6 years ago, I just had turned 16, and was looking into buying my first vehicle. With only 3 thousands bucks to spend, I knew I wouldn't be able to buy a nice looking car to impress the ladies, especially since I knew I wanted something somewhat reliable. I ended up settling on a 1984 Toyota Celica ST, and had it for 5 years. Here are my thoughts on it:

Though mostly reliable, I did have a lot of repairs on it. But that makes sense considering I was driving it around 25 thousand miles per year, and my maintenance was pretty pathetic. I basically let it run naturally, always right on schedule changing the oil every 25,000 miles or so. Living on the coast, the paint began peeling away within 6 months of my purchase. This was a blessing in disguise, for it made the car look so pathetic that I didn't have to bother with washing it anymore. You don't know the true meaning of freedom when you give a $%@# what happens to your car. The stress level dissolves to nothing. This car taught me never to buy a high priced automobile, ever. There are more important things to worry about.

Besides the looks (or lack there of) and the reliabilty, this car was easy to drive. I had a stick shift with an easy clutch, and the heating controls and ac worked good. The interior is pretty shabby looking-very tacky, but who really cares about the interior of an 1984 Celica? It handles the road fine, and is fairly comfortable (I took it on a roadtrip to Kansas, driving 8 hours a day, and it was fine) The point is that it's a car that will run. And you can give it a funny nickname, like I did. This car is for those people who don't care what their car looks like, and cares about the more important things in life.