Your first car's story in one paragraph

It was 1991, and my Grandad had died and left me his 1984 Austin Maestro 1.3. With beaded seat covers. Easily the biggest POS car I have owned. Had loads go wrong with it, had an utterly gutless engine and a gearbox that was like stirring porridge with a wooden spoon. Just when I fixed all the problems I wrote it off by concentrating on tuning the radio rather than looking where I was going which caused me to stuff it into the back of a Fiat Panda.

And, on a far more positive note, just picked up my wife's new company car today! :icon_biggrin:

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Fiat strada 105tc, in 1992 for £150. Great car, have lots of fun memories, eventually the gearbox started playing up, younger bro fixed it and used it for a year or so, then it went to car heaven.
 
The Geordie Shaver said:
P reg Datsun (Nissan to you younguns) 160J in the brightest orange paint job ever ,
Derrick
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You just brought back memories of a little Datsun Cherry in bright red my dad had, we used to go down to Cornwall in it with the whippet we had!
 
Nissan Stanza, about an 1984 model I think. Looked like this:



This was about 1991, I was working in Germany and a chap came out to work with us, he had one of these that he didn't want anymore as he was looking for a better car.

I never got it serviced and so one winter I drove it with a frozen radiator unknowingly and it blew up outside an Italian restaurant in a town called Goch while I was inside stuffing my face with Tortellini. I sold it on to another colleague who did car maintenance, he fixed it up, and I bought a 1988 Ford Escort which I had for years afterwards.
 
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Ford Zephyr bench seats, megaphone exhaust. Bought it from my brother when I got home on leave. Unbeknownst to me, he could make it back-fire at will and did so at local bobbies on the beat. How many times did I get stopped? Would they believe it was my brother and not me? Not until the last when I was pulled over at about 1am, dressed in a dressing-gown and slippers with a very pregnant wife dressed in naught but a nightie - Carl! Carl! the baby's kicking, I can't sleep, please take me for a moon-light drive. Beebar! Beebar!
 
A J reg Rover 216 GTi in British racing green bought from my brother-in-law.

Pretty decent car as a first car, but I didn't buy it until I was 25 and so avoided the punitive insurance premiums that are charged to those under 25.

The engine was made by Honda and was a peach. It used to rev cleanly all the way up to 6.5K redline, yummy!

I killed it up in Scotland on the Broxburn roundabout just outside Perth :(
 
Great thread this.

Here's mine:

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Sadly it got wrote off in the snow after 2 cars when flying into it!

Best described as low and slow. It was a fantastic car, I had some great times in that.
 
Morris Ital I got for £50, insured it for thruppence, if it went over 55 it started smoking. It only lasted for a couple of months. Set off in it to try for the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge with a couple of mates. We got from Yorkshire to Stratford upon Avon and then the big end went. Big bang and car full of steam, like something from the Furry Freak Brothers as we piled out in the middle of a cloud of smoke and dreadlocks. We spent the night 'trying to stay out of trouble' in town (whilst carrying on alarmingly) and slept under the wreck. The next morning we gathered all the cash we could and pushed her into a garage forecourt to use as part-ex on a Morris Marina, which turned out to be a beauty.
A rather breathless paragraph.

The pic is from a "World's Ugliest Car" article it was at #13!

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Hilman Imp. My Dad told me when I was growing up that if I didn't smoke then he'd buy me a car when I was old enough. Didn't really appreciate what a cracking little car I had. Would happily trade in my current car (BMW) for my old Imp in a heart-beat.
 
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Ford Prefect 1950 bought by me in 1961 for £115. Attacked by a milk float in1965 - insurers paid me £45 and I got £10 for scrap. My registration number was WME 9. Wish I'd kept it. Petrol was 4 shillings and four pence a gallon.
 
I had one of these:-
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A Fiat Nuova 500L, a 17th birthday present that my Dad bought for me for the princely sum of £27.50! Between Dad, myself and the lads he had working for him we repaired and restored it. My Mum and sister affectionately christened it the "Clockwork Tomato."

I initially learned to drive in an instructor's Austin All-aggro (Allegro):-/ which I couldn't get on with, I then continued my driving lessons in the Fiat and promptly demolished the garden gate!:icon_rolleyes: I ended up doing 1000 miles in 10 days and passed my test first time.

It did not have an awful lot of performance! The engine was absolutely unburstable and I could drive it flat out all the time, day in, day out. Because of the lack of acceleration I used to go round bends as fast as I could, until after 11 1/2 months of motoring my luck, and the road, ran out, I hit the scenery and rolled it.........
 
Ford Mondeo (Mk1) 18TD Got it for nothing from my dad's mate. I was 22 and it cost me £950 TPFT to insure! It had quite a few dings in it and had done 176,000 miles when I got it! Was warned it was a bit slow pulling away. Too right - had to have foot to the floor until about 25mph (which took a long time - scary at roundabouts, never took it on motorway) then the normal acceleration would kick in. Did about 1000 miles in it and remember being pulled over for going too slow at one point! (that and the police followed me out of a council estate notorious for car crime when I was a student). A mate replaced the turbo on it which took all day but the turbo was fine - something else was producing the cloud of black smoke till we got near 30mph. I also remember leaving it for a week and then it wouldn't start. Topped up the battery but still wouldn't go. In the end I tipped a bottle of Redex down it and a mate and I rocked the car back and forth for what seemed like ages and we did eventually get it going. The acceleration issues - if I remember correctly - was an exhaust gas recirculation valve/solenoid problem (I'm no mechanic or engineer). Ford garage wanted £600 for the diagnostics, to fix it and do a full service. I took my chances. A few weeks later the car I parked it next to, which was a housemate's, was set on fire and mine got scorched all down one side. Firemen said they had cut the fuel line on mine before setting fire to her's. I never got to 'christen' it - you know what I mean! I didn't bother claiming on the insurance!

Sorry - more than a paragraph really but interesting nonetheless? I have photos somewhere of the before and after but haven't been able to find them. If I do I'll post them on here.
 
1971 Austin 1300 VTC 263H

Bought for £50, mint on top, rustier than the Queen Mary underneath. Learned to weld, went all over the UK in it. It became my second home, the freedom I had. Learned about grease nipples and SU carbs eventually it got written off by a bin wagon reversing into me at a junction. Never got a payout because five bin men said I rolled into the wagon vs me and one witness saying he backed up. Replaced with a Austin Metro.
 
NotTheStig said:
I never got to 'christen' it - you know what I mean!
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I christened the Fiat! They may be small but "it" is definitely do-able! Mine had reclining seats and a sunroof, I'll leave the rest to your imagination!;)
 
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