A kid’s grade school years are some of their most formative. As a kid, you learn to socialize, maybe build a friend network, and figure out who you might become as a person. As a teenager, you might experiment with new experiences, have feelings you’ve never felt before, and perhaps not realize how good you have it while you’re not currently paying bills or having adult responsibilities. Part of grade school involves sometimes being driven to school by your parents or guardians. What were you driven to school in?
My family has always had an interesting relationship with cars. One of the earliest vehicles I remember was the W123 Mercedes-Benz that my mom named ‘Jane.’ I couldn’t have been any older than 5 years old or so when that car was written off. That was in roughly 1997 or so.
My parents also had a pretty big fascination with minivans. My mom would try to have the latest vans, which would lead her to buy a new 1999 Ford Windstar, a 2003 Chrysler Voyager, and then a 2003 Oldsmobile Silhouette. Dad often had older vans, including a 1993 Plymouth Voyager and a 1995 Chevy-Van 20.
Some of my earliest school trip memories involve riding in the second row of that brown ’93 Voyager. My dad would have WLS 890 AM blaring, and in between loud pops of static, I listened to talking heads make commentary on politics. I still remember how much WLS marketed Rush Limbaugh back then. I also remember the smell of my dad’s cheap cigarettes, the softness of the burgundy cloth seats, and the gentle whine of the van’s transmission as it began its departure from this mortal plane.
I was too young to understand the political banter at the time. Instead, I found the voices, broken by bursts of static, to be soothing. That van was more welcoming than any school bus.
As I got older, the vans went away, and were replaced by vehicles like a cherry red 2003 Chevy Blazer, a 2000 Ford Ranger, a 1990s Nissan Hardbody, and a gold on tan 1995 or so Saturn SC1. My dad always drove these older, more beaten vehicles, and the Saturn was no exception. It had only basic amenities, and its interior was worn from a working man who put in hard overtime every single day and relieved stress through packs of cigarettes.
I loved the little coupe. Its exhaust was rusted out, so the car sounded “sporty” to my kid ears. It was a manual, too, so I got to watch dad throw the stick back and forth. I was also in love with the Saturn’s design, from its gigantic instrument cluster to the body, which made me think of a spaceship. In 2010, when I was 16 going on 17, my dad tossed me the keys and gave me a crash course in driving a manual.
Sadly, as much as I wanted the Saturn to be my first car, the vehicle met its end when my dad lost control at an intersection and slid over a curb at high speed. The impact was so hard that the vehicle’s unibody split.
In my later school years, I’d run late for the bus, and my mom would have me drive myself to school in her GMC Envoy XL while she sat in the passenger seat. Then, I’d roll up to the school’s door, toss her the keys, and then sprint in.
A part of me does wonder what would have happened to me as a car enthusiast had I not lived much of my grade school years out of the backs of so many cars. What if, like most of my classmates, I always rode the school bus?
Here’s where I turn things over to you. What cars were you driven to school in as a kid or teenager?
Top graphic image: Saturn
Red 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7 followed by a 1984 black and tan GMC Jimmy S-15
Kinder:
Dad: 1986 Tempo GLS 2dr 5 spd with the HSO engine.
Mom: 1986 Subaru GL Wagon
Elementary:
Dad: 1986 Tempo GLS 2dr 5 spd with the HSO engine, then a 1989 Ranger XLT
Mom: 1997 Hardbody King Cab, then a brand new 2000 Dodge Stratus
Middle School:
Dad: kept the 1989 Ranger.
Mom: kept the Stratus
High School:
Dad: the 1989 Ranger would not give up.
Mom: replaced the Stratus midway through HS with a brand new 2009 Focus. The Stratus became mine
University:
I kept the Stratus and replaced it halfway with a 2003 5 spd Saturn Vue
Dad: Sold the Ranger during my freshman year as he was provided a full-time van from work.
Mom: kept the 09 Focus
Grade school saw me getting chauffeured in the lap of Oldsmobile luxury in my parents’ 1986 Olds 98 Regency Brougham. That car had nearly every option, save for the moon roof and the Bose ConcertSound stereo. What it DID have is the voice warning system, the full digital dash, and a fancy trip calculator built into the dash. I thought the thing was K.I.T.T.’s cousin! My parents ordered it new and I actually remember going to the dealer with my dad to pick it up (I was 4 at the time).
Also, I distinctly remember doing math homework using the trip calculator while we were waiting to pick up my older sister a few times.
I can still here the voice warning guy in my head telling my mom that “DING DING DING, the parking brake is not fully released” before she backed out of our steep driveway, which happened a lot. Seared into my brain forever.
Grade school? Depending on the year it was either.
1976 Scout II
1978 Super Beetle
1984 Century Wagon
1982 J-2000 hatchback
Shoe leather express, baby! Even the year we spent in Michigan, I walked. Later, in Iowa City, I’d ride my bike when it was nice.
We had a variety of older used cars. I vaguely remember a 40s Hudson. Still miss the 50 Ford truck with a 52 flathead Mercury in it (Grinner). There was a 57 Ford station wagon in there somewhere. We called it The Ark. Mom had a late 60s Cutlass that Gramps had fiddled with: that’s where I get my love of V8 sounds from. A 74 Super Beetle entered the mix mid-70s, and that rode us till they bought a new 82 Rabbit LS—which I got to put the first few hundred miles on during a family vacation on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Only time I remember them closing school in Iowa was a week it never got above freezing and wind chill was 40 below and worse: even with block heaters, they couldn’t start the buses. Got to Virginia, and 1” shut things down. -that made more sense when we started exploring the area & saw some of those treacherous mountain roads
The earliest was a 1972 Plymouth Fury III, banana yellow with black vinyl roof, after that were red 1975 Chevette, beige 1979 Rabbit, light blue1980 Rabbit, light blue1982 Rabbit Diesel, and lastly a black 1983 Renault 18i wagon. The Renault stuck around long enough for me to learn to drive on it a few years later.
Nothing too exciting. Very early on was a 1978 beige Ford Fiesta S. This was replaced while I was in Kindergarten, 1n 1987, with a 1985 Plymouth Voyager SE, ice blue in color. The Voyager hung around until about 1995 when it was replaced with a base spec dark green 1993 Plymouth Voyager.
Early 80’s Saab 900 with a stick shift. That’s what my mom drove when I was little. And I wonder where my love of unusual cars comes from…..
A Willow Gold (greenish metallic) Olds Vista Cruiser with the faux wood panels. After my parents got rid of it, it was used by criminals, so they had a nice discussion with the local cops to prove they knew nothing about it.
Something similar happened with the ‘78 Lincoln that ferried me to Catholic school. It had belonged to someone who put it on a used car lot when Jimmy Carter froze Iranian assets over the hostage crisis… someone who also had a reputation around Modesto as a purveyor of illicit pharmaceuticals. Until she replaced his vanity plates, people would often tailgate her and then move up to see who was driving.
My parents did a pretty thorough search of the car to see if it contained any windfalls or potential reasons to spend time in federal prison, but it came up clean.
Or so they said.
Mom drove a Volvo 140 wagon followed by a Pontiac Grand Safari wagon. My grandmother drove me to school in a Ford Fairmont wagon, silver with an all red vinyl interior.
My childhood memories say a1965 rambler American 2door my mother named candy once in a 63 corvette an Amc javelin a matadoor a 68 mercury cougar and a 66 chevy caprice they were my childhood cars
Huh, let’s see if I can remember
During elementary I think it was an early 80s Cadillac Sedan de Ville in a disguising yellow that smelled terrible
After that it was probably a mid 80s Ford LTD
Around middle school mom’s first new car was a silver 91 Saturn SL1 but I don’t remember what my dad was driving.
While I was in HS, dad got a brand new 96 Ford Aerostar XLT with the rear audio controls. Those were fun to play with.
My first car was a 1980 Isuzu Trooper in burgundy with tinted windows and gold tone modular wheels with 31″ BFGs. Looked awesome.
The elementary school (grades kindergarten through sixth) was .9 of a mile from our house so our general neighborhood area didn’t qualify for school bus service distance wise. So from grades 3-6 I was expected to walk to school, this being 1972-1975, this didn’t constitute an automatic child abandonment violation to report to children services ;)’ but occasionally if the weather was pretty horrible, I’d get driven to school, but rain and snow, you just dressed appropriately for the weather and walked.
1) 1966 Dodge Coronet 500 station wagon, main family car.
2) 1961 Chevrolet Impala 2 door hardtop coupe, 2nd car, dad’s drive to work beater car. By the early 70’s the 283 V8 had developed a hard starting flooded carburetor condition that usually resulted in this scenario happening: as I watched on in the garage floor, dad in the Impala, mom standing in the open doorway between the utility room and the garage. Dad trying to start the car and soon the strong smell of gas after a few starting attempts. Finally it would start but with the added bonus of a circle of flames in a ring around the bottom open edge of the air cleaner top, kinda like someone turned a gas stove burner up to 10. Mom would yell to dad, “the engine is on fire!, dad would yell back, I know it’s on fire!” And after all the unburned fuel vapor trapped under the air cleaner burned off after about 3-4 seconds the car would run normally. As a grade school age kid, I just thought that flame ring was the most incredible sight to behold, and this was repeated usually 5-7 times during Dec-Feb, same mom reaction, same dad reaction, same me impressed with the flame ring.
3) 1973 Plymouth Fury Custom Suburban Brougham station wagon 440 high output engine with the wickedly cool bright orange dual snorkel air cleaner. No drama with this one, just a comfy ride.
I walked in elementary and rode my bike in junior high and high school. That was more common among Gen X like me and older. I was idealistic/stubborn about not getting driven ever. My mom would offer to drive if it was raining, but I always refused. She even tried picking me up in downpours a couple times, but I sent her off.
Biking to school was kind of formative, getting me into mechanical gear and fixing stuff, but also into aerobic/endurance sport. I’d keep up with cars and mopeds on the last stretch to school, and race a neighbor/classmate kid home after school.
I didn’t get driven to school much, but:
K > 1 (this would have been in 1969-70) 1961 Buick LeSabre sedan
My dad bought this, cheap I suppose, for my mother. Used rattle cans to spray it appliance white. Sold when we moved from Missouri to Texas, but we ended up taking with us a 1948 Ford Pickup, 1966 Buick Skylark GS, and a 1960(ish) Austin A55 Cambridge Mark II saloon.
2 > 7 1970 Chevy Nova 2-door with a 350 and 3-on-the-tree.
My dad bought this from a co-worker. I think it was the first car we had with air-conditioning. The A/C was an aftermarket unit, I don’t think it ever worked very well.
I kind of learned how to drive in this car, starting around age 12.
8 > 9 1977 Buick Regal 4-door sedan, auto, AC
This was a nice, big, comfortable, and good looking car, in ruby red metallic with a red interior. I was sad to see it go when they traded it in on a FWD Buick Century in the early 80s.
1975 Dodge Dart. White 2 door with the green vinyl top. 318. Very comfy, but had a series of mechanical issues, ate coolant hoses every few months.
My parents eventually traded it for a set of couches, and bought an 82 Cutlass Cruiser. 3.8 V6 with the last of the carburetors. It was okay, but the rear window squeaked constantly, it stumbled when you hit the gas, and my dad never trusted it’s engine.
After that was an 88 Bonneville with the 3800. I learned to drive in it, and it was the most reliable vehicle we ever owned. It was on its second transmission and paint job but original engine at over 350,000 miles when my brother bent the hood which totalled it. It was a surprisingly good vehicle in the snow too. I took it up and down our mountain roads all winter. With chains, it would do 8 inches of unplowed snow and 8% grades no problem.
It was always my mother that drove me. First, a “4DSC” Nissan Maxima GXE that had been in an accident when it was a couple of years old and went from a nice silver to an ugly shade of brown, and according to her, never drove quite right again. She replaced it with a Volvo S70 (not a turbo, unfortunately, but at least it had leather seats and alloy wheels). I took my driving test in the Volvo and passed on the second try (don’t even get me started on the MA State Trooper who failed me for “pulling too far into the intersection” while waiting to turn left on an unprotected green).
Failed my first try as well, by using the shoulder as a turn lane. Everyone did that there—including the officer in front of me that day. “I’d fail him too—go on back”
It has been a turn lane now for a couple decades
When I was a little kid, my mom took me to school on one of these:
https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/mo21/lots/r0090-1970-solex-3800/
She’d wear a head scarf to guard against the wind (no helmet), and I’d be in a kid’s seat on the back.
Later on I always lived close enough to school to walk, bike, or ride the bus there.
Like many, I rarely got a ride to school.
On the rare occasion we did get a lift, it was my mom’s ’89 Corolla in a very weird spec.
It was loaded with power windows and locks, a cassette player, and red velour interior.
The weird thing was the twin cam 16 valve carburated 4A engine. It started poorly and was rough in the cold, and it was extremely gutless. It carried on for about 450k before it was driven to the scrap yard.
On even rarer occasions, we would get a lift in my Dad’s ’93 Previa. That one was legendary.
A 1991 Toyota Previa (automatic, pre-supercharger, RWD) was our faithful family steed for my entire childhood and beyond…I only let go of her after 30 years of service and 300k miles on some well worn bones. Wonder if she’s still on the road…
My family had the same spec, but ’93.
We used it as a truck hauling building materials for most of it’s last ten years.
It was awesome how you could just fold the rear seats and load the thing up with 4×8 sheets.
We always towed with it, sometimes even hauling our 20 foot sleeper boat.
I took it to the scrapper at about 400k miles with a perfect engine and transmission.
I’ll always miss that van.
Always good to hear about other Previas and their long lives! The amount of stuff that can fit in one is always impressive, especially when compared to modern SUVs. It took me a while before I realized I overloaded our Previa to the point of snapping the rear shocks, but that was only after the 40 mileish delivery was made haha.
1966 Ford Country Sedan Station Wagon. Not enough seat belts for the neighborhood kids, and one cold Milwaukee winter the rear door flew open and out I went, bouncing on the icy street in my show suit!
Rear facing back seat, we fought over who got to sit in the “way back”
In Kindergarten we didn’t yet live in the district so it was either my parents 1986 Mercedes 420SEL or grandparents Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser. Throughout grade school we almost exclusively road the bus a 90s Bluebird. However my parents had aforementioned 420SEL and a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, which was definitely the more likely of the two vehicles we would rarely get a ride to school in.
One of my foundational memories is my mother driving carpool in her 1970 Karmann-Ghia, pale yellow with black leatherette. Seven kids under nine years old crammed into the thing, Mom in the driver’s seat in a housecoat … and she was the only parent who got us to school on time. (Thanks, Mom)
The other carpool moms in our Flint neighborhood had basic GM fare (I remember a clamshell Impala wagon), but one mom drove Saabs. She was awesome.
Seven kids in a Karmann Ghia? That’s bold.
It was the ’70s. Did I mention all the kids were smoking?
7 kids + 1 adult = 7 hp per person.
A 1976 (I think) Volvo 244. Very very red. My dad taught me enough about driving stick that they’d let me back it out of the driveway every morning. When I was 8.
Then a 1986 Chevy Astro. I know they were cross-shopping some Volvo wagon, but I was watching The A-Team every day after school and a van with a sliding door was just the coolest thing in the world imho. If my TV show infatuation was any factor in their decision, yeesh. Still, it worked out OK. I took it over when I left for college and drove it until it started having rear diff issues. I think we ended up with pretty close to 250k on it combined.
1991 Mitsubishi Galant when they decided they needed a second car. AWD, 5MT, it was fun. I probably should not have tried teaching my friends how to drive stick with it, that probably didn’t help its clutch life. My parents ditched it for an Accord wagon not long after the timing belt (chain?) broke, while under warranty, and the Mitsu dealer in bumfsck NC they had it towed to wanted to know how they were going to pay for it.
In first grade my parents sold their 2002 but right before made a road trip in it to pick up its replacement, a two year old Citroen SM. When fall rolled around and all the kids in my second grade class were talking about their dads’ cars I had a difficult time getting them to believe that my dad’s car had a lever next to the drivers seat that would raise and lower the suspension and change the ride height. Before the Citroen I had to explain that a BMW wasn’t a Volkswagen since no one at my elementary school had heard of them.