Best car you've ever owned?

[catsinthewelder]

You always love you're first and mine was a F reg Fiat Tipo which looked similar to this Czech example

 

I remember piloting her on her last voyage down to the fire station at the bottom of the road for cutting up practice, by this point minus front bumper,all her electrics and most of the interior. Lucky that the brakes still worked.

 

I also remember driving her to the hospital, trying to catch the ambulance that my girlfriend was in labour in. There was a swaying caravan ahead and I had to get past, then I realised that it was doing 70 through a village and calming down might be a good idea

[Volksy]

Best was a Fiat 127 Super 5Speed 1050 with a fold back roof.

 

Most Reliable was a Volvo 850 2.0 20v Estate.

 

But then there was the Citroen Visa 11x.. Which was neither. But Great!

[Station]

Sold it because I'd run out of space, then prices leapt up.

 

[Lukas]

This was the best car I ever had, my late-1993 Mitsubishi Pajero 2,5 TD Metal Top GL :

 

 

It wasn´t fast or well-equipped, just a pure and naked GL without anything, but I loved it more than any other car I ever had!

 

My dad bought it new in January 1994 and I grew up with it. I learnt driving in it, I kissed my first girlfriend in it, and when my

dad gave it to me in 2002 when I got my license, I was the happiest Pajero-owner ever! I drove it until 2005, when the chassis

was so badly rusted I had to sell it. It was in our family for 11 years, it never let my dad or me down, it was the most reliable car

I ever owned. I never had to get anything repaired, it was bulletproof. Best car I ever had!

[Spottedlaurel]

Best sensible/all-round car? The Camry 2.2 estate – bought unseen with 182k on the clock off a Home Counties solicitor, proved to be fast, economical, reliable, comfortable, capacious, handled well, looked awkward and had twin rear wipers. Biggest regret is that I didn’t get to take it over 200k (Wuvvum had that pleasure) but at least I own it again now – it still starts readily and drives, and will be a useful source of spares for current/future Camrys. It was the car that set me off on my current automotive path, and if I had to choose a car to last me the rest of my life this would probably be it.

 

1996 Toyota Camry 2.2 estate by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Best ‘classic’? I’m torn between two or three previous Datsuns and the current Laurel. On balance, thinking about its condition, spec, history and suitability for how I want to just use and enjoy it, being able to take the family along when necessary, the Laurel gets the nod.

 

Autoshite pair at Norfolk Gala Day by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

[barefoot]

I'm not sure that it was the 'Best Car' that I've ever owned,

 

but it was by far the quickest, most comfortable & sadly the thirstiest.

 

 

This isn't mine and it's not RHD, but it's all but identical.

This shade of grey never looked dirty.

 

All I have to remind me is the sales brochure, I even gave away a spare set of scatter cushions that I'd kept.

[ProgRocker]

This. Bought ex Avis rental nearly a year old for £6600 from the Great trade centre. Traded in minus brakes/front suspension @140k later at Motorpoint for £200! It was only 7 years old, but had been walloped down one side by then. The days when you had to pay to have a car collected! Absolutly loved to be thrashed, went all over europe, carried 2 girls from cradle to school age. Had supurb climate control too. For a torque convertor auto you could rev the goolies off it! I remember after the PX spotting it in a different space to where I left it, but about 4 foot further foward than all the other cars in the line

 

Back in 2002 still living at home and with a permanent full time job, I wanted to replace the Mini Racing Green with something more reliable. I went to 'Richard Nash Family Car Centre' in Norwich and looked at a metallic burgandy W reg Marea 1600 SX with aircon for £4,995 or thereabouts. I really liked the booted Fiats and 18 months earlier I had owned a Tempra 1.4. At the same time, the local Fiat garage had a stock of pre-registered 02 or 52 reg Marea 1600 SXs for £6,995. Tempting but decided that £5k would be my maximum budget.

 

I decided against the W reg Marea because it was a high-ish insurance grouping and had little NCB. On the forecourt was a SEAT Ibiza 1.4 S for £4,700. Didn't have aircon but eventually decided that this would be the better car to go for given the insurance quandary. To date, the Ibiza has been my best car to date.

 

I kept the car for 7 years until I sadly wrote it off in the heavy snow in December 2009. Probably would have still had that car today if I never went out on that fateful December morning and kept in the warm. But I do wonder if that W reg Marea would have been even more entertaining?

[meggersdog]

Should have kept this really.300TDi soft dash,quite rare as most were 200's.Four years ago I'd just got the Discovery through it's MOT and decided to run that instead of the Range Rover.Having owned it for a year I made a tidy profit but still wish I'd kept it.

[boobydoo]

I've had company cars for donkeys years so you get a bit blase about them after a while. Having said that I DO like my current CLS 350CDi ...they look the absolute bollocks and drive beautifully....so much so that two people down my road have bought them after seeing mine !

 

Shite-wise probably a two-tone blue Talbot Alpine Rapier bought in 1989..

My first car with power steering and 5 speed box! I remember being told years before, by a gypsy fortune-teller in Llandudno, that one day I would drive a two-tone car .

 

She also said I'd break lots of pretty girls hearts.

You got that wrong didn't you, you useless wrinkled old fake!!!

[dieselnutjob]

Probably this, not that I really liked it

Bought it 3 years old from my company. It's still running now. I had it for eight years.

 

this grainy pic is the 305 that I bought when I graduated. I loved this thing to bits.

I also had this for eight years but by then it had 207,000 miles on and was down on compression (just needed new exhaust valves) but the body was totally rotten. So it went to the scrapper.

[CIH]

In the cold light of day the Blubird I had winter before last. Paid scap money, chucked in some 'plugs we had knocking about in the workshop and some £40 200sx rims on runners;

-other than fuel and legal stuffs it cost me bascally nothing over 6 months or so and only broke down once (which was my fault anyways).

 

I hope my S12 will be my next bestest car after I've put so much money and of myself into it.

-bloody thing tried to kill me twice but it's had/having a mild body resto and all new brakes and suspension to curb it's waywad ways.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

1988 Ford Granada Ghia X 2.9. 2 previous owners, bought in 2000 for £200 with 5-6 months' MOT £25 of petrol inside! I did spend quite a bit of money getting it welded and even resprayed, but in the end it fell victim to a dodgy (but not even cheap) LPG conversion in about 2007 and I decided to give it away for scrap because it was just sitting there on the driveway making me depressed (I had been seriously pissed off by my then employers who I left in a bit of a storm, and didn't have much interest in projects, or in anything else for that matter). It had covered about 230k on the original engine and 'box, and would have easily done more if I had persevered a bit...

[wuvvum]

Realistically, probably this.

 

 

Originally bought on a whim as something unusual to potter around in at weekends, it has become my daily for the last couple of years now and has 53,000km on the clock compared to 36,000 when I bought it. I've had it nearly three years, which is an extraordinarily long time for me to keep a daily, and it's never once left me stranded - the only time it almost broke down was when the fanbelt snapped (and that was my fault for driving it with a squealing belt for weeks), but it still made it the couple of miles back to my garage under its own steam so I don't count that as a breakdown. The only other issue I've had with it is the cold start mechanism on the carb seizing up making it idle at 2,000rpm - I just removed the whole autochoke assembly - it starts fine without it except when it's really cold, and I don't use the car in the winter anyway so it hasn't been an issue. It's slow, but then so is the traffic in Norfolk most of the time so it keeps up OK. It's comfortable and spacious enough for such a tiny car - I've done a few long trips in it and been fine - and it's averaging just over 50mpg. And it's a lot of fun to drive. I did attempt to sell it last year, but I'm glad now that both my "buyers" turned out to be timewasters.

[Guest]

Had quite a few best cars out of the 300+ I have had since 1987. Two I allways regretted selling were - - - -

F registered SRI Cavalier (as net found example above)- oap owner before me I was the 1st owner to open it up - it flew Next owner put big wheels etc on it Lasted 3/4 years after I sold it.

Registration F261NVA

Make VAUXHALL

Model CAVALIER

Description SRI

Date of Liability 01 10 2004

Date of First Registration 22 03 1989

Year of Manufacture 1989

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1998CC

CO2 Emissions Not Available

Fuel Type Petrol

Export Marker Not Applicable

Vehicle Status Unlicensed

Vehicle Colour RED

Gold Singer Vogue saloon (Arrow shape as net found one above) - beautifull car to drive but needed the money for rent so sold on

Registration SBC894G

Make SINGER

Model VOGUE

Date of Liability 01 01 1991

Date of First Registration 01 06 1969

Year of Manufacture Not Available

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1725CC

CO2 Emissions Not Available

Fuel Type Petrol

Export Marker Not Applicable

Vehicle Status Unlicensed

Vehicle Colour GOLD

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I haven't owned many cars since I keep a car a long time if I like it. I have had this one a long time now. I do love it though.

 

 

Here it is in the rain at the Black Sheep 25 years of the XJ40 thing a couple of weeks back. Sadly its body isn't as good as it was, but then mine isn't either.

 

[Pete-M]

Probably the best older car I've had was my A reg Granada 2.8 injection. A220 JCC.

 

Ace car, that. Bought with an incredibly rare RS bodykit fitted - which I hated so removed, only to discover the arches were a bit frilly and the kit (which I destroyed) was a bit sought after. It had a manual box, immaculate Recaro interior, LSD, Aircon, four new Avon TRX tyres on the proper white alloys, a set of N.O.S Bilsteins, a slightly silly exhaust and a really sweet engine (it was smooth, which is unheard of for a 2.8 Cologne lump).

 

Paid £300 for it, ran it every day for about 18 months, 40,000 miles without having to replace anything more than a the steering rack and a CV joint, and the only thing that needed fixing other than that was the drivers electric window motor.. Used to get me from Liverpool to Wigan every morning, back every night and to Newmarket most weekends. Did about 30 mpg on a run, too. With mainly doing 15+ mile runs in it it wasn't expensive to run.

 

Fitted a Kenwood 'Mask' CD player to it and a set of good quality speakers so it was a pretty nice place to spend hours every week. Eventually the ribbon cable on the stereo broke so it'd light up and the volume control worked, but that was it. About a year driving it whilst only listening the Simon and Garfunkel's "The Concert in Central Park" over and over again.

 

Eventually it had to go as I'd bought a W123 280TE to replace it. The only people to actually turn up with the money arrived in a Cargo with a Hiab, and the car had been on ebay and advertised everywhere for about four months. They gave me more for it than it had cost me, and bought my other 2.8i Ghia X as well, for the same cash. They hiabbed it onto their truck, then strapped it down with oily straps over the Recaros. I could have cried. Absolutely gutted, but I needed the cash and they were the ones who turned up with it and didn't want to haggle.

 

Like killing and old friend, that was.

[Formula Autos]

An R-reg SEAT Arosa 1.0 was the best car I ever had (no pics, sadly). Frugal, surprisingly nice to drive (even at motorway speeds) and didn't seem to deteriorate in condition during the two and a half years I owned it. All that went wrong was a MAF sensor (easily changed).

 

On the basis of that I went out and bought a T reg Ibiza 1.4S, which was a crock of shit (and shouldn't have been - FSH, low miles, good nick, etc.). It went through wheel bearings with monotonous regularity, and kept having minor annoying niggles like electric windows that went down, but not back up. It was this car that made me decide to get off the pointless treadmill of always having a 'newish' car - the land of Autoshite beckoned from here on in.

 

I wish I'd never sold the Arosa. Basic transport at its best. I still see it regularly too - someone in a nearby village has it, and it's still in good nick (albeit on Poundland wheeltrims). If I had somewhere to park it I'd try and buy it back.

[CreepingJesus]

 

This one. Tho' as I've run out of time, money and alternatives, it'll probly be going over the bridge sometime in the coming week. If anybody wants any bits (5 alloys, 10-disc autochanger etc.,) fire me a PM, I'll see what I can do.

[maxustaxus]

Saab 900 Turbo 3 door Y reg 1982 I think.

 

I bought it of the then manager of Next! And it was cheap, exhilerating and ran for a year without any problems and I sold it on for a profit!

 

Long time ago now...close runner the Audi 200 5t. Here is a pic or link (not of the one I used to have). If just the link shows, if anyone knows why the flicker pic never shows on here when I use the IMG facility I would love to know!

 

 

[Louise2cv]

I've had an '88 2cv6, a '75 2cv and the Allegro. I loved them all equally the 2cv6 was my first car and a pet. The aggro was a "dream car" but the 75 2cv was the coolest. I regret not having the time to get it road legal (short MOT, no storage) I probably only drove it 5 times!

 

[Cavcraft]

S3 XJ6 4.2 auto, C797 RKA (iirc). Was still on the road not too long back I think. Smoothest, most comfortable (well, probably on par with a newly sphered BX) car I've owned and was king of the traffic light grand prix in it. If it hadn't been smoking it's tits off and trying to eat it's own boot floor I'd have kept it longer.

[meggersdog]

works fine for me

here you go maxustaxus .............copy image location....

[maxustaxus]

How about I write a long and detailed post about how to post pictures on here.

I could explain the basic principles, use screengrabs, do Mac and PC examples from flickr, photobucket, imageshack and ebay.

I could call it the "How to post pictures thread".

Mr H Sceptre could sticky it at the top of the forum.

 

Oh wait, I did that a year ago and NO FUCKER LOOKS AT IT!

 

I appeciate the effort you have put in to helping people post pictures, but I think now I wish I had never asked, it doesn't mean that much to me. Life is too short. I did not expect to have to wade through 3 pages of instructions on how to post a image on this site....especially when the need to post pictures only follows because some people whinge if no pictures are given on a post! In this context you would think posting a picture would NOT require such instruction.

 

Look, I felt that commenting was unorthodox lest a picture be present...if the basic facility for doing this does not work without further reference, why should a person be regarded as a FUCKER if they don't happen to realise that a special sticky needs to be posted for those new to the site to be able to post a picture?

 

Please accept my apologies for asking in the first place....a simple and courteous "please see the sticky at the top of the forum" was obviously much more bother than a sacrcastic, know it all, Ive done my bit, turse response to a newbe.

[wuvvum]

Oh FFS, don't start this again...

[Volksy]

+1

[theorganist]

Looks like it is too late!

[Guest marcellogandini]

Does anybody know how to post pictures? I want to post a photograph of the best car I have ever designed, the Reliant FW11.

[Rod/b]

Jesus wept, is everyone in this place on the fucking rag or something?

[Volksy]

HAHAHAHAHA!

[privatewire]

Honda Civic Aerodeck X reg, bought last May for £990, sold it to mate in November for £990, great old bus to waft about in, only car I've not lost money on!

 

Prior to that a V reg Toyota Corolla SRi, 3 door, one of the fugly corollas, had it 3 years, never even had to change a tyre on it.