If you had the chance to buy back your first car, would you?

I still have it. A 66 Corvair coupe with a modified engine and 4-speed manual that I've had since July 1974. Building a new more extreme engine for it now.

My first car was a 1971 Datsun 510, two door , in the stock orange colour. A buddy repainted it for me and we chose a brighter Corvette orange. Loved that car, but it was Quebec in the 1970s and salt was used so extensively that it long ago returned to the elements.

I did. 30 years and 850 mile from where I got rid of it.

Got the car home and started cleaning it with my wife. I told her mine was the same color. I said it had the same dent as the one we just bought. We popped the hood and I said wow, Weber carb must have been a common mod as I put the same carb on mine. Oh wow, neat, mine had a manual choke too. We got inside, her on the pass side me on the drivers. Cleaning the mess that the owner left us I went to flip the drivers seat up. This is when my wife first asked me if I was OK. I could only find a good pleather passenger seat back in 1989 and put it in the drivers side as mine was torn up. The car in my driveway in 2020 had a passenger seat for a drivers seat. I told her things were just really weird with this car but I was happy to have it. Then I started to pull out the carpet so I could see the floor boards. That's when a thing happened.

I found something of mine between the drivers seat and the door sill.

Wife starts asking me urgently if I was OK, said I turned white as a piece of paper and had a stunned look on my face. She thought I was having a heart attack. I showed her what I found and told her that I swiped it off of my step dad in high school and kept it in the car just in case. We just bought my berkeleyi9ng car back honey I exclaimed.

I took a picture of the item and sent it to my step dad. He said wow I have not seen that in a long time. I admitted that I took it from him many years ago. He asked where I found it and I told him in a red/maroon Opel GT. He said HOLY E36 M3! you bought your car back.

berkeleying amazing.

My first car was a 1972 standard Beetle.  And I was hit in the drivers door by a 1968 Caddy convertible.

So no, I don't want it back in the shape it was in when I parted with it.

In reply to preach :

I gotta know what the "thing" you found of yours was!

My first car?  Uhh, no.  It ended up like this...many lessons learned.

But my second car (bought while still owning the red notchback)...yeah.  And I had the chance.

Showed up at Mecum not long ago...SFM6S915.  And I passed.  Cuz the subsequent owners had fully restored it to show winning form...including the original green color.  Not a fan of green, nor of show quality restos.  I want drivers.  And Shelbys should be white/blue, as God intended.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/396990/1966-shelby-gt350-fastback/

In reply to preach :

I'm dying to know what that mystery item is. My first guess is a joint but your step dad remembering losing one in the 80s seems a bit far fetched. I promise I'm not a cop. 

'87 Volvo 240 sedan?  Sure, if it was still in the same condition it was when I had it twenty years ago.  I still see tons of them around.

Ahh...it's that "same or similar condition" clause that's the problem.  The first left on a hook because engines don't run on zero compression.  The second limped away with half the front suspension destroyed after an all-night road rally and an encounter with a creek ford.  The third burned clear to the back axle on the shoulder of I-40, outside of Amarillo....

So, no. :)  

I did get it back. It's in my trailer right now, more than 30 years after the first time I brought it home. I retrieved it in 2011.

It's a 1990 Miata, of course. 

I owned my first car for more than 30 years before passing it on to Curtis.  '67 Pontiac Le Mans ragtop, 326/2bbl/2spd/2.56.

I let it go because I didn't love it enough anymore, and he would for both of us.

So no, as I sold it to him, I wouldn't buy it back.

But who knows what the future holds during his ownership?  He's offered me first refusal and if it's interesting, if and when that time ever comes, I may hold him to it.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

My first car was a twin to this one. 225 slant six, three on the tree, only option was a heater. 
Definitely yes. 
 

Dude, I have friends out on the salt at Bonneville right now. They posted a picture of one of those things, chopped and channeled and all frenched in and totally badass.

If that's what it took to keep it in the family, I would buy it back. My brother currently has it, so it's safe for now.

My first car was a 91 Mustang GT I bought off of my dad (he was the second owner when he bought it in 96. 

I don't have a strong desire to get it back because in spite of the fact I owned it about 10 years longer than he did, it still always felt like it was dads car, not my own. I miss my Focus ST more than I miss the GT. 

I'm trying to think of a word shorter than yes but all I could come up with was ghaaaaah.

I bought this pile for $750 on my 18th birthday. It was slow and awful but it was black and a "sports car"

A few months into owning it the head gasket blew. Too big of a job for not a mechanic me and my K-mart tool set I sold it for $250.

An Iron Duke head gasket is like a 2 hour job.

It's been 22 years and I'm trying to find it. I know the name of the guy I sold it to and I know he swapped the engine and drove it for a while. Being a unnusual car and belonging to a member of a fiero club there is a better than average chance this car is still around.

I want to buy her back and treat her the way 18 year old me couldn't.

My first two cars were such monumental heaps of crap that I'd never want to see them again. Luckily, I'll never have to worry about that as they've surely rusted into the ground decades ago.

My third car was a hand-me-down E30 318is that I modified with Gruppe N suspension, Recaro SRD seats (from my buddy's Lancer Evo II GSR), a welded half-cage, Massive BBK, and Alpina steering wheel. I'd love to have it back, but lost track of it 10-12 years ago. 

thatsnowinnebago said:

In reply to preach :

I'm dying to know what that mystery item is. My first guess is a joint but your step dad remembering losing one in the 80s seems a bit far fetched. I promise I'm not a cop. 

Teenage boy, "borrowed" something from dad "just in case." I know what I'm thinking.  Guess it didn't break in your wallet?  ;^)

" In a heartbeat "

In spite of it being a 1956 Plymouth Savoy, 2 door hardtop, two tone paint [red & white] a 270 c.i. V-8 with two speed powerflyte trans. I traded it for a '61 dodge Lancer [awful car] The Plymouth needed a speedo cable... [sigh]

I actually had the chance to buy back my 9C1. I did not. I knew it would never live up to my memories and I didn't want to taint them. 

1984 Chrysler Laser turbo...I would like to have it, but only for nostalgia's sake.

Parts would be so hard to get, already have a turbo car, already have a good daily etc.

Wife would be pissed.

I only had it for a couple months, blew the engine - did yall know that oil is important to an engine?

Then I got what I REALLY consider my first car - 92 Mercury Capri. Again, it was a great part of my life, but no way I could have it now with the small size, sad 100hp engine, leaky convertible top etc

Maybe, but probably not. BMW E92 328xi, automatic. It was a fun car, but nothing spectacular. Was a good daily, and got into my fair share of trouble with it being a teenager with a sports coupe. There are many other cars I'd rather own now, but if I got another e92 328, it would have to be a rwd manual version of it. They're not anything too interesting though.

What if you still have it?

I know I have a grainy 35mm film shot of me as a scrawny 14 year old with it somewhere, just not in digital format.

These stories are why I'll never sell the Murdercycle. The CM200T is a throw away bike, even if it's a Honda. When it was made in 79, they never intended for it to last this long. I'd end up spending the rest of my life trying to get it back.

Mine was a $25 Renault 4cv , 750cc ,  which replaced my S90 Honda motorcycle.

I learned a lot about  fixing it ,  but thinking about it now I probably did not drive it more than 20 miles from home !

I still have mine, over 30 years later.

Nope. I've got fond memories of young milestones in my 1994 Cavalier, but it was all in spite of it.

Just like this but blue on blue (man, that interior was so blue):