How much did you buy and sell your first car for?

And how old were you?  

Mine was in 1956 I found a 1948 Chevrolet business mans coupe. The owner had signed the tittle and left it in the glove box  in the woods at the end of the street car line where he’d abandoned it.  With the aid of a local hot rodder  I  and all the neighborhood kids pulled the engine out, put it on a cart, hauled it up 5 blocks and over 1 to a local welding shop that was able to weld up the cracked block. 

Then back to the hot rodders house to reinstall it and get it running.   My dad was able to get $45 for it!  

I was 22 and bought a three year old 1990 Miata for $13k. I'll let you know how much I get when I sell it.

First car was a 1976 Hillman Imp bought (with virtually nothing wrong with it) from a scrap yard for £60 in 1986.  Never sold it, crashed it in a ditch and cut up the rear body for good panels to put a new rear inner wheel arch and wing (fender over here) on my 1974 Sunbeam Stiletto.  

I was 9-10 and bought this 1/4 Midget in 1968. Mowed a lot of lawns to pay dad back, IIRC it was $150.00 or maybe it was $300.00 and dad paid for half so I owed him $150.00. In any case it took me well over a year to pay off and get race ready. When I bought it it still had DIRECT DRIVE and a Clinton engine. Swapped a Briggs engine and centrifugal clutch into it along with a disc brake to replace the fan belt on a pulley mounted to the rear axle that pretended to be a brake originally. Pic taken on track after the first race. Track itself was a paved service road for underground missile silos at an old Nike site. 

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Hey, Adrian - my first car was also a Sunbeam Imp bought when I was 15 so I could drive to university.  Turned out tht it refused to start on the steep hills around here - it would either stall or would slip the clutch interminably.  Sold it a couple of weeks later and bought one of the only other new cars I have ever bought, a 1968 Toyota Corolla.  Turned out to be  good move - excellent car at the time.  I think the Imp cost around $1500 Can. while the Corolla was a couple of hundred more.

Bought no more new cars until 2009 when I got my Solstice coupe - figured I'd neverf find one used if I waited. ost about 20X as much as the Imp had 40 years before....

Broken triumph spitfire for 400$ whn I was 14ish. Sold it for 2K a bit later when I fixed the electrical that killed it. 

Made a lot of money doing that started a trend in my life. 

Bought a '57 Volvo 444 when I was 15 for $100 and $6 sales tax.  It ran...  sort of... on about 2 1/2 cylinders.  45 MPH on the freeway home.  Rebuilt the engine with Genuine JC Whitney parts, did the clutch, brakes, bodywork, and paint.  Drove it about 5 years and sold it for about $350 - $400 as I recall and bought a rolled '71 MGB GT that I rebuilt.

Does anyone else remember all of the stuff in the JC Whitney catalog that would increase mileage by 10%?  My brother and I figured that if we installed them all, we would have to hook up a tank behind our cars so we had a place for the gas we would be making 

A 64 Spitfire for $1500 when I was 18.  It spent two weeks on my future FIL's garage to get the electrical stuff straightened out.  Still have it, though in non running condition in my garage.

At 14 i bought a 70 duster from a trailer park in south Carolina. $700

Over 20 years later i still haven't sold it.

In reply to wspohn :

Sweet.  Having been born and raised in the UK you can't even get a learners permit until you were 17 years old.  The Imp was actually purchased in advance of my 17th birthday to get it ready for the road.  I then went on to own something like 15 Imps until 94 when I moved here and could eran enough to buy a six month old Mustang GT instead.  I owned almost every version of Imp except the Van/Estate (wagon).

Funny when you mention the Solstice coupe.  When they announced they were ending Pontiac production I called every dealer within a four state area and there wasn't a single Manual GXP Coupe to be had anywhere for any price.  

My BIL gave me a 1966 Crew Cab Bel Air in 1977 when I was 15.

283 and a Powerglide. I blew up the trans doing burnouts in front of our house before I had my license.

Sold it for $250 to a buddy's dad. My buddy had blown up the motor in his dad's truck doing doughnuts in his pasture.

Ahhh, the good old days!

Bought a 1980 Pontiac trans am when I was 15 for $1200. Kept it for two years, no idea what I sold it for.

Bought a 91 Ranger for $3500 in 99. I still own and drive it

NOT A TA said:

I was 9-10 and bought this 1/4 Midget in 1968. Mowed a lot of lawns to pay dad back, IIRC it was $150.00 or maybe it was $300.00 and dad paid for half so I owed him $150.00. In any case it took me well over a year to pay off and get race ready. When I bought it it still had DIRECT DRIVE and a Clinton engine. Swapped a Briggs engine and centrifugal clutch into it along with a disc brake to replace the fan belt on a pulley mounted to the rear axle that pretended to be a brake originally. Pic taken on track after the first race. Track itself was a paved service road for underground missile silos at an old Nike site. 

[URL=http://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/scan%20pics/Scan_Pic0001.jpg.html][/URL]

That is so cool! I’ve wanted one since I was a young kid!!!  

CJ said:

Bought a '57 Volvo 444 when I was 15 for $100 and $6 sales tax.  It ran...  sort of... on about 2 1/2 cylinders.  45 MPH on the freeway home.  Rebuilt the engine with Genuine JC Whitney parts, did the clutch, brakes, bodywork, and paint.  Drove it about 5 years and sold it for about $350 - $400 as I recall and bought a rolled '71 MGB GT that I rebuilt.

Does anyone else remember all of the stuff in the JC Whitney catalog that would increase mileage by 10%?  My brother and I figured that if we installed them all, we would have to hook up a tank behind our cars so we had a place for the gas we would be making 

Yes I lived via the JC Whitney catalog. I looked at all the stuff that was supposed to increase power!  I figured if I could afford them all I could win the Indy 500

Aaron_King said:

A 64 Spitfire for $1500 when I was 18.  It spent two weeks on my future FIL's garage to get the electrical stuff straightened out.  Still have it, though in non running condition in my garage.

I bought my MGTD back in 1962,  guess what’s still in my garage  55 years later. 

1988 Ram 50 Sport 4x4 Diesel.... 
Purchase Price: Free (from my grandpa) 

I put $1500 into it making it reliable and trying to keep it on the road, I went and had tires put on and 3 days later it got a knock. I pulled the motor, and upon further inspection it had some issues that were not worth fixing, along with the rot the truck had...... 

Sold: $600 for wheels and tires $500 for motor and trans $400 for rest of truck. 

Adrian_Thompson said:

In reply to wspohn :

Sweet.  Having been born and raised in the UK you can't even get a learners permit until you were 17 years old.  The Imp was actually purchased in advance of my 17th birthday to get it ready for the road.  I then went on to own something like 15 Imps until 94 when I moved here and could eran enough to buy a six month old Mustang GT instead.  I owned almost every version of Imp except the Van/Estate (wagon).

Funny when you mention the Solstice coupe.  When they announced they were ending Pontiac production I called every dealer within a four state area and there wasn't a single Manual GXP Coupe to be had anywhere for any price.  

Here in the states  (Minnesota) you could  get a farm license at 14 or a scooter license, limited to 5 hp. 

My first commercial drivers license  I drove a semi to the police station and he had me drive it around the block. When I didn’t hit anything or drive over the curb he issued it!  Cost $3.00 

98 GMC Sonoma. I bought it at 16 for $5k, dumped almost $9k into repairs into it, and got an insurance check for almost $3k when it got totaled. 

My first "road car" was a '59 Anglia Prefect, paid $70 in 1969.  Killed it and bought a 1964 Galaxie convertible, 4spd 390 for $400, sold it for $500.

I've had other cars, 1951 Chevy, '52 Dodge something with fluid drive and a '55 pontiac; we used to buy them from the back lots or service station dead zone and run them around the woods.  "Field cars".  My first rollover at 15.

Professor_Brap said:

1988 Ram 50 Sport 4x4 Diesel.... 
Purchase Price: Free (from my grandpa) 

I put $1500 into it making it reliable and trying to keep it on the road, I went and had tires put on and 3 days later it got a knock. I pulled the motor, and upon further inspection it had some issues that were not worth fixing, along with the rot the truck had...... 

Sold: $600 for wheels and tires $500 for motor and trans $400 for rest of truck. 

 

Awesome truck!  Those diesel trucks are pretty rare nowadays even within the Ram 50/ Mighty Max world. The US sold diesel engines weren't known to be very great, California is likely to blame for ruining another otherwise great diesel engine. I would love to get a macrocab truck, there's more seat room for tall people and more room for a cage.

In reply to Ram50Ron :

I know, This one lived its first 15 years of life on a AFB in FL on the beach and then in Indiana as a farm beater/winter truck. The frame was super rough and I had to patch the floors when i got it. 

I cant really drive single cab trucks due to being 6'4 280lbs 

In reply to Professor_Brap :

The tin worm is really mean to those trucks. I bought mine in Indiana but it looks like it spent most of its life in Arkansas and California from the VIN check which is likely why mine is not too crusty.

My first was a 1998 Grand Prix GT coupe. Bought it for $2600, had to do intake gaskets on it 3 weeks later.  I guess the previous owner neglected to mention it consumed coolant and I didn't know anything about cars.  I sold that the fall I started college for $2500, I still regret selling that car.

It was a '75 Nova, totally plastered in bike company/parts stickers. I bought it for, IIRC, $300 from a friend at the bike shop. I was 19. Needed a clutch and a passenger's side window. Had a harder than expected time getting the right window from the wrecker, but also got my first lesson in learning how much faster those tasks go on the second and third attempts. Freshened up the interior with a vacuum for the broken glass and some duct tape that came pretty close to matching the brown vinyl.

Traded it back to the same friend for a pair of Rock Shox (Mag-20s) for my mountain bike.