It’s stating the obvious, but I’ve been into cars for as long as I can remember. Now in my mid-20s, I’m constantly daydreaming of what will be my next car, but even as a young child, the car I’d be driving someday was always on my mind.
Going back 20 years, my earliest memory of picturing my first car as an adult was at age 3. This was right around the time I started collecting car models (initially 1/24 scale and then 1/18) and other toy cars, with one of my favorites being a battery-powered 1/24 scale light blue 1995 Chevrolet Blazer. Located on the side were two buttons, one of which made engine and horn sounds, and the other which operated the wheels, making that car move forward several feet.
As one of my favorite toys at this age, I began myself as an adult, driving the full-size version. The dream of owning a Blazer lasted about a year or two, then I moved on. As I’ve grown up, my taste in cars has changed significantly for the better, and it seems funny to think that this was once my dream car. So, in the spirit of childhood memories, what was the first car you ever wanted?
I was fascinated by a wide variety of cars from the AMC Pacer, any Lincoln with the tire hump on the trunk, early 70s Caprice/Impalas and most anything with fins or hidden headlights, BUT the 1979-1985 Buick Riviera was the first car I ever remember wanting to be mine. At that age (4 or 5), I didn’t know the yearly trim differences or even what was under the hood, they were all the same to me and the only requirement was white paint with a red interior. When the awful looking ’86 Rivieras came out when I was 6, I wished that I could buy an ’85 and store it until I turned 16. I never did own one. Though I had looked into and test driven an ’85 Toronado when the time came, I eventually settled for a much newer w-body Cutlass Supreme coupe, and I did later own a 1991 Toronado. I love those big GM personal luxury coupes, and If I could still get a comparable new car today, I’d own it.
My best friend growing ups’ dad had a 1989 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur in a dark blue over silver blue color with a light tan leather and walnut interior. I dreamed of buying one like it.
It remained my dream car until my early 20s when I changed focus to the ZIL 41041. The fact that they are not all that dissimilar in appearance is probably telling.
My Dad’s 66 Mercury Montclair four door sedan. I wanted that as my “forever” car.
But before that I used to pretend my bike was a 57 DeSoto. With pushbutton automatic.
My folks brought me home in a 50 Studebaker with wrap around rear window and a blanket over the front seat. It warped me.
I had a fit when my Grandmother traded her 50 Pontiac for a brand new 60 Rambler Ambassador wagon, but settled down, I guess, when I saw the rear facing seat.
The 68 Javelin was another one I would have sold my soul for. And the Gremlin, which my parents bought in 1971.
Today my dream car is a 60 Comet.
When I was very young, we lived in a “comfortably off” area. Technically it was a historic village, but was the functional equivalent of a boring modern American suburb.
The first cars I remember my family having were a rusty Citroen Ami, followed by a terminally unreliable Fiat 126, and a very rusty Renault 5.
I did love the Renault, but it wasn’t cool and I aspired to the flashier versions of boring cars other people’s parents had. The ones that stick in the mind are last of the line Ford Cortina Crusader (blue and silver two tone), Vauxhall Cavalier SR “J car”, and maybe MG Montego. (red seatbelts!)
Oh, for me, it had to be a green Gremlin X with the little V-8 and 4-speed. (Hey, I was like five or six. )
There were plenty of different cars and trucks I liked as a child. Friends of our family had a ’66 Comet 4-door that I really liked, along with a green ’67 F-100. I was sad when they traded the Comet for a ’68 Biscayne. I still like Ford pickups, and ones of that vintage in particular. I also liked the big Ford wagons of the mid to late ’60’s. I rode in a few, and I always liked the style. I’m surprised to this day that I’ve never owned a Ford. Oh well, maybe one day. It would probably give my Honda-owning family a shock, but no matter.
The first car I ever wanted (and I still want) would have been a late model El Camino, with the revised front end. A neighbor down the street owned one in black when I was six or so, and the desire for the car has stuck with me for the past 15-odd years. Make mine painted back in black please!
1963 Corvette Stingray. “Bonanza” was sponsored by Chevrolet in the early sixties, and the only reason I sat through the show was to catch a glimpse of a Stingray in one of their commercials. Buzz and Todd enticed me with their earlier Corvettes on “Route 66,” but the ’63 Corvette really got my pre-teen motor running. As far as motorcycles, any Triumph would have done the trick.
The first vehicle I actually drove was a modified Fred Flintstone Jeep that my father sourced from a fellow soldier at our Base Housing in New Mexico in the 1950s.
I was so into cars from an early age, and I was exposed to a lot of them when my dad would haul me along on his annual new model tours each fall. He was always looking at medium price cars, it seemed, so that is where my earliest memories were generated. I was 8 years old in 1955, when most of my family graduated out of their immediate post war models (which always looked so ancient to me, including my mom’s ’49 Dodge Coronet). My grandmother bought her new ’56 Desoto Firedome in late 1955 (always one of my favorites, how I loved that new push-button transmission selector), my aunt and uncle bought a slightly used ’54 Lincoln Capri, and my dad opted for a new ’55 Oldsmobile 88 that year, too. But the one car that really captured my imagination then, and even to this day, was the ’57 Thunderbird, which I lusted after for years. But as I’ve related before on this site, when I came of driving age about 1963-64, Dad thought they were too old and too high mileage at that point, and life moved on quickly, so I had to wait until 2003 to acquire the object of my automotive lust, my new retro-Bird, which I still have and which I often refer to as my long delayed ’57.
When I was very young, here in Toronto, the 87-90 Caprice was everywhere and I really liked them, especially the Brougham models with the nicer interiors. I always thought they looked nice without being over the top or ridiculous.
A DeTomaso Pantera.
Had to have one from the first one I saw. I remember screwing up my courage and stopping in the Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Santa Monica, California and asking if I could just sit in one. The salesman said yes.
Unfortunately, by that time I was almost 6′ 4″ tall (age 14) I didn’t fit.
I still want one, but with major modifications to fit my 58 year old 6′ 7″ body.
Dad’s ’54 Buick Super Riviera. Titian Red with White roof. It had full wheel cover with the huge round centers, not the Kelsey Hayes shown on this example. I loved the full rear wheel cutouts, the way the rear fenders rose up and those bullet tail lights at the ends of them. Come to think of it, I loved everything about that car. True understated elegance. I remember Dad pulling me into his lap and giving me the wheel on the last straight stretch between town and home. It was the first car that I ever set in motion. Nearly ended up in the stream. I was five.
Wasn’t a real car, but I begged and hounded my parents until they (Santa) bought me a Playmobile Dashboard for Christmas in 1962 with working wipers, turnsignals, horn, turning steering wheel and motor sounds along with windshield and sunvisors. It was advertised on TV and I had to have it. I put a lot of miles on my first “car”.
One was sold on E-Bay with original box and packing for over $700.00! I bought a (real) ’87 Jetta that looks and runs good for $700.00 a few months back. Has all the same features plus real instead of imaginary drive. Uses much more gas, though.
As a kid growing up in the late 80’s Ghostbusters was probably my favorite thing. So I always wanted to own Ecto-1 someday.
I got interested in cars as a kid when I moved from Australia to New Zealand to the US in the space of a year. It was fascinating to observe the great difference in cars between the countries.
In the US I rode in a Porsche 928, the first car I’d ever been in that felt like more than a transport appliance. It’s still my “dream car” in the abstract sense, though I’ll probably never own one because practical-adult-me knows what a money pit they are.
The first car I really wanted was a red ’68 Charger that a neighbor’s son had. It had headers and very loud exhaust with a 440. I rode in it and that was it. I had a couple of models of it. That continued to be my dream car, until my sister’s best friend’s fiancee drove up one day in a bright yellow Challenger R/T. That, and a ‘Cuda, from that point on were the cars I wanted, but I came closest to actually buying my cousin’s ’70 Roadrunner in ’73, but he forgot I wanted it, and sold it to a kid I went to school with, and that pissed me off big time.
Even though it was the late 60s, the car I first remember craving was my widowed neighbor Mrs. Blank’s black over dove cloth ’56 Fleetwood Sixty Special. We lived on an odd street – our side had an alley with garages in the rear and houses close to the sidewalk; her side had houses set well back with driveways. sitting on our front porch watching her maid/nurse back that barge of a car down a very narrow driveway – the kind with a strip of grass in the middle – with the engine murmuring and the exhaust pufffing out of the fender tips is as vivid in my mind now as it was then.
That’s easy – Jaguar D-Type. I still remember building the plastic model kit when I was a very young boy. Still want one, but unless I win the lottery it’s not going to happen.
Born in 86.
Dad had a 1987 bmw 535i 5 speed manual, and i loved it. I remember the in dash “computer” fascinated me. Plan was to keep it forever but at 8 or so, i watched it roll backwards down a steep driveway and hit a tree after the parking brake was left unengaged. my dad felt so bad about it he kept the totaled carcass for about 5 more years in the driveway.
First car i noticed on my own was the Nissan 300zx! what a spaceship in the early 90s.
Also Richard Pettys 66/67 Plymouth Belvedere Gtx
Funny you mentioned a tractor. When I was about 6, I spent a summer on a farm in Wisconsin , and loved the tractor. My uncle would let me sit on his lap and steer . After that, I really really wanted a tractor. My parents got me one of those toy tractors you pedal around like a trike, but that wasn’t good enough. I wanted a real tractor !!
Jaguar XJ-S when I was 7 years old after watching the “Return of the Saint” TV show.
I used to read the International Harvester catalogues that were in the bedside cabinet at my grandparent’s farmhouse, and I thought that having an IH Scout and being able to swap between the cab-top roof and the full-length roof would be pretty cool. I don’t think I have seen 20 IH Scouts in the flesh since.
Born in 1992 it was a Fiat Brava ( because of the taillights) and a 89-94 Mazda 323F/Astina .. which i own now and i am still playing with the pop up headlights
Born in 1980. I can’t clearly remember exactly what the first car I ever wanted was…but if I had to take an educated guess, it was probably either a ’57 Bel Air, a ’57 Thunderbird, or a Porsche 928 (one of my favorite Matchbox cars).
Porsche 911 – got a model when I was 2, told everyone when I turned 4 I’d get one when I saved my money. Last year I finally did it.
A ’58 Edsel. Seriously. As a youth those batwing taillights captivated me. Loved the grille too 🙂 .
The first car I remember that caught my eye and clearly remember liking in my very young age was a vehicle I used to refer as “the car with the half-moon taillights”. I was probably 4 or 5 years old when seeing this car. (I sprung to life in 1973, btw). Years later I remembered what the back of it looked like enough to try and find a picture. I knew it was a Chevrolet and that’s it. Year, make and model . . . no deal. Didn’t remember anything except those 2 taillights embedded in to the back bumper. Turned out to be a 1968 Chevrolet. The higher-end Caprice models had 3 taillights on each side as I later discovered so I knew the one I saw that had burned itself into my youthful brain had to be a Bel Air or Biscayne. To this day, I still very much like the looks of those lower-end ’68s with the 2 tails on each side and those ‘dog-dish’ hubcaps as opposed to the fancier Caprice.
Whenever I see one in a movie I notice it instantly. I saw ‘THE OUTFIT’ (1973) on Turner Classic Movies not so long ago and there’s a scene in front of Joe Don Baker’s diner about 15 minutes into the movie with a ’68 Bel Air or Biscayne parked in front of it. Not a close-up shot, but the car looked to be green.
Upon reflection, I reckon my description of “half-moon taillights” would be more apt to describe the back of a 1960 Ford Starliner, a vehicle I’ve seen pictured on this site. But at 4 or 5 yrs. old the “half-moon taillights” was the best description I could come up with. The tails were mostly round with a straight line across the top of the light = “half-moon” to a widdle kid.
If my folks had bought me a ’68 Chevrolet Bel Air for my 1st car instead of a ’64 Falcon I may well have kept it to this day. My Falcon is still perched under the carport after almost 27 years and knowing how much I liked the looks of the ’68 Bel Air (or Biscayne, take yer pick) I expect I would’ve kept that, too, had I been presented with one when I was 16. Let me add that I do like the front end of the ’68s as well. I find them overall very nice looking automobiles. (And, jeez, did the ’69s look different!)