My 16 year old's first car!

[Jon A.]

Sweet Nova, practical too. Lots of potential there.

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

And kudos to my '96 Caravan, which pulled it out of the garage easily with a tow rope...in spite of the fact that the brakes on the right rear wheel were locked up solid (hence the skid mark). Told my son that counts as his first time laying down a patch of rubber

Ha! Same sort of thing happened with an early '88 Escort I got when I was 17. We got it from a dealer who was desperate to unload it; he gave us some load of crap about it going up for auction before we said we could get it. Yeah, it was a rust bucket with a cracked windscreen and a busted quarter window sitting across the road from the dealership. I believe it was the same wheel that was locked up; we towed it with a pickup truck 4/10 of a mile to our destination, locked tire screeching the whole way. I was following and was very tempted to let go of the steering wheel to cover my ears whenever possible in case of a loud blowout. I heard we passed a cop on the way there who gave us a surprised look but kept going. The tire was worn right down to the steel belts.

I never got it on the road but drove it back and forth in the parking lot enough to get somewhat used to a manual shift. The clutch eventually quit.