This is a collection of the interesting(ish) points from what used to be a very popular set of pages on my personal website. The whole turns into a technical non-fiction article. I may add the pictures at some point. It’s more a tucked away on the web article.
My first car was a Vauxhall Chevette. It was a P reg, 1976 green hatchback. It was my mum’s boyfriend’s car. When he used to park it at ours I used to revel in how ugly it was, little did I know it would be mine. On the road the gearstick rattled like hell in 4th on the motorway (4th was top gear!) and the rain poured over your feet. The bottom fell out of the boot for the 2nd MOT, amazing it passed the first one I put it through. Still, it only broke down once. Not bad for the £50 I paid him for it.
My second car was a Ford Fiesta XR2 see the page here
So onwards I marched to the next mistake.
Following this I had a couple of horrid Fiestas and then a Peugeot 106 1.4 diesel. The 106 was to get to work as my ex-wife wanted to live in the country, about 1 hour 30 from work. The 106 was quite good, but far too noisy. I’d get home with thundering ears. The 106 was very quick on country roads. It also had a habit of spinning off the road if it hit ice. Very hairy.
My ex-wife and I separated in 2008.
Then I made another car mistake: after sometime without a car I bought a Citroen 2CV for £1000 on ebay. Previously I had bid on a white 2CV for £1200. I should have held out for that car and not decided to stop at my limit of £1200 as it was mechanically sound and had a galvanised chassis. My plan was to drive a 2CV around for a year and put it back on ebay for £1000 or so.
The 2CV I got was a yellow and black Charleston, a fairly rare colour. What it didn’t have was a galvanised chassis or very much in the way of mechanical work. I took it to a guy in Suffolk and said, change the wheel bearings. I got it back 6 months later fully mechanically restored and with a bill of £5 to £6k. Not what I wanted. I now realise I should have walked away from him and the car and not paid. He clearly wanted the car. I manged to get the money together with several credit cards. I just managed to pay it off before I left my job in 2011.
I took the 2CV to the International 2CV friends meeting in France. I thought I had bought a slow car, but the 2CV is not slow. The 600cc engine is really revvy and the body light, so they fly on A and B roads. The handling is great. Even on motorways it was quick for what it was. I intended not to boy race, but it was such fun to drive. I then had it stored by a friend for my return. Unfortunately I then sold it for just under £3000 (2014). What a silly mess.
The friend is mentioned in the conservation blog section of this website. While I didn’t mind the yellow and black colours, I did regret that about the car. It looked like “Brum” from children’s TV. My friend Eleanor owned a car called “Cookie” which she did a rally across Africa with. I drove that car for a bit and it was way more cool than Charlie, my 2CV. Funny enough, it was at 2CVGB that I first saw Eleanor and Cookie.
The yellow and black car did completely change my life. I’d have never met Eleanor, I’d have never gone to Indonesia, I’d not have got involved in the tortoise/turtle thing. I’d likely not have gone to university. University was motivated by two things that happened in the tortoise/turtle period.
After Indonesia I lived in Norwich and then London 2014-2018. I had no cars at that point.
2018 at the end of Uni my life changed again. I met my second wife while in London and we bought a Transit to move to Scotland.
Everything then on is diesel. A Transit 2.0 diesel, Vauxhall Movano 2.5 diesel, Ford Focus mk2 1.8 diesel, Peugeot 407 2.0 SW diesel, Mitsubishi L200 2.5 4WD diesel. We got a 4WD as the cars kept breaking in the Highlands of Scotland. These are all old and cheap, hence going through a lot. The 4WD broke and we got a 2017 Renault Captur.