I had a coupe version of your Malibu, but at around 100mph, I got too scared and backed off.
My first car was a 1980 Dodge Champ
My first car was a 2 door 1965 Chevy given to me by my brother so that I could go to college in Florida. On the first summer break I drove home to Indiana and in the process got hit in the rear in Nashville by a gentleman who did not live more that 50 miles from where I lived. Drove that car for another 3 years from Indiana to Florida. Only broke down once when I was returning from Orlando after seeing an old friend.
Wow! Nice car and cool pic! thanks for posting it… 
My first car was a 1968 Plymouth Satellite with a 318 motor. It either had a 1 barrel carb or a very small 2 barrel. Two months later I traded it plus 800 dollars for a 1968 Plumouth Roadrunner 440 magnum, 4-speed. Similar body styles but very different cars. The latter got me into trouble…lol
My first car was a 1967 Corvair Spyder 180 HP and did that car ever move (actually had it to 130 + once…)! Bought it for $50 from my grandma. I guess I was her favorite. They had seatbelts by that time so I had to move the passenger belt into the middle for my girlfriend. It had a 4 speed manual (yes this was really my grandma’s car) with a bench front seat so there was quiet a bit of creative shifting in this configuration. Gave it to my brother when I went to college and he traded it eventully for a Saab Sonnet. First cars are wonderful things yes?
My first car was a 53 Buick Special, 2 door, with Dynaflow transmission and a flathead straight 8 engine. It was very rusty and burned oil by the gallon. Turned out it had 2 pistons with holes in them. The car cost me $40 for some nice recap tires. After I replaced the pistons with junkyard parts, used the old rings after cleaning the dirt out, it ran great. I drove it from New England to Colorado. I remember it had a tube radio that had to “warm up”, but when it did it was a very powerful radio, and the antenna was at the top of the windshield, with a knob inside so you could adjust it for better reception. No seat belts, steering wheel pointed right at your chest (with a suicide knob, if anyone remembers those), terrible handling, smelled moldy, painted with green house paint. It spelled freedom for me.
I second the compliment. I liked the looks of the 1965 Ford when it first appeared in the showrooms and I thought it had the best styling of any 1965 domestic make. I think the design still looks good.
my Datsun B210 was just as horrible as yours! Same year, I bought it used in 83, and someone had had goats living in the back seat… Well, at least it smelled like goats. I took the entire interior out, washed it w/ soap and water, and at least got that part of it ‘ok’. It constantly had electrical problems… one time I drove 10 miles in the dark because every time I turned the lights on the car would die. A driveshaft U-joint went out in it, and no parts store could get them! We welded the front of another driveshaft to the back, and kept going. Had 3 flat tires at the same time, due to cold weather; -40; left it overnight on the Air Force Base and got a ticket… It’s only moment of Glory was one time, a great song came on the radio, at a senior bonfire. The girls gathered around it and listened… then the song was over and the B210 went back to being the crappy car it had always been…
My FIRST car, I was a junior in H.S., was a free 1970ish Ford Station wagon with the vista windows; Green with a very green interior. I hated it, but quickly traded it for my REAL first car, which was a 1969 3/4 Ton Chevy Pickup with a 396 V-8. I LOVED this truck, except for the 9 miles per gallon part, and eventually sold it and bought the Datsun B210 mentioned in another post… that was a mistake, but I recovered and went on to buy other, more reliable cars. My favorite car was my 1967 Dodge Polara 2 Door w/ a 383. Ugly design, but could do a legitimate 120mph; and cruise for hours at 100. The roads between Boise and Bend Oregon are pretty straight, LOL…
The first vehicle I actually had my name on was a 1984 Chevy Suburban. Big, white, and completely cool with my friends. Four doors in the front, and two doors in the rear (not the crappy rear window/tailgate combination they have these days). Paid $1700 for it in 2000. I had it for 2 engines and 3 transmissions (about three years) before I traded it even for a 1967 Ford F-100. That was a project and a half, but that’s another story.
I drove a 1980 Buick LeSabre. It was absolutely awesome. The big ol’ boat had already been driven by two older aunts of mine through their high school years before reaching me. I had lots of rear-wheel-drive fun with it and my friends and I traversed northern Wisconsin in it many times. We affectionately called it “The Beast.” That car was great and a real legend. My sister inherited it from me and drove it through high school until she hit a deer and that was pretty much the end of it. I agree that there’s nothing like the first car a teenager has and the experiences that result from it. The car is still a part of my dad’s “junk yard” and I still recall the memories as I look at it on the edge of the field at home.
My first car was a 1988 Chevy Celebrity and it was blue. It was my mom’s car so she let me borrow it until I got a car of my own. It was 15 years old when I started driving it and I was a senior in high school. I thought it was the greatest thing ever until it started having problems. After a while, my parents donated it and I got a 2001 Chevy Metro which I still have to this day and I adore very much! The Celebrity was a wonderful starter car for me.
My first car was a 1982 Vette. That’s Chevette. It may have been the lowest automotive life form. I worked all summer at a Taco Bell to buy it for $1200. Then I found a 69 GMC with a good motor, but a rusted cab and bed. I found a 72 Chevy with a good cab, but no bed and a bashed up front end. Then I found another 72 Chevy with a great hardwood bed. We took it to the voc-tec center in Fort Collins and put the three together and made one good truck. It was a GMC coming and a Chevy going. It started out blue, black and white, but we painted the whole thing tan, then sanded and re-finished the bed and built a mahogany tailgate. We called it Frankentruck. Out the door, all three trucks cost about $1500, and that included $350 for the mahogany. It lives on as a ranch truck in Loveland, Colorado.
I’m still driving my first car (having owned it for maybe 6 months). It’s a 94 Volvo sedan, one of the last of the rear-wheel-drive Volvos. It’s not fashionable, it’s not shiny (patches of the clearcoat are in really bad shape), but it is reliable, gets decent gas mileage considering the thing wasn’t built so much as milled from solid, and is good fun to drive. Plus, it has personality. I’ve wanted one of the big Volvos since I was a kid being driven around in my dad’s 240s…
Someone else drove a Buick Special!! My first was a 1963 Buick Special 2door with a V6 engine. It was a Sand color and my father sold it to me for $25. It had an automatic transmission with the split bench seats that would lean forward on an angle. I used to laugh when I worked on the engine since you could actually seen the ground when looking at the top of the engine block. I could almost sit in the engine compartment while trying to work on it. My dad bought a 1972 Buick Skylark Custome that year and the engine compartment was so crowded, you couldn’t see the ground. I got another 2 years out of the Special before it finally was laid to rest with a junk dealer.
I loved my Buick Special!!! Mine had a bench seat, gold/tan cloth. Four door, of course. It looked like a proper parents car and was not flashy at all. But it got around and took me everywhere and was probably the best first car a person could have.I swear it was made of tank metal- I spent many hours trying to cool it up by waxing the dickins out of it…it never mattered, it wouldn’t shine a high gloss.(Probably explains my penchant now for black cars). I would love to have it back today for memories sake. When I tell people what my first car was, they just give me a blank stare…buick special? haha.
65 Ford Fairlane. How to keep people from being jealous of you. Have a car that came with one speed wipers and no windshield washer. Nothing dumber than buying fluid that you can’t use.
In 1965 all those things were OPTIONS, except on luxury cars. My 1965 Dodge Dart 2 door hardtop had the following “options”:
- Variable speed wipers
- Windshield washers
- “Deluxe seatbelts”; they actually retracted.
- Trunk floormat!
- Console gearshift (automatic)
- Front “sway eliminator” bar!
- Heavy duty springs and shocks
- Tinted windshield
- Underhood padding
10 Deluxe wheel covers with the fake spinners
Needless to say the V8, automatic and extra trim were also extra. The automatic (3 speed Torqueflite) was only $185 over the 3 speed manual, and was the best transmision I ever had. The car was custom ordered from a friend who had a Dodge dealership.
Items I passed over were vinyl roof, bumper guards,
To this day the 1965 Galaxie 500 is one of my all time favorite cars.
56 Plymouth Savoy w/big V8. Learned to drive in it age 12. Mom gave it to me when I went to college 6 years later. Gave it back to Dad when I bought new 66 Chev SS. It ran fine for 12 years. Which reminds me - for those who are younger - if you are driving an old set of wheels like my 56, you don’t have dual braking and the rubber brake lines at the wheel are probably rotten. Check it out.