Everyone else is doing it

Well, ok, not everyone, but the comments are making me laugh, so I’m going to follow along:

1. What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition?
2. What adventures did you have in it, good or bad?
3. What happened to it, what’s the end of the story?

Well lets see the first car that was “mine” in the sense that I was really the only one who drove it, was a ’90 Ford Tempo, and god did that thing suck.  My parents bought it for $1000 when I went off to college so I could come home for weekends without them having to drive me (I then proceeded to live at college for ever day the school would let me, oh well).  It was technically black, but it was so faded (at 8yrs old) that it looked blue in most lights.  Technically in “good” condition, but only technically.  Parking brake never worked, and proceeded to fall apart within weeks of having it fixed (so it would pass MA inspections), the brakes themselves sucked.  I ended up in my only accident ever in that car when flooring the brakes was unable to stop the car when it was going a less than 10mph and I rear-ended someone.  Infact the cop tried to tell me that I probably hit the gas by mistake.  I pointed out that my bumper had gone so firmly under the rear of the car I hit that when they separated us her tailpipe wouldn’t come out of my bumper.  Turned out it was embedded in some major piece of equipment (I think it was the radiator, but not going to swear to it).  Cop looked at it for a moment, and asked me again how fast I thought I was going when I hit the brakes??  I pointed out that it was stop and roll traffic, and there was no way I’d gotten over 10mph.  He ended up agreeing with me, but it was still my fault for rear-ending the girl.  We should have let the insurance total it after that, but we didn’t.  I drove it for another year till it dang near fell apart around me and we gave up on it.

The first car I actually owned was a ’91 Honda Civic hatchback in white.  My parents bought it brand new off the lot (with as few optional features as possible, car didn’t even have a cig lighter), and when I graduated from college and got my first “real” job they signed it over to me.  By that time it had a few rust spots but was in otherwise good condition.  It had the smaller of the two engine options too, not that it needed anything bigger.  That car MOVED when I put my foot down.  Manual tranny, no power steering, no power anything.  It got an average of 37mph on surface roads and over 42mph highway right up till the day it died.  Gosh I miss that car.  It took me everywhere, did everything.  Handled great in snow, rain, everything.  Then September of 2007 the timing belt broke and killed the engine leaving me stranded in the right hand left turn lane in the middle of a 6 lane road.  Repair shop said it was going to be at least $2k for parts, plus at least another grand for labor.  Which I didn’t have.  Brother of a friend of my husband (then boyfriend), bought it off me for $100.  Bought the parts and did the labor himself.  Last I saw him (about a year ago?) he was still driving it, and said that it was still getting that same insane gas mileage.  I offered to buy it back from him and he refused.