Inspired by Kimblebee, anyone else learn to drive in a "deathtrap"?

[Bilberry]

Yes! I learned to drive in a 73 Porsche/VW 914. The stick shift was difficult to use. The brakes all but stopped working after it rained hard, due to the brakes becoming wet. It was a two seater which as a young teen wasn't good! I had more than 1 friend. At least 3 would pile into the car for short trips typically. Looking back now, not smart, but it was good fun driving...most of the time.

 

[tvguy]

My first car was a 74 Pinto,lol..

That was my first car too. Could not kill that car. Finally outgrew it when I got married and had kids.
My mom had a 76 Pinto Wagon, drove it 27 years without issues.

 

[NHdisneylover]

DH (who was my boyfriend at the time) taught me to drive in his beat up old pick up truck.

Once I had a DL I went down to an old Yugo (anyone remember those?) that cost less than his fancy speaker cables did The clutch cable broke a few weeks after I got it. The brakes needed replaced right away, but still didn'T work quite as fast as they ought to have. etc.
My parent's drove Suzuki Samuris with well over 150K on each---so none of us had anything particularly nice or safe.
First thing DH did when we got married was insist in getting me a safer car.

 

[Nancyg56]

I learned how to drive a three speed on the column in a Dodge Dart. After that I learned how to drive a four on the floor in a 67 Chevelle SS and then moved to a 67 GTO. I dated and then married a gearhead! LOL!

 

[mjkacmom]

Far from it, it was a 1969 Buick skylark with a v8 engine, babypoop brown, handed down to my parents from my grandmother who was legally blind. It was 15 years old when I got my license.

 

[aprilchem]

I learned to drive in a 1981 Ford Thunderbird that had an issue that the engine would die if you came to a stop while it was raining, and then you couldn't get it started back again. I didn't have a cellphone at the time (this would have been in 1991), and got stranded SO many times because of that stupid car. You'd think my parents would be more wary of stranding a 16 year old girl on the roads over and over again, but I guess it never broke down far from home. I'd just wait until somebody we knew drove by and get them to help me push it out of the road, and then walk somewhere and ask to use a phone and call my dad.

These days I only drive the most reliable cars, replace them frequently, and keep them in excellent condition. I got my fill of broken down cars as a kid!

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I had a 1978 Oldsmobile Starfire, I couldn't put it into reverse (manual transmission) because the linkage would stick, so I'd have to crawl under the car with a screwdriver and a hammer and bang it free, you should have seen the look on my boyfriend's face the first time I forgot about it with him in the car and ask him to hand me the tools from the glove box!

My older brother got to drive our 76 Chrysler LeBaron, he figured out that there was a gap in the cushions middle of the back seat, just the right size for a beer can, and you could fit basically a whole case of beer in there where it would go into the body of the back seat so that if the cops came to where you were hanging out with your buddies and shined their lights into the car, they wouldn't see the beer and you wouldn't get busted for drinking (it was the 80s, yeah, they were stupid), but that all came to an end when he twisted the drive shaft out of it trying to screech the tires by revving the engine in neutral and then dropping it into drive (not a manual transmission)!

 

[Marchand63]

I learned on this

We had to make the family of 6 living in move out though. 1976 Oldsmobile Delta Royale 88 Convertible.

You really could fit 7 people in this and about 4 bodies in the trunk. I saw one at a car show a few months ago and couldn't believe I could actually parallel park that boat.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

That was my first car too. Could not kill that car. Finally outgrew it when I got married and had kids.
My mom had a 76 Pinto Wagon, drove it 27 years without issues.

I had a Pinto BobCat! 78 maybe? Ugly car. I killed it. Ran it out of oil. It was a stick and I was learning to drive it - not well- and pulled out in front of a cop. He pulled me over and I told him I just didn't have the hang of it yet and he told me to take more lessons loL!!!

 

[amberpi]

Apparently, I did not learn to drive in a death trap compared to most ya'll. I got a hardship license at 15 (BTW, I'm a terrible driver, but I can parallel park), so in 1995, my dad taught me on his manual transmission 1990 Honda Accord, that was dirt colored. Then I got my mom's hand me down dirt colored Nissan Maxima, I think it was a couple of years old - it had a car phone physically installed in it. I promptly totaled it, and my dumb folks bought me the sporty S Saturn I wanted in bright red. That car was possessed (the flip up lights were constantly randomly going up or down) but I had it for several years in college and it got great gas mileage and I thought it was super cute. When I got that, I also got my first Nokia phone - I thought I was SO cool.

 

[yoopermom]

DS22 wants me to state for the record that the 5 yr old VW Bug that we got him when he learned to drive because we thought it would have modern safety standards....well, he still managed to stuff six football players into it one night after practice when they all needed a ride home (yes, completely illegally, and no, he didn't tell us about it until after graduation!).

 

[Marchand63]

DS22 wants me to state for the record that the 5 yr old VW Bug that we got him when he learned to drive because we thought it would have modern safety standards....well, he still managed to stuff six football players into it one night after practice when they all needed a ride home (yes, completely illegally, and no, he didn't tell us about it until after graduation!).

Heck we jammed 10 people into a Toyota Corolla in our teens.