Fiat 127 - 1 Fiat 127 - 2

I was 13 years old when I wanted to buy a motorcycle. My father wasn't to keen on me flying around on a bike so he mulled it over a bit and then suggested I get a car. Lo and behold, a few short weeks later, after scanning the papers for the cheapest possible car, I came across this little gem.

The car ran fine and even passed inspection, and I commenced to tinker. I had a lot of learning experiences with this car, but ultimately ended up giving it to my mother.
Later, when my mother didn't need a car anymore, she gave it back to me and I had sort of lost interest so I gave it away to pursue motorcycles.

The Fiat cost me $100 and was equipped with the emissions-friendly 45hp 900cc engine, smaller than in my motorcycles! It had disc brakes and if I remember right, power brakes!
It was a good car for its time, it was safe with a space-frame to absorb impact, collapsible steeringcolumn and it even used 80% of it's floorspace for passengers and luggage! Efficient. Do I need to mention that the cruise-control was a manual throttle-lever you locked in place? :)

A few of the things I learned was that you can put the distributor in wrong in any degree and it won't run. I learned that on this car you need the hands of a small Barbie-doll to change sparkplugs. I learned that rust never sleeps.

It was my first car and I loved it!