Associated Press

Earlier this week, the Automobiles editor, James G. Cobb, shared his story about growing up with a 1955 Chevy, and many of you wrote in with your own G.M. stories. We are highlighting some of them in the Wheels blog.

My first car was a 1960 Corvair, in 1973. That was followed by a 1964 Corvair, in 1975.

Ralph Nader said that they were “unsafe at any speed,” and they probably were. Turn the corner a little too fast, and the rear wheels (each on independent suspension) would “crab” inwards, while the front of the car — the hood, empty except for the spare tire — would follow the rear end, in the wrong direction, as the rear swung around.

The hard metal dashboard wasn’t very comforting in case of a possible crash, but I guess that was before automotive crash standards were mandated. The 1960 Corvair had a “spoon-o-matic” automatic transmission — a toggle lever to change the “gears,” but without a Park position. If the cable on the giant parking brake lever snapped, which it sometimes did, there was no way to keep the car from rolling.

William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design

The 1960 Corvair’s heater was a gasoline burner in the hood, spewing carbon monoxide into the car’s interior, while the 1964 Corvair drew hot air off the air-cooled rear engine. Once I had the oil changed, and the garage spilled some oil on the engine. As I drove out of the parking lot, the car filled with blue-gray smoke, sucking the burning oil in from the engine compartment.

But despite all of those shortcomings, including that both cars’ structures were eventually 75 percent duct tape, the Corvair was a hoot to drive. Perhaps the cars’ being wobbly and hard to tame made them all that much more fun to drive. They provided me teenage liberation, hauled my stuff back and forth from Cornell and let me travel up and down the East Coast (breaking down occasionally, sometimes waiting a couple of days to source those obsolete parts).

Well … the story doesn’t make the cars sound so great, but they were my gateway to the world of independence.

–Roger S. Cohen

Do you have a story about a memorable G.M. car or truck? Share it with Times readers by posting a comment below.