I took this off of Kristen’s blog and thought I’d share my experience with my first car.
What was your first car?
Make: 1991 Blue Toyota Camry
Transmission: Automatic
The one thing that bugged me about my first car was the lack of a audio sound system. There was this huge hole in the center of my dash because the entire cassette deck was ripped out of it. I used to carry a little boombox and leave it in the passengers seat so I could listen to music. It was so funny because in the middle of driving, I would attempt to flip the cassette (yes, cassettes were still the “IN” thing back then) over, and I’d end up busting up the cassette while trying to keep an eye on the road. If the batteries ran low, I would attempt to switch batteries at the stop light. lol. I was such a wreakless driver.
The front passenger seatbelt also didnt work since it was electronic, and many of the wires for the electronic parts were fried for some reason. The shoulder strap would not budge from its release postion. When friends rode with me, I would strapped them with the lap belt and they ended up staring at the shoulder strap in front of them the entire drive. There was this one case were a police officer pulled me over, and my friend pretended to be tying his shoe the entire time just so the officer wouldn’t notice my seatbelts were not working! LMAO. We got away with it too.
The car also did not have aircon. On Guam, aircon is a must have. Guam is so incredibly humid that the aircon has to be on when it hits the peak hours of the day. The heat and the humidity can get pretty unbearable when driving long distances. Anyway, without any aircon, I used to keep the windows down even when driving in the rain. I had to or the windshield would fog up. So after doing this for awhile, MILDEW started growing in my backseat. It was so funny because friends would place napkins or old towels down before riding with me.
Probrably the most embarrassing thing about the car was the “Batman” smokescreen it made while going up steep hills. There was this one time I must have blew enough smoke that it looked like a volcano was erupting nearby. People behind me would be devoured in the smoke coming from my vehicle. Fortunately, there are no real laws about car emissions unlike in states such as California, so I didn’t get cited for a poor emission system.
Another problem I ran into was my transmission. Toward the end of my cars life the reverse blew out. lol. I don’t know how it happend, but it just wouldn’t roll backward anymore. For the next few weeks while attending college, I would park in the most deserted places I could find, or climb over the sidewalks so I could get out of the parking lot. I recall a parking security officer asking me why I climbed the sidewalk and I had to explain that my transmission was broken. He wanted to call a towtruck, but I told him that I couldn’t afford to pay for one. It was so embarrassing, yet very funny.
After a few weeks of doing this, I finally asked my dad to get the transmission fixed. I found out later that that wasn’t the worst of my problems. The biggest issue I had were my extremely bald tires. I found this out the hard way. Early one morning I decided to pick up my girlfriend (now my wife) to get my registration done for the next semester at the university. I never made it to her house. My rear tire hit the edge of the road, my car spun out of control on the wet grass, and my car and I literally flew into the jungle across the roadside. When it was over, the car was completely upside down and I was hanging by my seatbelt. Fortunately, I walked out of the car with just a couple cuts and bruises. The car managed to protect me.
That was the last time I ever drove that car. It was towed into my front yard, and sat there for several years. I eventually bought a new car with money I had saved and a stipend from my college scholarship, but I will never forget the adventures I experienced with my first car. Some of the funniest and scariest moments of my life happened in that super powered vehicle.
Thanks for dropping by my site trench, always nice to see new people about. I’ve recently got my first car, a brand new Honda Civic 2006, I’m enjoying it daily, because my work requires a lot of driving about. I should actually post a review about it now that I’ve had it for over a month.
My friend and cousin both own Camry’s in the US, seems to be a popular car?
just wanted to say that i liked your reasoning for choosing/keeping the site name. i never knew that it was seven miles down. i actually thought it was deeper than that. wow. haha. you can actually watch yourself making comments here. that’s a little weird. i wonder. can you actually see this as i type it if we were online at the same time?
that’s quite an experience you had with your first car. thanks for sharing it with us. anyways, it’s good that you didn’t get hurt when you had that incident caused by the bald tires. a friend of mine lost his life in a vehicular accident in Maryland. from what i heard, it was caused by bald tires. tires are very important especially when driving in the freeway.
@TechZ I’ve never owned a honda. I owned a Acura from the same company that produces Honda. I’ve actually gone through about six different cars since that accident back in 1998. haha. I’ve owned a 1983 Toyota Station Wagon (lowrider), 2001 Chevy S-10, a 1992 Acura Vigor, a 2003 Nissan Altima, and now I currently own two Toyota Scions. I have a tC and a xA.
@ Christine Yes the site name means alot and is ranked pretty high on the search engines too. Only you can preview your own comments. Its a live comment plugin for wordpress.
@ Jaypee Yeah, quite an experience indeed. Bald tires suck. I never let my tires go bald now. I still drive fast, but safe! haha Oh, and no FREEWAYS on Guam to worry about.
My boyfriend says that when it comes to guys, nostalgia will involve four wheels of some sort. =)
Kidding aside, those are really interesting expriences that you had with that first car of yours. With all the ups and downs, I can see how it means to you, even until now. =) Great post.. thanks for sharing these stories!
This is off the subject, but I just noticed your “Musicians Corner” page! You didn’t have a place to leave comments there, so I’m leaving a comment here. I love the song! Love the harmony! You should post more songs!!!
dude. i do that, too. cuz my car only takes casettes and the radio system doesn’t work, i have a cd player. and even with that, its’ outdaded. i need an ipod. but i was gonna say that i do that! haha. i try switching cds in between stops, and changing batteries in between stops, and putting my headphones on in between stops. i have to stop that. haha. and haha. my car is also electronic and only 1 out of the 4 windows will slide down. the driver’s side down refuses to lock from the outside, so i have to power lock the passenger side. haha. this is funny. and your friend was smart, tying his shoe. the more i read the more i laugh. this reminds me of guam so much.
mine is a 1997 honda civic standard.. we sold it, i missed that car soo much!!
camry is a big car is it v6?
have a niceday!
@Marz- Yeah, your BF is probrably right. I miss all the cars that I sold… I especially miss my S-10 pickup. That was the first truck I ever owned and my wife and I used to go skippin in that truck! LOL
@Car- Thanks for the comments. I have other songs, I’ll be posting in the future..
@Christine- haha. CD’s are better than cassettes thats for sure.. I want an IPOD too to connect to my tC. It would take all the junk CD’s out of my car permanently!
@rose- Civics. haha. I remember when those were super popular with the youngins. Never owned one, and never will!
Civics have grown up :P
The xA’s are very popular here as well.
“Batman” smokescreen…LOL! My first experience with my trusty Nissan Altima 1998 was satisfying enough.