Cars you miss

SouthpawMark

Was this site a Citroen owners club in a former life? 

djspecialist

Toyota MR2 Mk1 targa top

SNAKEBITE

Y Plate Sierra Mk1

Dropped a 2l big valve head pinto into it to replace the 1.6.

Replaced the brakes and suspension with those from a 2wd Cosworth, including LSD.

It went like shit off a shovel but ran out of puff at 120 (on the clock) due to the 4 speed gearbox, it could even out run the 205 gti at the time.

Sadly it fell foul of the ginger fairy dust.

proggy

SteveRobinson said:

My 1969 TR6, I rebuilt it ground up from a scrapper and ran it as a daily drive for 8 years. It's still on the road too, the third oldest in UK.

That's absolutely beautiful.

I used to have a TR7.

celentium

Do those of you who have put serious money into cars over the years ever regret it?

SouthpawMark

celentium said:

Do those of you who have put serious money into cars over the years ever regret it?

Yes. Well, the depreciation aspect of buying decent cars. The fun of driving nice/fast cars outweighs the financial stupidity though. 

ICBM

SouthpawMark said:

Was this site a Citroen owners club in a former life? 

Probably among the most commonly missed cars because they were quirky, fun to drive, and then fell apart .

Modern ones are more durable but a bit dull by comparison.

boogieman

I’ve had a few decent cars that I miss. The Jag XF we’ve not long got rid of was lovely...quick, extremely comfortable, well equipped and very economical considering how big a car it was. The reliability was the biggest issue though. I had a Rover P6 V8 that was nice too but 14mpg around town was the killer. Funnily enough the one I miss the most was an old geezer’s car: an early 80s Audi 100 saloon in metallic gold, with a brown draylon interior. It was fairly quick but it was actually more about the ride, it was just so comfortable, like wafting along in a giant overstuffed armchair. Shame the brakes packed up at 50mph one day 

ESBlonde

kaypeejay said:

Vauxhall viva. Maxed out at 60 mph, handled like a pig on stilts but got me and my mates everywhere we needed to get. They don’t make ‘em like that any more!

I had a gold Viva HC, the boot was huge and got me and gear all over the place reliably (for the period). Had the head skimmed and it fairly moved too, all without attracting the attention of the boys in blue because it was an old mans car.

I have two real favourites.

A SAAB 9000, 2Ltrs of torque with armchair comfort. You could go from 30 to 130 in 5th gear and drive 5 or more hours and get out feeling fresh. Very well engineered if you ever had to do any work on it, I changed a clutch and it was very nicely put together. It did 225,000 when I finally laid it up needing another clutch.

Also a Mitsubishi Shogun

A fantastic drive, commanding seating position. Massive capacity inside, with a roof rack and tow ball it could move huge amounts making holidays and camping expeditions fantastic. Off road capability, 7 seats to take the boys to footy and a reliable machine with a rigid ladder chassis that made it zip round the bends better than most family cars.

Sassafras

Bedford Rascal.
It's tiny size belied the fact it was like the Tardis. You could more or less pack the contents of a medium sized house in there but you could park it in the smallest of spaces.
Never really been interested in cars. I prefer bikes and vans.
I've yet to drive a car that's as much fun as a fast motorbike.

randella

Some really interesting replies here, I like the spirit of the answers too - it's never the fastest or most expensive car you've had access too.

Top stuff!

randella

ICBM said:

SouthpawMark said:

Was this site a Citroen owners club in a former life? 

Probably among the most commonly missed cars because they were quirky, fun to drive, and then fell apart .

Modern ones are more durable but a bit dull by comparison.

To be fair that AX survived to 150,000 with pretty sporadic servicing. It wasn't shown any great love by its drivers either!

Mark1960

I had a TR7 (screaming penis red) with a black factory fitted sunroof. Took it down to Devon and Cornwall one hot summer with the girl I eventually married. Happy days!

SteveRobinson

My TR was our "courting car" too. The day I finished the upholstery I took my then future wife on our first date, with the top down of course and a picnic behind the seats.

Sassafras

I quite miss the simplicity of my old bouncy Renault 4. There was very little on there that couldn't be fixed by the side of the road with a length of garden wire or duct tape. Drove all over France in it and it never let me down.

SouthpawMark

I just googled the Citroen AX, as I was struggling to picture it. According to Mr Wikipedia it weighed 640kg. How on earth is it possible to build a car that weighs 640kg? I can only assume the driver and passengers were used as crumple zones. 

ICBM

SouthpawMark said:

I just googled the Citroen AX, as I was struggling to picture it. According to Mr Wikipedia it weighed 640kg. How on earth is it possible to build a car that weighs 640kg? I can only assume the driver and passengers were used as crumple zones. 

Large parts of it were plastic.

I saw one on the road once that had been hit from behind by another car - I can only hope there had been no-one in the back of the AX because it had simply been shortened to the back of the front seats. The other car looked almost undamaged.

SteveRobinson

SouthpawMark said:

I just googled the Citroen AX, as I was struggling to picture it. According to Mr Wikipedia it weighed 640kg. How on earth is it possible to build a car that weighs 640kg? I can only assume the driver and passengers were used as crumple zones. 

I think that the BX had plastic bonnet and tailgate did the AX also use a lot of plastic? 

57Deluxe

my first car was a year old Honda Civic 1200 - was £1050 and ex demo and I learned to drive in it, lost my virginity in it and all round became a Man in it!. Sold it for £1280 as in the time I had it Honda became taken seriously! Boy it was bloody fast too...

fields5069

The only one I miss, and I wish I still had especially in light of the fact that it was a petrol hybrid, is the last company car I had - a Mercedes C350e. It had the Premium Plus stuff - electric this and that, etc.

But some dick drove into it when it was parked outside my house, and the "repair" was a work in progress shall we say, by the time I had to hand it back after resigning. The automatic boot open/close wouldn't always work, and they put the bloody steering wheel back on wonky - there was no pull, just a wonky wheel.

Petrol would have been good for me, given that I don't use my car for commuting or business use any more. Instead I have a C250d with very low miles but also with very few extras, and I did 2000 miles in it last year which isn't a great idea for a diesel.