Originally posted by todras:
Yep. I had a 2.3L Mustang at 18. Paid $5200 for it and it only had 40k on the clock. Drove the heck out of that thing for 5 years and never had an issue other than a clutch. $1000 a year to run a car! Peanuts when you don't make much going to college.
"My" first car at 16 was a 74 Capri that my Dad paid $400 for. It was full of worn out stuff but when the driveshaft went, we dumped it and he got me a Beetle, then another when that one tanked. In college the second Beetle just got too expensive, so out it went. None of these cars cost more than $600. Finally got a scooter to get me around campus and the thing sipped gas and never broke down. Sold it when I was done with school, and spent the first year of my working life without motorized transportation while I paid down my credit card debt and started putting money into savings.
The first vehicle I actually paid my own earned money for was an 89 CRX Si that I bought from an acquaintance, and that was in 1990. I was 23 or 24. First "modern" non-junk car I'd ever had, and it didn't even have A/C, but I was ecstatic, and it was dead-nuts reliable and fun.
Function before fashion.
'96 Contour SE
"Toss the Contour into a corner, and it's as easy to catch as a softball thrown by a preschooler." -Edmunds, 1998
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