Childhood memories/your parents cars

[daveb47]

(Photos are not of actual cars)

My first memories of my parents cars is in early 50s,was going on family holiday in a Morris 8 which struggled to get up Porlock hill,finally needing help from passing AA patrol landie.

Got rearended by old rover on way home and presumably written off as shortly afterwards we got a Hillman Minx sidevalve,stll remember @helping@ my dad and Uncle Wilfred decoke it and replace a half shaft..

Wilfred worked at Power Petrol & had a fantastic Bedford ca van in Power petrol green which was first vehicle that i had ever been 40 mph in..

Had a great time but not so great few hours in bath getting scrubbed clean.

Next was a couple of year old Austin A30 in spruce green,,reg 489dvw.

He had this for many years and i spent many happy hours helping him maintain it,mainly at PG Page workshops in Mill lane Colchester where he worked.

Think it had virtually everything fixed on it,remember rebuilding engine,diff,gearbox etc.

 

Here endeth part 1

[mercrocker]

Because, as we were constantly reminded, my parents bought their own house we never had a car until I was about 10.   It was my Uncle's old Series  V Minx (530FTR) in Underpant Grey with not a single  upgrade, option or accessory.    5 years old and the front wings were still  mint - Mint Aero that  is....It was just about the dullest vehicle in the universe as  far as  I was concerned and the fact that I  had to  share the back seat with my 2 sisters consigned it to Room 101 (Misery department).    My mates Dads had Saabs and Beetles but the peak of Dad's motoring career was neatly by-passed when he failed to buy a neighbour's Alfa 1750 saloon.   I now  realise he was the pilot-light of my present Autoshitedom.   My grandfather's career was slightly more  interesting and co-incidentally progressed from Morris  8 to Mk VIII Minx wherein  I sustained  my first automotive injury by headbutting the ignition  key during a panic stop (seat belts were for Sabre Jets back  then)

[Spiny Norman]

It was fair to say my Dad was a Renault fan.

I was taken home from the maternity ward in a Dauphine....

 

after that he got another rear engined model, the 'posh' 1100 with a push button automatic gearbox...

 

followed by three 16s.

There followed a land crab, a Fiat 128 and finally an FE Victor that went from showroom to scrapyard with terminal rust in 6 years. By that time I'd passed my test and we shared a car for a while which suited us both since I was able to buy them (which he couldn't, on a pension) and he paid the insurance and chipped in for the servicing.

[Junkman]

My parents' first car was a new 2CV in 1961, still with reverse front doors. It was exactly like this one, colour and all:

 

 

 

I can't remember it, I was still shitting in my diapers in it. It was disposed off for the first one in a long line of Renault 16s, which my father got in 1965 after placing an order before the car even became officially available. Allegedly it was the second one ever to be delivered in Germany, the first one went to writer Heinrich Böll, if you are interested in such useless trivia. This is what it looked like:

 

 

It had severe teething problems, so after less than a year, Renault replaced the car under warranty and we got one like this:

 

 

We had it for about three years and around 1969, pretty much around the time I had to go to school, we got something looking like this:

 

 

My mother hated it ("Nooo, it looks like a French living room!") and we children got sick in it as soon as it was in motion, or even before that.

A little less annoying was the fact that the car never really completed a trip, we usually ended on the hard shoulder with that miserable piece of shit pissing one of its numerous fluids across an Autobahn. On the up side, this gave me some relief from being sick.

So my father sold it after only a year or so and we got another R16 that looked like this:

 

 

We referred to the colour as 'snot-green'. This was traded in for one looking like this:

 

 

Our's even had the same sticker in the rear window.

This one was totalled (T-boned) on a major Intersection in Munich by a nun (I is NOT kidding) driving her orange VW 1600TL through a red light, which left my sister injured and I remember her having to stay in a hospital for some time. This explains a lot now that I think of it...

Then we got a TX that looked like this:

 

 

After about three years (in 1980 IIRC) the gearbox broke and my father wanted to trade it in for a new one, but there weren't any available anymore, so he went for this:

 

 

He had it until the first TÃœV was due (after three years for new cars) and the car failed miserably due to severe rot. And with this, my 'childhood' officially ended on paper.

 

My mother worked as a fashion designer (she had a Dauphine company car at the time, which I can't remember) and around 1965 started her own fashion label, which prompted a succession of Renault 4 company cars in the whackiest colours available. Each year after a big show in Paris, she would visit the Renault showroom on the Champs Elysees and drive home with a new 'trelle on French temporary tags, yellow headlights and all.

 

A few I can remember, they looked like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this:

 

 

was actually her's. It was borrowed for this publicity shooting by Bellinda nylons, which she sold in her shop.

Bellinda is a subsidiary of avid alpine skier and ski fashion designer Willy Bogner, who arranged the ski stunts for the James Bond movies and supplied the clothing. He and my parents are friendly since the 1950s.

My mother is in fact in this photo, but I'm not going to tell you which of the ladies she is.

 

 

She also had one like this for transporting all the gear to shows, etc.

 

[warren t claim]

Several bizarre memories seem burned in my brain from childhood. I remember when I was seven our vicar buying a Polski Fiat in fetching beige and part exchanging an immaculate Karman Ghia for it. I recall he was impressed that the lights went off with the ignition. About the same time we went to see Blackpool and Morcombe illuminations and en route we were zapped by a 3 litre police Capri at full speed, later when we stopped at Lancaster Services we saw the copper parked up and wandered over wondering what happened earlier, the speedy trafpol was remarkably frank and honest and said that the Capri was brand new that day and he just wanted to see what it'd do!

[Partridge]

Old Citroens, Volvos and a Jag XJ40 is pretty much my childhood.

[DVee8]

One of the first memories

My old man did Opels not Vauxhalls Around 1970

Followed by in 1977

 

Then 1980 we had a

All fresh out of the box

Then around 1982 he did something he said he would never on this earth do

A Jap

 

This was wrote off one Sunday lunchtime by someone pulling out of a side road who was more pissed than my old man was,he was returning from the club.

Next and last as he gave up driving and gave it to me

 

 

Me being a young arse at the time pxed it along with a toyota camry for a shit sierra.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow, where do I start. (Non of the photos are of the actual cars, just representations of the models in the nearest colour they were)

Around the time I was born, my Dad had a Green Austin Marina, but I've never seen this car but have heard it was a 4-door saloon.

Apparently it broke down on the way to London when Fatha_Sterling went to pick up his parents from Heathrow.

The first car I was aware of was Parents_Sterling's Renault 14 TL (CAW 995T) in Gold:

Then, seemingly that disappeared to be replaced by a Mk1 Sierra in Blue:

Then, the Sierra was very briefly replaced by a 1988 Escort 'Sport' in White:

I dont think* it was an actual XR3i but i seem to remember it looked like one. The car only stayed with us for a few days before it got taken back to the original vendor as something serious had been discovered about it.

After the Escort went back, Sterling_Parents went and bought an early Mk2 Vauxhall Cavalier in Red:

Whilst in ownership of Sterling_Parents it was stolen and used in a burglary, the Cavalier was recovered and returned to us though.

A few years later, the Cavalier was traded in against a then brand-new Ford Fiesta (G886 KAW) finished in Radiant Red:

The Fiesta was really intended for Ma_Sterling, Fatha_Sterling did use it more until Ma bought him the D-reg Rover Sterling (D233 KYG) finished in Shantung Gold:

We then became a 2-car family. Prior to the Rover being purchased, the Fiesta was involved in an accident but was repaired by the insurance given it was still a relatively new car.

It goes without saying that the Rover Sterling had made such a huge impression on me, which continues today. Never before had I been in such luxury, such refinement, never had I seen such toys. I really felt that this car really suited Fatha_Sterling right down to the ground,  a hard worker, a shrewd businessman of the 90s, head of the house, the man with the big main luxury car. This of course, was in the days when many men had big, comfy, luxury gas-guzzlers and most women had little runabouts such as Fiestas, Metros, Novas. How times and attitudes change eh?

 

Note* This has taken me the best part of 3 hours to write this due to the fact that my bastard tablet 'coughs' web pages and loses the content I was writing, this is the 3rd bloody time I've had to write this.

[Partridge]

What a lovely present your Dad was given!

[sutty2006]

From what I recal, the father had a Sierra sapphire "back in the day" circa 1993?ish...... They PX'd it for a mk3 Granada.... I remember offering all of my pocket money (about 40p) to try and keep the sierra. (it didnt work)

 

Dad also had a Jeep Cherokee (K451 CBF) was the plate, it was 6 months old when we had it.... I can still remember the lovely smell of the leather!!

[fordperv]

its my dads fault im into cars as a small child i was always out with him helping and learning, he was into modifying and fixing motors mainly fords but hes had a few different manufacturers in between, my earliest memory is of a blue over silver (he painted it like that) l reg hillman avenger which he put a tuned essex 3.0 into with triple weber carbs in it, its safe to say that thing went like a scalded rat my most amusing memory was when the motor first went in he didnt have a throttle cable to suit so with the bonnet off he got my uncle in the engine bay doing the throttle him inside doing the gears up and down the road at some pace as well, that avenger got written off it was parked at the side of the road in front of the house and a taxi driver fell asleep and crashed into it, he built various daft cortinas, escorts and capris etc teaching me everything he knew along the way, he gave working on cars up due to ill health, its crushing really a man who had his talent and knowledge im just happy that we built the last car he ever did together, every time i go round with one of my cars and we talk about things im doing and building, he beams like a 20 something again.

you can take a man out of the shite, but you cant take the shite out of the man

[HMC]

My earliest memory of being in a car is in my dads 79 capri 1.3 which they bought new when i was born, i remember him grazing the side in a multistory car part in bolton and being distraught. Around 83. This was replaced by a Toyota tercel END949Y which i remember chucking up in on the way back from farnwaorth baths. Family cars and velour seats are not a good combo. After being joined by 3 younger brothers we ended up with a metallic gold with red velour upholstery toyota space cruiser C804CVR. Having in MPV in our neighbourhood back then was quite a novelty. How things have changed. I remember my dad scouring brochures of other 7 seat cars the main contenders being a renalt espace, 21 savanna or a 505 estate or cx 'familiale' he was an accountat so i suspect he was scared off the cx which is a shame as it was the one my 7 yr old self wanted most. Im suprised to see the 'cruiser was last taxed in 2008 as even by 1989 the door bottoms were going rusty.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Apparently I was driven home from hospital balanced on the engine cover of a 1963 Thames pickup with a paraffin tank on the back. My mom (all of 17) was walking in front to tell my dad where the road went,the fog was so bad.

 

3300 cc of raw power (124bhp) fed through a 2 speed Powerglide, but best of all electric windows,no one in the whole schools dad had a car with them , if only the internet existed then I could have boasted to even more people.

To make even more cash, my dad and a couple of mates invested in a set of bottles,a caravan chassis and a Bedford CA Workabus, I dread to think how many lovely old cars they chopped up in Three year period , but I remember me and my brothers having 5 P4 Rovers at the bottom of the garden lined up one behind the other to play in/on.

Run out of time and it's only 1970.

[RichardM1]

Before I was born my dad had a succession of Escorts and Cortinas, but these are the cars that I can remember, the colours are about right from memory;

 

'89 Golf Driver

 

'93 Cavalier 1.6 (same colour but in povvo-spec) and the start in a line of company cars so all bought new and traded in at three years old;

 

'96 Peugeot 406 2.0

 

'99 Saab 9-5 2.0t (this is the car I learned to drive in!)

 

'02 9-5 2.3t

 

'04 Volvo S60 D5 (his current car)

[Wilko220]

Aside from what I may or may not feel about Junkman's mother, my main emotion on reading this thread is one of envy for some of your childhoods. 

 

Up until about the age of 10, my parents drove a car almost identical to this.

 

 

[Barry Cade]

My dad tended to keep his cars for a long time- first one I remememer was a 1962 Singer Gazelle, bought at 2 years old, I was born in 1974, and the car was still running well when he scrapped it in 1984. Registration was 8265SP-Exactly like this one:

 

 

The next one was a Viva HB, in Aqua Starmist. UTJ 745H

 

 

Then a Datsun 100A F11, CSX 730S

 

 

then a Polo GLS, BTY86V in onyx met

 

 

and lastly a 205 Junior.

 

 

[purplebargeken]

I recall my Dad having a brand new 1969 Corsair 200E in gold with a black vinyl roof. We travelled everywhere in that car. France, Belgium and Germany to see the family. It was very cool. I believe he had it sent through the paint shop about 3 times. He worked for Fords and was able to do this kind of thing. He lunched it whilst under the influence. He did that quite a lot. The next car was a K reg 1600XL Mk3 Cortina XAK 363L IIRC. That was a nice car and pretty nippy too. I believe he killed that one too.

 

He gave up on cars then as Fords arranged a driver for him.

 

Mum was a bit of a closet autoshiter, her first car was an Almond Green Mini Countryman, this was later painted pillar box red and sold on. Then came a Hillman Husky (the one that looked like the Imp at the front). It was blue and had no real heater to talk of. We just had blankets. She likened it to a small hearse. 

 

Next came a pale blue Simca 1000 with blue vinyl seats (1973 or 74 I think). I really liked this one, as did she. Dad borrowed it and killed it whilst under the influence. Mum was a bit angry about that.

 

To make up for this he bought her a brand new (1978) Mini Clubman Traveller in Pageant Blue. He had someone fit a Ford glass sunroof and a black vinyl roof. It did look very cool. This car was brilliant (WED 253S), it was sold to purchase a new Mk2 Ford Fiesta Pop Plus in radiant Red (A598 JLV). A work colleague of my dad bought the mini for his daughter. Stupid cow killed it by thrashing it without any oil in the engine. Mum went on to buy her last car. A Ford Escort Bonus, 3 door in that beige colour. She did like that car but only had it for 3 years as she died in 1993. Dad drove it for a short while and then gave it to a fuckwit nephew and I never saw it again. 

[quicksilver]

My childhood was one of Peugeot-Talbots and Mitsubishi Space Wagons. The first of my dad's cars I remember was a gold Talbot Alpine Rapier like this

 

Then he had two Space Wagons in succession (white B252 YGN, an ex-Autocar long-termer that was allegedly the first one in the UK, followed by red E896 MDG)

 

Next came a Peugeot 305 diesel estate (C146 SNV) like this but without the alloys

 

The Peugeot was sold to a family friend and replaced by another red Space Wagon (H883 GMJ). That one lasted until I was 17, when it was traded in for his current Zafira.

 

The second cars mainly used by mum were primarily Metros but there was also a red Vauxhall Nova (D168 WNH) at one point. An early Metro (WRP 20W) had quite an eventful life: written off after being hit from behind (by the only roadworthy Allegro convertible of all things!), bought back from the insurers and repaired, sold a few years later to a friend and then bought back again. Sadly it met a tragic end when the next owner overturned it, killing himself and 5 friends. It looked just like the one Princess Di had.

 

There was also a grey 5-door Metro (F308 EFC) but dad didn't like that anywhere near as much as the older one.

[gary_davidson]

cars my parent owned, it's an epic amount of shite, Because my dad and grandad ran a small garage (where I spent many days as a kid) including some car sales my dad would change cars all the time. It was quite common that if somebody wanted to buy a car and my dad didn't have one ready for sale he'd just sell them his current wheels. They were usually either Japanese or had some BL in them. I can only really remember the ones that hung around for a while, there was the almost compulsory Mini that my mum drove when I was born, this was around for a while as I can remember it. There were a few late 70's Datsuns - 100a, 120y that sot of thing. I can remember a blue estate, I know it was a Datsun but can't remember the model. We had a N12 cherry, I can remember a wheel falling off that. There were loads of B11 and B12 Sunnys usually in white, plus a few bluebirds - there was a Silver b plate saloon, black d plate turbo (I'd love one of these now), light blue e plate saloon, a red f plate estate and a black G plate hatchback. There was a Princess/Ambassador at some point, I did't last long. My Mum also had a Renault 5 gtx, that got struck by lightening and had all sorts of electrical problems. 

[Negative Creep]

From memory, my dad owned (mainly company cars):

 

Brown or maybe orange mk.1 Astra estate - the car I was taken home from the hospital in

 

White mk.2 Astra

 

Blue Sierra estate - it had a carphone which was like something out of Star Trek at the time. I remember trying to ring home on it, but not understanding the concept of area codes kept getting through to some random person

 

MG Montego

 

Renault 9 or maybe 11 in a nice metallic green

 

Fiat Uno - 1.1 with vile smelling tweed seats. Once took 4 of us on a holiday to France and back - ALL UR MPVS CAN GO BOLLOX. I passed my test in it, Dad then promised it to my sister when she passed her test, but because it took her 6 (yes, 6) attempts the MOT was long out and got scrapped

 

Focus 2.0 - he's owned it for something like 10 years now. Has an utterly infuriating habit of refusing to break down, something that he will continue to remind me every time my next brilliant purchase turns out to be not so brilliant

[Micrashed]

I was hauled about in this:

Not a Bedford Beagle HA Van. ERN 393E by Micrashed, on Flickr

 

Until a need for comfort gave way to this

 

Austin 1300 VTC 263H by Micrashed, on Flickr

(which became my car at 16)

 

And was replaced by dad in 1986 with this

Austin Metro 1.3L D269 RFV by Micrashed, on Flickr

Which 4 years later and with rot in the door bottoms I took on.

[Richard]

She likened it to a small hearse. 

 

 

 

Like this? (03:55 in)

 

[ProgRocker]

After I was born my parents cars were:

1974 (M) Cortina 1600 XL estate in orangey red with RoStyle wheels

1976/7 ® Granada 2.0 L with optional vinyl roof, front fogs, chrome rim embellishers and rear centre armrest. Almost GL spec.

1979 (V) Vauxhall Royale 2.8. Silver with burgandy interior. The best car my parents owned.

 

From the sublime to the riduculous. The big Vauxhall was proving too expensive to run, so it was sold in favour of:

 

1980 (W) Talbot Horizon 1.3 LS. I disliked it immensely.

1983 (Y) MG Maestro 1600 with the R series engine & twin carbs

1986 (D) Vauxhall Carlton 2200i CD. Second favourite to the Royale. I think I have developed a fetish for velour upholstery after that one.

 

I turned 17 at this point and was lucky enough to be insured on the Carlton at 19. Loved driving it - felt like king of the road - sort of!

[purplebargeken]

YES! That's the type. I think it looks bloody cool! Thanks for finding that 

[I_am_Diesel]

I think I have had more cars in 2 years than my Dad has had in my entire life. He always has a policy of 'running them into the ground'

The first car I remember him having was a 1967 Hillman Minx. He later said he hated it and he had bought it to replace his Sunbeam Rapier in preparation of fatherhood. (My fault then)!! 

That was replaced with a 1973 Triumph 2000 TC. That car took us all over Europe. Even though Dad was a lorry driver, his idea of a holiday was driving to every country he could think of. I used to have to sit in side with a washing up bottle full of water to put out any fires when Dad was welding the floor for the MOT.

After that a 1979 Vauxhall Cavalier Sports Hatch 1600. That was an ACE car, looked like a Manta. It was even considered cool by some of my school pals.

Once diesels started to become popular a 1984 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6D hatchback was the next new wheels. That did a couple of trips to Europe too. Happily it had a tape player so we could listen to Mums 1 tape all the way down to Bordeaux and back. I learned to drive in this, it was as flat as a witches tit and dull as dish water. Mum 'T-Boned' it on some black ice a couple of years later.

An Astra F 1.6D of 1991 vintage was hastily bought as a replacement. It was povo specced in Polar white. I don't think Dad was that keen on it and I don't blame him, it was shite. After the rear wiper started to have a mind of it's own and a massive rust spot developed around it, a 1996 Rover 420D was procured.

I'd left home by then to seek my fortunes in the RAF but he kept that for a good while before a 52 plate Rover 75 Diesel estate became his new car. That was a lovely car, nice to drive, nice interior, reliable engine. 

Since he's discovered his love of caravanning, he now has a Nissan X-Trail. Yoinks!!

In between that he's had Landrovers Series, 1, 2 & 3 and a couple of Astramax van for his haulage business.

I'd list all the cars that I've had but I'd run out of cyber ink.

[eddyramrod]

I won't go google-image-searching for pics, it could take all night!  Sadly, I have almost no pics of the actual vehicles, and those I do have, will be in one of my many boxes, probably in my council lockup on the other side of town.

That said, we're dealing with a lot of cars!

I had some damn good training as a young Shiter, even though some of the cars in my early years were new or near so.

Before I was born, and possibly just after, there was a company van, a Bedford CA.  I say just after, as we moved when I was 4 months old into the house my parents still owned when they died over 40 years later and I remember my mother telling me about a certain scrape with the gatepost...

Next up, and another one I don't actually remember, is a black Austin A30 saloon, a two-door.  This was replaced by a Hillman Minx (which was either grey or blue, depending who you ask) but apparently I was so attached to the Austin that I wouldn't get out of it when my dad went to do the trade-in, so someone from the garage had to follow him home in the Hillman and quietly take the Austin away when I was in the house.  The reason for the Hillman was the birth of my sister.  I do remember the Hillman even if my colour recall may be faulty, because we did have trips out in it.  I was getting-on for three years old by this time.

This was followed by a Goodwood Green Anglia van, as my dad was working for himself by now and had decided a van was what he needed.  XWM 234, the first number plate I remember with any reliability.

Next was a brand-new car, so obviously he wasn't doing too badly selling farm machinery freelance!  This was a two-door Ford Corsair 1500, GTE 324B, also Goodwood Green.  What would that shell be worth now?  It was worth nothing to my dad, he hated it as it had terribly unreliable brakes and gave him some "big moments" (copyright Murray Walker).  In approximately a year he traded it in for a mk3 Zephyr 4 in dark blue with huge (to a six-year-old) pale blue bench seats.  DWM 95C, if you've seen it in someone's barn.  I actually would buy that if it still exists, I loved it that much.  I wouldn't care about condition.

Meanwhile, during the Corsair period, my mum had been having refresher lessons with a local school that used... a white Corsair!  So we soon became a two-car family, at which point the order gets a little confused, for the next couple of years. 

There was a Standard Atlas van in pale blue, a Morris Minor van in grey and a Ford Prefect in grey (SXK 803).  I suspect the vans were chosen as occasional business tools because the theme was repeated.  I remember very well a Morris half-ton (think A60 van) in cream: 802 KF.  This stayed with us through the end of the Zephyr, which was traded-in for a brand-new mk2 Cortina 1500 Super in black cherry: HWM 457F, the last car my dad bought new, in the autumn of 1967.  Soon after, the Morris van was traded for DWM 242C, a white Anglia van.

Then tragedy struck.  1967 was notable for a disastrous outbreak of foot-and-mouth.  My dad couldn't go from farm to farm, which was how his business was conducted in those days.  When the situation was resolved, he drove himself into the ground trying to rebuild the business, and failed.  He was ill for some time and never worked consistently again.  The new car, the decent van, the caravan, all had to go.  I was still in primary school so didn't really understand what was going on at the time, but now I think we were very lucky to keep the house.

So begins a long list of real shite!  A 1961 Ford Popular in Pompadour Blue arrived (6279 KB), which served us for about three years.  It was joined by a couple of projects that didn't go anywhere: VKC 225, a grey Minor Traveller, and 1108 ED, a dark green ex-Warrington council 300E van.  I still have the front number plate of that!

When the Pop died it was replaced by SCK 781, an Austin A35 van which had been hand-painted blue and converted into an estate.  I never liked it, I was getting to be a gangly teen by then and it was just too damn small.  It died, as I was coming to understand they all do, and we experienced a little gap.

In the summer of 1974, while Turkey was busy invading Cyprus, my dad strolled round to his mate Ginger mcCain who had a used-car pitch in front of his stables, and came back with an unwanted trade-in: JEV 463C, a mk1 Cortina two-door Super in Goodwood Green.  Another valuable shell nowadays!  But wait, there's more!  After effecting a couple of repairs the Super needed, we discovered a "wrong" radiator had been fitted which caused something of an overheating issue.   Could we get a rad for a nine-year-old Cortina?  Could we hell.  We managed to find another Cortina laid-up, for sale, so my dad and his neighbour dragged it home and started scavenging it.  VGR 990 was a lowly 1200 deluxe, and pre-facelift at that, but well worth the tenner the bloke was asking.  Needless to say, my old man beat him down...And yes, again it was a two-door.  The Super was the first car I ever drove, at the grand old age of 15 on Southport beach.  Bench seat, column shift... it left me with a soft spot for such oddities.

An A40 Farina turned up; between the Cortinas I think.  It had no engine, and my dad obviously thought the A35 engine would fit nicely.  He never completed the swap.  5064 TJ rotted away in our back garden...

The Cortina wasn't quite enough for family camping holidays, so it was sold on after a year in favour of 213 FUY, a grey A60 Cambridge.  At last, rear doors!  If you're accustomed to climbing over supposedly-tipping seats, having your own door makes such a difference.  Probably explains my ongoing preference for four-doors, as well as my phobia of travelling in the back.

The time was coming when I would be wanting to take driving lessons, but I think the disposal of the Cambridge was linked closer to the fatigue of the car rather than any learner-considerations.  Whatever, we ended up with a Triumph Herald 12/50, ATD 315A in Valencia Blue.  Back to less than enough doors again...  A second Herald was swiftly bought (350 DYG, again a 12/50) followed by a Mini van in blue, 573 DOU, with a rear seat conversion.  The combined purchase price of the two Heralds was a heady £24.

ATD is the car that got my L plates, and as such, has a special place in my heart.  It also concludes this topic for me, as this is where MY life in shite begins, as opposed to my parents'.  Their story continues though, right up to the end.  Their last five cars were two Lada Rivas, two Ford Sierras and an FSO Polonez. 

As I said, I've had great training!

[Grundig]

Dad bought one of these new in '74' - then, the (PHEWWOTASCORCHA) summer of 76 + black vinyl interior + me, a kid in short pants (c/w snake belt) = 3rd degree burns - my sister also had a box of crayons on the rear parcel shelf that all melted into one 

 

 

[phil_lihp]

When I recall the usually rather shonky secondhand cars my parents got through when I was little it's hardly surprising I ended up a fan of them.  Their garage floor today still bears a large black stain where each one sat.  Before I was born they had already gone through quite a list of fine British engineering such as Cortinas, Minors, Marinas and Minis.

 

Earliest one I remember is a baby poo yellow Mk2 Escort estate which got barrel-rolled and written off in 1987

Replaced by a blue Mk2 estate which turned out to be completely rotten

Then, in rough order from '87 to '93:

 

Mk1 Renault 5

Chocolate brown S3 Allegro

1984 Maestro 1.3 HL - auto choke woes, overheated in traffic, rotten arches

1983 Mini Metro - sent back to the trader after discovering it had cornflake subframes

1986 Rover 216SE - fantastic car but completely rotten by 1995

Mk1 Fiesta

 

Then, very exciting times - Dad changed jobs and got our first ever new car, a company Vauxhall Cavalier 1.7TD Envoy

 

 

Good to see someone still has L752 CFX as well, still taxed!

 

After this Dad had to buy a cheap runaround so got a very agricultural E-reg Escort 1.6D in about 1996, then a 2 year old 1995 Mondeo LX 2.0 company car which was great but also in terrible condition owing to the previous assignee having done nothing to it in 2 years - it had never been serviced or washed and had constant problems.

 

That was changed for a 1999 Toyota Avensis 1.6 which was so awful he was allowed to swap it for a 1999 Rover 416si which I was very happy about as I learnt to drive in it.

[hairnet]

dad was a scooterist when he met me mam then bought a 66 mk1 tina in burgundy

 

then had mk3 tina in beige

 

victor fd in white _ mum crashed it at the bottom of the lane into a ditch uncle shay lived on in ireland with us in the back

 

mk3 tina estate in kermit green - we helped paint it black i loved that car - flattened the battery in ireland listening to the tape player - the separate type slung under the dash

 

mk2 granada saloon died of rust - good car that

 

facelift 89 montego 1.6

 

xantia (still running re an has it) - had it 11 years

 

current e39 had since 04

 

mum had mopeds when we were younger then didnt drive till the xantia - had fiesta and bought a civic on monday

[v8 scania]

my pa was mad on cars  from memory he had a  mk3 zodiac,mk2 zodiac,mk2 Cortina, 2 mk3 Cortina gt's ,Vauxhall senator 2.5,rover 800, Hillman imp, a 50's cadillac, victor 101, 105e Anglia, sierra gls, mk1 Granada estate, mk1&2 cavalier, victor fd, mk2 Granada 2.8 ghia, and the worst and last  car that he ever owned was  a mk1 mondeo ghia estate( he lost his life in that one)