Other cars you've owned - Show and Tell

I have some pictures of that one but I couldnt upload. It was a thing of beauty by the end

Ooh, I could well be up for MITP, Jasper doesnt get the outings he deserves

Part 2:


Oo-er, check out that arch gap!

This was the first car I bought with my own money, about a year or so after I arrived in the UK in 2002. It was a Renault 19 1.4, and I paid the princely sum of £300 for it. It should have been the dullest, most boring car I ever owned, but for some reason I still remember it fondly today. I think it was a combination of the sense of freedom it represented, the fact that I learned to spanner on it, the fact that I was the only one of my friends with a car, and the fact that it was an absolute trooper.

I owned it for about 5 years and in that time I traveled nearly 80,000 miles in it. I was not exactly great on servicing or looking after it (a combination of no money and no skills), and yet in all those miles, the only thing that ever went wrong was a snapped auxiliary belt.

It had a single-cam carburetor engine with a mighty 59 HP, but it was relatively nippy (compared to my Beetle anyway) and very comfortable. It also had a manual choke which unintentionally doubled as an immobiliser, because you had to hold it in one specific position when starting the car otherwise it would just stall again immediately.

That trusty car was with me through four house moves, four jobs and three girlfriends. I taught two of my friends to drive in it, and took it on countless road trips all over the UK, including multiple journeys to Scotland and Wales, Cornwall, York and Cambridge, among many others.



Eventually though, it was the inevitable rust that killed it, combined with the fact that I was by then a poor student and couldn't even afford the cost of an MOT test, let alone the repairs that would have been needed to pass it. My last memory of it was watching it being loaded sadly onto a flatbed truck, engine still purring away sweetly, to be taken off and crushed.  RIP little Renault.

Probably the best car I've ever owned. Would spank an E39 325i or Golf GTI while carrying a bookcase.

Dog prarrie canoe brown too

Here's another one that I really loved: My Nissan 100NX. My family always had Datsuns and Nissans when I was growing up, so I guess I was kinda based towards them, but this was my first taste of owning my own Japanese car.



Widely criticized by pretty much everyone including Jeremy Clarkson, the 100NX was basically a Nissan Sunny in a party frock. It was derided as being bland, unappealing and butt ugly. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I will admit the styling was... well... unique. But from the right angles, I reckon it was actually quite an appealing little coupe, especially on a sunny day with the roof panels removed.

It had a 1.6l twin-cam engine which punched out about 105hp, so it wasn't exactly rapid. Mainland Europe got a version with the much more gutsy SR20DE 2.0l engine (which also went into the 200ZX). Apparently these are a real little pocket rocket, given that the curb weight is fairly low. Sadly this engine never made it into the 100NX in the UK for some reason.

Anyway, despite all the negative press, covfefe. I loved it. Ok, so it wasn't fast, but it loved to rev right up to the red line, and had a satisfying growl when you put your foot down. The gearshift was smooth as warm butter and it was pretty comfortable on long journeys too. It was great on sunny days with the roof off, and in fact it actually handled a little better like this too, since the roof panels were quite heavy and taking them off lowered the center of gravity! In true Japanese style it was also wonderfully reliable. I looked after it and serviced it regularly, and in the 4 years I owned it I never had any major mechanical problems.

Perhaps I would have kept it to this day (which would have been quite cool given that they are nearly impossible to find in good condition now), but sadly I was rear-ended by a dozy woman in a Rover who turned out of a side road and failed to see me stopped at a pedestrian crossing in front of her. The damage wasn't excessive, but the insurance company refused to cover the repairs, so in the end I took the payout and sold the car as a write-off.

I still miss it though.

VOLVO S80 2.5 SE

This thing cost me £200 quid because it had an electrical fault, I fixed it for £135 and drove it until something else broke, then I scrapped it for £200. I bought it because I'd broken my ankle and for obvious reasons couldn't drive a manual car.

2.5 5cylinder 170bhp ish. It was quite fast.

5 spd auto box was very good

Full leather and all the toys, none of them worked. One day in the summer the heated seats came on and didn't turn off again.

Great car, got me mobile while I was sat on my rear canoe signed off work.

Skoda Felicia Estate 1.3
(Picture isn't mine)

My second car after my first one caught fire after changing the carb.

Not sure why a 19year old would want one of these, but it was great. Virtually indestructible, I took it to Carlisle with my Ex and it was the most horrid noisy slow journey ever. At some point during the 2010 World Cup I decked it out with a massive england flag over the rear window and four smaller flags on sticks. And a magnetic england badge. It was hilarious.

I have no doubt this is still alive somewhere in its eastern European homeland, it cost me about £400 And I sold it for £500 to some dodgy East end car dealer type who only dealt in cars under £500.