Do you remember? Feel free to add.

[barefoot]

Rostyles - I had a Chevette GLS saloon on Rostyles

 

Cortina 2.0S - a mk4 with a matt/silk black panel between the rear lights (my Chevette had one of those)

 

Proper matt black panels on the back of Bond Bugs - what you could allegedly chalk saucy messages on.

 

I had General Grabbers on a car & they came with the letters already white, really I wanted Kelly Superchargers,

but they were bias belts & no-one I knew could work out what size to buy.

 

Whip aerials, that went from the front of the car, up in the air, over, back down & tied to the back bumper.

 

When Superbeetles with Zoom tubes & proper curved windscreens bright Green or Red were the coolest & not the poor relations or 'fat chicks' they are now.

[M'coli]

Peco HDR exhausts.

 

Setting car alarms off with your exhaust note.

 

Lowering blocks.

[mattblack]

Duckhams 'Q' engine oil in proper metal cans with the pull up plastic spout.

 

Asda selling 7" sealed beam headlights for 99p a pop

 

Emergency fan belts you cut to size and joined together.

 

Bike tyres hanging in trees.

[Lord Sterling]

Whip aerials, that went from the front of the car, up in the air, over, back down & tied to the back bumper.

 

My Dad had one of those on his Red mk2 Cavalier, he'd tie it down somewhere by the wing-mirror before he put the car in the garage of a night. I never knew what the ariel was for, i guess it may have been previously owned by a CB-radio user/fancier.

[mnde]

Petrol being 75p a litre.... (2001)

2/3/4 star petrol

KENWOOD, MAX POWER stickers

Cars with great big Red Noses on the front. Saw one last year that was still wearing one faded pink, after all these years!

Cars with Garfields stuck on the inside of a window

Furry dice

The unmistakable sound of a Fiesta Mk1 exhaust .... everywhere

All the toys / bike reflectors etc you used to get with Kelloggs cereal

2nd hand dealerships filled with chod for less than £1000 e.g. Metro £395.

Castrol GTX adverts on the telly - the ones with the slow classical music

[flat4alfa]

Think once

Think twice

Think Bike

[eddyramrod]

Lowering blocks, did someone say?

My friend's Mk2 Escort, here in Paphos, about 4 months ago.

 

Heater being an option?

My A40! Never had one, just blanking plates from new (she's a hot-country version). This photo was very early in the stripping process, so October/November 2009.

 

Told you I was old, I remember nearly everything! But don't ask me what I had for dinner....

[Pillock]

I had a fat chick with a zoom tube! Used to see the flameout in the wingmirror, the rest of the system was full of holes.

 

Fido Dido stickers.

[morris_ital_lover]

When there were three levels of workmen's vans;

 

Level 1: Basic ex-BT Maestro, normally yellow

 

Level 2: Ex Royal Mail Sherpa, always faded red/pink

 

Level 3: E-BT Transit, grey, with the funny logo still visible from where the paint hadn't faded too badly.

 

Those were the days.

 

m0rris

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Do you remember......

 

 

 

Steve Martin when he was funny?

 

 

Steve Martin was once funny? When was that?

[Lord Sterling]

Petrol being 75p a litre.... (2001)

KENWOOD, MAX POWER stickers

Cars with great big Red Noses on the front. Saw one last year that was still wearing one faded pink, after all these years!

Cars with Garfields stuck on the inside of a window

The unmistakable sound of a Fiesta Mk1 exhaust .... everywhere

 

Yeah, I certainly remember these. I seem to remember petrol being at something like 47p/50p a litre around the late 90s (Before I could even take a driving test)

 

Another thing that I seem to remember;

 

3-spoke alloy wheels

 

KENWOOD or ////AIWA on the back windows of (usually barried up) cars and 'Kenwood Designs' Black flyer jackets aswell (Still got one ) there was also a 'Pioneer' jacket but I've not seen one for years.

 

Seeing all sorts of untaxed/abandoned chod laying around the highways and byways of this country, I also remember when they brought in some sort of scheme to rid of them.

 

You could actually park untaxed chod on pavements without the fear of it being towed it away by either pikeys or DVLA. When I was a teen, mums partner had an old Chevette parked outside on the pavement. It was left untaxed and provided me and my mates somewhere to chill when it got a bit cold outside. Subsequent car, a mk1 Rover 820i was also left for several months left outside on road without tax before being put back on road.

 

Free parking, almost everywhere, if not, it cost very little.

 

J, K, L, M and N regs being new.

[simmo]

Dick Shepard's Car Stunts were on the TV

 

McDonalds came to the UK

 

Sierras were a revolution in car styling

[martc]

When most of the interior was painted metal and rubber mats,

Ziebart treatment stickers (shield on yellow background),

1/2p divisions on petrol pumps,

2, 3, 4 and 5 star pumps,

petrol rising to £1 per gallon (& much later £1 per litre),

electrical parts (particularly Lucas) being interchangeable between brands,

cars where made in the country that you would expect them to be made in,

the spare wheel mounted upright in the rear wing,

window stickers showing all the "new" pictogramme road signs (with ridiculously small pictures),

local tin pot radio station stickers, and winning a fiver if your Reg No was read out on air,

being sent a telephone box key when joining the AA or RAC.

[barefoot]

I was offered a complete and running Vanden Plas 4 litre R at R & Z scrap yard in Loughborough for £50.

 

Hey, I was a young lad still driving me mams Datsun 100a. What did I want that big ol' thing for?

[richardthestag]

Scrap yards with proper guard dogs

 

My local scrappy had a sign on the gate - "we'll set the dogs on anyone caught nicking sparkplugs or brakepads" and then spending the rest of the morning filling our work bag (with the false bottom ) up will all manner of booty

 

Mk1 Fiesta Festival (Or Fiestival)

 

Purple mk3 cortina with tan vinyl roof and 10 kids packed into it for the rainy day school run

 

humphry milkshake straws from the unigate milkfloat - ours in Gloucester was a transit with the side panels cut out, I think Corgi did a model of this style

 

Rozzers in light blue cars with white doors (pandas)

 

Moggie Minor on every street corner

 

Driving into London without having to pay a tax

 

Throwing up on Hoverspeed

 

Townsend Toresson booze cruises for a £1 in the Sun and loading my mates P6 Rover with soo much booze that the back wheels wouldn't go round.

[Skizzer]

Checking the oil before a long journey - say about 50 miles.

A major selling point of Maxis being that you and the missus could kip down in them for the night.

Door to door coal deliveries off Leyland FG trucks.

Macfisheries.

Sending your best drawing of a Mk1 Escort to the gallery on Vision On, even though they Couldn't Promise To Return Any.

The Sinclair Cambridge Universal pocket calculator on Tomorrow's World.

Stick on plastic demisting screens for back windows.

Having the rear window sloping backwards was a realistic styling choice (Ford Anglia and Classic, Ami 6...).

No parking restrictions in residential areas.

So many people smoked that there were billboard adverts for Swan matches.

Painting your headlamps yellow if you went to France. Going there by hovercraft.

Getting a lift in a posh friend's dad's Triumph Dolomite and being wowed by all that wood trim.

Black and gold JPS Capris.

Non-metallic green being a paint option.

Autocar and Motor being full of adverts for Waxoyl, Plastic Padding, Champion spark plugs and Ferodo brake pads.

Road tests featuring cutaway drawings.

[55bloke]

Checking the oil before a long journey - say about 50 miles.

A major selling point of Maxis being that you and the missus could kip down in them for the night.

Door to door coal deliveries off Leyland FG trucks.

Macfisheries.

Sending your best drawing of a Mk1 Escort to the gallery on Vision On, even though they Couldn't Promise To Return Any.

The Sinclair Cambridge Universal pocket calculator on Tomorrow's World.

Stick on plastic demisting screens for back windows.

Having the rear window sloping backwards was a realistic styling choice (Ford Anglia and Classic, Ami 6...).

No parking restrictions in residential areas.

So many people smoked that there were billboard adverts for Swan matches.

Painting your headlamps yellow if you went to France. Going there by hovercraft.

Getting a lift in a posh friend's dad's Triumph Dolomite and being wowed by all that wood trim.

Black and gold JPS Capris.

Non-metallic green being a paint option.

Autocar and Motor being full of adverts for Waxoyl, Plastic Padding, Champion spark plugs and Ferodo brake pads.

Road tests featuring cutaway drawings.

 

Oh yes, all of these, and petrol being 35p a GALLON!!!

[Cavcraft]

Buying old two stroke bikes for £60, razzing them round for a few months then thinking it was a result to get £120 for them. Same bikes now would be a grand minimum

[ChinaTom]

Green Shield Stamps

 

Texan Bars

 

4D Special Agent

 

Smelly Rubbers - especially the Swiss Roll

 

Theme music to the Red Hand Gang

 

Jana of the Jungle

 

Panorama car seat covers

 

"Rarity" feature in What Car?

 

Square Lego pistons

 

Orion Air

 

Renault 18 LS estate

[trigger]

I remember being offered a mint 40000 mile Mk 1 A reg Fiesta XR2 in black for £500 with a years mot back in 1999 by a work mate who had got it as a trade in from it's first owner, sadly the insurance mans computer said no (i was 19 at the time), I still think about this XR2 even today.

[Dave7601]

Hand operated portable two-stroke oil dispensers in petrol stations.

Green sunstrips at the top of windscreens bearing the driver & girlfriends names

Front reg. plates on motorcycles

TIR signs on trucks (not sure if these still exist or not,never seen one in ages)

Those bright silver things with three sqaure shapes fitted to windscreen wipers,cant remember what they were called

When you bought petrol by the gallon or half gallon rather than ££££s worths.

Nodding dogs on rear parcel shelfs.

Pool balls used as gear stick knobs

[Angrydicky]

Green sunstrips at the top of windscreens bearing the driver & girlfriends names

 

My mum and dad had one of those on their HB Viva in 1980! (before they were married).

[CortinaDave]

Re record, not fade away!

 

 

I did a feature about this on my radio prog a few weeks back. If you contact 3m with a duff tape they WILL still replace it

[swesson]

Being able to buy and repair an accident damaged car and not having to go for a pointless money making check after replacing a bolt on wing and bonnet and then having the log book scared for life and the car being worth fuck all.

 

Being locked out of your car and using your wire coat hanger aerial to get back in.

 

BBC1 BBC2 and ITV and that's yer lot!

 

MOT stations giving you the ticket without looking at the car.

 

I remember my dad having a mk2 cav and the roof needed painting but instead of having it sprayed we took it to a vinyl roof specalist in Peterboro and had it covered nobody battered an eyelid in fact it made it more desirable do you think that would work today with a near new vectra?

 

Chrome bumpers

[barefoot]

TIR signs on trucks (not sure if these still exist or not,never seen one in ages)

 

Curious - looked it up...

 

"Before the borders were relaxed within the EU one would see T.I.R. signs on containers or trailers with customs bonded seals.

"Transport Internationaux Routiers" was a sort of system apparently where you could cross the borders without reinspection at each border."

 

I always thought it was Trans International Roadways but it looks like it doesn't exist anymore.

[Station]

Dad always having trouble starting (every) car in the cold mornings, much so we had to get up early in case we had to walk,

 

Breaking down on the way back from Blackpool, then getting a taxi back (40 miles) and the taxi driver was casually drinking a can of lager, and then dad getting uncle to tow car back with a rope,

 

Dad cutting out the roof in his mk1 Escort van and putting an ill-fitting sunroof in,

 

Dad getting rear ended in his Ascona, and then driving round for a year with a length of rope keeping it all (boot lid/bumper) together.

 

Driving without either tax, MOT or insurance,

 

Burning bottom of legs on red hot vinyl seats, and uncomfortably lifting self off seat with hands for a few minutes until it cooled down,

 

Dad washing car (once a year) with Fairy liquid, and then drying off with a random rag,

 

Driving a car for transportation was more important than a simple statistic on the DVLA database,

 

Fortune teller telling my mum never to get in a red car with two doors - my last five cars (MGF, Astra, MR2, Starion, Metro) have been red with two doors!

[maxustaxus]

When you could have a taxed car on your driveway without need to get insurance for it as you were not using it.

 

When you could have a car on your driveway without worrying about SORN paper work because you chose not to use it.

 

When you could get a car MOTed without worrying if you had brought this or that bit of paperwork with you or else...

 

When you could return a tax disc and get a refund to the nearest month and not feel like the DVLA was doing you a favour.

 

When you could drive through the central London charge area without being as wealthy as the people that lived there.

 

When you could sell a car, sign the log book and watch the thing go without dreading the DVLA would still charge you tax

 

When you scrap a car however you saw fit without being hounded forever more by the DVLA as some sort of criminal.

 

When you could drive from John O'groats to Lands end without your registration being logged with 100s of ANPR cameras.

 

 

Basically, I remember a time when owning more than one car did not make me feel like such a criminal or the means via which many in the DVLA earn a good living pushing paper around.

 

(sorry, on reflection this is more a grumpy old man post I guess!)

[swesson]

When top gear used to be a decent programme where they used to review proper cars that people buy not stupid looking Italian "super" cars that cost 25 gazzilion quid. Oh and Jeremy clarkson wasn't a complete tool, actually I'm wrong about that he's always been one.

 

And when there were very few experts about now thanks to t'internet everyones a fucking genius!

[Pete-M]

I rememeber when people who liked cars liked Top Gear. Now it seems fashionable for interweb warriors to slate it constantly.

[metrognome]

Bidding at the local auction with 50p increments