When did you last see a......

[Sir Snipes]

Mitsubishi Galant

Imported vr4s seem to out number the UK cars, regardless of variant. There are two v6s on eBay (and a vr4) and that's only the last gen.

[jon.k]

There are almost no older cars on the road. I drive alone a 120 mile return on busy A roads regularly and to pass the time I play "spot the car older than mine", which usually is a 1999 BMW. In 2 and a half hours on a busy Saturday I will typically see 3, 2 of which are gleaming classics from the 60's.

I recently went on a Sunday over to south of Chester and back, M1, M62 from the NE of England. In 5 and a bit hours and 307 miles I saw 3 cars 20 years or older. I saw 6 new Mustangs, twice as many. You don't even see many cars much older than 10 years. In estates and car parks yes, but not out there actually going somewhere.

I played this game on a drive from Worcestershire to London and back a few weeks ago, in an R reg golf. Not an old car, but still the oldest we saw on the motorway, both ways. Oddly enough the next oldest cars we saw were Jag S types driven by giffers.

[Matty]

For all the vag dislike, I have to say that the older vehicles I see around here ( say 15 years plus ) seem to be golfs and polos. Two of mine are old vw (20 and 23) and still do the business on a daily basis. So the big question is: were they better put together than other people's shit or have people spent more money on keeping them on the road?

[MarvinsMom]

prior to about 91-92 i'd say that VAGshite WAS better put together than other makers products.

 

however, after the introduction of the mark 3 golf and spanish made pooholes then VAGshite's products were if anything inferior to most other offerings.

 

its about that time that VAG employed some clown from Opel (i cannot remember his name) who taught them how to save a few marks here and there such as to not properly seal around the wheel arch joints, and build poor "kwaliti" vehicles as a result.

 

hence more profit, and dumb 'dubbers who would still buy the cars, no matter what.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Vauxhall Sintra

[25v6turbo]

Phase 1 Safrane

under 30 left on the road of any type.......

[Matty]

prior to about 91-92 i'd say that VAGshite WAS better put together than other makers products.

 

however, after the introduction of the mark 3 golf and spanish made pooholes then VAGshite's products were if anything inferior to most other offerings.

 

its about that time that VAG employed some clown from Opel (i cannot remember his name) who taught them how to save a few marks here and there such as to not properly seal around the wheel arch joints, and build poor "kwaliti" vehicles as a result.

 

hence more profit, and dumb 'dubbers who would still buy the cars, no matter what.

Possibly however whilst I'd agree that my mark 3 is definitely no better than anything else I've owned from that period, my 20 year old mark 4 is the wife's daily and still genuinely feels like a top item. Everything still works near perfectly, it's remarkably solid and it's on a t plate with 165000 on the clock. And cost £400. Not a big be fan, tbh both are owned more by accident than design, but well impressed

[vulgalour]

I realised on scanning through this thread that the last time I saw a Fiat 126 was in the 90s.

 

 

Come to think of it, that's about the last time I saw a Tipo, Tempra, or Uno in the wild too.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

For all the vag dislike, I have to say that the older vehicles I see around here ( say 15 years plus ) seem to be golfs and polos. Two of mine are old vw (20 and 23) and still do the business on a daily basis. So the big question is: were they better put together than other people's shit or have people spent more money on keeping them on the road?

 

 

Maybe both?  I drive a MkIV Golf Estate and apart from a couple of issues (that do need sorting) that are mileage and wear-related, it's a solidly put together, competent car.  I see a lot of MkIV Golfs around that are much older than mine, too.  Don't see many MkIIIs any more, although I did see two at the local VAG specialist the other day and even a MkIII Golf Estate (very rare!) a few weeks ago.  MkIV Golfs definitely seem like the 'old car of choice' around here...

[RayMK]

I realised on scanning through this thread that the last time I saw a Fiat 126 was in the 90s.

 

 

 

Come to think of it, that's about the last time I saw a Tipo, Tempra, or Uno in the wild too.

 

There's a '94 Tipo parked outside my house right now.  It was my son's.  He sold it to a friend as a stop-gap car and I may be buying it back in a few weeks time. 

[Ghosty]

Fiesta courier box van and the mk1 combo vans, a rare sight now.

 

Early Sprinters and Vito vans.

Transit Flaresides, on that topic.

Any LDV, and Nissan Vanettes.

[cms206]

Transit Flaresides, on that topic.

Any LDV, and Nissan Vanettes.

There's an F-reg Vanette kicks about Barrhead and a bloke I used to work with dailies an M-reg 400 crewcab dropside.

 

I think Swissport Glasgow still have one of our old Flaresides though I've not seen it in a while; P516 OLA was new to BA as their LV1235, then our AV02196 and later still Servisair's 29-3792.

 

P475 OLA was the other which I think was BA LV1226... IIRC they were fairly unusual for BA in being manuals, BA Cargo ran a 2.5Di Luton registered L238 ULU from memory which was automatic.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[chaseracer]

Weren't there only about 500 flaresides built?

[Timewaster]

I assumed they had all had the slightly silly buck removed and repurposed as tippers, transporters, box vans etc.

 

Incidentally there is an ex BT van specialist I drive past quite often and one side of his yard is filled with fibre glass boxes removed from BT Transits.

[Jerzy Woking]

Not just the Seat Ibiza, but the Marbella too-used to see dozens around here, but not seen either model for some time now.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

....my 20 year old mark 4 is the wife's daily and still genuinely feels like a top item. Everything still works near perfectly, it's remarkably solid and it's on a t plate with 165000 on the clock. And cost £400. ....

The Borat (same floorpan, but coded 1J2) shares the same durability, albeit the one I drive is 15 years / 147000 miles old. Never stressed, it just keeps going past each MoT with minimum effort. Might buy a new n/s wing panel for it as I managed to dent the present one twice in two months.

[DodgyBastard]

I think it's the reason I end up owning most cars because they are uncommon, I like them because I don't see them on the roads very often. They don't have to be particularly special or sporty, just uncommon:

 

RJC_6244 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

DSC_0151 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_5978 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_5940 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_5766 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

RJC_5557 by srblythe, on Flickr

[PiperCub]

I play the 'old-car roulette' when I'm out and about - it's extremely rare to see anything pre-2001 round here, around 56-plate seems to be about the oldest commonly seen. People often double-take my M-reg Rover which is the newest thing I own (WTF? How old is that PoS?), in fact, I get mildly annoyed when someone has the audacity to have an older car than me in a car park! (How very dare you Sir?).

 

The other old vehicle you don't see (or very rarely) are old vans, esp. small vans. They used be around in large numbers, Escort, Astra etc -sized vans that had reverted to private use after around 5 years or so. I guess that's a function of the fact firms lease their vans now & don't usually buy them outright any more. Even older Transits (& the like) are very rarely seen, you seldom see one more than about 6/7 years old now (same reason as above but also let's face it, vans get hammered/neglected from day 1 so that doesn't help longevity). 

[dougiefourspeed]

I guess it's all relative. I mean, you don't see many Hyundai Stellars on the road today, but I don't recall them ever being that common even 20 years ago. Maybe I just live in an area of HGD (High Giffer Density), but I still see a reasonable amount of old chod doing the daily grind. Someone round the corner from me has a C-plate blue Maestro which has been papped on here before, another chap has a brace of Aggros, and there's a lovely late (J-reg, I think) Sierra Sapphire LX which I see a few times a month. 

 

Cars I used to see everywhere but now hardly see at all:

 

Phase 1 Pug 106 - The last one I remember seeing was my old blue one. Phase 2's are still a common sight around here though as are Saxos.

Renault 19/21/25 - Can't remember the last time I spotted any of these three.

Mark 1 Galaxy/Sharan - Seem to have thinned out massively over the last few years. 

Rover 200 R3/400 HHR - 25 and 45 are fairly common, as are the MG versions but early ones are scarce. The same shape Honda Civic too. 

Astra G - Not quite disappeared but they're thinning fast. Shame really, they were a billion times better than the Astra H in my eyes.

Golf Mk3 - Again, not totally disappeared, but rarer than they were 5 years ago.

Rover Metro/100 - I occasionally see an R-plate 100 on my commute, but that's it. 

Xsara/Xsara Picasso - Always thought the Xsara was alright, but I never liked the Picasso. 

 

On the other hand, older cars I used to see everywhere and still do:

 

BMW E34/E36 - Still a fair few running around. They seem to range between tatty but solid runners like my Compact to show queen 540i's and M3's but still plenty around. 

Merc W202 C Class - I would've thought they'd have rusted away by now, but seemingly not. 

Sierra - Maybe this is just down to the sheer number sold, but I still see a handful of 'normal' Sierras on the regular.

Golf Mk2 - Mostly GTI's these days, but I reckon I see more about than Mk3's.

90's Impreza - Still lots of WRX's about. Although most seem to be in the hands of a more discerning clientele these days. 

Cavalier Mk3/Vectra B - Few of each still knocking around.

K11 Micra - Seems to be the takeaway delivery car of choice around here. Don't see any pre-facelift ones now mind. 

[sutty2006]

Weirdly, although I've seen a few Mark 1 Mondeos this year (some are in my spotting thread) it's the Mark 2 that seems rarer.

 

Even Mark 3 Mondeos seem to have thinned out a lot. Still reasonably common, but not in every street and every car park like they used to be.

The Mondeo will meet the same fate as the mk1/2 Granada. Banger fodder. I went a meet years ago with 95 mondeos and 1 vectra. (2.0 class). Needless to say, the Mondeo will die off just like the Granada did.

[michael t]

 I haven't seen a Mk3 Fiesta for exactly a year (pretty good with dates, saw an L reg one on the M56 near Huyton in Jan '18). Haven't spotted a Mk3 here in Ireland since October 2017.

 

Here in Ireland....

 

Saw a Seicento in a car park last week, very clean on a 2003 plate.

 

Mk1 KA's are getting extremely thin on the ground nowadays, mainly due the thinning of their metal structures after about 4 years.....

 

Early Skoda Felicia's??? Been well over a year since I saw one.

[UltraWomble]

Haven't seen a BX in a while.

There are three local to me - a Green J plate Hurricane, a red TZD estate and a whits TZD Turbot saloon.

 

Was only thinking about the Brava / Bravo the other day and how I havent seen one in an ice age

[Timewaster]

Tried the "Spot the oldest car" game on a 40 mile round trip today.

It turned into "spot anything with an age letter prefix plate."

 

Result?

 

A Y reg. Disco in motion.

A R reg. Galaxy in a Layby that someone is living in.

And a P reg Astra parked up on an industrial estate.

 

Poor show.

 

Although I did see a scruffy Courier van.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I realised on scanning through this thread that the last time I saw a Fiat 126 was in the 90s.

 

 

Come to think of it, that's about the last time I saw a Tipo, Tempra, or Uno in the wild too.

 

 

There's one around here.  A 126p, to be precise.  I see it every few months.

 

We have quite a few Mk1 KAs around still.  And I remember seeing a Mk3 Fiesta a couple of days ago.

 

Now you mention the Mk3s, they have just disappeared.  My Dad had one when I was a kid and it was brilliant.  J417 NKJ.

 

There's a fair amount of 90s chod still (everybody is having to pay a lot for their houses, so cars are definitely secondary) but it is becoming scant.

[nigel bickle]

Hells teeth, it sounds like you’re inventorying my barns!

 

I drive most of the old chod you lot are searching for!

50 miles today in a G plate Yugo 45, 150 yesterday in an Espero

Tomorrow it’s a Renault 21, to see if I do want to sell it ( being pestered)

 

I do have a ‘ modern’, it’s not even taxed.

[treehugger]

The Mondeo will meet the same fate as the mk1/2 Granada. Banger fodder. I went a meet years ago with 95 mondeos and 1 vectra. (2.0 class). Needless to say, the Mondeo will die off just like the Granada did.

The Mondeos have nearly gone already, micros are now popular in bangers.

[dougiefourspeed]

Another one I thought of on the way home. Mark 1 Clio.

[Schaefft]

Another one I thought of on the way home. Mark 1 Clio.

About 10 days ago in Malaga:

 

[martc]

Any LDV.

https://myldv.co.uk/#

 

[Ghosty]

Not those ones