Check out some of our favorite "Cool Car" stories! We couldn't just pick one! Each customer whose story you see below received $25 in Free Toll credits. Thanks to everyone who submitted a story. We enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane with you!
My first car was a 1960 Nash Metropolitan sedan. Since I lived in Arkansas where Razorback football spirit is rampant and my car was the original red and white, I named her “Sweet Sow.” My mother taught me to drive Sow's standard transmission by having me drive up and down hilly streets with stop signs at the top. I quickly learned how to work the clutch and gas to keep from rolling backward. My favorite memory is taking my behind the wheel test in 1968 with an Arkansas State Trooper who had to be at least 6' 5" tall. When he saw the car, he groaned in disbelief and had to really scrunch just to fit in the passenger seat. I swear he passed me just so he could get out of the car.
-Kim B.
Elmer. Doesn't it just sound like a clunker first car? Well, when I was 16, I inherited Elmer from my sister. Elmer was a ‘66 black, two-door Dodge Dart. Everyone knew Elmer. The driver's door wouldn't open, so you had to climb in from the passenger side or at times, my sister even climbed in through the window! Sometimes, Elmer wouldn't start so I had to use a screw driver and provide the charge across the alternator? And the starter, it would turn over - I just needed someone to turn the key on while I did the "trick". A few times, I left my keys in the trunk (in my purse) and I would pull out the back seat and climb into the trunk to get them. Elmer might have been a clunker, but it was a car with character and its own style and I loved it!
-Patti G.
My very first car was a hand-me-down 1989 chip painted Maroon Dodge Caravan. I can recall wishing I didn't have to drive it to school or even take out my date in this car. My very first date night, I drove the car to pick her up and the car stalled driving her home from dinner! Lucky me! My date was behind the wheel as I pushed this ugly, huge van down the hill on Plaza Bonita Road. Ah, those were the days.
-Jeffery R.
We were not permitted to own cars until our junior year at the USAF Academy. When that fall semester arrived, I purchased my first car; the car that defined cool as depicted in the movie "Bullet" and Mr. Cool himself Steve McQueen. His ride in the movie that portrayed the first great car chase was the 1967 Ford Mustang. When I mustered out of the Air Force in Omaha, Nebraska, in land-locked Mid America, I still had the pony car and decided to drive from one great ocean to the other. The road trek that spanned this nation took 2 months and 10,000 miles. To this day, I believe there is only one way to really see the land and its people and that's traveling the roads and byways that crisscross this great country of ours and the car named after the breed of horse of the West; the Ford Mustang.
-Al L.
My first car was a brand new 1974 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was shiny white and drove like a dream. I called her "Betsy" and she never left me stranded. The one and only time she ran out of gas was right in front of a gas station. She was cool that way. I was 19 years old and my Mom and Dad gave me $1,000 for a down payment. I couldn't wait so that very weekend we drove to the dealership. I was so excited because I was going to get my Camaro. My dad said, "Oh no, that is too small of a car, you should get that Monte Carlo in the showroom. They pulled it out of the showroom so I could test drive and I fell in love. That car sold brand new for $5,300. My Aunt loaned me the rest of the money and I paid her every month $100 till it was paid. One day she just couldn't drive anymore, old age I guess and the tow truck came and took it away from my driveway. Like I said, she never left me stranded!
-Kathy T.
My first car was a 1963 stick shift blue metallic VW Beetle, we called the BLUE BUG. We packed so many people in that car that people were sitting on people sitting on people. We laughed a lot! Two of my scariest experiences were in that car. Learning to not roll back at the traffic light at the top of the hill was the first. Then, I got stuck in the mud traveling across Farmer Bakers field. We shoved everything we could under the tires to get traction and got out of there. Never did that again!
-Marquita L.
