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?
Actually to school: Nothing, because we lived three blocks away from the high school.
When I could or needed to: Mom’s ’72 Nova four door, rusty (this was the mid-80s in MN) but trusty.
First car was a 1961 Oldsmobile 98. The car was notably older than I am, it had quirks, prone to vapor lock, but it got me there.
1969 Ford Galaxie 500, two tries of the driving test, through two high schools, 5 years of college, and almost a year into my first job after graduation. It was a yellow beast. A friend in college nicknamed it Battlecar Galactica. My family had purchased it new just after moving to California. I repurposed the CB radio hump mount for a cassette tape deck I found at a garage sale for $2. When I bought my first new car, sold it to a guy at work for $300. For all I know its still cruising around Santa Cruz somewhere.
1991 Jeep Cherokee, two door 5 speed, the very definition of durable over reliable. So many things were broken on it, but it just kept going. By the time I let it go it did not have a second gear and burned about 2 quarts of oil a week. I had quite a few other cars in high school (buy low, crash instead of sell) but that Jeep was always there for me.
As a guy that is older than dirt my cars were old then and even older now
1- 1962 Buick LeSabre bought when I was fifteen to repair and have it ready for the big day I got my DL. But got an offer from a buddy after I fixed it that was too good to pass up and bought a
2- 1964 Lemans Convertible with a 326 and powerslide trans. Ran great and the top worked. Had it a few months when I ran across this
3 – 1966 Bonneville with factory ice cold AC. My oldest brother wanted this boat so sold it to him for a tidy profit and found this
4 – 1969 TR6 with OD and wire wheels. Only senior in school with one, everyone else had Camaros and Mustangs, I had the best sounding car of the bunch
Can you tell I was in the car business my whole life?
1973 Olds Cutlass Supreme. Standard ????350 / AT. It was bottle green with a (very tattered by the time I bought it) black vinyl top. The Midwest had its way with most of the body panels, but she ran great – just couldn’t put anything small in the trunk for fear of losing it out of one of the many “speed holes”
Nothing. I didn’t start driving until I was 26.
A red 1978 MGB. It seemed old at the time but was only about 9 years old when I got it! My parents paid $1800 for it after I begged enough and promised to get a job to pay for the taxes and gas and insurance etc. The Lucas Electrics wiring was already a mess, previous owner had wired up a starter button under the front edge of the dash instead of fixing the ignition. The starter button was just hanging, not mounted.
I learned a lot about cars from that MGB. If it started it was pretty reliable, only times it broke down on me was when the battery died on a highway, and when the clutch gave up while going up a mountain.
It was a lot of fun and went through various misadventures, like me scraping the back fender into a chainlink fence while learning to drive manual (I was dumb enough to drive it forward without someone pulling the fence away from the car), the hood flying up at 55 MPH (drove it back to my friend’s house and stomped it out and tied it down with a rope), and me driving into a flooded railway underpass. A sheet of water flew up from the front of the car and made it so I couldn’t see anything, and the car bogged down and stalled.
1988 Jetta Coupe. It was a base model with an 8V engine, a 3-speed auto, and 360K miles. Manual windows and a hand-cranked sunroof, but it had a great aftermarket stereo (no big subs, just quality components) and, by popular consensus, was the coolest (least embarrassing) car in my peer group.
This was circa 2001.
1983 BMW 320iS, henna red. Great car to drive, and I had fun roads in Atlanta to drive it on. Only 101hp kept it suitable for a high schooler.
Longer ago than I care to admit:
First year – 1967 Opel Kadett fastback
2nd year – 1955 Chevrolet Belair with “3 on the tree” and the stock straight 6
3rd year – 1963 2dr Plymouth Fury w/383 and push buttons on dash for the Torqueflight (Graduation gift*)
*OK, it was 1968. Now get off my lawn!
Willys M38 A1. this was in the early 1980s and the jeep was from 1953.
I took auto shop when I was in high school, and freshman year (circa 1993) I wanted to buy a project to work on and drive when I got my license. I had always been into old trucks, my dad and I found a listing in the local paper for a 73 Chevy 1/2 ton shortbed 4WD pickup. It seemed in good shape, and was only 900 bucks, so we bought it.
Turned out it had a lot more bondo than expected, but the cab was solid and the frame in great shape. I did the bodywork myself (more bondo LOL). and shot it in desert tan primer with the help of my dad’s buddy who was a bigtime car guy with a home paint booth. We redid the interior and mechanicals, and in school I installed a 4″ lift kit, and then I replaced the 31″ tires with 35″ mud tires.
There was always something I was tinkering with, but it was a pretty solid truck. I sold it in the early ’00’s to buy a LS1 Trans Am, a mistake that I regret to this day, even moreso since I lost my dad 2 years back.
I learned on my mom’s ’97 Corolla CE, which is pretty much the ideal teenager car. That said, I didn’t bother to get my license till I was 18, so I was only driving for the last few weeks of my high school career.
1983, bought a 77 Ford Maverick with about 80k on it. Medium metallic blue w/ blue interior. Had a 302 V8, 2bbl. Around 120k, the nylon coated timing chain sprocket shed it’s nylon coating, bending all the valves in engine. Replaced engine…not long after trans went out. Got trans rebuilt….not long after, right axle shaft came out while driving. Eventually traded it in with 155k on an almost new 89 Mustang LX Sport 5.0 convertible, 5spd, which got almost double the mpg w/ big power bump.
I bet the 89 Mustang was a lot more reliable too. I had 2 of them and almost zero issues.
Sure was! In the 140k miles I owned Mustang: fuel pump (under warranty), idle air soleniod, alternator, pass. valve cover gasket, brakes & several sets of tires….
Interestingly, the alignment never had to be adjusted…had it check several times, and it was convertible, black on black w/ grey gt cloth interior.
On the Maverick, had to repair all the typical 60s era car stuff, but only left me stranded that time the timing chain went and the axle came out…and I drove that car hard!
Not bad, mine didn’t even need that much! Oil changes and tires of course, those will wear on any conventional vehicle. One set of brake pads first needed at over 100,000 miles. Otherwise I think just an alternator, and the coolant reservoir on my second GT cracked due to age.
1984 Ford Ranger that my stepdad painted primer grey, with rattle cans, on the side of the house, after a weekend of construction work and drinking. Not the coolest but my buds and I could toss our bikes in the back or have people lay down in the back if we needed to get the squad somewhere pronto
In the early ’80s, I drove a white 1964 VW Beetle that my dad bought in 1966. I still have it, though it’s not remotely drivable at the moment. I probably need to sell it, nostalgia be damned.
A white 1991 Isuzu Pickup with a salvage title.
When my mom didn’t go to work for the day; a white 1991 Eagle Talon TSi.
1970 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan.
My dad had bought it from my Grandparents, and after putting on many miles, it became the car my siblings and I used throughout high school.
That thing was awesome.
It was pristine when our family first got it, but by the end, a complete rust bucket missing both fender skirts.
None. I walked to school all of 10 minutes, and with a legal driving age of 18 I could only have driven for a few months anyway.
1997 4-Door Cavalier LS Cayenne Red Metallic Paint. It was nice for a first car
Toyota Corolla LE that had a rebuilt engine. Previous owner had run it without oil for a few weeks, so the pistons and engine block were toasted, and everything had to be replaced and resurfaced. But it had been free, so the costs were worth it.
Fall of 1986 – 1982 Subaru GL 4dr sedan in “Shiny Maroon” on tan. Mighty 78hp 1800cc flat-four with a 5spd. It survived my first two years of driving somehow. Innate toughness, I guess.
Though technically, my FIRST high school ride, from getting my license in September of senior year to about halfway through Christmas break, was the Old Man’s (my grandfather) retirement present to himself – a 1985 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Brougham in black on the slipperiest lipstick red leather known to man. My grandmother was still working, and drove the Subaru to work every day, and the Old Man hated that Oldsmobarge (it never ran quite right) so he kept driving his Suburban. During winter break, my grandmother slid the Subaru off the highway in a raging snowstorm and never wanted to drive it again “it let me down”, so the Subaru became mine and she took over the Oldsmobile. I could not POSSIBLY have been happier about that situation, budding young rally driver that I so wanted to be. I preferred the non-turbo diesel Suburban to that heap of poo Oldsmobarge too, and that is saying something.
Took the Subaru off to my first year of college, where at the of freshman year I sold it to my roommate and bought my first Volvo, a ’76 242DL. Which ended badly, but started me on a road of serial VWs and Volvos for a long time.
Your mom.
1992 Chevrolet Beretta with the 2.2 MPFI four-cylinder and a three-speed automatic. Purchased for me by my grandpa in July 2005 for $1,250 with 71,000 miles on it.
By April 2007, I had tired of it being slow as molasses and breaking down due to being driven a lot by teenage me (as opposed to sitting all the time in years prior when it was owned by an older lady). I then bought a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am GT1 coupe with leather seats, a sunroof, the infamous Pontiac “Monsoon” stereo, and all other options available on the Grand Ams. Couldn’t tell 17-year-old me anything once I got that.