11 Nov 1980 Ford Pinto
The year they fixed the gas tank so no boom – This was my first car, so it will always be my favorite car. This car was FREEDOM! (It sounds better if you use Mel Gibson’s accent from Braveheart…FREEDOM!). I bought this car from my parents, and it was supposed to be $500 – try getting anything for $500 today. It ended up as a far better deal for me
This was my first car, so it will always be my favorite car.
When we were kids, we would mow the lawn for $10.00 a mow. But My dad was smart and paid us once at the end of the year (because yeah, with all those dollar bills rolling around each week, we would’ve been a menace). At the end of each summer, he would wait until we mowed the last mow, and he’d talk to us at at the top of the hill overlooking all we had done – it wasn’t a small yard. “Ok, I have $60 in my pocket; take it or leave it!” We used to get so mad and hem and haw – you didn’t argue, you just didn’t. It only took us 3 seasons to catch on…
Anyway, I got lucky in the purchase of the car because it FINALLY worked in reverse. A family trip to Florida was happening and money was needed. “How much do you have in your bank account right now?”
"$392.00"
And that’s how I got my first car at a fair discount. I think that’s what started me in my love for negotiating cars 😊
This car was a 4 speed and totally stripped down, but I loved it, again FREEDOM. I remember taking my license test in it and the police officer being impressed that I would take the test with a manual transmission. He even said, “Just don’t stall it and I’ll pass you.” I was flying so high that day, I decided to go pick up my girlfriend from school. Time to impress. I drove up to that school like I owned the place; and for 30 seconds, I did. I waited in the bus line and even had a friend in the back of the bus in front of me looking at me – I had arrived! 31 seconds later, my girlfriend and her friend get in the car and off we go. And I stalled! I hadn’t stalled the car in 6 months since I started driving but I stalled and stalled it really badly. Take 2! I f’ing stalled it AGAIN!!!!! Now, the kid on the bus is in hysterics – I guess I no longer OWN the place. Take 3! Yup, one more stall, just to completely prove that I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t stall a 4th time BUT I am pretty sure the engine was on fire by the time we got moving – I’m not sure what RPM the car went up to, but I went over that!
Unfortunately, that car was totaled 3 months after I got my license. My brother and I were on the way home from a family gathering on Christmas Eve as I had to work that night, when we were rammed into by a drunk driver in a Ford Bronco. I will say this, for as much grief as Ford Pinto’s get for gas tank explosions when hit a certain way, this car saved our lives. It was twisted in ways I couldn’t imagine, and the steering wheel was fully bent forward, yet we walked out without a scratch.