1981 Volkswagen Dasher wagon.
Not mine but same color. 1.3 liter diesel making a factory-rated 43 horsepower at the flywheel. It was ridiculously slow and I hated it. But it was a 4-speed manual with cold A/C and it soaked up all my hatred and abuse and never broke. Oh, and 43 MPG. It handled waaay better than it should have on 175/70 all-seasons.
Are you ready for The Bleakness?
Are you?
'67 Chevy Biscayne
283, column shifted 3 speed
manual everything (OK, fine, the choke and spark advance were automatic)
I covered most of those gaps with window screen, erector set parts, and bondo.
The 283 ran perfectly. 107K miles. I've never heard another engine idle so contently.
I put 22 miles on it in 2 years without leaving the 400' driveway. I could get it to start in 3rd with enough gas and clutch. The left motor mount was bad, which would cause the throttle linkage to stick open. It was the coolest car ever.
E36 325i
It was a hell of a first car, I learned to drive and learned stick, good handling and the benefits of an LSD... good times. I have surprisingly few photos of it considering what a big part of my life it was. Had it 10 years and 70k miles.
Mine was a 1980 Mazda GLC. Looked like this more or less, but the sport graphics were gone when my dad bought it in 1986. The car had been in some sort of wreck and repaired by a guy my dad knew from work who dabbled in bodywork in his backyard shop. The donor car must've been orange.
At age 14 I bought a Ford 105E Anglia for $35.00 It was only 6 years old! Sold it for $100. a few months later. I never drove it or the worlds worst MG TD I bought with the $100. Not my Anglia in pic, mine was white. It is me and the TD. First daily driver was a rough Austin A55 Farina, a gift from Mom when she bought her Datsun 510 in '69
My "first car" was a 1988 Ford Ranger extended cab left to me by my grandpa when he passed. Grey with red interior, mint condition.
The first car I actually went out and purchased on my own was a 1995 Nissan Skyline GTS25T.
1966 Mercury Cyclone. 390 cubic inches in a very rusty wrapper.
1981 Honda Accord hatch 5-speed. Bought from a neighbor for $200, pushed it home. It would make ugly noises when you let out the clutch and wouldn't move. Neighbor who was a mechanic said "splines on clutch are stripped out." Pulled the transaxle (having never done anything beyond belts, oil changes and the like) and he was right. Put it back together w a new clutch and it ran! Installed countless j/y cv axles trying to fix a low speed wobble which eventually turned out to be due to bad tires. (Facepalm!)
Ooo, I like this thread! Mine was The Lion, a once bright yellow ‘80 Rabbit diesel, 275k miles on the broken odometer, bought for the princely sum of $300 total ... half from me, half from my life long friend at the end of our college careers. Our plan was to drive around the West for a month before getting real jobs. Fortunately, my very generous and wise folks lent us their newish pickup and slide in camper, and my buddy’s parents ( who, btw grew up with my parents) gave us funds for food and gas and beer. Man, what a great graduation gift we both got! Back to the Lion ... no power at all, somewhat smoky, got great mileage still, was hardish to start in winter but never failed to, and had enough oil pressure to blow off regular oil filters on a whim. On my buddy’s parents’ brand new concrete driveway. Yup, MANY years later, the oil stain is still there. Sold The Lion to a mutual (and still) great friend for $300, who shortly after opened the driver’s door directly in front of a moving city bus. He got fined, had to buy the bus a new headlight, pried the door closed, caulked around the gap (took multiple tubes), and drove her at least another year. Before selling it to an unknown someone else. For $300. Best car ever.
1994 Cavalier. Not the actual car, but the exact same model and color. No fond memories here. My father chose/bought it (I'd reimburse him) when I was on vacation from a guy who drove it from the Northeast to Austin. The totally rusted out underside freaked out every shop I took it to, at this point in time not everyone and their dog was moving to Austin. The rust finally ate through the rear brake lines which was an interesting feeling on the highway. I got rid of it when I got my RX-7 which I still have.
In reply to djsilver (Forum Supporter) :
I saw a Dauphine over in East LA a couple weeks ago next to a Taco stand !
only in LA ......hahaha....
When I got my license, my father took me down to the local foreign car dealer and told me to give his friend all my money. $500 for a used 1965 Lancia Fulvia Coupe, probably one of just a handful in the country at the time. V4, FWD, 2000 pounds, 100 hp, four wheel disk brakes (the front still worked), full leather interior and a heater that worked once during the Western New York winters. Not my car but the same model. 
I paid 400 bucks for a 1970 fiat 128 my boss at the time sold me. I didn't have it very long. Golly, why is it that when I hit the gas and beg the underhood hamster to do something, the front end comes up as if it's a reardrive car? Now wait justaminute, the front of the car comes up on accel but the... windhsield doesn't? Um. The frame was busted all the way through on both sides and the only thing holding the entire engine bay to the rest of the car was the fenders. Got my 4 bills back; the guy tried to finish it off by taking it round the back of the shop and bricking the gas pedal in neutral. But that dern thing couldn't make enough power to hurt itself.
My First car was 1966 VW Karmann Ghia. Learned a ton about wrenching, project management, budgets.
It was a dusty 500 hulk in someone's garage. Several years worth of work and it turned into something pretty nice. I kept it for 15 years. Sold it when I felt like I was done with it.
Wasn't really into cars starting off - I was thinking about getting a Chevy Corsica I saw for sale. I learned to drive on the families 1984 Chevy Caprice Wagon which I also used for first job out of highschool and into community college. Was kind of fun with the 305 smallblock and RWD but just wouldn't shut-off after you turn it off....the carbs needed some adjusting but we never did... LOL
Then I saw this car that caught my eye in a for sale by owner lot... really liked how it looked but was unfamiliar with it. "What's an Acura... and why does it have a Honda motor?" Talked with my dad and with some research he agreed to cosign for it so I could get the $5k loan. Don't have picture of my actual car, but this is what I bought:
But not in red, was a metallic silver/blue '91 Integra GS coupe with the automatic... when transmission eventually gave out I decided to swap to manual to learn to drive manual plus save money... that was a fun experience... LOL That's the car that started me on my automotive journey. Always hated those automatic seatbelts though... LOL
Eventually I got into autocrossing and had fun with it. And when the motor was getting tired I was thinking of rebuilding it and making a mod class autocross car out of it... stripped out the car and gutted the doors... went to town with the recipricating saw and got the doors down to a few pounds...so flimsy they would bow out at the bottom when closed. Bought the elusive B17 GSR 'YS' transmission for it and a Quaiffe LSD and had a shop put it together. Then somewhere along the way I decided didn't want it anymore and sold off the B17 GSR transmission with Quaiffe LSD and scrapped the gutted Integra GS.
In reply to Vracer111 :
MGTD 1953. I got it in 1962. I still have it. Tomorrow morning I'll go uncover it and take a picture of it.
David S. Wallens said:Figured I'd share since I have it out: My first car was a 1982 Honda Accord sedan--and, yes, with a five speed. Like so many of them, it was blue on blue. Pretty advanced car for the day, too, with three-point rear belts and cruise control buttons actually on the steering wheel.
(Bonus points if you know where the photo was taken.)
mine was the exact same car. don't think I have any pictures of it handy, though. loved those big plastic bumpers. unfortunately, with 180kmi on it, and 17years... they wouldn't trust it to leave the county when I was in college. 
Not the actual but it looked exactly like this. First car I bought and fixed up with my own money.
65 Fastback. Lots of engine and suspension work.
flat4_5spd said:
So why does picture look like it's clipped through the wall of that barn like a bad Bethesda Studios computer game?
I was 17 when I got my 4 year old '68 Pontiac GTO.
1963 Willys CJ5
'89 Ford Escort GT. It ended up smashed in the driver side door about 3 months after I got my license.
I was at an intersection with a few obstructions in sight, but looked right/left, inched up, right/left. Pulled out and never saw the vehicle until I did 180° after getting T-boned in the passenger door. 100% my fault, it was hit squarely between the wheels and I was able to drive it home and it drove fine. The window tint I believe kept the passenger door window from breaking because it was bent in some odd ways.
1995 Honda Prelude SE in this weird blue/green color. I thought I was hot E36 M3 in high school in that car. Still miss it sometimes...
(not mine, but looks the exact same)
Volvo 340 GL for me, only a 1.4 but RWD with a transaxle made it somewhat rear-biased. It had been my brother's car, and he'd pranged it twice before I got it.
Not this car, but same model and colour:
Then I got a '76 Spitfire, and the Volvo went back to my brother when he wrote off his Spitfire ( backwards into a wall), and guess what ? It got it's 3rd and final accident at his hands too..
This was actually my Spit, restored from a pile of rust, a sad day when I sold it:
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