Cars

Buying and Selling
71

My first car was a white Mk1 Astra GTE
That i then wrote off at 20mph
Then 2 novas
1 Mk 2 golf driver - the snail , gladly crashed
A JDM import Honda crx si-R - rolled that after 3 months . Fucking idiot , still regret that as it could be worth £10k today and paid £2.5k in 2003.
A Uk Honda 1992 crx V-tec - still got that in a garage and needs a whole restoration because of rust
A Volvo 360 glt saloon 1989 - still got but need to sell.
A mk 3 MR2 roadster - still got

And my work horse 1989 merc estate 230 TE . Fucking love this car it’s a tank. It goes and goes . Use it for work and throw anything in it without giving a fuck .
I paid £50 for it 5 years ago as it was due to fail it’s MOT but managed to fix it for £100 instead of an £800 hydraulic overhaul, which the owner didn’t want to pay for and were going to scrap it.

I love old cars because you can fix them relatively easily. Less electronics, ecu’s , management systems etc.

I wince at paying thousands for a car you throw thousands more at to keep running then lose 60/70 % of what you paid out when you sell it.

I can’t even bear to fork out £4/5k for one I’m going to have to get for the ULEZ scheme next year, but need a euro 4 and its got to be an estate .

Probably the Honda Odyssey import,

1 Like
72

My first car was a BROWN Vauxhall Nova Saloon complete with manual choke and four gears… Criminal.

3 Likes
73

Fucking hens teeth were those . I love how the steering wheel wasn’t actually central to the driver . So weird.

1 Like
74

Oh shit! I forgot about that haha

1 Like
75

Used to import cars from Japan and take a load of different ones in as part exchange. So have driven at least 2000 different Mazda mx5s in my life, and maybe had 20 or 30 as daily drivers. Also briefly had skylines, imprezas, rx7s, rx8s, legacys, stageas, 911, mental stuff. Worst was probably an MG or Smart car.

Absolute favourite was a facelift MK1 Impreza. Here are some

[Album] Cars
2 Likes
76

The 225 was the BAM from the TT and Cupra, they tend to get lifted and rammed in mk1 & mk2 golfs/ caddies/ rado’s all of which I’m guilty of. There was ten states of tune off the shelf from 150 to 240 depending on what they were intended for. Lean manufacturing stroke of genius really, considering it was originally designed for a 400+ F3/ FPA car series, it’s still used in Formula 2 if you’re that way inclined.

1 Like
77

Lovely car. Had the old coupe version bought specifically for the London to Margate traipse before house fell through and sold it before the Estonia move. Big whale of a thing. Seat was really uncomfortable though. Dirt cheap as well, like any big German 2nd hand car, a lot of car for the money.

1 Like
78

How old can you go with Euro 4, is there a cap of sorts?

Leave mk2’s alone haha

79

It’s 2004 for petrol unless it’s a jap car that is Euro 4 before 2004 . The Japanese were ahead of the game so my 2003 MR2 passes because of the dual catalytic converter

The only good mk2 golf was the gti 16v . That shifted . I had a 1.6 carb engine that couldn’t get up to 80mph and the carburettor would freeze open in winter on the motorway which meant it would cut out and die . Not good when you have lorries behind you.

80

A friend of mine had one of those as his first car too.
Could unlock it with a 5 pence piece.

1 Like
81

Think that was the case for every car made in the 80’s . My nova was stolen the only night I didn’t put the alarm on. Typical.

82

One night I was round someone’s house.
He owned an astra, can’t remember the model number.
We heard his car alarm go off, he reached for his keys, pointed towards the window and switched off the alarm.
Hours later we went out to leave and his car door was open, stereo was gone.
We reckon he’d turned the alarm off for the thieves.

1 Like
83

Fuck lol when people actually stole car stereos. My merc had a pull out unit , the whole fucking thing. Reminded me of 80’s briefcase mobile phones .

1 Like
84

Apart from the g60/ rallye, I’ve had a fairly breathed on one for donkeys, most reliable thing I’ve used.

ULEZ seems daft on a lot of vehicles, pity an old 300e wagon or similar doesn’t sit in it.

85

The ignition barrel on my mini is fucked. You can start it and pull the key out. And all locks have different keys hit could all be probably opened by a butter knife I think. Someone did break into it and tried to go joy riding I think. They slashed my britax sunroof. Took me a year to find a replacement.

86

Aye the g60 was rad but rare.

87

Those Sera are class. Don’t think I’ve seen one in the UK before.

The last one is more my area, although less plastic nonsense and it’s the right way up.

88

G-limited is the rarest now, demanding very silly money if not the equivalent to what it was in DM at the time.

89

Mark who I worked with at Non Stop had a really nice one of those.
His pride and joy.
He knows too much about that particular model of car.

91

I liked my Driver. Wouldn’t want one now, but it was fast enough for young me. Did suffer from carb icing though, I’d forgotten about that. Once drove it through a flood, it stalledwith water coming over the bonnet and I thought that was it… But somehow it restarted and got me home. Had to whack the starter periodically to dislodge the rust until I got round to replacing it.

There’s at least one 1.3 CL round here tarted up to look like a GTi.

1 Like