First car

[mr bachmann]

surprised no trikes ah' well , my first car and its still with me , was the marital runabout , restored in the mid 1970's to as you see to-day , we'll leave most of you guessing ....[smg id=24297 type=preview align=center caption="IMG 1891"] 

[johnlambert]

Some interesting replies on this thread, but analysing them, what would members say was the "best" car they ever owned, ie. the one that gave them the most satisfaction and pleasure?

First car, a FIAT 126 registration C941 PMV as far as I can remember.  Enormous fun when it was working properly, which wasn't often.  I've sometimes been tempted to try and buy another but these days prices are surprisingly high for the few surviving 126s.

Best?  Probably one of the four Honda Preludes I owned (three 1989 models in succession and a 1998 type).  The first three were the 3rd generation type with mechanical four-wheel steering (two with manual transmission, one automatic), the last was a 2.2 VTi with electronic 4WS.  All were magnificent; fast, comfortable and a delight to the senses with just about the best steering I have encountered (and I've driven a fair selection of cars).

These days I drive a modest Ford Fiesta, which is terribly sensible but not particularly interesting.  It does the job, however, and if I need to blow away the cobwebs there is the Honda CBR 600 lurking under a tarpaulin in the back garden...

[javlinfaw7]

Is it a mk c or d Mr Bond?

[Tdm]

Best?  Probably one of the four Honda Preludes I owned (three 1989 models in succession and a 1998 type).  The first three were the 3rd generation type with mechanical four-wheel steering (two with manual transmission, one automatic), the last was a 2.2 VTi with electronic 4WS.  All were magnificent; fast, comfortable and a delight to the senses with just about the best steering I have encountered (and I've driven a fair selection of cars).

...

My wife's favourite car was a Honda Prelude - the one pictured in the photo below - she put over 100,000 miles on it before selling it.

[johnlambert]

Best?  Probably one of the four Honda Preludes I owned (three 1989 models in succession and a 1998 type).  The first three were the 3rd generation type with mechanical four-wheel steering (two with manual transmission, one automatic), the last was a 2.2 VTi with electronic 4WS.  All were magnificent; fast, comfortable and a delight to the senses with just about the best steering I have encountered (and I've driven a fair selection of cars).

...

My wife's favourite car was a Honda Prelude - the one pictured in the photo below - she put over 100,000 miles on it before selling it.

Yes, that's the same shape as my first three.  Looks like it was the non-4WS one but nice all the same.

I think I did 100,000 miles in my first one (from 88,000 to 188,000, I was slightly annoyed that circumstances beyond my control prevented me from taking it the next 12,000 miles to 200,000).

[Newportnobby]

cheers, Stu.

I notice you haven't weathered it (yet), Stu

[d-a-n]

Some great cars here, thanks everyone for posting them up.

Some interesting replies on this thread, but analysing them, what would members say was the "best" car they ever owned, ie. the one that gave them the most satisfaction and pleasure?

I've had  a few 'best' cars. Once the BMW went, I was left with a Vauxhall Nova which was the best car for B-road blasting. It had polyurethane bushes all round, stiffer and lower shock absorbers and springs, strut braces front and back, wide 14 inch Cavalier steels with 185 low profile tyres, GSI brakes with green stuff pads and grooved discs, stripped interior (Just SR bucket seats and seat belts) and numerous other bits and pieces to make it more fun but still stealthy, not your normal bodykitted rubbish. It was noisy and very hard riding but totally worth the compromise!
This was followed by an Audi 80 2.0 sport which in turn received similar chassis and brake modifications and the seats from a UrS4 but no power mods - I was paving the way to replace the 8v lump with a 2.3 5 pot 20v lump but the car met an untimely end. Sold the thing in bits for more than I could've got for it as a whole car!
Once this was gone, I was desperate for a runaround so I bought an R reg 1.3 16v Toyota Starlet which has been a faithful machine for the last 4 years and 40,000 miles. I've serviced it and put decent tyres on but not spent much cash on it - it needed a touch of weld on it's first MOT and since then it's passed every MOT without fault. It returns 40mpg in normal driving, 50mpg on a long run at 65mph and once saw 53mpg. I can leave it anywhere, not worry about it scraping over speed bumps and has never failed to start. For this, I'd say it's been the best car I've ever owned. 

With all this talk of old cars, I thought you'd might like to see the car my dad got as his first car around 50 years ago, a 1932 Morris Minor; he painted the chassis in his bedroom and drove it around the neighbourhood without any bodywork on when he was getting it sorted out.



He still owns it!

[Oldun]

 ^^ Nice one, a proper car 

Roger

[Komata]

My first car: A 1961 Austin A 35 2-door, with the 1100 cc motor.  Being a 'first' car, I didn't treat it very well, but it 'did' .  Second car was 1963 VW Beetle, which I owned for only a week as the 'very kind' car salesman (and VW agent BTW) had sold me a very expensive dud!! it was returned, and a refund given!!! My next vehicle was a 1966 Hillman Imp Mk 2 super.  Definitely my favourite car. I had lots of adventures wit the 'Limp' , including using it very successfully as a Landrover-equivalent while gold-prospecting in a very rugged part of New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula. it was an unwilling  participant in several spectacular accidents (long stories), but eventually I wore it out, so sent it on its way.  I would definitely get it back if it was possible.  The Imp was followed by an Austin  A35 Estate (vapour lock and poor brakes - exciting), a Vauxhall Viva HC (NEVER again would I buy Vauxhall; a total lemon), a Ford  Cortina Mk 2 Super, a 1985 Ford Laser 1300 (gutless) and then an absolutely superb 1996 Nissan Primera 2.0 which I have only recently sold in favour of a 2 litre Nissan Bluebird Sylphy.

Best car ('conventional' use): 1996 Nissan Primera 2.0
Best car ('non-conventional' use):  1966 Hillman Imp Mk 2 Super - it could really get in and out of some very strange places (river beds, unformed roads, 'bush' tracks).  Remarkable.

Worst Car: Vauxhall Viva HC: Ongoing Wiring / Electrical failures, Fuel Pump /s, Fuel tank leakage, Pathetic fuel tank size and consequent range (especially important in the days of 'petrol rationing). The list is almost endless.

BTW: Although I would have liked to have continued to 'Buy British',  the Nissans' have proven to be the most trouble-free and reliable of any of the vehicles I have owned, with the Primera doing 250,000 kms over 11 years - most of it over long distances and through rugged terrain.  Perhaps the stories about 'British production methods' and 'reliability' were actually true?

PS: One really good thing about the Imp was that it could out-turn and outrun Mini's (and give Vee-Dubbs something to think about as well). 'Doing' a Mini was always VERY satisfying, and could quite make one's day...
 

[GroupC]

1st car: Ford Cortina 1.6L. Written off by my colleague crashing into the back of it 6 weeks after I got it, but I got to keep the wreckage, sold it to a scrapper and with the insurance money make a profit!

Best car - TVR 350i. Not very frugal though... 20mpg if you were VERY careful. It did go like Joe Stink though, even with the roof down. The pop-up headlights were sometimes idiosyncratic however. But that 3.5 V8 sound! Anyway, sold it to buy a house! Stuck to my bicycles after that.

2nd best car - Opel Manta 2.0 GTE Exclusive coupe. Would buy it again if I could. Vey comfy and quite fast for its day but it looked like the batmobile.

[mr bachmann]

Is it a mk c or d Mr Bond?

Mk D , very rare Hard top (shown with hood ) , also ex factory reverse fitted £12 extra !!! - but remember in those you needed a full licence to drive a threewheeler with reverse . But I passed the test in the Bond , and in later years had to pass a further test for the 4 wheeler !

[guest311]

first car, costing £50, was a minivan, in 1970, sold a couple of years later for £55 

best is the Volvo XC70 in use at the moment, which cost a lot more than £50  :'(

in between there have been

a Ford Anglia,

a mk.1 Ford Escort,

a couple of mk.3 Ford Cortinas,

a Ford Sierra estate,

an ex army LWB Landrover FFR

a Landrover 110 County V8 3.5

a Suzuki Grand Vitara

a Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7

a Hyundai Santa Fe

frightening to think how much I've spent on cars over the years 

[Trainfish]

RHT200M a 1973 mk3 1.6 Cortina, yellow with an immaculate black vinyl roof bought for £380 in 1984 I think. After a couple of years the camshaft went (quite normal for the Cortina) and a mechanic friend of mine sold me a reconditioned head with high lift cams for £50 and offered to fit it for nothing. He then found the piston rings were on their way out so I PXed the short engine for a 2 litre and had the head fitted to that. It left most cars behind at the lights after that. I never really understood the 'high lift cam' + bigger short engine = a faster car off the blocks as I'm no mechanic but I was happy with it. I'm sure I have a picture of it (and all my other cars) somewhere and will upload it if I do 

[4x2]

My first car was a 1982 Vauxhall Chevette in bright orange ! 

Little did I know what I'd started... I passed my test in 1994 and since then I have had 76 cars ! That's an average of almost 4 cars a year, it all started when I crashed my first car (most first cars end their life this way !) and I decided that rather than spend a fortune buying nice cars I'll just buy bangers thinking I'll save money.... How wrong could I have been ?

I have kept a record of every car car I've owned and so far my car history has cost my nearly £45,000 !!! My current car is a 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe 2.0 CRDi which I'm actually very happy with, chances are I may actually keep it long enough to MOT it !

If enough people are interested I'll show the whole list..... It'll take ages to post !

[Komata]

4x2

Very interesting info.  While the list 'details' don't interest me per se, what I AM interested in is to learn when you started to move away from 'British' and into 'Foreign'; and the path you took to reach your current Hyundai.

Did you follow the 'Continental European' path (Renault, Fiat, Merc etc.), or go via the 'American' route?  Or, if neither was the case (which leave only Japanese and Korean)at what point did you decide to go 'Asian' and for what reason/s?

I'm asking these questions in support of a theory that it is actually possible to determine with some accuracy the year in which the British motor vehicle industry stared its descent into oblivion; the hypothesis being that this occurred when the first mass- importation of 'pre-loved' Japanese vehicles came into the UK (as it did in New Zealand, where it subsequently destroyed the local car assembly industry, largely due to volume and a massive decrease in price compared with the local product).  Although in New Zealand this occurred 1986/1987, I suspect that in the UK it was considerably later.

As you can 'track' your vehicle purchases with some accuracy, I suspect that you may be able to follow this path and would be interested in learning when the 'swing away' from the home-grown product started.

Thanks.