Your first car, your first crash

[Jimi75]

What wa your first car and when and how happened your first crash?

1st car:

1st crash:
It was dark and it was raining outside. I was cruising in my dad's car just weeks after I received my driver's licence. When the road suddenly ended I wanted to turn and put in the reversing gear, I wanted to drive onto the gateway of a house and then turn. What I didn's see was than the gateway went downhill and at the end of the rather short gateway was a Volvo (at least I guess it was a Volvo). I crashed into it and.................get away........shame on me. When my dad asked me the next day what happened to the car, I first told him I didn't know and played the surprised man when I saw the indentation...but just minutes afterwards I told him the truth and he "congratulated" me to my first and inevitable crash.

 

[Kazz]

What kind of car is that Jimi?

 

[bigoldron]

My first car was a 1973 Plymouth Duster and was also the victim of my first wreck. It was a rainy Saturday night and me and a buddy were heading to a party down a dirt road. It had stopped raining by then, but I was going way too fast for the conditions. I hit a slick spot (heavy clay content) and started skidding. I wound up jumping the ditch, and after skidding a couple of hundred feet, finally came to a stop about a foot from a very large pine tree.

My friend jumped out yelling "I'm OK, I'm OK!" I jumped out yelling "Holy Sh**, my Daddy's gonna KILL me!". I wound up tearing up about a hundred feet of barbwire fence, which we had to pay to get repaired. I didn't tell my Daddy for a day or two, until the guy who pulled me out of the ditch asked him about the wreck. THEN I was in trouble... :thwap: :whatever:

The car was not that seriously damaged, but it didn't get repaired (as a lesson to me) and was sold not too long after that. :messedup: :nono:

 

[evenkeel]

First car...

A dark green version of this, a late 60's Volkswagen fastback.

First and only crash was in the late 80's, late at night, few to many drinks and I piled up a Chevy. Ran it into a light pole in downtown Boston. No injuries, no one in the car but me. Major bone headed stunt never to be repeated!!! :thwap:

 

[thekiwidisciple]

Well I haven't had either of those. :messedup:

 

[Jimi75]

What kind of car is that Jimi?

It's a Renault and the model is called "Twingo".

 

[SuperSwede]

First own car was a Saab 9000... never crashed (yet!).

 

[hubberjub]

First car...

A dark green version of this, a late 60's Volkswagen fastback.

First and only crash was in the late 80's, late at night, few to many drinks and I piled up a Chevy. Ran it into a light pole in downtown Boston. No injuries, no one in the car but me. Major bone headed stunt never to be repeated!!! :thwap:

I do love a nice Type III. My first car was a 1970 Volkswagen van. It was purple and white (it's still parked on my parents property). My first crash was when I was 18. I was driving a Volvo 240 wagon and swerved to miss a squirrel and rolled the car. The squirrel and I both survived the accident without a scratch. The Volvo served it's purpose.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Cool Fastback VW! I always loved those one off models. We had a '71 Super Beetle way back when in the '80s. But my first car was a 1965 Buick Special station wagon with three on the tree, and really hot or really cold (depending on the temp) vinyl black seats.

Looked like these but was metallic royal blue with black interior.

It had kind of a xylophone you could play by plucking the spines with your finger nails in the metal radio grill too. That was a sweet ride! LOL! It was the family wagon growing up, and became the kids' clunker when we reached high school. The clutch was tough in that thing in that it was heavily springed. I remember after a running race (a hilly 12k that I ran very hard at age 17), I had a hard time holding the darn thing in at the stop lights on the way home. I liked it though.

First crash, my dad when teaching me to drive, wanted me to back the Buick out of a 1932 built garage that was too small for our car. I asked him to teach me to back somewhere else without the tight fit, but he insisted. I was still learning the clutch on this car too, and this clutch is very heavy, not subtle at all like the one in my Alfa. Heavy spring, quick catch point. You either made the shift and got it engaged or you didn't. Well, I killed it a coupla times and Dad said to give it more gas next try. That I did, and the car leapt backwards. Unknown to me, the front wheels were slightly turned. So the car spins a bit to the right as we fly back out of the garage, and the large chromed steel bumper catches the post that holds up the garage doors. They crash down on the hood as I pull my feet completely off the pedals or maybe brake. Dust settles.



LOL!!!!

 

[Tig]

My first car was a '69 VW Karman Ghia. I sure wish I had it now.

My second was a '63 Chevy Impala 2-door. We de-stroked the 327 to 302 and ran 12.5:1 pistons. She flew like lightening!

Luckily, I never crashed either, but an alcoholic crunched the Impala's left quarter panel in a parking lot.

My first crash broke my nose. It was my sister's '74 Porche 914 2.0 liter... I rear ended a big '78 Chevy Impala. Crunched up the front pretty bad.

All later crashes were always the other driver's fault. Maybe I learned early!

 

[kiteman]

My first car was a 1960 Dodge Phoenix with a big block 318. My brother drove it into a convenience store. Duh!

EDIT: oh yeah my first crash. I was driving my 64 (or 62?) Chevy Corvair (remember those?) and I was getting on the freeway. I was looking for a hole in traffic when I ran into the lady's car stopped at the end of the ramp.

 

[marnold]

I've been in more than my share of crashes--none of which I've gotten a ticket for. Always "wrong place, wrong time" kind of thing.

The first car I drove was my parents' '78 (I think) Pontiac Le Mans with a 305 V8 in it. I was taking my sisters to Meijer (a MI-based chain, think Super Target before there was such an animal). Some kids swerved in off a side-street on their bikes. I swerved to avoid them only to find oncoming traffic. I swerved back only to find someone stopped to turn left into their driveway. I slammed on the brakes and the big ol' nose on that thing dipped so I caught the grill with their back bumper. I put a tiny dent in their bumper and smashed in the front of the Le Mans. I though my Mom was going to murder me. Turns out she wasn't too upset because a) I wasn't ticketed or driving recklessly and b) I didn't kill anybody. The funny thing was that the guy I hit was a member of my church who had not darkened the doors of church in some time. Imagine their surprise to find out the pastor's grandson had run into them.

My first car that I personally owned was an '89 Olds Cutlass Calais. I was in the middle of a four car crash in Milwaukee at the junction of highways 43 and 94. Mercifully no one was hurt and all the cars were drivable. I was really scared for a moment because there were two little kids in the car I hit. Thankfully Mom and Dad had them well-strapped into their carseats.

My second car that I still have is a '95 Olds Achieva with 222K miles. I got hit turning left into Menard's at slow speed when my wife was very pregnant with our first child. I've also hit Bambi twice. You'd think that she'd learn.

We also had a Dodge Intrepid that got the front end pushed to the left when somebody blew a red light in a town just across the IN border east of Chicago. A little slower and I'm not in the accident. A little faster and my wife and at least one of my kids are either seriously hurt or killed.

We replaced the Intrepid with an '01 Ford Windstar when we found my wife was pregnant with our fourth child. We've had that van for six+ years and thus far no accidents, other than someone backing into it when it was parked in a parking lot.

 

[Monkus]

It was 1988, driving a 1983 daihatsu charmant, bought at 17 with my own $$$, was working on an offshore rig at the time as a kitchen assistant. Bought second hand, I knew nothing about maintenance or service. Turns out the slave brake cylinder on the left rear wheel had dry rotted. No brakes, travelling at about 30 km swerved away from a pedestrian, glanced off two cars on the oncoming lane and ended up on the other side of the road sideways in a ditch. Insurance took care of everything. Now older and wiser.

 

[pes_laul]

I'll never forget the day when I had a little to much apple juice and I decided to drive anyway. They tried to warn me but I didn't listen.

The Result: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/69/211225580_24c7d6c69c.jpg

 

[deeaa]

My first...

Car was a 1968 Ford Cortina

That color too. Got it in '84. Never really drove it anywhere legally. Got my first proper car ten years later.

First accident, drove my dad's 1984 Talbot 1510:

(Good car to drive except fast/parkinglot turns required superhuman strenght and it had a weak 1.3L engine despite being heavy).

Drove over a 1100 Honda motorbike, completely totaling the bike. Not a scratch on the Talbot. Dad drove it till 2007 and sold it off.

We always buy old cars and drive them to death.
Can't see any sense in buying a new or even rather new a car, they are so damned expensive. 10 years old is fine. MAx 10% of yearly family income is OK as long as the car will last at least 5 or so years.

 

[tunghaichuan]

First own car was a Saab 9000... never crashed (yet!).

Sweet. My first car was a Saab 99E hand-me-down from my dad when I was 16. My first crash was denting the driver's side fender well on the garage pulling out one day. My dad was pissed. He had this love affair with his cars, even if he wasn't driving it.

tung

 

[R_of_G]

my first car was a 1984 honda prelude (silver) that my parents bought from a neighbor when i turned 17 (1987). i loved that car.

i'd rather not relive any of the accidents i've been in. there were too many and they are still somewhat traumatizing to think about. most were not (entirely) my fault, but i can admit, a couple were. i was not exactly the world's most attentive driver as a teenager.