Is buying shite hereditary ? Discuss

[trigger]

When i was growing up we would spend almost every weekend going around the local garages looking at cars, so this rubbed off on me,dad rarely  bought any though, he was a salesmans worse nightmare. My grandad was worse though, he bought a new car every month from the same garage and they were supposed to have been always shit old bangers.

[cort16]

It comes from all the cars that passed through our house but it was always something being fixed up to sell on. I don't think he likes cars the same as I do he doesn't really have nostalgia for them which is probably a side effect of working on them professionally . When I got a bit older we Had the same car for 10 years. A red cortina 1.6 that would get find and bodywork every couple of years. I never got the impression he was bothered about changing it but he kept it tidy .

[Hendry]

My mum cant drive and has never shown any interest in it, my dad is not a car person at all, shows no interest in them and was happy walking or getting a bus if needs be, until he was 27 and I was born and he decided to get a licence, still says he might not even have a licence and a car now if it wasnt for having kids, so ive no idea where I get my love, and obsession with all things automobile, from.

 

My old man has always bought used cars, generally 3 years old, and keeps them for 5/6/7 years, as theyre just a tool to get from A to B, or were, now they are just his occupation and way of making money (taxi driver) and has never gave much of a fuck about them. 

 

His previous car history is like so:

- 1988 - fuck knows, 1989/90, a W reg bright yellow Austin Allegro with a black vinyl roof. 

- 1989/90 - 1991 (I think) 1985 B reg Fiat Uno 45 Base 3 door in white, he hated this car, when it rained the fucker broke down and wouldnt start, he always had old newspaper covering the engine bay, something about water getting in through the vented bonnet and soaking something, it also had holes in the floor with rust despite being less than 5 years old.

- 1991 - 1994 was an October 1986 D reg Austin Maestro 1.3 City in turd brown, this started rusting, falling apart, bits falling off, wouldnt start, electrical faults and in the end needing to be left at the top of the hill we lived on and bump started down the hill every morning. Someone even tried to steal it, how ironic.

- September 1994 - January 2000 was a March 1991 H reg Ford Orion 1.6 LX in Matisse blue, central locking faults, theft attempts, pretty unspectacular, someone stole it from a hospital car park, burnt it out and it got written off, dad was chuffed about that.

- February to October 2000 was a August 1996 P reg Chrysler Neon 2.0 LE in emerald green, some speeding wanker in a Volvo 440 came over the brow off a hill and t-boned it while my old man was picking me up from a school disco. Written off.

- December 2000 - September 2005 was a November 1997 R reg Vauxhall Astra 1.6 LS 5 door in nautilus blue, bought with only 7478 miles on it, ex motability, he bought a new car for taxi work and gave the Astra to me.

- September 2005 - August 2012 was a February 2005 54 plate Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 DTi Energy 5 door in silver, taken from 12,441 to 232,386 miles in his ownership, traded in as he had ran it into the ground.

- August 2012 - August 2016 was a July 2009 09 reg VW Jetta 2.0 CR TDi Sport in silver, given to me as DPF issues stopped it being tested for taxi use again due to age limits.

- August 2016  - present is an October 2013 63 reg Ford Mondeo 1.6 TDCi Econetic Titanium X Business Edition (fuck me thats a mouthful) in blue. still got. 

 

Thats 30 years of car ownership, ive had 11 cars in 11 years by comparison. 

[skoda_fan]

In my case only the thought process is hereditary. Although my Dad takes pride in his cars, he is of the sensible school that buys the best he can afford and makes it last for as long as it makes economic sense. He's therefore not owned a lot of cars. However he's very musical and is to keyboard instruments what I am to cars. I've lost track of how many instruments he has in his gaff. I apparently get my love of cars from a great uncle who owned loads of interesting stuff back in the day (40s/50s I think).

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Yes, my earliest memories all centre on cars.

My dad bringing home a 2 door Morris Minor with no seats that he was towed in whilst sitting on a beer crate- I must have been 3 or 4 , so that would make him 20 at the time .

Getting a cigarette burn on my arm as a 4 year old in an overloadedgreen Mk3 Zodiac with a magnetic National Petrol calculator thing stuck on the dash. 7 or 8 people coming back from a pub.

Being given a lift by my dads boss in his Mk4 Zodiac and never forgetting those giant buttoned seats.

The Bedford CA Workabus with polished wooden benches that me and my brother would sit right at the back and my dad would brake hard to make us slide the length of the van. This was used to tow a car trailer made from a caravan chassis which he collected scrap on.

The A40 Somerset that he ,for some reason , he didn't scrap for ages and I played in it in the garden for the whole of the summer of 1970 ( 6 years old)

The BSA Bantam that he rode around a field behind our house, and my mum going mad when he crashed it doing a jump with me on the back( about 6 again)

Towing a neighbour's E series Cresta home with a black 4 door split screen minor, me and Gary , the neighbour's son were sitting on the big red bench in the Cresta telling Mr Avery( Gary's dad) which way my dad was going so he could follow him!

 

Theirs shit loads of this- ages 6 till 12 next.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Is it hereditary? Not even slightly. My dad bought nearly new, and makes em last for years. He really looks after cars.

I buy them when they're older and have been abused and generally neglected, for a tad less then the price of a good one. I spend money getting them good again, then usually sell them after around 6-12 months, consistently at a loss.

Having said that, I'm very slowly starting to keep cars for longer. I guess its because I'm now in my forties and I'm slowly becoming vaguely sensible with money. I'm also slightly perturbed that my daily is my 55th car in 25 years.

I can see why my father was an accountant for years, whereas I couldn't have thought of a more dull job!

[Vantman]

Definitely not hereditary for me,my dad never had a car,he would travel to work on his bike or if it was convenient the use of a Standard Fordson tractor. Public transport was always used for social purposes.

I was the first in the family to own a car and ran numerous errands for everybody else!  I am now on my 72nd car,most of them would now be classed as shiteworthy.

[Stanky]

My folks used to just buy cheap bangers and run them til they broke in an uneconomical-to-fix way. We had some pretty decent chod in retrospect, but at the time they were just <£1000 bangers. What I recall were:

 

Nissan Bluebird

A string of Ford Sierras (at least 3, maybe more. All red)

An Audi 100 saloon

A Citroen BX 1.4

A 2cv

A Fiat Tempra

A Skoda Felicia

A Skoda Favorit

Two Skoda Felicia Fun Pickups

 

They all got looked after but eventually broke. I learned to drive in the Tempra and even though it was only a 1.6 litre engine it was really quick, eventually disposed of after the clutch went at the same time the exhaust developed a major blow and the cambelt was due (I think).