My first car was a 1965 Coronet 440 (with a slant 6, despite the name) which I bought in 1977 for $150. After a few months I swapped it for a
1977 B100 panel van, bought new. I learned how to drive stick by getting that three-on-the-tree van (also a slant 6) home in one piece. After I wore that out, I replaced it with a 1985 B150, also bought new and with another slant 6 but a floor shifter.By the time I wore out the '85, they weren't making the slant 6 any more and nobody sold a van with a stick shift. I ended up in a 1994 Ford Explorer; fun truck but I think I bought it twice what with all the repairs I put into it.
These days I'm driving a 1999 Durango (with the 5.9 V8), which I recently bought used. Despite having 150K on the odometer it looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor; my hat's off to the previous owner who obviously treated it right. I wish it had a stick but since it has pretty much everything else I guess I can deal :-)
Now the Free Stuff:
I've been doing some cleaning in prep for a move, and I find I still have an ignition ballast resistor (big ceramic block with two elements in it, one "start" and one "run") for the '77. I also have the Dodge (not Chilton's) shop manual for the '85. They aren't doing me any good but I don't want to throw them out. They're free to whoever wants them; just cover shipping or if you're in the Chicago West suburbs, swing over and pick them up.