MantaGTE85

Such an awesome little car. Back in the '90s, I owned two of these. They were both 1.5 GLX versions, a blue 3-dr on a C-plate (C880RAN), and a gold 5-dr on a G-plate (G193BDD). I loved them both. They had real character, however both cars seemed to prematurely corrode overnight. As soon as I find the time, I'll post you more information about these cars, the G-plate one is particularly interesting, and actually not one that I've ever seen before. I can see this thread becoming very popular indeed. All the best m8.

Quite right! Saying that, I don't even recall any Ladas in UK scrapyards at all. I remember reading 'Parker's Older Car Price Guide' circa-1998 and the brief notes at the start of the valuations list, did state that many were exported for parts to be re-used.

Last V5 change was in July 1990, presumably when it was given away as a used car, before lasting until 27th April 1992.

AE11AXZ is now off the system sadly.

The Montego wheel trims work well on this.

But it has 'coil sprints' on the front.

One for the High Peak Autos channel. Not a bad idea for his 'I bought a cheap ........ for £....' series.

"Alright guys, how's it going, welcome back." Matt the Massive Overspender of U-Choob fame has recently bought a big, black, chrome-accessoried £1000 Disco 3 with a set of 4 'Windforce' tyres. Made in China apparently. Even he said WGPCW.

It would still look a lot better inside the headlamp when refitted. Can you still get these new? Good effort on the improvement though.

I'm just catching up with this thread. Nice pictures. I don't think I've ever seen a black-top bumper with headlight washers, on a GLX without front foglights. But how did these early cars get those trims? I think I've only seen these trims fitted to the end-of-line mk1 LX from 1996. Weren't they supposed to have those amazing 'swirly'-early GLX trims instead? Other than the 1996 LX, what else came with those trims illustrated here?

Now off the DVLA site, so an early end for😢 this one.

I wouldn't say so. I could imagine Dougie from Once Driven making a Kollecshun Kaper video on this. Lowered on Vectra C bin-lids, from some angles, this does look a bit like a mk4 Astra caricature come alive. Very rare even when new, these are getting quite cool now. This particular one is very early. Although I've seen mk4 hatches on R-plates, I have not seen R-plates on these.

Many cars back then had the very best allocated registration numbers. Both the MG and Escort don't come up on DVLA so their registration numbers may have been scrapped with the cars in the '70s/early '80s.😢

Very good. My dad had a company Orion 1.6 LX with the same wheel trims as this Sierra.

Gorgeous colour, Premium Blue, code 293 IIRC. The original Vectra's shape still looks fresh, well into this millennium that it was designed for. I highly approve.

Nice find. This looks like late registration madness to me. When did they officially stop making those?

I know it's a 156, but this one has a '159' badge on the rear.

They were a bit selective on the photos. Already needs some sparkly stick action underneath the VIN plate by the looks of the moisture and surrounding rust.

I don't know a great deal about Safranes but the steering wheel doesn't look correct to me. I'm sure they're supposed to have buttons for cruise etc.

Must be the earliest Laguna phase 2 remaining.

Does anyone have any pictures of Maestros?

What's up with the rear wheels on that Merc? Is there a dead cow in the boot?

MantaGTE85. Great name.

There are no medium sized cars out there that are better than these. I used to own a Battleship Grey 1.6 GX hatchback R793BNB from 2003 to 2005. Awesome car, very high spec considering it was one up from bASe. Nissan got the balance of sporty feel and refinement just right with these P11's.

The Top Gear Book of Crap Cars states that if you press the 4WD button on the top of the gearlever, the wipers automatically come on.