Richard Baxter recalls the pride he felt about owning his first car, a 2000 Ford Fiesta, and the sense of freedom that it gave him.

My first car was a 2000 Ford Fiesta. I remember going to Ludham Garage in Norfolk to look at it and fell in love with it.

As with most first cars, they aren't much to look at, or that great, but yet they are so special, typically because they give us freedom. I remember being proud to tell everyone that it had a 1.2-litre Zetec-S engine and, to be fair, it went OK.

I spent most of my evenings out with friends on 'random drives', going through the streets of Norwich, or out and about between the small villages all around. Seeing where various roads go, and getting lost along the way, was all part of the fun.

A previous owner had fitted a new CD player in the car so making CDs and playlists for the drives went with it – most of which I think I still have! As is still often the case today among young drivers, this usually involved turning the stereo up as loud as possible.

I used to spend so much time in this car, driving around, I remember once planning to pull an all-nighter with friends and basically camp out in it, only to be scuppered by our parents at the last minute. In hindsight, it was probably for the best!

The highlight came after a couple of years when a friend purchased a motorbike, and we could join each other on the road. We never did anything dangerous but there was possibly a handbrake turn or two proudly performed on a grass overflow car park.

Thinking back to how much I drove it, I'm not surprised now the coil pack went faulty and resulted in running on only three cylinders – £150 later it was as good as new.

Even though the car wasn't much, it was mine, it got me to uni and back safely and, on occasions, much further afield. And, for that, it was special.

Tell people about your first car – email your memories with a picture to motoring@archant.co.uk