First car, G795LLS 1.7L Volvo 340GL in Metallic Silver. No power steering but was rear wheel drive so made me smile when the back end came out but then wallowed for about 2 minutes once you'd gathered it all up. Also an appetite for Alternators. It needed it's fourth in 4 years when I traded it for a...
1.6L Mark 3 Escort. Possible my favourite of the early cars I had. M887YKB Felt overtired at the time even though it was only on 185's. Ended up burning through have the valves so got scrapped. Replaced with...
A FIAT Multipla. Yes they're ugly, the looks do grow on you. My first, and so far, only brand new car. As family transport at the time it Couldn't be beaten. SM51OSA. Relatively reliable but lots of little niggles which meant I was on first name terms with the service receptionist at the dealer. Got me from Edinburgh to Barcelona and back again in relative comfort. Ended up giving it back to the finance company as my wife and I split up and I couldn't afford to keep it. Replaced by...
Rover 214i. Decent car, one of the 'round' ones. Drove it into the ground really. Cambelt went at 97k and valves got intimate with Pistons. I never replaced it. Oops. Weirdly I can't remember the Reg of this one. P something... Then I got a....
Nissan Almera 1.4, T887YKB after my parents got a new car and the dealer offered them an insulting £250 trade in. By far the most reliable car I've ever had. Other than tyres and servicing nothing went wrong for 3 1/2 years and it sailed through every MOT. Written off when some doddery old fool pulled out in front of me and as good as T-boned me. At this point I decided my next car would have some go so I got a...
Peugeot 306 GTI-6. FANTASTIC motor, when it worked. Loved this, if only it was more reliable. S34GWH
Every 4-6 months something went wrong and a trip to the mechanic or MOT usually ended up with a 'that'll be..' and a 3-digit number starting with either a 3 or a 4 along with the clutch that was £800 and took nine hours apparently. coming from my faultless but ultimately dull Nissan it was a real shock. A real shame as it was by far the best car for thrills I've had so far. This was the car that epitomised the saying that French cars have dodgy electrics. When parents offered me £3k when one of their ISA's matured it was ebay'd (for £250!
) and replaced with a...
Seat Leon Cupra 1.8T 180. Completely remote and didn't handle anything like the GTI-6 and was a real step down in just about everything other than it was more reliable and did far better MPG. GL04UAF was written off after MOT brought about a cracked rear exhaust section, only available direct from SEAT or aftermarket at £400+VAT or more and half a dozen other bits and bobs which would have meant close to £1k repair costs. Relative reliable with mostly minor issues before that though. Now I have a..
Ford Focus Mk3 1.6Ecoboost 182. So far completely reliable other than an errant door seal under the passenger front door which was stuck on with double sided tape so obviously the previous owner knew about it. Last MOT in September before I bought it had rear brake pads so it's going in next week for those. Getting an average of around 36MPG according to Fuelio, the best of any car I've had so far. Modern Technology is fab!
It's definitely been a mix of fun-MPG-costs and really agrees with the old 'Fast/Reliable/cheap, pick two' adage.