What was your first car?

Fun thread.

I got my license in '76 at 16 and drove mostly OP cars for the next couple years. (That's Other People's). Dad had a '64 Polara, 383 Push-button trans 4 door no-post hard top that I drove a lot. And later, a 74 (?) Duster, slant six auto, and we had an International Travelall with the large V-8/auto. And then there was Grandma's '69 Suburban 292 six/Powerglide. In my senior year, Dad picked up a '60's Fiat with a little 4 and four-speed on the column (!!). That one was a hoot to drive, and my buddy and I almost rolled it one night foolin' around.

I bought my first car once I got out of boot camp in San Diego, a avacado green Ferd Galaxie 500 with a 390/auto. This was the second gas crisis in '78-79 and I remember having to wait in gas lines on alternate days depending on if you license ended in odd or even numbers. And boy did that 390 like gas! My Navy buds and I called it "The Hulk" and one of them did a passable Hulk painting on the glove box door. I totaled it one night coming home from Sunset Cliffs. Truth, I was a little stoned and did not see the parked car I hit. With two cop cars there with their lights going, and a little Luv parked behind me with lights shining on my Galaxie, a very drunk driver in a second-gen Bronco plowed into the back of the Luv, bounced off the back of the Galaxie, side-swiped me and the cop, and caught my friend across the knee-caps, shattering one and pining his head between the front tire of the Bronco and the car I hit (a '72 Impala). The cop suffered a broken arm, I had minor bumps and bruises, my buddy had a shattered knee cap (and was lucky he didn't have a head injury) and the Bronco drivers young daughter ended up with a broken leg!

I was young and stupid and uninsured. There was an open fifth of tequila under the seat, a six pack of beer in the back seat, and an ounce in my friends pocket. I did not even get a ticket, but the Bronco driver ended up spending 3 years in the pen. (felony drunk driving). I happily finished paying off my totaled Ferd, and payed for 1/2 of the Impala.

For some reason I never complained when the booze wasn't in the car when I went to the tow company to retrieve my personal property from the car. My buddy got an extra 2 week vacation at home in Chicago (and the nurse at Balboa Navy hospital made the ounce disapear, so there were never any problems with that) so he was not all that pissed.

It's amazing I've lived as long as I have!