What kind of car did you learn to drive in?

[sarasquirrel]

the driving schools car was a small chevy, i forgot what type
i kinda learned on my moms old car a 1990 Chevy Lumina
then i got my car i have now, a 2001 toyota corolla

[flybye023]

1989 Pontiac Grand Am. The first car I drove after getting my license was one of our grain trucks, back and forth between the farm and the grain elevator

[XCashier]

I don't remember what cars my driving instructors used, but my first car was a 1962 Dodge Dart 4-door with push-button automatic transmission. Yes, it got quite a few admiring stares and comments back in 1988!

I still miss that car...

[Dave1982]

All of my formal driving lessons (ie, with the Auto School) were in either mid 90s Ford Escort hatchbacks, or in then brand-new (first year) Ford Focuses.

However, the first thing I ever drove besides go-carts was my father's 1990 Toyota Camry DX, five-speed manual, and most of my learning was done in that car. Yes, I learned how to drive in a stick shift car in 1998, well into the decline of the stick shift. Though when I went out with my mother (on those rare occasions when she worked up the nerve) it was in her 1994 Caravan.

I even took my road test (passed on the first try) in that Camry. I think the state trooper who administered the test was impressed that I pulled it off in a stick shift.

I ended up "inheriting" that car when my father got a new Camry in 1999 and drove it until I was broadsided in September 2003 at college. I currently drive a 1997 Civic LX 4 door, 5-speed.

Of course, the downside to this is that 10 years later, my kid brother has just gotten his learner's permit and has expressed an interest in learning to drive a stick shift. Seeing as my parents stopped driving stick when I "inherited" the 90 Camry, guess who gets to teach him?

[Fire_on_High]

I still drive the 95 Hyundai Accent I learned in. Great little car actually.

[powerboy]

Family car was an 88' Oldsmobile.
The instructors car was a Hatchback (don't know what year)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Instructors car--A chevrolet of some kind.
Family Car--a 1990 Olds Cutlass.

[Boozy]

I still drive the 95 Hyundai Accent I learned in. Great little car actually.

That's heartening.

I just bought a 2009 Accent, and I'm hoping to drive it for years after the loan's paid off. I'm glad to hear they last so long.

[draftermatt]

My parents let me drive their cars down the driveway starting at 8 years old, so

92 Ford Tempo
88 Ford Ranger
94 Mercury Cougar (replaced Tempo)

When I was 14 I got my first car, a 78 Pontiac Trans Am that ran but needed body work. So I drove it around the back field all the time.

When I got my license I drove my own 88 Ford Ranger (my Dad and I had basically the same truck)

Driver's Ed Instructors used Dodge Neons

[protege]

Driver's ed car was a 1990s Pontiac Grand Am. I'd previously only driven my parents' '89 Dodge Grand Caravan. Probably not the best car to learn to drive with...but it made handling the '87 Tempo I "inherited" from my father much easier.

Sort of. By the time I got the Tempo, it was a piece of shit. It had been hit, and had very little done to it maintenance-wise. Driver's door would fly open if you hit the brakes provided...that the brakes actually *worked* I used that car to pass my driving test on my second attempt. First attempt, was a failure--the steering pump suddenly went out, and I clipped one of the cones.

At least the car didn't last long--I'd slid into someone on a slick road, damaging the front end. That wasn't it though--roughly a year later...it was totaled. On the way home one afternoon, the engine blew up. As I was trying to get out of the car...someone hit it, and totaled it

At least I got a "newer" car out of it--the '91 Tercel. Hard to believe that it's been gone 15 years, and I still miss it By 2000, it was nearly 10 years old, and starting to show it. There were a few minor rust spots, some electrical issues, the front seats were falling apart, and it was burning oil.

Then came the Mazda Protege. Great driver's car, but a bitch to work on. Ran that well over 120,000 miles, and it looked it. It didn't look too bad, but there were some dents all over it...caused by a hail storm. Again, the electrical issues were annoying, and after the car failed its safety inspection *twice* in 2007, it had to go.

This time, I bought a Corolla. Not quite as nimble as the Mazda, or even my MG, but it has proved extremely reliable and economical. 40-45mpg isn't anything to sneeze at!

[goldaries13]

Before my accident, I got a few driving lessons in my mother's 1983 Dodge Ram. It was my father's, but after he died my mother took the "damn thing" (as she always called it back then), repainted it green, and renamed it Gumby (I suspect the whole repainting and renaming thing had something to do with getting back at my father for some reason or other ). I believe it was originally blue.

[crazylegs]

I learned in a Ford Focus, but I'm damned if I can remember the year...

[McGoddess09]

Driver's Ed- van

at home- my grandma's Dodge van.


Learning in a van makes a regular car a breeze. Ask Plaid about my driving. Vroom Vroom.

[Becks]

Let's see...

Geo Metro
Camaro
a Toyota something or other
Ford Taurus
whatever my instructor, Vito*, provided

*slightly off topic, but my driving instructor was the only guy named Vito I EVER knew when I was in NJ.

[wagegoth]

1973 Dodge full-size pickup with club cab (it was huge!); and

1970 Dodge Coronet 440 (I can't believe the speeds I used to drive that thing through the hills. It was also the first car I totaled: I wasn't speeding, I blew a tire on a bad curve and went off the road.)

The one Driver's Training car I remember was a Datsun B210. Sporty-looking, but was powered by a sick gerbil and a hamster with shin splints. The maximum speed uphill was 40 mph.

First car I owned: 1968 VW Beetle with a 1973 engine. Great little car, but it had chronic transaxle issues.