Does this look familiar?

[TerryB]

For me and my buddies in high school a resounding yes, only difference was the age of the car.  A Saturday Evening Post cover.

 

[RansomEli]

A Norman Rockwell knock-off.  But nice.  

 

I remember the days when you could buy a junker for $100-200 and practice your skills on it. Engine work, tuning, paint (at $30 per gallon).

 

 

[Frank DuVal]

13 minutes ago, RansomEli said:

I remember the days when you could buy a junker for $100-200

 

Ha! I'm not that old and my first car was $15. 

 

I looked at many below that price, up to $50. Yes, running.

[keiser31]

Yep. I lived that same scene in my youth.

[FLYER15015]

I paid $50.00 for a running / drivable / stoppable 1930 model "A" 5 window coupe in June of 1960 as a high school graduation present to myself .

Left it to my younger brother in September when I enlisted in the Army.

He blew it up 2 weeks later, sold it for $75.00, AND KEPT THE MONEY.

He still owes me seventy five bucks PLUS interest.

 

Mike in Colorado

[CHuDWah]

Yep, looks familiar and car age is about right.  Not much money for cars or parts but I learned a lot from my Dad and just tinkering on my own.  Most of my HS buddies were into Model A - a couple had "late model" T.  No V8 or Brand X although we used to hang around a service station run by a guy in his early-20s.  He had a wicked 40 coupe with a 427 that he used to supplement his income with "stoplight sweepstakes." 

[Guest]

Picture this.  1962 I was working in the parts department of a Chevrolet Dealership.  My daily driver Pontiac was on the staff lot.  The Used Car Sales Manager came to see me and offered me a 1917 Chevrolet V8 touring (that was just traded in) for $100.00.  I looked at it and said no I did not want to go down from a Pontiac to a Chevrolet.  At the time I had four Pontiac cars ('26, '27, '28 and '29) as well as my Grandfather's 1930. 

BOY WAS THAT A STUPID DECISION.

[padgett]

"In 2011, the 1917 Series D was listed 11th in the Worst Cars of All Time"

[c49er]

I bought my first car for $5.00 in 1967...a 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook.

Six months later a 52 Cranbrook and I'm not even 70 yet!

Both were sitting...got one running took the OD out of the other to put in my brothers 51 Cranbrook...

Front and back yards looked like the picture shown above....dad wasn't too happy.

[Morgansdad]

You know Terry B, in my opinion, this is what's wrong with todays youth. Not many want to actually work for something everybody wants everything given to them. I've been in that picture many times. Those times were the best in my life.

[bdc]

I bought a nice Mercedes last year for $1. I told my buddy I would buy it and told him to get paperwork ready. I left him a downpayment of 10%: a nickel & 5 pennies that I found on my floorboards.  (Come to think of it. I still owe him 90 cents).

But that big Mercedes drives nice!

[Dave Mellor NJ]

I started out with a 56 Ford Victoria 2dr hdtp for $35, a 58 Edsel 2dr sedan for $60 and a 55 Crown Victoria for $75 all running and usable, for a while

[8E45E]

13 hours ago, Tinindian said:

The Used Car Sales Manager came to see me and offered me a 1917 Chevrolet V8 touring (that was just traded in) for $100.00. BOY WAS THAT A STUPID DECISION.

I love it when some try to stump me by asking me when Chevrolet first had a V8 engine:  https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/stove-huggers-the-non-studebaker-forum/32608-1918-chev-v8?31815-1918-Chev-V8=

 

I look at Chevrolet introducing a V8 in 1917 in the same light as I do Volkswagen did in the mid-2000's with their W12 Phaeton.  Brilliant and well-made car, but nobody perceived a VW in S-class Mercedes Benz market territory.

 

Craig

[SC38dls]

My first car was a $200 57 Desoto with a small hemi I bought from Mr Norms Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago in 64. They even put a new set of tires on it!  I worked in a junk yard on Lake street Saturday’s taking parts off cars for customers. My pay was parts from 3 Desotos they had in the yard and all the gas I could siphon from new arrivals to the yard. 

dave s 

[padgett]

Free Mercedes sounds like a 190D. Filthiest car I ever worked on and might reach the highway speed limit downhill. Except south Florida doesn't have hills.

[JimKB1MCV]

I tend to hang into cars.

I drove my stealthily modified 31 Ford Victoria for ~23 years and 30k miles. Honest 55mph cruise on level ground and actually stopped when required.

Probably the only car I ever made a profit on was a early 50s Hudson I bought for $15 and sold from under a snowdrift for $25. This was in the middle sixties.

The jalopy project in the picture was a scene constantly repeated in the middle 1950s and maybe beyond.

My uncle bought and sold Model A's in the early 50s for around $5, tinkered and resold for 15 to 25 dollars to local college students.

He had a cow when I bought my first Model A for $100 in 1957.

 

[28 Chrysler]

I would scan the thrifty section of the St. Paul newspaper where cars listed for sale for $35 or less.

My first car was $5 and came with almost a full tank of gas. I think it was an incentive for me not to bring it back.

[Buick35]

My first two cars were $50 in 66 I bought a 57 Ford sedan six cylinder automatic and had an accident on the way to school and got $200 from the insurance company. My second was a 1960 Renault Daulphine that my dad traded a shot gun for. Why can't car prices be reasonable again?

[Morgansdad]

Buick35, the reason car prices can't be reasonable is because of the clowns with too much money and obviously ( some sort of complex). Spending millions of dollars on regular classic cars is ridiculous . And as always, money drives the market.

[Zimm63]

I see $50 and $75 cars on Craigslist all the time.   What confounds me is the number of people who miss key the numbers and put an extra zero in.