How many cars were there when they first came out?

There's no single answer to how many cars were made when cars "first came out," because it depends on what you consider the "first car" and the timeframe you're considering. The invention and production of automobiles was a gradual process, not a single event.

* Early production was extremely limited: The very earliest "cars" were largely handcrafted, one-off prototypes or small batches. There weren't mass-produced models like today. We're talking about single-digit or perhaps low double-digit numbers for the earliest examples.

* Different definitions of "car": The definition of a "car" itself is debatable in the early years. Some early self-propelled vehicles were steam-powered, others electric, and the design evolved significantly.

Therefore, there's no definitive number. It's safe to say the number of cars produced in the very earliest years was extremely small, in the range of dozens, not thousands or millions.