Some of my old 90's shite.

[240gl]

Had a look through some old photos today for a picture of my old Cavalier estate. It came in as a trade in at the garage I had done my work experience at, and I think I paid £150 with 8 months mot and a couple of weeks tax. Originally a 1.6, but that had just gone bang, and we dropped a low mileage 1.3 in with a 4 speed box that Mac Green had kicking around in the yard. It looked shite, but it was solid as a rock underneath. The door could be opened without a key by simply lifting the door handle slowly twice, the button would pop up half way on the first lift, and unlock on the second, but it drove nicely when I took it out on road test after we had dropped the lump in it, so I did a deal to buy it in 1996.

 

 

Mrs 240 had just got her Provisional, and I was planning to teach her to drive in it. Naturally she hated the colour of bloody thing, and refused to drive the ‘Vauxhall manky green’ heap of crap. We hadn’t been together very long at the time, and she had a family holiday booked a few weeks later, so while she was away me and my mate Dave picked up a couple of tins of brush able car paint from Halfords and a pack of mini gloss rollers and set to one Saturday afternoon painting it blue.

 

 

She didn’t mind it blue, but she still wouldn’t drive the bloody thing, so I used it as my work car for a couple of years. I bought a 1.3 Belmont a year or so later with a noisy camshaft that she liked, so I chucked a 1.6 lump back in the Cavalier and fitted the low mileage 1.3 into the Belmont. I stripped a load of useful spare parts from it for my other Cavalier in 1999 and scrapped what was left of it.

 

The 1.6 from the estate ended up in this red E plate hatchback, which burnt as much oil as it did petrol when I bought it.

 

 

She didn’t like this Cavalier either because it was RED. In fact thinking about it, she didn’t like the red mk3 saloon I replaced it with, but oddly she loved the brown Saab 900 parked in front of it, which was actually turned out to be maroon after it had been given a good T-Cut.

 

 

I really wish I had never sold the Saab though, it had done close to 200,000 miles with full Saab specialist service history from nearly new. It had wanted for nothing and came with the most comprehensive history file I have ever seen. Every gallon of fuel used from day one, every bulb, every puncture etc. and it had only had 2 owners from new when I bought it in 1999.

My Sister ran a pub in Brierfield, and really fancied a Jag until she had a drive of my 900. She nagged me about buying it for months, and I took it over after I’d given it a polish, and she had to have it, so I did her a deal for a H plate Fiesta van that she had which I fancied for work. A week later it got smashed up with baseball bats by a group of dickheads she had barred for dealing drugs and I never saw it again. I’m told that it wasn’t a pretty sight, and not a single panel, light or window was left untouched.

I would love another Saab 900 classic one day. I had a bid on a black D plate saloon the day I bought the Volvo, but I got outbid on it in the final seconds. I do love the Volvo though, and as you haven’t seen it yet, have a picture of it that I took on my 280 mile road test to bed the new brake pads in a week after I bought it.

 

 

Looking at how many left the Volvo 240 GL auto is down to just under 450 left on the road, and around 3,600 variants of the Volvo 200 series remained on the road in the last update. Like the Saab 900, these old Volvo estates were everywhere before the scrappage scheme.

[Split_Pin]

Great write up for a sun morning! The Cav estate is fabulous, and owned at a great time when these were cheap. My dad had a blue D reg 1.6 flag D871 NHS. First car he owned with power steering and a cassette player. Chopped it in for a 240 gl estate in gold F93 SSF.

[ShiteRider]

Nice write up mate. Despite being a hardcore cortina fan i do have a soft spot for the mk2 cavalier, we had a couple when i was a kid.

First was a terracotta-y brown 1.6l saloon A531LBV that we got from ormskirk vauxhall around 86/87 (chipped in a reed green chevette against it).

Then when my parents divorced around late '90 early '91 my dad pinched it and chipped it in for a black manta GTE coupe D33SCP. Mum ended up in a w-reg yellow datsun cherry (which was rotten everywhere even though it was only 10 years old), she got another cavalier in late '92 a beige 1.6l saloon B827WCK. Think it died in the late nineties from crispy sills/smokey engine.

 

P.S Old fella found out not long after buying the manta it was a cut'n'shut so it got "stolen" (this genuinely upset me at the time, and i was miserable for months) so he ended up in an x-reg astra 1300s......served him right.

[M'coli]

Top photos, loving the mk2 Cavalier aspect.

[Lord Sterling]

Brilliant photos, the Red Cavalier reminds me of FATHA_Sterlings old A-reg Cavalier, same colour and bodystyle. I will get myself one of those Cavaliers one day.

[stuboy]

mk2 cavalier was chariot of kings ......... i love 7 i had

[ShiteRider]

I'll just leave this here then,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-VAUXHALL ... 20d2745a43

[stuboy]

I'll just leave this here then,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1984-VAUXHALL ... 20d2745a43

plate says it all

[Spiny Norman]

Great write-up.

The Mk2 Cav, Volvo 240GL and Saab 900 are all cars I've had at some point, the Saab being as recent as earlier this year, and I've got to say I liked all of them a lot, with the possible exception of the 2 litre Volvo's comparative lack of go.

That green Ebay Cav is a real honey.

[240gl]

I’ve had some proper shite over the years, but not many of them made it onto film. I wasn’t really interested in taking photos of my cars back then. I had more mk2 Astra and Cavaliers than I care to remember, but out of all of them the estate was the one I owned the longest.

 

The only Cavalier saloon I ever owned was a Calibre, and that is another car I wish I had never sold. I would love a rag top Cavalier, but like the Calibre I haven’t seen one for quite a while. Other than my old Renault 4 f6, I had always owned saloon cars until I bought the Cavalier estate. It was a shed inside when I bought it, and it would have probably been scrapped if the low mileage engine and box wasn’t available.

 

Mac Green’s old garage was one of those places that everybody that at ever worked there popped in for a cup of tea and chat, and probably end up fitting an head gasket on a car out in the yard. He had a boat on the forecourt for many years named ‘Roundtoit’, but I’m not sure if he ever did get round to sorting it out before he sold up.He always had more work than he could handle on his own, and customers knew that it might take him a while to get started working on it.

 

You will see more of the Volvo in another thread. I’ve had her for a year this month and I’m just getting her ready for the Mot.

 

I’ve got some pictures of my Renault 21 1.9 & 2.1 td 7 seat estates and my Rover 100 somewhere. I might even have some pictures of my Dad’s nasty Hyundai Sonata and Nissan Serena 2.3d if I look hard enough. 70 mph is actually achievable in a non turbo Serena, but you will be deaf afterwards.