Your First car you bought out of High School

[corsair231]

During High School I drove my brother's '57 Chevy Bel-Air. Although technically not mine, I did put money and labor into getting it back on the road after it had been sitting since the late 60's so I consider it my first car. It was a 283, 3-spd, 4-bbl car that was pretty peppy for what it was. After graduation in 1983 I went to basic training and my brother bought my share back.

When I graduated basic I bought a '75 Olds 442. My official first car was burgundy with white stripes and burgundy interior, swivel bucket seats, rallye pack gauges, and a console shifter. The car had a 350 Rocket with a quadrajet and an automatic transmission. It had some kind of "economy" gear in the rear and was so underpowered that it couldn't get out of it's own way. I couldn't even power brake it to get it to spin. The only way it would chirp the tires would be if I did a neutral drop. Still, it was pretty cool and I would love to have another one just for nostalgia's sake. I would have to cure the power deficient though, probably with a 455 this time.

 

[turbojay]

1978 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ, V8, fully loaded with power moonroof bought in 1988 as a high school graduation present to myself. It only has 50k miles and bought it from the nice old lady neighbor for $1800. Not very fast but was a blast to drive. I wrapped it around a tree 6 months later while taking a curve too fast during a rain storm.

 

[Dennis Kirban]

My 83 T was my very first car when I was about 17 years old. Im 19 and still a proud owner.

That is an extremely rare example especially now. Even the fender emblems are unlike the later ones....Yours should have the small straight up and down T then the word Type.

Takes a lot of patience and skill to work on those early ones under the hood.

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[GerrywithaG]

'85 Ford E-150 w/ a 300. Bought it for $2,500 and it supposedly had 75k on it (the frame and underbody said differently), with a 5-digit odometer.... The title and carfax report were a little fishy but I went with it anyways, because well, it was my first car and didn't know any better Raised roof, back windows, interior, everything was done by the previous owner... Ford Chrome Yellow and the rest only looks purple in pictures, supposed to be brown. Sold it a couple years later after I realized how bad the gas mileage was..

 

[Dennis Kirban]

1967 GTO 400 4 barrel 335HP. It was listed in the Baltimore Sun paper for $2200. I ended up getting it for $1800. Artic white, black top, & White interior. Dual gate his & her shifter. Ralley gauges.
I think I ended up putting about $3500 into that car in 1 year.
Joined the work force & realized it wasn't for daily driving. Sold it for $1800 a year later. (1986)

I ended up buying & selling alot of older GTO's after that. I was addicted as bad to them as I am Buicks now.

Gas
Tires
Oil

Checked on the same car back in 06 before I bought 2 new 06 GTO's,The 67 was over $30k!!!

Dennis just a little ego trip for you. When I started dealing with Buick's & getting out of GTO's Wayne Garrison said don't even bother leaving the Pontiac's. Dennis Kirban Has the Buick Market sewn up!

Flash forward a few years later.

I bumped into Wayne in 06 at a Pontiac event at a Dealership when I was picking up my 06 SLP GTO.
I explained Dennis left a little bit of the market open for me to survive.

You got youth on your side! Competition is good we all have our strengths.
I still have on one of my vehicles license plate reads MR GTO....had that plate for 25 plus years.....

For those young readers I started buying and selling GTO parts in the mid and late 1970s when nice original tri-power GTOs could be bought for $500 to $1,000 dollars. today some steering wheels and simple am/fm radios sell for that much....only hemi car I bought was a 1967 GTX with 22,000 miles for the big money of 5 grand....

GTOs like the turbo regals developed a very strong cult following and started many companies back then in the field Year One being one, Performance Years, Bobs Pontiac, and others.....

Enjoy the ride...

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[Dennis Kirban]

79 Omni 4 door (oh yeah) bought it for $1800 from my dad. That was 1985, traded it 8 months later for a brand new Shelby Charger turbo. Thats when new cars only cost 10K!

Back then I was in the towing business and Chrysler products were my bread and butter as quality was terrible on the Omni/Horizons and what I referred to as K mart cars for the K cars back then. I towed for several dealerships.

Unfortunately with emissions and the funky 3-5 mph bumper rules and insurance rates the mid to late 1970s produced very very few cars of any value today. Point being Buick did good bringing the turbo regals out in the mid 1980s.....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

 

[davidf]

1973 Dodge Polara, police cruiser. 440 magnum, dual exhaust, AC was the only option. It got rear ended after 8 months so wound up buying a 1974 Plymouth Grand Fury, ex highway patrol cruiser. Both would do access of 140 mph and that was fast back then. Both sounded incredible. If you wanted speed/power at a cheap price, you bought a cop car.:biggrin:

 

[TurboDave]

Grad in 66. First new car shortly after was a 68 Mustang GT Fastback, 4 spd. Beautiful car.
Traded it a year later for a new 69 Nova SS big block. 396/375 4 spd.

Ah the good ol days.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

I had to graduate college (1999) and get a job (2000) before I bought my first car- the 87 T in my signature for $5400, 100% bone stock and documented all the way back to 1987.

 

[notacarlo]

1984 WH1 with 36K on the clock, sunroof and concert sound.

 

[moparkid]

The first car I really had to spend money on was my '88 Monte Carlo SS. I paid $5600 for it in '98 as I was still a senior in high school. I had previously driven and '86 Luxury sport that got totaled out thanks to my local insurance agent not paying attention while driving. I had that car a long time, and when I sold it, I sold it to get my dream car - a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T.

I ended up with one more Monte SS before the Charger came true

After a slew of Mopars, a tanked muscle car market, and life getting in the way, I'm back to my GM roots and driving a GN. Haven't been this happy with a car since them old Mopars!!

 

[6APPEAL]

In 1984 I bought a 1978 Buick Regal Sport Coupe (hot air turbo, 4bbl carb) for $3000 with 40k miles on it. Drove it for 14 years and put 190k miles on it. It's the one listed in my sig.

 

[Evans Ward]

1977 Pontiac Trans-Am, 400 with automatic. Black car bought in September 1976 and one of the first 77's around. This was well before the Smokey and the Bandit movie which was May or June of 1977 if my memory serves me well. I did drive the car to the movie and it put a smile on everyone's face when leaving! Was just watching an episode where Year One was recreating the Burt Reynolds TA and Burt mentioned that Pontiac TA sales increased 600(yes 600) percent after the movie came out! I later put Doug Thorley headers on the car, dual exhaust, shift kit in the TH-400, and opened up the shaker scoop. The car had 2.56 final drive ratio so it was a top end machine! Put the hurt on my buddy's '77 Olds 442 (w/350). Same guy later bought a new '80 Z28 and the same result happened! I just missed out on purchasing a used '72 TA with 400HO engine in 1979. It was a blue with white stripe car. That's the one I regret not buying...... :frown:

 

[Turbo-Archie]

Class of ‘90

My first car I paid for was an ’87 GN in ’91.

This was my fifth car by then. My friend’s dad that lived across the street bought it from a dealer. My friend was going to collage so his dad told me he would sell it to me for something like $6000 which was un-heard of back then. He was making money on it and I got a great deal. He is now my “Gun Show” partner and his son and I haven’t been friends since.

Now the kicker, you should have seen the look on my State Farm agent’s face when I told her what I bought. “YOU BOUGHT WHAT!!!!??”
Turns out they had something against a 19 year old driving a “new” turbo car. That and I had a speeding ticket on record. No joke, they wanted $5,500/year for full coverage.

We put it in my dad’s name and it was $500/year. I will say my dad was cool about it because he stuck his neck out for me. I wasn’t supposed to drive the car. Thanks dad!!!


..

 

[turbo nasty]

73 Nova custom with a 355/TH350 and "Highway option" rear gear. A/C, PS , PB, Busket seats.

Was originally gold I had it repainted in the lates 80's Dodge Daytona blue with iridiscent (spelling??) metal flake. Powertrain was great and held up to many a pounding.
Real fun car...hated the 4 wheel drum brakes though

Wish I would have kept it! Sold it and bought a stupid POS dodge truck since I was working on teh road...what a huuuge hunk o crap it was! That was a stupid move on my part!

 

[Little6pack]

65 Tripower GTO w 4 speed. Paid $700- in 75

It was Jacked so high I could creeper under it and never hit anything except the ladder bars

 

[draggin61]

First car was a 68 chevy belair wagon. 75 Bucks. this was in 80, i had just dropped out of college to grade to tech school and needed wheels. 307 Powerglide, it was actually a great running car. After it bit the dust a year or so later and I actually had an income, I found a 73 pontiac grand am 4 speed car. I didn't know anything about them, but it was a 4 speed and it was 800 bucks and it ran. After i had it for about five minutes, I found out how rare they were. I really loved that car,it was fun to drive and was comfy. After it was wrecked, I parked it and then lost my storage. ended up scrapped. Much later I bought another GA 4 speed which I still have. There were very few of these made but stillaren't high dollar cars. I remember when I was looking at cars in 83 and the buick dealer had a 2 tone regal that he was trying to sell me. It was a grand national. I liked it, but thought it was too expensive at 2800 bucks. I bought my 84 gn in 1989 for 2500, it is bone stock and has not moved since 1993.
I sure rmember the days of cheap muscle. I had a 67 GTX 440 offered to me for 500, I also passed on a pair of 70 chargers for 1000 one was an RT. There were many, many more, but I had no place to store them, and couldn't afford the gas to run them, so someone else got them.

 

[allblackcars]

Grad. 92' and 1st ride was 1984 XR-7 Turbo Cougar! I used to get teased because of the whistle it would make. Everyone else had some sort of g-body with SBC....Followed the crowd and installed a carbed 302

 

[troGNman]

I graduated H.S. in 1981 and had a 1977 Regal as my first car. I wanted something small and sporty like an MGB or Triumph Spitfire but my parents thought a young driver should have lots of metal surrounding them.

I got this car from a local repair shop for $1200. It had been hit in the front and fixed. I added the 15 x 7 Buick Rallys and dual exhaust along with a rear swaybar out of a junkyard Grand Prix.

The picture was taken at Seaside Heights during the Summer of 1982.

 

[ZNix]

Haven't graduated yet but.. I have an 84 Work in Progress. Hopefully she will be on the road by the end of HS lol.