Spinoff of "beaters": How OLD was the 1st car you owned?

[RedAngie]

The first car titled in my name was brand new, a 1985 Chrysler Laser purchased in late 1984. Before that I drove cars my parents owned and had previously driven. A 1967 Plymouth Valiant and a 1977 Dodge Aspen.

 

[CallieMar]

My dad gave me his 1989 Toyota Corolla in 2001 so it was 12 years old. That car was about to give up the ghost and I was still in college so a couple years later they gave me their 2002 Corolla and bought themselves another car. The first car that I actually bought with my own money was a 2018 Corolla because the 2002 lasted so dang long. It had over 200k miles on it and prob could have run for another few years but I just wanted a new car at that point.

 

[bobbiwoz]

My first car was Bahama Blue VW Beetle, with a sunroof! Bought it new and I needed it for college. Freshman year, I had rides to/from classes. Sophomore year, I was on my own. I loved that car!!

 

[HerRoyalHighness]

1984 Plymouth Duster in 1990. We lucked into it. Excellent condition and low-ish miles. Good price. Then some moron hit me in 1992...but not before the power steering went out, was blowing fuses left and right, someone backed into me and broke a tailight, alternator failed. But it looked good.

 

[diznygirl]

I bought new right out of college, never had a car of my own until then. I kept it 11 years. So someone got a beater from me.

 

[TippyThomas]

My first car is the one I own now so a 2019.

 

[tvguy]

The first car titled in my name was brand new, a 1985 Chrysler Laser purchased in late 1984. Before that I drove cars my parents owned and had previously driven. A 1967 Plymouth Valiant and a 1977 Dodge Aspen.

Wow, you went from one of the most indestructible cars ever made, the Valiant, to one of the worst ever made, the Aspen? And that isn't just my opinion, that is what Chrysler Chairman Lee Iaccoca said in his book. The Aspen and Volare were the worst cars he had ever seen in his career and HIS company made them.

 

[goofyernmost]

1960 Plymouth Station Wagon, slant 6, three on the column. Got it just after my 16th birthday in 1964. Seem like it wasn't very old but back then that was close to the lifetime of a vehicle.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I bought my first car, a '76 Dodge Colt, in 1982. It wasn't that old, but ended up having a few significant issues. A year later, my dad decided I needed a safer and more reliable car since I would be driving to and from college and a job everyday. I traded in the Colt and he lent me the money to buy a new '83 Nissan Sentra. I gave him $100 or more from each paycheck and we kept track of the payments in a little notebook. When I got down to the last $1000, he took the notebook and wrote "paid in full!" He did the same for my sister and brother when they bought cars. I miss that guy...

 

[GAN]

I had a 1971 Chevelle Malibu ...and OH do I wish I had that car today! It was 1981, so it was 10yo at the time. Great car for a 17yo kid in the day. Wasn't very good in the snow though!

 

[Colleen27]

It was almost exactly as old as I was - 16 years old, a 1979 Dodge Aspen that my grandfather bought when I was born because the car he was driving at the time didn't have rear seatbelts and he needed those if he was going to drive me around. He died just before I started driving so it became my first car. I had a boombox strapped in to the middle of the front bench seat because it only had an AM radio, but I loved that thing.

 

[tvguy]

1960 Plymouth Station Wagon, slant 6, three on the column. Got it just after my 16th birthday in 1964. Seem like it wasn't very old but back then that was close to the lifetime of a vehicle.

Yup. I'm into classic Mustangs, but cars of that era weren't very good despite being made of heavy metal.

 

[fla4fun]

My first car was a one year old used car with 8000 miles on it. All cars since then have been new.

1978 Ford Fairmont. That was in 1990, so the car was only 12 years old, and it had no damage, but it felt OLD to this teenager at the time.

My dad bought a 1977 Ford Fairmont in 1979. I later drove it to high school, and when I graduated he offered to sell it to me, and I declined. He kept it, and when my sister went to high school, she got to drive it. He made the same offer to her, and she bought it from him and drove it until she bought her first car in the mid-90’s. It had a lot of idiosyncrasies, one of which was that it eventually wouldn’t start unless you were outside the car, reaching in through the window to turn the key. It may have seemed like a bargain at the time, but it definitely wasn’t the cool car.

I have always done a private sale instead of a trade in, so the cars I keep 10-15 years are someone else’s beater

 

[Moliphino]

Brand new 2013 Nissan cube

 

[DisGirlAllie]

I had a 1996 Ford Taurus that was a year younger than me in high school--I got a new car when I went to college out of state, and when we donated it to a mechanic friend to strip for parts he was honestly shocked I hadn't died driving it

 

[AuntieMe3]

I had a 70-something VW Rabbit when I started driving in 93/94. I'm pretty sure it was older than I was so pre-75.

 

[RedAngie]

Wow, you went from one of the most indestructible cars ever made, the Valiant, to one of the worst ever made, the Aspen? And that isn't just my opinion, that is what Chrysler Chairman Lee Iaccoca said in his book. The Aspen and Volare were the worst cars he had ever seen in his career and HIS company made them.

What can I say? Those are the cars my father bought. The 67 Valiant was the family car. My mother didn’t drive until 73 when we moved to the suburbs. She got the Valiant when my father bought a 73 Plymouth Satellite. That car was a problem and he traded it in for the 77 Aspen.

I got my license in 78 and took the Valiant, and my mom got a new 78 Chrysler Cordoba.

The Valiant died in 80, I took the Aspen and my father got a Chrysler Le Baron.

We never had any real problems with the Aspen. When I bought the Chrysler Laser in 84 my father gave or sold it to a younger cousin.

 

[Colleen27]

Wow, you went from one of the most indestructible cars ever made, the Valiant, to one of the worst ever made, the Aspen? And that isn't just my opinion, that is what Chrysler Chairman Lee Iaccoca said in his book. The Aspen and Volare were the worst cars he had ever seen in his career and HIS company made them.

That's wild. I loved my Aspen and it is actually still on the road today - our family mechanic bought it when it was "totalled" in a fender-bender and ended up giving it to his son, who fixed it up and made it kind of retro-cool. That slant-six was a breeze to work on, like nothing I've owned since. I've definitely had worse cars (some of them even Iaccoca-era Chryslers - the Reliant K comes to mind).

 

[Sinder]

I got my first car in 1992, it was a 1989

 

[Micca]

My first car was brand new. I was a teen with a good job, so payments weren't a problem for me. Not that the car wasn't a POS, but it was brand new. The big bonus was it was air conditioned.