Week 3: Cars

Week #3 – Cars Week. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

Jeanne: My first car was a cream colored 1984 Chevy Celebrity. I got the car shortly before starting college in 1992. The car lasted only until the summer of 1993 when, on my way to work one day, the engine burst into flames. Needless to say, it was not worth what it would cost to fix it. As a replacement my grandfather found a good deal on a blue 1986 Pontiac Sunbird. I wasn't a name my car type of girl but my friend Heidi was and she had a "twin" blue car so she dubbed them Trudy and Judy.

Susan: My first car was a 1979 CJ7 Jeep. It was horrible brown/yellow/orange mix and said "Renegade" on the hood. My junior year of high school I got a job at Wendy's solely so I could buy a Jeep. This one cost me $2625 and was worth much less. It had so much rust that you could watch the road go by underneath your feet. Three speed, with no power steering or power brakes - so it was a workout just to drive. But I had one great summer driving around in a Jeep with the top down - so much fun! Come winter - not so much fun. And when the muffler fell apart - I gave up. Sold it for about $900 just a year after I bought it.



Heather: My first car was a hand-me-down car from Susan (cause the youngest of 4 kids rarely gets anything that didn't first belong to someone else first) and was a red 1987 Nissan Sentra. It had tinted windows, a sunroof, spoiler, and red plastic hubcaps...yep, it was a pimped out Sentra! It was a 5 speed, and around 1998 it stopped staying in 5th gear. It would just pop into neutral if you tried to put it in 5th. It was a good car while it lasted. I'm pretty sure I still owe our grandparents money for that car.



Clearly, we didn't come from a "buy the 16 year old a new car" type of family but we loved our first cars and all the quirks that made them unique--although could have done without the car on fire on the side of the highway in the days before cell phones incident.

What was your first car and what fond (or not so fond) memories do you have of it?