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?
First car, in 2000, was a 1967 Mustang. I6, automatic, power nothin. Daily driver for two years and change until the rear end started to go. Even back then you couldn’t find replacement parts for the 7.25″ rear. I snagged an 8″ and started the process of a five lug swap that didn’t happen until I was in the military circa 2004-5ish
Wow, sounds like some priviledged people here.
I drove a nice citybike with a derailler and I was pretty happy with it up until it got stolen. Then I had to ‘borrow’ my moms single speed trough most of university. Up until I washed enough dishes at the local restaurant to have been able to save up for a tree speed standard bicycle.
I am European, I didn’t drive until university. And even then I took public transport to uni, not an car.
1976 Mustang II Ghia, gray exterior with a deteriorating vinyl top and fuschia interior, and a short block V8. It was a massively thirsty POS that was constantly breaking down in one way or another (and a total pain in the ass to work on), but it was freedom.
A 1977 Honda Accord, which was only 5 years old at the time. It was the family’s second car and like most early Accords it was basic with a 5 speed manual an AM/FM radio and power brakes. It also had only a little rust.
Before that I rode a bicycle
I mostly rode a bicycle and senior year I bought a 1969 Plymouth Valiant Signet 100. Brown on brown.
Back in my day, I had to walk to school, uphill both ways.
No, literally uphill both ways. I lived on top of a hill. School was on the other side of the valley. Walk down into the valley and then start climbing the other side to get to school. I was a sweaty, stinky mess by the time I got there.
1987 Chevrolet S10, 4 cylinder Iron Duke, 4 speed manual, RWD, no power steering, no power brakes, did have fuel injection, regular cab. This was early 1990’s (’93-’96) and it was my Dad’s crappy errand truck. Absolute POS, but it was a free car I could use outside of deer hunting week.
Ah yes, high school!
I started on a 71 Pinto. My brother and I had to rebuild the engine after it spun the timing belt.
We moved on to a shared 66 Dodge Dart with the bullet-proof Slant-6
For date night, I actually borrowed my Grandma’s 79 Dodge Aspen.
The first car I owned all by myself was a 69 Ford Falcon Sport Coupe. 302 V8 and a big hit at college my freshman year. Few freshman had cars 🙂
Class of 81
I drove a 1974 GMC 1/2 ton during my junior year. Senior year I had 1970 Mustang Coupe. I drove the Mustang all the way through my college years as well.
honda cub derivative
I drove a 93 Miata, thought I was a racecar driver, right up until I stuffed it into a ditch. No one was hurt so it was a lesson well learned. I like to think I would’ve kept that car forever but realistically the rockers were rusted and iron oxide probably would’ve eventually taken the car. It was replaced with a much nicer 01 Miata which I still have over 15 years later.
Royal Enfield, with the three speed Sturmey Archer hub.
It was the family truck, a 2001 Ford F-250 Diesel Crew Cab. Which was pretty sick as a 16 year old. Fast forward 15 years and the same truck now sits in my driveway. Thankfully it was still under my dad’s thumb when I was in high school, so I couldn’t “mod” it.
A white, blue-pinstriped 1979 Datsun B210 named Dotty. Utterly useless in a Minnesota winter, but two people could lift the backend to get it out of a snowbank. The poor thing rusted so fast…
78 Datsun B210 with the ever-slipping four-speed, a boombox on top of the ebrake and accessorized with fake cell phone attenae and GT decals.
Drive to school?!?
We never had that kind of money.
It was a big deal if I could get my mother’s car in the afternoon to go to work.
Yeah. I was wondering how long it would be before someone questioned the presumption. I didn’t have a vehicle until my last year of graduate school. It was a severely rusted 67 Bug.
I bought my first car after I moved out. (With two older siblings, I would have had third dibs on the car anyway.)
Thank you for your post – us non-drivers during high school can actually say something here.
I graduated high school at 16, which kind of explains things… Many cars have come and gone since then, and the collection I have put together now is pretty awesome, so that kind of makes up for riding a bicycle as a teen when some of my friends already had their licenses.
This is a way to tell this website is American. No driving licence until 18 and even then no real own car in many years. Mostly public transport.
Sophomore year – a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle, junior and senior years, a 1991 Volvo 940 Turbo (I ended up selling the Beetle, because I became uncomfortable with the idea of driving it year round, including in road salt conditions, it just seemed a little too nice to ruin)
’94 Thunderbird with the V8. Got it with really low miles and had years of fun with it. Rust took it in the end but it was still the bar I set most cars to for how great it was to drive. The interior build quality, on the other hand…
Got me all through higschool, college, college again, and made it all the way to the rust free south before it finally couldn’t go no more. Only major work in nearly 100k miles was a wheel bearing, a power steering hose, and an alternator. The factory auto-dimming rearview mirror still lives in in my Country Squire.
I drove my parents 1963 Chevy Impala 4 door “Sport Sedan”. A 283 V8 which produced all of 195 HP (gross HP) channeled to the rear wheels shod with 7.50/D14 traction optional tires (equivalent to today’s Chaoyang 195/80R14 but with much less traction and wear resistance), all through a 2 speed “Powerglide” transmission. I was grateful to have a car to drive, but did wish my Dad would have given me privileges to drive his red Austin Healey 3000 Mk1 to school, and on weekend nights for several reasons (and girls names) I refuse to mention.
This young man took his life in his own hands, by driving for a while a 48 Willy’s Overland Panel Truck! Not stock either!
Someone had installed the drive train from a
57 Chevy in it. 283 with a cam, 4 bbl carb, 3 speed with Hurst linkage, and the Chevy rear end may have had 4:11 gears. 2 bucket seats from a Corvair inside…not much else. Had an electric fuel pump. The switch was on the lower dash so sometimes going into 2nd I would turn off the fuel pump and run out of gas!!!
Had some custom wheels with cheater slicks on the back! Traction bars. It was grey so not too flashy, but you could hear it coming!
It had 426 Hemi emblems on the sides behind the front fenders!
For some reason nobody wanted to race me! Lol
But it was dangerous! Still had the original crappy drum brakes . It would go, but stopping was frantic down shifting with pumping of the brakes!
One 4th of July drove around with couple buddies in the back..throwing out fire crackers.
Took off hard on green light…they fell against the back doors, which weren’t latched well and fell out in the street! Thank God they didn’t get hit and just few cuts and bruises!
Once I saw all the rust underneath, I decided to get rid of it before someone got hurt!
Oh to be young again!!
Inheirited my grandparents’ green over green 1982 Buick LeSabre Limited (with the mighty 125 hp 4.1l V6 – rowr!) after they got stopped going 55 in a parking lot they thought was an on ramp. I didn’t mind that it smelled of my grandparents (they were farmers so it was an . . . earthy mix) but a chick magnet it was not.
Funnily enough, I got the only speeding ticket of my life driving this car after I somehow “won” a race against a friend from the last stop light heading out of town.
A better question might be what car did you drive before high school? And that would be a Chevy suburban a Dodge Aspen wagon Willys Jeep a Buick Century station wagon. not forgetting a Renault Gordini. It was orange and had a massive sunroof. Ford econoline , Whatever I could get the keys for. ????
I had $750 to spend and nobody to tell me not to buy a “furrin” car nobody had heard of. So I drove this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fiat_1500_Cabriolet.jpg
Car — the 1977 Thunderbird that had been in the family for a while since it was new. Medium blue metallic paint with dark blue velour interior. The typical thick beltline molding Ford usually put on them had been deleted on the order, replaced with thinner stainless-steel trim for the wheel arches and thinner rub strips on the doors that were less obtrusive. It had the 351 Windsor V-8, and was able to get out of its own way at least as well as or even better than a lot of malaise-era iron. It was eventually replaced when I went to college with a more useful 80’s era F150.
But due to the T-Bird’s appetite for fuel, I preferred to ride a bike a lot. (I was in shape from playing and refere4eing soccer, and biking was good exercise anyway.) I had a ’84 Schwinn High Sierra mountain bike, from back when mountain bikes used long, more BMX-style frames and wide “bullmoose” handlebars. It was pretty advanced for its day and was comfortable off or on the pavement. I still have the bike, and it’s still all-original except for tires. Still equipped with the original cantilever-type brakes that will stop it right now. Just needs to be polished-up and some get fresh lube on the chain and linkages.
started with a ’78 Datsun 510 wagon. ended with a ’74 superbeetle.
while I wish I had recognized how special the Datsun was, I’m glad I also had a beetle.