I paid the grand sum of £450 for a Midnight blue Austin 1100 kept it two years and sold it got £400. Best car I ever owned in monetary terms
£250 for a Suzuki TS50 ER in 1985 followed by a Mini van also for £250. The Mini had an argument with a deer which killed it dead! The Mini that is...
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I paid the grand sum of £450 for a Midnight blue Austin 1100 kept it two years and sold it got £400. Best car I ever owned in monetary terms
Austin 1100 for £100 in 1980
My first car was a MK3 Cortina XL which I bought for £180. I jazzed it up into a GXL. Six months later I got a Rover P6 3500S.
First bike was Honda Cub 90 when I had a go at doing the knowledge. Next bike was a BSA C15. In my 20's I was offered a Vincent Black Shadow which was in bits and the guy selling couldn't guarantee everything was there so I passed. Apparently the registration was VIN 1. Not one of my better decisions...
i was very lucky when younger, at 16 i was bought a brand new one of these >
at 17 i passed my test in a 950cc fiesta and was given one of these to ride round in (yes i got pulled over a few times) - 3.5 sd1
My Dad got me a 10+ year old Suzuki 80 which we fixed up and I used it until I was 17. Austin 1100 then which I drove on a provisional (nobody cared then) for a few months until I joined up and wasn't allowed to keep a vehicle on the camp.
Very nice.
For my 16th I bought a TZR125. It was around £1300 from memory. I also had the use of my brother’s RD350ypvs - which was fun to take to school at 16 :)
My first car was bought with part of the insurance pay out from a motorcycle accident, and I slightly foolishly bought a VW Golf GTI Cabriolet, maybe £7500-£8000. It was fun going to college with no job, in the Golf or my Yamaha FZR400RRSP. I could have bought a flat, or paid a decent deposit on a property with those funds at the time, but... I was young and foolish, and it didn’t even occur to me at the time.
I also wasted/highly enjoyed spending a lot of money racing enduros for a number of years.
It's just a matter of time...
A brand new Corsa, for about £7000 and 3 years free insurance. Was cheaper than buying a 10 yo banger and paying for insurance. Took me 5 years to pay off the HP!
Austin Metro 1100cc but some lovely chap had swapped the engine with an 850cc Mini one.
He'd also added pepperpot alloys and a spoiler to make it a bit MG.
It was a huge POS, was subjected to several attempted thefts and a couple of scrapes.
Manual chole, would hardly start from cold and the driver's seat was broken.
The best £450 I ever spent because of the freedom it gave me at the time.
550 quid for a D reg Honda NS125f. Loved that bike and did about 30k miles on it. It was utter crap in hindsight but I knew no better. Was unfortunately killed when I was knocked off by a blind OAP.
My wife has just reminded me that the insurance was 600!
Last edited by Matt8500; 13th February 2021 at 22:06.
About £170 Morris ital
Then £200 for a mark 2 escort
Great times
1999 T registered VW polo 1.0L. Red, 13” alloy wheels. They were definitely the best part. 0-60; not yet. The interior was a disgusting mess of grey cloth, and there was no radio. Rust patch on the passenger door just below the handle. £2,200 bought in 2005. Insurance £880.
£300 for a Mini, in BL shit brown. That was in the mid to late 80s. It had about 60 or 70,000 miles on it when I got it, and wasn’t that old, but it was basically done - next stop, scrapyard. Cars rotted out so quickly then.
I had great times in a series of end-of-life Minis back then. Great fun on the country roads of Northern Ireland.
I bought a TZR125 for my 17th. Paid £900 I think. The power valve had been turned upside down so there was virtually zero power below 7000rpm and a mighty 15bhp above it. It felt like the fastest bike on the planet compared to the Honda C50 I'd had before it!
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Can't remember the price but it was in 1990 and was a 1984 Vespa PX 125
Cheers,
Adam.
1980, 16 years old and my dad took out a loan which I was responsible for the re-payments, think it was £500 but I might be wrong.
Suzuki ER50cc
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Oh yes, I did the same to mine for the first 6 months as there was a wait for the official power valve/servo kit for it. Only after the kit was it any faster than friends AR125’s, NSF’s and RG’s. I loved that bike, but was pleased to get the FZR not too long after. We could ride any cc bike over here at that time (now restricted until you hold a full unrestricted licence), and can still drive any car at 16.
The first car I had use of was a 1000cc mini van back in 1981. I lived with my grandparents near the bottom of the Ards peninsula, commuted every day to Ards for work, the shore road from Kircubbin to Ards was a complete hoot. Loved every mile at summer.
And it was very useful with rugs in the back for the weekends ;-)
Another Hillman Imp, mine was a 1967 and cost £150.
The first moped that I could ride legally on the road was one of these with the same gold tank, four speed box, drum front brake, 1972 vintage!
I bought it in 1977 for £40 and a year later when I moved on up to a 250cc machine it had a blue tank, 5 speed gearbox and disk front brake, I couldn't resist fettling way back then!
First transport -£500 Yamaha TZR 125
First decent car (technically my 2nd car) - £700 MK1 Golf GTI
A lovely mk4 golf - fully loaded. Car was only a few years old - got it for free from my best mates mum .
£100 for a FS1E in 1978, after months of begging my mum for permission to get a powered two wheeler, she finally relented with the words "you'll hurt yourself" which turned out to be rather accurate many times
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£250 for a 1977 Ford Fiesta in 1991. Loved that car and it got me safely all over Europe on my travels. UPJ 927S.
£250 for a Mk3 Zodiac in the early ‘80s. Added a Raymond Mays head, twin SUs on a chrome manifold and a six branch later on, blew the bottom end and the diff’, then dropped in a 302 and C4 box out of a scrapped Falcon. Amazingly, the car is still around and looking better than ever, although the V8 has gone and an original 2.6 straight six is back.
Regards
Jon.
My first car was a 1965 Anglia Super, 1200cc, which cost me £285 in 1970. Kept that for c. five years and traded it in for a Cortina 1600E.
£400 Talbot Sunbeam. Silver coloured and 1.6 engine. Insurance was also £400. Great car, though held together by rust.
£1000 for this mk 1 Cavalier. Orange with tan vinyl roof and matching plastic interior! Rear wheel drive so lots of fun in the snow and some exciting times on Autumn slippy roads. Took me and pals on many trips to the Lakes and Scarborough. I seem to recall the insurance was remarkably cheap for a first car.
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£150 Talbot Samba in 1993, it was a B reg I think
£1000
Bought my uncles mk1 Golf GTI with the original 1600 fuel injection engine
Cost me more to insure it than it cost to buy it
Would be worth a bit now that car.
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£200 for a knackered HB Vauxhall Viva - £225 to insure it TPF&T in 1982
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Morris Marina, £160. Did 3 years in it. Had to use a coat hanger to pull the windscreen wipers back to upright position when it rained. 3 Skoda 120s, £250 each, drove to Italy and back many times, only one problem and a german garage fixed it. The garage was like an operation theatre, 3 guys working on it. Great job and cheap to mend. Not exactly fast, TIRs used to overtake me going up hill through Switzerland. Young customs officer, in Dover, said 'open the boot please'. Are you sure? I said.
Same colour as yours? I must have got a bargain at £100. I sold it for £100 as well. I remember the exhaust falling off & getting it welded back together because I couldn’t afford a new one. Made a hell of a noise from a wheel bearing when it went round a right hand corner but it was ok if you turned left. Consequently I went out of my way to make my journeys consist mostly of left turns.
Have to be honest, loved the car, even though it was a metallic light green but a change of job meant I got a company car, a knackered 205 followed by a Fiat Uno so had to get rid of it.
Did do a lot of work on it, did the valve clearance on it by changing out the valve shims and was due to replace the fuel pump which was leaking when I sold it.
That 3.5 SD1, pictured above still looks good to me, a proper classic in my opinion.
My first car was a Vauxhall Wyvern it cost me £10 it had a rotten floor and I couldn't turn the heater off as it would boil over it wasn't fun in the summer.
Squashy1
£50 for a mk2 cortina. In white with red stripe down the side
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£100 for a Suzuki AP50 in 1983, which I used for over 4 years commuting into London. Can’t believe how much they are worth now.
1st car was a Worlseley Hornet, paid £100, drove it for 4 years spending over a £1000 on it and then sold it for £100
If I remember correctly it was about 3 to 4 hundred pound and it was a Renault18 kind if milkie Brown coffee colour lol.
I do remember it had central locking and power windows. I thought it was the dogs b***ox at the time
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Another Spitfire 1500 here - £1000 in the mid 80s. It would have been about 10 years old and, as i found out later, in pieces.
I managed to vacuum a hole in the boot whilst cleaning... and then a front wheel fell off at the end of a trip from London to Devon (seems the trunions were liable to snap if poorly maintained).
The police were called as the neighbours reported it as a derelict vehicle.
It finally went to car heaven when it started to sag in the middle and the doors woudln't shut.
Happy days.
£1,300 for a blue 2000 VW polo in 2012. Was a student and couldn’t afford much more. I’m sure insurance in the first year was £1,600. After tax - £3,000 just to get on the road in what was really a pile of crap.
Served me well for 4.5 years, used to drive it to my ICAEW exams when people would be pulling up in their mum/dads Porsche. I looked cooler.
Summer of '68, the summer of an ex-GPO BSA Bantam d7, £4.to buy £4.10s 6d to insure (apparently pillion insurance had just become compulsory) where are you now UYX 449? Cheers, John B4
First bike was a Lambretta 100 that I scrounged from a neighbour. It had sat with a cover over it for a few years going nowhere. I used it as a field bike.
First bike on the road was a Honda CB250G5, which had a custom black and gold colour scheme, care of some aerosol cans. £150??
First car was probably the Plymouth Cricket. A US market Hillman Avenger estate. Had all the weird Yank stuff like seat belt warning lights, door open bonging sounds, auto box, and oddly twin stromberg carbs. It was a non-runner when I got it. I had swapped my Yamaha hifi and 120 LPs for it. I had it trailered away, fixed for next to nothing, something wrong with the carbs. I bought a large pot of Bostik and a roll of brown fake fur, and fur lined the dashboard with it. I also bought a centre console and fitted an Aiwa cassette radio, knowing that with this fashionable look, every young woman would want me. They still didn’t. I did a fair few miles in it and it cost very little to run. Everyone else seemed to be buying new cars, taking advantage of the forces discount of no VAT or car tax, then going nowhere in them. I remember one guy having a red Capri with jacked up suspension and Wolfrace slot mags. He must have been getting my action. He looked cool.
A V Reg Mini Clubman with a black vinyl roof and a bucket seat for £500.
Had it four days before I lost control on rather slippy back road and partially rolled it. Thankfully it ended up back on its wheel and I popped out a couple of dents on the wing and passenger door!
Ran it around for another six months before trading it in for a 950 Fiesta.
I paid the princely sum of £30 for a K11 Nissan Micra that should not have got through an MOT! And then £1600 to insure for 10 months... Still wince at that now.
Last edited by AlphaEchoAlpha; 14th February 2021 at 21:07.