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!

[tonyav]

ToraToraToraQuestion Authortony, I've had 2 cortinas,

Three here, all Mk 2's two of them 1600E's definitely wish I still had them. A good one fetches big money ( disposable cars when I had them ).

[ToraToraTora]

yep a good 1600e is at least 20k these days, my dad had one of those I remember helping with the respray.

[tonyav]

Lucky if you had any 60' / 70's Ford that didn't need a respray.

[jourdain2]

A battered Renault 12 estate. Perfect! I loved it so much. When the rust got worrying it was repainted, by brush and hand, in silver grey Hammerite, which seemed to halt the rot. Once I left it in a busy car-park in Halifax on a Saturday and accidentally left my keys on the bonnet - no-one stole it. :(

[tonyav]

Bad luck that, jourdain ;-)

[andy-hughes]

A Mini for £200, with less than 2,000 miles on it, bought from a friend of my Nan's who never took it out if it was raining.

It got destroyed by a drunk driver who hit it so hard it went thirty feet up the road, across the pavement and into a wall.

My next car was a Mini as well, a real nail!

My youngest daughter and I used to drive to school in it, and in the winter, we used to joke about opening the windows to let some warm air in!!

[Hopkirk]

Did any of these cars have power steering, electric windows, air conditioning, central locking, air bags, head restraints or rear seat belts?

[Hopkirk]

How about a radio with more than one speaker?

[tonyav]

central locking

LOL, didn't even need a key with those old Fords. A tea spoon with a saint on the end would get you in and start it !

Air bags, didn't need them if you had a girlfriend ;-)

[Hazi-Hammenuhoth]

Peugeot 106. I can't remember what it cost. But I do remember I managed to get it to go 106 mph on the motorway in the dead of night. Don't know what I was trying to prove, but remember making my mates promise never to tell my Mum.

[zebo]

A35 van, we paid £25 for it and had to junk it after a month as we found there was hardly any floor, broke my heart to have spent so much money for nothing.
Later we had a sit up and beg Ford, we actually changed the engine on that, lifting it with a strong rope and a wooden beam. Unfortunately the clutch plate got damaged and it wouldn't start from stop on a slope, which living in Yorkshire was a problem.
Later still we had a Messerschmidt (or Heinkel) bubble car, the pasenger had to hold the battery terminals on as it was behind the driver's seat! It conked out and OH left it in the middle of Keighley, unlocked, it didn't get pinched but his WW2 flying jacket did that was inside. He never listened to me!
Cars were much more fun in th'olden days! Before modern alternators we had one where the lights were brighter the faster you drove.

[Hopkirk]

I remember my parents Triumph Herald

Dad stuck a sort of double glazing panel on the rear window, so you could see out the back window when misted up.

[Toorak]

A mini - needed it because my first job was not accessible by public transport. It was a nightmare (years old when I bought it). It had a shoe print on the inside roof (?). It cut out in wet weather because a design fault meant the distributor got wet (I spent a fortune on WD40 trying to keep it dry). The battery started to fall through the boot. It was written off when an uninsured idiot decided to execute a right turn on an unlimited speed road without indicating. I exchanged the cost of scrap for the rescue and storage costs :-(

[tonyav]

The battery started to fall through the boot.

Yep that was pretty normal with those old Mini's ( and rear subframe breaking in two due to rot ).

[goodgoalie]

A 1961 black Rover 100, red leather seats, cost me £500 from an aged Polish guy who cried when I drove it away. Everyone who got in it loved it, and always 'knew someone who used to have one.' It had an overdrive on a stalk by the steering wheel, with a kick-down under the accelerator pedal. I always smile when I see one.
Sold it for £100.

[jno]

TTT, first car was an early Mini - sliding windows, piece of string to open the doors, button on the floor to stomp if you wanted high beam. Room for short friends in the back. But it ran fine. I can't remember what it cost.

[ToraToraTora]

thanks all, some wonderful tales!

[ToraToraTora]

GG is that the P4?
https://media.classiccarintelligence.co.uk/Rover_P4_(7070932821).jpg

[dannyk13]

Austin A40 £90 second hand.

[theshedman]

Ford Zodiac was mine with column change. Not new, good but heavy car. Was frightening watching petrol gauge go down when speedo went up. Didn't keep for long because of that.