Neighbours motors / noteable motors around where you grew up...

[neil72]

I grew up in a council house in North London on what was a fairly well to do street but it turned rough as hell in the mid-80s including being the scene of a massive riot!

When we moved there in 1976 our neighbour was a midwife who drove a VW 411 Estate, top car, she used to take her 4 kids and me and my two brothers to school in it,

The guy opposite was Polish and own a grey Skoda, he ran me over in it!!!

The family two doors down were a bit posh, the dad was a bank manager and he bought a brand new Rover SD1 in brown, he used to give us a ride in it occasionally on a Sunday, lovely motor.

The best one i can remember is one of our teachers lived a bit further up the road, he owned 3 Maxis, one in white, one is that horrible beige and one in blue that he bought brand new but always had starting issues, i can still see my Dad and him under the bonnet sorting out various 'issues' with the electrics, good job my dad was a jack of all trades for the BBC and had been an electrician.

Moving onto the late 80s when my brothers started to get cars, this was where some real noteable cars appeared, mainly because they were absolutely horrible, the Mk1 Escort Estate bought for £20 from a dark underground car park in Hackney, what could go wrong, the Mk3 Cortina that i leaned on and my hand went through the wing, the cut and shut Mini Estate, the Beetle with Formica inner wings, the crappy red Chevette bought outside a pub in the High Road for £12, one owner car too, yeah right, and best of all the beast of a Volvo Amazon that was the best of the lot, my brother still talks fondly of that car more than 30 years after he sold it.

Nowadays, nothing of interest to see, even the 70s Mini that was in a front garden for 20 years has gone.....

 

 

 

[leafsprung]

For a time i lived on a dull as ditchwater cul-de-sac in Chelmsford in the mid-80's. The house opposite got themselves a shiny new B-Reg Cavalier in that kind of avocado bathroom suite green.   Then the neighbour got  one of them fancy Sierras. Compared to our Metro HLE they were bloody posh.

Then there was a house down the road with a TR7 and next door to that was something metallic blue which had FOUR exhaust pipes. To this day I wonder what it was but assume it could have been a De Tomaso Pantera. To me as a 6-8 year old in the era of Dukes of Hazzard, Knightrider, A Team, with a box full of Matchbox cars,  it was like Hollywood arrived on my doorstep. 

[GeordieInExile]

Untill quite recently my folks' elderly neighbours were rolling around in a gold Triumph Acclaim on a Y plate. 

They eventually got rid of it and replaced it with a Micra. 

[neil72]

When i moved to Archway in the early 90s my neighbour used to drive a brown Toledo, he upgraded to a Capri 1.3L.

Moved to Finchley back in the early 00s, had nice neighbours, the lad was a bit of a boy racer and drove a Rover 216 Coupe, but the two blokes who lived down the road used to drive in a TWO DOOR SIERRA, they upgraded it eventually to a Skoda Favorit, and the Sierra was scrapped.....the guy a bit further down the road used to daily drive a Sierra XR 4X4 but it was pinched after he died.

[Spottedlaurel]

First neighbour's car I can recall was a pre-Arrow Rootesmobile of some sort, I think a Super Minx. Owned by a nice old Suffolk boy who'd worked for years/decades on the farm where my dad got a job. He also had an old 1930s car (Austin 7 or the like) rotting away in their chicken run.

I have quite a few photos of my/family's old cars with neighbours' bilge in the background, will hunt a few out but this is one of my favourite shots taken circa 1985:

For a while an Italian family lived at the house where there's a Volvo 300-series, they had a Fiat 130 saloon which seemed very exotic. Chap who had the Maestro on the left previously ran a brown Lancia Beta saloon, and the butcher who lived up the road where there's a silver Fiesta Mk1 had a couple of Triumph 2000/2500s in succession. I remember the beige Datsun 120Y being resprayed on the driveway by its plumber owner. I sometimes got a lift to my part-time job at Tesco in the white Sunny on the right.

I can remember all of this and far, far more about cars on our estate back then, but not whether I bought Mrs SL a wedding anniversary card just before we went on holiday last month....

[Cavcraft]

When we moved (to the second house) up here from down south, one of our neighbours had a Daytona yellow Capri Mk1 3000E. I think he worked for Ford, and moved from Dagenham to Halewood. The other side had a Vauxhall Victor, I think.

Someone up the road had a 'woody' Mini estate with a really good number plate ( 111 and three letters, forgotten what) and a few years later the people next to them had a 'B' reg Rover Sterling saloon, iirc.

[RichardK]

Tuxford:

We had BL Shite, then Audi 80/Passat/Polo/Golf Cabrio. I thought most other cars were crap - witness the six year old Cortina Mk3 with bitumen tidemark etc.

Cars around: neighbour had a Lancer Turbo, friend's dad had a Scimitar GTC, there was a Firenza droop snoot under a cover near the caravan park (allegedly with a Ferrari engine, yeah), on Beavercotes Lane someone had a pale green Tagora, my other friend's neighbour had a purple Avenger with giffer crooklok, over the road from me were stock car racers and they had an Austin Gypsy, a variety of things for racing... I was offered an early restoration project of a VW Fastback 1600TL (told no!) for £50... The Dukes had a Sunbeam Alpine (Series V IIRC), 1920 Chrysler, Triumph Mayflower, Jubilee Minx. A few kit cars biffing about.

One friend's dad had a yellow FE Victor but I only saw the back of it in a garage - another friend's dad had a Renault 16, which was amazingly floaty and weird. Some photographers who came to the studio brought nice cars - I was obsessed with Citroens, CX and BX (invited to use a plastic bonnet one as a trampoline to show off the plastic!), one guy had an Aston Martin DB5 in blue when they were still just an expensive old car rather than insane money.

Borders: House down the road had Heralds rotting in the garden, garage in Morebattle had an Alfa Montreal I nearly bought for £2500 (non-running - got scared I couldn't fix it), the Toyota Celica Sunchaser liftback I had was around the area for ages before I got it. One of the people who did crosswords for us drove a Vauxhall Viceroy (a 13 year old car that seemed like a relic). Loads of rally cars - Chevette HSR with 2.6, Escrots and so forth. Some dickhead used to bomb around Kelso in a Sinclair C5.

I noticed everything with wheels and I wish I could replace those memories with, I dunno, people or nice places.

[quicksilver]

I can't remember what car my next-door neighbour had, but he worked for BT so he'd often bring home a yellow Metro or Maestro van. Joy over the road bought a brand new battleship grey FSO Polonez, then after a few years traded it in for a Fiesta XR2. She had eclectic taste in cars as in her youth she'd apparently owned a big Healey. Elaine, the other lady who lived with her, had Motability cars (I remember a Corsa and a Peugeot 106) but bought a beige Mk1 Fiesta as a stop-gap; my granny then bought it from her and it ended up being the car I passed my test in. Next door to them changed hands several times and I remember a Datsun Stanza and a red Sierra estate at different times.

Round the corner one way were an elderly couple who had his and hers Minis, a red Italian Job and a gold Mayfair, and along from them was a Fiat Strada that was forever suffering electrical gremlins. On the other side was a recovery driver who'd frequently bring a truck home with his car on the back so it looked like it was always breaking down. Further along was a young lad with a blue Mk4 Escort that I think was ex-Motability, until one day it came home on a tow rope with a bent roof after he'd rolled it. The chap at the top of the street bought the house next door, knocked them into one and put in a drive-through driveway, on which sat a Jaguar XJS that never seemed to move.

Out on the main road was a bungalow occupied by an old chap with a Mk1 Fiesta. His garage was very slightly sloped so he'd roll it out by pulling on the back bumper. Along from him at various times were a Peugeot 309 SRI, a Montego Advantage and a Lancia Prisma. We'd lift-share to school with a family in the next street; husband had a Citroen BX, wife a puke yellow Mk1 Astra replaced by a new red Mk5 Escort. Elsewhere on the estate I remember a Renault Fuego and a Honda Quintet.

[Eyersey1234]

We moved to the Isle of Wight when I was 12, cars I remember the neighbours there having were the couple opposite us buying a H reg Ford Orion, later replaced by a M reg Escort saloon. Their next door neighbour had a T reg silver Focus when we moved there, replaced by a X reg blue Escort, 52 reg green Focus, 54 reg silver Fusion then finally a 06 reg blue Focus, all bought new. Two doors down from us was a blue Volvo 740 estate.  Our next door neighbour had a silver Mazda 323, replaced by a blue Mazda 626, he also had a silver Honda Civic for a short time. Another neighbour had a Peugeot 406 estate.

[timolloyd]

What a great thread.

I grew up in a relatively nice cul-de-sac, SE England, in the late eighties. I recall:

- a neighbour over the road with a mk1 Cortina. I was fascinated by the CND rear lights. Must have been quite an old car by that time, I guess.

- our neighbours with a V8 Vanden Plas SD1.

- a family further down the street with a mk2 Astra Estate LXi. Always seemed quite posh, compared with our Metro.

- another family over the road who were into bangers. They had several early Starlets tucked round the back of their house, which were occasionally brought out front for loading on to a trailer.

- a young-ish couple with two large dogs who had an early Discovery.

- a guy who drove trucks long-distance to/from Eastern Europe. The road is far too small for trucks, but he would park his on a near-by main road. The reg was H1KGB!

- And the caretaker at my school who ran several TR7s. As mentioned up thread, the pop up lights were a source of fascination.

[reb]

I only remember two cars from the estate I lived on as a child.

A pogweaseled red Volvo 240

And what would have been a basically brand new Corsa C driven by a nice chap in his early 20s. It sticks out in my mind because it was very shiny and had the Corsa badge altered to say "ARSE"

[Markeh]

I don't remember many cars from our street - it was a small and fairly low-end newbuild estate in a Nottinghamshire village in the mid-90s, don't think many people had much interesting. I remember our next door neighbour for most of the time I was growing up had a Saxo, met her husband who had a Passat, then they moved - she then had a Nissan Tiida for quite a while, and last I saw was newly divorced and in a Hyundai ix20. Nothing really on Street View as it's only ever been on my folks road twice. I remember a few cars from previous neighbours - a facelifted Vectra C, a green Rover 25, some photos of my cars have also revealed what looks like a Mk3 Golf GTI (which apparently was for sale for £600!), a facelift 306, a white Mk1 Clio Prima, a blue Mk2 Punto and a green Mk2 Mazda 2. Current next door neighbour had a newish 4 Series cabrio which has since been replaced with a Mk5 Golf GTI.

One of the houses at the back of ours did for a short spell have some sort of 70s converted ambulance/camper thing. The reg doesn't come up on Mycarcheck - I am 99% sure someone on a spotted thread on here has taken a picture of it before - it stuck out to me because where they would've been stood to take the photo was the end of our garden!

I remember my gran's neighbours cars (30s semis in allegedly a better area) quite well though - on one side, he had a Mk3 Capri Laser which I don't recall moving often, and a private plated 90s Jeep Cherokee (reg check tells me it was a 97 Laredo diesel) The chap the other side had a gold Jag XK8 until he had a family and changed to a 1 Series and a BINI, later a BINI Countryman. According to Street View, if they're still in that same house, he's now got a Panamera. I do remember the old bloke over the road had a lavender-coloured Mk1 Mazda 2 which never seemed to move.

Here's the Cherokee as of 2019, it's gone in the latest Street View, no longer on the DVLA, and apparently the owner passed in the last couple of months too - I myself haven't been down there since she moved out in around 2018.

Current neighbours - one side, they had a Corsa B when I moved in (I'm told it was a stopgap car after theirs was written off - a Citroen of some description), swapped that about a year later for a 14-plate Suzuki Swift and they've just chopped that in recently for a 73-plate Citroen C3, which I'm reliably told will be the last car they buy! Other side didn't really have much at first but since the current owners bought it have a number of cars - I think currently they have a Meriva B, a Fiat 500X (which very recently replaced a battered looking Mk1 Qashqai), a Mk2 Insignia taxi (why yes, it is a Wolverhampton-plated Uber driver, how did you guess?) and a Jag XF - I think they had a blue new shape Scirocco for a bit as well but I reckon that's gone now.

[artdjones]

The only local car I can remember is the black Humber with red seats of the lady around the corner who ran a taxi service with it. My parents would hire her when we needed to go somewhere. It was probably a Hawk, a Super Snipe might have been a bit thirsty for a working car.

[bunglebus]

I remember a few of the neighbour's cars. Somewhere I even have some terrible drawings I did of a few of them, which are quite a good aid to remembering what they were 

Of note were opposite neighbours two sons who were (and still are) weirdos. One of the sons still lives with his mum now he's in his 50s, the dad died a few years back. They had some quite interesting stuff like an early 5 series and an MG Metro (square centre caps being especially striking to me). The one that really sticks in my mind was the Talbot Matra Rancho, because there was nothing at all like it anywhere.

Next to them were a nice Indian family who had a silver Peugeot 104, then a MK1 Golf that sounded like it was about to explode. Their daughter bought a 2CV and asked us kids to help her work out the umbrella handle gear lever.

Next door to us Les and Edith, he had a tatty dark blue MK2 Escort van, and they had a couple of Marina estates, one of which caught fire one evening thanks to one of Les's discarded cigarettes. Later they bought a nearly new MK3 Cavalier and got me to peel the dealer lettering off the tailgate. They then moved to Derbyshire.

Mr Jones 3 doors down had a MK1 Escort and used to drive up the road with the choke out and shake his fist at me as he passed. Just his sense of humour, I can still conjour up the smell of uncatalysed 4 star exhaust fumes on a cold winter morning as I fetched the milk off the step. Later he moved into a home and the house was bought by the Balls family, I went to school with the elder of two sons, and my mum used to be forever complaining about their house improvements to the tune of an extension over the garage and conservatory. They had a VCR so I went down there and watched Back to the Future on a tape rented from the local shop. Father worked for Salian builder's merchants and apparently always wanted a Rolls-Royce, so bought a Silver Shadow which was not exactly in a great way, another one that sounded like it might blow up at any minute.

Dave and Jill who were in between the Balls and Les and Edith had a Spitfire, which was quite amusing as Dave had the biggest beer belly imaginable, how he fitted in it I don't know. Funny enough after Les and Edith left two brothers moved in, one of them had a GT6 which he took us out for a spin in one evening.

Think that's about all the memorable ones, there was an old couple on the estate who seemed to always have a Golf GTI or Renault 19 16v which didn't quite look right to me as a teenager. How dare old people have fun cars!

[Missy Charm]

On 14/08/2024 at 14:21, Rust Collector said:

Walking to school in the early noughties, there was somebody on Western Road in Newhaven who owned a Pontiac Firebird. I remember desperately wanting to own it as an 11 year old 🤣

No picture as it’s too far back for Google etc., but from memory it was vaguely like this:

Although now I’m doubting myself and thinking it might’ve been a gold one.

Either way, it’s one of the first cars I remember desperately wanting after seeing it.

 

Strange bit of synchronicity: the occupant(s) of a bungalow almost directly opposite the secondary school I attended had at least two Pontiac Firebird-Trans-Am type things.  One was parked in the drive; it was black, so possibly a 'Smokey and the Bandit' replica, and looked in good condition.  No memories of ever seeing it move, however.  There were two - I think - more Pontiacs in the front garden: one was blue and the other was red.  Both were utter heaps in fairly advanced stages of decay and each car had been partially stripped for spares; I'm not convinced the red one was a car at all - it may just have been a pile of panels that vaguely looked like a Trans Am.  

It's all gone now.  The bungalow has been tarted up and the cars have disappeared.  Oddly, however, a Trans Am collector has recently popped up in a different road a mile or so distant from the one-time Pontiac bungalow.  Firebird Family Mk2 have a purplish-blue Smokey-and-the-Bandit-style car, which is so cool it makes me covet a GM product (bad), and a Knight Rider shape Firebird that I'm indifferent to.  The purplish-blue car, when I last saw it, looked good; the other one was a bit tatty.  Not clapped eyes on either for some time as the owner(s) have hidden both cars from view.  At one stage both were parked in the open in the drive; more recently, however, one gained a car cover and the other a portable tent-garage thingy.  The one with the cover has subsequently had a rudimentary wood-and-plastic shelter built for it and has disappeared inside.  Never seen either car move under its own power.  

It could be the same person/family.  Patterns of behaviour do repeat.  It could also be someone else entirely.  

[Shite Ron]

We moved into a new house in 1972 when I turned 3, my parents moved 2 doors down in 1985 and still live in the same street so I can name almost every car in the street from the late seventies to the nineties. The house directly opposite had an Olympic Blue Cortina 1.6 XL when they moved in, replaced by a mk4 1.6 base estate, this was replaced by a 1.6L mk4 estate, then replaced by a mk5 2.0GL estate, then he changed jobs and had a Yellow Datsun 180B estate, this was replaced quite quickly by a yellow mk5 Cortina 2.0 Ghia estate, this was replaced by an early Sierra 2.3 Ghia which I don’t think he was too impressed with and was replaced by a Nissan Silvia, all were company cars, his wife had an Anglia estate, replaced by a rough Maxi, I far preferred the Anglia estate as we regularly had a lift home from school in both, I once had a lift in the Cortina Ghia estate and that seemed really opulent especially as we were sat in the boot on the deep pile carpet. Next door down to this house had matching cars in the mid seventies. Two Viva’s, two Bond Bugs and Skoda Rapids, I cannot remember in which order. Next door up opposite had an mk2 Cortina 2 door, replaced by a mk1 Escort 4 door, then a Rover 2000 P6, replaced by an Oyster Gold Capri GL with a vinyl roof and steel sunroof, this was replaced by a brand new mk2 XR2. I could go on but this post is getting quite long. From the age of 13 I used to help the milkman deliver milk to earn money to buy my first car so could name every interesting car for around a quarter mile radius or more and often remember the cars that were in the houses as I walk my dog around the streets near my parents when visiting them.