Who among us wasn’t absolutely counting the days until they could actually drive to school by themselves? No more indignity of being dropped off and picked by your uncool Mom or Dad, and the total lack of control of the car stereo that that entailed. Better still, no more waiting for the bus and the horrors within that were the garbage appetizer and rancid dessert to start and finish each day of school.
What sort of car you were allowed to drive or owned yourself scarcely mattered; yes, cooler was better, but literally anything that got you to school and back (and to parties and dances and your girlfriend’s house, etc.) was some level of cool by default. Because freedom is cool.
Lucky for me, the cars I drove to school were a mix of cool then and cool now. Cool then: the family’s Jeep J10 Thriftside, an example of which is not pictured below. That’s a Gladiator, because finding a usable pic of a J10 with a Thriftside bed was pretty dang hard. Aside from a different grille and blue paint instead of that sweet seafoam color, my (family’s) Jeep was just pretty much just like the pic, right down to the steelies and manual locking hubs.
Cool now, the subject of the topshot: a Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD wagon. This was primarily my Mom’s car, but I did take it to school a few times a month. It was not appreciated at the time beyond being a set of wheels to cart myself and the gang around, but it’s one of the Cars Of My Past I’d most like to have back.
The first car that was solely mine was a 1974 Super Beetle, one of three at my high school. The other was a sweeter-looking Super on mag wheels that looked faster (less slow) than mine, but was not, as proven by our stoplight drag races on the way to and from school. The other Beetle was also a Super, but equipped with the AutoStick three-speed semi-auto trans (you still had to shift it, but there was no clutch). This Beetle was the slowest of all, and I’m pretty sure it was also the slowest car at school, period. Mind you, the Spanish teacher drove a Chevette Scooter, so that’s saying something.
What did you drive in high school?
Briefly a blue-on-blue Dodge Spirit (ex-Enterprise rental). Thankfully that one was T-boned. Then a champagne Pontiac LeMans (5MT, at least, but with Autobahn gearing which made it beyond lethargic at Littleton, CO’s 5200 feet). Then a 1987 Chevrolet Turbo Sprint in White, my first car and still one of my most beloved.
’84 Mark 1 VW GTI with all of 90 HP. It was not quite a ton of fun, in that it was fun as heck to drive and weighed about 1980 lbs. 🙂
1962 International Harvester Scout 4wd (I still have it!), and while I was rebuilding the engine and transmission (for 2 years), 1968 Volkswagen Squareback wagon.
Mustard yellow 78 Land Cruiser FJ40
1998 Plymouth Breeze in sexy, sexy beige.
Mine was my mom’s 1977 MGB. If I was with my dad and Step Mom it was either the 1977 Chevy C/K truck or my step mom’s 1981 VW Rabbit – which was the car I LOVED the most. I graduated in 1982 hoping I could have the Rabbit but alas I had to buy my own car; a Beetle for $900.
Started saving at 12. Was going to buy VW Bug at 16. Folks said if I had good grades and waiting until I was 17, they’d match me $ for $. First car was a year old ’66 Mustang 289 4 speed with chrome reverse wheels & glass pack mufflers. Sweet ride!
A beat-up second-gen Taurus with a bad AC, dying transmission, and questionable motor mounts. It did only have 30,000 miles on the odometer, but said odometer also only had 5 digits. Best guess is it had rolled over once. 130,000 miles on a lot of cars isn’t much these days, but the 5-digit odometer should tell you how long that particular model was expected to last.
My family had a Frankenstein ’53 Dodge pickup stepside. The Frankenstein part was whatever the original powertrain was had been replaced by a 2-barrel 318 V8 with a three-speed Torqueflite transmission. Oh and a single glass-pack muffler. It had very wide Goodyear Polyglas tires and no power steering. Parallel parking was a workout. Fortunately, I was allowed to use our other car, a ’65 Olds Dynamic 88 that did have p/s. Dad was usually busy driving a ’72 Kenworth conventional with a 350 Cummins and a 13-speed Roadranger.
I worked and saved enough to buy a pretty sad ’68 Datsun 510 wagon, which was definitely better than the Dodge and I taught myself how to drive its 4-speed manual. I bought and installed an AM/FM radio that had come out of a 240Z. That car got me through college and I handed it down to my brother.
The lede photo brought back fond memories of a Tercel 4WD SR5 I bought (long after high school) after selling a 4WD ’90 Toyota V6 XtraCab to help my wife and I scrape together enough money for the down payment on a house in Seattle. The pickup was a big, underpowered disappointment, and the Tercel was surprisingly fun, especially when it snowed.
in 1991, I was a goth kid driving the most goth car possible: a red 1971 Camaro. If you think that makes no sense, you’re right, but at least it had bumper stickers for The Cure and The Smiths. It was a hand-me-down from my dad, who used it as his daily driver for 20 years before finally upgrading to a Mitsubishi Eclipse. It was literally the first car I ever remembered, the one I saw in the garage for years, and I planned on keeping it forever.
Unfortunately, the car didn’t agree with my plans…and as soon as I took ownership, its two decades of reliability went right out the window. So I upgraded to something more reliable, and even MORE goth: A red 1989 Honda CRX Si. I didn’t even know how to drive stick, so a friend had to get it from the dealership and spend the day teaching me how to actually drive my own car. And I drove that car for about 100,000 miles—back and forth to college, to far off raves and concerts in other states, and directionless drives into the farmlands and hills just to see what cool roads I could find. It set a template for my cars (manual, Japanese, small and sporty) that lasted for almost three decades.
The Jeep pic in the lede reminded me of what my cousin drove in Kansas City in the early 90s. My eccentric uncle bought her a DJ-5 postal jeep at a government surplus auction. Right hand drive. One seat. No power steering, A/C or radio. She survived commuting to high school in KC traffic, never had an accident. She’s never owned a Jeep since lol.
High school driving years were 94-96 in northern Iowa. First car I bought was a mint 87 Nissan Sentra SE coupe in midnight blue. 5 speed manual, removable sunroof, alloy wheels. Installed an Alpine CD player and was rolling. Great, reliable car and I never should have gotten rid of it. But I was met by the siren song of a silver 86 FC RX-7 GXL, also 5 speed manual. It was a blast when it was running properly. It was way faster than my buddy’s FB RX-7. I never should have bought it, never meet your heroes I guess.. 3rd car was an 88 Beretta GT, red with gray interior. 5 speed manual with the 2.8 liter V6. Great in snow. Actually lasted me until about 2001. Toyotas and Hondas ever since. But I would still love another RX-7….
In high school (mid-90s) I had nearly free use of the family hand-me-down ’79 Coupe de Ville. I never saw double-digit fuel economy in that thing but it had all the style points.
One Halloween out with the de Ville I’d dressed in some banana-yellow slacks and a shell-pink polyester shirt with wide lapels I’d found at a resale shop. My two lady friends I’d picked up that evening, it turned out, had both dressed up as prostitutes. We made a stop at a convenience store for a couple of sodas for them. As we were walking in, a dude walking out looks at me, looks at my two friends, looks at the Coupe de Ville, then looks back at me, smiles, and nods his head “yeah.” Dude had no idea how much of a shy, virgin, nerd I was, but I appreciated the sentiment.
Great story. The coordinated wardrobes were all coincidental. Right…
Mine was coincidental. My two friends coordinated with each other and kept me in the dark!
It sounded like a really fun night. I’m happy for you!
My 6-4. It got me there and back (and to my part time gig).
The Chevy wagon had an electric rear window that didn’t work, so I could never use its rear hatch, but for 300 bucks, cargo access wasn’t a deal killer.
My first car was a 1969 Beetle with auto-stick (which is still in the fam), because I loved VW’s and couldn’t be bothered to learn how to drive the manual transmission 1994 Toyota 4×4 pickup which was intended to be my first vehicle (hindsight always 20/20, eh?). I did drive our first gen Neon in the winter, however.
Then I convinced my dad to snag an ‘84 Fiero because “sports car.” I learned quickly it wasn’t as sporty as I’d hoped, but it was still slow fun.
Before I left the household, I was handed down our 1996 Cherokee Sport (paid off BTW). One of my biggest regrets was to trade that in a few years later for a 1992 SC300 and end up with payments. Absolutely wonderful car, but not exactly the best decision for a college student’s budget.
No regrets, though. I wrenched on all of those vehicles with the exception of the Neon, and I consider them all Autopian.