Your first car

Squanchy said:
Were cars that affordable when you were a kid or were you really good with money?
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Back then, you could buy a nice car for $500. I have a friend that bought a new 1968 RoadRunner and the window sticker was $2600.
 
Squanchy said:
What did a man make in a year though?
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It doesn't matter. At that time a man made the same as you. Enough to buy a car, maybe. A house or pay the rent. To buy food for his family. The numbers may have changed. But it was all the same.
Some were poor. Some were rich. Most just worked to do the best for their families they could.
No, You don't have any more than they did. Just different.
For me. The difference is mostly.
Today. Hate, Greed, Envy is the rule. Led by the politician gods.
 
Well, isn't this thread a plethora potential answers to a common secret question available within many institutions' online password recovery tools?

Your call if you put such info on the Internet, of course. Just always remember how it can potentially be used, since once you put it out there it's hard to claw it back.


My first car was: REDACTED FOR SECURITY REASONS

Heheheh
 
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I helped plumb two new houses to have the money to afford a 1984 Chrysler Laser that I bought in 1990. It had over 100k on it and more bugs than you could shake a stick at. And the old man offered me his 85 dodge truck with a 318 for nothing or I could work to pay for a car. I was 16 and so dumb…
 
tws3b2 said:
It doesn't matter. At that time a man made the same as you. Enough to buy a car, maybe. A house or pay the rent. To buy food for his family. The numbers may have changed. But it was all the same.
Some were poor. Some were rich. Most just worked to do the best for their families they could.
No, You don't have any more than they did. Just different.
For me. The difference is mostly.
Today. Hate, Greed, Envy is the rule. Led by the politician gods.
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You seem really angry for some reason.

It was a simple innocent question, a $500 car. Is that a months pay? 6 months? Idk I wasn't alive then so I asked.

I won't dig into the weeds you're in the ditch and I'm just standing in the road confused as beeleafs would say.

Just Tripp said:
afford a 1984 Chrysler Laser
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That car has a really neat rear end. I miss the -we put a wing on this for no reason- cars.
 
Squanchy said:
You seem really angry for some reason.

It was a simple innocent question, a $500 car. Is that a months pay? 6 months? Idk I wasn't alive then so I asked.

I won't dig into the weeds you're in the ditch and I'm just standing in the road confused as beeleafs would say.


That car has a really neat rear end. I miss the -we put a wing on this for no reason- cars.
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Median household income in 1968 was $7,700/yr. The average price of a brand spanking new car (e.g. Ford Mustang) in 1968 was $2,822. The average price of the typical home in 1968 was $24,700. A typical 30 year fixed mortgage interest rate in 1968 was 8.5%. (All Googleable, by the way.)

I think @Geezer's point about it not mattering is that as costs have gone up, so have incomes. I also think you're likely alluding to (without stating) the fact that incomes stopped keeping up with costs in the mid-to-late 70's, where wage increases kinda began their flatter trajectory when compared with costs. That particular phenomenon has a host of causes, all of which are also Googleable. Late 70's and through the 80's saw 30 year mortgage interest rates between 12% and 18%, by the way, so today's inflationary environment hasn't got squat on that particular run of inflation and corresponding interest rates.

Now back to our regularly scheduled declaration of answers to secret questions about first cars...
 
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surrealone said:
Median household income in 1968 was $7,700/yr. The average price of a brand spanking new car (e.g. Ford Mustang) in 1968 was $2,822. The average price of the typical home in 1968 was $24,700. A typical 30 year fixed mortgage interest rate in 1968 was 8.5%. (All Googleable, by the way.)

I think @Geezer's point about it not mattering is that as costs have gone up, so have incomes. I also think you're likely alluding to (without stating) the fact that incomes stopped keeping up with costs in the mid-to-late 70's, where wage increases kinda began their flatter trajectory when compared with costs. That particular phenomenon has a host of causes, all of which are also Googleable. Late 70's and through the 80's saw 30 year mortgage interest rates between 12% and 18%, by the way, so today's inflationary environment hasn't got squat on that particular run of inflation and corresponding interest rates.

Now back to our regularly scheduled declaration of answers to secret questions about first cars...
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I understand all of that, googling income doesn't help understand what a 16-18 year old made in geezers hayday of highschool. I also do not know how old geezer is because I've never met him. I appreciate you not taking my question negatively and not standing on a religious/political soapbox.

I asked because assuming how old someone who'd choose the name geezer is; $500 sounds like a mess ton of money 😂

Also it was @tws3b2 who said it didn't matter. Which isn't true. If you don't believe some 16-18 year olds in history were not shafted trying to buy a car is ignorant, dumb, or both.

I had it good at 16 (2010 a year after cash for clunkers) I'm not sitting here trying to insinuate that I was the poorest baby in town and the world was putting me down.
 
Not my picture, but my first car was a Chevy Tracker ZR-2. I didn't appreciate that vehicle as much as I should have. I had some fairly aggressive tires on it, and the skid plates across the bottom made it a pretty tough ride. I got laid more in that thing than any other vehicle. I honestly wouldn't mind having another.

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SnowRooster said:
1977 Plymouth Volare sedan. Cream colored body dark brown vinyl roof, the interior was caramel. It had a slant six under the hood, it was slow to get off the line but once it got up to speed it would haul ass. I hated that car when I got it, but I looked back on it now and I had so many good times in that car I miss it.

It was a huge boat it was like two full-size couches rolling down the road. Before it closed the drive-in theater in my town head six dollar a car Fridays we would put 17 people in that thing before the suspension bottomed out. Tie everybody’s lawn chairs to the Roof and in the trunk.

View attachment 545086
it’s not the exact car, but that’s the closest picture I could find to what mine looked like
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I was hoping for Fine Corinthian Leather, not Pleather😪
 
1973 Dodge Charger. 400 auto. With 3.23 gears. Drove the snot out of that thing for 2 years and sold it with a blown head gasket.
If I win the lottery I will have an exact one built to my specs.
Closest pic I could find.20688522-1973-dodge-charger-std.jpg
 
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Squanchy said:
What did a man make in a year though?
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I have no idea. I was making $2.22 an hour at Kroger. I was a junior in high school and worked evenings and weekends. Gas was around $0.25 per gallon but stations had "gas wars" and the lowest I ever remember buying gas was for $0.199. Gosh, y'all are making me feel old.
 
First was an oil company’s fleet Chevrolet Impala with 90,000 well-maintained miles, for the big price of $1,200. It had a weak 305 and a turbo-200 Hydramatic, with Air and roll up windows.
The Impala was a good car for trips. It lasted until I got a union job, and was traded in for a new white 1982 Z-28 Camaro with T-tops. The Z-28 was the new gen with a great looking body to my 21 year old self.
Unfortunately, it was also returned under Ohio’s Lemon Law due to faulty differential, faulty turbo 700R4 tranny, and too many repeat service calls for the same problem. It had the weak 305 carburetor engine. I was supposed to get one with the fuel injected 305, but some idiot took it through the dealers car wash and goosed the engine, which opened the two electric hood Louvers, flooding the engine.
Water doesn’t compress, so that kid lost his job, and I lost the first injected Z-28 in town. The sales manager kept one of the now J-shaped connecting rods on his desk for a warning to new buyers.🙈
 
Squanchy said:
Dang $500 car, sounds like you were really good with money 😂
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I had saved up for a car by working every minute they would let me. I borrowed the money from the bank (my buddy) to buy the '55 Chevy. This began my credit history. I paid it off as fast as I could. Any time that I needed money, I would go to the bank and he would give it to me. It helped having a friend that was a banker.

I wouldn't say I was good with money, I just made sure to pay back any loan on time.
 
surrealone said:
My first car was: REDACTED FOR SECURITY REASONS

Heheheh
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You know.... you're all over this security thing but you're obviously forgetting that it's not required anywhere that you put real stuff in for security questions... you just have to be able to answer the question with the expected answer.
There's also the fact that you usually need the caps to match, so maybe I "first" had a forD with "D" for DrScaryGuy, and the actual model isn't going to be my answer.
Or maybe I'm just a huge fan of Andrew Dice Clay, so my answer will always be Fairlane.
Or maybe my first car was the starship DisasterArea because my online self is in an intergalactic rock band

for somebody so security minded... you're not thinking in a very secure manner.
 
DrScaryGuy said:
You know.... you're all over this security thing but you're obviously forgetting that it's not required anywhere that you put real stuff in for security questions... you just have to be able to answer the question with the expected answer.
There's also the fact that you usually need the caps to match, so maybe I "first" had a forD with "D" for DrScaryGuy, and the actual model isn't going to be my answer.
Or maybe I'm just a huge fan of Andrew Dice Clay, so my answer will always be Fairlane.
Or maybe my first car was the starship DisasterArea because my online self is in an intergalactic rock band

for somebody so security minded... you're not thinking in a very secure manner.
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Or maybe the answer is always "c*m burping gutter slut"

EDIT:

Dang it...now I've gotta update all my security answers...
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
Or maybe the answer is always "c*m burping gutter slut"

EDIT:

Dang it...now I've gotta update all my security answers...
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well, usually (but not always) driving your first car gets you to your first one of those...
 
1973 Firebird Esprit purchased in 1985 for $1k. 350 went pretty quickly and was replaced with a lightly built 65 GTO 389 cid motor. Also added formula model bits including ram air hood.

Couple of pics a buddy and I took experimenting with long lens exposures, lighters and flashlights. Film back then of course.

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