My first car was a 1979 Subaru GL Hatchback. It was the first year of the second generation. Here is a photo of what it looked like:
Mine was also red, but more of a two tone color - red and bondo. I paid $500 for it.
It was a great reliable car, but had no power. I lived in Florida on the mainland, but my high school was on the beach side. As such, I had to cross the tall inter-coastal bridge everyday to get to school, of which was too steep for my car. This meant I had to drop it into 1st or 2nd gear and putter up the bridge at about 10mph in the pull over lane. It was rather embarrassing.
I also had a large component speaker box from a home stereo in the trunk hooked up to my car radio. It was pretty sad, really.