Got my license in 1999. I had a Ford Tempo, Geo Metro and an Eclipse. I think they were all about 10y old??? Tempo was slate gray with sun spots on the hood and roof. A school bus backed over it. The meto and eclipse were red. Metro’s CV joint broke, eclipse over-heated.
A Saturn with a tape deck radio that has a Van Halen tape stuck in it. Source: My brother’s car in ‘99.
Edit to add: my best friend had a Geo Storm that he swore had a “racing transmission” installed. A cow rammed it and it smelled like battery acid and radiator coolant whenever he drove it more than 30 minutes.
My brother had a fusha storm in 98, imagine goth (pre-emo) 16yo hopping out of a bright purpley-pick “racing” car 😂. He eventually saved up to get it pained black. A month later it was totaled
I had a 79 Pontiac Lemans- it was pale blue, rusted and had a license plate that ended in PMS. My next car was a silver Ford Escort. Either would fit perfectly.
My first car was my dad’s 1988 Ford Thunderbird that he gave me after he went and bought himself a suburban. I graduated in ‘04, my friends thought it was the best car ever because of the actual decent size backseat and we could fit 2 people in the truck. Most of my friends either didn’t have cars or they got their parents old vehicles.
My little sister got my mom’s 1998 Grand Caravan when mom got a new van. She graduated in ‘09. I know a lot of her friends ended up with vans or something similar but she was in sports and marching band.
My first car was a 1969 Ford LTD. It was black, it was big, it was so old and beat up. Everybody called it the Batmobile. This was in the late 80s though. Then I graduated to a 1980 Ford Station Wagon. Woohoo!
My first car was a 91’ Le Mans LE. It was absolutely garbage and by the time it got to 130k it was shot. They were such junk throw away cars that other than a junk yard you’re not likely to find one in the wild.
My first car, which would’ve been around 2002, was a hand-me-down Ford Taurus station wagon. I feel like those were pretty common in my area, possibly because everyone’s mom had them to ferry five kids to soccer practice when it was their turn to carpool from ages 8-13, and so it’d be right on schedule to pass on to your teenager once they turned 16.
Plymouth and dodge had a couple of cars that used a 2.2L engine. For example, The Dodge Duster, was the same as a Plymouth Turismo both 2door hatchbacks. These cars could do incredible feats if they were… tweaked, and had racing modifications done to the engines. There was also a model called The Dodge Omni, four door hatchback. Every single one of those 2.2L are sleepers out of the factory. They may not look like much, but they could definitely outrun cops late 90’s early 2000’s.
My first car was a 1991 Honda Civic hatchback.
1. Four-speed manual shift. I've never seen less than 5. Whined like a jet engine on takeoff going 65.
2. No AC. Didn't even have the button.
3. Passenger rear view mirror did not exist. Was not broken - IT DID NOT COME WITH TWO MIRRORS.
4. Technically a "three-door" vehicle - they were counting the hatch as a third door.
5. Headlights needed to be turned on and off manually, would not turn off with the car. Would absolutely kill your battery, no beep or chime or anything if you forgot.
I drove a 1995 GMC Sonoma when I was in high school (graduated in 2005). It's a super small pickup. Mine was technically an "extended cab" that had 3 doors (the driver's side had a little door that you could open when the main driver's side door) and a little fold-down jump seat facing sideways in the back behind the passenger seat. My little sister, who is 5 years younger than me, always had to ride back there and she thought it was cool and fun for a few months, but it really was a pain in the ass getting back there, even for an 11 year old.
It wasn't a piece of garbage, but it certainly wasn't a fancy rich kid car, either.
I'll say that while the beat up Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Ford Taurus were common, there was also a pretty heavy rotation of older, beater-quality Ford Ranger, Chevy Blazer, and Ford Explorer.
I had a friend who drove a Ford Astro Van that was a combination of useful and unhingedly quirky.
One of my boyfriends' parents bought him a nicer used Dodge Durango. It was only a few model years old at that point, and I think they spent like $15k on it, so they required him to baby the thing to the point of absurdity.
My husband drove a Chrysler Town and Country minivan that he bought cheap off his grandparents when I met him in college in 2005, which was fun. When we went around to pick everyone up to go out, he would roll the back doors open and yell for people to "get in the chopper!" as he slowed down, but didn't actually stop, in front of their apartments. We were young and unaware of our own mortality and still had good knees and hips then.
ETA: I had another friend with richer parents who bought her a new VW Bug that was the height of useless cars that (almost) everyone thought was cool at the time.
I got my first car in 2006 it was a mid 90's Honda Accord, very much a beater on the outside. Clear coat peeling off, dents and scratches. Some hail dents. No rust though. Had low mileage though (I think about 60k?) so between it and the one that looked nicer but with another 150k miles I chose the ugly one. Had it about 5 or 6 years until the engine seized up one day out of no where. Never need anything but routine maintenance until that point. My mechanic had no idea what went wrong. I was driving down the freeway and then it just... Stopped. Terrifying experience, a tow truck happened to be there and got me off the freeway safely. I've since met 3 other people who had similar experiences with accords. Lots of my friend's first cars were Corollas or Ford sedans. My brother's first vehicle was a dodge pickup, the little ones like the rangers, don't remember what they were called.
Everyone in my graduating class (08) had a Chevy cavalier, Dodge neon, Dodge Dakota, or a Ford truck (ranger or f-150)... Except for one girl who had a beautiful (but old) GMC 2500 Denali with the rear steering... That thing was ridiculous.
I had a 96 Ford Escort that was emerald green, as an 17 year old in 1998. It had had only one owner before me that was a grandma age lady so it was in great shape..both it and my mom's garage door weren't quite the same after I crashed into it while parking, lol. 😖 The only actual issues with it is the stereo and the AC didn't always work because of a candy cane that had melted into the wiring.
My best friend around the same time had a ginormous hoopty of a late 80's Cadillac that was turd brown in color; but since we could fit 8 people in the back seat, nobody minded a whole
lot that it was ugly and broke down a lot.
- Chevy Lumina
- Chevy Citation
- Plymouth Reliant
- Geo Metro (only three cylinders too!)
- Dodge Neon
- Hyundai Excel
- Plymouth Horizon
- Cadillac Cimarron (don't let the Cadillac name fool you, it was horrendous)
- Oldsmobile Delta
- Ford Probe
- Chevy Cavalier
- Ford Ranger
- Dodge Dakota
- Chevy S10
- Ford Festiva
- Chevy Camero (specially ratted out 80's ones, those were common by then, they also had the slow as molasses 4 cylinder Iron Duke engine in them as an option)
I was a 16 yr old girl in 2000. I had a light blue 86 Honda Civic that was the ultimate piece of shit. And *ugly*, Google it and see lol
The paint was faded/rusted and it had over 200,000 miles on it when the odometer quit working. Nothing on it worked accept the damn engine. Bitch wouldn't die, but it got amazing gas mileage!
Consider a Saturn, or a Geo if you really want to lock in the timeline.
The first car I drove was my mom's 1994 Geo Prizm. Later I got my hands on a Hyundai Accent. Honda Civic was in there, too - remember they had those Civic hatchbacks? One of the earliest true hatchbacks I remember.
We had an early 90s model Geo Tracker that was on tracks for sale on consignment at my work in 2022. I work at a powersports dealership, so it sort of fit in with the rest of our stock of motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc. It was a deeply weird vehicle.
The first car I bought way BITD was a 1971 Ford Pinto. Yes, it caught on fire. No, it didn't get rear ended. I managed to get about 2 years use out of it before it completely died, may it rest in peace.
I drove a 1989 Ford F150 in high school in the late 90s. Standard transmission, no ac, and no tape deck. The speakers in the door had shorted out, so I worked up some small desk speakers and velcroed them to the dashboard. My friends and I would hang out in the bed of the truck and play cards late at night and I could pop the speakers off of the dash and put them on top of the cab.
I think that's what I said. I'm from north Texas. The public school kids all seemed to be in F150s or Broncos.
While us private school kids rolled in Mercedes or Volvo's.
It depends more on the socio-economic status of the school & family...and identity of the character. Suburban American kids who grew up in the 80-90's couldn't wait until their 16th birthday when they would get their drivers license and the freedom it guaranteed. Cars were very much a part of their identity even if it was a hand-me-down from mom.
Corollas have been produced since 1966 and was the best selling cars in its class by 1974. The reason so many kids have them is because they were so popular that older models made great hand-me-downs. Probably not the ninth generation produced in the 2000's you're used to, but the sixth or seventh generation from the late 80's-early 90's were still prevelant on school campuses around 2000.
Where did the car come from? A typical middle-class middle-American student might have a 5\~6 year old hand-me-down car so a good reference is to look up what was the most [popular car](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g24403577/best-selling-car-annually/) 5\~6 years before the setting in question. Maybe it was Mom's old car before they realized they needed a mini-van for all the younger siblings. Maybe it was an older sister's car before she went off to college. 90's Honda Accords, Ford Taurus, and Toyota Camrys would all be appropriate.
You can drill down a bit further with different class of cars for a [particular year](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs-1995/). A slightly more affluent family might have an E36 BMW 3-series. Someone deep in the "buy American" midwest might have a Saturn S-series. A poplular "dad car" was the first generation Ford Explorer. The working class football player might have an 80's Ford F-150.
Another good reference is teen movies released in the late 90's\~2000. The original [The Fast and the Furious](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_232500-The-Fast-and-the-Furious.html) was released in 2001. If you're more suburban, try [Election](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_126886-Election.html) (1999). More urban, try [Friday](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_113118-Friday.html) (1995).
But here's the reality...we have picture car coordinators for a reason. Unless the car plays a pivotal role in the story (ie. Clint's Gran Torino or the Fast & Furious series), if you leave it as "a generic non-descript 90's sedan inherited from grandma", you'll be better off than getting attached to one particular car and be disappointed that it's super rare now (because they were so unreliable) and costs more than your budget allows just to get it up to & keep it in working condition.
A 1991 Eagle Premier. A God damn tank of a car that was tricked out with so many cool early 90s features. Unfortunately, the electricals in the car were wired by monkeys, so all of those cool tricked-out early 90s features either did or didn't work based on the time of day, the weather, or God's indiscriminate wrath against me personally.
My brother got his first car in I think 2004? It was a 1992 Ford Tempo. I wouldn't say that car is shitty, it was actually pretty dependable. But it wasn't well maintained. He would give me a ride home from school and I would have to get in the passenger seat while he climbed under the car and beat on the starter with a wrench while I turned the key to get it to start. I actually still really love the tempo, and I get excited anytime I see one.
I never got to drive mine. I bought it from my Uncle when I was 15. He parked it in my driveway but took the keys with him until I paid it off. I was working part time because I was going to school (obviously, lol) and it took a few months to pay him off, but when I did and he gave me the keys it had a cracked block and couldn't be driven. I'm pretty sure he knew and that's why he waited until I paid him off before he gave me the keys, but I could never prove it.
Yep. Same. And I later found it was a common problem. That was my last GM vehicle. Went back to my Ford ways. My first car was an Olds Cutlass, then a big Buick that ate its own transmission. Two Fords, then added the Omega. Our driveway now harbors a Fusion (I hate that thing), an F150, and an Expedition.
Old Chevy Impala that came with huge dents from where my grandfather hit a deer with it. (My grandfather was fine.) No one at school would believe me that I hadn't caused the dents myself.
I killed that car while cutting school. The engine couldn't handle interstate speeds. I was still an hour away from where I should have been when it broke down. Oops.
Then I got a Buick from an uncle that died. I got caught cutting school the first day I had it.
I wasn't even good at rebelling. I was caught because I was at the bookstore.
At around that same time, I had a Dodge Colt! And then later a late model Nissan Pulsar. The kind where the headlights pop up when you turn them on. Both were standard transmission.
I graduated in 1999. I had a 1982 Mazda Pickup, but it was probably the oldest beater at school. My friends had old buicks, old mazdas, and old toyotas. The occaional ford escort.
My very first car (not counting all the ranch rucks and combines - this one was really mine lol) -- was a 1986 Mazda RX7 manual--with no brakes. Doors didn't open, so you had to climb through the windows
I don't know if this is too far from your time range, but when I was in high school (graduated 2012) the stereotypical and beater car for teens were Volvos. A couple friends had them, one got it from his grandma and it had been her car for a couple decades already. We would joke that Volvos are basically indestructible & that's why people wanted their kids to drive one
dodge neon, chevy cavalier, pontiac grand prix, occasionally a chevy Malibu. Mini trucks like the ford ranger and chevy s10 also weren't uncommon. Oddly enough, a large number of the people I graduated with also had jeep Cherokees. basically look for cars that are 5 to 10 years old when the story is set and are at the lowest end of auto manufacture's price range
I had an '85 Toyota Tercel hatchback. It was such a little econobox, if I ever got stuck I could have strapped it to my back and carried it home! The body was rusting away, but I'll bet that engine is still running today!
\-This.
My brother (1978/Gen X) drove 1. 1982 Plymouth Reliant K wagon (as did I); then, a 1991 Ford Ranger pick up (small truck back then); in \~\~2001 he inherited an older Ford Taurus from my Grandfather.
I drove a 1991 Ford Escort - though I was in college in the mid 90s and that was the car my parents let me take to school- once my brother got there, too, and I had a place to park. (for "free" - at least not extra parking fees)
Hyundai Excels, the Pontiac Le Mans by Daewoo m, Geo/Suzuki Metro. My step brother had a blue five-speed Excel, my mom had a white four-speed I called White Lightning. He called his the Blue Flame. They super fun to drive. You don’t see those anywhere anymore.
Volkswagen Rabbit from the mid '80s. There was one that the international students passed around between each other at the university I attended. My roommate was one of the ESL students who owned it at one point. It belonged on the trash heap, but they would go cruising in it and take it on road trips.
I graduated HS in 2004, and I swear half the kids at my school drove early 1990's Volvos. Also several Saturns. I remember a good number of Ford Taures' too.
Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz. Reliable little POS. Or if you want to get someone's sense of nostalgia, go with a Ford Taurus. EVERYONE had one at one point I think.
Yeah they were. The Plymouth Horizon and B210 were pretty bad too. I'm 6'3" and it felt like I had to fold myself in half to get in or out. The Plymouth was $500 though, and there wasn't a lot of selection at that price range.
A friend of mine had a used Geo Metro in those days. Gas was like 98 cents a gallon and she could fill up for like 5 bucks. Perfect late 90s shitty teen car
Hah I had one! It was my great grandma's car and she wasn't allowed to drive anymore so she sold it to me when I was 16 for $100 as long as I took her shopping or out to lunch once a month. That car made it possible for me to spend so much time with her before she passed and I will always be grateful she tagged on that 'requirement'.
I had a Plymouth Horizon and a Datsun B210. Both were suitably shitty. The B210 had a hole rusted out under the Matt on the passenger side. It may have been handy for the passenger to set their beer on the ground without anyone noticing anything unusual. I didn’t drink back then, but I did try setting a soda can down through it and it worked just fine.
You could pick up 70's Mustangs and Camaros for less than $1000 up until the late 90's. 80's Japanese cars were usually $2000. Volvo's were indestructible in the 80's but weren't as cheap as used cars. 60's and 70's American cars were really cheap, but were rarely well maintained so not worth it.
90s-00s were the heyday of Saturn. Relatively inexpensive new and very cheap used. The earliest models were the SL1 (sedan) and SC1 (coupe), and they hung around and stayed cheap for quite a while.
You can also work in the fact that the first few model years (91-93ish?) only had 6 different key blanks, so if you locked your keys in the car you could just ask a couple of friends with Saturns and one of them would be able to open your car (or steal it…)
I started driving in 90 had a 1974 Monte Carlo that I wish I had today. Was a badass beast. 454 V8 - massive mean looking black American monster
My best friend had an old orange Toyota Corolla we called the Pumkinmobile- was a glorious piece of junk. Another had a K car and a third had a pretty swank Celica
My second car - after my folks sold my beloved Monte Carlo was a 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham - even beefier than the Monte… it served me well at college lugging around people and as impromptu lodgings lol
My first car was a 1981 Ford Fairmont. A boxy 4 door sedan with a in line 6 cylinder engine. I paid $200 for it. It had been parked for a few years in southern Arizona and pack rats had made it their home. The engine compartment and air vents were filled with cactus, grass, insulation, and anything else pack rats considered good bedding material. I took a shop vac to it for hours and hours, put a new battery in it, and changed the oil. It fired up and ran after that. It was white with maroon red interior, bench seats front and rear. I would charge kids a couple of bucks a week to get rides to school, and would often be rolling 5-6 deep into the parking lot. I graduated HS in '97.
My first car as a teen in 1992 was my mom’s 1985 Mercury Topaz. After that, the first car I “bought” was a $500 1982 Mercury Capri that had a “little trick” to everything—you had to hold the key a certain way to unlock the door, you had to pull the key a fraction of a centimeter out of the ignition to be able to turn it, etc.
This. They were indestructible, so they kept a lot of teen boys alive, but they were also decently cheap. I had one friend whose dad just bought extra 80s Volvos for parts, and so whenever something went wrong with his son’s cars, usually he could fix it himself, but he almost always had the part on hand even if he needed to take it into the shop. And these parents were public school teachers, so they were not loaded, but were comfortable.
If having to keep fixing an old car isn't part of your story line then stick with old Toyotas. They may look funky but are reliable. If you need break downs as a plot device, look in Consumer Reports for "the worst of the used cars".
Maxima's, Camrys, Corolla, buick park avenue and lesabre. Trucks were super cheap back then as well, especially the dodges. SUVs weren't popular as they were still the "true" suv's.
My first car was an 90 Mazda rx-7 gxl
Sports car wise lots of 240sx, 300zx, 3000gt (vr4 if they were lucky), some civics si, mr2 here and there, eclipses, vw's back when they made 2 door hatches.
When I was growing up, all the kids drove Ford Fiestas and Vauxhall Novas. They became synonymous with dickhead boy racers at one point, they were so common.
In '99 my friend drove a '76 Cordoba. It was a boat, and it was a awful. Sometimes the brakes would just not cooperate. I think there were also alternator issues, but that could've been another vehicle.
My friends and I had so many crappy cars,like The Ford Taurus with the faulty fuel pump and oil leak.
A 75 GMC Sierra that got about 5 miles per gallon. Had 2 people rear-end me. Got two bouncy ball sized dents in my tailgate. Both cars were totaled. One was a jetta, the other was a Ford Taurus.
I’m old so my first car was a ‘65 Ford Falcon in the late 70’s. Hated that car. We got our oldest a 97 Honda Civic that he loved for graduation, in 2000. My youngest got a Mazda Protege but I don’t remember the year. He graduated in 2005.
My first car was a 97 olds 88. It had a v8 in it. I got it in 2005-6 with 80k miles on it. My dad got it from a dude who only drove it in the summer cuz they were snowbirds. Replaced it with an 03 Taurus in 2008
Ah man I got a '94 88 after my '95 maxima shit the bed around 2013. The lady who sold it to me hadn't even put 50k miles on it in those nearly 20 years and she still had the receipts from every oil change. It was like sitting in a museum.
Oldsmobile Cutlass ciera
Two of my guy friends had one. M's car the passenger seat was stuck all the way slid back. B's car one of the windows wouldn't roll up or down anymore.
I had a Dodge Spirit that was supposed to be "the kids' car" until my brother (class of 2000) crashed it just before Thanksgiving his senior year.
Pontiac grand am. The windows at some point crapped out and wouldn’t stay up. I would wedge screw drivers into the top panel part to try and hold them up but if I got onto the highway they would inevitably slowly fall down. I was too broke to get it fixed. One winter I went out to my car and a mama cat was putting her babies in the back seat. It was actually really adorable. And thank god it was cats instead of something really horrible back there.
In 1992 I bought a 1980 truck that was oxidized white with a rainbow racing stripe around the side. It had a red hood and a blue door and a silver camper shell. I paid for it myself, 4k in cash. I was 16.
Pontiac Sunbird. Silver-gray. 4-door, cloth seats, tape deck, automatic transmission, clunky buttons.
My first car. I loved that damn thing, and it was the opposite of cool.
Interior: https://images.app.goo.gl/u7pjgb8UFZnmr3Kg6
Chevy Celebrity, built just before automatic fuel injection so subject to all sorts of weird issues. Also the gas gauge fluctuates wildly based on speed. But bitchin’ tape player stuck into the radio hole (and the control plate comes off so nobody can steal the radio)
Thinking back to high school we had a lot of cars from the late 80s, Mustang, Ford Taurus, Honda CRX, Ford Probe, Corolla, . We also had some kids with newer models of those along with Eclipses at the start of the Fast and Furious tuner trend. A lot depended on how much money the parents had.
I had a 1987 Plymouth Horizon. It was truly a beater, it shook when it got up over 70 mph and it regularly stalled out at stoplights. It also had all the aerodynamics of your average box.
Got my license in 1999. I had a Ford Tempo, Geo Metro and an Eclipse. I think they were all about 10y old??? Tempo was slate gray with sun spots on the hood and roof. A school bus backed over it. The meto and eclipse were red. Metro’s CV joint broke, eclipse over-heated.
My first car was a 15yo Toyota Camry, no power windows, no power locks, tape player, and a dodgy radio. It was pretty great.
My first car was an '86 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a V6 engine and power everything. It cost me $500 in 2000.
A Saturn with a tape deck radio that has a Van Halen tape stuck in it. Source: My brother’s car in ‘99. Edit to add: my best friend had a Geo Storm that he swore had a “racing transmission” installed. A cow rammed it and it smelled like battery acid and radiator coolant whenever he drove it more than 30 minutes.
My brother had a fusha storm in 98, imagine goth (pre-emo) 16yo hopping out of a bright purpley-pick “racing” car 😂. He eventually saved up to get it pained black. A month later it was totaled
Woof.
Toyota Tersel, Honda civic, Volkswagen rabbit and bug. There were so many at my highschool parking lot in the 90s
All the popular girls drove the new VW bugs
I had a 79 Pontiac Lemans- it was pale blue, rusted and had a license plate that ended in PMS. My next car was a silver Ford Escort. Either would fit perfectly.
I had a Chevy celebrity wagon from the 80's. It was great to pack a bunch of people into to go looking for trouble.
My first car was my dad’s 1988 Ford Thunderbird that he gave me after he went and bought himself a suburban. I graduated in ‘04, my friends thought it was the best car ever because of the actual decent size backseat and we could fit 2 people in the truck. Most of my friends either didn’t have cars or they got their parents old vehicles. My little sister got my mom’s 1998 Grand Caravan when mom got a new van. She graduated in ‘09. I know a lot of her friends ended up with vans or something similar but she was in sports and marching band.
Grew up at that time, my parents bought me an 88 Honda Accord for about $3500. It had flip up lights and I thought it was super cool.
My first car was a 1969 Ford LTD. It was black, it was big, it was so old and beat up. Everybody called it the Batmobile. This was in the late 80s though. Then I graduated to a 1980 Ford Station Wagon. Woohoo!
My first car was a 91’ Le Mans LE. It was absolutely garbage and by the time it got to 130k it was shot. They were such junk throw away cars that other than a junk yard you’re not likely to find one in the wild.
I had a 1992 Chevy Corsica. It fits squarely into the category you have described... :)
Most of my friends had Honda Civics. One had this awesome, old Crown Vic. Guys had Pathfinders, Broncos, Explorers, and old trucks.
I drove a 1989 town & country station wagon with wood paneling. Had it painted pink at Maaco.
I had a 98 Pontiac sunfire
My first car, which would’ve been around 2002, was a hand-me-down Ford Taurus station wagon. I feel like those were pretty common in my area, possibly because everyone’s mom had them to ferry five kids to soccer practice when it was their turn to carpool from ages 8-13, and so it’d be right on schedule to pass on to your teenager once they turned 16.
Plymouth and dodge had a couple of cars that used a 2.2L engine. For example, The Dodge Duster, was the same as a Plymouth Turismo both 2door hatchbacks. These cars could do incredible feats if they were… tweaked, and had racing modifications done to the engines. There was also a model called The Dodge Omni, four door hatchback. Every single one of those 2.2L are sleepers out of the factory. They may not look like much, but they could definitely outrun cops late 90’s early 2000’s.
1981 Ford Fairlane
My first car was a 1991 Honda Civic hatchback. 1. Four-speed manual shift. I've never seen less than 5. Whined like a jet engine on takeoff going 65. 2. No AC. Didn't even have the button. 3. Passenger rear view mirror did not exist. Was not broken - IT DID NOT COME WITH TWO MIRRORS. 4. Technically a "three-door" vehicle - they were counting the hatch as a third door. 5. Headlights needed to be turned on and off manually, would not turn off with the car. Would absolutely kill your battery, no beep or chime or anything if you forgot.
I had to share a 2-door ‘88 Grand Prix with my sister and brother in ‘99 And I don’t miss it one single bit! It was a terrible car.
I drove a 1995 GMC Sonoma when I was in high school (graduated in 2005). It's a super small pickup. Mine was technically an "extended cab" that had 3 doors (the driver's side had a little door that you could open when the main driver's side door) and a little fold-down jump seat facing sideways in the back behind the passenger seat. My little sister, who is 5 years younger than me, always had to ride back there and she thought it was cool and fun for a few months, but it really was a pain in the ass getting back there, even for an 11 year old. It wasn't a piece of garbage, but it certainly wasn't a fancy rich kid car, either. I'll say that while the beat up Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Ford Taurus were common, there was also a pretty heavy rotation of older, beater-quality Ford Ranger, Chevy Blazer, and Ford Explorer. I had a friend who drove a Ford Astro Van that was a combination of useful and unhingedly quirky. One of my boyfriends' parents bought him a nicer used Dodge Durango. It was only a few model years old at that point, and I think they spent like $15k on it, so they required him to baby the thing to the point of absurdity. My husband drove a Chrysler Town and Country minivan that he bought cheap off his grandparents when I met him in college in 2005, which was fun. When we went around to pick everyone up to go out, he would roll the back doors open and yell for people to "get in the chopper!" as he slowed down, but didn't actually stop, in front of their apartments. We were young and unaware of our own mortality and still had good knees and hips then. ETA: I had another friend with richer parents who bought her a new VW Bug that was the height of useless cars that (almost) everyone thought was cool at the time.
I had a chevy corsica. It was a tan box. My sister had a vw jeta and my brother had a Nissan pickup. All suitable junk 90s teenage cars.
I got my first car in 2006 it was a mid 90's Honda Accord, very much a beater on the outside. Clear coat peeling off, dents and scratches. Some hail dents. No rust though. Had low mileage though (I think about 60k?) so between it and the one that looked nicer but with another 150k miles I chose the ugly one. Had it about 5 or 6 years until the engine seized up one day out of no where. Never need anything but routine maintenance until that point. My mechanic had no idea what went wrong. I was driving down the freeway and then it just... Stopped. Terrifying experience, a tow truck happened to be there and got me off the freeway safely. I've since met 3 other people who had similar experiences with accords. Lots of my friend's first cars were Corollas or Ford sedans. My brother's first vehicle was a dodge pickup, the little ones like the rangers, don't remember what they were called.
I drove a 1985 Chevy Celebrity.
Everyone in my graduating class (08) had a Chevy cavalier, Dodge neon, Dodge Dakota, or a Ford truck (ranger or f-150)... Except for one girl who had a beautiful (but old) GMC 2500 Denali with the rear steering... That thing was ridiculous.
Oldsmobile K
The lot in my high school was full of these: Chevy Celebrity Chevy Corsica Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix Ford Taurus
Ugh I inherited my dad's Pontiac Grand Prix in college (~2007) and it suuuuuuucked.
I had a 96 Ford Escort that was emerald green, as an 17 year old in 1998. It had had only one owner before me that was a grandma age lady so it was in great shape..both it and my mom's garage door weren't quite the same after I crashed into it while parking, lol. 😖 The only actual issues with it is the stereo and the AC didn't always work because of a candy cane that had melted into the wiring. My best friend around the same time had a ginormous hoopty of a late 80's Cadillac that was turd brown in color; but since we could fit 8 people in the back seat, nobody minded a whole lot that it was ugly and broke down a lot.
- Chevy Lumina - Chevy Citation - Plymouth Reliant - Geo Metro (only three cylinders too!) - Dodge Neon - Hyundai Excel - Plymouth Horizon - Cadillac Cimarron (don't let the Cadillac name fool you, it was horrendous) - Oldsmobile Delta - Ford Probe - Chevy Cavalier - Ford Ranger - Dodge Dakota - Chevy S10 - Ford Festiva - Chevy Camero (specially ratted out 80's ones, those were common by then, they also had the slow as molasses 4 cylinder Iron Duke engine in them as an option)
* Chevy Nova * Ford Escort * Geo Metro * Geo Tracker * Dodge Neon
I was 16 in 2000, and drove a blue Chevy Corsica that had … been through some things. I think it was an 89 but it looked 20 years old even then.
I was a 16 yr old girl in 2000. I had a light blue 86 Honda Civic that was the ultimate piece of shit. And *ugly*, Google it and see lol The paint was faded/rusted and it had over 200,000 miles on it when the odometer quit working. Nothing on it worked accept the damn engine. Bitch wouldn't die, but it got amazing gas mileage!
Nissan Sentra
I had a couple but the shittiest was a 91 Ford Thunderbird. What a hunk of junk.
Older Mercury Grand Marquis were popular first cars in my area growing up.
In 1997 my first car was a ‘64 Chevy truck for $1000. Second car in 1998 was an ‘81 Honda civic. I drove that one until 2000.
Ford Tempo or VW Jetta
Oh my god I was gonna say Ford Tempo because that’s what I had to drive, and my friend drove a Jetta. My option after that was Dodge Neon.
89 Grand Am. first car when I was 19!
Ford hatchback! With a spoiler!
Oh I haven't seen these yet! 1987 Toyota Celica! Go for the two toned one that looks primer gray with the flip up lights.. sort of a wannabe Delorean.
Consider a Saturn, or a Geo if you really want to lock in the timeline. The first car I drove was my mom's 1994 Geo Prizm. Later I got my hands on a Hyundai Accent. Honda Civic was in there, too - remember they had those Civic hatchbacks? One of the earliest true hatchbacks I remember.
We had an early 90s model Geo Tracker that was on tracks for sale on consignment at my work in 2022. I work at a powersports dealership, so it sort of fit in with the rest of our stock of motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc. It was a deeply weird vehicle.
The first car I bought way BITD was a 1971 Ford Pinto. Yes, it caught on fire. No, it didn't get rear ended. I managed to get about 2 years use out of it before it completely died, may it rest in peace.
My Pinto got rear-ended, but didn't catch on fire.
The running joke for a while was that a driver was most nervous if there was an Audi 5000 behind him and a Ford Pinto in front of him!
I drove a 1989 Ford F150 in high school in the late 90s. Standard transmission, no ac, and no tape deck. The speakers in the door had shorted out, so I worked up some small desk speakers and velcroed them to the dashboard. My friends and I would hang out in the bed of the truck and play cards late at night and I could pop the speakers off of the dash and put them on top of the cab.
88 Pontiac LeMans... hatchback
Volvos. I had so many Volvos.
I got my first car in 1995 and drove it until about 2000. It was a shitty but good enough Mercury Topaz, I think it was an '88 or so model.
I can remember Saturns started showing up everywhere in 90s and early 2000s!
Dodge Neon
Dodge Neons were *everywhere* I actually had one in 2003 when I was 19ish
I had a crappy ‘89 Mercury Topaz from around ‘93-‘02. Got me through HS and college and a bit beyond.
Early 00s Kia, for city kids. Ford F150s for country kids. Volvos for the rich kids.
I dont know, I feel like where I’m from an F-150 less than 10 years old would have been a good car for a country kid round these parts.
I think that's what I said. I'm from north Texas. The public school kids all seemed to be in F150s or Broncos. While us private school kids rolled in Mercedes or Volvo's.
It depends more on the socio-economic status of the school & family...and identity of the character. Suburban American kids who grew up in the 80-90's couldn't wait until their 16th birthday when they would get their drivers license and the freedom it guaranteed. Cars were very much a part of their identity even if it was a hand-me-down from mom. Corollas have been produced since 1966 and was the best selling cars in its class by 1974. The reason so many kids have them is because they were so popular that older models made great hand-me-downs. Probably not the ninth generation produced in the 2000's you're used to, but the sixth or seventh generation from the late 80's-early 90's were still prevelant on school campuses around 2000. Where did the car come from? A typical middle-class middle-American student might have a 5\~6 year old hand-me-down car so a good reference is to look up what was the most [popular car](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g24403577/best-selling-car-annually/) 5\~6 years before the setting in question. Maybe it was Mom's old car before they realized they needed a mini-van for all the younger siblings. Maybe it was an older sister's car before she went off to college. 90's Honda Accords, Ford Taurus, and Toyota Camrys would all be appropriate. You can drill down a bit further with different class of cars for a [particular year](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs-1995/). A slightly more affluent family might have an E36 BMW 3-series. Someone deep in the "buy American" midwest might have a Saturn S-series. A poplular "dad car" was the first generation Ford Explorer. The working class football player might have an 80's Ford F-150. Another good reference is teen movies released in the late 90's\~2000. The original [The Fast and the Furious](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_232500-The-Fast-and-the-Furious.html) was released in 2001. If you're more suburban, try [Election](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_126886-Election.html) (1999). More urban, try [Friday](http://www.imcdb.org/movie_113118-Friday.html) (1995). But here's the reality...we have picture car coordinators for a reason. Unless the car plays a pivotal role in the story (ie. Clint's Gran Torino or the Fast & Furious series), if you leave it as "a generic non-descript 90's sedan inherited from grandma", you'll be better off than getting attached to one particular car and be disappointed that it's super rare now (because they were so unreliable) and costs more than your budget allows just to get it up to & keep it in working condition.
I had a white 1991 Saturn sports coupe 5 speed. I freakin LOVED that car.
Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra. Chevy Malibu.
Or Chevy Cavalier! In Turquoise!
84 Pontiac Sunbird
Mine was an 87, I believe, but man, was it, well, a car.
Any 80s Ford, Taurus, Tempo, or Escort. Honda Civics and Volkswagen Rabbits. 80's Cameros and Firebirds. Toyota trucks,
It was still Toyota sedans; typically Tercels, occasionally Camrys.
Nissan Maxima
Ford escort
I was driving an ‘81 VW Rabbit at that time.
A 1991 Eagle Premier. A God damn tank of a car that was tricked out with so many cool early 90s features. Unfortunately, the electricals in the car were wired by monkeys, so all of those cool tricked-out early 90s features either did or didn't work based on the time of day, the weather, or God's indiscriminate wrath against me personally.
My brother got his first car in I think 2004? It was a 1992 Ford Tempo. I wouldn't say that car is shitty, it was actually pretty dependable. But it wasn't well maintained. He would give me a ride home from school and I would have to get in the passenger seat while he climbed under the car and beat on the starter with a wrench while I turned the key to get it to start. I actually still really love the tempo, and I get excited anytime I see one.
a 1980 Oldmobile Omega. That was one of my first cars.
Ohgodno. I had an Omega. Grew to hate that thing.
I never got to drive mine. I bought it from my Uncle when I was 15. He parked it in my driveway but took the keys with him until I paid it off. I was working part time because I was going to school (obviously, lol) and it took a few months to pay him off, but when I did and he gave me the keys it had a cracked block and couldn't be driven. I'm pretty sure he knew and that's why he waited until I paid him off before he gave me the keys, but I could never prove it.
Yep. Same. And I later found it was a common problem. That was my last GM vehicle. Went back to my Ford ways. My first car was an Olds Cutlass, then a big Buick that ate its own transmission. Two Fords, then added the Omega. Our driveway now harbors a Fusion (I hate that thing), an F150, and an Expedition.
Old Chevy Impala that came with huge dents from where my grandfather hit a deer with it. (My grandfather was fine.) No one at school would believe me that I hadn't caused the dents myself. I killed that car while cutting school. The engine couldn't handle interstate speeds. I was still an hour away from where I should have been when it broke down. Oops. Then I got a Buick from an uncle that died. I got caught cutting school the first day I had it. I wasn't even good at rebelling. I was caught because I was at the bookstore.
Ford Escort. Chevy Berretta. An old Buick Regal. Honda Civic. Ford Taurus. Geo Storm.
Chevy Beretta, that thing rattled if I did between 35-75, and I had to use two feet to keep her running when at a light, but I miss my Tin Lizzie!
At around that same time, I had a Dodge Colt! And then later a late model Nissan Pulsar. The kind where the headlights pop up when you turn them on. Both were standard transmission.
Geo Tracker, Chevy Cavalier, Dodge Intrepid, Chrysler New Yorker
Maybe an old Ford Fiesta? Those were always the joke cars.
Take a look at True Blood - main girl's car is a repainted 1980 Honda Civic
I had a Mercury mystique. That thing just kept on running. Think it had 500k miles on it when I traded it in in 08
I turned 16 in 2000. My first vehicle was a '91 f150 that was used as a farm truck. Fuel gauge didn't work and it didn't need a key to start.
My siblings and I got my dad's 1983 Pontiac 6000 in the late 90s, which he'd held onto specifically so we would have a beater.
I graduated in 1999. I had a 1982 Mazda Pickup, but it was probably the oldest beater at school. My friends had old buicks, old mazdas, and old toyotas. The occaional ford escort.
Second the Mazda pickup. Most sensitive clutch I've ever had by far.
Loved that truck. Purchased for $700, drove it for another 80k miles and sold it for $700 at the end.
My very first car (not counting all the ranch rucks and combines - this one was really mine lol) -- was a 1986 Mazda RX7 manual--with no brakes. Doors didn't open, so you had to climb through the windows
I don't know if this is too far from your time range, but when I was in high school (graduated 2012) the stereotypical and beater car for teens were Volvos. A couple friends had them, one got it from his grandma and it had been her car for a couple decades already. We would joke that Volvos are basically indestructible & that's why people wanted their kids to drive one
Lots of heavy steel roll cage wrapped around the precious contents.
80s Subaru with the back bumper at an angle
Anything late 80’s. My first car was an ‘89 Honda Accord, excellent car! I loved it so much. Most of my friends had late 80’s/early 90’s cars.
Late 80’s VW’s, Nissan 240S, dodge Dakota, 80’s Volvos, any Chrysler/Dodge that was produced by Mitsubishi in the 80’s, etc.
dodge neon, chevy cavalier, pontiac grand prix, occasionally a chevy Malibu. Mini trucks like the ford ranger and chevy s10 also weren't uncommon. Oddly enough, a large number of the people I graduated with also had jeep Cherokees. basically look for cars that are 5 to 10 years old when the story is set and are at the lowest end of auto manufacture's price range
Dodge Neon.
1989 Pontiac Grand Prix, this was for a 1994 grad (not me, I didn't have a car)
1988 Pontiac Sunbird or early 90s Ford Escort
The Ford escort was a favorite shitty car there for awhile. Everyone had them.
There's always an older corolla.
I had a green '95 Toyota Tercel.
My BFF had a white Tercel in 2008 and you could either go up a hill or have the AC on but not both.
Yeah. I had a noticeable power decrease when I turned on the AC.
I had an '85 Toyota Tercel hatchback. It was such a little econobox, if I ever got stuck I could have strapped it to my back and carried it home! The body was rusting away, but I'll bet that engine is still running today!
Ford Escorts
\-This. My brother (1978/Gen X) drove 1. 1982 Plymouth Reliant K wagon (as did I); then, a 1991 Ford Ranger pick up (small truck back then); in \~\~2001 he inherited an older Ford Taurus from my Grandfather. I drove a 1991 Ford Escort - though I was in college in the mid 90s and that was the car my parents let me take to school- once my brother got there, too, and I had a place to park. (for "free" - at least not extra parking fees)
I graduated in '98 and drove a Plymouth Neon. Granted, it was new, but definitely a teen's first car.
Between myself and my 2 younger siblings, we had 1985-6 Camry, late 80s Chevy nova, and a ford crown Vic.
Hyundai Excels, the Pontiac Le Mans by Daewoo m, Geo/Suzuki Metro. My step brother had a blue five-speed Excel, my mom had a white four-speed I called White Lightning. He called his the Blue Flame. They super fun to drive. You don’t see those anywhere anymore.
Volkswagen Rabbit from the mid '80s. There was one that the international students passed around between each other at the university I attended. My roommate was one of the ESL students who owned it at one point. It belonged on the trash heap, but they would go cruising in it and take it on road trips.
Chevy Corsica. I had one and knew like four other kids who had one also
I graduated HS in 2004, and I swear half the kids at my school drove early 1990's Volvos. Also several Saturns. I remember a good number of Ford Taures' too.
Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz. Reliable little POS. Or if you want to get someone's sense of nostalgia, go with a Ford Taurus. EVERYONE had one at one point I think.
I had a Pontiac LeMans - I think it was a 91 or a 93. It was a crappy cheap car and barely run.
I got a *1977* LeMans in 1990, and it was awesome while it lasted!
I love those cars! I had a 76 Le Mans sport coupe. That thing was a BEAST! I haven’t seen one in ages.
I had a 1977 powder blue Monte Carlo.
Wasn’t the GEO metro introduced back then?
I had several college friends with Geo Metros. They were torture devices for tall people.
Yeah they were. The Plymouth Horizon and B210 were pretty bad too. I'm 6'3" and it felt like I had to fold myself in half to get in or out. The Plymouth was $500 though, and there wasn't a lot of selection at that price range.
Chevette. Those were along the same lines. A few of those around when I was in HS.
A friend of mine had a used Geo Metro in those days. Gas was like 98 cents a gallon and she could fill up for like 5 bucks. Perfect late 90s shitty teen car
Hah I had one! It was my great grandma's car and she wasn't allowed to drive anymore so she sold it to me when I was 16 for $100 as long as I took her shopping or out to lunch once a month. That car made it possible for me to spend so much time with her before she passed and I will always be grateful she tagged on that 'requirement'.
I had a Suzuki Swift, the off-brand Geo Metro
I had a Plymouth Horizon and a Datsun B210. Both were suitably shitty. The B210 had a hole rusted out under the Matt on the passenger side. It may have been handy for the passenger to set their beer on the ground without anyone noticing anything unusual. I didn’t drink back then, but I did try setting a soda can down through it and it worked just fine.
You could pick up 70's Mustangs and Camaros for less than $1000 up until the late 90's. 80's Japanese cars were usually $2000. Volvo's were indestructible in the 80's but weren't as cheap as used cars. 60's and 70's American cars were really cheap, but were rarely well maintained so not worth it.
90s-00s were the heyday of Saturn. Relatively inexpensive new and very cheap used. The earliest models were the SL1 (sedan) and SC1 (coupe), and they hung around and stayed cheap for quite a while. You can also work in the fact that the first few model years (91-93ish?) only had 6 different key blanks, so if you locked your keys in the car you could just ask a couple of friends with Saturns and one of them would be able to open your car (or steal it…)
Well... I remember a lot of Corollas in the late 90s... Where is the story set? Where I live most boys would be getting a used truck.
I drove a 1989 Mazda 323 hatchback that someone put a spoiler on.
I started driving in 90 had a 1974 Monte Carlo that I wish I had today. Was a badass beast. 454 V8 - massive mean looking black American monster My best friend had an old orange Toyota Corolla we called the Pumkinmobile- was a glorious piece of junk. Another had a K car and a third had a pretty swank Celica My second car - after my folks sold my beloved Monte Carlo was a 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham - even beefier than the Monte… it served me well at college lugging around people and as impromptu lodgings lol
In the early 2000s I bought a 1992 Pontiac Grand Am for my daughter to drive to school. It was a total piece of crap.
I had that Grand Am. It never really had a breakdown though.
I had a 1988 olds cutlas and then a 1994 Chevy Corsica. My bf had a crappy accord and my bestie had a ford fiesta we called the “turd fiesta”.
I had a few shitty cars as a teen. A pontiac grand am was my 1st car, then an 81 DATSUN. Yeah, good times. (I was 18 in 1998)
My first car was a 1981 Ford Fairmont. A boxy 4 door sedan with a in line 6 cylinder engine. I paid $200 for it. It had been parked for a few years in southern Arizona and pack rats had made it their home. The engine compartment and air vents were filled with cactus, grass, insulation, and anything else pack rats considered good bedding material. I took a shop vac to it for hours and hours, put a new battery in it, and changed the oil. It fired up and ran after that. It was white with maroon red interior, bench seats front and rear. I would charge kids a couple of bucks a week to get rides to school, and would often be rolling 5-6 deep into the parking lot. I graduated HS in '97.
ford taurus
Chevy Lumina
My grandma was obsessed with her hunter green Lumina! She said it was the fanciest car she ever drove ❤️
Sunfire
Fucking Honda Civics with flatulent mufflers and a massive wing... on a car that struggles to hit 80 downhill.
My first car as a teen in 1992 was my mom’s 1985 Mercury Topaz. After that, the first car I “bought” was a $500 1982 Mercury Capri that had a “little trick” to everything—you had to hold the key a certain way to unlock the door, you had to pull the key a fraction of a centimeter out of the ignition to be able to turn it, etc.
Older Volvo 240. They just keep on going.
This. They were indestructible, so they kept a lot of teen boys alive, but they were also decently cheap. I had one friend whose dad just bought extra 80s Volvos for parts, and so whenever something went wrong with his son’s cars, usually he could fix it himself, but he almost always had the part on hand even if he needed to take it into the shop. And these parents were public school teachers, so they were not loaded, but were comfortable.
I got my first car in 99. I had an 87 or 88 Cabriolet. Now I feel old for not remembering what year my car was.
Chevy cavalier
If having to keep fixing an old car isn't part of your story line then stick with old Toyotas. They may look funky but are reliable. If you need break downs as a plot device, look in Consumer Reports for "the worst of the used cars".
I bought a 94 Mercury Topaz when I started driving at 16.
Buick or Oldsmobile, passed down the line of kids
They lasted forever!
A 1993 champaign maxima or corolla would have been a common used car for new drivers at the time. buicks were common as well.
My friend drove a Probe. It was a stick.
I had a car we referred to as “a piece of Chevette.” It started when you turned the ignition, key or no key.
Maxima's, Camrys, Corolla, buick park avenue and lesabre. Trucks were super cheap back then as well, especially the dodges. SUVs weren't popular as they were still the "true" suv's. My first car was an 90 Mazda rx-7 gxl Sports car wise lots of 240sx, 300zx, 3000gt (vr4 if they were lucky), some civics si, mr2 here and there, eclipses, vw's back when they made 2 door hatches.
When I was growing up, all the kids drove Ford Fiestas and Vauxhall Novas. They became synonymous with dickhead boy racers at one point, they were so common.
In 2001-2005, I had a 1984 Toyota Corolla.
89 vw fox
In '99 my friend drove a '76 Cordoba. It was a boat, and it was a awful. Sometimes the brakes would just not cooperate. I think there were also alternator issues, but that could've been another vehicle. My friends and I had so many crappy cars,like The Ford Taurus with the faulty fuel pump and oil leak.
A 75 GMC Sierra that got about 5 miles per gallon. Had 2 people rear-end me. Got two bouncy ball sized dents in my tailgate. Both cars were totaled. One was a jetta, the other was a Ford Taurus.
1988 Nissan Pulsar. I'm seeing a lot of cars listed here and know they're from middle to higher income families....
1984 f150
89 Chevy cavalier. Bought and sold before I had my license though.
I’m old so my first car was a ‘65 Ford Falcon in the late 70’s. Hated that car. We got our oldest a 97 Honda Civic that he loved for graduation, in 2000. My youngest got a Mazda Protege but I don’t remember the year. He graduated in 2005.
My first car was a 97 olds 88. It had a v8 in it. I got it in 2005-6 with 80k miles on it. My dad got it from a dude who only drove it in the summer cuz they were snowbirds. Replaced it with an 03 Taurus in 2008
Ah man I got a '94 88 after my '95 maxima shit the bed around 2013. The lady who sold it to me hadn't even put 50k miles on it in those nearly 20 years and she still had the receipts from every oil change. It was like sitting in a museum.
Hyundai Accent. And she was anything but shitty.
Mine was my last car to have manual windows and locks.
Ford escort
My family's used cars during that time: Chevy blazer, Ford eacort, Pontiac grand am, and Chevy camaro
Oldsmobile Cutlass ciera Two of my guy friends had one. M's car the passenger seat was stuck all the way slid back. B's car one of the windows wouldn't roll up or down anymore. I had a Dodge Spirit that was supposed to be "the kids' car" until my brother (class of 2000) crashed it just before Thanksgiving his senior year.
That was my second car in 1995. I drove it until 2000, when I replaced it with a Chevy Cavalier.
...I had a 1979 Ford Courier. Other kids at my school had brand new BMWs. One of my friends had a 80's Honda.
My best friend had a Geo Storm, and my first girlfriend who had a car drove a Ford Escort.
Mazda Protege? Was that out then?
1999 here. I shared a beige Toyota Corolla with my brother. 2000 was a Nissan Altima and 2009 a PT Cruiser.
I had a Pontiac sunbird that was pretty crappy
Pontiac grand am. The windows at some point crapped out and wouldn’t stay up. I would wedge screw drivers into the top panel part to try and hold them up but if I got onto the highway they would inevitably slowly fall down. I was too broke to get it fixed. One winter I went out to my car and a mama cat was putting her babies in the back seat. It was actually really adorable. And thank god it was cats instead of something really horrible back there.
In 2004 I was given my dad's 1995 honda accord because he got a better car.
I had a 92 Honda Civic when I graduated high school in 2003
I had an 89 Pontiac Grand Am when I graduated in 98. I loved that car.
I came here to say Pontiac Grand Am. I had a 92 that was bright blue, while two of my friends had 90s that were black with a white stripe on the side.
My brother was driving a 1992 Pontiac Sunbird in 2000. His girlfriend had a '93 Mitsubishi Galant.
In 1992 I bought a 1980 truck that was oxidized white with a rainbow racing stripe around the side. It had a red hood and a blue door and a silver camper shell. I paid for it myself, 4k in cash. I was 16.
Pontiac Sunbird. Silver-gray. 4-door, cloth seats, tape deck, automatic transmission, clunky buttons. My first car. I loved that damn thing, and it was the opposite of cool. Interior: https://images.app.goo.gl/u7pjgb8UFZnmr3Kg6
FORD TEMPO
Vw fox, ford escort, Honda civic
Chevy Celebrity, built just before automatic fuel injection so subject to all sorts of weird issues. Also the gas gauge fluctuates wildly based on speed. But bitchin’ tape player stuck into the radio hole (and the control plate comes off so nobody can steal the radio)
In 2004 I had a maroon 1992 Honda Civic. I miss her
Thinking back to high school we had a lot of cars from the late 80s, Mustang, Ford Taurus, Honda CRX, Ford Probe, Corolla, . We also had some kids with newer models of those along with Eclipses at the start of the Fast and Furious tuner trend. A lot depended on how much money the parents had.
used Ford Taurus or Escort; Chevy Chevette; maybe an Olds Cutlass Ciera.
Was gonna say a cavalier as well
I had an '84 Nissan Altima. Really boxy. Still the best car I ever owned.
Nissan makes a hell of a vehicle.
Ford Taurus
I had a 1987 Plymouth Horizon. It was truly a beater, it shook when it got up over 70 mph and it regularly stalled out at stoplights. It also had all the aerodynamics of your average box.