My First Car: 1986 Nissan 200SX - ChicagoNow (blog)
In May of 1986 my father bought his first import car, a brand new 1986 Nissan 200SX XE, 2. 0 four cylinder with a five speed manual transmission. It was a big change for my dad who was driving a 1975 Oldsmobile 98 Regency and previously had a 1979 GMC Sierra 4X4 truck, 1969 VW Bug & 1967 Chevrolet Camaro all at the same time and the latter two were "project cars". Not having a new car in the family for a while (my mother had a 1984 Nissan Sentra station wagon she bought when it was a year old), and me as a boy who loved cars (and still does), this was great, I was enamored with that car, its manual... Fast forward until the summer of 1993 when I got my drivers license, my father was driving a Chevrolet conversion van and he taught me how to drive a manual transmission (for which I am forever grateful), and I could drive his beloved sports car. The next school year was my senior year at Brother Rice High School my parents just didn't hand me the keys to start driving to school right away, after getting on the B Honor Roll (which got us a insurance discount), and my parents letting me... I finally drove to school every day in mid February 1994 and of course this being Chicago, the second day I drove it snowed and I learned the beauty of getting stuck in the snow and getting out with a manual. Source: www.chicagonow.com
