Vw Polo g40 only had it 3 months and wrote it off 🙁

It’s not an old car, and I doubt it will last as long as most of the cars on this thread….

But, our Freelander 2 has got us to that many places in Oz where guys in jacked up Landcruisers gawp and wonder whether it was airlifted in, I suspect I’ll miss it for the adventures it gives us to places where pretty much no other ‘softroader’ has ever been.

Back to old cars, I always wondered what happened to my first car – a MkV Escort TDI that was a lot faster than it looked. Wasn’t that reliable, but took lots of people and bikes like a rocket round snowdonia, and being my first car, that freedom it gave is memorable.

Insert a joyful but unreliable 306 that a motorway pileup put out of its misery, and a MkIII Mondeo I was very happy to see eBay retain its reputation for selling shit cars with when some poor sod took it off my hands for 2K, then you get me to my last UK car – my MkIV Golf GTI. It wasn’t particularly fast by GTI standards, but it was the best car I’ve owned. I did 40,000 in it from 60-100k without a fault (quite a novelty for my cars), and it got through the snow of January 2010 far better than any low-slung, wide-tyred car had a right to. If I’d known how much they’re worth over here, I’d have shipped it, 100K 10 years old and all to Oz. I sold it for 1300 pounds after we’d driven down to London to emigrate, and found out quite rapidly that similar would be $13000 here in Oz 😯

VW Scirocco GTii, red with black sports trim. I still want that car back…

I still regularly see my dads old T reg (1978) Volvo 244 which he sold about 30 years ago. Coincidentally it now lives on the road around the corner from my brother and is in daily use as far as I’m aware.

I learnt to drive in a Morris traveller, it was a really cool little car. The one I really miss though is my old Renault Clio 16v, really fun car. It was like driving a go kart.

B reg (prefix) Uno 70s. A hoot to drive fast. It did 5 months of Felixstowe to Cardiff without missing a beat. The first car I bought after getting married.
The MK2 Scirocco was good fun too. 1.8 mechanical injection engine with Jetex exhaust and K&N Filter were all I did under the bonnet. The suspension though went down 25mm and poly-bushes all round with a lower leg brace at the front. On a back road it was loads of fun. Only room for a transverse hunchback in the rear though so it went when the children got too big for their seats.
Replaced by MK2 Golf GTI which was excellent fun for 10 years. Still don’t know why I sold it!

Mk II Golf GTIs are nice but mine was just a CL. Bought in 98 a lhd french car for 500 quid from a dealer in Brum – went everywhere in it, to the alps to scotland summer and winter and never missed a beat. Was looking a bit tired when i sold it in 2004 for 400 quid but still going great. I would buy it back tommorow if i could find!Only sold it because boss at new job said it would be smart enough for visiting clients.

That’s what I said 0-60. I assume you’re taking the p1ss, but it was the fastest accelerating family car at the time, you probably aren’t old enough to comment in context to the time.

You assumed wrong…..and I am.

Passed my test in my grand dads Herald so that car has some nostalgia attached to it. I was an apprentice in a Triumph, Rover, Daimler, Land Rover and Jaguar dealership at the time.

Dad had a Triumph 1300 which I put 36,000mls on in my first year driving 🙄 That was a really nice car.

1st car I owned when I was 20 was a Hilman Imp Californian ie an Imp estate/hatchback. That car took us to the only F1 GP I have been to at Silverstone. We spent the weekend camping and had the luxury of a telly which came in handy.
It turned very wet and there were a few crashes. When the race was stopped to clear away the debris we retired to the car, plugged in the telly, turned the windows down a bit and got the best of both worlds. Warm, dry, watching and listening to turbo cars racing in the ping rain!! Sold at 90,000mls.

This was followed by a few do-er uppers which got moved on in a regular basis making a few ££££ as you do 😆

I then rescued a ’68 Cooper from a mate who had started to ba****dise it for an auto test car!! Took about a year to strip and restore. Magic motor.

This was replaced for a kiddy carrier ……… An Allegro, square steering wheel model. This car doubled up as my road rally car and those who sneered at it changed their minds when they couldn’t catch us!!! This car was bought from a mate who was working out of his granddads home garage, he now owns one of the largest Mazda, Kia, Jeep, Chrysler, Mitsubishi and other dealerships in S. Scotland and N.England…..

A few ordinary VWs followed and then we got a Mk2 Jetta 1.8TX which is close to being our best car. Had it for 7yrs and 150k.

The best car barr the Cooper and Jetta was our last car ’07 Touran, 2.0Tdi, 5yrs and 65k. Just did everything, bike carrier, load Luger, people carrie, wheel spinning fun against boy racers. Probably going to miss that motor a wee bit more than the others because of its versatility 😥

That car has been replaced by a Kia Sorrento for caravan towing and people carrying purposes but is not quite as flexible as the Touran in some ways.

everyday cars missed well
Mk1 Golf driver………built to last forever, we used as a dog car mtn biking and sold it to a builder who ran it till two years ago, so many electrical problems at one point taking fuse out to start and stop the wipers….intresting but all sorted when we cleered the leaves out of the tray under the bonnet!

MK2 Golfs GTI….several version. best with big bumper sunroof and bore exhaust…….oh so much fun

Current car Lupo TDI 02 ……silly silly fun, does 80 miles round work trip along Aroad/B road and motorway and is just great, makes me smile as i park admist the Range rovers, Merc ML and audis. Drives like a go kart or a nice car sublime.

I miss my old mk2 golf. Not quite your usual mk2, audi TT engine, motec management, Quaife gearbox and ATB diff.

317bhp and 357lb/ft in a golf weighing less than a tonne. Handled well with koni Coilovers, eibach anti roll bars, porsche brakes.

Lionheart, Citroen’s rock. I had an XM that I bought as a temporary car, I ran it for years and loved it’s character. The suspension had a sport setting which stiffened the suspension steering and brakes. It cornered as well as a mini. It was enormous inside, with limo legroom in the back.

Despite claims of unreliability mine only broke once when the clutch cable snapped. It was the only car I could drive from Fife to the south of France in one hit and still be able to walk afterwards.

I replaced it with a C5 estate that is just as endearing.

The Mothership.

[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6oOEBKvGf3g/Su06-PA0spI/AAAAAAAACWc/v4xpz7Ol9EM/s576/IMG_0067.JPG[/img]

I think that I must be the only person to hate their Mk2 Golf. Mine had the endearing habit of catching fire. The HT leads went up 3 times and the wiring in the dash burnt out too.

A horrible pile of junk.

Can’t honestly say I miss any of the old hot hatches I had in my yoof. Mk2 Big bumper Golf was nice. XR3i racked uup 164 seperate faults in 3 yrs. For the most part they were unreliable shit heaps, let’s be honest.I think momost folk used to the reliability of today’s cars would soon grow sick of running one nowadays.

If I could buy a single car from back then it would be a mk2 RS2000 Escort, with the nose cone etc. I’d never drive it, just sit in it, pretending to talk to Bodie & Cowley on the CB.

My first car was a 1975 Hillman Avenger. I’ll never forget my first trip in a car on my own. 🙂

I miss my 1850 Dolomite ,I couldnt afford a sprint .and my Renault 12 which would piss all over my mates mk 1 and 2 1300 Escorts when we were lads and it went round corners !

Subaru Loyale – cost $400 in 2005 and had about 300,000 miles on the clock, but served us well travelling 4000 miles around the USA & Canada.

I’ve tried really hard not to…. it’s all those pics of Golfs… I first bought this Mk 1 as an original GTi in 1993 as my everyday car, by 1998 I had developed it into this…

Even though I say so myself, it was consistently the fastest hillclimb and sprint fwd modified production car in the South and South West. When tested at TRL, it was the quickest 0 – 60 fwd car they had run at that time (4.3secs). The 1/4 mile wasn’t as good as it hit the rev limiter at 6700, or 108mph.

I could probably bore you with all the mods I did, including developing a fully programmable engine management with sawn up dellorto’s, uprated bushes, corner weighting, yadda yadda. If you’re interested, I’ll divulge! Suffice to say, I ended up chucking in my highly paid corporate career as I was spending more and more of my time tuning and setting up Mk 1 and Mk 2 Golf’s for people who wanted their road cars tweeked and tuned. Whilst I loved building performance engines, I really enjoyed suspension tuning the most, as it was so subjective as to how the driver liked their car to handle. I had loads of pics, but can’t seem to find them at the mo, quite a few magazine articles about the car too, in Cars and Car Conversions and Golf magazine…

I miss my Nissan Sylvia turbo it was a great car in its day and the pre requisite to the 200sx , unfortunately no pics of my C reg but it was in the same burnt orange colour as this

My Renault GTL, treat the accellerator like an on / off switch. Corners like a mad thing and out 2CVed the 2CV.

Other miss is the model 1 MR2. Looked like **** driving it but it was worth it.

ooh good thread. I had one of these as a company car

Turbo blew up, radio never worked, it would regularly just stop and sulk for a few hours. But I loved it, there was just something, well, french about it. Lent it to a workmate who drove it through a ford (water not car). Air scoop is underneath and that was the end of that.

My wife has a Nissan Primera hatch will was BRILLIANT. Made of of metal with the same stiffness as a tea tray but took us everywhere before we had kids.

ooh good thread. I had one of these as a company car

Turbo blew up, radio never worked, it would regularly just stop and sulk for a few hours. But I loved it, there was just something, well, french about it. Lent it to a workmate who drove it through a ford (water not car). Air scoop is underneath and that was the end of that.

Let me just stop you there.

1 – They never made one with a turbo
2 – The air scoop is not underneath, it’s on the airbox mounted high up in the engine bay, just like virtually every other car.

I’m a moderator on http://www.retro-renault.com and owner of a fair few of these cars over the years, including a ph2 saloon as you’ve pictured.

Here’s my current (and last) one, an early ph1 hatchback owned since 2005. Stripped to bare shell, all rust removed, resprayed and rebuilt with all new or reconditioned parts.

OOOOOOOH!

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

I never thought I’d say this but,

That’s a nice Renault 19 you’ve got there.

Another one that I miss is the plain old Citroen BX. Not even the cooking 16V model. I never actually owned one personally, but I learned to drive in my dad’s 1.7 TD and he had several others as well. The adjustable height suspension was cool and with it raised you could drive across a ploughed field and not notice. Tough as old boots.

Had some good times in those cars after passing my test 🙂

Well it was twenty years ago! I’m sure it had a turbo! Something blew up anyway and then it came back fixed, was driven through a ford and the nice bloke at the lease company said they’d written it off because it’d sucked water into the engine and ‘they all do that sir because of the air intake’. I’m definitely right about the radio tho 😉

The turbo blew up on my old x-trail unless someone can come along and tell me I’ve imagined that as well!

Turbo went on my mondeo whilst overtaking someone. They must have thought they were passed by 007 as I literally disappeared in a cloud of smoke, oil, and bits of metal! 😯

Lancia Delta HF Turbo
Fiat Supermirafura 2lts turbo twin OHC
They were fast but not fast enough coz the rust always caught up with them…..rust in peace..

1700 Puma. Mine was an early one , P-reg. Had it for 5 years and got rid via the scrappage scheme. It was shagged 🙁

This.. 2CV. My first company car. It was the best car I think I have ever owned (and I’ve owned many nice cars) I could take the rear seats out, open the roof and get my windsurfing stuff in it, I could also get my Klein Attitude in it wheels on. I adored this car. My mates hated it with a passion until it came to driving them/picking them up from somewhere. I once pulled up to Boardwise in Cannock where my mates had asked to be dropped off at the end of the road so they could not be seen in it, to be confronted at the door by the owner (rob??) at the time come out and proclaim it the coolest car he’d ever seen at his shop. Funny, my mates rather liked it from then on.
It was a hoot.

[/url] image by bikebouy, on Flickr[/img]

Nothing like as exotic as some on here, but I really liked the first decent car I bought. Was a 1994 Vauxhall Cavalier. Took us all over the place, and I sold it when I got a company Saab – just as the rust was starting to appear at 2 years old 😯 I think the Cavalier is still the quietest car on the motorway I’ve had (much quieter than the Saab I replaced it with). Just like this one.

Also miss my Saab 95 estate. I always wanted one, and for two years I had the car I wanted. Then it started to go wrong and I sold it for something soulless. Not my car, but this is the exact model. fast and comfy with a big boot.

kristoff – love that MK2. Was always a fan of the Rallye headlights, a proper “90s” mod.

I’ve had every version of the GTI apart from a MK2 – one day I will get an Oak Green 16v!

I still miss my MK1 with its 1800 16v conversion.

My dad was a car mechanic. At the time I dont think he owned a car, he just used to use whatever was available at the garage he worked at, so I got to see a fair few classics!

My first and much loved car was a 1979 1.6GL Capri in diamond white with black vinyl roof. I have many fond memories of this car. My GF at the time worked for a PR firm that had the Boddington’s account. She got all sorts of freebies; cans of ale, beer garden brollies, towels etc. One day she came home with some self adhesive stickers of the Boddies logo. They were about A2 size so I stuck one on the passenger and driver door of the Capri. We had a chortle driving around in the beermobile with Love Shack blasting out of the Pioneer speakers. One day we were driving back from Liverpool when the open sunroof came off its hinges and flew off behind us on the M62! I shat myself. Shame it turned to brown powder after about 2 years (EDIT: the car not my poo). My next car was a green Astra which I later found out was a rebuilt crash and burn write off. Thought I could smell burning.

slackalice – Member

Even though I say so myself, it was consistently the fastest hillclimb and sprint fwd modified production car in the South and South West. When tested at TRL, it was the quickest 0 – 60 fwd car they had run at that time (4.3secs). The 1/4 mile wasn’t as good as it hit the rev limiter at 6700, or 108mph.

Yeah, you know, I think some people’s definition of “everyday” is different to others 🙂 That’s damn nearly as fast as my everyday bike!

My Renault Clio 16V in dark blue was great to chuck around, a bit of handful in the wet as well. How I never wrapped it round a lampost or got pulled by the old bill, in 7 years I’ll never know.

On the other hand I had so many things that went wrong, and was over the moon to get a grand part exchange, I just wanted shot of it.

Now on my 2nd Golf GTI.

Biscuit Powered – Member
Let me just stop you there.

1 – They never made one with a turbo
2 – The air scoop is not underneath, it’s on the airbox mounted high up in the engine bay, just like virtually every other car.

You sure about that?

I think he might have fancifully put a picture of a 16v petrol R19 but my guess he had a diesel?
We had 4 reps lunch their 19 1.9 DT’s while driving through deep standing water.
The most impressive punched a dent up in the bonnet as the head separated due to static lock

Seeing as they’re amazingly popular with people on here, I contributed to one less cavalier on the road.

Bought for £350, driven to Le mans, written off by a friend in the night. Tried driving it but it crabbed so badly it was at 30° to the road to drive straight down it! Sold to some french gypsies for 20Euro to buy us breakfast, hitched a lift back with mates.

Legend of a car, pretty sad it went actually! The only turbo car there, gutless 1.7 diesel which was so slow!!!

What did ‘friend’ do to it?