Our first family car was an FSO Polonez Prima.
It rusted away in 4 years.
Reading the "What do you drive?" Thread made me think about the first car that I had use of. It was my mother's yellow, yes yellow, Renault 12 TL. I fitted a pair of cibie spotlights and CB radio, and I thought it was the dogs dangly bits.
What was the first vehicle that you had use of, and was it even more crap than mine?
Our first family car was an FSO Polonez Prima.
It rusted away in 4 years.
I had a mark 1 Golf Driver
Gti grill
14” BBS’s
One of those stupid stereos (well Pioneer flip face)
Can even remember the registration number A96GLS
Happy memories
263 ARL, 1958 Commer Cob van bought from the local fishmonger.
It stank of fish; fortunately so did the girls I was trying to tempt into it.
1.9 Peugeot 205 diesel (non turbo)
I literally drove everywhere with the accelerator pedal flat on the floor. It was 100% power or 0%, that was the only way to make progress.
I think it had 58hp
It broke it's timing belt ON THE WAY TO IT'S SERVICE FOR BELT CHANGE. Bent two conrods and had an engine rebuild under warranty !!
Olympic Blue 4 door MK1 Escort. Bought for the princely sum of £550 in 1999.
Stuck a set of 4 spoke RS alloys on it and drove the length and breadth of the country for 5 years before selling it for twice as much.
It's the one car I wish I had kept!
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Renault 9 TLE. It was rubbish - but I loved it. Can even remember the registration A155 PFC.
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Vauxhall viva HC
Dire
Mates dad had an Anglia with a lotus twin-cam fitted so he learned in that
My mum’s very bright yellow peugout 205 with a 1.1l engine. Actually a good car, but she decided never to have a yellow car again as she was always noticed. I went on and bought a bright yellow lotus a long time later - didn’t bother me, and would love another yellow car :)
Passed my test in a MG (Mini) Metro.
First car I drove after that was my Dad's (very bright) yellow Reliant Robin Estate........
First car I owned was a light green Fiat 126.
In 1963 I inherited this 1956 Buick (maroon & white) from my dad for the remainder of high school. All I did was remove the "old man" wheel covers!
1959 Ford Popular "Coupe". Old English white, 4 cyl sidevalve, external sun visor, twin SU's, 3 speed and vacuum windscreen wipers.
832 FYA or FYA 832 - One of those
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
My dads second car was a Ford Fiesta Popular. WNF 553X if I recall correctly. Beige, beige plastic interior. Him, my mum and me and 2 younger sisters used to pile into it to see my grandma at the weekend.
I remember reading through a little diary my mum kept back when we were young. Money was so tight back then it actually made me cry!
My first was a white mg metro
Had it all properly respected and looking brill with an immobiliser due to be fitted on the weekend...
It was stolen on the Thursday night along with a number of them from the local cinema complex
They did me a favour really I guess lol
I started out with a 1967 Sunbeam Stilleto. Full of rust but an absolute hoot of a car if you like vicious oversteer. I will never know how I didn’t put it through a hedge backwards.
Morris 1000. Great old car, fix it with a spanner and a hammer..
the spring hangers rusted out like mad. Usual British motor industry quality
One of my Dads Moggy 1000 he had three for the business I used to move them about at the shop i was only 13. Happy memories.
Last edited by hilly10; 19th May 2018 at 21:42.
Austin 1100 in beige. DSF 725C. First car I had sex in too. I was on my own at the time.........
Morris Marina 1.3 Super. (This was pre the Trade Descriptions Act you understand)
Passd my test aged 17 in 1975 in dad’s 1972 Viva HC. Bought a 1967 Mini 850 mk1 a few weeks later. After the initial euphoria I began to hate the thing, it was noisy, cramped, slow and rusty.
Paul
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 19th May 2018 at 22:46.
Mine was a green Fiat Strada!
My first car was aged 17 in 1990, a 1983 Vauxhall cavalier 1.6 GLS in gold with beige velour interior, I'd worked hard to save for it and was so excited the day I got it, that evening my best mate came round to see it, sat in it and upon putting his foot on the clutch pedal the cable snapped!!!... I will never forget how gutted I was having to wait 4 days for the mobile mechanic to fix it and how desperate I was to go cruising in my new wheels.
I replaced it after a year with a sierra xr4i cosworth relica in white, I was way too young for the power of the 2.8 V6 and crashed it within 3 months. Best thing that happened to me in hindsight as it was a wake up call not to be a prat behind the wheel, plus loosing 3k at 18 years of age when I was earning £600 a month was painful.
I have 2 over riding memories of my Grandads cars.... Grandad was a great man and my hero, he adopted me and my sister when I was 2 and she was just 6 months old.
The first car I remember him having and cherishing was a 1964 Triumph 2000. It was a sort of dark brown colour and had light brown leather seats.
He owned that car well into the 70’s and would wash it every Sunday. In fact a chap around the corner used to come by and shout to my Grandad “I’ll have that off you when you’re ready to sell” He did too. So even after Grandad sold it, I’d see it getting driven around.
The next car I remember him having and enjoying was a Fiat Mirrafiori Twin Cam. It was metallic Green, and when I passed my test he’d let me drive it, but only if he was with me.
One of my mates at the time bought that car off him and drove it until it rusted away, which wasn’t that long sadly.
triumph stag that i had saved for bit like the flintstones car (loads of holes in the floor not sure how it got through mot)was the dogs danglies to me though engine was a 2.5 pi not the original stag 3.0 or rover 3.5 v8
A 1975 Austin Allegro.
Surprisingle it had no rust despite being 9 years old.
Something of a miracle for a mid 70's BL product.
Otherwise truly appalling with dreadfull build quality and poor components throught. Unreliable, no power, oil leaks etc.
Little wonder the British car industry died.
Renault 14TS which I binned as a 17 y.o.
I also had one as my first car. PUX 245H, I think.
It had some kind of rubber “donut” as part of the drive mechanism between the engine and the rear wheels. I recall those breaking a couple of times - due to excessive wheelspin when pulling away from a junction.
White, with a black vinyl roof. It was brilliant. :)
Ah yes, Donuts. I’d forgotten about those. Didn’t last long did they!
Mine had some great details, such as the catch tray under the carbs being missing, meaning that the twin stromburgs were directly above the silencer box with nowt separating them!
Brilliant little cars all the same, and so much more interesting than minis of the same age to my eye.
I bought a 1972 mk1 escort in 1989 when I was an apprentice... my mate was taking it to the scrappy in the lunch break, he was getting £80 for it. I matched the £80 and it was mine.
It didn’t take me long to realise why it was going to the great car showroom in the sky though... I managed to get about 6 months months out of it before moving on to a triumph dolomite sprint, purchased for the princely sum of £100, another mess... those were the days.
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A 1978 Honda Civic in silver-grey metallic (the one pictured here is a US specs 79 version). Perhaps, like our current Honda, the most reliable car I've ever owned.
Menno
my mums '87 Nova and my dad's '82 Talbot Solara (which I rear-ended a renault 5 with)
learned to drive in my aunty's 1980 RWD Toyota Starlet
Last edited by Xantiagib; 22nd May 2018 at 10:01.
YRV 762V
1980 Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6 L
Beige and filler
No pic's unfortunately, never had any it was tta cr8p.
First car was FYF 91C a ‘65 Ford Corsair! First modification was Zodiac wheel trims, so cool in their day😂
Mine was a Mk2 Ford Escort.
My friend said we could make it go faster by changing the 1600 gearbox to a 1300 one as it would be geared better or something. We got one from the local scrap yard and fitted it. It didn't make any difference that I could tell and broke within a week. I had to drive home in 2nd gear and swap back the 1600 one.
I had the identical beastie! The reg was 1998 RE. Paid £30 for it, ran it for a year without a problem only ever putting petrol and oil into it and sold it for.......£30! The car was a bugger though, you had to rev the engine when it was raining to get the wipers to work more quickly and if you came to a decent hill, you had to take a run at it as third gear (top) was too high and second was too low. A screwdriver and a set of spanner’s was all you needed to work on that car! Happy days!
I had a grey H reg mini Mayfair. Went all round the UK in it, was great fun
When I was an ultra skint teenager I rode a motorcycle and could not afford a car. In those days you could drive a 3 wheeler on a motorcycle licence, so I bought myself a Messerschmitt KR200 bubble car at the age of 20. It was bloody awful and noisy but fun to drive. It did not have a reverse gear so you had to switch the engine off, push the ignition key in hard and the engine would go into reverse right through the gears.
My then girlfriend, now the wife, refused to sit in it so I swapped it for an Austin A35.
My first road car was a 1975 British Leyland Mini 998. It was 1991 and cost the princely sum of £250 which just about saved it from the scrap yard. I had to do a top end rebuild and replace both cills and exhaust. It used to burn through a set of points around every 300 miles.
I remember loading it up with my college mates and driving through the local ford at break neck speed, we came through the other side and there was a loud graunching noise, we got out the car and the rear end was dragging on the road like a dog with worms dragging its ass across the living room carpet, we opened the boot to reveal the suspension had popped through the rear arches.
Another time I was driving to London to see my then girlfriend; now wife, and broke down on the South Circular near Catford. I phoned my Girlfriends Dad asking for a tow, those in the know will know there is no towing eye on an old Mini, a valuable lesson I learnt that day is you never attach a tow rope to the slam panel. Upon entering a slight incline was the pained sound of metal sheering briefly followed by much of the front end of my Mini disappearing up the road behind my now Father-in-laws Honda Accord.
I had some fun times in that old knacker.
1978 Mark 2 Escort Popular. Never has the word "Popular" been more inappropriately used.
It developed a leak which defied attempts to cure. Fortunately it had rubber matting rather than carpets. In winter, you could lift out a slab of ice from the passenger footwell when the temperature was low enough.
It was an automatic (3 speed(!) from memory) paired with a 1.3 litre engine which I suspect pushed out around 50-60bhp. I managed to crack the cylinder head.
Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Arizona 3dr
M78 BOR
Fond memories although sold it soon after passing my test for a Mk2 Nova 1.4 SR.
My first and fondest memory of a car is my dads mg midget/ Austin healey sprite. Not sure which as I was probably only 7 or 8 at the time, so I didn’t have “use” of it directly!
I loved being taken for a ride in it though, especially with the roof down. I can remember helping take the hood down which was quite a lengthy job, but well worth it!
I think it didn’t have a radio, as he used to have a battery powered one behind the seats! I sometimes had to “sit in the back” which was just a space behind the seats, although looking at these cars now, god knows how I fitted! Certainly wouldn’t meet today’s health and safety rules, but great fun.
I still lust after little open top sports cars as a result, yet still never owned one.... one day though.
Viva, Mini, Imp, Mini, 2000 tii, Mini, Fiat 128 Rallye, Mini, Capri 3000E, Mk1 GTi lhd, Mk1 Gti Campaign, Scirocco Gti, Mk2 Gti, Scirocco Gti, Scirocco Gti, TVR 3000M, 924 Turbo, 911 SC, 911SC, 911 SC, 924 Turbo, 911 Carrera, 911 2.2 S, 911 Carrera Targa. 1970-2001
Wish I still had them all, be worth a fortune now.
A few of my more interesting "first cars"
Avenger Tiger (clone) it was really a 1500 GL
Mini Cooper S 1071 Mk I
Mini Cooper S 1275 Mk II
Escort 1300 Sport Mk I
RS 2000 Mk II slant nose
RS Mexico Mk II 2.1 twin 40s /LSD etc (sideways / slideways)
VW Golf GTI Mk I
etc Happy Days