what's the first car you ever drove?

[CTW]

I thought this would be an interesting topic .. What's the first car you ever drove? even better would be if you still have it.

I remember my sister would give me her keys & let me take her 1976? Ford Escort wagon - baby blue color - when I was 13 - 14yrs old If my memory is working ..

my sister was working night shift - would get home around midnight - in the summer i was usually just getting home too. We had a 7-11 around the corner about a 1/2 mile away so I would go get soda, snacks etc.. That was legal right - heh!

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

do any window shopping while driving????????

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

i suppose i was about 8 years old. sat on dads lap while steering. very rUsty 53 Studebaker. The cats used to crawl up into it thru the rust holes to sleep at night during the winter time.

[Dave@Moon]

1969 AMC Ambassador that had another year and a half to live. Actually that describes my first two cars, the third as well if you change 1969 AMC Ambassador to 1971 Datsun 510.

[CTW]

haha oh boy! you were suppose to put your feet through those rust holes like the flintstones haha!

errr... no window shopping or driving thru the fields with my sisters car. I waited till later in life to have that fun

I didn't think about my grandfather letting me steer his 1963 impala. That's something I'd enjoy working on today.

[Bill Boudway]

Early '50s Crosley Farm-O Road. Off the road and through the fields. Great Fun!!

If I remember, I was 14 at the time.

Bill Boudway

[Bill Stoneberg]

I grew up on a farm so as soon as I was big enough to reach the pedals and strong enough to steer we got on the tractors.

I probably drove one of the trucks or the Jeep before any of the cars. First car I remember driving was my Uncles 1916 Model T that was on the farm. I visited him a month aga and he still has it and we went for a ride in it. It now lives it life in Sunny California on a vineyard with a Model T truck and a 32 Ford.

[Mark Huston]

My parents bought a new 1972 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham when I was 15. If my memory is correct the car had the 440 with a 4 barrel and would move out (we only had the car for 1 year, parents traded it off durring the gas shortages the following year). Anyway, I had a 17 year old brother that was allowed to use the New Yorker on Saturday night's to take me and some other church kids to a church dance in the next town over. After the dance was over and all the adults had left the area he would let the other kids and myself take turns ripping around the church building in the New Yorker giving that 440 engine and the brakes a work out. Later on when he would take control of the wheel again and we would leave the chuch building (leaving behind tire marks all over the parking lot) as he drove us home we all took turns mooning other drivers along the way. Oh, the memories this question brought back.

[Guest SalG (Sal Grenci)]

Dads 1974 Impala sw around 1977/78

[6219_Rules]

I was in the back seat in my bassenette when about 6 mos when the 1948 Chrysler my Dad had started rolling down the driveway only to come to a stop. Eh....well that isn't exactly driving.

My Dad let me back the 1960 VW out of the garage when I was 12. But the first time I drove on a street was in Mankato, MN at 14 years, and I drove...shudder..a green Gremlin, I think it was a 1971.

[Tom M]

Dad would take us out to a farm road in a '65 Mustang. He would get out with his bottle of Booze and sit on the side of the road and then he let us have at it.

[Restorer32]

Turned 16, got the Learner's Permit, finally convinced Dad to take me for my first driving lesson. He drove the '54 Cadillac to the biggest empty parking lot he could find on a Sunday Afternoon. Boy was I excited! I took my place behind the wheel, ready to actually DRIVE. Well, I did, for maybe 2 hours in fact, but ONLY IN REVERSE! Dad's theory was that it was important to know how to back up, so round and round I went. Next lesson was even more fun...parallel parking. To this day I can back up with the best of them!

[The Old Guy]

The first car I drove was a 1929 Buick. My Dad used it to drive to work. This was right after WW2 and I drove it home from where my mother parked it because of icy roads. My Dad and I went down (three blocks)after the ice melted and I drove solo . If I remember correctly ,I ran the stop sign ,as I did not want to have to start again.

[ex98thdrill]

1st car I ever drove?? hmmmm..

As a boy sitting on my father's lap and turning the steering wheel as we went down the driveway, it would've been my father's '69 Ford station wagon that he had at the time.

As a teen learning how to get the car to go on my own, it would've been my sister's ex boyfriend's '73 Pontiac Catalina.

As for the first car that I ever drove that I owned myself, it would've been the Mustang that still sits in my garage.

[CTW]

Woo hoo! great stories!

[Guest imported_don hughes]

In about 1958 I went to American Auto in Scranton, Pa and had a key made for my Aunt/Uncle's 1948 Cadillac..I was 10 yrs old..backed it out of the garage...whooa yippee..neighbors told on me...I still have the key now looking for the car? Also remember about the same time my Mother letting me drive our 1950 Dodge Coronet (was it fuildmatic or gyromatic) green 4 door around our summer cottage lak road in Hopbottom, Pa...oh..those were the days...but every Saturday I 'dusted' and washed my uncles 1910 Hupmobile parked in his company store garage...guess what! its still there! time for restoration

[Amphicar BUYER]

First thing I drove was a tractor, but the 1st vehicle was a '67 Chevy truck. Living on a farm far from town, we all learned to drive at an early age (when your feet could reach the pedals). Somebody gets hurt, you gotta have somebody drive you to town.

We (sisters and I) used to wait until Mom and Dad went out. Then we'd mark where the truck was parked in the dirt and have a great time (I was about 9). It wasn't until many years later that Dad admitted he knew what we did. He saw the lines in the dirt, the miles on the odometer and the dissappearing fuel.

My 1st car was a '66 Caddy Ragtop for $70. It tried (unsuccessfully) to climb a tree on Main St. Longmont in '78 after the Pitman arm snapped. This was a week after the master cyl (No working emergency) went out comming from Estes Park to Loveland (I'm sure it is the cause). This along the Thompson river down a mountain. My friend Bart was on the floor (literally) crying "We're gonna die!!" the whole time. A State patrol whom I'd passed in a 25 zone realized something was up. The State guy got in front of me and used his car to stop me. Soon the choices were to be either running the car along the rocks faces or into the river to stop. Try taking a Caddy 60+ in a 25-30 mile corners! I would try to set it up for each curve by fishtailing it in a effort to slow it down and get it pointing in the right direction. I probably still have pieces of the seat upholstery in my derriere!

[R W Burgess]

Great story John. Like most of you, I grew up on the farm. I guess I drove a tractor first, who remembers the boring stuff. The first car trip was in my Uncle's 50 or so Ford sedan at the age of about 8 or 9. I sat on his lap, and steered. I don't remember if my feet hit the pedals or not. I do remember negotiating the first few mild turns of the back roads of "Quinton Oak" named for the large tract of forestland owned by Chesapeake Corp. at the time. Anyway, I'm getting the hang of it??. We come up to this 90 degree left turn and Wayne's not turning the wheel fast enough. We're heading for the woods. The last second, Uncle J. W. Dodson pulls the wheel left with me still holding on to it. I'm surviving today because of him, I guess. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Wayne

[kuhner]

I also grew up in the country on a dirt road. We all hed some sort of motorized wheeled vehicle, go carts, mini bikes. But the first auto I drove was my Dads '65 Ford Pickup. He would leave it parked with the key in the ignition, way to tempting for a kid about 12 years old and a couple buddies.

[Guest]

My Grandfathers 51 Chrysler. He was 81, I was 15. Granpa taught me to drive for the most part. He was of the mind that one should drive a car as fast it would go, otherwise they would have made it so it could go that fast.

Probably not the first lesson a young driver should have been given

His idea of a driving lesson was to drive him to his lake cabin, 160 miles from home. Stop signs were only suggestions anyhow, ya know, and those speed limit signs were apparently minimums.

Having grown up in Sweden, he thought driving on the left side of the road was perfectly ok. The fact that he had never driven before coming to America was beside the point.

Man we had fun!

This all happened in 1961.

[critterpainter]

46 CJ2A ( the only year with three on the tree)..used it to feed cattle and go hunting. ..also drove dads 65 ford pckup a few years later. (still have pickup)

Bill

[Guest Skyking]

My father's 55 Buick Century. My family use to go to this park every sunday in the summer for picnics. I was around 14 and my father let me drive around the park. (of course he was sitting next to me). We got rid of that car around 10 years ago...........Gosh! what a nice car that was.........

[Bob Kinker]

First one I drove was a 59 VW. That was one tough little car. My older brother had it out for a HOT date one night. Another car rear ended it, pushing the engine in the back seat. The little VW was rebuilt/repaired, and served us faithfully for another few years, when it was traded for a 67 VW.

[Chris Paulsen]

The first car I ever drove was my father's 1910 Model T Touring. Twenty years later, we had toured the paint right off it, so last winter I repainted it for him.

Chris

[1937hd45]

The first vehicle I drove was a friends Ford 8N Tractor, we were both 10 years old and his dad had just sold off most of the farm to a developer. We had a great time driving around on the new roads beds. The first car drove was a 1961 Ford within a month of the tractor drive. I used that car to take my drivers test. Last time I saw it was 4-5 years after Dad sold it. It was on the bottom of the stack of cars going to the crusher.

[nearchoclatetown]

Claire, the first thing I drove on the road was a Ford 8N tractor at 8 years old, still have it. First car on the road was my sisters new '64 Ford Fairlane 500, 289 four speed, yellow with black buckets and wire wheel hubcaps when I was 14.

[Tom Deering]

JACKPOT !!!! One posting to answer three threads!

First car driven legally: '50 Lincoln (Nov. 1, 1950)

First car driven 100 MPH (indicated): '50 Lincoln (date unknown)

First car wrecked: '50 Lincoln (Dec. 26, 1952, proving it could still do 100 MPH)

In case some one starts a thread asking what was the last car you drove 100 MPH; the answer is: '50 Lincoln, 12-26-52.

This car was the answer to a teen-agers prayer. It's odometer stopped registering mileage at 23171 miles. No one had a clue how many miles that 'Elephant' had when it was traded in on a new Lincoln in April '53.

Tom D.

[R W Burgess]

Tom, You mean, they gave you something for that wreck? <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Wayne

[Tom Deering]

But, But, But, Wayne! The car only showed less than 8000 miles per year. Nobody turned back the odometer---so is it my fault the dealer focused on the low mileage? To this day, I have to sympathize with people who are so hung up on mileage to establish value. That elephant had to have 60,000 - 70,000 miles on it if it traveled an inch! Back in those days it was common practice for dealers to 'roll back' odometers. We just saved the dealer the trouble of rolling back this one!

Tom D.

[Rick Hoover]

The first "car" I ever drove on the street (at age 14 without my dad knowing) was his 1956 Packard 400. {Yes Jack Harlin, the same one you bought later.}

However the first vehicle I drove, a year before that, was a 1939 Plymouth Pickup Truck. As kids, we use to run it up and down the dirt road along the Susquehanna River.

[Guest]

First car I ever drove was my father's 1952 Dodge 2 door with semi-automatic. I was around 12 or 13 years old and he would let me drive it (with him sitting next to me) down some backroads near our house. I needed to sit on a pillow to see over the windshield!

[Guest Dave Mills]

The first car I ever drove was a 1959 Plymouth Savoy. The first truck I ever drove was a 1960 Mack Thermodyne which was actually before I ever drove a car and both were before I turned 16. I did take my driver's test in the '59 Plymouth though.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Randall,

I had a similar experience around the age of 2 or 3 (c. 1970), whenever it is that toddlers begin to toddle...

I somehow got into the family '61 Buick Le Sabre, parked in the driveway (which sloped toward the road, of course), and managed to get it out of park (no locking column/gearshift in those days!) and it began to coast down to the driveway towards the road (quiet country lane then); I distinctly remember my 17 year-old brother sprinting across the lawn, yanking the driver's door open and deflecting me to the passenger seat all in one motion, and getting the car stopped just before it would've taken a header into the ditch on the far side of the road... (this was not the first stunt that has permanently "endeared" myself to big brother ! ).

Needless to say, Mom & Dad were a little shaken by this "joy ride".

First "real" driving was on Uncle Mike's '39 Farm-all "A" (styled, but no starter - so I had to find an adult to crank it for me...), then driving Dad's '63 Falcon around my Grandfather's farm fields...

After that. I did the usual driver's ed/learners permit routine during high school.

[Richard F]

A lumpy, grossly underpowered '52 Nash Ambassador with a 4-speed Hydramatic (my mother's car). At age 11, I took it out of the garage and around the block when my parents weren't home.

Tried, unsuccessfully to spin the tires by revving it up and "popping it into gear". Fortunate not to have broken something in the drive train of that heavy beast or it may have been the last car that I drove.

Though hardly a "cool" car for a teenager to take on a date, at sixteen, I later learned to appreciate the advantages of the comfortable interior, smallish windows and deeply padded seats that reclined all the way down.

If anyone out there has this car, I don't know anything about that towel under the front seat... honest, Mom.

[ronvb]

That would be my Dad's 54 Plymouth Savoy.He used to let me drive when I was about 14 down in the industrial section of town. A lotof great memories!

ronvb

[Guest]

A while back but i think it was my dad's 1948 Ford. I remember he asked me to put it from the street to the driveway and I ran it into the cement wall of the basement and stalled. No harm done as I recall. Those 5mph bumpers must have worked.