Which Car Do You Remember with Affection from your Youth?

[slowmotion]

I hired one of them in 89 while in Ibiza..i really liked it.
Great fuel economy and drove like a little go cart

I bought mine in 1988. I was about to get married and my wife-to-be couldn't face the shame of having to drive away from the wedding with me as a passenger. I took some driving lessons and passed, by some miracle.

 

[colly]

That was my first car too, it was an orange one and cost me £100. The painwork was pretty good but the underside was rusted to feck.

Growing up my dad had a Riley 2.5 litre.

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Love those 'suicide doors'

 

[Jenkins]

When I was a child my dad used to but cheap cars with 6 months or so of MOT and then move them on when it ran out so we had a succession of Morris Minor saloons, Travellers and the A55 & A60 Austin Cambridges and badge engineered Morris Oxfords like this which I loved...

When my parents divorced, mum couldn't afford to run a car, but it didn't stop me being a petrol head and thinking that the Aston Martin Lagonda was one of the best things that ever happened on 4 wheels - I even went to one of the Earls Court motor shows just to see one...

Unfortunately finances dictated that when I passed my test and could get my own car it was a Hillman Hunter

 

[Nigeyy]

Wow, what a blast from the past! The Austin 1800.... memories of family holidays in the late 70's to Wales and the West Country with a white 1800. I remember being on a dual carriageway -my father at the wheel -with my brother and sister in the back unencumbered by seatbelts waving at a lorry driver as we overtook it with 90mph indicated!

Of course everything is bigger or a longer way when you are a kid, but I recall it was quite roomy in the back. Mind you, it was an absolute classically practical, unexciting and unsexy car if ever there has been one. A real product for an older, married with kids, kind of person (workhorse is a very apt description!). I can't remember my dad ever having issues with it either -but I think body rot was the big problem and ultimately doomed it.

I had an automatic Austin 1800 in 1979 - was a brilliant roomy workhorse.
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[Jason]

Ford Escort mkII harrier with quarter bumpers

 

[Grant Fondo]

Lotus Esprit my first boss had. It was white, the roof was level with my knees and I bloody loved it. He never drove it as it needed a gearbox rebuild, so it sat at his farm garage next to an older Europa, hey ho.

 

[snorri]

The vehicle in the photo is very similar in appearance to the Hillman Minx bought new by my father in 1953 and sold on around 1964/65. The two tone colour scheme was the latest gimmick then. Built during a period when British cars were built to last, before the era of rust perforation after 18 months. It had a bench seat with column change and was the car I passed my test in. It was used five days a week for work and usually at weekends for leisure use. For holidays it travelled from Dunnet Head to Scarborough and just about everywhere in between.

 

[swee'pea99]

When I hitched round the whole of NZ back in the mid '80s you could spend a long time walking, waiting for a car - any car - to appear. The hit rate was pretty good - kiwis are friendly & fearless folk - but there was one vehicle every hitcher loved to find 'going my way'...

Kombi = lift! Every time.

 

[gavroche]

Poppa had one of these. Every holiday at the grandparents meant trips to the pub in this View attachment 390368

I remember having one of them. Kept it for 3 weeks only as it was burning more oil than petrol. Made a profit on it when I sold it though. The year was 1969.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

My first car was a Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL. Half the electrics and panel lights didn't work. It ended up with a Land Rover carburettor, and so much filler covered by Halfords red paint that if it ever hit anything, people within 200 yards would get shrapnel injuries.
I rebuilt the cylinder head on my Mum's kitchen floor, and had to change drive shaft gaiters at every MOT.
It was ace!

 

[MikeG]

Not quite my youth, but my early 30s. I drove the length of Africa in an 18 year old HJ60 Toyota Landcruiser. It was magnificent:

 

[Levo-Lon]

I remember having one of them. Kept it for 3 weeks only as it was burning more oil than petrol. Made a profit on it when I sold it though. The year was 1969.

Dad had 3 of them..yes they tended to get a bit hot.
Shame as they were a roomy practical small car.

The mini vans he had were fun..as was the traveller.
Best Dad car memory was a Rover v8 p5 in midnight blue..fabulous car.
Peterborough to Pontefract in an hour..100 miles!!! In the early 70s. No seat belts worn !!!!!

 

[Levo-Lon]

Not quite my youth, but my early 30s. I drove the length of Africa in an 18 year old HJ60 Toyota Landcruiser. It was magnificent:

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What a memory..great off road car

 

[Dirk]

I bought a Renault 16 TL in 1985 for £200 and ran it for a couple of years. Bench front seat, column change and torsion bar suspension. Lovely comfy ride. Very underrated and practical car. Mine was the same colour as this.

 

[Drago]

Rover P6 V8. The British Citroen DS. Futuristic styling, though brawny rather than elegant. Futuristic, comfortable, fast, good handling. And then came the B and the V8. Problem keeping up with bank robbers in Jags, Sir? Then the P6B V8 is just what you need. If you were hard as nails, yet sophisticated and on the side of the good guys, you drove a P6 V8. It was the Lewis Collins of motoring.

I adored them, and in '97 I finally acquired a 1971 P6B V8 in almond, just like the one in the pic. Such comfort, such style, 14 to the gallon. Sadly sold in 2002 to pay my divorce solicitors bill, and sadly missed. I may yet have another.