Showdown: First Cars

Here’s our latest Car Blog Showdown. This week, tgriffith and jgoods were invited to tell us about their first cars - what did they love about it, and why wasn’t the other’s a great choice? What was your first car? Did you love it? Why?

1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe

jgoods’ 5 reasons why he loved his black 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe:

• I lowered it, so it bottomed out frequently, but the car looked great.
• It was very customizable, so I added dual exhausts, leaded rear deck, bigger bumpers, a couple of engine mods.
• The car had its own notable odors—burning oil on fast acceleration and the smell from the rear opera seats where a friend had gotten drunk and thrown up (no opening windows back there, and no getting that smell out).
• The electrical system would cut out periodically, always producing the thrill of a new driving adventure.
• Absolutely nothing was cooler in my high school parking lot.

tgriffith’s 3 reasons why jgoods should not love his 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe

• If you love your car because it smells like puke, something must be wrong.
• Can the Deluxe Coupe really be appreciated by a kid getting it as his first car?
• This is a car to have later in life, to restore, and to treasure forever. Imagine how it must have been treated by a high school kid!

1966 Plymouth Valiant

• It sat in my parents’ driveway before I even got my license. I’d sit in it, start the engine, and fantasize about how it would feel to drive on my own.
• Yes, it’s ugly. Perhaps even the ugliest in my high school parking lot. But it was still the car all my friends piled into.
• Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn’t. Every day was an adventure!
• When the driver’s side wiper arm broke in a rainstorm, I had to drive with my head hanging out the window. We still laugh about that day.
• Plain and simple, it was my first car. It could’ve been anything, and I would have loved it!

jgoods’ 3 reasons why tgriffith should not love his 1966 Plymouth Valiant:

• The Valiant had a pretty good drivetrain if you had the V8, but this car is about as sexy as a stone.
• Jay Leno has a V200 with 88,000 miles and the original engine (see it here), and he took his driver’s license test in it when 16, he says. A perfect car for the test, as passenger protection was excellent with all that iron around you.
• Finally, there can be no quibbles about one’s first car. You had to love those wheels.

Okay, readers - your turn: What was your first car? Did you love it? Why?

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