I'd have to resign myself to surviving on breakfast cereal for a long, long time (.....but it would be so worth it!)
My own "real" first car is a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer (build year 2001). I have no plans to replace it, it's paid for.
At the time, my dad had a 66 Pontiac Catalina, 421 with three 2-barrels, low restriction dual exhaust, a numerically-high limited slip rear end, the whole works. It was nominally rated at 376 HP, but was probably closer to 500 in reality -- faster than stink, and a real two-fisted drinker of gasoline!
So in Jan '65 I went down to the local Pontiac dealer and they me drive a new '65 GTO. I was hooked. I told my dad this is the car I wanted, he probably had no idea what a powerful car this was. In May 1965 I ordered my car from Pontiac, a 1965 Tempest with the GTO option. Burgundy, black interior, 4 speed Muncie transmission, Hurst shifter, 360 HP/ 389 cu in engine, with 3 two barrel carburetors, positraction, quick steering. I remember picking up my girlfriend the day I picked up the car. This started my life-long enamoration with cars. Sadly, Pontiac is no more.
I was always a motorcycle guy and didn't get a car until I was a couple of years out of high school. It was probably in 1974 when i got my first car, a 66 Ford Mustang coupe, with a v8 and four speed. Think I paid a couple of hundred dollars for it. Not a bad car but it was what my Dad wanted me to get. He knew that I liked big, big cars and said that they were for old men so I should get something sporty, like the Mustang. I drove that car for several months and then I saw a 64 Cadillac series 62 convertible on a used car lot. It was gold with a tan top and was in pretty good condition. I paid the princely sum of 240.00, all fees included, and brought the car home and parked it across the street. Later when my Dad and I went outside I pointed out the car and asked him what he thought about it. He didn't know that it was mine, and said it was pretty nice. When I told him it was mine he just told me I was crazy but he wasn't mad. I sold that Mustang in a week. My Dad didn't understand why I liked the cars I did, but I know he got a kick out of the different old cars and sports cars I would drive.
1971 Toyota Corolla Hatchback with the 2TC engine. Great car.
\I must be on drugs it was a 1971 Olds Cutlass Supreme with the rocket 350ci engine. The Toyota was a 1977! Maybe my blood sugar was too low.
A VW Kharmann Ghia! It was yellow with a black ragtop - this particular one isn't mine, but looks just like it:
The Jaguar would probably be worth something around $90-$100k, a lot more than the $500 I paid for it way back when...What would the 1954 Jaguar XK140 MC drop head coupe be worth now? Or ANY of those cars! If only one had the money and space.....!
My best friend's first car was an 89 Cutlass Ciera, same color as the one in your pic. We had a lot of good times cruisin' in that thing. It had three doors with power windows and one with a hand crank. Whoever got the crank window was always shocked when the rest of us hit the window switches and they discovered a handle lol