What Was Your First Car?

[ToraToraTora]

How much was it?
do you have an amusing anecdote?
I had a Ford Anglia 1200 cost £30. The battery was knackered so it often would not start but It would start so easily I could bump start it on my own!

[MWG14]

Austin 10 in 1957 which cost £10.00.

[zylaphone]

Austin A30, inherited from an aunt. Terrific heater and a velvety interior. Not a crowd puller at the age of 17!

[Karamia]

A blue Talbot Sunbeam

It belonged to my Grandad who gave it to me when he stopped driving. I drove it for many years and it always started first time. Always needed welding under front seats when it was Mot time though and mechanic used to joke it would end up like Flinstones car one day!

[Atheist]

TTT; Snap! I managed to take it down to the south of France in 1963. Bottom rad hose popped outside a Gendarmerie in the middle of Paris, and when we managed to get a replacement hose the flics let us in through the bad boys' holding cage to fill up our water bottle at a tap in the yard so we could refill the rad. French crims banging on the bars asking us for fags. Those were the days.
We had a puncture when we were full of hitch-hikers and we had to change a wheel without a jack. They all lifted the car off the wheel and I mimed a wheel change and counted while they held it, to see if they could hold it up long enough. They could, so I said, "Well done! That was the rehearsal; now let's do it for real."

[Maydup]

No idea what it was but it was off white and cost £30 at the car auction in 1979. I had L plates on it and my friends and family would sit with me while I learnt to drive. It was a proper old banger with a dodgy clutch; double declutching and parking on a hill to jump start it set me up as a confident motorist! I think it conked out before I passed my test.

[bhg481]

1953 Rover 75, reg BHG481, bought for £90 off my future brother-in-law. Used nearly as much oil as petrol.

[davebro]

// Used nearly as much oil as petrol.//

I had a Mk1 Ford Consul (cost £50) like that - gave it to my sister when I couldn't afford to tax it. She ran it for a couple more years.

[sddsddean]

TYL133M ...a Vauxhall Victor 1800 FE estate, metallic blue with a vinyl roof...cost £350 which my Mum lent me! Choke cable was a piece of string (until I fixed it) and you could almost climb inside the bonnet to do maintenance. You could pull out in front of anything, 'cos no one wanted to tangle with it, but its probably a bit small by modern standards. Got written off on an icy day when a bloke in a BMW (surprise!) came tanking round a bend and couldn't stop. Only good thing, it wrote his car off too!

[Dagman]

A blue Datsun 1300 I bought off my dad for £300 in 1980. I took it to a local marsh the first day to pick mushrooms, went off for 3 hours, came back and it was covered all over in cow saliva. The cattle that roam the marsh had taken a liking to the wax polish I'd used....Doh!

[davebro]

Don't park where there are livestock - they will lick your car (sometimes for road salt I think) and gouge it with their horns.

[Redhelen72]

Fiat 126 Bertie the bombing fiat. My dad bought it for my 17th birthday using a £ insurance he set up when we I came to the U.K.

[david small]

Split screen 1958 Morris Minor. It failed seven consecutive MOT tests. On the sixth fail the mechanic handed me the handbrake lever that came off in his hand and said I won’t charge you for this one. After failing seventh time, and having spent all my money, I sold it for two pounds to the mechanic and got a bus home. I never even got to drive the wretched thing either. Purchased on the suggestion of my father.

[ToraToraTora]

jno: "my fourth car was a Polo." - yes I see why we often fail to align on things! so what was your first car?

[tonyav]

In 73 a 67 Cortina Mk2 bought it off a mate for £50 ( taxed and MOTed ) it had a Ford experimental paint on it ( colour was Saluki Bronze ), the paint was supposed to be self cleaning ! what it actually did was peel off and turn the car into a rusty scab on wheels.

[ToraToraTora]

thank you so much for your responses I have so much enjoyed reading your experiences. Choux gets BA for now.

[Arrods]

Ford 100E van with side windows cut out, hand brush painted in pillar box red. An old London Bus seat was placed horizontally in the rear for the passengers. Bought from a ‘mate’ for £40 - I say a mate and should have smelled a rat when he’d thrown in for free 10 gallons of reclaimed engine oil. Insurance was £45, so nothing much changes.

[ToraToraTora]

tony, I've had 2 cortinas, a MK3 coke bottle and MK5 crusader, wish i'd kept them both.

[ToraToraTora]

I grew up in a car mad family both my actual dad and step dad were radio rental! So from an early age I have experiences that make me laugh! one I remember was my step dad bought an NSU prince (no it's not an STD!) anyway it was cheap because it had no reverse! PMSL! I was reverse! I had to get out and push it back! I never realised at the time but it set me in good stead to be a prop at rugby!

[ToraToraTora]

...I remember stripping it down and finding that just one small sprocket was the issue we got one from somewhere and were off and running!

[choux]

ducksie, I'll have you know that my A40 was a car ahead of its time.

It was like a mobile hot tub without the heat ;)