My Favorite Car Memories: The Grand Canyon and Beyond

When I was a teenager, every now and then I’d ask my parents, half jokingly, what kind of awesome new car they were going to buy me when I got my license. My dad’s response was always the same: “The first car you have will be the car you buy yourself.”

There were several life lessons in his short, yet unchanging, response. I did not get a car when I was in high school, nor in college. But I made my very first car purchase just a week after college graduation. Then I learned about car payments and financing, maintenance and protecting my new asset.

What did I get? A black 2002 Honda Civic LX. What do I drive now? The same car, which will turn 11 next month. It has around 177,000 miles and is still going strong. It's obviously my favorite car, and probably always will be.

I plan to drive my Civic as long as I can, and I know it’ll be hard to say goodbye when the time comes. That car and I have been a lot of places, across the country and back. We've been to Niagara Falls, the Badlands, Grand Teton National Park, the Grand Canyon, Independence Pass and even Las Vegas.

My Civic has been used for camping trips, fall foliage drives on the winding roads of New Hampshire and Vermont, and plenty of the more mundane, around-town trips to the grocery store or to run errands. 

While I’m lucky enough to call my first car my current car, I know that isn’t the case for everyone. But I’m sure there are plenty of great first-car memories out there to be shared. Or, do you have a different favorite car?

Tell us in the comments what your first or favorite car was, and any great memories that were made in it. Also, upload a photo of that car by clicking the "Upload photos and videos" button below the photo of my car.