Thongs are perfect for when I'm chuckin' a sicky, but still have to grab some snags from the corner store and some goon from the bottlo for the barbie on the weekend. Me mates 'll be devo if we end up eating Maccas again...
My camaro broke down quite often. I had to replace a starter, water pump, alternator, something about the universal joint in the drive shaft, brakes, battery, etc. The clutch was the hardest and I got it wrong 2 times before I got it right on the third. It made me start thinking outside of what was easy and spoon fed. I started to realize that a Haynes manual was extremely limited. Eventually this line of thinking took me deep into fundamental understanding. Most people never think past throwing parts at a problem, but I learned how all of it works at a fundamental level. That journey started with my first car. It shaped my mind and who I am to a large extent.
The large comfy bench seat. The trunk space. It being made entirely of steel.
I mean I really hated that car, but she was alright. The sagging headliner, the dead seat cushioning, the fading paint, the regular overheating, the leaking rack and pinion, the grinding noise the timing chain made when going uphill, the unreliable electronic engine components, the fact that it never passed emissions on the first try, the crappy underpowered iron duke, the AM/FM radio with no cassette. I could go on...
It was a small subcompact hatchback but ran on diesel. Back in my home country, diesel is cheaper and considered more economical, and it was rare for a small car to run on diesel instead of gas.
It was abandoned by my uncle at our place when he moved overseas and subsequently my sister drove it around a bit. Eventually it leaked coolant from the water pump, overheated and blew a head gasket because she wasn't paying attention.
I was unemployed and bored and I decided to pull it apart and bought all the bits to fix it. I didn't really know anything about mechanical stuff at the time, but I am good at logic and try not to be useless at practical stuff even though I'm really a computer geek. I drove it around for a bunch of years after that until I was earning enough money that I could buy something I wanted which was a Mitsubshi EVO 1.
So to answer the question, favorite thing was that I rescued it from oblivion even though I didn't know much about cars or engines at the time.