I traveled across the state of Nebraska today in my new (to me) car. It’s the first long trip I’ve taken it on since I purchased it in February. It did just fine, but as the miles rolled by, I wondered about the previous owner(s)—specifically the original owner. Was it his or her first car? If so, what sort of stories are they telling about it now?
My first car was a Mazda RX4. I can’t remember the year it was manufactured, but I think it was 1974. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the car, but I found a photo online that sort of looks like it. It looked like this—without all of the fancy stuff…and it was gray rather than burnt orange. My Dad found it for me somewhere.
The car cost $800.00. I saved $400.00 of my own money and my grandfather gave me the other $400.00. The year would have been 1982 or 1983. And I can remember that a feeling of absolute freedom washed over me the first time I got into it and drove somewhere by myself. I think I went to Kmart. It wasn’t exactly a cross-country trip, or to the local drag racing strip, but hey, you can still feel free on a drive to Kmart.
The car had major mechanical problems—mostly consisting of shorts in the electrical wiring. I’d get one short fixed, like in the radio wiring, and then the heater wouldn’t work. I’d get that fixed, and then something else wouldn’t work. On and on it went. Turned out that the guy I chose to fix the car (a mechanic that my family used for many many years) didn’t really know how to fix foreign cars. I should have figured that out sooner.
I didn’t have the car long, but I loved it. I loved the feeling it game me. I loved how the steering wheel felt in my hand. And I loved the way it handled. I had nothing to compare it to, but that didn’t matter to me. I hated to let the car go, but eventually a guy offered me a good price because he wanted to use it for parts. He owned a car just like it and was having a difficult time finding parts for it. So, it worked out in the end.
Periodically, I’d see the car sitting in his drive way and it would evoke all sorts of great first car memories. Then, one day, after several years had passed, I drove by and it was gone. Surely, it ended up in a salvage yard somewhere—never to be heard from or admired again.
Aren’t first car memories fun?
