Gather round as this is a funny story:

1981 Ford Mustang 4-cylinder. No A/C, rusted through floorboard, no paint, a billion miles, bad clutch, old tires, manual everything. Got it for free from a family member. It is how I got to learn to work on cars. I mean, it was worth scrap so what could I really screw up, right? 

Learned to drive a standard in it. Rode with my Dad and he stopped in the middle of a busy intersection, got out with everyone honking, had me get in the drivers seat, and said, "You better figure out how to move this thing before they kill us." Well, that did the trick let me tell you. 

Fast forward a bit: got the car sanded down, repaired the floor board, took care of the rust issues, replaced the clutch, got it driving good. I learned to get really good at the manual because we had a utility easement by our house. So I would back up to the forest, then take off down the dirt road, turn around, do the same thing back. 

Eventually a friend of mine said we should swap the engine. So out came the 4-cylinder and in went a 5.0L V8. Eventually we wound up supercharging that motor after rebuilding the entire car basically. Painted it Torch Red with white racing stripes. It was NICE. I had a ton of money and work in it and I was proud.

1 month after I got it all done and finally set up like I wanted, I get a phone call: Your Aunt needs her car back. {black}:eat: {black}:sad: {black}:crying:  

What could I say? I had gotten it for free. So I gave it back. And to this day, over 500k miles (on the chassis) later, she still has it and it still runs like a top. 

That was my first car.

1970 Ford F-100 Custom Cab, straight 6, 3 speed $700, my dad split the cost with me, wish i still had it

1965 Rambler Classic station wagon with a six cylinder engine and automatic transmission. The thing about those old Ramblers is they had reclining front seats that turned into beds. As if that wan't enough, with the wagons if the back seat was folded down as well the entire inside of the car became pretty much a single flat surface inside. 'Nuff said!

😉  

1999 Honda Accord from the beginning. And I still have it 22 years later, now at 270K miles!

I put over 200K on it with the first 8-10 years of ownership. And the last 70K in the last 10-12 years. 

It was super reliable the first 200K. Only started having repairs beyond basic maintenance after 200K miles. 

In retrospect, I should have driven it more the past 10 years, instead of my other cars.

I never appreciated the quality and reliability of Honda, until I had to spend $$$ on repairs and maintenance of a BMW. 

First car was the first generation Renault Meganè. (Those that are familiar with this model are probably having flashbacks too)

I wish I could forget but I always remember - it would break daily (Never left me stranded to its credit)

I once drove it 200km on 2 cylinder when my electronics got messed up.
Another time I had all 4 coils burn simultaneously after a hill-start.

I’ve had my transmission size up in reverse but that was covered under warranty.

Once when replacing a tire, the lug nuts are such low quality I rounded them off (on a 3 year old car!)

Drove it to 160,000 miles, until I just couldn’t bare it anymore!

After my parents had the very nice and reliable Renault 19 I’ve fallen into the trap of late-90s/early-20s Renault.

(At the time Renault was in deep financial trouble and decided to built as many cars as they could as cheaply as they could)

after that I got a Renault Fluence dCi and that was the absolute opposite and probably the best car I have ever owned.

My first car was a red 1998 Suzuki Swift with the 1.3L SOHC I4 (making 70 hp) paired with the 3-speed AT.

My first car was an '89 Chevy Corsica which hasn't been made since 1996. It was a great little car.

GM replaced it with the Malibu.

1989 Hyundai Excel. Total pile of junk. I think the Hyundai’s that came into the US in the 80’s were all bad. It started falling apart around 40k miles

My first car was a yellow 1976 Chevrolet Chevette with a three speed auto, I would lose drag races with bicycles with that junk heap. I told everyone I owned a ‘Vette, no one believed me for one second. I really stepped up n the automotive world when I got my first Chrysler K car. 

Mine was an '83 Pontiac 6000LE 2door, with a 2.2L 4 cyl.  I got it for $375 and drive it all over NYS.  I had BOCES (a state highschool program to teach mechanics to seniors) do work on it with replacing shocks, struts, and coil springs.  It was pretty dependable until one trip away, it literally blew a hole in the radiator one day, and since then it never ran right.

I eventually got a different car and gave it to my brother, who drove it until one of the spark plugs blew out the hood of the car.  

I started out with a hand me down 2001 plymouth neon.  The transmission went out at 70k miles while climbing a hill. Weak transmission and hilly San Francisco 🤣. I did find the driver seat to be the most comfortable even today. My toyota prius seats are very uncomfortable for big guy like me.