Dad cars

[catsinthewelder]

My dad learnt to drive on a tractor then spent the next few years building roads without owning a car.

When he met my mum she had a mini, which was replaced by a better one.

Next was a Blue MK1 Fiesta which caught fire on the drive with me in it.  The replacement was a V reg MK2 Escort which became my mum's soon after when he got a red MK3 as a company car.  A mk4 followed then an F reg BX 14RE.  A Primera was next (still red) then a juice green Mondeo Verona was his last company car.  He bought it on retirement and ran it for a couple of years before PXing it for a Y reg Mégane that was later mine.  A blue Corolla followed then the MK2 Focus I have now.  He currently has a 2015 Focus 1.5 diesel in metallic dark blue.  Possibly the most exceptional thing about his cars is that the only silver one was a Clio my stepmum had when she moved in.

[Dan302]

My dad mostly seemed to drive end of life stuff when I was a kid. Here's a few I remember (not necessarily in the correct order)

Red mini 1000 (I believe I was brought home from hospital in this)

White landcrab (2200?) 

Brown renault 12 (dad really liked this one)

Blue Talbot Alpine (nicknamed ticky Talbot thanks to its tappet noise. Ended up brushed painted in hammerite)

Mk1 Cavalier x 2 

Lada Riva in brown D***MFU this was fairly new at the time. He rated its toughness very highly. It had the bigger front grill, I think it was a 1500 or 1600?

Brown Triumph Dolomite 1300 this would have been in the mid 90s.

White 3 door Nova 1.2 (facelift) this was the early 2000s I used to borrow it when my Dolly Sprint wouldn't start.......so fairly often

 

[neil1971]

Lurking in the background here is the Magnette (LJG300) that dad owned, bought from my grandad, 

[D.E]

- Vauxhall Viva HC. My dad still thinks this was a great car, and he regrets crashing it into a ditch.

- Opel Rekord. Slid off an icy road,  crashed.

- Fiat 125. Was just 8 years old at the time, but terminally rotten. Front wings were filled up with newspapers according to my dad.

- Toyota Corolla E20. My parents should have a photo of this one on their attic somewhere.

- Opel Ascona.

- Lada 2107. The first new car my dad bought, as to be expected rather unrefined .

- Opel Kadett E. Also bought new, reliable car but as usual with the Kadett E/Astra Mk II, required welding the sills and rear arches after 10 years.

- Suzuki Swift 1.0 GLS. 1998, bought in 1999. First owner passed away and it somehow ended up at the local Ford dealer. This was an excellent car for what it was, when my dad traded this one in for a new Swift in 2007 it already had over 220k kms on the clock, but apparently lasted for another twelve years. Quite impressive for a well-used cheap car, I think.

- Suzuki Swift 1.3 GLS. Bought new in 2007. I guess I could call myself the custodian of this one now, it is usually sitting in my garage since my dad received a new Kangoo van (which is a troublesome heap of shit, but technically not his so not what this topic is about) from work. My dad picks up the Swift whenever he needs it, I drive it occasionally as well. Good thing, no plans to replace it anytime soon.

[Macscrooge]

This will be quite a list as my Dad changed cars quite often!

I remember him saying that he and three friends had ‘shares’ in a Citroen (possibly a Light 15) whose brakes needed some miles notice of any intention to stop. After a couple of scooters he had company cars.  All new unless noted  

Ford Anglia in grey - I think this was ‘inherited’ from his predecessor at work  

Hillman Imp  - C reg in blue - this first car I travelled in.

Ford Cortina Mk1 1200 2-door in dark green.

Ford Cortina Mk2 2-door in pale dog turd.  My abiding memory of it is freezing in the dark waiting for the RAC.

BMC 1100 4-door x4 in blue, red, white and (drum roll please) Harvest Gold. A man appeared from head office every year with a new one. 
Austin 1300 - a loan car while moving jobs which broke down in the dark. 
Hillman Avenger 1500 Super - L reg in poo brown.  I’m never figured out what was ‘super’.  
Hillman Avenger 1600 GLS - P reg in kingfisher blue metallic with restyles and a black vinyl roof. Twin carbs and velour seats!  Cor!  Written off in a 1978 altercation with a lorry near Forfar. 
Chrysler Alpine GLS - T reg in Kermit the frog green with black vinyl roof. Awash with luxuries - electric windows, headlamp wipers etc. 
BL Princess 2 1.7HL - W reg in grey. The first car I drove!

Austin Ambassador 2.0 HLS - Y reg in white. Power steering, sunroof and twin-carb O-series. 22mpg  though😬

then he set up his own business. He bought the Ambassador at a knock-down price as part of his severance settlement.  But it still did 22mpg, so he then bought:

Peugeot 205 XLD - B reg in red. 50 mpg whatever we did to it. 
Peugeot 205 XLD - D reg in wedgewood blue. 
Peugeot 309 GLD - E reg in met blue.  45mpg and much keener on going up hills!

Peugeot 405 GRD - G(?) reg in silver.  It felt very indulgent.

Peugeot 405 GR(?)D turbo in dark blue met.  When 90bhp was a lot of power.

Peugeot 405 GLD turbo in light green met, I never drove it  he crashed it.  
Fiat Brava in silver bought nearly new  

Mazda 323 - Bought nearly new.  I was there when he bought it but can’t remember a thing about it.  
Honda Accord 1.8EX - W reg in green met.  Bought about 18m old and kept ‘till he packed in driving in c2012. 
 

I’m not sure if I have any photos - if I do I’ll add them as I find them  

 

[AltheJazzman]

I thought this was an appropriate thread to add to. I was going through all my Dad's old photos last night and discovered he had taken photos of what looks like all the cars he owned in the 80's and 90's. He's not alive any more to ask further questions, but this was a cool nostalgia trip.  I had to do a few reverse image searches to identify the ones I don't have 1st hand memories of.

Austin Maxi. I have fond memories of spending holidays in this. My Dad was really excited by the 5 speed gearbox and attributed it's fuel economy to that feature. But the wipers didn't have intermittent, so I operated the rocker switch on the dashboard to compensate.

Blue Ford Cortina mk4

Commer FC van. I hated it then, and I hate it now. Only it's mother could love something this ugly. Apparently their only advantage was a tight turning circle, on account of that silly undersized wheelbase. No idea who the bloke is in the passenger seat, or why he's licking the window.

Ford Cortina mk3 Estate. I don't remember this first hand and needed Google to identify it for me.

Ford Escort mk1. No idea what engine. Trim badge looks like an "L" so probably base model.

Ford Escort mk3 Estate. I learnt to drive in this. Well, I had lots of practice including my Mum's Toyota Corolla. Dad pretty much let me keep it for a year while I was at college as he had his work vehicle (then a Maestro van)

Ford Transit mk2 pickup. Dad used to let me change gear in this so we had our own semi-auto!

Hillman Hunter estate. Yes that's little me aged about 10 I guess. I have absolutely no memory of this car or even what it was! Again Google helped me out. Dad clearly owned this at the same time as the blue Cortina mk4.

Red Ford Cortina mk4 1.3. Man, Dad really loved Cortinas! I think he owned this and the blue one at similar times, because I remember him having two identical cars, one with rotten bodywork, and the other with a decent engine, so his mechanic did an engine swap to make one good car. 

Volvo 144. A much earlier photo from the mid 80's. Again I don't remember this one.

[wesacosa]

I've posted this before but not in this section 

Me and my Dad in his 1974 Fiat 128 Panorama estate taken on holiday circa 1987

I think the car was Zanussied not too long after 

I wonder if there are many other 2/3 door cars which have full size read wind down windows

[AltheJazzman]

4 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

I've posted this before but not in this section 

Me and my Dad in his 1974 Fiat 128 Panorama estate taken on holiday circa 1987

I think the car was Zanussied not too long after 

I wonder if there are many other 2/3 door cars which have full size read wind down windows

That sounded broken already in the that video. Yes, interesting rear window feature.

[wesacosa]

22 minutes ago, AltheJazzman said:

That sounded broken already in the that video. Yes, interesting rear window feature.

rattle and blowing in the video was the exhaust. I'm not sure what killed it in the end but assume rust 

[UltraWomble]

Dad had a Hilman Imp when married and shortly after took on my grandads HA van when he gave up the shop and retired.
For a couple of years I was carried around in the back in a carry cot, then one Sunday morning he cut out the back panels and installed windows, then bolted a single seat that he got from a scrappers to the floor.

That was me till I was about 8 then he bought his brothers ADO16 Austin 1300, then some years later (1986) an Austin Metro 1.3L - 5 years after that he bought a Rover Metro K series 1.1, then another 5 years bought a Rover 114 SLi. That was the last of the "Metro's" because they no longer made them. He then bought the Polo  1400TDi SE (which I now own) in 2006 and after that promptly died.  My mother drove the Polo for a few (read 16) years but didnt gel with it and it picked up a large number of parking by braile scuffs. Then she bought a Corsa auto & found her love for driving again!

 

[AltheJazzman]

You've jogged my memory @UltraWomble. I meant to add that in the photo of the white Escort mk1, you can see an Escort van behind it. My dad had bolted a rear facing seat into the back of the van so three of us could go out in it. Not sure why as he obviously owned other more practical family cars. Perhaps he sold them all or they were broken?

I also remember being in the back of my Mum's Reliant Robin, which I'm sure had no rear windows but had rear seats. That would be odd.

[Markeh]

Posted this in another thread of a similar ilk before, but I'll reshare it:

My dad has had a rather eclectic mix of cars due to working at main dealers and having demonstrators/company vehicles from about 2000 until roughly 2016 or so with a brief break. One recurring theme is that he often had the longest commute across a variety of roads compared to his colleagues, so he often got sent home with customer vehicles with an intermittent fault to give it the best chance of the fault being reproduced.

Prior to getting cars, he had mostly Nissans. There was a 3500 SD1 at one point in the 80s, a story has been told of a triple digit speeding incident that went to court and he got off on a technicality (speed was checked several times in a 3-400 yard section of road that if he'd been going the speed claimed, they wouldn't have had the time to check it several times in that stretch, or something), and was strongly advised outside the courtroom that every copper in the county would be keeping an eye out for that car and maybe he should get rid. There could be some hyperbole here, but there are now speed cameras on the stretch of road in question, I usually blame him for them whenever I drive past!

After that it was a couple of Sunnys, then a K-reg P10 Primera (possibly red) which I believe I was brought home from the hospital in. This was then replaced with an R-reg P11 Primera GX in navy blue (not too dissimilar to the one that's on the forum). This replaced mum's car (an F-reg beige Maestro - we'll get onto the shite she owned!) when he started getting cars from work.

• Renault - I think he just got whatever was available, it was normally a Mk2 Clio (which I remember promptly redecorating the back of), but I also remember a Laguna II when they were new.
• MG Rover/Daihatsu/Daewoo - Often one of a number of Rover 25 courtesy cars (this being back in the days where 5 of us plus luggage could fit in a Rover 25 to go to Cornwall - nowadays they can struggle with two of them in a 3008!), they also had a couple of Daihatsu YRVs (sadly not 130 Turbos!), later Daewoo Kaloses and maybe the odd Matiz. Unsure if the 75 saloon we had was a customer vehicle or not, but the silver MGF he brought home one week definitely was - I was thrilled at the time.
• Nissan - He started out getting P12 Primeras, I believe most of them were estates. One met an untimely end when borrowed by a colleague to bring staff back when they were doing a run to the storage yard - the idiot overtook on a blind bend and met a Micra coming the other way, spelling the end of both cars and unfortunately the driver of the Micra as well. He had an Almera for a bit while that got sorted out, then largely moved to X-Trails, although did take on a Murano for a bit - this was being tarted up as a demo and wasn't finished so came home one night with a DVD player and no headliner. Had a couple of Pathfinders towards the end, one of which had it's rear corner rearranged on a fence post. There were a few occasions where he'd have to swap cars for the weekend because a test drive had been booked on his car - on some of these occasions he managed to wangle a 350Z for the weekend. You can imagine how delighted 10 year old me was. My mother, less so...
• Alfa Romeo - this was a fairly short stint, I think he was covering for a few months. I believe he had a 159 as part of this but I have little recollection of it.
• Mazda/Fiat/Kia - If I remember the timing of this, he was due to start at a new Fiat/Kia garage but it wasn't quite ready so he was either helping out at or covering Mazda down the road for a bit (ironically on the same site that MGR/Daihatsu/Daewoo were on, which had changed hands) - he had a 5 for a little bit then a couple of 6 saloons. Once he was on the Fiat/Kia site, he generally had Sportages, a couple of Sorentos, and occasionally a Sedona (unsure if that was borrowed for a couple of occasions or not). I remember a family argument over being stuck with a Multipla for a caravan holiday!
• Peugeot - he was here for a fair few years. He almost exclusively had 407 estates until the 508 came out, when he had a 508 saloon, then a couple of 508 estates, then a 3008 Hybrid - I remember chaos with this as the dealer group had been sold and the site transferred, but it didn't include the stock (this was when the Co-op motor group or various parts of it were acquired by the Vertu/Bristol Street empire), they were due to collect the car the day before we'd agreed to use it as wedding transport for a friend of ours - fortunately we were able to use the car for the day and it got swapped out on the Monday instead. I think he had a second 508 estate after this before he left.
• Skoda - pretty much exclusively Octavias, although did come home with a Superb on a couple of occasions. Mostly hatches (I can remember going to uni back when all my worldly possessions fit in the back of an Octavia hatch with one rear seat still usable!) although he did have an automatic estate at one point - this was when I passed my test, and because of how our driveway was I'd need to be able to move their cars out the way to get out on some occasions - does he let me practice on mum's PT? No, I get the keys to the Skoda thrown at me and told we're off for a drive. Looking back I very much question the legality! On one occasion when he was due to get a new car I got a phone call "Oh, there's these 3 letters on the bootlid, vRS?". This site too got taken over by the Vertu/Bristol Street empire and that was his cue to sod off.
• Land Rover - the car scheme at this particular dealer chain was different and not worth him bothering with. So initially, as it was free and not doing anything, he took my Corsa as a stopgap. Eventually he bought a 53-plate PT Cruiser 2.0 Classic in black. We ran this for quite some time even after he started getting cars again at another job, however it eventually was sold on as we figured it would need too much work for the MOT and we already had mums - sold to a couple up in Scarborough who bought it, drove it home, had the misfortune of a DVLA camera finding it on their road the morning after they'd bought it, and then sent us an arsey message with the MOT failure sheet hinting at wanting their money back. We never hid anything, or sent it in for a test, we just couldn't be arsed.
• Suzuki/Great Wall - Mostly Suzuki SX4 S-Crosses, with the odd Vitara mixed in. We did end up with a Great Wall Steed one Christmas, that was... interesting.

His last two stints (Land Rover again then Peugeot again) were at the same group with the different car scheme so he went back to private cars at this point, running the PT Classic for a bit then taking advantage of some staff deals and getting a 67-plate Juke Acenta automatic in red. A year later (and I'm not saying coincidentally 6 months after I bought my first Qashqai) this was swapped for a 68-plate Juke Bose edition automatic in the same "Vivid Blue" as my Qashqai. After about 2 and a bit years, mum started to qualify for Motability cars, so this was traded back in when they had a Qashqai through Motability, and they're now on an E-3008. Not that long after they got the blue Juke, they also inherited my gran's 13-plate Suzuki Splash (bought at 2-3 years old at staff rates when dad was at Suzuki after my grandad died and his Motability car went back) which they still run as a second car.

Mum was definitely a secret shiter. Started learning in a Mk1 Cavalier, I don't have her full history to hand but she's had a Horizon, a Polonez (which I do have a photo of somewhere) and a Maestro. The standout car was the Lada Samara she had new. A car came around the wrong side of the traffic lights, smashed into her, smashed her into the traffic light itself which then fell down on top of the car. She was injured and still suffers the odd bit of pain from those injuries to this day, but the police informed her that if she'd been in a Metro or a Fiesta she wouldn't have made it. She had a new for old clause on her insurance policy at the time for up to a year old - it was a year and a week old at the time of the accident! Aside from that as family fodder she had a Daewoo Tacuma, a Zafira B, a C3 Picasso, then a PT Cruiser.

I'm in the process of tooling up to scan a whole load of family photos, so I am expecting/hoping some photos of some of the stuff he had prior to the motor trade to come up.

[inconsistant]

1 hour ago, AltheJazzman said:

Red Ford Cortina mk4 1.3. Man, Dad really loved Cortinas! I think he owned this and the blue one at similar times, because I remember him having two identical cars, one with rotten bodywork, and the other with a decent engine, so his mechanic did an engine swap to make one good car. 

 

Depending how much you care this is either a Mk5 Cortina or a Cortina ‘80.  Same bodyshell as mk4 but facelifted. Bumpers extended to wheelarches is biggest giveaway. Also bigger wider rear light clusters. Your dad’s has got Sierra L/GL wheeltrimz. Your dad’s would have come with  bare steel wheels, being a 1.3 it would have been a bASe or an L.  
 

My dad had a V reg 2.0 GL, it was properly posh after our Marina 1.3 Super, both company cars so I think my dad must have had a promotion or something. Will try to find pics. 

In the background and in the Hunter pic is what looks like a red Maestro van, was that your dad’s?

[vtec-e]

My father was not a car person, they were a source of family transport and much gnashing of teeth when they refused to start 

1958 Morris 1000 Traveller green

1964 Morris 1000 Traveller old english white

1973 Austin Maxi 1500 green

1980 Austin Allegro 1.3 green

1987 Vw Polo 1000 burgundy

1995 Honda Civic 1.5 green

2003 Honda Civic 1.4 silver

Just realized, only 7 cars over 45 years and green seems a favourite colour 😄 

 

 

 

[AltheJazzman]

30 minutes ago, inconsistant said:

Depending how much you care this is either a Mk5 Cortina or a Cortina ‘80.  Same bodyshell as mk4 but facelifted. Bumpers extended to wheelarches is biggest giveaway. Also bigger wider rear light clusters. Your dad’s has got Sierra L/GL wheeltrimz. Your dad’s would have come with  bare steel wheels, being a 1.3 it would have been a bASe or an L.  
 

My dad had a V reg 2.0 GL, it was properly posh after our Marina 1.3 Super, both company cars so I think my dad must have had a promotion or something. Will try to find pics. 

In the background and in the Hunter pic is what looks like a red Maestro van, was that your dad’s?

Thanks for the nerdy details. I bow to your knowledge.

Regarding the Maestro van, oddly enough there must have been two red Maestro vans on the estate, or he bought his later, but that wasn't the one that became his, and then mine.

[Weird Car]

This was our faithful family transport growing on up an early 2000s council estate 

Dads trusty HC Viva that he bought for £75 and we used for all sorts of holidays and with him being a bricklayer/ general tradesman at the time was always a mess inside, once our family grew it was unfortunately scrapped and replaced with this Vauxhall Midi that dad bolted 2 extra rows into 

he really tried to make it a special family van not least by painting it in this green and black wall paint he found in the shed 

after a good few years that eventually fell apart due to rust and was replaced with a first generation Toyota Previa that suited us great

dads had probably  30+ cars since those days though, a handful of mk3 transits, a couple zafiras, 3 Hearses, a few minibuses, some berlingos that he quite liked, a load more weird and wonderful cars and he currently has his 2nd 206SW, bangernomics very much running in the family

 but the Viva and Midi are the ones i remember most fondly from my childhood and I very much attribute those old cheap bangers of my childhood to my current obsession with cars as an adult 

[inconsistant]

1 hour ago, AltheJazzman said:

Thanks for the nerdy details. I bow to your knowledge.

The teenage 1980s me who could tell all Ford trim levels side on from a combination of the wheel trimz and the side stripes/rubbing strips says thanks!

Bonus  red Maestro van pic from the NEC show, in case you didn’t spot it.

[Bradders59]

@AltheJazzman - your Dads white Escort is a Mk2 not a Mk1.

When I was a kid my Dad always had Minibuses to ferry people to and from Church, all at his own expense despite the fact we were completely skint, but hey ho.

Later he had an HB Viva. Then an HC Viva. Then he had three Mk1 Cavaliers one after the other, all 1.6 in GL spec and all a couple of years old when he bought them.

The only difference was the colour. Why he did this I have no idea.

Next up was a brand new 1.0 Nova saloon - its easy to see where I got my Vauxhall habit from.

He always had Vauxhalls because he had an irrational hatred of Fords.

After this and long after I had left home he bought a Hyundai Stellar auto. For some unfathomable reason he thought this was some kind of luxury performance car !

Then camchain rattled so badly it sounded like a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin, but he didnt seem to notice.

Lastly he had a brand new Astra (around 1998) which was actually a mobility car for my Mum who had serious health issues.

He then had a stroke and had to stop driving for a while. Then Mum died. He had his licence returned the morning of her funeral, but he threw it in the bin and never drove again.

He was 69 at the time and lived until he was 83. He had another stroke a year or so later and wouldnt have been able to drive if he had wanted to. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

1978- 2016 my Dad had

1968 Triumph Herald (he learned to drive in in as did my brother & me)
1974 Triumph Toledo (Herald died from abuse)
1981 Talbot Horizon (from new)
1984 Skoda Estelle (from new)
1987 Skoda Favorits x several
1998 Skoda Felatios x several
2014 Pug 3008

After the Leyland stuff he just wanted a car that worked and, after the Horizon dissolved in the Scottish sea air, something reasonably rust proof.

Only photo I have of any is the Horizon (someplace) 

Edited January 4 by EyesWeldedShut
add photo

[Fat_Pirate]

@Markeh and @Weird Car recalling childhood memories of cars I still consider VERY MODERN is making me feel old.

My stand-out childhood memory is going with my grandfather to look at an Austin 1800 at a garage when I was about 7 (to replace his tatty Viva HB).  It wouldn't start when we got there, and loads of men were poking about under the bonnet without success.  I didn't understand what anything was in the engine bay, so later went to the library, got a load of books on how cars work, and started laying the foundations of becoming the boring bastard I am today.  Fun fact: my brother works as a mechanic at the garage on that site now.  Non-fun fact: a Viva HC replaced the HB.  It was no improvement, as far as I was concerned.

[sierraman]

Some good cars my dad had, a Sierra, Mondeo, Mk2 Astra and a Megane. But this is offset against some cars that really weren’t very good at all including an Astra Mk3 Base and a Zafira. Up until I’d be about 13-14 he used to buy the ex fleet cars at the firm he worked for, they’d usually be about 6 years old and he inevitably require a few repairs where they’d been knocked about/rust etc so he’d be spending the summer nights rubbing the rust down or filling the holes in the doors. It starts to make me feel old when you imagine the equivalent of a 2019 car needing a bit of filler here and there where it was starting to go rusty. 😂

After that he got a decent job that paid a bit better so he used to buy a new one every 3-4 years, then complaining bitterly how much money he’d lost. He still to this day thinks that at 100,000 miles a car is totally fucked. Obviously he is now old so he does about 300 miles a year driving to Morrisons and back in an 11 and 20 odd year old car he’s had for years. Sort of gone full circle now. 

[Imhotep]

Pre my existence my dad had the following:

Fiat 128

Fiat Regata

Citroen Visa 1.1

Citroen AX 10E

Citroen BX TZD(?)

Post my existence:

Citroen BX GTI

Citroen BX TRS estate

MGB GT (with factory fitted air con!)

Rover 216GSI

Rover 420D

Land Rover Discovery 300TDI

Rover 45

Ford Mondeo LX 1.8 mk3

Ford Mondeo LX 2.0 TDCI mk3

Ford Mondeo Zetec 1.8 TDCI mk4

Ford Focus 1.0

Ford Kuga 1.5 TDCI

MG ZS 1.5

Ford Puma 1.0

 

To be honest. This answers questions about my taste in cars 

[AltheJazzman]

4 hours ago, Markeh said:

Posted this in another thread of a similar ilk before, but I'll reshare it:

My dad has had a rather eclectic mix of cars due to working at main dealers and having demonstrators/company vehicles from about 2000 until roughly 2016 or so with a brief break. One recurring theme is that he often had the longest commute across a variety of roads compared to his colleagues, so he often got sent home with customer vehicles with an intermittent fault to give it the best chance of the fault being reproduced.

Prior to getting cars, he had mostly Nissans. There was a 3500 SD1 at one point in the 80s, a story has been told of a triple digit speeding incident that went to court and he got off on a technicality (speed was checked several times in a 3-400 yard section of road that if he'd been going the speed claimed, they wouldn't have had the time to check it several times in that stretch, or something), and was strongly advised outside the courtroom that every copper in the county would be keeping an eye out for that car and maybe he should get rid. There could be some hyperbole here, but there are now speed cameras on the stretch of road in question, I usually blame him for them whenever I drive past!

After that it was a couple of Sunnys, then a K-reg P10 Primera (possibly red) which I believe I was brought home from the hospital in. This was then replaced with an R-reg P11 Primera GX in navy blue (not too dissimilar to the one that's on the forum). This replaced mum's car (an F-reg beige Maestro - we'll get onto the shite she owned!) when he started getting cars from work.

• Renault - I think he just got whatever was available, it was normally a Mk2 Clio (which I remember promptly redecorating the back of), but I also remember a Laguna II when they were new.
• MG Rover/Daihatsu/Daewoo - Often one of a number of Rover 25 courtesy cars (this being back in the days where 5 of us plus luggage could fit in a Rover 25 to go to Cornwall - nowadays they can struggle with two of them in a 3008!), they also had a couple of Daihatsu YRVs (sadly not 130 Turbos!), later Daewoo Kaloses and maybe the odd Matiz. Unsure if the 75 saloon we had was a customer vehicle or not, but the silver MGF he brought home one week definitely was - I was thrilled at the time.
• Nissan - He started out getting P12 Primeras, I believe most of them were estates. One met an untimely end when borrowed by a colleague to bring staff back when they were doing a run to the storage yard - the idiot overtook on a blind bend and met a Micra coming the other way, spelling the end of both cars and unfortunately the driver of the Micra as well. He had an Almera for a bit while that got sorted out, then largely moved to X-Trails, although did take on a Murano for a bit - this was being tarted up as a demo and wasn't finished so came home one night with a DVD player and no headliner. Had a couple of Pathfinders towards the end, one of which had it's rear corner rearranged on a fence post. There were a few occasions where he'd have to swap cars for the weekend because a test drive had been booked on his car - on some of these occasions he managed to wangle a 350Z for the weekend. You can imagine how delighted 10 year old me was. My mother, less so...
• Alfa Romeo - this was a fairly short stint, I think he was covering for a few months. I believe he had a 159 as part of this but I have little recollection of it.
• Mazda/Fiat/Kia - If I remember the timing of this, he was due to start at a new Fiat/Kia garage but it wasn't quite ready so he was either helping out at or covering Mazda down the road for a bit (ironically on the same site that MGR/Daihatsu/Daewoo were on, which had changed hands) - he had a 5 for a little bit then a couple of 6 saloons. Once he was on the Fiat/Kia site, he generally had Sportages, a couple of Sorentos, and occasionally a Sedona (unsure if that was borrowed for a couple of occasions or not). I remember a family argument over being stuck with a Multipla for a caravan holiday!
• Peugeot - he was here for a fair few years. He almost exclusively had 407 estates until the 508 came out, when he had a 508 saloon, then a couple of 508 estates, then a 3008 Hybrid - I remember chaos with this as the dealer group had been sold and the site transferred, but it didn't include the stock (this was when the Co-op motor group or various parts of it were acquired by the Vertu/Bristol Street empire), they were due to collect the car the day before we'd agreed to use it as wedding transport for a friend of ours - fortunately we were able to use the car for the day and it got swapped out on the Monday instead. I think he had a second 508 estate after this before he left.
• Skoda - pretty much exclusively Octavias, although did come home with a Superb on a couple of occasions. Mostly hatches (I can remember going to uni back when all my worldly possessions fit in the back of an Octavia hatch with one rear seat still usable!) although he did have an automatic estate at one point - this was when I passed my test, and because of how our driveway was I'd need to be able to move their cars out the way to get out on some occasions - does he let me practice on mum's PT? No, I get the keys to the Skoda thrown at me and told we're off for a drive. Looking back I very much question the legality! On one occasion when he was due to get a new car I got a phone call "Oh, there's these 3 letters on the bootlid, vRS?". This site too got taken over by the Vertu/Bristol Street empire and that was his cue to sod off.
• Land Rover - the car scheme at this particular dealer chain was different and not worth him bothering with. So initially, as it was free and not doing anything, he took my Corsa as a stopgap. Eventually he bought a 53-plate PT Cruiser 2.0 Classic in black. We ran this for quite some time even after he started getting cars again at another job, however it eventually was sold on as we figured it would need too much work for the MOT and we already had mums - sold to a couple up in Scarborough who bought it, drove it home, had the misfortune of a DVLA camera finding it on their road the morning after they'd bought it, and then sent us an arsey message with the MOT failure sheet hinting at wanting their money back. We never hid anything, or sent it in for a test, we just couldn't be arsed.
• Suzuki/Great Wall - Mostly Suzuki SX4 S-Crosses, with the odd Vitara mixed in. We did end up with a Great Wall Steed one Christmas, that was... interesting.

His last two stints (Land Rover again then Peugeot again) were at the same group with the different car scheme so he went back to private cars at this point, running the PT Classic for a bit then taking advantage of some staff deals and getting a 67-plate Juke Acenta automatic in red. A year later (and I'm not saying coincidentally 6 months after I bought my first Qashqai) this was swapped for a 68-plate Juke Bose edition automatic in the same "Vivid Blue" as my Qashqai. After about 2 and a bit years, mum started to qualify for Motability cars, so this was traded back in when they had a Qashqai through Motability, and they're now on an E-3008. Not that long after they got the blue Juke, they also inherited my gran's 13-plate Suzuki Splash (bought at 2-3 years old at staff rates when dad was at Suzuki after my grandad died and his Motability car went back) which they still run as a second car.

Mum was definitely a secret shiter. Started learning in a Mk1 Cavalier, I don't have her full history to hand but she's had a Horizon, a Polonez (which I do have a photo of somewhere) and a Maestro. The standout car was the Lada Samara she had new. A car came around the wrong side of the traffic lights, smashed into her, smashed her into the traffic light itself which then fell down on top of the car. She was injured and still suffers the odd bit of pain from those injuries to this day, but the police informed her that if she'd been in a Metro or a Fiesta she wouldn't have made it. She had a new for old clause on her insurance policy at the time for up to a year old - it was a year and a week old at the time of the accident! Aside from that as family fodder she had a Daewoo Tacuma, a Zafira B, a C3 Picasso, then a PT Cruiser.

I'm in the process of tooling up to scan a whole load of family photos, so I am expecting/hoping some photos of some of the stuff he had prior to the motor trade to come up.

This deserves it's own thread with pictures to support it. Superb memory for details.

2 hours ago, inconsistant said:

The teenage 1980s me who could tell all Ford trim levels side on from a combination of the wheel trimz and the side stripes/rubbing strips says thanks!

Bonus  red Maestro van pic from the NEC show, in case you didn’t spot it.

Indeed I did, but it wasn't as great as 2023 when I found two Maestro vans:

[Boycie]

5 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

1978- 2016 my Dad had

1968 Triumph Herald (he learned to drive in in as did my brother & me)
1974 Triumph Toledo (Herald died from abuse)
1981 Talbot Horizon (from new)
1984 Skoda Estelle (from new)
1987 Skoda Favorits x several
1998 Skoda Felatios x several
2014 Pug 3008

After the Leyland stuff he just wanted a car that worked and, after the Horizon dissolved in the Scottish sea air, something reasonably rust proof.

Only photo I have of any is the Horizon (someplace) 

For some reason I have a want for a Horizon .... Hopefully it passes

[Boycie]

5 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

1978- 2016 my Dad had

1968 Triumph Herald (he learned to drive in in as did my brother & me)
1974 Triumph Toledo (Herald died from abuse)
1981 Talbot Horizon (from new)
1984 Skoda Estelle (from new)
1987 Skoda Favorits x several
1998 Skoda Felatios x several
2014 Pug 3008

After the Leyland stuff he just wanted a car that worked and, after the Horizon dissolved in the Scottish sea air, something reasonably rust proof.

Only photo I have of any is the Horizon (someplace) 

For some reason I have a want for a Horizon .... Hopefully it passes

[ProgRocker]

I'll pick this up from my post on page 1. I included the cars owned up until I was old enough to drive. 

After the '86 Carlton CD my parents owned (from 1997):

1994 Vauxhall Astra California 1.4 Hi-Torq. 

1997 Renault Megane Scenic 1.6e RT

1999 Renault Scenic 1.6 16v Sport

2005 Ford C-Max 1.6 TDCi Zetec

My mum passed away in September 2015 and my dad was unhappy with the C-Max's engine issues so it was eventually chopped in for a... 

2009 Peugeot 308 1.4 Verve. 

2007 Mercedes-Benz A150 Elegance

My dad passed in June 2020. 

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, Boycie said:

For some reason I have a want for a Horizon .... Hopefully it passes

Sounded like a Simca

Rusted like a Simca too

Was OK to drive - I had a habit of resting my clutch foot flat on the floor and there was a UJ or something on the bottom of the steering column that would nudge my foot going around corners. I thought the brakes rather sharp but (as pointed out by a Shiter a few years back) that was most likely my unfamiliarity with a half decent servo assisted braking system.

Just a late 70s/early 80s An Car

 

[stuboy]

my dad when parents still together he had company cars new every couple years..

mk2 escort, mk5 cortina, , mk3 escort estate, 3x mk2 cavaliers, 

[Bmwdumptruck]

So, firstly I don’t talk to my old man any more.  His choice, but I’m ok with it, never got on with him that well.  
 

So before I was a thing he had (that I know of)

Triumph Tiger Cub 250 up to and including leaving national service.  Rode to Luton on it after being demobbed, to take up an offer to work with his older brother and father at a garage here.  
At some point he bought a Jowett Bradford van and started dating the bosses daughter.  
Swapped the Jowett for a Frogeye sprite.  Somehwere there are pics of this with mum in it, pre marrying him.  
I think that got sold for a deposit on a house, not sure what came next, other than a wedding and a sister. 
By the time I arrived, or soon after there was a Corsair, possibly 2.  By the times that I can remember we gained an Austin Cambridge estate, but that turned out crap at towing a caravan so we ended up with a Mk1 Tiumph 2000, followed by two Mk2 Estates, a 2000 and then a 2500TC.  Mum had use of an Imp van followed by a Renault 12 estate during all this.   
The TC was utter shite so dad traded it at a year old for a brand new space ship, better known as a Citroen CX Safari, which was followed by 3 more.  And then an XM estate which was still on his drive last I saw.  At 92 I’d be surprised if he’s still driving it.  
During the CX and XM years there was also a GS Cmatic estate which I got to borrow for a week or two and was great fun.  But in 86 he bought the first new BX 19D estate that appeared in his local dealer, he still had that too last I saw.  But he’d also bought a late BX TZD estate but had never got it sorted for mot being unable to replace a faulty abs sensor.  
And as far as I know thats where he is now, the XM and two BX estates, a first and a last sort of. 
 

After mum ditched him she swapped the Renault 12 for an 18 saloon and then a GSA estate, Fiesta 1.1, BX 19DTurbo and lastly a Rover 216 which I inherited when she died in 2000.  
 

From all this my only real desire is a Mk1 Triumph 2000 estate……in red please. Although a good GSA estate would also be tempting…. Yes in red again.  

[Six-cylinder]

So now you know where I get my bad habits from!

 

My late father liked cars, but my mother kept him from buying anything too exciting like a Mercedes W107 Convertible he took me to see once. However, he did do some man maths and had some half interesting cars.

His first car was Standard Flying 9 which he shared with my grandfather. My guess he would have had this pre war Standard in the mid 1950s.

 

I am not sure what he had next, but I know he had a Bedford CA utility while he was building our house in 1959.

The first car I remember was a Standard Vanguard Phase 1. That broke a piston and his friend towed us home with a Consul MK2. My father put a second hand engine in it and returned it to the road.

 

My father trained to be a carpenter joiner, but went on to take his exams to become a building surveyor. I can’t remember another personal car after the Vanguard so he may have gone into his first new company car which was a Ford Anglia 105E.

The next new company car was a 1963 Morris 1100 which we drove on holiday to Austria in.

 

Next Company car was passed down from his boss and was a 1964 Austin Cambridge Estate. I remember being fascinated it had a radiator blind that was operated from the dashboard with a thin round bobble chain.

 

Next was back to new. 1965 Vauxhall Victor 101 Estate.

 

1968 my farther sent me to the garage to get something from his car. Well, that was a surprise there was a new car, a Vauxhall Victor FD 2000SL saloon. I remember him saying the parcel shelve cost extra. He was a manager for a building company with several sites spread from London to Leicestershire and did 55,000 miles in 18 months by which time it as worn out.

 

My father took us to the Earls Court Motor Show and us boys spotted a Toyota Crown and he liked it as well, enough to test drive. His boss and my mother agreed he could have it. Time moved on and the Crown had not been ordered and my mother started nagging saying they needed it for our holiday to Austria. I nearly fell off my bicycle when he drove past me in a Mercedes. He was out with his boss and they spotted a 4 year old Mercedes 220SB. They thought it might last longer than another new Vauxhall or the unknow Toyota Crown.

 

Unfortunately, the building company he worked for didn’t get paid by a developer and went bust. The Mercedes had to be handed back.

He went to work for another builder and was given a MK1 Ford Escort 1100 base, in peeling silver fox pool car before they ordered him a new car. He was not happy with the job or Escort and moved to another job where he had to provide his own car initially and bought himself a 1960 VW Beetle as a stop gap.

Then he decided to work for himself as a surveyor and bought a 1960 Jaguar Mk2 3.4 Automatic.

 

My father was then given the opportunity to start his own building company and build houses. He gave the Jaguar MK2 to my mother to use for shopping and errands and took the 1960 Beetle back for a work car. My mother did have a 1957 Beetle small oval that the 1960 one replaced.

The Jaguar Mk2 was replaced with an S-Type 3.8 Auto because my mother found the MK2 steering was too heavy and the S Type had power steering.

 

 You may think the cut off photos of the earlier cars was my farther or I could not frame a picture properly, but this is not true. The car pictures were cut out of family photos of people or scenery accidently captured.

The Beetle was replaced with a 1972 Citroen GS1220 Club about 18 moths old. The S-Type was kept for many years as my mother’s errand car and family outing car including a trip to Austria.

 

When the Jaguar S Type needed more work than my father was prepared to do a new patten of owning two Citroens at a time was implemented. My mother was getting the newer car usually about a year old when purchased and the older car would be cascaded to my father as a work car.

There a selection of Citroen, but I can’t remember the exact order they came in.

N reg Citroen GS 1220 Club white

L reg Citroen GS in white

 

W reg Citroen Visa 2-cylinder red

S reg Citroen GS X2 brown

 

R reg Citroen GS 1220 Pallas silver

 

X reg Citroen GSA 1130cc Special white

 

Then came the BX era starting was an A reg BX 16RS

 

C reg BX 19GT white

 

E reg BX 19GTi red

K reg BX 19GTi red

 

Unfortunately, I lost my father comparatively early in 1995. My mother kept the K reg BX GTi for many years, eventually it came to me and I still have it.