XR2 was a fun little go-cart 🙂
To be fair the Mk 2 was a total blast to drive but made it an 80’s joyrider magnet
I had a Daihatsu... Think it was a 'Pony' (?)
We referred to it as Dobin.
To keep it from overheating you had to turn the heater on in summer.
You had to over rev it constantly for the first 5 minutes to stop it stalling. Sitting at a traffic light doing 3000rpm
Dobin went to the knacker's yard in the end
Probably a 1998 Vauxhall Vectra.
Never owned one, remembered Clarkson going on about how awful they were, and then my studio director got one as a temporary company car while he decided what to replace his Saab 900 Turbo with, and I found out just how horrible they were! It was the 1.6L, underpowered, seats like a church pew, I’d be wriggling around trying to get comfy 100 yards into a four hour drive to visit clients!
All my own cars were cheap, about £500, first two were split-screen Minors, second one had a 1300 engine in, with a mate we fitted new kingpins, huge front drums from a Wolesley 1500, reclining bucket seats, a van rear axle after I twisted the end off the rear half-shafts dropping the clutch a bit quick pulling out of a pub car park!
Had a Chevette, Sunbeam Talbot, Mk1 Opel Manta, and a Nova, none caused any real issues, apart from the Manta’s engine failing on the Severn Bridge on the way back from seeing U2 at Cardiff Arms Park. Couldn’t afford to get the engine fixed, and the floor was rusted through, so had to get rid. Shame, it was a beautiful car, and lovely to drive. The Nova I always treated gently, just in case, did about 5k miles a year, I fitted a set of SRi alloys I got cheap, had it about five years, before I bought my Puma. Couldn’t give it away, I was offered £50 for the wheels, then a lady down the road bought it for her son, for £125. Saw him a year later, he’d put 16k miles on it, with just an alternator needing replacing!
The worst car of all that I had to drive was a Lada, one of the Fiat 124 ones. Cheapskate boss bought a couple as company cars, they were dreadful! Steering wandered all over the place, gearbox was like a stick in thick porridge, trying to actually find a gear was a challenge, the brakes were wooden and ill-defined - you just kept pressing harder and harder, hoping it might show some sign of slowing, (not that it was very quick anyway).
Truly vile little shitboxes.
I guess I’ve been pretty lucky with my cheap bangers, even the Octavia lasted fifteen years with just consumables and a few bits and pieces to get through MOT’s, and never had a service...
Toyota GR Yaris, good riddance.
tell us more, given its only been out a short while
+1 to that
Would have been my first car, a £25 Singer Chamois (Hillman Imp) painted in primer grey.
It did however teach me a lot about handling with a car that would switch from dreadful understeer to full on oversteer within a few metres
Volkswagen golf,t reg so 98 model I think.I bought it in 05 I think.From a vw dealer in sheffield(ecclesall rd).I paid 4500 and thought it was great for about 6 months,every mot it failed on quite a bit of stuff and engine cut out every now and again randomly.About 3 years down the line the engine cutting out was getting bad,as in for my working commute which was sheffield to leeds at the time it was cutting out on the m1 probably 2-3 times a day,but as I was free rolling on inside lane and turning engine over it would start up again before getting to a standstill.i put up with this for ages as I was young and scint.My car sharing workmates didn't,and found it a bit scary at times!!
I bought it with about 60000 on the clock,and when I took it for it's last mot had done about 100000.we were taking bets how much to go through mot, generally coming in at around the 400 mark.Mechanic phoned me,and basically said that they had to stop the test because of the amount of burning oil fumes,was a complete write off,he also said it had been clocked and that all engine warning had been disconnected.When I got back in it was warning light central.With two weeks left on mot it went to we buy any car.
Toyota Avensis in 1999. ABS operated every time you touched the brake, you had to have the aircon on to get any demisting at all, handled like it had ball bearings for tyres and so underpowered. Fortunately I flew into Cardiff one evening and LeaseCo. phoned and said the Toyota had been sold so I could get my stuff out of it and take whatever I fancied from the Avis lot. Being Cardiff there wasn't much there but I drove away in one of the last 8-valve Mondeos - ugly as sin (the saloon with the Lancaster gun-turret light clusters) but a pleasure to be in. I was not digging the 16-valve-row-it-along-with-the-gearstick thing that was going on at the time with mid-range cars.
2017 X1 - all the toys, head-up display etc etc. Hideous crashy ride on all but smooth surfaces which let's face it you are never going to get much of in the UK. Massive wind noise from the wheel arches and all together an awful driving experience. Lasted 6 months before I got rid.
Beijing Jeep Wrangler clone. Lasted a few weeks.
2002 S3. Brilliant on paper, ridiculously quick, and once got me from Aberdeenshire to Bedfordshire in five hours without breaking a sweat. Utterly soulless, though, and plagued with ****ty little problems the whole time I had it. Had rust breaking through the paint a few months into my ownership when it was barely four years old. Got a full respray under warranty after a MASSIVE fight with Aberdeen Audi - twice, because they made a mess of the first one - and six months down the road it was blistering with rust pretty much everywhere. Absolutely fought with Audi for them to sort it or just refund me and they wouldn't do a thing. And because I'm stubborn I stuck with it. For 40k. Eventually sold it for two grand with sills that were peeling open. I'll never have another modern Audi again after that.
A 1982 Fiat Panda in 'Morrocan Gold' (AKA 'Poodle-sh1t Beige').
My first car. Awful awful awful nasty awful car. It had belonged to my boss' wife. He had been in the motor trade and - for her tenureship - had disconnected its odometer, so I had no idea of the true mileage or usage. It leaked somewhere, and the passenger footwell would regularly fill with water. I eventually drilled holes in it to let the water drain out by which time there was moss growing inside the window trim. At speed the carburettor would ice up meaning (obviously) the engine would cut out till it defrosted. It also cut out over bumpy ground due to shonky electrics - I remember a harrowing episode on the notoriously lumpy M27 when it cut out at 70mph and I had to coast to a standstill on the hard shoulder. Broke down in Queen Square in Bath in rush hour. Just wouldn't start. When the AA man arrived (much much later) it started no problem. Brakes overheated going down off the Gospel Pass into Hay on Wye. Scared the bejesus out of me that day engine-braking on a narrow mountainous road with 4 adults in it...
That car hated me.
Its a toss up between a 2007 audi s3 - the most boring fast car in the world, and a 1999 Fiat coupe 20v turbo - just an understeering load of rubbish
