My car journey took a different route. I was a car nut from about age 4, it was in my blood from my first ride in a '68 Firebird 400 4-speed my Dad brought home from the dealership. I still remember that car after all those years.

Bought my first car at age 15 for $200. Wanted to work on it so I would have a car to drive when I got my license at 16 (I was busting at the seams all those years waiting to be old enough to drive). It was an old 4-door Beaumont (Canadian car - basically a Chevelle with Pontiac styling cues and a Tempest dash, sold through Pontiac dealers, though never actually badged a Pontiac) that was quite rusty. I worked on it for a year, never made much headway (hint: I never really knew what I was doing and my Dad wasn't mechanically inclined), and sold it for $150 when the writing was on the wall that it was never getting back on the road as long as I owned it.

Through the years I bought junker after junker, driving them for awhile, working on them, cleaning them up and usually selling them after a year or so for more money than I paid for them (I was learning how to work on cars by then...).

Finally bought my first new car (a Mustang LX 5.0 coupe) after graduating and working my first real job for a year, in my twenties. I was like you in my school years - always had a job, starting about age 11 when I was delivering newspapers (remember newspapers? lol). Through high school and university I always had a part time job, and full time in the summer.