Can you remember the first car you learned to drive?
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waveslayer
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Yes a 1997 Suburban. Loved that ride
1973 Datsun 1600 pickup. In 1976 I got a brand new International Scout Travler, my 2nd car which I promptly totaled... 
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1967 BMW 1600 Ti/Alpina
Dad bought it in 1969, when we lived in Germany. It was Moms' car. Alpina was the upgrade company , like AMG is for Mercedes.
High Compression Dual Carb150hp engine, 5 speed gearbox, Mountain racing suspension, Disc Brakes.
Started driving it '75(High School). Used to ditch LEO's (sorry guys) in the Santa Monica Mountains with it. The big Chevy sedans just couldn't catch me in the twisties. Slipped through my fingers when Mom sold it to the mechanic in '79 after an engine problem. She was tired of driving a stick anyway.
Pic is for reference only...not the one I drove.
Dad bought it in 1969, when we lived in Germany. It was Moms' car. Alpina was the upgrade company , like AMG is for Mercedes.
High Compression Dual Carb150hp engine, 5 speed gearbox, Mountain racing suspension, Disc Brakes.
Started driving it '75(High School). Used to ditch LEO's (sorry guys) in the Santa Monica Mountains with it. The big Chevy sedans just couldn't catch me in the twisties. Slipped through my fingers when Mom sold it to the mechanic in '79 after an engine problem. She was tired of driving a stick anyway.
Pic is for reference only...not the one I drove.
Zippo Guy
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Learned to drive in a 1959 VW. My father and I thought it would be cool to cut the gear shift down to about four inches. Turned out my mother couldn’t shift it with her arthritis and the transmission finally couldn’t take the stress of the short shifter.
Learned in the Valley Fair and Emporium parking lots in San Jose. The shopping center stores were closed on Sundays back then.
Learned in the Valley Fair and Emporium parking lots in San Jose. The shopping center stores were closed on Sundays back then.
Not too far from my old house. My wife once had someone back into her, while she was getting ready to backup, and the Chinese lady that hit her tried to tell the police officer that it was my wife's fault. That was the only accident my wife got in, during the 39 years she was in America. I miss having that mall close...but there wasn't very much wildlife in that area, mostly 2 legged pigs...LOL
Was that a small window bug?
Now for the $64k question...a lot of my friends had bugs...how many of you folks fried your engines on your VWs? I had a '64 VW Van that I fried the engine on the 405 Freeway in L.A. I was able to get off the freeway at Nordhoff, but I fried that engine like an egg...ran out of oil...
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1963 VW Bus, obviously with a stick shift.
Zippo Guy
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Yes, it had the small back window. As I recall the only gauge was the speedometer on the dash. There was no gas gauge, when it started to sputter, you flipped a lever down by your feet and headed to the nearest gas station. Gas was about .21 cents a gallon and cigarettes were .24 cents a pack for non filtered and .26 cents a pack for filters. I was also making .75 cents an hour. Were they the “the good old days”?
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Yes my dads Plymouth valiant red interior beige color push button transmission
1957 Plymouth Belvidere push button sedan. And after that a 1963 Chevy Impala. 
Ya I'm old.
 Ya I'm old.
When I was a kid, I remember gas was $0.23/gallon at a Harbor station located on Foothill Blvd. in Upland, I think it was close to Euclid. That area is still nice.
I just sold my house in West San Jose, that was close to the Valley Fair. Gas has always been pricey in San Jose, as long as I had been there. My wife didn't drive very much, so would only put $20 of gas in at a time (that would last her a month), but I would always fill it up for her. Someone is eating the cost, as gas is only about $1/gallon more than where I buy tax free at the Casinos. Currently $3.60/gallon, and San Jose is about $1/gallon more. I have heard that CA adds $1.60/gallon of taxes on, and that was prior to another $0.63/gallon addition that Newsom added. Is the state eating that loss?
Cause if they are, that's a huge amount of loss if they're eating $1.25/gallon for all gas sales??? 
Zippo Guy
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I remember my father going to the gas station and telling the attendant (remember when they used to pump the gas, check your tires and your oil) that he wanted 5 gallons. The attendant inevitably tried to pump $5.00. If the attendant pumped 5 gallons rather than $5.00 we got to go to the Fosters Freeze for a cone. His lesson was “pay attention to someone when they are speaking”.
If one has never seen a Japanese gas station, it's a work of art, the way they operate, and it makes me scratch my head in how we used to get service in America, even when gas sold for $0.25/gallon.
A team of service men come out, clean all the windows on your car, clean your tires AND wheels, check our oil, coolant, even air tire pressure. Of course the gas did cost about 4x what it did in America at the time, but it's stayed pretty much there while America has been a roller coaster in regard to gas prices. I have never seen better automobile service, anywhere.
As a kid, I'd get gas at Powerine Gas Station in Hacienda Heights. They used coins, rather than money. A gallon of gas was one coin, and coins cost $.25 cents. If you bought 5 coins, you'd get one coin for free. Driving a Chevy van, I'd search the couch looking for quarters, and if I found any, id run and get a few gallons of gas. Boy, them were the days!
You know, the thing that has always given me a chuckle is that we pay 9/10ths of a gallon tax on every gallon, so even to this day it's like $3.999 actual price, for what would be $3.99, or $7.5999 for what would be $7.59.
I always wonder why they don't just raise that 1/10th and charge an even penny?
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At 15 and 1/2, I passed a learner's driving permit. The allow a D. S. to drive a motorcycle. What could go wrong? A dozen close calls but no hospital time.
Mom had a 62 Pontiac Catalina that I would cruise before I had any kind of license. At 16 friends and I would go to T.J. we could drink and hoot and the ladies. We were Men. What could go wrong? Well, several times a gun or shotgun was pulled on us, asking to please leave. I think that's what was said. In 1969 I came back from Vietnam, got married, and bought a shiny new, fully loaded VW. It had a sunroof and a radio. No discount. 1.700 bucks. Still in the Army, I rarely filled it up. Didn't have enough money. Today I fill up my motorhome 80 gal. and a Jeep that gets almost the same gas mileage... Fluk Me.
Mom had a 62 Pontiac Catalina that I would cruise before I had any kind of license. At 16 friends and I would go to T.J. we could drink and hoot and the ladies. We were Men. What could go wrong? Well, several times a gun or shotgun was pulled on us, asking to please leave. I think that's what was said. In 1969 I came back from Vietnam, got married, and bought a shiny new, fully loaded VW. It had a sunroof and a radio. No discount. 1.700 bucks. Still in the Army, I rarely filled it up. Didn't have enough money. Today I fill up my motorhome 80 gal. and a Jeep that gets almost the same gas mileage... Fluk Me.
Another VW! Come on guys, am I the only one that's fried the engine on one here?
3 of my friends also fried them, and they rebuilt theirs, I sold mine to a Porsche mechanic. I always wanted to get a convertible bug, but never did...simple, easy to work on, rebuild the engine if you blow it up...
3 of my friends also fried them, and they rebuilt theirs, I sold mine to a Porsche mechanic. I always wanted to get a convertible bug, but never did...simple, easy to work on, rebuild the engine if you blow it up...
I had a beautiful VW sand rail that I kept at my vacation home. I was blasting down a powerline road at about 80 mph, when my throttle stuck wide open. Worse yet, I had cactus on the left, a cliff on the right, and a telephone pole straight ahead. I shut off the kill switch, and rolled to a stop. Since many in my area loved that rail, I sold it to a neighbor for 2/3rds less than I paid a week before this. I felt very lucky!
Did you have the VW air cooled engine in it?
I guess that's why I've always wanted a convertible bug...they are almost identical in design to the Porsche...uni-pan and all...but the Porsche is in a class of it's own...it's not so easy to work on, requires a lot of expensive parts, but still requires half a brain. A lot of people don't have that much!
The convertible bug seems like a way to play around with a similar, but less expensive system.
I have never rebuilt an engine, but it seems more likely I would rebuilt a Chevy Inline-6, another simple engine.
I believe you are how you feel. I want to feel better about myself, again. I'm just about ready to start swimming again, but still have a sore shoulder...it concerns me how long it's taken to heal, and it seems it is slowly...good thing is that it's on my non-shooting shoulder, it's on my left.
Eastenerwesterner
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First drove a 68 Chevy wagon up my road (not a big deal, 2 empty lots and our house) at 14.
Mother let me drive it because she was pissed my father let my little brother drive before me
My training truck was supposed to be a 1973-4 Datsun pickup with a 4 banger, 4 shifter thought those were 620’s not 1600. My father kept taking it to work, so I couldn’t get any driver training.
He and my brother did an Adirondack back packing hike out of Lake Placid Gee, I had just gotten a job and wanted to earn $ to pay my part of the insurance. He insisted we take him and brother there, 5 hours up 5 Hours back in his truck, he wouldn’t let me drive it.
My mother was too tired by the time we got back to Watertown. She put me in the driver seat of a 1973 C-10 with 3 on the Tree. Told me to drive down I-81 then wake her She woke up 10 miles south of 104 when I was on a hill for the only stoplight in our town . About 120 miles . I didn’t get get much driver training after that.
Car I learned on the most-1973 C10 with 3 on the tree. Car I took the drivers test in another story…….
Mother let me drive it because she was pissed my father let my little brother drive before me
My training truck was supposed to be a 1973-4 Datsun pickup with a 4 banger, 4 shifter thought those were 620’s not 1600. My father kept taking it to work, so I couldn’t get any driver training.
He and my brother did an Adirondack back packing hike out of Lake Placid Gee, I had just gotten a job and wanted to earn $ to pay my part of the insurance. He insisted we take him and brother there, 5 hours up 5 Hours back in his truck, he wouldn’t let me drive it.
My mother was too tired by the time we got back to Watertown. She put me in the driver seat of a 1973 C-10 with 3 on the Tree. Told me to drive down I-81 then wake her She woke up 10 miles south of 104 when I was on a hill for the only stoplight in our town . About 120 miles . I didn’t get get much driver training after that.
Car I learned on the most-1973 C10 with 3 on the tree. Car I took the drivers test in another story…….
