Warning: Today's question is not about your first car. Though we suppose there could be overlap. But what I'm interested in is the car that was used to teach you to drive. When I was eleven-years-old I got into a weird fight with my dad. He said that no Japanese car could be worth $20,000. This was in 1986 and the Legend (so to speak) had just been born. I explained to him that the buff books were all saying very good things about Honda's new luxury brand. My dad loved Datsun Zs and sporty Hondas, but just couldn't wrap his head around that level of sticker shock. So the two of us went down to the brand new Acura Dealer to investigate. A few hours later we drove off with a brand new champagne-colored Integra. It had leather seats (the first car my father ever had so equipped) and a $13,995 sticker price. I mention this because when it came time to get my learner's permit and then take the big test, that Integra served me well. But was it the first car I learned on? My memory banks are a bit foggy. I remember when I was seven or so sitting in the passenger seat of a Nissan Sentra wagon and yelling, "Clutch!" Dad was teaching me how to shift. Then when I was ten I remember he let me drive our enormous Buick wagon up and down a dirt road. His logic being that he learned to drive at twelve, and had never had an accident, ten-years-old would be even safer. But in truth, I gotta go with that brown on brown Integra. You?
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1965 Mercury Comet (circa 1977). Baby blue, white top, 289 V8. Squirted forward like crazy, but with the lack of power brakes (drums all around) no power steering, and skinny bias tires, it handled worse than a John Deere.
Twelve years old on the empty county roads in midwest corn country, swerving around grain haulers, ditch mowers, and pickup trucks. Grandma’s car was a hoot.
My first driving experience was driving my parents 88 civic awd wagon on a property my father owned.
He took me and a couple of my friends to learn how to drive a standard. One of them required 2 phoneboks to see over the wheel.
But I actually learned how to drive on a 94 Ranger 2wd 5 speed 4 cyl.
We lived on a rural dead end road where our neighbours were my aunt and uncle.
I would drive back and forth for hours. Those were the days.
Volvo 240.
Built like a brick, with all the performance you’d expect, but with unexpectedly cheap and breakable plastic bits in the interior. Still runs, many many years later, with like a zillion miles on it.
Of course, I’ve learned other skills in different cars, at later points in time. The Volvo was an automatic, so I ended up teaching myself stick on an old Dodge Stealth (long story). In truth, I got one prior lesson on stick shift from a farmer (a friend of the family), who took me out in some old domestic pickup whose make and model I’ve long forgotten.
Further, I always like to imagine that I still learn new things about driving from time to time. Recently I learned, in England, how to drive on the left (i.e. wrong) side of the road — that was in a Vauxhall Astra.
But the car that got me from learner’s permit to full license was the venerable 240.
1986 Suzuki Samuri on a dirt road leading to a “construction” dump. Just one of many my dad dismantled or rebuilt.
1984 Chev S-10…
Boo-yah!
1988 Chevrolet Caprice 5.0 with the old man pleather top. Looked like a boat. Handled like a boat. Consumed gas like a boat. Felt like a rocket at highway speeds.
Brought up some odd feelings during the 2003 Sniper episode in DC metro (Rockville MD, No.Va., etc.), especially when they showed a graphic of his car; exact same make, model and color, even down to the Jersey tags.
I got my learner’s permit using a ‘68 Dodge Dart (318 V-8) and a 72 Plymouth GoldDuster (anyone remember that option package??) w/ smogged-up 318 V-8.
I learned to drive in a ‘78 Champagne Ed Scirocco with hotted-up engine and a (mostly) Bilstein Cup suspension. Ooooooh man I miss that car! A street legal air-conditioned go-kart! (And a shout out and credit due to the Bertil Roos Racing School…)
Let’s see…I did most of my original seat-time in a 1983 Mazda GLC (and it WAS a Great Little Car) with my sister barking commands next to me. After I got my license, my father allowed me to drive around the neighborhood after school in what was to be my first car, a 1978 Plymouth Arrow GT. As I progressed, he let me expand the radius away from the house that I could drive. Took about four months before I could actually make it out of the subdivision…
Chevy Nova (fwd, 5spd). I was 11 at the time and we had a rental for several weeks after one of our cars was wrecked in an accident. Dad took me one day out onto the gravel roads out in the country (population 2,000) pulled over and said you drive. I’ve “moved” the car in the driveway before – just releasing the break in automatic so that wasn’t anything. This was the first time I drove and learned how to drive – stick shift for that matter too. We were out there for about 20 mins and he asked me to do some tests – hit the brakes and lock them up to learn what it’s like, or on this corner that was very wide to skid the car to see what it’s like. Well the county sheriff was out patrolling and saw me doing this and stopped us. Much to our luck and small town my Dad knew him well – and he didn’t ask me to stop – just be careful. I saw this as some right of passage with my Dad.
Econoline Van in a parking lot.
1994 Dodge Spirit…blech. Thankfully that was short lived experience during the summer as my high school started offering driving classes later that fall. And people blame Camrys for being so vanilla.
I remember that car didn’t have a tach, which was fine as it was an auto. However, before I started my driving session with my Dad I was reading the owners manual and found that even manual versions (I think a 4-spd also) STILL didn’t get a proper tach and that drivers were told to listen to the volume and pitch of the engine to choose the appropriate time to shift!
88 Chrysler New Yorker… Landau Edition, with Ricardo Montalban pleasing Corinthian Leather. Oh yeah, “load level” air suspension too!
I used to get fat friends to sit on the back bumper to get the air bags to fill, and then cruise wedge style.
Almost blew it up “power shifting” the tree mount while racing a Pontiac 6000LE, staring down a digital speedo.
90 SHO at 14, my dad was going to give me the car but my sister wrecked it first.
Dad’s ‘76 atlantic blue BMW 530i and mom’s ‘72 forrest green/vinyl “wood” Ford Country Squire wagon (which at least had a 429 4 barrel V8). Not hard to guess which one I preferred. Dad hid the Bimmer keys when they went out of town (which was guite often in those days), but of course I found ‘em, and got my most valuable driving “lessons” thrashing that 530i to w/in an inch of its life (and mine!) on a regular basis.
‘82 Delta 88. Excellent first car for all the low speed “accidents” (like a shoving match with a similar vintage Caddy in a parking lot) that I got into.
1978 Toyota Landcruiser Diesel – still the best off-road vehicle I’ve ever driven.
1984 Saab 900, and then a 1981 Mercedes-Benz 300D (the TurboDiesel Panzer Tank).
Took my driver's test with a 1994 Dodge Neon Sport… and I thought it was cool. How ignorant I was….
I learned to "drive" racing an Audi Quattro, god bless AWD!
1960 Ford Country Squire. I eventually totaled it.
John R:
drivers were told to listen to the volume and pitch of the engine to choose the appropriate time to shift!
That’s the way we were all taught to drive back in the days before almost everyone developed paralysis of the left leg and couldn’t operate a clutch any more. A tachometer was something you might hook up to use when you were setting the points or maybe adjusting the carb (although that was usually done by ear too).
I learned in a 1956 Chevy 210. Four doors, four-window air conditioning, three on the tree, straight six under the hood, AM radio, heater and power nothing.
Dad’s 2000 Passat.
He put a lot of trust in me. 1st time driving was in a parking lot for 15 minutes. Next day, I was on the road in the suburbs for 15. Day after that, I drove into New York City. Of course, this was all with my dad there, but it was scary as hell. That kind of fear made me respect driving for a long while.
84′ Toyota pickup four speed. This truck was handed to me a few years later..as my 1st car. The truck had over 300thow on it before it died.
1995 Lincoln Town Car
Can’t remember the year, but it was a mid 80’s Grand Prix with the Quad 4 engine and a crappy 3 or 4 speed transmission. Had that thing up to 110 one time on the way back from the Salt River and scared the shit out of myself and my friend. I took a turn at about 50 and swear the car was going to flip.
Stupid, stupid! But a lot of fun.
1993-ish Honda Civic hatchback. Definitely could’ve been worse.
1970. I learned to drive in a few cars at once. My Dad’s 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88 oriented me to behemoths. My sister’s 1963 Plymouth Valiant with the 225 slat six and pushbutton auto tranny to the left of the wheel was a lesson in lightweight traction. I learned to drive a stick in my best friend’s 1960 Dodge Lancer, three on the tree. Sports cars came after that.
Phil
1984 Escort, 4-speed manual, carburetor. Had the WORST CLUTCH EVAR, and half the time it wouldn’t start because you either didn’t pump in enough gas or pumped too much and flooded the engine. Burned a quart of oil a week at 100k miles, and smelled like a refinery. Tacky, sticky vinyl seats with a pattern that left itself in your skin, even through clothes.
I remember shifting into second to crawl up Wisconsin hills at 45 mph, the engine spinning at 6000 rpm and wheezing, wondering if I had got enough head of steam to make it to the top, or if I’d have to turn around and go a different way.
After that car, ANYTHING else is a luxury. And it turned me into a damned fine driver, too.
Volvo 740 Wagon. Absolutely indestructable and unflappable. Everyone should learn to drive on a RWD platform!
1986 Chevrolet Chevette. RWD BABY.
My driving lessons and test in 1979 took place in the then new BMW 316.
JohnR
My friend’s circa-2001 base-trim Civic is also a tach-less manual. And it’s a minor hoot to drive.
Any driver worth his salt should be able to shift without reference to a tach, using only some combination of engine sound, vehicle speed, overall feel and exterior visual cues. I suppose its only real use to the driver is when one is pushing the engine to its limits, and actually wants to see the redline before hitting it.
Frank said, “I learned in a 1956 Chevy 210. Four doors, four-window air conditioning, three on the tree, straight six under the hood, AM radio, heater and power nothing.” That pretty well describes my Drivers Ed ride, except it was a ‘58 Ford Custom 300. And actually, the school had two of them; one was stick, the other auto. A few hours behind the wheel and we were ready for any driving challenge. (Or so we thought.)
i’m 59 years old and my first ‘drives’ were in my grandfather’s new 1957 de soto – i got to sit on his lap and ’steer’ many, many times. but that hardly counts.
much more memorable was the car in which i first learned to operate a clutch and change gears. that was in my best friend’s 1965 widetrack pontiac catalina convertible, equipped with a 389 c.i. 4-barrel v8, positraction, dual exhaust and a factory-installed hurst 4-speed manual transmission.
we spent a lot of time that summer, crusing woodward avenue, looking for girls and street-racing every 327 chevy impala super-sport we could find.
Split between a 1990 Chevy Corsica and a 1982 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. That Caddy, even at 160,000 miles on the 4.1L still ran great in 1995. Took it loaded up to Chicago a few times without a problem.
1991 chevy sprint (learned in 1996)…
1.0L, 3 cylinder, 5 speed, 5 doors…
thing would get 60 mpg… and maxed out at ~ 85 mph…
surprisingly peppy if you were driving by yourself…
1984 Plymouth Turismo
and a 1988 Ford Tempo for stick shift
oh joy!
1985 Mercury Lynx. 1.9 that ate head gaskets like candy. Turn the A/C on at 55 and watch your speed drop 10 mph. It could go through foot-deep snow because it was so gutless and the wheels just wouldn’t spin no matter what you did. I took my test after an ice storm and got a perfect score.
1979 Buick LeSabre 2-door in 1998, but I took the test in an 89 Celebrity. I initially learned to drive a manual about 3 months after I got my license and got my first car, a 1987 Hyundai Excel. Since then, I have learned a new skill or technique with every car I’ve owned and moved up the automotive food chain quite a bit.
I’m very sorry to say, it was a 1975 Ford Mustang II. Yes, the one based on a Pinto. Oh, the horror!!!
1984 Ford Country Squire wagon. No wonder I failed the parallel parking portion of the driving test.
The very first car I started learning on was my dad’s Lexus GX470. Looked and felt massive. Of course, as I’ve said before, none of my other learning vehicles were small. Cadillac Deville. Silverado Crew Cab. Chevy Equinox.
70’s Olds Wagon. 12 years old. Parking lot. DONUTS.
That was an isolated incident, and my introduction to body lean.
The real learning came four years later in a barely used ‘85 GTI. Every car (and stage of life) since then has been tinged with melancholic nostalgia for that time behind the wheel, at that age.
A 1990 Buick Park Ave here (Antelope Firemist in colour)…..that car had 322,000 miles on here when it was all said & done.
A light blue 1969 VW Beetle, standard trans, no A/C and the radio didn’t work if I remember right. By the time I got my learners permit, Mom had moved up to a Chevy Chevette, 4 on the floor, not much better than the VW, but still fun to smoke the tires a little bit…
Euro-spec 1971 Ford Escort…a rattly old car if there ever was one, but perfect for learning the basics of driving a manual transmission, hand signals and always looking over your shoulder.
Then I got hold of my Dad’s 1989 JDM Honda Accord and THEN it was on.
1993 Ford Escort wagon. Red on grey. I now own it.
I learned on three cars: a 1985 Crown Victoria (grandma’s new car at the time), a 1984 E-250 Club Wagon 15-passenger van (my mom’s ride), and my 1968 Plymouth Fury III. Dad’s car was off-limits.
I did my early learning on a 1978 Mercury Zephyr ES. It was the Euro-Fairmont… 4 cyl/4 spd, ran like stink. Well, sloooooow stink. But, it did help me get the basics down. Once you got it up to speed, you had to learn how to drive in order to maintain speed.
RWD lessons: My 1986 Mercury Capri 5.0 Sport Coupe mit automatische. Essentially same car as the Zephyr, just a LOT more power. Learned a much about how short wheelbase cars handle in all situations.
FWD lessons: 1988 Dodge Lancer ES Turbo 5 spd. Understeer? Oh yes. But you can overcome that with enough boost and the parking brake… The foot actuated parking brake… (Note: I’m a drummer, and ambidextrous) What fun!
Makes me feel good to know so many other people had ‘humble’ beginnings.
I learned on a 74 Ford Capri, 2.8L, 4 speed. A lot of fun, and poles apart from my secondary learner vehicle, a 78 Chev Caprice. I took my drivers test in my dad’s company car, an 82 Malibu wagon with a 267 V8 (the most underpowered North American vehicle I have ever driven).
Honestly, I don’t know anyone who learned to drive in anything remotely interesting.
1978 Chevy Malibu Classic. Silver 2 door, landau top. The engine was the infamous 3.3 liter V6 with 98 horsepower! Only built 2 years because of lifter problems!
1980 something Caprice Classic Wagon.
A related story: Back in the 90s my brother let our Mom try out his new manual transmission S-10. She took off in first and didn’t plan on shifting it until it got up to 35mph because that how’s she learned to drive a stick in the 60s in her Dad’s 3 speed Buick. The sound that S-10 made and the vibration is something I will never forget. That engine lost 50,000 miles off it’s lifetime that day.