While responding to another post, I reminisced about the station wagon I used to drive as a kid. 

Marshall, I learned to drive on a 1962 Plymouth Valiant, slant 6 push button. Could not get in much trouble there.

The car I learned to drive in was a '62 Chevy Bel Air Station Wagon.  It had so much mismatched areas of touch up paint my friends said it looked like it had leprosy.  I laughed at them as they were all still on bicycles! 

The first car I ever had in my own name was a '64 Pontiac Bonneville my Dad bought new and gave to me when I graduated high school.  That was one righteous automobile...dead reliable, big, fast and even economical on gas (24 mpg on the open road).  I still have fond memories of that 389 cubic inch four barrel and what it was capable of.  I still get angry at that guy that ran a stop sign forcing me off the road into a stream and rocks for what it did that car.

The first car I ever bought...the '63 Studebaker Avanti I owned for many years.  I treasured that car but sold it when I got married (the first time).  Eventually divorced...lost the car then the wife.  I lost all the way around on that one.

UH...I larnt tuh drive on a tractor...do that count?

Then Auh moved on up tuh da '63 Cheby 1/2ton pick-m-up Pa had...he let us young-uns drive it frum da house to da farm sometimes, wid him settin next to us.
The furst car auh droved were a '67 Musturd...
Da furst car I bought fer meself were a '65 Impaller wid a 409, powerglide, an a 4:11 rear...after dat, I bought my '66 Hemi Charger....YEEEE HAAAAWWW!!

My first car was actually the brainchild of my dad and I am firmly convinced of the logic.  Every kid should get their first car this way.  (Note: I am probably a bit younger than most of you folks, so no nostalgia here for some 50s or 60s muscle car, but still a good story.)  I was 15 years old and looking forward to getting my license, working a part time job to save money, etc.)  Much to my surprise, dad traded a coworker for a wrecked 1979 Honda Civic that'd been smashed in the front.  Dad told me "If you can fix it, you can drive it." 

I bought the repair manual and found a front clip, motor and all on a similar Civic in a junk yard that had been rolled.  In a couple of months, I had it all back together and running.  Learned it all from the book and by trial and error as there was no Internet in them days and certainly no Civic club to help.  Was actually something of a novelty at high school having the smallest car there.  I'd be at a party and come out to find my friends had picked it up and turned it sideways in the parking spot, totally blocked in - ahh, good times!

A Civic, tho, just wasn't cool, so I parked it up on the corner and had no sooner walked back to the house that the phone rang and it was sold.  Fresh from that success, I wanted to take on an even bigger project so next I hauled home a 1966 Mustang that needed a total restoration.  Thus began my car hobby.

Everyone always laments selling their first car and I still don't miss that Civic, but I was surprised to see a 74 Civic on the front cover of Auto Restorer magazine in March 2006.  Interesting read how revolutionary that car was and how important it was in changing the entire automotive industry.  One of my coworkers has two of them in nearly mint condition today.  Who would've ever thought anyone would ever collect and restore old Honda Civics?  Oh well, I still don't miss it, but I guess it deserves some credit.

I learned to drive on a 1975 Datsun B210 (manual 4 speed). This was in 1985. My first car was a 1974 Oldsmobile Omega (think 4 door Nova). Dad and I rebuilt the inline 6 in it, redid the interior, and painted it (he did the body work, I did the wet sanding, he did the painting). Let me tell you, that car had a lot of surface area! We later got a 350 fromt he junk yard, rebuilt it, and put it in. Yes, I ended up wrecking it (a couple times , the last one fatal for the car), but that thing was solid and I believe it prevented injuries to me both times.

First car? Brand new 1969 GTO. No, my parents didn't buy it for me. I saved EVERY penny from about age 13 from an assortment of part time jobs. Accumulating $3200, I special ordered it and it arrived 3 weeks before my 16th birthday! Had to have my cousin and dad go pick it up cause I had school.

Well now,  where to begin?  Guess solo drives to church in Dad's '50 and then '57 Olds rocket  might qualify.  Saw 100 mph for the first time in there somewhere one Sunday morning. 

I had an old Checker. It had been retired from a fleet of NYC Taxis. KDADDY792008-09-04 18:48:37