When im 64 Be Dooby Doo

[Liggle]

I still like the more sport/coupe variants of cars but the things thats changed the most as I've got older is I've stopped pouring money in to modifications! 

[John F]

Automatics! Why aren't all cars this side of a Lotus 7 automatic? Never thought I'd say that 3 or 4 years ago.

 

Because some of us don't want to let a machine make our decisions for us?

 

They're fucking hateful things in my opinion.

[Liggle]

They're fucking hateful things in my opinion.

 

Agreed, apart from the modern breed of dual clutch/robotized manuals I'll carry on steering clear. I hired an auto Mustang (newest shape) last summer and the auto box was horrible, really let that new 2.3 Ecoboost engine down. 

[UltraWomble]

Sort of.

I dont tend to stick unsuitable aftermarket shit on my car any more.

Ford Fiestas I have Known by Marty Hopkirk, on Flickr

Im probably the reason MotorWorld went bust.

 

Car wise, I still like pocket rockets and 4x4's, but my head rules my heart these days so I ride a scooter, drive an Almera and have a fucking expensive C8 cluttering up the drive.

This years bill to get it through an MOT:

[John F]

 

54 quid for an MOT???

 

You were robbed. I pay £35 and I've heard of people getting a better deal.

[Timewaster]

I'm now over 40 and starting to think an auto might be a nice thing to waft about in.

 

5 years ago I would rather have walked.

 

Would need to have an excess of power though. I will not be considering a Yaris auto.

[UltraWomble]

 

54 quid for an MOT???

 

You were robbed. I pay £35 and I've heard of people getting a better deal.

Yeah, I think after this year I wont be going back there again. Ive used him for as long as I've been married and he's always been a bit dear but very very good, now he's bloody expensive. £500 for a service & MOT, needed a CV boot and rear pads. Bit kerching-y

[danthecapriman]

When I was a kid I loved cars, normal stuff not super cars or exotica. Back then Cortina's, Capri's, Granada's etc were new, newish or used car territory and I absolutely loved them. I used to love watching car chases etc on TV with jags etc etc and american TV with all the massive tyre squealers everyone over there seemed to have.

Throughout my childhood and teenage years nothing changed, still loved these cars and started getting into earlier stuff from the 60's and older. All this wasn't helped by getting into banger racing. Me and my dad and friends used to go to watch it fairly often.

 

Then when I was 16 I got my Capri! It was my dream come true. Since getting my driving licence it's basically been a free reign to go out and buy all the stuff I loved as a kid.

I've never liked small cars or hot hatches and I love big RWD autos so I think that's 'my thing' and that's unlikely to change. Especially since I've now done the ultimate thing for me and got myself a massive Yankee barge of a car. This thing for me, represents the absolute cream of car ownership! You can keep your Ferraris and Astons, I love my Mercury.

 

So, no. My tastes have always been about the same and always will be. I have absolutely no interest at all in modern crap and I just don't think I could even force myself to drive that sort of rubbish tbh! Even most 90's cars leave me cold!

[eddyramrod]

My tastes were formed pretty early, I think.  I loved watching Z Cars on telly, then my dad came home with his new..... yes, Zephyr.  Big soft comfy thing with fins.  And then there was Batman, the real one, Adam West.

With influences like that it was obvious where I was going, sooner or later.

Through the 70s I read Car, Hot Car and Custom Car, so I had the rampant sauerkraut-worshipping on one hand, the relatively sensible modding world.... and, er, CC. 

It was in this period that I passed my test (mk1 Fiesta) and gradually took on whatever old tat I could afford to buy.  PA Velox (there's another big clue!), free A40 and so on.  I didn't do modding, only bodging, because I never had any money.  I bought the first automatic I could drive on the road, in 1982: a 1967 Hillman Minx (Arrow) 1725.  For years I stressed myself out trying to get into something bigger and younger each time, and often failing, often slipping back in both age and size.  While it wasn't by choice, it did mean I got to handle a huge variety of stuff!

Finally, in the mid-90s, I realised I should just drive what I liked, and bought a 1978 Volvo 244 auto.  Well in fact, swopped a 1982 Capri Cabaret 2 for it.  Since then I've tried to stick to what clearly suits me: big comfy autos with a fair bit of power.  Regular readers will know the success* I've had there!

But it's ok.  I have learned to love and embrace variety and will continue to do so.  I will, and do, keep coming back to my default setting though.  And of course the best "big comfy autos" come from only one place... Detroit.

I can enjoy a pocket rocket: the X1/9 and MR2 in my history testify to that.  But for me, there's nothing finer than two tons of RWD V8 on soft suspension.  Preferably with fins.

[xtriple]

While I love autos and always have, they are horrible on under powered cars and sap any enjoyment out of driving. An Automatic car needs to be mated to a fuck off big engine.... it's the only way to be sure!

[mat_the_cat]

My tastes have not deviated really

 

Likewise...although desperately trying not to class myself as old just yet though (I'm 37).

 

When I started driving at 18 I wanted the following:

My Stellar with a more powerful engine

A VW campervan

A Range Rover V8

A red BX TD Estate (my dad had owned the hatch when I was younger, but I really liked the looks of the estate)

 

I now own:

The very same Stellar fitted with a V8

A VW campervan (albeit not the Bay Window I first fancied, so I guess practicality has come into my choice)

Two Discovery (almost a RR) V8s...is there a theme here?

A red BX TD Estate

and a Kangoo (not on the wish list!)

 

I really am living the dream!

[Junkman]

I understand the point about an auto being ideal for stop-start commuting, but that's where their appeal ends IMO... the noise of an automatic hunting for the right ratio is one of the most lame sounds in motoring

 

Noise? Hunting?

Maybe it's time to try an automatic with a gearbox that actually works properly?

[Asimo]

Beat me to it.

Get a go in something with a properly matched engine and torque converter automatic.

Preferably from that golden period of three ratios plus converter lockup. Ideally a Hydramatic or Torqueflite.

[Asimo]

My tastes haven't changed really. Still like cheap, tough, simple, comfy and quiet. 

 

Still fantasising about that Daimler V8 engined Mk1 Toledomite.

 

I have tried new, shiny, fast-ish, economical, luxurious, sensible, flash, and weird. Might try a 4x4suv thing next. Still no car is made that ticks all the boxes.

[danthecapriman]

While I love autos and always have, they are horrible on under powered cars and sap any enjoyment out of driving. An Automatic car needs to be mated to a fuck off big engine.... it's the only way to be sure!

Definitely. I do a bit of work on a K11 Micra 1.0 auto, and it's fucking dire! Awful thing to drive in every way. Not that I particularly enjoy driving any Micra but the auto version really does suck. On the other hand though it's owned by a little old lady so probably suits her perfectly and keeps her mobile too.

[23rdian]

I now prefer "more door" cars. I like comfy rather than hard rides.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Had no interest on cars until I was 34 years old; my old man always had lots of cars and bikes which probably put me off.

Given the opportunity I tend towards cars designed with a ruler, three box type with straight sixes or V8s and automatic. When you've driven properly set up automatics there's little else that makes sense over long distances and in heavy traffic, unless you want to be a boy racer.

My tastes are nonetheless eclectic, I'd love to own a 40s American car, a Volvo PV and I have a pervy hankering after a Simca of any variety. A Fiat 130 coupe is still on my bucket list although I'm not so keen on V6 engines.

[Captain Slow]

In the 8 years I've been driving (still a youngster!) my tastes haven't really changed. I like large, wafty, big engined cars, usually of the automatic persuasion. This matches most of my fleet.

[Jazoli]

My tastes haven't changed much, I still like loud fast thirsty impractical expensive cars, I just don't buy them anymore.

[STUNO]

As I have done the got older bit I feel well qualified on this.

When I was 15 anything with wheels was good, so first car was a 1939 Ford Prefect. I then spent the next 50 years lurching from all sorts of things to all sorts of other things automotive. The list is very long and includes Allegro, Humber, Rx7, Herald, Daimler V8, Audi 200 turbo, Mazda 323, Holden Kingswood (or two) and even a Corsa. Yes also a 1955 Velox.

Now a big wafty XJ40 or similar would be nice, preferably with V8. Reality now is a Mazda Lantis with 1800 cc and auto box.....BECAUSE AFFORDABLE and I actually like it !

[Pete-M]

Autos are the correct way for anyone who drives in town. The box in my Mercedes gets things just about spot on 99% of the time - the other 1% doesn't annoy me anywhere near as much as when driving the Impreza in city traffic and having to constantly change gear. The manual in that suits me about 10% of the time when 'making progress"',the rest of the time it's rather annoying.

[RoadworkUK]

I've always liked big, fast, quiet cars.

 

I remember dozing off in the back of a 2.8i Scorpio during a late night drive home from relative's in Buckinghamshire when I was ten. I was a tall lad but still had to stretch out to reach the back of the front seats. I had the mother of all arm-rests and a button I could press to recline. And there were headphone sockets and I could adjust the heating.

 

Had quite an effect on me.

[hairnet]

When I was 17 I wanted to drive something that was slow old and low. 

 

Nothing's changed.

apart from old age

[Lacquer Peel]

My dad and grandfathers on both sides owned French diesels (504, 309, 305, 19). I still like French diesels.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

At 17 I had a rwd saloon ( Mk2 Cortina) at 18 I had a 3.0 Auto RWD Saloon ( Mk 4 Zodiac Exec) and decided there and then that was the optimum car type for me- today at 52 I've got a 3.0 Auto RWD Saloon.

In between I've had a lot of cars both bigger and smaller, but apart from usually having one of Solihuls finest* pissing oil and rusting on the drive, the one constant has been a medium sized executive* barge .

Ok they tend to do 40 mpg rather than 15 and 155mph instead of 99, that's mainly because they smell like a bus station now.

I've always driven nice cars for work and getting out of someone's £100k+ exotica doesn't seem like much of a step down if you've got a big comfy seat , a decent auto and a torquey 6 cylinder engine to drive home, especially as it's yours.

[Junkman]

My car taste has never changed and likely never will.

I still like the very same kind of cars I liked aged fifteen.

[forddeliveryboy]

Hasn't changed - I want cars which are as fast as possible over all sorts of roads, without making a lot of noise or knocking your back to pieces.

 

Speed is a drug, if you can do it in comfort and below the radar, it's an addiction - for me. For a couple of years in my early 20s I knocked about in a mid-80s Passat wagon (to general amusement of mates), with decent dampers, a rebuilt and slightly breathed-on head and larger (steel) wheels off a next-gen model. It went amazingly well once I'd replaced the rear axle bushes (wet November day, on parents' drive with a big vice), it had done nearly 300k miles which in the early 90s was almost unheard of in Britain unless taxi. No Henry in a GTi ever managed to keep up, a mate's XJ-S 3.6 manual couldn't manage 80 as quickly, which impressed me. I liked the long gearing, decent front suspension travel and ability to cover miles with minimal effort and maximum speed without attracting attention. Only a very sweet 200 quattro ever came close to that ugly but brilliant old wagon, until...

 

I bought a small French hatchback. Brakes which were akin to launching a parachute and at least as good as the most expensive cars I'd ever managed to steer, grip through bumpy corners which was unbelievable, an engine which grew no more raucous even when the valves should have been bouncing, a grin so wide I hadn't imagined it possible this side of something Italian, helped by pin-accurate steering. It was fast across country and amazingly comfy on even the longest trip. And only £100, plus £150 to pass an MoT. In fairness, I've never yet driven a better Dyane, and many A-series I have driven have been truly execrable. 

 

The same yearning for speed without attracting attention remains into my forties, it was tickled best in a CX Turbo which completed journeys in times which I never came close to in cars with close to 400hp. The current HtH MGF is superb at making more squiggly roads vanish and somehow seems to convince Plod that it's travelling at half the speed it really is, so good that I bought another one which is a little less leggy and more suspended, if lacking in the engine department.

 

Living where I do, if you don't average decent speeds you'll never manage real-world and back in a day. Having two wee ones, at the moment a lovely A6 diesel (the old 100-based machine without all the bollox of new VAG) is serving well, providing father-safety with single-man speed (on waste veg so I can afford to feed the offsprogs) but a recent and enjoyable drive from Cornwall to oopNorf in a 110hp Al-sharaxy at obscene velocities (for such a ridiculously high and vast vehicle) has left me wondering.

 

Automatic clutch gearboxes are nothing to do with age, more a matter of where you live and how big your cylinders are. The 2cv's trafficlutch was stupendously effective (like an auto in 1st and 2nd), even more so than their later electro-hydraulic clutch 'box on Gs and CXs which with 4 speeds would have been unbeatable.

[rantingYoof]

Let me just list the cars owned by parents as I was growing up...

 

MotherYoof

1987 Passat estate

1988 Audi 100E Avant

1989 Vauxhall Carlton 3.0CDX

1993 Renault Safrane 3.0RXE

1998 Mitsubishi Galant 2.5 V6

 

SnrYoof

1983 Audi 100E saloon

1989 Vauxhall Senator 3.0 12v

1993 Vauxhall Senator 3.0 24v

1998 Vauxhall Omega 2.5 V6 estate

2000 Vauxhall Omega 3.0 24v

2005 Vauxhall Signum 3.0 CDTi 24v

 

 

I wonder why I was in a massive five-door barge by the time I was 19, and a Rover 825 when I was 20...

[anonymous user]

My taste in cars is still the same, somewhat eclectic. I've owned every car I've wanted (bar one) and driven many more, it's just the one car left that I've always wanted I'll never be able to afford. I still like cars, I just don't enjoy driving as much.