First Car

amos hames

amos hames

Dedicated Member
Following the same line as my other thread about bikes I thought it would be interesting to hear what your first ever car was. I do not drive but I remember the first time I went in a car it was my granddads purple mk1 Cortina still remember this for some reason Your first car please(I do not mean toy cars :D ;D :)) if you drive that is. :)
 
My first motor was a Ford Thames 5cwt van back in 1963. We had vans in those days as there was not any Purchase Tax on them (VAT these days).
 
First car I drove would have been a Ford Cortina Mk I, followed by a Riley 1.5 RME, then a Hillman Minx. Then various others.

The first one I owned was a Vauxhall Viva estate in blue!

The most interesting was a 1966 Fiat 500cc which could be started with any key, screwdriver or even a coin! Nobody got more than 50 yards down the road as it required double declutching despite being kept in a fairly notorious area of Leeds for car crime! My mk III Cortina 2000E did get pinched though!
 
I´ve still got it ;D. A 22 year-old black Volkswagen Golf 2. I think in other countries it was called "rabbit", can´t for the life of me imagine why.
 
my first car was a vauxhall corsa from 1994, this was about 6 years ago now, but ive stuck with driving corsa all the time, learned in a corsa and had two others and still got one now, im just comfy driving vauxhalls and corsas
 
My first car was a Fiat 850,a dreadful,unreliable,rusty and dangerous motor, but in hindsight it taught me so much about car repairs and servicing that was to stand me in good stead in later years.
 
Mine was a ford popular,3 speed gearbox with reverse where 1st gear normally is,think it cost £20 lasted about 8 months, I think then you got 3 gallons for £1.00,I then moved onto Ford Anglia's which cost more at £30, they were all two tone,mud and rust,cheap enough to throw away when something serious went wrong,normally they just collapsed in a heap of rust
 
maltrab said:
Mine was a ford popular,3 speed gearbox with reverse where 1st gear normally is,think it cost £20 lasted about 8 months, I think then you got 3 gallons for £1.00,I then moved onto Ford Anglia's which cost more at £30, they were all two tone,mud and rust,cheap enough to throw away when something serious went wrong,normally they just collapsed in a heap of rust
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20 pounds for a car!! crikey :)
 
amos hames said:
maltrab said:
Mine was a ford popular,3 speed gearbox with reverse where 1st gear normally is,think it cost £20 lasted about 8 months, I think then you got 3 gallons for £1.00,I then moved onto Ford Anglia's which cost more at £30, they were all two tone,mud and rust,cheap enough to throw away when something serious went wrong,normally they just collapsed in a heap of rust
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20 pounds for a car!! crikey :)
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Yes and I think road tax was about £10 a year,I could insure it 3rd party for about £15 a year, it was cheap motoring in those days,I think a driving licence was only 50p (ten shillings),oh and you could park in town centres for free
 
maltrab said:
Yes and I think road tax was about £10 a year,I could insure it 3rd party for about £15 a year, it was cheap motoring in those days,I think a driving licence was only 50p (ten shillings),oh and you could park in town centres for free
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how times have changed terry, ive sorted mine out over the last two months and it was a lot more than that, my tax disc was ten times the amount you said
 
The other nice thing about motoring in the 60/70's was scrap yards, you could obtain most parts for your car for very little money,it was fun to wander around, often in mud to find a scrap model of your car to strips bits off

Even new parts were not to expensive, a set of spark plugs were £1 yet someone told me they can be over £10 each these days,often on the fords I bought the engines would be shot,so we would rebuild it,I would take the engine block in for a rebore, the crank in to have a few thou taken off it, then I would buy a set of oversized crankshaft shells for £3 and a new set of pistons with rings for £20,a complete set of engine gaskets cost around £5, I would then spend the weekend putting it all back together,so total cost with new oil and filters Less than £50 for a rebuilt engine, the worst and time consuming job was grinding the valves back in,then it would be run in for 500 to 600 miles to help everything bed in before you opened the throttle up bit by bit to see how well she ran
 
The first car that i drove, was my mates Reliant Regal three-wheeler, he learned me to drive in that and if you could drive one of those, you could drive pretty much anything, i had it on two wheels on several occasions going round tight bends!!
The first car i owned was also a Reliant Regal, this one was a van and i had many happy times in it.
You could drive a three wheeler on a motorcycle licence in those days, i passed my bike test in 1973.
The first real car i owned was a Volkswagen Beetle, just before i passed my car test in that long, hot summer of 1976, then i swapped the Beetle for a 1966 Triumph Spitfire, which carried four of us and camping gear to Anglesey in Wales that summer, me driving, my mate in the passenger seat, his girlfriend sat between his legs in the footwell and my girlfriend lying behind the seats in what was supposed to be room for two children...but it wasn't really.
God knows what would have happened if we had been pulled over by the police!!

G ; )
 
My first car was a 1971 Chevrolet Vega, dark green notchback with beige interior. Vegas did not last too long, as I don't think their aluminum engines proved to be very popular!
 
Mine was a 1971 GMC truck called ol' blue. It was rusted through so bad that we had a piece of plywood in the bed of the truck because there was not enough floor left to walk on. Ran great though, and as a 16yr old boy, I tested the durability of that old truck all the time :)
 
a 1972 austin 1100....dreadful dark plum colour...we called it the purple vomit, it was the worst car ever, always something wrong !!!
 
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