Do you remember? Feel free to add.

[warren t claim]

People using offcuts of their living room carpet to make car mats with? Regardless off how missmatched it looked!

 

Watching A60s duelling to the death on World of Sport on a Saturday afternoon?

 

99% of new cars being petrol?

 

Buying Auto Trader for 15p on a Thursday.

 

The Nine group insurance system?

[Shep Shepherd]

DIY vinyl roof kits?

 

Those waving hand things that went in the rear window? (my dad had one in his Avenger)

 

AA Autoquote insurance?

 

David Prowse as the Green Cross Code Man?

 

Temporary plastic windscreens?

 

Hella spotlight grilles?

 

Audioline and Matsui digital display stereos?

 

I could go on, and probably will later on

[Cavcraft]

Had a Rover 25 three years back and it had matching off-cut carpet even in the door bins

 

I remember my dad (circa late sixties/early seventies) doing his nut because we stopped at a garage that was 35p per gallon.

 

'Last services before the motorway' signs at petrol stations. Which more often than not weren't the last services before the motorway at all.

 

Having a fry up at motorway services that was the cost of a small country and the sausages only ever had a 0.000001mm strip of brown on them.

 

Attended petrol pumps.

 

Local newspapers having about 17,961 adverts for used ADO11s.

 

Dad borrowing a Rover P6 3.5 and complaining at the lack of 5 star fuel available.

 

A lad coming into school crying because his brother had been chased down a subway on his Lambretta by some biker types, then kicked off it. Oh how we laughed.

[warren t claim]

Renaults with numbers, not names.

 

French cars having soft seats.

 

German cars having hard seats!

 

Houndstooth trim thit disintergrates in sunlight.

[retrogeezer]

those funny little finger tips people used to put on their bootlids...

 

this car runs on unleaded stickers..

 

Gallon to Litre conversion stickers in rear windows.

[Shep Shepherd]

Hatchbacks on which a rear wash/wipe was either an optional extra or not available at all.

 

Central locking, electric windows and electric mirrors being considered exotic.

 

Special editions which only had a radio, a side stripe and plastic wheeltrims to distinguish them from standard models.

 

Joystick-type stereo balance/fader controls in Fords.

[tabact]

No syncromesh for first gear on my Anglia van.

 

Exchange & Mart was the car buyers bible and then the fancy new Thames Valley Trader arrived.

 

Puch mopeds.

 

Buying minis for £10.

 

Roll the Heinkel bubble car the most times at the local youth club.

[warren t claim]

Only ever seeing Ferraris and Astons at motorshows, not everyday on the motorway.

 

Dealers having parties at midnight on the first of August to see in the new reg plate.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

"The Vauxhall breed's got style"

 

"Ford Gives You More"

 

Spike Milligan Mini adverts. "I'm coming Min!"

 

When a Mercedes was rare. In the late 70's a neighbour replaced his rusty 1965 Austin 1800 with a J reg (that's 1971) Mercedes 200D. A ten footer with well patched inner wings and being a 200D, it would just about do 70. It was slow, and smelly, but it was a Merc.

 

Free plastic Smurfs with National Petrol. (1977/8)

 

Scrapyards without Mark 111 Cortinas. Full of 1100's, Mark 1 Minis, Mark 1 Cortinas, HA Vivas, Mark 11 Jags. But Contina Threes were too new to be weighed in.

 

Banger racing indeed. A60's? Pah! Mark 1 and 2 Consuls, A50's, the odd A70, Mark 7 Jag or Isis plus ZA Magnettes and Riley 1.5's. Seventies banger racing was ace, and the historic banger racing just isn't the same.

The one BBC banger race on a saturday I can recall was at Wimbledon, and an HA Viva van won. The fucker just would not die. despite two wipe outs on the figure of eight.

[RoadworkUK]

Rotating drum type digital clocks.

 

Coathanger aerials.

 

Black plastic louvred rear windscreen covers.

 

Feu orange air fresheners.

 

DIY Heated Rear Windscreen kits (the white ones with all the right-angles).

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Did Cortinas get to mk. one hundred and eleven?

[Alexg]

People bought British products no matter if they were inferior.

 

Sexism, cigarettes and Speed were all acceptable in car adverts.

 

Cars weighed a ton or less.

 

Kids had to work up from old snotters as first cars, not jump into a 3 year HP balloon on a brand new one.

 

'Rear Wash Wipe' was an added feature

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Battle comic. Full of characters called Darkie, and square jawed heroes spearing Nips with bayonets (Aiiieeee!!!) or Krauts ("take that, Fritz!")

 

It was 6p. If you had 10p in 1977, you had Battle AND a packet of Golden Wonder ready salted crisps.

[warren t claim]

Petrol powered vans.

 

Static seat belts.

 

Buying ammeters and oil pressure guages to screw to your dashboard.

[Cavcraft]

Draylon lined interiors.

 

Bonnet bulges.

 

Port hole windows for your van.

 

Jack up kits for the rear suspension.

 

Those stripes that went up the rear wing and over the side rear windows.

 

Seemingly EVERYODY no matter how laughable their car having 'Starsky & Hutch' stripes.

 

'Running in, please pass' stickers.

 

Dodgy engine 'reconditioners' who went to the scrappy, bought the first 1256cc Viva engine they could find, painted it and charged a small fortune to supply and fit it.

 

Motorbikes with proper exhausts.

[barrett]

No I don't. But then I still have all my hair/teeth and could conceivably have sex with a 19 year old without it raising any eyebrows.

[dollywobbler]

Body coloured wipers - including the blade!

 

High level brake lights made of fog lights on metal sticks.

 

Willy's Surf Shack stickers.

 

Wiper spoilers - the triple-square jobbies.

 

Attended service fuel is still out there. Got a personal service at Bala with the Landy, though I probably made his day...

[M'coli]

Clip-on parking lights.

 

Halogen headlights being an option on new cars.

 

Ashtrays with suckers on the windscreen.

[Pete-M]

My dads mate buying a new MkIV Cortina 1.6L and it cost more (with optional metallic green paint) than a 3 yr old e-type.

 

A transporter arriving at dad's garage with a brand new Cortina 2000E 'Olympic' and a new, black Granada 3.0 Ghia S manual with aircon.

 

New Peugeot 304s.

 

Feu Orange air fresheners.

 

'Keep-a-key'

 

The new 's reg special' adverts on telly.

 

Sir Robert Mark advertising the Goodyear Grand Prix S.

 

VW 411 / 412s being worthless.

 

People preferring carbs to injection and saying daft things like "Carbs are reliable"...

 

Post Office Moggy Minor vans

 

Yank stuff being fairly common, stuff like Valiants and big Chrysler estates.

 

Walking to school and taking the piss out those kids who got a lift.

[warren t claim]

Pete-M said......"A transporter arriving at dad's garage with a brand new Cortina 2000E 'Olympic' and a new, black Granada 3.0 Ghia S manual with aircon."

 

I'm sure the Granada S was a seperate model in the Mk1 range. Uprated shocks, driving lamps and a Capri steering wheel.

[Negative Creep]

I don't remember most of these things, that's probably a good thing. So I'll ad

 

 

"Motorsport" sunstrips

 

TSW Venoms

 

Anti static strips

 

"Injection" stickers

 

Capris being worth nothing

[Cavcraft]

No I don't. But then I still have all my hair/teeth and could conceivably have sex with a 19 year old without it raising any eyebrows.

 

I've found parcel tape is pretty handy for that.

[Lord Sterling]

Tiger Tokens (Tiger in your tank)

 

Coat-hangers hanging up by the rear passenger window in reps Cavaliers

 

Vauxhalls "The 'i's have it" campaign

 

In-car telephones.

 

You knew what car were - Saloons, Hatchbacks, Coupes, Estates etc... No silly hybrid 'SUV 4x4 sports executive estate' crap

 

Luxury executive cars being exactly that, luxorious. Lesser models making do with wind-up windows, cloth seats and placca trims.

 

Mk1/2 Escorts costing next-to-nothing and generally being driven around by spotty, curtain-haired 17 year olds

 

Second-hand cars with less than £150 in the windscreen

[Cavcraft]

Atkins: Take your silly face off that Expression!

[Pete-M]

Pete-M said......"A transporter arriving at dad's garage with a brand new Cortina 2000E 'Olympic' and a new, black Granada 3.0 Ghia S manual with aircon."

 

I'm sure the Granada S was a seperate model in the Mk1 range. Uprated shocks, driving lamps and a Capri steering wheel.

 

This one was definately a special order job, being black, manual and having A/C. It also had the Bilsteins, driving lamps and a three spoke wheel similar to a Capri one, but was definately Ghia spec inside and had the big grille and alloys. I'm 100% certain it had Ghia S on the back as well, and that's how it arrived on the transporter, with 6 miles on the clock. R reg it was, as was the 2000E.

[155V6]

Chrome/white 8-spokes

 

Black plastic rear window louvres

 

When wheel trims were metal & didn't fall off every 5 minutes

[Nervy Si]

Those plastic door edge protectors with amber reflectors built into them.

 

Volvo 240s and Saab 900s being considered very posh - and also very safe.

 

Brochures/adverts for self-fitted glass sunroof kits, spotlights and things.

 

Tow trucks built out of converted Land Rovers.

 

Tail Blazers - those reflective red fill-in panels that fitted between the rearlights and often carried the model name in black print, like 'XR3i' or 'Turbo'. I still dig these, to be honest.

 

When a Mercedes was rare.

Yep. My mate lived on a new housing estate up the road, and biking to his house I used to pass a black Merc with 560SEC on the bootlid. I knew that 2.0 on my dad's Cortina meant 2000cc, but I couldn't believe any car could have either a 560cc or 5600cc engine

[simmo]

When: Autotrader was the Thames Valley Trader and was A5 sized and looked home-made

 

BEA Route masters (RMCs) used to tow baggage trailers

 

Ford Thames vans with the back doors off and a harvey frost

 

Scrap yards with proper guard dogs

 

Streets were half the cars were Cortinas

 

Town and Country tyres

 

Ford five-n-half Js were the nuts

 

Lamanated Windscreens were only on posh cars

 

we didn't start every sentence with 'I remember when' or 'In the old days'

[aled]

goodmans speakers (big buggers)

 

stick on flames for your front wing

 

lights on a frame that you put on your parcel shelf ( for indicators and brakelights)

 

graphic equalizers

 

cibie oscars and super oscars

 

sharp radio casette (got one in the garage)

 

smurfs free at petrol stations

 

and free glasses with tokens

 

rostyle wheels

 

firestone 211 tyres ---- total shit

 

furry dashboards and centre consoles

 

redex dash when you filled up with petrol

 

vaccum guages

 

musical horns

 

claxon horns

 

whip ariels

[mattblack]

Wood-cased home stereo speakers on the back shelf.

 

'Polco' car compasses ('sat-nav... what's that?')

 

Switches labeled with Dymo tape.

 

Lombard RAC rally sunstrips in MK3 Cortinas.

 

Abandoned ADO16s in lay-bys.