Do You Remember Your First Car? – Mine Meant the World to Me

One of the biggest moments in anyone's life is their very first car. No feeling is better than knowing that car is all yours, especially if you bought it all on your own without any help from mom and dad.I was driving home the other day and that's when I saw it on First Ave...a 1975 Ford Gran Torino, (pictured above), identical to my first car. Needless to say the memories came flooding back. I was so proud of that car and loved it more than life itself. It had over 100,000 miles on it as well as a few issues, but I didn't care because it was all mine.

I loved that unbelievable feeling of independence that car gave me...I could go anywhere I wanted whenever I wanted. Then, the inevitable...major issues under the hood, not to mention the gas shortage at that time in 1977 and that Torino sucked gas like there was tomorrow. Gas went up to $1.00 a gallon...oh the humanity!!! Gas had never been that high.

My dad said, "You really need to get a more economical car." So we drove to the Honda dealership. We drove into the dealership lot, and the water pump fell right out of the bottom of the car...my beloved Torino was dead. I traded it for a brand new Honda Civic that got 44 mpg and I could fill the gas tank at that time for $10 and go two weeks between fill-ups!! Life was good. I still miss that Torino though.

Click here to see a first car story about a son, a father and a 1972 Mustang Mach 1.