First car you remember

[Stixy]

My Dads  Silver MkIV Zephyr 6 

[Alan_Green]

Have my first two. Both split screen campers. Both scrapped for about a tenner each.  D'oh! If only we had a barn.  

[Fabergé Greggs]

My mum was given my great aunt's Austin landcrab. My dad was telling me recently that it was completely rotten. 

 

Driving down a country road, my mum swerved into a gravelly lay-by to avoid a speeding lorry. Losing it somewhat, we crashed into the side of the lorry only to have an unsecured tractor PTO shaft fall off the lorry bed onto the roof. 

 

That's my earliest motoring memory. I remember crying because I thought I should, not because I wanted to. Weird. 

 

After that, it would have been my dad's Mk2 Cav company car. Apprently my sister washed it for him in the first week of ownership but accidentally put the cloth down in some fine gravel inbetween wipes. Classic family banter, that. 

[STUNO]

That drags me back a bit ! The first car I remember dad getting was an EIP Vauxhall Velox in 1952/3. It was so flash that the neighbours rushed out and got one too! It must have been a fairly early E model as it had the side opening bonnet, and a feature that I did not see again for many years, a button to open the boot from inside the car, which was a completely useless bit of stunning technology because the button was below the rear seat. To use it the driver had to get out, open and reach inside the RH rear door to push the button, or more usually get out, try to open the RH rear door, get back through the front door, unlock the rear door the start again. At the age of Five and a half that seemed a bit stupid to me. The other wonders were a RADIO and a HEATER, which both came as extras. It must have been ok though as it was replaced in 1955 by another new one. That was very Quickly replaced by MK2 Zephyr though! And I suppose the Vauxhall was considered a huge improvement to the Perpendicular Prefect he had before that.

[oman5]

My dad's Hillman avenger. It was dogshit brown with a bright yellow roof (ordered from new like that apparently)

Memorable mainly because my cow of a sister was fiddling with the door and fell out whilst it was moving.

[rml2345]

My dad's first car was a Datsun Cherry made mainly of rust, which he bought about a month after I was born.

The first one I remember though was a red Lada Riva 1200. I also remember it being replaced by a red 1600SLX which was about six months old at the time.

Grandad had a beige three door Samara which was replaced by a red three door Samara. Clearly both men of impeccable taste.

[Shep Shepherd]

Father Shepherd's 1972 Viva, which he inherited from Grandfather Shepherd in 1980. It was so rusty that by 1982 that it was replaced by an ex-Sussex Police 1976 Avenger which had been fitted with a Rapier H-120 engine

[406V6]

Father V6's F series Victor that he bought new in 1957. It lasted until 1969 when rusty holes were all over the body.

[Slappy]

My very first memory involves a car, an Astra GSi. Turns out, when I came across some photos many years later it was of my first birthday and the car was owned by friends of the family, who'd had a baby the day after me.

[Six-cylinder]

I am not sure which year or how old I was but I am guessing about 3/4years old in1962ish my father had a Beetle back Standard Vangaurd , I remember that quite well, when it broke down on the A413 Princess Risborough to Aylesbury road we had to be towed by his friend with a Ford Consul MK2 and I was allowed to sit up front in the Consul. I also remember latter at home my Farther showing me the engine which had broken a piston.

 

With early memories I find it difficult to distinguish between having seen old family photos and actual memories but I am sure there were no pictures taken the day we broke down or of the broken engine so I am sure they are real.  

 

I lost my farther some years ago and my mother is in a home, so next year I am going to rescue all the old family photos and I hope some of my father’s cars will be in background shots and I hope he will have dated them for a fuller picture.

 

[panhard65]

The first one of my dads that I can remember was the Wolesley 16/60 That replaced an Austin Cambridge that had been written off. It too was written off and he bought a 144s Volvo which he had for over 16 years. That was a great car I think he still has the log book and handbook for it somewhere even though I did take HKW391F to the bridge back in 1990. His best old car that I am told I rode in was a Healey Abbot. It was sold after it caught fire with us kids in it one trip.

Not the actual cars just stolen from the internet

[michael1703]

My dads Ford Thames 400E in the days before "OMG SAFETY" where my parents would put my pram in the back and just put the brakes on, also riding on the engine cover with an imaginary steering wheel.

 

Next earliest memory is puking all over the back seat of his mk2 cortina

[Vantman]

My earliest recollection is a Reliant like this,owned by an uncle of mine,i  would have been about 6 at the time(1951).

 

[cyruspower]

My Grandad's '66 VX4/90 which was followed directly after by a '76 VX4/90 (pics of both to follow). He had some great taste back then. Things gradually went down hill after that, with an '84 Cavalier 1.6L 4 door, a mk3 Escort 1.3 base 3 door and finally a Peugeot 309 1.1 base 3 door (all in the same kind of non metallic pastel blue).

 

Imagine if he'd gone the other way after the VX4/90s, following them with an '84 Viceroy 2.5, then an '86 Senator 3.0 with digital dash and finally checking out with a Carlton 3.0 GSi....

 

Also clearly remember my god father's '83 Opel Ascona, totally loved that car.

 

The first car I remember my Dad having was a gold Renault 20 TS. After that during the 80's he and Mum had:

 

80 - Volvo 264GLE - gold

60's - Anglia Estate - white

60's - Austin Healy Sprite - red

80 - Volvo 265GLE - gold

70's - Austin Maxi - green

81 - BMW 323i - silver

79 - Ford Fiesta 1300S - beige

81 - Saab 900 EMS 5 door - burgundy

81 - Saab 900 Turbo 5 door - green

83 - Ford Fiesta XR2 - black

83 - Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia X saloon - black

83 - Jaguar XJS HE - green

83 - Suzuki SJ410 - black

81 - Range Rover 3 door - blue (customised by Blue Bird in Chester)

84 - Daimler Double Six - pinky gold

84 - Land Rover 110 County - green

85 - Mercedes 190E AMG - beige

85 - Mercedes 500SL AMG - burgundy

86 - Range Rover Vogue - blue

88 - BMW 635 CSi - green

88 - BMW 735iSE - salmon

84 - Bentley Eight - green

88 - Range Rover Vogue - silver

88 - BMW 325i Convertible - silver

89 - BMW 325i Touring - black

78 - Jaguar XJ-C 4.2 - Blue

89 - Range Rover Vogue SE 3.9 - grey

 

Things were mental in the 80's for him, he's skint now but had a great time back then.

[Charlie Croker]

^{My earliest car memories are of my Dads 67 Anglia LRP 889E in mushroom grey. He had it until I was 9 in 1975 when it was traded in for a K reg Mk1 Escort in bright yellow. I remember going to pick up the Escort from C.J Hardies Volvo dealer in Colne . I recall going on holiday in the Anglia and having to put my feet on the transmission tunnel as when it rained the rear footwells filled with water. The Anglia was last seen outside Cleveland Guest Engineering in Colne a few months after Dad got rid.}

[Tayne]

My mum had an off-white Polski Fiat 125p with a black vinyl interior.

Trying to work this out, I know she had it when I was four and still had it when I was 9 not sure when it was purchased. It did come from the local village garage though, I only found out they were an official dealer through this site.

 

 

 

Image stolen from the web.

[Tayne]

Just texted my older sister about this and she's revealed a blue Honda Civic with the plate LES 57P, sadly not taxed since '86.

I do not remember this car at all.

[biddlebop]

i vaguely remember that my dad had a austin 1100 that didnt have much in the line of a floor and we did not go out anywhere on rainy days but we did get caught in the odd shower or well filled pothole we would get soaked in the legs in the back as the floor was substituted by a carefully sculpted teak plank with a piece of used carpet to conceal the carvings that would make aurthur neagus proud the irionic thing was that my dad worked at that time as a policeman........

[michael1703]

My dads 1600e had a boot made entirely of Castrol GTX cans riveted together, he scrapped it in 1989 citing that castrol had started using plastic cans

[Partridge]

i vaguely remember that my dad had a austin 1100 that didnt have much in the line of a floor and we did not go out anywhere on rainy days but we did get caught in the odd shower or well filled pothole we would get soaked in the legs in the back as the floor was substituted by a carefully sculpted teak plank with a piece of used carpet to conceal the carvings that would make aurthur neagus proud the irionic thing was that my dad worked at that time as a policeman........

I guess that's why he wasn't a policeman anymore?

[lisbon_road]

We lived in Holland when I was very small.  I remember a company Beetle my father borrowed from work, and that it was very dark in the back.  That is my earliest memory. 

 

Apart from that, my parents had an HB Viva estate, and my grandfather had a couple of Mk1 Escorts.  Our neighbours had an FD Victor which was rather dark and severe somehow and a white Anglia with a red roof which was more cheery.

 

My friends mum at school had a Renault 16 and various Fiats, all of which went comically rusty.  And another friends mum at school had a Triumph Stag - that was considered amazing at the time.

[4wheeledstool]

My old fella had an orange Mk1 Mexico, it was replaced with an orange Renault 15 which also had a thick black stripe down the sides. I guess he had a bit of a pan handle for orange cars at that point in his life?

[smiffy637]

The first car i remember from my childhood would be my late aunties Invacar, i thought it was brilliant, it even had handlebars for steering

[DVee8]

The first i can remember was a L reg Opel Kaddett 4 door.

 

I can also remember a 1980 V reg Opel Kaddett that we went to the lakes in.A farm house had been rented,a couple of days in the opel broke down with a cam shaft problem,the farmer gave my old man a mk3 cortina to use complete with a Blondie tape in the tape deck.

[bub2006]

I can actually remember my grandfathers cars more than my dads from when I was born due to my grandad actually keeping his for more than a month or so. My grandad had a commer camper followed by a x registered Granada ghia x. That was traded in for a year old seirra gl 2.0 auto on a A plate. The car he had next was a Volvo 340 auto bought in 1991/2 when the car was on a G plate. He had that till he passed away in 1999. My dad had a fair few cars,mainly large autos which was a bad move as when mums bike wouldn't start she would nick the car due to having auto only license. Cars I remember is a black mini,brown maxi 1750,white ambassador auto,Vauxhall cavalier mk1 auto. Think that was a 1900cc?? He had a couple of granadas and a few rover sd1's too. I was born in 1987,mum passed on in 1995 and that's when things went downhill and he went onto a banger every month. Mk1 pre and post facelift Carlton,mk4 and 5 cortina,skoda Estelle in blue that never worked,lada niva and riva,mk2 escort auto,mk1 fiesta,datsun cherry,Nissan stanza,Mazda 323 to name a few. All rotten and costing less than £150 uid. All got a bitumen tidemark and was lucky if they lasted a month. He seemed to settle down when he met his new woman in 1997. For the past ten years he has made cars last over a year so things are looking up. Mind you he has just bought a rover 75 turbo so thinks could soon change

[AnthonyG]

My grandad had a Stag, which was a LHD model which somehow ended up at a North London BL dealership in the early 1970s. I don't remember it, but my mum said it was a bit out of character for a quantity surveyor who had previously driven Wolseleys and Rovers, obviously a mid-life crisis thing.

 

The Stag wasn't very reliable (surprise) and it got part-exed for a Toyota Celica, so the mid-life crisis continued with a Japanese car, very shocking again for a staunch Rotary club member in circa 1976. By 1979 he had, it seemed, lost interest in the mid-life crisis, and impressing the neighbours with flash motors, and got a doom blue Peugeot 305. That was followed by THE Giffer car of choice in the mid80s, a Volvo 340.

[Split_Pin]

My earliest car memory is of a white Hillman Imp parked in Sunbury Avenue, clarkston, Glasgow. I remember it because it didnt have any seatbelts and my mum telling me it was because it was an old car. My mum didn't have a car then so we walked to the shops and I have clear memories of old chod rotting in driveways. Blue Simca 1100 with a flat tyre, a red Citroën DS and I also remember looking into the kerbsider window if a Leyland Fg that was making deliveries and seeing the keys swinging in the ignition.

[HMC]

My dad had fairly new/ forgettable machines but earliest memories are of a rusty black morris minor that was beached on a neighbours drive, a halo of moss surrounding it. It never moved for years until one day it was scrapped and every time I saw the mossy halo, I was a little bit sad.  A few doors down and an L plate triumph 2000 in a pastel yellow seemed to stick out in suburbia circa 1984. That plus a trig style honda civic that a neighbours elderly grandparents' had that lurched, revved and clutch slipped its way down the street every sunday.

[r.welfare]

A dark blue Chrysler Avenger estate, dimly, but I more strongly remember a brand new Ital 1.3L. FAN 52V. I would have been 3 at the time.

[twosmoke300]

I can just about remember an Austin 1100 with Syd in the number plate ( mum called it Sydney funnily enough)

Then it goes blank til a blue Talbot Solara with Michael Flately trapped under the bonnet.