In 1966 in western NY I had to be 16 to get permit/license, one test was good for all, and you had to be 17 with drivers ed to drive after dark.

 

My first behind the wheel was a 1965 Triumph Herald. One of the ugliest cars on the market. Four speed with I immediately ruined the clutch on. I bought the car when I was 15 1/2 from my brother for $150.00.

 

anyone else?

 

It really is a blur to me now. I remember driving my fathers three on the tree Chevy pick up truck in a vacant field. I had a course that he set up for me. I'd go through the gears and stall it out trying to go up a dirt hill from a stop. What fun. Like Lainey, I am from Mass and had to do drivers ed. Our school offered manuals and automatics. The manuals were VW beetles. I revved the crap out of them until the instructors would force me to shift. My mother would let me drive her Mercury Comet (1966 I think). As I recall it had the 289 V8 and an automatic. It was baby blue. I really liked that car. I never had a chance to drive her previous car. IT was a 59 Impala convertible coupe. The top didn't go down, but there were no pillars between the front and rear windows, so when all the windows were rolled down it was wide open from the vent window to the rear pillar.

 

Rick tells me he was driving "field bombers" around age 13. Already knew how to drive a standard too.

One night his sister in law wanted ice cream. The only car at home was a standard and she couldn't drive it. She had Rick take her for ice cream to a place about a mile away.

I don't think too many folks would attempt that now. Not too bright of her back then either.

 

My dad had a part time tree spraying business when i was young.

The first time I drove at age 14, he let me drive the pickup around a huge empty parking lot. 3 speed flathead v8 52 ford pickup, i believe.

After I had learned to drive it, he would let me move the truck from house to house as long as it wasn't too far.

It was a great way to keep me interested in working. Now days he'd have to be crazy to do something like that.

Willinathen

 

I got my learners permit on November 22, 1966, the day I turned 16. I'd been dreaming about driving for a long time.

In a few days my father started what was to be a year of driving lessons. He was determined that I have a years worth of practice before I got my official license at the age of 17.

We had a 1961 Chevy Impala 4 door sedan, straight 6 engine, Powerglide automatic, rusting fenders, leaking oil pan, worn out universal joint, bald tires, 3/4 dead battery, in need of an alignment. Not even the radio or clock worked properly. My father thought the car was in great shape. While not as big as a modern aircraft carrier, the car was about the same size as a World War II battleship. It handled like an elephant on an iceberg, and was about as reliable as any of the British cars of the day.

For the next year I learned how to drive on that car. Driving into work with my father (Brooklyn to Manhattan) on Saturday mornings, and practicing with my mother, older sister and father during the week.

I got my license at 17, and for the next year shared that car with my older sister. When my older sister came to her senses about a year later and bought herself a better car, the Impala became mine.

I drove it for a few more years until it died with 65,000 miles on the odometer.

It was my first car, and the first car I drove, so I have fond memories of it, but really, it was Detroit at its worst.

 

We had better luck with the 1963 Chevy Impala I drove as my first car. My father bought it in 1968. At that point, it was newest car he had ever purchased.

I know the odometer rolled to 100K around 1973.

I think he kept it until 120K, but I can't remember for sure.

 

I was 16 - one year before you could get a learner's permit in NJ. My Mom let me drive her 1960 Ford Falcon, two-tone red and white with a two speed slushbox, on the parking lot at the Short Hills, NJ Mall.

Six months after I obtained my license I talked her into dumping the Falcon for a '66 GTO -- alas still with a two-speed slushbox. Thanks, Mom

 

The first car I drove was my Grandmother's. It was some big American automatic thing...I can't remember what. She told me to drive in the middle of the road (we were out on country roads). I passed my driving test in a Nova...about 1978 I think. I drove an Impala for a few months in high school which forever made me hate big cars. After graduating from college I finally bought my own car. It was a '84 Nissan Sentra 5-speed. It took me about a month to learn to drive a manual. Except for rentals and my husband's trucks, I've never driven an automatic since. I hate automatics.