July 28, 2010
Dear Clusterflock,
Tomorrow I am going to inquire about getting a loan for a used car. I haven’t had a car in almost two years. I’ve been saved by the grace of my girlfriend, who has been kind enough to drive me to and from work, since this city isn’t all too friendly to those without their own transportation.
So, what was your first car, and/or what is the longest amount of time you’ve gone without having a car?
– Robert Ledgerwood
comments
Leave a Reply
I didn’t own a car for the first 15 1/2 years of my life. A woman who shopped at my mom’s store gave me 1976 Chevy Vega with 42000 miles on it. The Vega had been parked in her garage for 15 years and was only driven to church on Sunday. It cost me $45 to transfer the title.
More recently, my wife and I shared a car for about a year before the Iz was born. It was great but difficult in a town like Sacramento.
Also, depending on what you’re looking at – if you’re going to finance a car right now – it might make sense to look at something new. The rates on used cars are so much higher right now that, in a lot of cases the payments on a used car are more than the payments on a new car. All of this depends on how used you’re looking – when we looked we looked at 2-4 years old.
I’m not sure if my credit is good enough to get me a loan on a new car at this point. I’m still taking baby steps from my bankruptcy.
I wanted my first car to be a ’67 fastback. instead, it was an ’82 Malibu station wagon with a headliner that drooped.
To answer my own question, my first car was a 1985 Buick Le Sabre. My father got it half-price by having them not give it an oil change, new brake pads or clean it. I still remember that there were a couple Winston cigarette butts in the ashtray when it was given to me.
drooping headliners rock. Between driving the Vega I drove a Dodge Pickup with a drooping headliner. One day I had to rip it out because it was bouncing on my head. Also, if you closed the driver-side door too vigorously the speaker grate would go flying across the cab. It was the last time I ever tried to install a car stereo system myself.
I inherited my parents’ 1996 Camry when I was 19– I played a sport in college and it was always a pain in the ass to find a ride to practice after or between classes. Plus, my college was a 12-hour drive from my home, so between buying plane tickets and having someone come drop me off and pick me up a couple times a year, having their old car seemed like the better option.
It was a great car, but I sold it to my cousin for a dollar when I moved to Boston three years later (good timing– it died not long after). I knew I wouldn’t need a car in the city, and parking and insurance are too expensive here. Now, I’ve been four years without a car and I don’t miss it at all. Except in the summers when the weather is good and I feel that urge to just start driving.
1961 Chrysler New Yorker. White. Push-button automatic. My parents gave it to me when they bought another car. I often didn’t have a car for long periods because I had motorcycles.
My first car was a 1986 Volvo 240 DL in 2002 or so, with 46,000 miles, bought from a mechanic who used to work for Volvo. I loved it, but time does things to the most well-maintained cars.
I ride my bike to work these days because it’s around the corner, but I have my girlfriend’s brother’s car at my disposal to go to my other job.
1. ’65 mandarin orange mustange w/ a ragtop during high school;
2. after suzie q (the mustang) I went 20 years without military then lived in Denver a brief decade followed by big city livin’ in the Bay area. In all cases mass transit was augmented by bikes.
My first car was a 1988 Subaru GL wagon that I got when I was 17, or sometime in the summer of 2000. It looked almost exactly like this one, actually. Enough so that it’s a little creepy. My mom gave it to me after she bought a used Mazda.
I had that car for about two years and was a mountain of trouble, but I could drive it anywhere (usually in some state of broken-ness) in any weather. The tailgate was fused shut from rust, and I once had a brake rotor explode inside my wheel well. The horn had an electrical short somewhere in it, where it would randomly go off, usually when my dad was borrowing it.
Another time, in the middle of winter, the blower stopped working. I’d be driving to school wiping the fog off the windshield with one hand while driving with the other. The result was a serpentine motion that was both nauseating and dangerous. But that’s what being 17 is about, I suspect: doing nauseating and dangerous things.
My first car is my present car (I’m very late to driving) its a 96 Fiat Punto Automatic and have spent far too much keeping it on the road, because the mileage is so low for its age (50,000) I’m still hoping it will be worth it.
I’m having doubts
Dave, we almost share a first car — mine was a 1984 240 DL. I loved it.
I got hit by a drunk driver (totaled his car, dented my front quarter panel and left a nice scratch in the hood, but it was still drivable). About a week later I hit a rock on the Interstate that punctured my oil line and the engine sorta went up in flames. I was devastated, but the drunk driver’s insurance company didn’t come by to file my claim until after this “incident” so when they saw the damage they assumed it was all caused by their driver and totaled out my car. I think we ended up coming out ahead on that car. Probably because they were happy I didn’t sue their insured.
My first car was a 2001 Ford F150 raised Supercrew (Supercab?) that my father bought when my mother said “yes you can buy a truck” and she thought he meant a little pickup. I also had a gas card that I abused like a real self-centered little shit.
My parents then leased me a brand new 2003 Honda Civic that I used to stay out past my curfew and abused the mileage like a real self-centered little shit. My dad would later get hit in this car and almost die.
In college I started working for a family friend, I then had a series of company cars, an Intrepid that was sold, then a Toyota Avalon that was the height of luxury to me (I still want one.) and finally a Camry for a few days until it too was sold and I was left car-less. I walked four miles to work, I drove with other people, it was a source of huge contention to not have a car while living in the suburbs.
The car I drive now is a 1991 Volvo 740 Turbo station wagon with 147,000 miles on it, bought last February with tax refund money and it cost me $750 to buy. I’ve probably dropped another two grand into the damn thing.
I have never actually owned a car, in the sense that the car was registered in my name. The first car that was at my disposal was a Datsun 280Z, owned by my father. Man, that car was great. It only sat two people legally but we got five in there a couple of times. I loved driving that car.
However, I live in Manhattan so owning a car is really neither affordable or feasible. I don’t really need one day to day and I rent a car if I go any further afield.
Tip for anyone living in or visiting NYC: Never, ever rent a car in NYC. It is horribly expensive. Rent outside the City. If I am going South, I rent in NJ. If I am going North, I rent in Connecticut. Public transportation will easily, and affordably, take you to either of these locations and you get to bypass all that getting-out-of-Manhattan traffic. For almost HALF what it would cost to rent in the City and then sit in traffic for hours.
I love to drive so visiting my Mom in NH let’s me get my fix. But then I return the car to Enterprise and blissfully return to my car-free existence in New York.
Where are you, Robert? I have relatives in Alabama in the used car business who can fix you right up.
I’m exactly like Mr. Smith, I’ve had one car or another continuously now since I was 15-1/2.
76 Corolla with a crapload of miles on it. Drove it til it died on the Trans Canada outside of Calgary. It decided it couldn’t do the Foothills, and seized.
Carol, I’m in Kansas City. Bit of a drive to Alabama, but I truly appreciate the offer.
You’re right, it is that. My BIL discovered the internet a few years ago and conducts lots of business that way now. My son taught him how to take and send cell phone photos when he was quite little. The boy then earned a $20 fee when one man drove five-six hours from south Alabama to the northern part of the state to buy the truck pictured in an email attachment.
Which my husband (from Iowa) thought was hilarious. Something about southerners and constant inter-family commerce. I thought the interesting part was the man driving 12 hours to buy a used truck!
This is my Pre-Owned 2007 Ford Taurus. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
congratulations!
Thanks! I’m pretty excited. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to own a car. And considering I had nothing as a down payment, and no trade-in, I got a pretty sweet deal on it.
Robert, I’m excited for you! Danny and I loved our Taurusses. (We’ve had three.) (Nevermind the asshole gay boys we knew who questioned our choice in favor of a motherfucking Jeep Cherokee.)
My second car was a Taurus, so it was a bit surreal sitting in another Taurus after over ten years. This, of course, means that next time Andrew’s in town, I won’t have to worry about how to get out to your guys’ place.
If I come visit Rick and Danny, will you come over, Robert? (You, too, Doc?)
And maybe we could track down John Buaas!
Danny and I will do everything in our power to have the boys here when you visit.
Sheila –
Certainly; you can cuss with me. I discovered Rick doesn’t cuss. Well…he can, but it’s an effort for him and doesn’t come out much more than a whisper…
Sheila: Of course!