Your First Car

[JVL]

Austin Allegro - not sure what year, but I guess it was a later model as it didn't have the fabled square steering wheel. Bought that off the small adds for 150 quid when I was learning to drive but it didn't last very long: I was on my way back from Uxbridge (had driven there to post off my provisional license back to DVLA) and pulled to a halt at a red light. Looked in my mirror and saw the lady behind me wasn't slowing down, then saw the shock on her face as she crunched into the back of the Allegro. Bugger. Was a write-off... and as I was only officially on the road with it for one day, it's never really counted as my first car.

This is because I replaced it with a Vauxhall Chevette shortly afterwards, purchased for the princely sum of 80 quid from my Nan's friend Alf. He had only ever really used to to drive the post office and the barber, and now that he was getting on a bit, he had decided to ditch the car altogether. What a great car that was, it had the racing stripes down the side and although it was only a 1.2l engine, the low ride and the lightness of the car made it feel like you were rocketing along on the drives to St Andrews and back. Got just over 80mph out of it somewhere on a long downward slope on the A1 heading north and it survived a number of close shaves before finally expiring in the woods somewhere near St Albans. There was an old Chevette up for sale near where we used to live in Germany, I would have tried to buy that had we not been in the throes of moving over here...

[Kevin S]

I'm annoyed that I can't remember the three numbers in my first car's registration. You can see what became of your old cars on https://www.regit.cars I think.

It was a 1989 grey Citroen AX 10RE, which I got in 2000 and had for a couple of years. Lovely little car to start off in, great visibility, no rust, four gears and four doors (very useful for mates - took a couple of friends to Leicester in it once which was 70 miles each way but felt like the most amazing thing I'd done at the time. And I even took it up to uni in my second year, driving myself up the A1 for a few hours.

Reliability-wise it was quite cheap - one exhaust and gear linkage were the only things that needed replacing IIRC. Dad paid £850 for it and I was allowed to keep the £300 I got for it a couple of years later. The grey was a nice choice too, as it looked like I had colour-keyed mirrors and bumpers.

In 18 years I've had 8 cars.

2000-02: 1989 Citroen AX 10RE (grey)
2002-04: 1997 Ford Escort LX 1.6 (aubergine)
2004-07: 2004 Renault Clio dynamique 1.2 (blue)
2007-09: 2007 Renault Megane extreme 1.4 (black)
2009-10: 1999 Daihatsu Cuore 1.0 (green)
2010-11: 2001 Vauxhall Astra something 1.7 diesel (white)
2011-17: 2005 Nissan Almera Tino SE 1.6 (grey)
2017- : 2010 Renault Scenic something 1.6 (black)

Actively looking for a replacement MPV style car with a bigger boot than the Scenic (but not the Grand Scenic), Tossing up between a Kia Carens and Citroen Grand Picasso. Before you mention it, the Zafira is out of the question - the Astra put us off Vauxhalls for life.

My wife's first car was the Cuore, which she had from 2005-09, when it was crashed into. We thought it would be written off and went and bought a 2004 Fiat Panda for her. Then the garage phoned up and told us the Daihatsu was ready to collect. Since we didn't have children at that point, a couple of small cars were fine and we decided to cancel the PCP on my Megane and I kept the Cuore until it was killed by rust the following year. My wife had her Panda until 2011 when we went to one shared car, the Tino. We went back to two cars a couple of years ago and she got her current car, a 2012 Nissan Note.

[nmrfox]

1971 Ford Escort 1100 purchased in 1982 for £250. It was a deep blue, someone had put slightly larger rear springs on it, so the back was slightly jacked up (by about 2 inches) and the horn was two notes and sounded asthmatic. Registration - you never forget your first car - was BBC 613K.

Sold it a couple of years later for the same price and brought my Grandads Austen Allegro. It was a 1500 and yes, it had the square steering wheel, along with a gear ratio that was like stirring soup. Registration JAJ 831N.

I didn't need to look those up, but for every car that I've owned, I've kept 1 MOT certificate as a keepsake.

[WOM]

When we were clearing out my folks' place earlier this year, I found - in dad's bedside table - the sales brochure for every car he'd owned since 1967. Little 'lump in the throat' moment there.

[Incandenza]

1992 Toyota Corolla. I got it after my grandmother passed away, she barely used it (my uncle who borrowed it a lot drove it more than her). I got it in 1999, and it had only 8,000 miles on it. No power windows or doors, but the dealership did talk her into getting one with a spoiler and gold Toyota detailing, though.

[blameless]

1987 Fiat Uno, which I inherited from my grandfather when I was 18.

It was a slow, slab-sided, rattling box on wheels, but in a country as poorly served by public transport as Scotland was (and is), it represented undreamed-of freedom.

As I was young and very skint, I learned a lot about how to fix knackered exhausts, swap the wheels around so the tyres wore out evenly, carry out aftermarker rustproofing (ah, the joys of Rust Converter!) and - in the days before most UK businesses had even heard of the term "risk assessment" - clamber over wrecks in the local scrapyard to source replacement parts.

[Sporting]

[QUOTE=nmrfox;1488582] Registration - you never forget your first car - was BBC 613K.

I forget.

[Kevin S]

1987 Fiat Uno, which I inherited from my grandfather when I was 18.

It was a slow, slab-sided, rattling box on wheels, but in a country as poorly served by public transport as Scotland was (and is), it represented undreamed-of freedom.

As I was young and very skint, I learned a lot about how to fix knackered exhausts, swap the wheels around so the tyres wore out evenly, carry out aftermarker rustproofing (ah, the joys of Rust Converter!) and - in the days before most UK businesses had even heard of the term "risk assessment" - clamber over wrecks in the local scrapyard to source replacement parts.

Ah, that last bit reminds me - I got an interior clock for my Citroen AX by getting one out of a scrapped higher-trim car at the local yard. That and a new rear light cluster without a massive crack in it.

But I was definitely not skilled - and still am not, to my shame - in maintenance, Dad and grandad did all that for me...

[ursus arctos]

Any USian who recalls any of his or her (non-personalised) license plate numbers would be considered quite strange.

[WOM]

in the days before most UK businesses had even heard of the term "risk assessment" - clamber over wrecks in the local scrapyard to source replacement parts.

Haha. When my mate Ian and I used to comb the scrap yard for his '72 Olds Cutlass, we bumped into our high school English teacher. He asked what we were 'getting', and we pulled two windshield wiper arms out of our coat sleeves. We asked him and he pulled a pair of seatbelt retractors out of his very deep coat pockets. It's a wonder they didn't just weigh people going in and coming out.

[sw2borshch]

ursus, give us some context, please? I can remember the plates of relatives & friends cars, work pool cars also - easier to find them in car parks - and have memorised a fair few members of the public's through work too.

[Gangster Octopus]

As my image on the last thread seems to have vanished, here's a Honda Z600.

[sw2borshch]

However, although I could tell you the make of a lot of those cars, I wouldn't have a clue re the model.

[ursus arctos]

They change periodically, every year in some states, rarely more than two or three years.

The assigned combinations are also random, and don't have the internal logic that registrations in other countries have.

[sw2borshch]

Really? Ah, ok. So you never have the pleasure of seeing a car that you used to bez about in now being driven by its new owner and knowing it to be so because you recognise the reg, then.

[Benjm]

As my image on the last thread seems to have vanished, here's a Honda Z600.

Whoa, that looks fantastic!

And one could still be my first car.

[WOM]

Really? Ah, ok. So you never have the pleasure of seeing a car that you used to bez about in now being driven by its new owner and knowing it to be so because you recognise the reg, then.

Hells no. In fact, I didn't even know that was the case in the UK. So the reg stays with the vehicle throughout its life, then.

[sw2borshch]

It does, unless someone puts private plates on. So occasionally you get a, 'hey, there's our/Bubblehead's old car!' momemnt, which is second only to seeing a car going past with a dog sticking its head out of the window with its tongue all lolling around.

[Incandenza]

They change periodically, every year in some states, rarely more than two or three years.

The assigned combinations are also random, and don't have the internal logic that registrations in other countries have.

Wait, you mean the whole entire license plate number? I have never heard of that. Not how we do it in California.

I can never remember my license plate number, but that's just because I'm bad with memorizing things like that. I do remember that my first car's plate was 3FKR something...I just remember the letter combo for obvious reasons. My car now (bought in 2016) starts with 7...not sure how often California moves on to new numbers, or what the logic is.

[MsD]

I would like a nice car, with nice comfy seats and maybe something sparkly, like a glitter dashboard. I can’t drive, but just putting the wish out into the universe.

[sw2borshch]

Bloody hell, I've just noticed that it's now over ten years since I joined here! You too, MsD.

[Toby Gymshorts]

August 2008 for me, so you two kids should get off my bloody lawn.

[WOM]

I think everyone defaulted to 2008 regardless. It was probably when we switched boards. I was 2005 on the old board.

[San Bernardhinault]

I know the license on the car my parents bought when I was about 10, which was the first car I remember coming into my life. But I don't remember any of my own license plates, even my current ones.

I apparently don't even remember the age of my cars, because I had to edit my post on the previous page to make it consistent with the car on the thread that Fussbudget linked to.

[Ray de Galles]

2001 Ford Maverick (known as the Escape in the USA) mid-size SUV thing. Bought prior to our first child being born, though I didn't get to drive it until 2003 when, with the deadline of the second child's birth imminent, I finally managed to pass my test at the third attempt aged 34.

We had it until 2008 when we had to upgrade as by then a third child had come along. I sold it to my dad who had always coveted it (apparently the engine was really good, I wouldn't know) who ran it for three years or so until it got too expensive for him to insure and by which time we realised we needed a second car so I did a deal with him to take it back.

We kept it until 2016 when we bought a new main car and relegated the 2008 purchase to the second car. I had some romantic dream that it could be kept for our children to learn on but was persuaded that a 15 year old automatic (I'm not qualified to drive anything else) SUV wasn't best suited to that purpose.

We got £500 for her (she was named Rosie after the RO51 prefix on the number plate. Everyone else names their cars based on the number plate, yes?) and I still miss her and wonder where she's ended up, even though (as you can probably tell) I'm not much in to cars.