me and paid to have the sunroof fixed. About 2 months after that the radiator blew. That car was a piece of junk. 😄

@maire_cate - I love your progression! My wife test drove an X5, Q8, and GLE. Try as I may, I couldn’t get her to look at the Cayenne, and we ended up with the Mercedes. She likes it but recently expressed regret for not having gone with the Audi. She’s open to the idea of trading it in, which is not something we typically do. Need to figure out how to get her to sit in a Porsche. I’ve got access to a Macan but not a Cayenne. Wanna come to Long Island for a visit? 🙂

blue buick special. no idea what year it was, it was handed down to me from my mom when i was a senior in high school (1969). i could put $2 of gas in that car and go from sunup to sundown all weekend.

i wasn't allowed to drive it at night because the only way the headlights worked was if they were on high beam. looking back, i'm pretty sure my dad planned it that way. 🤣

My first car was a 1974 VW bug given by my folks and I drove it through high school and into college. I then bought a new 1985 Pontiac Grand Am which was a lemon. The only other new car I've bought since then was a 1996 Suburban that my wife drove for 25 years. I've driven 3 used Camrys over the years and got between 250K and 320K miles from each of them.

Not a car story, but I have very fond memories of our 1974 Ford pick up. It was a workhorse, with no power brakes, no power anything. Manual transmission, with the stick on the column. Male friends who would borrow the truck would wonder how I was able to drive that thing as small as I was. You really had to have some muscle to push in that clutch and turn that steering wheel. We finally traded with a friend of ours who was moving to rural acreage and needed a truck to do farm chores.

Food - My current Cayenne is my favorite of all the vehicles I've owned. Obviously the station wagons and large SUV's were perfect for what they offered - room for kids, friends of kids, and then car pooling kids to various activities and hauling sport stuff (I swear those hockey skates smelled up the car). Oh, I left out the 40 years we had Labradors, German Shepherds and Rottweilers. Two rotties in the back of a Suburban can fog up the windows pretty quickly.

We took all 3 kids (no dogs) on a long road trip from Philadephia to Syracuse to visit family, on to Toronto, Quebec, Bar Harbor and then took the ferry to Nova Scotia for a week and then back home via Camden and Groton in one of the station wagons. We had a tiny Radio Shack TV mounted on the arm rests between the front seats and a video player in the way-back - all plugged into the cigarette lighter. The kids amused themselves by watching Monty Python tapes while we drove. My children are all in their 40's now and still talk about the station wagon days and our road trips and who got to sit in the way-back.

I wish you could get your wife to try the Cayenne - it is smooth, comfortable and the perfect size. I've had the Macon a few times as a loaner but the Cayenne is a step above - both in size and driving pleasure. I am amazed at all the improvements in my 2025 over my previous 2020. Lots of little tweaks that have really improved the ride. And none of them have ever needed repairs - granted I only drive about 6,000 miles a year because we usually take DH's Jaguar when we go out.

My eldest son tried talking me into a Cayenne S (well he'd prefer a 911 - but that's ridiculous) in the hopes that one day he could buy it from me. But I'm not a 'more power' driver. I appreciate the quick acceleration that I get from my car but I don't speed or weave in and out of traffic. I'm a very conservative driver. Actually DS tells me that a Porsche is wasted on me. He's probably right but I love it.

Growing up, we always had a car bought used. Finally, my dad got a new car, a 1970 Impala, and he picked the exterior and interior colors. He was so happy. He only got to drive it for a few months. he died at 48 of a heart attack. When my mom had to sell it (women didn't drive back then), it was losing him all over again.

First car was a 1964 Ford Galaxy 500, and it had AC.

test

ded, you always make me laugh!

Ha-Ha! Many many years ago, I had a little brown honda civic. I loved it. It tootled around town like a little brat. Well, I drove it through one of those stay in your car safari places, and a huge, male brown bear started to have his way with us!!! That is until the zebra jeeps came on the scene and chased him away. Kinda scary, but fun.

I finally got my drivers license a week before I turned 21 because my B-in L had bought this old junker car from a broke friend and my dad was "fixing" it up soooo. It was an enormous Chevy Station wagon of a particularly hideous green. really old. It had sat outside for years in Florida and was badly rusted. It burned oil and smoked like a chimney. It was a piece of garbage. To crank it in the morning I had to go out and try about half an hour before I had to leave and then when I went the second time it would usually crank. The local kids would peel pieces of metal off from around the rear lights. I eventually sold it to the land lady for 75 dollars which was nuts but she insisted. She wanted it to haul junk. I had bought a 1968 Chevy Impala that had been souped up with some god awful double barreled carburetor. When all was going well it went like greased spit. It did not like to go slower than 80. I did not like to go at all. I hated to drive. When I was at Death Valley something went horribly wrong and I took it to the local garage out in the middle of nowhere Sarcobatus Flats Nev. They said it needed to have the carburetor rebuilt and wandered from Reno to Vegas looking for a kit for it. When I went to pick up the car the mechanic was sitting with his head down on the table crying. He had cried an actual puddle just like something from Alice in Wonderland and it turned out he was having to charge me $50 for the rebuild. Well he was also very drunk. I could not get anyone to just replace that stupid carburetor. I did always have fantastic luck with what I got charged to fix my car. I got charged $2.11 to replace the starter wires on the station wagon.

patriciae

I've had so many cars I don't recall them all. I've been driving legally since I was 14 with zero at-fault wrecks (I've been rear-ended twice and t-boned twice), and zero moving violations. I'm an exceptionally good driver, and have spent hours training and driving on racetracks. Yes, I'm female. I come from a long line of car-crazy, car-racing men. :)

Among the cars I've owned:

MGB roadster (1966, 1979)

MGB GT (1969, 1971)

Triumph Spitfire (197?)

BMW 316 (1984)

BMW M4 (2015)

Chevette (1981)

Ford Escort (1985)

Ford LTD (1977)

Ford Ranger (2002)

Oldsmobile Delta 88 (1978)

Datsun B210 (198?)

Nissan 240SX (198?)

Nissan Sentra (1989)

Nissan XTerra (2008)

Plymouth Neon (1995)

Plymouth Voyager (1995)

Ford Thunderbird V8 (1995)

Ford Mustang (2017)

Ford Mustang GT (2020)

Mercedes Benz SLK230 (2011)

Hyundai Veloster (2013)

Toyota Corolla (1989, 1997, 1999, 1999, 2023)

Toyota Camry (1988)

Toyota 4Runner (1997)

Toyota Tacoma (2020)

Mitsubishi Lancer (1987)

Chevrolet S10 (198?)

Skoda Octavia (2012)

Honda Jazz (2007)

Vauxhall Astra Estate (1991)

Renault Clio (2014)

There are others.

My hands-down favorites were the Benz and the Mustang GT.

I got my drivers license on my 16th birthday and bought my first car a few months later. A new Chevelle Malibu 327 with 4 on the floor, Positraction, and wide wheels. Paid for 50-50, my money and a loan from my parents.

The car was peppy but it handled like a road boat. It was the first and last American car I've owned. It was replaced at college graduation by a Volvo sedan. It was boring and sedate but it handled well, had plenty of room AND had AC.

Since then, I've had a list of mostly German cars. I had a somewhat idiosyncratic Peugeot 504 in the 80s. If you've ever owned or driven a French car, you know what I mean. It was by far the best handling and most comfortable car of the brunch but also a bit goofy. I also had an MGB roadster for about 15 years as a fun second car for me. (My wife was happy to ride in it but was never interested in driving it.)

I've been fortunate to have always been able to buy cars new, but for the MGB, which I think was about 5 years old and with low miles when I bought it. It's often said by former BL/Austin/MGB owners that it's easy to have low mileage cars. They often spend so much time in the shop or in a garage waiting to be repaired, it's hard to accumulate a lot of miles. But they were fun to drive.

Besides a comfortable seat, peppy performance and good handling on curvy roads, my two other non-negotiables for a car are a higher (ish) performance sound system with easy input of music from external sources and lots of tech gizmos and capabilities. I like to play and use them. In '99, after experiencing it in a rental car in Germany and getting bowled over, I bought a '99 Mercedes with a Blaupunkt GPS. It had a non-graphical character-based display, like PC-DOS, and a CD with the map data on it. It displayed all the necessary data - time of arrival, distance to next maneuver (turn), and the direction of a turn or highway split direction using small images (like what would be on a road sign). I've never been without GPS since and I usually prefer using onboard systems instead of a CarPlay/Android Auto capability. When I have a choice

I've never been a fan of Japanese cars, mostly for seat discomfort reasons. My European ancestry body seems to fit better in European cars. My wife likes them (has had mostly Toyotas with some German cars too) and only in circumstances when there's no choice will I ride with her. I hate when I have to drive her cars, I've always found them to be uncomfortable.

My first car was one I couldn’t drive when I was learning to drive as it was a stick. My dad let me learn in the family Buick (a beast). He had a 3-on-the-tree pickup he used in his business and taught me how to drive a stick. It took one afternoon and i probably sweated more than I ever had that day.

He had bought a white Comet station wagon for my mom to drive around town, so I got to drive that for a while and then he bought a blue 66 VW Bug. it was bery basic, no radio, but i loved that car. My dream car though was a GTO convertible. My good friend got one for graduation. A bunch of us were at a lake house party that summer and there were a couple of guys whose families came to our lake town for summer visits. We knew them from previous summers. One drove a GTO convertible. They had a bit too much beer that night and were worried about getting back to their house. I didn’t drink so i offered to drive them and have another friend follow. They were shocked i could drive the stick and handle that car. We had a great ride after i asked them if i could let it rip a couple of times. My friend who followed got a good laugh too because she knew I was dying to drive that car.

Favs – order of purchase:

Used - 1962 Chevrolet Impala convertible – bought in 1967 - sold in 1969 when I was drafted – my fav fav

Used - 1961 Chrysler Newport – push-button transmission – black – bought in 1971 (looked like Batman’s car)

New - 1975 BMW 2002 (great car)

After those - meh

I don’t have a personal car story but cars had been a large part of my adult life due to DH’s interest.

While in Germany we had a Simca coupe by Berton 1200. We couldn’t bring it back to US with us because we couldn’t afford the cost of converting it to pass US specs. Headlights, windshield etc. Instead we bought our first new car, a TR-6 convertible, from International Auto Works & took delivery of it in Jamaica, NY after landing at McGuire AFB. Sold it when AF moved us from CA to NE. Not the place for a convertible! We got a Chevy Nova, the US anniversary edition, the first automatic we’d owned. Got rid of that fairly quickly. Converted to Toyotas & had a Celica. We also got our 75 blue Corvette T top car. Very stiff clutch but lots of fun to drive. (Edit note - this was also the first used car we ever bought) Somewhere along the way DH got a 1935 Ford Pickup that had the original springs so not a comfy ride. Had a great engine in it - something Chevy. He spent more time under that truck than in it & sold it soon. We had a Volvo 240T / 2 door. Nice car. First Turbo engine we had & they were kind of a new thing. Got tired of shifting during long work commutes (me) & I wanted an Acura Legend 2 dr coupe. Had that car for years & loved, loved it. It was the only car I specifically said I wanted out of all the cars we had. I went along for the ride with all the others. These days I drive a Toyota Highlander & my DH occasionally drives his 2005 Mini Cooper S - 6 speed. I think I’ve forgotten how to drive a stick! Thanks @roxsolid for a fun post & for reading my trip down memory highway!

You’re welcome, KW.

I really enjoyed the few comments on Jasdip’s quiz thread about Corvettes, so I thought I would start this one.

A lot of people really like talking about their cars and why not? They’re with us for so many milestones.

I thought this would be a great thread. I’ve liked reading it.

VW bug

Navy blue Mustang sports model with bucket seats and wire wheels.(drove it off the showroom)

Traded that gorgeous car for the worst car we ever owned and the last American one, a brand-new Ford Country Squire to accommodate two growing kids &an Afghan Hound. I hated that car, and we had it for a long time.

.

Used Volvo

Nissan Sentra

Nissan Maxima

Lexus sedan

Nissan Maxima

Lexus SUV

Nissan Maxima

Honda sports model

Prius

Prius

Prius

Subaru Impreza

VW electric

Subaru Outback...(present and my most favorite }

( forgot there was a lime green Mercedes my husband bought from a friend and he drove that. That was before the Lexus SUV)

Hey @Olychick - These two Kaisers are likely not what your father had but you could still use him as an excuse to buy a different, fun car!

I think the one with the blower has your name on it!

Lol, definitely wasn't red! Ours was kind of a copper brown. It had push button door openers on the inside and while technically it was a 4 door, I remembered it as a 3 door. After much searching over the years and finding only 4 doors, I finally found a site that explained the spare tire was installed against the driver's side back seat door, so there were only 3 functioning doors. It was such a relief to know I hadn't imagined it. I don't know the year or model and no pictures of it - I guess my mom didn't care about it enough to take pictures, lol!

As a kid I wanted a yellow mercedes convertible , haha, probably because I saw it on Columbo (still do kind of want that ...)

Then my sister's boyfriend had a red ford mustang convertible that I got to drive as a 16 year old, so fun!

I think my favorite was as a young adult I had an Audi quattro, it drove so nicely and reliably on ice and snow and I loved learning to use manual transmission.

Due to concerns about economy and the environment after having kids, I went with a Honda civic hybrid in 2004 that I love for its practicality and it's actually fun to drive with manual transmission and battery injection... however, it's soon time to get an all wheel drive as a replacement for that car since the roads aren't being maintained very well and everybody else has gigantic suvs so if I can't beat them, join them. I'm thinking about indulging in an audi again but it'll be a leap because car prices bother me so I guess I'm cheap. We currently have a Honda CRV that is perfectly sure-footed but hard to love.

We owned a Saturn Outlook for a few years which turned out to be an incredible lemon.

We keep cars for as long as possible in my family, maybe out of laziness ? car shopping ranks as one of my least favorite activities

Is there a worse investment than a car?

My father bought me a car when I was sixteen. I'd wanted an Isetta. I only wanted transportation. I didn't want to have to wait in the cold for the first stop of the school bus at 6 a.m. only arrive at school at 7:45. (Our overcrowded HS was on double shifts.) That was voted down-- too small, unsafe, blah-blah. So he gave me a Ford Fairlane convertible. OH, The embarassment!

Anyway, I survived it, and HS, and some years later sold it for cash and a blue Austin Healey 3000. I loved that car -- and the youthful years it represents.

My last fun car was a white Jaguar XJS, few miles, second-hand out of Florida. Sold that when I had to struggle getting in and out of it.

When our DS was little we had good times in "Pumpkin", an orange Datsun.

I've written about our current transportation, a 2005 Jaguar X-Type with 54K miles. We don't drive anywhere! It's old enough now to draw some puzzled looks. It's been trouble-free from the day we bought it -- with a few miles and a 6-year warranty. That's phenomenal given some *other* Jaguars we've owned. They've all had lovely interiors and sound systems -- ha-ha.

Car Snob Sidebar: When we had both a Golf and a Jaguar sedan, I had to be aware which one I was driving at a 4-way stop near our home. Other drivers would often fail to yield right-of-way if I was in the Golf, but would cede to me even if it wasn't my turn when I was in the Jaguar.

Above I wrote I hated my Ford Country Squire with a passion. A huge lemon and an ugly car. The second most disliked was the Nissan Sentra. Every other car since I've liked a lot. Although most of the cars came with a sunroof, the first in that series was the Sentra, which had a removable sunroof if you can believe that. One sunny day it was off when suddenly it poured. We had to quickly stop and attach the roof. Who would have ever thought that that was a good feature?

I was 18 when I bought my first car. I had saved money from my first job right out of high school. It was a Roadrunner and I absolutely loved that car. I washed and waxed it all the time, the neighbours would tease me I was taking the paint off.

I still love the Mopar brand of cars.

@lily316 - I had the Country Squire’s smaller sibling, the Torino Squire. I found this on Sotheby’s from a 2015 auction. I’d have a hard time not buying it if I saw it come up again this clean. Wife would kill me! The listing doesn’t have a description or more pictures, but this looks like an exact match except it’s missing the roof rack.

Food...Ours was cream and wood paneling, with the roof rack and the facing third-row seats. After the cool Mustang we traded for this monstrosity, when I first looked in the rearview mirror, I thought I was driving a bus.

While I was driving station wagons in the 90's - DH bought a 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang convertible, black with red interior. We kept it until our son was old enough to drive and then promptly sold it. There weren't any safety features like air bags or even back-up cameras - we had to install seat belts.

I don't think I have a photo but this is the model car version.

In 2003 he bought a 50th anniversary edition Corvette convertible. We drove it for 3 glorious months including a fall drive through New England - until one sad day in December when a woman speeding down a hill ran the red light and totaled it.

I found an online one for sale below.

We sold a couple of cars rather than trade them. Four years after selling one car I got a call from the State Police. 'My' car had been involved in an accident in another part of our state. The driver was 'impaired' and the plates didn't match the car. WHAT?

The buyer had never titled the car. My name was still on the title. They believed my side of the story, and I learned to accompany a buyer while he applied for a new title before closing the transaction.

In my state, the DMV has a form called Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability that's submitted when a car (or boat) is sold. It can be done in hard copy or online. Perhaps one of the main reasons for offering the filing is that the selling price has to be entered. That can serve as a reference point when the buyer re-registers the car under their name. Use tax is payable on the price paid and people have been known to try to fudge that.

Laws change over time and maybe filings like this that I suspect are common today weren't around when you sold your car, chisue.

edit to add - this form is submitted by the seller, if unclear above

In my state too that form Elmer tells us about is used. I think it’s actually part of the registration / title & can be torn off & retained by seller. We have submitted that form directly to DMV/DOL every time we sold a car via private sale. It protects the seller in the situation @chisue described if the buyer fails to change the vehicle registration.