What made you like shite?

[kinkersaab]

Or, have you always just had shite stuff?

 

I was reminissing on my youth the other night, and remembering my bike, it was bikeshite. I did get a new mountain bike whan i was about 10 i guess, and never really liked it, i had an old choppeer which at the time was shite and uncool, I loved it, then I got one of these.

 

I rode this from when i was about 12 until i was able to drive, in fact, i still have it behind the shed.

Cars have been the same, Dad always has brand new conformist machines, my first car, a skooda rapid, i was offered the usual fiesta, nova etc, but no, for me it had to be the skoda. THen I started working in the motor trade, i could have had anything, but i chose for my next car, a baby blue bluebird ,i loved it, over the years i have tried new and flashy, but just cant do it, i always always get more enjoyment out of shite. So, i have decided that its a bit like gayness, some of us are just born to like shite.

[AXrescuer]

I'm almost 50 and make a point of surrounding myself with bit and pieces that form a link to my past. To me they're not shite

but priceless reminders of my life up to this point in time.

[barefoot]

Jalopy magazine.

 

It really took something to buy my first copy.

It was like an Alcoholics Anonymous moment, but once I'd done it, come out of the closet/garage, I was laughing.

Another moment of admission was trading my 5 year old Cavalier for an older car

albeit a Porsche, it took some serious thought because it was going against the trend/norm.

 

Since then I've bought manky old cars that make my colleagues twitch with much severity and yet all is right with the world.

[CreepingJesus]

I've always liked the shite. Especially when it comes to splashing cash on cars/bikes/musical instruments (my 3 main purchase areas of evar): I've had one car on finance, and hated the experience. I'd rather buy them cheap, for cash, and do them up/run them into the ground/laugh(cry?) at them. Life's more interesting that way.

[fordperv]

My love of shite stems from when i was a little lad helpin my dad work on cars how kids do, he had an abundance of shite i remember helping him with cortinas, granadas, capris, avengers, hunters, a montego and an ambassador. Everytime i see, drive or work on old stuff i feel 7 again

[RoadworkUK]

I spend every waking moment at a car dealership, Merc main dealer. Customers come in on a depressingly regular basis, trading in the E320 CDi they paid £45k for three years ago, accepting the £17k P/Ex value for it, and doing the same thing again. I wouldn't want to stop them, it pays me a living. But I'm buggered if I'd want to do it myself.

 

I came out of the company car scheme, bought a '98 A4 that I'd taken in against an SLK. Had that for nearly three years and I dearsay it's worth pretty much what I payed for it.

 

And I find the p/x snotters we take in so much more interesting than the new stuff we sell. My favourite p/x was a '92 Sigma Estate. I loved that thing. Poor bugger who chopped it in did so against a comparitively tedious C180.

[overheadvalve]

My love of shite is quite recent, i bought a 3 year old (2000 model) Golf diesel a few years ago and i had the servicing carried out by the main dealer, i spent over 1k in servicing in little over a year.

Then at month 14 or thereabouts the engine let go, VW offered me 1k off the price of a new engine at 4k or nothing off a rebuild costing £1700. This got me thinking, i had spent over 10k in less than 18 months on an ordinary family car and at one point, before the rebuild i had a car worth about 2k max, i had "lost" 8k in a year.

How many old bangers could i buy for 8k?

I now have 4 cars, none of them are worth more than £900 and they are a whole lot more interesting than the Golf.

I do the general servicing myself and call at a local independant for the more difficult jobs.

[The Moog]

for me it is about being interesting. Why would you want to have the same old rubbish everyone else has, which is MOR.

 

Rather have stuff that makes you smile and curse with equal vigour, which people in petrol stations want to talk to you about, which do the job in a more stylish way than a 3 year old runabout, which might cost a fraction to buy but loads to run, which enables you to get top quality shite with a few rust scabs for the price of a couple of tyres.

[Phrancofile]

Like RoadworkUK, I am a salesman at a car dealership and drive all manner of cars on a day to day basis. Over the years I have owned and appreciated some nice cars, but the one that I had most fun in and wish I hadn't sold was a 1986 honda Civic DX 3-door. Paid $400 for it with 125k in 2004 and sold it five great months later for $550. Felt a sense of pride when getting in and driving the little shitter. There's something honest about shiters. Much more fun than the brand new Golf GTI I have now. I'll have another one day...

[ProgRocker]

In my local evening newspaper they had a weekly car supplement. One week in, I believe, summer of 1992 there was an 'K reg special' for new registrations and there was a double page spread of popular cars and their suffix K reg counterparts from 1972. Let's just say i found the 1971 K reg cars much more appealing to look at than the brand new 1992 ones.

 

The one that really got me excited was the Ford Sierra & the old Ford Cortina mark 3, with a few stats about the older car like its list price back in the day. Suddenly remembered that my parents had one in the late 1970s when I was very young. And how there were so few of them left (there were still quite a few mark IV & '80' shape 'tinas knocking around ). There was also Escort mark V & mark 1, Vauxhall Astra & Viva, Rover R8 200 & Austin 1100 and I think there was a Peugeot 309 & Hillman Hunter or Avenger.

 

Also, in late 1993 I stopped by at a newsagents and purchased a copy of 'Jalopy' which covered the history of the Ford Cortina. Had a pic of a green Cortina 80 on the front with the caption 'Old Frauds'. I was transported into shite heaven! The article about the birth of the mark I Cortina was entitled 'The Archbishop of Dagenham' and I also recall an amusing comment about the mark III Cortina regarding the myriad of spec levels available 'so that the customer can specify how many sunken dials [on the dashboard] he or she requires' .

 

My interest in shite worked out quite well time wise as I was less than a year off my 17th birthday and wanted to a buy a car when I did turn 17 so it was good to do some research. Any car would have done - I knew that a Porsche 928S S4 was going to be out of the question

[dollywobbler]

I grew up with shite, as we were horrendously skint. My Dad's Topaz Hillman Hunter was very dated by the mid-1980s, but I loved it. Factor in my Aunt, who drove a Moggy Minor convertible and a Series VI Oxford Traveller (complete with Halfords door mirrors and dreadful plastic wings) and you can see how shite got a hold of me.

 

As the years have gone on, I've had the odd dabble with modern stuff, but soon realised it was an expensive game. Cheap shite therefore appeals. Being a 2CVer, I'm quite used to dealing with other people's small mindedness, and I greatly enjoy sticking two fingers up at the Joneses and their constant depreciation battle.

[Negative Creep]

Grew up loving cars so I have an interest in the stuff that was around when growing up in the 1980s. Modern cars do nothing for me as they're so detached and artificial there's just no fun to be had driving them. Although I end up having to spend on repairs, I reason that it counteracts the horrific depreciation I'd suffer if I bought a new car on finance

[Cavcraft]

My dad having a variety of shit company cars (Maxi/Austin 3-litre/Maxi/Mk3 Cortina estate/Mk4 Cortina estate/Talbot Alpine/Cavalier Mk2 SR and my mum having such wonderful cars as a couple of Renault 4s/Riley Elf/Fiat 126* and a couple of others I'll remember later.

I loved vehicles from an early age anyhow and I'd honestly spend more time at a car show admiring an AD016/A55/SD1 etc than some fany 'supercar' thing.

 

 

*Which was a hateful,totally unreliable, nasty, hateful, rusty hateful heap of absolute hateful shit.

[boobydoo]

I'm going round in circles trying to fathom an answer to this question.

 

I've always liked shite, so it can't be anything to do with memories of childhood. As a boy, I always bought old fashioned Dinky toys that were out of date or discontinued rather than contemporary. My Dad owned a MkV Cortina, so why does seeing one now not excite me as much as say a Skoda Estelle which we never had?

 

Styling then? Yes, I can't think of a modern car that excites me style-wise. I like square. Neat. Balanced. Is that why I like Tagoras? They're square. Possibly, but I like Renault 14s aswell...that doesn't fit with my criteria at all.

 

Rarity then? Possibly......but a rare Ferrari wouldn't interest me at all. A Humber Sceptre Estate would.

 

Underdogs? YES! I like stuff that people are disdainful of. Talbots. Ladas. British Leyland. Rather than say Alfas, or Mercs or BMW. But then I love the Alfa 6. So back to squareness and rarity.

 

I think an important part of it is for me to see something that is generally unloved.......being loved. It strikes an emotion in my heart that I can't explain. I must have been born with it. It's in my genes.

 

So, I really don't know.I give up. I have no idea why I like shite.

[Rusty Pelican]

for me it is about being interesting. Why would you want to have the same old rubbish everyone else has, which is MOR.

 

Rather have stuff that makes you smile and curse with equal vigour, which people in petrol stations want to talk to you about, which do the job in a more stylish way than a 3 year old runabout, which might cost a fraction to buy but loads to run, which enables you to get top quality shite with a few rust scabs for the price of a couple of tyres.

Says it all for me , Had a 51 plate Astra for a while , felt horrible in it , driving stuff everyone else has just kills it for me

[alf892]

I grew up with shite.......

 

Dad Alf ran a country garage through the 60s and 70s which had a graveyard behind it full of old stuff (wings and running board type stuff). Meanwhile on the forecourt he was punting out stuff like 100E and even some sit up and beg Ford Pops.

 

I have had some really 'nice' moderns but they are all just cars. My old Rover is maybe not shite in strict terms...........but only because it is old!

[Pillock]

I really do find older stuff more interesting. There's quite a narrow gap of shite I like though.... anything older than mid 70s I find it hard to get a lob on for, and I enthuse over perhaps newer stuff than most but early to mid 90s is about the end of the good stuff.

It's perhaps the stuff I was around growing up - I'd love a Mk2 Astra GTE, or a Carlton GSi or something - these were brand new when I was bugging my mum to take me to the Earls Court Motor show.

 

Without wishing to sound like my gran, new stuff all looks the same. Seriously, I can no longer tell an Astra from a Subaru from a Focus, they've all got the same styling cues. When I was a nipper I could identify cars from the headlight shape in the dark at a quarter mile.

[Rusty Pelican]

Seriously, I can no longer tell an Astra from a Subaru from a Focus, they've all got the same styling cues. When I was a nipper I could identify cars from the headlight shape in the dark at a quarter mile.

Im the same , half the time if there,s no badge i can see to read what it is im fugged

[Lord Sterling]

Hello, my name is Lord Sterling and I am a shiteaholic.

 

I think it stemmed from my love of Rover 800s, ever since my Dad had one I wanted one. Prices of these cars have been ever decreasing and I started to see the sense in it. I could buy a £6000 dreary uninteresting blob on finance, or I could buy old-money barges packed full of toys for a couple hundred in fold.

 

With joining this site, the explosion of finance, sea of grey 'new' cars all looking the same and the scrappage scheme has all taught me to appreciate what is out there even more than I have done before.

[skattrd]

My first car memories are of shite, we had a Renault 16, Renault 4, various Land Rovers (series I/IIa) and then a Fiat 132, which I remember very fondly, the plush velour and plastic slidy down see through sun visors were awesome.

 

My major issue against newer cars is depreciation, buy a car and lose £5k in a year, it seems crazy to me. All my cars are still worth what I paid for them, even after I've put a few thousand miles on them. Shite is also a lot easier to fix (less electricery/computers) though some have more tendency to break.

[Barry Cade]

My mum and dad had a 1962 Singer Gazelle from 1964 to 1983. Dad used to keep the thing on the road by any means, even doing the piston rings and replacing the back axle at the side of the house- he was a cabinet maker to trade so things used to take a while- especially with me "helping"..It died more for the difficulty of getting parts than because it was worn out- I still have the reg plate 8265SP.

 

He then thought he'd get bang up to date and got a Viva HB UTJ745H. This was replaced after about 6 years ,not because it was worn out, but because he'd lost his licence.New car was a 1978 Datsun 100A F11. CSX730S . Eventually he was persuaded to get a newer car (this was the early 90's!) so bought a 1980 Polo GLS -BTY 86V... which made way later for my old "B" plate Rover 213. he thought he'd really arrived when he got that- it cost me £160 from the auctions near Saughton prison..

 

My brother however, was a mechanic,with a Jaguar fetish- used to come home in all sorts, XJ12's, E-Types,420's although they never did anything for me.. still hate Jags! He did have a Riley RME for a long time too which was immaculate. Weekends were spent either down at his garage messing around with his old Chevy breakdown truck, loads of old Landrovers and many many Datsuns, or at the scrappy's.. I left school straight into the motor trade and have loved anything shite ever since, but have an extreme and unnatural fondness for Fiat X1/9's. Owned over 500 piles of crap in 20 years.

[Pete-M]

I also work with brand new cars day in, day out. They're good at what they do, but they don't have any charm yet. I've driven tons of cars when they were brand new and the ones I liked new I keep an eye out for when they're old, unfashionable and cheap. Others are just the things that I quite like the idea of.

 

Shite as in 'stuff that drives terribly' doesn't do anything for me at all. Not interested. Glad there are people who like that stuff, but if anyone ever asks me if an MGB is any good I'm not gonna lie to 'em. Same for Marinas, 120Ys, Ladas, etc. If they were crap new they ain't gonna get better with age.

 

My trick is to buy good examples of stuff right when it's at the bottom of the popularity curve, run them for a while then sell them just before they get valuable. I've been doing it for 20 odd years, it's an unfortunate trait but that's the way it goes. There's always something else that has just hit the bottom of the barrel for me to buy instead. I think this means the stuff I tend to own is just unfashionable when I own it. Hmm.

[eddyramrod]

My dad had new cars when I was small, but it all went pearshaped in the late 60s and we ended up with cheap shite for... well, forever after really. One of my earliest car-fixing memories is helping him bleed the brakes on our 100E Popular in about 1969, which would make me 10 years old. That was the start of something, a nerve must have been touched. When I was learning to drive we had a 1963 Triumph Herald 12/50, plus another for parts; plus a laid-up and very rusty A35 van, plus a laid-up and engineless A40 (which never got the A35 engine, as planned). Cue my own shite-laden career, driven by the simple fact of having no money and therefore buying the cheapest old bin I could lay my hands on. And you know what? They've been fun.

 

I tried to work up to "better" and newer cars for some time, but really, when the only newer car you can afford is a used Lada....! Eventually I worked out the depreciation issue and settled for buying the next-to-cheapest things I could find, which introduced an element of choice that was previously missing. My Volvo 740 estate, for example, was chosen with great care to get the spec I wanted (2.3 auto, with towbar; bonus additions of fuel injection, GLE trim level, third row of seats, sunroof) and handled everything I asked it to do with total assurance. And I took great pride in having a car over 20 years old, when all around me were upgrading their modern hatchbacks at great expense.

 

My shite career has brought me almost everything you can think of (there's a challenge ) from a Mini to not one but two Cadillacs and I haven't paid huge amounts for most of them. In fact the expensive cars have always been for my wife, who doesn't trust the old stuff but now happily knocks around Paphos in a 9-year-old pickup.

 

Don't underestimate the influence of the Matchbox cars either (and Corgi, Dinky etc, obviously). I actually still have some that I've owned from new, as far back as I can remember. On top of that must come the Monty Berman detective shows of the 60s, such as Man In A Suitcase, Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) etc. I loved those, and Z-Cars, The Avengers... well you name it, I was staying up late to watch! When the heroes drive a Hillman Imp (McGill) and an FD Victor (Jeff Randall) it's a firm shite foundation.

 

I find new cars bland and boring. I had (use of) a 2004 BMW 530D for a day and couldn't give it back fast enough, it actually hurt my back. I can't think of a redeeming feature on it. At all. But I still smile at the memory of the three cars I owned at the time, two insured as classics but all doing regular duty: 1988 MG Maestro, 1990 Chrysler convertible, 1980 Buick. All a pleasure to drive, with their own quirks; not one cost me over 500 notes to buy. I'm certain my daughter lost more on the BM than I did on my three, even considering 3 lots of insurance and tax, and feeding two V6 engines.

 

Sorry if I've waffled, but if you ask the question, you must be prepared for the answers...

[Mr Lobster]

I like a lot of cars, not just old shite. My favourite stuff tends to come from mid - late '70s to about 1990 ish and is considered to be 'shite' because its not what the masses consider a 'classic' (an MG or Jag then) I'd agree with Pete as well that stuff that was genuinely rubbish does nothing for me now. Its nice to see it but I wouldn't want one.

 

Similarly, theres a lot of new stuff that I like. If anyone wants to give me a SEAT Exeo (Estate, high spec, in black plz) then I'd be pretty chuffed. Same goes for something like a Twingo RS.

[Pillock]

Oh, and it also helps that I'm tighter than a duck's arse.

I had this conversation as I travelled down to a business meeting with a colleague in his £200/month 1.6TDCI lease Focus. "In three months, your payments will have bought my car" didn't go down too well, especially since my car is better equipped, a nicer drive and I actually own it. His only argument is that I have to pay for my own insurance and tax, but when fully comp is £220 a year......

[Alexg]

Because I love cars, but I always love the underdog too. I like rare, unusual and unloved cars because breaking from the norm' offers far more satisfaction and is so much cooler. Plus retro motors are more stylish and lovable than any new car can hope to be. I hate flash harry motors like new BMW, Mercedes and Audis because its predictable and dull and, er... well bellendish.

[flat4alfa]

My Dad.

 

Friends' Dads went to the local Motor Dealers to buy a car.

 

But my Dad used to return from the Pub with his new car.

[dieselnutjob]

I just hate having the same cars as everybody else.

I was in the lift at work and two guys were discussing whether the Audi A6 or the BMW 5 series were the best cars. yawn....

[dieselnutjob]

oh that and having spent huge amounts of time in France as a child during the 70s/80s probably

[Formula Autos]

ITC was, I think, where my love of shite began.

 

I was always fascinated by their programmes - The Protectors, Jason King, Department S, The Persauders!, The Saint, UFO, The Champions, Danger Man, Man in a Suitcase, The Prisoner, et al. I caught them all on various Sky channels in the early '90s and, by then, the cars in these programmes were already obscure. Figuring out what Peter Wyngarde, Patrick McGoohan, or Nyree Dawn Porter had been chased by that episode led me to research shite, and I grew to love it.

 

Some examples:

The crashing 850 coupe from the titles of The Protectors

 

McGill's Imp from Man in a Suitcase

 

Lord Brett Sinclair and his lovely Aston DBS from The Persuaders!

 

Ed Straker's futuristic turbine car from UFO

 

One of the village taxis from The Prisoner

 

Can't go wrong watching all that tat, can you?