How expensive was your first car?

Just down the road from my friend is a vw pickup very similar to this one.Owner wont sell but wont fix either!What a waste,what a goof! Im starting to see a few come out of the woodwork,toyota,datsun,all beauties.
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My neighbour Dmitri has one of these,and it's a diesel.Only one I've ever seen,and he uses it as a daily driver.Cool little buggy:)
 
James HART BACK IN 74/75 i had one of those yamaha 350,s circa 1968,looked just like this one.
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next was the mighty rd350d if i remember correctly.Giant killer!Just like this one
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My neighbour Dmitri has one of these,and it's a diesel.Only one I've ever seen,and he uses it as a daily driver.Cool little buggy:)
All of those little rigs have been going up in value since car companies have stopped making small pickups. For some reason they seem to think that everyone that wants a new pickup wants one the size of an aircraft carrier and costs as much as a decent house used to.
 
Woops, sorry James i had the rd400 not the 350.Same color scheme though.Lived like a monk for 2 months and paid cash for her,
 
All of those little rigs have been going up in value since car companies have stopped making small pickups. For some reason they seem to think that everyone that wants a new pickup wants one the size of an aircraft carrier and costs as much as a decent house used to.
A freind showed up at the house with a toyota or datsun a few weeks ago and it was a time machine moment.What a cute little truck and very well kept by his dad who passed away .
 
@2011etec Very cool! That 68 had some engine improvements over my 67. Yamaha 2-stroke bikes of that era were piston port, mine being 3 port and the 68 up having 5 ports. The top end was seized on mine prior to parking, so I'm shopping for a set of 68-69 jugs to upgrade to (smoother power across the rpm range) since 67-69 are mostly the same motors. 70-72 was a redesigned engine that doesn't part swap. The RD series came up in 73 and as with all Yamaha 2-strokes move to reed valves for a nice performance bump. My 71 CT1 has a 74 reed jug (Webco high compression head, Hooker expansion chamber, MX close ratio gears, etc too).
 
My first car was an Austin Mini 1000, 1977 vintage. It was a crappy mustard colour (which was 'harvest gold' in marketing spiel) but luckily my dad was a mechanic. We stripped all the rust, cut out the bad panels, put in new metal and a respray in Porsche Guards Red. We fitted 10" Weller wheels and 1.5" spacers which made the wheels stick out of the arches. To combat this, we riveted on some plastic wide wheel arches. It looked pretty damn sweet for a first car for a 16 year old back in 86. I was the first kid in school to own a car (previously the only kid in school with a motorbike - but just a 50cc trails type thing). I loved that little Mini but insurance on it was killer - I spent most of my early driving years on my parents' policy.

You guys in the States look like you all had a blast with your first cars - V8's and what not. Wow - I could never have insured anything like that. Plus the price of gas was astronomical.

Here in NZ, in 2017, insurance is still not a legal requirement. Kids can buy Holden / Ford V8s, Jap turbo stuff, crazy machines and all the have to do is put gas in it and get it warrant checked every six months. My son, who is 20, has been driving a BMW for the last two years.....
 
What is warrant checked?Love those original mini,s,like riding around in a gokart.At 16 years old in 1974 it cost me 68 dollars for insurance for 1 year and that included my lic plate!I pay 400 now for the f150.Here in Canada in Ontarion no ins is a 5000 dollar fine(fixed).
 
First car I drove regularly was the family '73 Pontiac Catalina hardtop coupe. Similar to this, but in "shit brown" (as my mother called it) and no vinyl roof:

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It had the basic Pontiac sport wheels that were on a bazillion Pontiacs back in the day:

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I had a decent job after high school, so I ended up buying a brand new '83 Renault Alliance, which I think cost around $6000 at the time. Stop laughing. :D It had its problems, but really didn't do any major damage to me or my driving back then. It was actually a comfortable ride. The motor was slow, but my buddy drove it once and said it was actually more powerful than his diesel Rabbit. I sold it right before it hit 20,000 miles, to the son of a friend of my great aunt's. Heard through the grapevine he had a ton of problems with that thing. Karma being what it was, I bought the Merkur XR4Ti in '85 to replace it, and that POS was just as big of a lemon, even going so far as dying on I-75 in the middle of nowhere, with only 1,400 on the odometer. Both cars were purchased new, thanks to my dad's supplier discounts with the automakers.

I don't know if Motor Trend owes me an apology, but...

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2016/08/12/motor-trend-owes-me-an-apology

It looked like this:

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...but it was this shade of red:

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Nice, my second car was a Renault Fuego Turbo in black with all of the 80s stripes removed. I took over the old man's payments when it didn't sell in 85 after picking himself up a Mustang LX coupe with the GT drivetrain and suspension ordered in it.

Actually a fun little car to drive! my father and I did some mods to it that increased flow and doubled the turbo's boost... when the turbo needed its second rebuild, I traded it in on a brand new 1987 Jeep Wrangler. The last year AMC was making the Jeeps before Chrysler took over... THAT was the worst car I ever owned. It was fun, but never ran right.
 
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