Childhood shite memories

[Mash]

Dug out some pics:

 

Grandad's Morris Minor, me aged about 5 and mum with dodgy perm:

 

 

Camping in Hawes c.1983 with friends of family in Fiesta and VW van. The van owners also had a green Strada at the time:

 

 

Lake District 1984. Fiesta was first time out from the hire company and had about 10 miles on the clock so dad had to run it in!!

 

 

Our Allegro owned 1989 to 1994, fond memories

 

 

Replaced with Maestro (pound shop trims FTW)

 

[M'coli]

^^^Did the Metro in the background ever move?

[Father Ted]

^^^Did the Metro in the background ever move?

Must have done at some point as its lost the L pates in the second picture.

[M'coli]

^^^Did the Metro in the background ever move?

Must have done at some point as its lost the L pates in the second picture.

If they were those magnetic type L plates, not necessarily! They could have fallen off, blown off or have been stolen...

[Guest]

Loving the before and after pics! Concrete drive's less fresh, fuel bills of the Rangey have caused its replacement by a Prelude, could swear that the Metro suspension has gone down a bit :lol:While I've been alive my parents have never run 'shite' in our accepted sense of the word. Nearest was the vinyl-seated, two-tone orange and rust R14 owned for the first seven years of my life, sold when it was eight years of age and in rapidly deteriorating condition, probably only survived for another year or two. Since then most of the family's cars have been new or newish at purchase - no more than two or three years old. In recent times my parents' rate of fleet replacement has slowed right down. Dad has a '95 Punto (owned since new) and a '96 850 estate (owned since <1 yr old). Mum's '01 Ibiza Cupra was a demo sold to us at a few months old.I must dig out the photos of the 70s tat they owned during life before kids - BMC 1100GT, Fiat 500, Simca 1100, early R5, etc...Oh yeah and aunt on mum's side had some proper junk as family cars, most memorably a T-reg Cherry fastback with a truck-style reversing bleeper, while uncle's nadir was a crap old white Dolomite which eventually received four red doors

[CortinaDave]

My dads cars that i remember -Mk2 Capri GT with rusty wings that i cut my hand onH reg red HC vivaP reg green HC vivaR reg rusty coloured Hillman Hunter with terrible back pressureearly blue alfa sudT reg orange cortina mk4 1.6Lthen he got company cars, starting with a split new F reg astra diesel, going through a series of astras, escorts and fiestas until he retired.. When he fell out with the boss they gave him a yellow G reg metro clubman for a bit!

[scruff]

Great pics! I forgot one my mum had, X reg Talbot Samba in red.

[Pillock]

My ma was cruising around in a "shitty brown" Allegro 1750 when i was born apparently. Her description of colour, not mine, although she also says it had an orange stripe down the side - I blame being bought home from hospital in that for everything automotive i've ever lusted after :)The first car I remember her having was a Chrysler Sunbeam 1.6 GL - metallic bronze. Bought it off a family member at a year old or so on an S plate, ran it till 1985 when it was chopped in against a VW Polo C. I helped choose it, aged 6 at the time Mars red breadvan shape. Leasecars followed in 1988, Escort 1.4LX also in red (my choice again, she wanted Maritime Blue but there was a waiting list) and then in 1991, an Astra 1.4 GL. Electric aerial and windows and things, this was luxury! Also looked pretty fly in white with black trim. Then in 94 it was a Mk3 Astra Turbodizzler GLS in that metallic green - at the time, nobody had one, then they were everywhere. Then it all gets boring, Megane dT followed by a Megane dT Sport followed by a (big ass) Megane dT. The Renault dealer was at the bottom of the road see, saved waiting for a courtesy car booking to get it serviced.Grandparents-wise, I remember them having a Mk3 Cortina in green, then that got traded in for a Cortina 80, last of the run in 1982. That went the day the Mk3 Cavalier was unveiled, they made the mistake of taking a car-mad 9 year old to the dealer launch event where I convinced them they needed a new car. Fairly unremarkable then. Friends' parents didn't have much interesting, a girl at school's mum had a light blue Mk2 Scrote Wagon which these days would be the schizz, but back then was a bit old and tired. And a mate at secondary school's parents had between them an E21 (?) 320i with a straight-through exhaust, a 205GTI and a Mini van in the garage gaining some mad engine and wheels wider than they were tall.Edit: I remembered more! Only vague memories of my dad before he did a runner, but I do remember him turning up to the house in different types of shite to take me out at the weekend.... an Alpine with electric windows and masses of buttons on the dash, and a yellow MG with wire wheels that he bought, for some reason the wheels lived on long after his total departure stuck under the sideboard in the shed. He also had an MG Metro which must have been fairly new since this would have been 1984ish.Also my great uncle, one of the old-school Buy British lot. Beautiful 1982 Montego in metallic blue, polished every weekend and never taken out in the rain. Traded in for a very 90s looking Maestro in, oooh, 1990 - totally colour-coded white.

[bassman77]

My late dad had a run of true shite in his driving life.1962 Austin A40 Farina1963 Hillman Minx1967 Mini Cooper 1275s Mk1 (not really shite)1970 Vauxhall Victor VX4/90 FD1970 Ford Cortina Mk2 1600 super (Jade green with the obligatory Roger & Jan sunstrip sticker, cibie spots and B+G Savage 500 wheeltrims!)Then it all went tits up.....1973 Morris Marina Coupe in orange1972 Wolseley Six Landcrab in purple?1972 Ford Cortina Mk3 1300 with fresh air vents under the interior mats!1981 Fiat Mirafiori1981 Austin Allegro 31985 Nissan Cherry 1.3 1988 Nissan Sunny N13 1.31991 Mitsubishi Colt 1.5 1991This was the last car he had before he passed away at the ripe old age of 48 in 1996!My stepdad had an unbelievable amount of tat in the 80s ( he did banger racing)Numerous Triumph 2000/2500s Mk1 & 2sFord Granada Coupe Mk1Ford Anglia 105e (with front wings that flapped in the wind!)Various mk3 &4 CortinasBMW 2002 (lovely car)Rover P5Bs severalFord Zephyr Mk4 Austin maxiMorris marinaMost of the bigger stuff especially the Trumpys ended there days on the track

[pogweasel]

Excellent thread content. I think I must have inherited some kind of 'rubbish car' genes. My abiding memories of childhood revolve around generally dreadful 4-wheel transport. Earliest memories are of my dad's mustard hellow (harvest gold?) Morris Marina, but that died fairly young, upturned into a ditch on the way home from the pub.... My grandfather had a Marina too, a 1.8TC in black tulip, great memories of sliding about on the faux-leather red upholstery in the early 80's - it was replaced in '85 with a Montego.My folks later had a dreadful Rover P6 (inaccurate fuel gauge and terminally skint owner plus rural loaction led to lots of time sat in the car waiting for father to return, jerry-can in hand), then the blue Renault 6... hopeless performance-wise but at least reliable, in-car safety for a Poglet was a harness bolted in instead of seatbelts, and an orange cushion in that bobbly 70's fabric in lieu of a booster seat. After that was the Renault 20 that at 6 or 7 years old had rotten wings & doors, plus hideous transmission wobble above 50mph and grim polyvinylchloride upholstery that combined to make summer holidays an utterly unpleasant experience. Thereafter there was a run of new stuff, Montego, Fiat Croma, FSO Polonez, all really bad choices for new cars swayed mostly by big dealer discounts & cheap finance, only interspersed with the only truly cool car my dad ever had, an '81 Rover VdP SD1 in 1990 - the sound of that V8 being gunned combined with the leather & full-spec toys made for a very exciting experince. The 'eastern bloc' theme continued with 2 skoda estelles (by this time I was well into my teens, so uncompromising embarrassment!!!) and a new Skoda Favorit which the old chap still owns. Most recently he's had a Volvo 760 Turbo estate for a couple of years and currently drives the Peugeot 205 that he bought for my brother but re-aquired after brother finished being a student.... : I had to make do with his cast-off estelle ::)Don't remember many of my peers having uber-shite, it was quite 'snooty' where we lived in the 80's and any car over 5 years old would instantly have your family classed as 'gippos' for the rest of time. My mate at school, his dad has a class Opel Kadett coupe complete with webasto roof and bird-shit-stained interior, but his mum did have a BMW 320i then an Escort Ghia, both from new. Another of my buds, his dad had a Princess and his mum had an Alpine, both of which caused him to be fairly well ostracised at school, plus he had the ignomany of 'free school dinner tickets' - his dad was a fireman and his mum an A+E nurse, so being keyworkers they got perks, but those where the same 'perks' given to stinky council estate kids: Free-school-dinner-tickets= savage playground beatings!

[Guest]

Unusually both of my neighbours had laid-up old junk in the drive when I was at primary school - one was a Wolseley or Riley 1.5, other was a green Viva fastback estate that on reflection was probably well under ten years old when taken out of use and replaced by a late model Fiat 127.The Viva was moved into the resting place of a very dead Mini that after many years rotting away someone dragged off to the scrapyard one day using a 1950s Massey Ferguson tractor, I well remember re-enacting the scene using Lego... One of my teachers hung onto a white Renault 14 for a lot longer than most people (i.e. early 1990s) and a friend's mother had an immaculate yellow Allegro estate for the entire duration of the eighties. Probably run into the ground in six months flat by its next owner.

[reallyloud]

The number of cars I've owned easily beats the number of car my folks owned, but their choice in cars was very influential on my choices - 4 of the cars they've owned I have had examples of.We've got photographic evidence of most of the cars, as dad was keen on photography. Their first car was a Fiat 500, followed by an Anglia, BMC 1100 and mums first car an Imp (which they had to sell because I kept on trying to escape out of the back window). Then something extraordinary happened - they starting buying Japanese cars. First was a 1971 TA10 Toyota Carina (a couple of years older than my current one), that was replaced in '76 by a Datsun 120Y (which dad admitted was a inferior car to the Carina) and bought a Datsun 100A at the same time. They started rusting by their 4th birthday so they were dispatched into the secondhand market and replaced by another Datsun Sunny. Unfortunately for me they owned this car for the rest of that decade - a great source of embarassment to me, espeically as my well heeled friends parents transported them in up to date GTi's and German saloons. By the late 80's and onwards they decided to buy Swedish and German cars and continue to do so.My friends parents always seemed to have far more interesting cars, I have fond memories of being taken to school in a Chrysler 180, Hondamatic Civic, a Renault 18, a Simca 1501, 7 seater Peugeot 504 estate, Hyundai Pony, Vauxhall VX, Colt Sigma, Sherpa Dormobil, toyota Hiace and Morris Marina TC. And countless Cortinas of course.

[Andrew353w]

Childhood memories were (& here I realise I'm probably a little older than most of you....) a Mini Traveller (531 KDV, where are you now???) A renault 4l (6 volt electrics, spongy suspension and 0-50 in 3 weeks!) followed by a Bedford Beagle (what?) That's a Vauxhall Viva Mark 1 van with windows-truly awful!Later we graduated to a mark 1 Ford Cortina estate, with a wood pattern on the sides; column change and a HUGE boot, and then ANOTHER Cortina, this time a mark 2 (JOD 143 E-still on the road??) Business must have improved in the early 70's, as we had 2 Triumph estates; one mark one estate and lastly a mark two 2500 estate-a GREAT car. All of them had memories for me, and if i ever work out how to load pictures onto this web site I'll share them with the rest of you....

[155V6]

A couple of early memories,Late '60s,my Dad had to stop the Citroen Light 15 in Windsor Great Park so I could have a wee,he got stuck on the verge & I made it worse by deciding I didn't need to go after all.Boxing Day 1976ish,Hayling Island sea front.The driver of a Mk 3 Cortina 2000E asked my Dad to pull him out of the gravel he'd got stuck in.My Dad managed it with his Renault Dauphine Late '70s,took one of my friends to go & watch the London-Brighton Run.He threw up near Hickstead,we were pleased the Renault 8 had vinyl seats & no carpet.Early '80s,another London-Brighton Run.We'd just got to the end of the Hog's Back going into Guildford when one of the heater pipes inside the Vauxhall PC Cresta split,spraying water everywhere.Needless to say,we didn't make it to Brighton that year Looking back,my Dad had some real sheds,but I don't think there was a single time when he didn't manage to get them home under their own power

[Anglevan]

My early memories are that we didnt even have a car till I was 6 and it was my mum that drove as my dad kept failing his test.I have some pictures of the street we lived in (or my mum has !!) and theres only one or 2 who had cars - my neighbour had a Morris 1300 and the one opposite had a green Vauxhall Magnum I remember picking our first car up when my mum passed her test - it was a 1966 Mini Countryman bought from the auction for £100 LWY166D Then that was swapped for a second hand Ford Escort MK2 estate KUG144N (paid £700 for it in 1978 - dont ask how I know) Then that was traded in for a brand new Vauxhall Chevette 4dr saloon (first of the face lift - picked up jan 1980) From memory cost £3300. I remember in the showroom when my mum and dad were buying the car I was playing about in the other cars and pulled the dash apart on a Chevette special (met blue) by accident I quickly left amd went back to my mum and dad (i was 9 at the time)Then that was swapped for a brand new Vauxhall Astra 1.3 l Mk1 5dr DUB196Y - someone rang into the back of it on the way from picking it up !!!!!!!!!!!! but as my mum had a tow bar fitted no damage was done, the mk2 escort that hit needed a new front panel ...That was then swapped a few years later for a brand new Vauxhall Belmont 1.6 L - one of the first - bought from Menston garages C548CWW that was a great car and one i did most of my driving in before I got my car. That was swapped for a new Lada Niva Cossack, then a new Mk3 Astra (my dad then passed away and the money dried up so my mum now drives in old sheds that I find for her !!!!!!!!!!)My first car was a 1979 Vauxhall Viva HNB171V ... I wont go onto the ones i've had or we'll be here all night so as you can see defo brought up on shite !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[andrew e]

The first car I can remember my parents having, was the Marina coupe in BRG bought off my uncle (he bought an Orange Audi 100!) unusual in these NCAP days as it had a vinyl roof to disguise the fact it had been rolled Then my mum aquired a (Pog-tastic) blue Renault 6, followed by an Orange 104. Found memories of my mum hair dryering the ignition to get us to school on damp days.... Then a red Marina 2 in boggo spec appeared (cue Dad's O series is shite compared to the B series rant) I'm not sure what happened next but a year old single sunvisor Fiesta popular appeared (maybe the pools came up!!!) fitted with brown stripes on beige... later replaced by red "Festival 2" stripes pinched from Dunton... that was then swallowed by a rusty Dagenham mark2 popular plus...My Dad bought my uncles 3 year old Granda in graphite grey (DBU16Y) posh enough to be investigated at the council (@Bin man has best car at work scenario ) that in turn replaced in 89 by a last of the line 86 Carlton CDI 2.2 on a very late C reg and uber cool with low profiles and black velour AND rear electric windows! It was PX'd at a considerable profit for a year old Astra CD in 1990, itself future desirable shite 8)I had my own car then and personally predated the VW scene tax by 20 years by having a 3+E black little light Golf with factory wide GTI steels and GTI single light grill - in 1991

[keef]

1972 Wolseley Six Landcrab in purple?

 

Just like Reckless then? :-

 

[Rusty Pelican]

Mother never drove but " yo Pappy " had a few motors in his dayAHT 804B Anglia in blue , crashed it a couple of timesMk 1 Escort 4 door 1.3 , all the paint fell off with no help from anyoneTriumph Dolly 1850 , Exhaust fell off every week and the doors never shutDYA 845T Datsun 180b , COOOOOOL CAR .Nissan Stanza in a sand colour .Rover 416Then a couple of Astras , one of which is now mine , a 51 plate pile of boringness in silver

[Tayne]

.

[brammy777]

Oh i hadnt noticed this before!Well as i said many a time, the first car I remember was an Olympic Blue 1988 Ford Sierra GL. Other relatives cars at the time included Citroen BX, Ford Orion Ghia with rear wing, Subaru GLF and so on....Builder who used to scam old lady living next door to us in Bexleyheath had an orange 504 pickup. Cars in Bexleyheath i can remember are:A blue Allegro, beaten up MKIII Granada in gold, Nissan Prarie, Various MKV cortinas, a 126 and 500 abandoned in someones front garden near my school, I do also remember the odd american car mainly 70s barges.The buses were mainly Olympians and Titans, the 401 would go down my road (Woolwich Road) and Im suprised no wingmirrors ever got torn off.I remember a car accident in Bexleyheath as it was the first one i ever saw, basically two cars racing, a MKIV escort and a MKII Astra cab, lights went red and they hit each other and another car. The astra drove off with a steaming radiator.Slough had a fair few motors, Cavaliers were so abundent. One got dumped behind the shop my parents worked in, because it was pretty much dead, but then that night someone stole it!Then, another night, someone ran a cavalier over a bollard and revved it up until the engine blew up.A woman in a Rover 400 misjudged the roundabout and hit a lamp post.The next door neighbour had a Montego estate and a VW LT on an A plate, it was the rustiest van i have ever seen, and the accelerator pedal fell off. One of my mates dads had a Toyota Carina from 1988, even when it got hit by a lorry he didnt want to part with it!Another mates family had an Acclaim.Its weird, back then anything on an A plate up to an E plate was such a common sight for me, I hate not having the foresight to ever picture anything. There was a sporting Chevette near ICI as well, used to love seeing that car.I remember my Grans 1985 GLF really well, it was dark red and had alloy wheels. The left rear light had a large crack in it, and i think my Gran thought i did that with a badminton racket I used to be woken up by the Boxer engine burbling away as she went to help my uncle in the morning, it was such a capable car and only let her down once, which sadly led to its death, failed its MOT around 2002 if i remember correctly. Her neighbour at one time had a Fiesta MKI van, which suited him rather well.My uncle used to have various dumped cars at the bottom barn, there was a Marina, a cortina and an allegro but they were scrapped yonks ago now. Im just glad I live in a place now where Tat is thankfully, an everyday sight.Phew, long post.

[Guest Tony Hayers]

Top thread dolly The car my folks had (when I was born) was a MK4 Cortina 1600 L/Gl (dad cant quite remember now, bless him) and it was in that universal Ford red with the red pin striped interior complete with those Ford A frame headrests.This got chopped for a 83 MK3 Escort L. My dad worked for Ford for years and this was another bought under the employee discount scheme. Foolishly my old man thought he was buying a CVH version and it turned out to be the old 1100 OHV unit. This lasted for a year or so before it got chopped in for another Ford.......Next was a MK2 Fiesta 1100 Finesse. This car was nicknamed 'happy' by myself. The reason being was my mum asked my dad if he was happy with this car and he was (for 2 years or so) and for some stupid reason the name stuck. I dont remember a lot about this car apart from it went all over the UK and my dad improved the spec a lot - by fitting a cigarette lighter, puddle lights, central locking. This car managed to last until 2003 according to the DVLA.Next car was a MK1 Orion 1.6i Ghia reg A414 VWN. This car I really remember My dad bought this as a ex demonstrator from the Neath branch of Ford in early 1987 (I remember us going to see it late one night in heavy snowfall at the Ford dealer). It was in the local rag at one price and screen price at another, dad got it at the cheaper price because he was known by the local dealers. Sadly discount was not available because das had finished working for Ford so it was full price. This car was much needed as me and my kid brother had been crammed into the back of the Fester for the last year or so Next car was a £250 (in 1993) Mk1 Fiesta 950 Popular HWO 223W. The Orion had been stolen in early 1993 and was a writeoff. At 45 MPH it had crashed into a bridge wall in Gorseinon, Swansea. The Onion was kept at a farm owned by my dads boss (who helped himself to a few parts from the Orion). The Fiesta was named 'the flintstonte mobile' as the matrix was shot leading to no heat in the car, the O/S window rolled down on its own if you went round a roundabout to quick, and it rattled like buggery. The key snapped in the ignition on christmas eve 1993 in Cardiff leaving dad no choice but to 'black box' it. Although by the time dad put it in part/x dad had sorted out a lot of its problems and it was quite a good car when he sold it a year later in 1994.Next was a 1989 Ford Escort 1.6L F856 DUA, bought from (sp?)Coedgwylm Car Sales, Clydach, Nr Swansea. This was a tidy car for a 6 year old motor. It had a strange paint respray though where once the car was polished the doors were a diffrent colour to the frame and wings. My dad was involved in a shunt with this car and Days of South Wales declared it a total loss, so my old man sold it to a local scrap dealer. 14 months later we were going through Llangennech in the car below and we saw the Escort in R.Freshwater car sales with 'Car Of The Week' all over the windscreen Thankfully nobody bought this car, or any others from him because it looked shit after the accident, and for the 4 years it sat outside his garage. I passed the garage a few months ago and all the cars had gone and the bungalow and garage had been flattened.After the Mk4 Scrote we had a Mk2 Escort 1.6 Ghia (4 dr) YYV 830T. This was a buzzy car and it ran well. I remember the door pins went and for months you had to lift the drivers door to get it to close. One July me and dad got it sorted by changing the pins and it was a good car. Sold for £400 in 1995.Next car was the tops - MK1 Ford Orion 1.6i Ghia B186 AWN. This was the tops to be driven around in back in the mid-late 90's. I use to get picked up from school every now and again and it was SCENE AS FUDGE in this mother This was bought from The Gnoll in Neath and (i believe) the guy had had it from new. I remember dad was chuffed to fuck to be back in one of these. Sadly the bonnet flew up on the M4 near Bridgend and it had a red bonnet for the last few months we had it. Shame, as it was a bloody good car that never broke down.Next was a 1993 Mondeo GLX 2.0i K920 MGP bought in late 97 from Groesfaen Car Sales not far from Kenfig Hill. This was a good car in a 90's repmobile kind of way. I remember that when my dad (chuffed to hell) pulled up outside the school Fat Man! was not impressed with the smugness of my dad (driving a Mondeo) and what had happened to the Orion (P/exchanged for this car). This was a bloody good car despite being a Mondeo. Much nicer than the Mondeo that replaced it.And finally - P483 FND Ford Mondeo 2.0i Ghia X Bought mid 2000. To be fair this had only 1 fleet owner and had full s/history. However I hate the fact it has leatehr as my arse slides all over the seats. Its had its share of breakdowns (although very few) and has pulled a fair few bits of shite here and there. The body looks a bit ropey atm because some cunt with a tow bar reversed into it and mangled the bumper before pissing off. Its got a 10 disc autochanger in it that takes the sting off boring journeys.And thats the last 30 years

[AnthonyG]

Did your dad work at the Bridgend engines plant Jetronic? -(the only Ford plant in South Wales I can think of, although there may have been a small one making castings or axles somewhere as well)

[Guest]

My dad is one of those people who has never been interested in cars and as a result has gone for some pretty boring choices, so I'll go with the Autoshite highlights.The first car he ever had, sometime in the 70s, was a Mini Van. I've only had a vague description of this, but from what I can figure out it was a 60s model with the 850 engine and would have been about 10 years old at the time and had a creeping rot problem around the front, which he "cured" by repeatedly brush-painting over it. Curiously, it was also left-hand-drive! Think he got rid of it when he joined the navy.There was a long period with no car as a result of the above as he wasn't in the UK enough to justify it, but he finished the Navy sometime after the Falklands and used some rubbish bikes for a bit (there's some ancient picture of me as a child standing next to one of them) and eventually worked his way up to a car again - a MK1 Escort 2-door! It was a Base model (I remember him pointing out that the "L" spec was quite luxurious) and probably an 1100. Not very slick for the early/mid 80s, nice work dad! Mechanically, it was an absolute heap - there was some startup problem which was never resolved which meant it took about half an hour to get going on a morning - it involved soaking something with WD40. At some point it suffered from "black death" on the motorway and the engine blew up. My dad was skint so he gave the knackered car to the recovery truck driver as payment, then went back to rubbish bikes for a bit.After that, he saved up and had fairly respectable/ordinary used cars. My favourite one was a Y-reg MK1 Sierra 1.6 L 5-door in silver which he had around the very late 80s/early 90s. Unfortunately, I got up one day to find it wasn't there - just a selection of broken glass, cracked plastic and one of those "door protector/reflector" things. Turned out that he'd just got into the car that morning, put his seatbelt on and was just about to start it to go to work when an Astra GTE piled into the back of it at speed. Our road was a popular boy racer run back in the day on account of its length. My dad was pretty much unharmed, but the moron in the Astra was lucky to be alive. The police judged that he was doing about 100mph by the damage caused and he ended up with a criminal record I think. The other driver's insurance coughed up heavily and we jumped all the way up to an F-reg MK2 Sierra 1.6 L in white (with a "sporty" red double pinstripe). I preferred the silver MK1 though!

[ChinaTom]

That's just triggered a memory of me as a 4 year old bouncing around the back of a primer grey mini van in the mid 70's while my uncle drove my old man and I through the lanes around Boxford looking for a black kite that he had let go of. My black kite - my Christmas present that cost my old man a fair chunk of his disposable income. Here's the thing though - it was LHD.

[Guest Tony Hayers]

Did your dad work at the Bridgend engines plant Jetronic?

Yes, he worked in the Bridgend plant. He started out in the Swansea plant (kings dock) where gears for the (i believe) Transit, and then later the Cargo were made.He then transfered up to Bridgend where he was working on the CVH.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I dont have many childhood shite memories as I grew up with mutha_Bo11ox who doesnt drive! But Fatha_Bo1 has had a plethora of hideous old heaps, earliest memory of which include an M-reg Bedford CF with a slidey drivers door and no passenger seat, GR9 4 CHILD SAFETY that one, luckily he never crashed it so I never did get maimed in the end. Then he got a W-reg CF, this one had a passenger seat, (no seatbelt tho) which he used for his butchers round! 5 hours of stop-start motoring a day with a 2.3 petrol CF, he must have been getting about 9mpg I reckon.Then came a bedford chevanne which needed a new exhaust gasket every month, a brush-painted reliant Robin (with obligatory odd-sized woodscrews holding it together), a Y-reg Fiesta popular, his Lancia beta, and now the well-known-to-shiters Rover 214 which he has to pinch himself every time he drives it, such is its modernity, comfort and reliability.

[Tayne]

.

[Mash]

My selections of grainy pics appears earlier in the thread but recently my dad brought home a vidoe that his boss had taken around the farm with his "new toy" acquired in about 1990. I'd seen it a few years ago but we want to try and get it put on DVD. My boss has a full editing suite so hopefully he'll be able to help.Anyway, what's ace is that aside from the tractors and so on I remember there's some footage of my old man looking very youthful in his pre grey hair days with our old Allegro. There's also the farm's T-reg Princess and it must have been a crossover time because the SD1 that replaced it is there too. Unfortunately the Prinny was scrapped (EKH 824T).Another batch of cars from when I was a kid that I can remember like it was yesterday are the ones my teachers had at secondary school, seeing them every day of course. This is a few from the car park I remember from about 1986 when I first started there:Triumph Acclaim (Geography)Renault 20 (Maths)Volvo 340 (Music)Volvo 345 (Maths)Ford Sierra (Head)Golf van (Randy PE teacher)Mk1 Fiesta (Hot French teacher Randy PE guy was knocking off)Mk1 Fiesta (Other PE teacher you didn't want to see you in the showers...)Mk1 Fiesta (German)Fiat 127 Sport (French)Fiat 128 estate (Biology)Renault 4 (English)Citroen BX (French)Vauxhall Nova (Design)Mk2 Astra (Metalwork)Nissan Cherry (Physics)Mk1 Astra with boot not hatch (Chemistry)Citroen GSA estate (Art)Volvo 480ES (Biology)Fiat Uno and Honda Cub and VW Camper (History)Alfasud (Geography)Cortina estate (Caretaker 1)Wolseley 1500 (Caretaker 2)Escort Laser (Lab assistant)and the ZOMG factor:Honda Quintet (English). Only briefly remember this as he bought a brand new Integra shortly afterwards.Yes, I am anally retentive....

[Guest]

My folks have always had fairly new or new cars. Where I get my love of shite from I have no idea.

 

Although GVM has excellent choice in shite, and he's family. GVM's dad has also had an awesome list of motors. I remember a PA Cresta and a Giulia Super being on the list. As well as Renault 10, and a poo brown Citroen CX that sat on his drive for ages. It had Autoplas louvres on the rear tailgate.

 

Mum not interested in cars. Dad likes cars, sort of. He wants an MGA 1500 when he retires. If he joins the MG OC for anything other than cheap insurance and spares he will be disowned.

 

Before I was around, there were a few cars. So (in chronological order):

 

1967 VW Beetle (LBU 611E, still in the family and living in Lancs)

 

196? Escort Estate (reconditioned engine fitted by GVM's dad without using an engine crane )

 

197? Datsun 180B, which was, in motha_wat's words. 'Fucking awful and orange.'

 

197? Datsun Cherry 100A (the FWD one).

 

Then we moved from Huddersfield to Sale and dad had lots of company chod and mum small lady boxes.

 

Dad: 198? Rancid green Mk 2 Cavalier which broke down in Ffestiniog.

 

1988 Ford Sierra Estate (E821 ECW. Now dead. I remember being picked up from nursery in this, and it was first car I 'drove' in Denmark - sitting on my dad's knee steering - and it wasn't power assisted).

 

1991 Vauxhall Cavalier Mk 3 (H962 EBA. Dead because it got written off. It started off as a pile of shit but wouldn't die until clouted in the hands of a friend he sold it to).

 

1994 Renault Laguna 1.8

199? Renault Espace Alize

1998 Renault Scenic 2.0 (one of the first in Cheshire)

1999 Renault Espace 2.0 (T850 MNE I think, not sure if alive or dead)

 

Then he sacked off buying French cars with his own money (the CEO of Jackson & Edwards lived across from us) and started getting company German stuff.

 

2001 Audi A6 Avant 1.8T (awesome car, I chundered up in the back of it when it was 2 days old after imbibing too much booze at a friend's 18th).

 

2005 BMW 5 Series 525d (urrgh).

 

2007 BMW 5 Series 525d Touring (urrgh, but shifts).

 

Mum:

 

Lots of crap, mostly dead. Ironically the Beetle is still with us.

 

1985 Ford Fiesta Popular Plus (B652 CTU, almost definitely dead).

 

1991 Ford Fiesta Popular Plus (H783 BND, bought from new, utter shitheap, from the Valencia that pissed oil to the constant sunroof and boot leaks, dead).

 

1995 Fiat Punto 55 (M608 XDM, from new, awesome car, probably dead).

 

1998 Ford KA 3 (S255 TBA, bought from new, my first car, still about in Merseyside somewhere).

 

1999 Renault Megane Cabrio (Nearly new, forget the reg. Utterly forgettable other than the roof got slashed in Sale once.)

 

2002 Peugeot 206 CC (current car, crap, rusting).