Your first car

Passed my test 2005 aged 17, went straight to Penryn car auction the same evening and bought a 1994 Renault Clio for £90 with 6 months mot. It lasted 3 months and the head gasket went, i put it back through the auctions with blown head gasket and sold for £175!

ChiefPlanner said:

My neighbour across the road restores mini's to keep his sanity - especially during lockdown - he has 3 in "Italian Job" livery which in normal times were used for photo shoots etc. He has ample garaging.

My only concern in buying "Martin" my first mini was sill corrossion / rust - but I got one of the C+W blokes to check it over , before purchase , and he gave it the OK. I miss that car

Click to expand...

My first car was a 14 year old 1972 Mini 850 in Harvest Gold. It would have had 33bhp out of the factory. When I had it, it was quite a bit less than that. I only used it for about 6 months, but clocked up more mechanical failures in that time than the rest of my cars put together. It wasn't all bad. I found a bucket seat abandoned in a supermarket car park, which had metal rings, like the seats in a Ford GT40.

The points used to wander out of adjustment all the time. One time the plastic bit on the points that runs on the cam of the distributor melted and I ground to a halt on a country road. At the nearest house, the guy happened to have a jar with a used points for an Austin 1800 which worked well enough to get me home.

The head gasket blew on the motorway, on my way back to University. My dad came by and helped me repair it. We were nearly finished, and I asked how hard I should tighten a bolt for the water pipe. My Dad said to lean on it. I did and the stud broke off. I eventually got the stud out after a couple of weeks of soaking it with oil, whacking it with a hammer, and using an adjustable spanner on the remains of the stud.

Butts said:

Passed my test second time in 1981.

1st Car a Triumph Dolomite 1850 - "OLD" L Reg.

Click to expand...

Owned one of those but one year older than yours - a K reg.
Passed my test way back in 1970 at the age of 17 and bought my first car a few days later. A 1964 Hillman Imp. No year letter as although they had been introduced in 1963, universal adoption took a couple of years.

A 1994M reg Fiesta 1.3 Equipe that I was given by my gran when she gave up driving in 2006. The Equipe was a special edition based on the 1.3LX, basically the difference was it had power assisted steering and different wheel trims unique to thar model.

1997 Peugeot 106 XN bought new a month after my 18th birthday. Lasted me 11 years and 156,000 miles before an engine leak which was too costly to repair. Traded on for my current car and got £50 for it! Worse bit was the front tyres were only six months old
Replacement car, a 2008 Vauxhall Astra, still going strong at 13 years but lower usage means that's only done 107,000

Passed my test in 1965 on a B-reg Austin 1100 aged 17 but didn't buy a car till 1966, a Standrive fitted 1956 Standard 10. Still a student so I sold it a year later. Next was a 1959 Morris Minor 1000. After that was scrapped with a disintegrated chassis, I had an absolutely dreadful 1972 K reg Mk.1 Escort in 1975. Then on to Fiestas while I occasionally drove LT's mileage wheel fitted Mk.1 Cortina, I bought a 3-year old J reg Metro which I somehow got an indicated 95mph out of. About 2006 I got a S reg Corsa - a lovely car. Now have a 2005 Fiesta, which is quite enough for my limited mileage now.
Incidentally the Standrive arrangement worked perfectly, but when I looked under it when I sold it, the rubber in the operating air cylinder was split from end to end! Still worked well.

What a great thread. Some fabulous history!

I passed my test exactly 8 weeks after my 17th birthday, having been driving for, ahem, 4 years.

First car, a little over a year later, was a 1985 Fiat Uno 70 ‘Super’. Cost £2000, which I’d saved for about a decade. I was actually saving for a Golf GTi, but apparently that wouldn’t have been a good idea, according to my parents (who I ignored) and the insurance company (who I didn’t).

The Uno was a great car, went like a rocket. Electric windows. Sunroof. Central locking. Trip computer. Some of them even worked. I must have fixed everything on that car, including endless tin worm. I even broke the gear linkages one morning en route to Burnden Park, fixed them with cable ties and got all the way there and back (about 200 miles) only changing gear 4 times.

I probably didn’t help matters. The Monday after I bought it, me and three mates bunked off maths to take it on our test circuit - a route that anyone with a ‘new’ car had to take. 0-60 in 8.5 seconds (possibly gravity assisted), and an indicated top speed that would now be described as ‘reckless’, but back then was simply ‘reckless’. Took it to the garage the next day for a service - no gearbox oil


Insurance as an 18 year old was about £350 TP, F&T. That’s about £1000 now.

I passed my test in 2001 (20 years back, yikes!).

My first car was a navy blue M registered three door Ford Fiesta, which was an automatic former Motability car. Purchased at an auction for £200. It was a great wee car but died around 18 months later when underbody corrosion caused an MOT failure at more cost than the car was worth.

Bald Rick said:

What a great thread. Some fabulous history!

I passed my test exactly 8 weeks after my 17th birthday, having been driving for, ahem, 4 years.

First car, a little over a year later, was a 1985 Fiat Uno 70 ‘Super’. Cost £2000, which I’d saved for about a decade. I was actually saving for a Golf GTi, but apparently that wouldn’t have been a good idea, according to my parents (who I ignored) and the insurance company (who I didn’t).

The Uno was a great car, went like a rocket. Electric windows. Sunroof. Central locking. Trip computer. Some of them even worked. I must have fixed everything on that car, including endless tin worm. I even broke the gear linkages one morning en route to Burnden Park, fixed them with cable ties and got all the way there and back (about 200 miles) only changing gear 4 times.

I probably didn’t help matters. The Monday after I bought it, me and three mates bunked off maths to take it on our test circuit - a route that anyone with a ‘new’ car had to take. 0-60 in 8.5 seconds (possibly gravity assisted), and an indicated top speed that would now be described as ‘reckless’, but back then was simply ‘reckless’. Took it to the garage the next day for a service - no gearbox oil


Insurance as an 18 year old was about £350 TP, F&T. That’s about £1000 now.

Click to expand...

Sounds fun! Cars nowadays tend to be much more reliable and well built, even the cheap old cars that many young people buy.
Your insurance cost seems quite reasonable in a modern context. Although would I be right in thinking that a black box might have gone into meltdown had you had to be fitted? Luckily I managed to find insurance for around £800 (last year) with no black box. And a very reasonable £330 this year!

Red Onion said:

I passed my test in 2001 (20 years back, yikes!).

My first car was a navy blue M registered three door Ford Fiesta, which was an automatic former Motability car. Purchased at an auction for £200. It was a great wee car but died around 18 months later when underbody corrosion caused an MOT failure at more cost than the car was worth.

Click to expand...

Interesting you mention Motability cars - my third car (unless you count a Land Rover Series 3 I had as a second car for a few months until the engine blew up) was a Vectra 1.8SRi estate, a proper big, heavy thing but very practical and nice to drive, I got it about 2.5 years old (so a bit of warranty left, though I never had a problem with it) but with only about 12000 miles on the clock. If you read through the service history, it turns out it was a Motability car with a very sad history - about 8000 miles in the first year, about 3500 in the second year and about 500 in the third, which I guess was telling a story of deteriorating health of its former owner

For me the upside was that I had basically bought a brand new car for the fraction of the price of an actually brand new one - 12000 miles is barely broken in.

ABB125 said:

Sounds fun! Cars nowadays tend to be much more reliable and well built, even the cheap old cars that many young people buy.

Click to expand...

I think there is the saying now that there are basically no bad cars any more - they will all provide a reliable mode of transport, you're just picking on size, performance and appearance, whereas in the 80s and early 90s there still very much were.

Bletchleyite said:

Interesting you mention Motability cars - my third car (unless you count a Land Rover Series 3 I had as a second car for a few months until the engine blew up) was a Vectra 1.8SRi estate, a proper big, heavy thing but very practical and nice to drive, I got it about 2.5 years old (so a bit of warranty left, though I never had a problem with it) but with only about 12000 miles on the clock. If you read through the service history, it turns out it was a Motability car with a very sad history - about 8000 miles in the first year, about 3500 in the second year and about 500 in the third, which I guess was telling a story of deteriorating health of its former owner

For me the upside was that I had basically bought a brand new car for the fraction of the price of an actually brand new one - 12000 miles is barely broken in.



I think there is the saying now that there are basically no bad cars any more - they will all provide a reliable mode of transport, you're just picking on size, performance and appearance, whereas in the 80s and early 90s there still very much were.

Click to expand...

And all the more boring for it!
Having said that, I did have to replace my water/coolant pump last week. Suffice to say, it was absolutely totally and utterly completely 100% knackered! It's now languishing in my dad's "box of shame", the final resting place of car parts that really shouldn't have been on a car. Also in the box are the brake disks from my car (in this case, my dad took it in for an MOT whilst I was away at university; it failed! He replaced the disks)

I passed the driving test at the second attempt at the age of 17 and 6 months in 1988 whilst in the 6th form. There was certainly a certain kudos in obtaining a pass for the school car park (a certain number of passes being reserved for 6th formers - I bet that wouldn't happen today!)

My first car was a 1982 X reg Yugo Zastava which cost £695 purchased a few days after my 17th birthday. I learned to drive in the car, replacing it just under a year later when I upgraded to a Ford Orion.

Hadders said:

I passed the driving test at the second attempt at the age of 17 and 6 months in 1988 whilst in the 6th form. There was certainly a certain kudos in obtaining a pass for the school car park (a certain number of passes being reserved for 6th formers - I bet that wouldn't happen today!)

My first car was a 1982 X reg Yugo Zastava which cost £695 purchased a few days after my 17th birthday. I learned to drive in the car, replacing it just under a year later when I upgraded to a Ford Orion.

Click to expand...

At my sixth form, you had to go to the office to acquire a parking permit. There didn't seem to be a limit on the number of passes issued.
There were therefore a few issues as the year progressed: plenty of spaces in September. Just before the start of study leave: woe betide ye who didn't arrive before 0855! Conveniently I was nearly always at school before 0830, so never had any problems.

Passed my test in 2001 two days before my 19th birthday, but used Mum & Dad Rentacar for the first few years. My first car that was truly "mine" was a 1994 Renault 5 Campus Prima (one of the last batch built) with a 1390cc engine that I paid the princely sum of £425 for in 2006.

Seeing as everyone is putting the number plates in too, this one was L234PYA. I sold it for scrap after I'd lost control due to aquaplaning, and gone over the top of a traffic island which smashed the gearbox to bits. It was in otherwise good condition and if I'd known the first thing about how I'd have tried to repair it. I do wonder if anyone rescued it from the scrappers, as it had only 47k on the clock and had spent its early life as a granny's runabout in Minehead.

Mention of insurance reminds me that in 1966 my third party fire and theft insurance for a 19 year old in London for a 10 year old car that cost £60 was £19/10/- (i.e. £19.50) How times change! I also had the Kudos of driving to school, no parking on the premises, but easy on the roads then. When looking for a car there was an advert locally for a 1931 Rolls Royce for the same price. I didn't go for it, but think of the effect at school where the headmaster drove a 1959 Ford Prefect if I had!

Still yet to pass my test - was nearing test standard in March 2020 but then Covid messed everything up. Eventually I booked a test for 22nd January 2021 but that’s obviously been pushed back, this time to 1st April 2021 (I’m not optimistic about it even going ahead then)

Started learning on my 17th birthday in September 2019 in my instructors 09 plate 1.4 Chevrolet Aveo and in November 2020 I got insured as a learner on my father’s 17 plate Seat Mii 1.0 FR Line

Passed my test in 1984 and within the next year had a 1976 Triumph Spitfire. It was basically an affiliation between a cohesive collection of dark red powder, a leaky hood and an excellent engine. It was still cool and I had it for a couple of years. Quite how it got past a couple of MOTs with me I am not sure.

1972 orange MG Midget - got it 6 months after passing my test in 1988. Usual BL corrosion, rear springs were so rough it'd rear-wheel steer from engine torque and it appeared to have so little grip even with fresh tyres that I went round every roundabout sideways even in the dry - and like the Spitfire from the post above me you might as well leave the hood down in the wet & just keep above 25mph so the water goes past! but the front end on those cars is amazing & that lovely big wheel with very low geared steering taught me to be smooth & subtle, the back end kept me awake but unlike Spitfires doesn't actuially try and kill you & it was so overwhelming sensually that it felt like doing 150 when you were doing 60 ( not least coz you're basically sitting on the road in those seats that collapse into buckets when they're a bit tired!. It spent more time off the road than on it, but for a young guy in the westcountry it was magic. Moved to London & had to get rid of it unfortunately. Went back to riding my AR50 there ( now that is a great thing to ride round a city ) but that's another matter.

Bonus: security obtained by taking the rotor arm with me when I parked it! I have no idea why they even bothered with locking doors.

1975. I was 17. Passed test and started driving this, which I'd obtained for £90 a couple of months earlier.

EFR838C - 1965 Ford Zodiac. 2.5 straight six engine. Gear change on the steering column, so it had bench seats front and rear.



My Dad reckoned it was good idea to have lots of metal round me, in case I hit anything.
I reckoned the bench seats were a good idea for getting up close and personal with my girlfriend.

Instilled a love of straight six engines - still got one today in my 1971 Triumph TR6.

Passed test in Jan 2010 in very icy/snowy conditions. Yes that 2009/10 in a series of cold winters to remember
First car I drove/insured on was my parent's 1996 Peugeot 406 2.0L! As a newly qualified driver, it was an absolute tank!

The first car I bought & own (& still have) is a 2006 Fiat Panda! James May I learned from you!!!

I've been a scooterer/biker much longer than a car driver.n

Passed my test in July 2008, a few months after my 18th birthday, on the third attempt. I still maintain to this day that I drove, overall, best on my first attempt than I did on my third! Sadly for me however on my first attempt I stalled pulling away from some traffic lights a few minutes from the test centre and then the examiner had me pull over to the side and when trying to pull away I'd not changed gear to first so was trying to pull away in third. Stalled twice more and that gave me three minors in the same category and an automatic fail. As I recall I think I only picked up three other minors for a total of six! Second attempt I failed as the examiner alleged that I hadn't seen a car in front of me when we came off a roundabout and would have crashed if he hadn't intervened (which was BS as I'd a) seen it and b) was braking the car for it!). That being said when I got back my instructor told me as soon as he saw who my examiner was he knew I'd fail as the guy usually examined people going for HGV licences or similar so was extremely tough and all the instructors thought him grossly unfair to learner drivers. Third time out I thought I'd failed on my way back to the test centre so was pleasantly surprised when the examiner congratulated me and handed me my pass certificate!

I didn't actually get a car of my own until 2014 (turned out the reason my mum had paid for lessons was an evil scheme to get me to share the driving on long trips! ) as didn't really have a need for a car and would have struggled to afford the running costs of one anyway. In 2014 though I got a job which involved some driving around the local area and also meant I actually had some money to afford to run a car. Bought a 1999 Toyota Corolla 1.6GS in red for around £900 from our friend of the family mechanic (one of the best things my parents ever did was befriend a car mechanic). Had something like 90,000 miles on the clock but was in very good condition inside. Wasn't without it's flaws though. The speedo was totally out of alignment so even sitting stationary it would read as if you were doing 20mph but from some testing comparing myself to other cars and using my mum in her car as a pace car it was possible to work out that, thankfully, it was overreading by 20mph consistently through the speeds up to least 70mph. Then there was the time the coolant pump decided it would rather pump all the coolant onto the ground rather than the into the engine. Or the time the sensor that monitored the fuel mixture decided that it would prefer to run extremely rich all the time rather than at the correct mixture (that caused an MOT fail due to emissions). Other than that it was fairly trouble free and I really liked it. Got it through to 100,000 miles as well which was fun. Insurance was pain though £1,300 for the first year though thankfully though the second year was a somewhat more reasonable £700.

Got rid of that in 2017 though and changed for a 2008 Ford Fiesta 1.4 Climate which had just under 60,000 miles on the clock and cost me £2,000 (I think between £1,500 and £2,000 anyway). You wouldn't think moving from 1.6 to 1.4 would make that much difference but I definitely noticed that it didn't have quite as much grunt! Otherwise it's fine. You can tell it's a slightly more basic model on the inside than the older Corolla was but it's perfectly adequate. It's electrical system is a bit wild though as it once managed to kill it's own alternator by putting too much power through it (which was fun getting back to a car that was electrically dead on a cold night when I just wanted to go home!). I also had my first proper "I'm going to need rescuing" breakdown in the Fiesta (the time the Corolla decided to dump coolant all over the ground I was able to limp home by pouring water into the radiator) when one of the front coil springs decide that it would much rather explode downwards through the wheel arch when I got back to the car after a day out. Gingerly tried driving that (not knowing it was the coil spring but knowing that something was wrong) and made it about 20m before deciding this was bad idea and ringing the RAC!

At the moment I am idly thinking about a new car but with lockdown meaning I'm doing basically no driving and also eyeing up the falling prices of a second hand fully electric car I'm kinda holding on in the hopes I might be able to jump from petrol to electric next time I buy a car.

Test passed in 1990 at first go after twelve lessons. By the time I had been at university for two years and had worked for one of them full time, I'd pulled enough together to buy a white 1989 Metro 1.3GTA out of the classifieds. 1275cc overhead valve out of the Mini GT, MG Metro seats and wheels and a close ratio gearbox in the sump. Went pretty well and apart from a new ball joint for the lower nearside front arm, it never required any mechanical repairs.

However, after some happy months, I was stationary, waiting at a T-Junction and someone in one of those noddy Micras of the time hit the offside front of the car. I was third party insured and Endsleigh refused to fight it as there were no reliable witnesses.

A mate was a mechanic and laboured over it for three months in the corner of the workshop that he worked in, straightened the chassis out and got it rebuilt.

The week after I got it back, it was stolen for its VIN and number plates and its tax disc. Unfortunately, it was recovered.

By that point, I suspected that it was cursed, and sold it to a dealer, and bought my Mother's 1990 Rover Metro 1.1L. That was a great car and again never needed anything doing to it, and saw my university time out and through my first year of work.

At some point, however, the Curse of the GTA reasserted itself, when I had a call out of the blue from its then owner. He'd tried to part exchange it, only for that dealer to HPI it and discover outstanding finance from the person I had bought it from. Luckily, I was off the hook as it had passed through several hands since, but it was a salutory lesson.

From then on, I had company cars; a Mk2 Mondeo 1.8TDLX which was basically good to drive, but the engine was too heavy for it and it needed a lot of work over the years. I then got a Rover 75 1.8 Connoisseur in Arden Green with SatNav and a telly in it. It was absolutely superb, even though my boss at the time, when asked to sign off the purchase, sent a memo (yes) back asking if I'd forgotten to select the thatched roof and horse brasses optional extras. Great car.

I then went to work in the motor trade, and for the first few weeks had an Astra Coupe (fourth generation) which I loathed. I then had a quickfire succession of Vectra C's, replaced usually every three months. I liked them about as little as the Astra, although the SRIs we generally got looked OK. I had a couple of Elites, which were a bit less wooden to drive but not much. I memorably jetwashed one of them and the paint blew off the wing mirrors.

I then had a few years of Jaguar X-Types; mostly 2.0D saloon SEs. They were all nice cars, but the faint whiff of underlying Mondeo was always lingering. The best one was a 2.2D Estate, which I thought was a really good car.

I left the trade and had to buy a car again; the snag with working in the trade but not actually being mechanically-able is that you find out everything that goes wrong with every type of car, and how much it costs to get someone else to fix it.

Despite that, with my own money, I bought a brand new Land Rover Discovery 3 in 2007. It's never done particularly high mileages, but is without a doubt the best all-round car that I have ever used*, and still has under 80,000 on the clock. I intend to keep it until it's twenty, or they come for me with pitchforks and ever higher emissions-based taxes, despite the fact that it emits almost nothing (1200 miles and three tanks of diesel last year).

*Although I had the same kinds of cars assigned to me continually when working in the trade, I drove hundreds of different ones every year, from the then brand new Renault Modus to a prototype Aston Martin, to Jaguar XKs, to Puntos with leaky sunroofs to Focus LXs, and I still drive a fair selection of rentals (or did until March last year).

2008 spec Ford Fiesta. Never used to be a Ford man, but the sixth generation (2008-16) Fiesta is an incredible machine. Absolutely perfect for my former commute into the Peak District.

The only thing I could ask for is a bit more power, but I don't have a reasonable excuse for an upgrade, now that I'm working from home!

I passed my test at 17 in July 2019 and got a blue 10 plate Hyundai i10 the following month for £2700. Had 59k on the clock and had been a 'grannymobile' all it's life. Had a couple of minor bumps in it in the first six months (and a speeding ticket ). Insurance was £1550 for the first year; £1800 for this year due to the aforementioned incidents.

It's a good little runner, I can confirm that the published top speed of 102mph is correct (thankfully not linked to the above speeding ticket)...

D365 said:

2008 spec Ford Fiesta. Never used to be a Ford man, but the sixth generation (2008-16) Fiesta is an incredible machine. Absolutely perfect for my former commute into the Peak District.

The only thing I could ask for is a bit more power, but I don't have a reasonable excuse for an upgrade, now that I'm working from home!

Click to expand...

My best mate has just bought a 2018 Fiesta having previously had a 2014ish one and speaks very highly of it, so the newer one it seems is better still. The cabin has quite a premium feel to it.

Bletchleyite said:

My best mate has just bought a 2018 Fiesta having previously had a 2014ish one and speaks very highly of it, so the newer one it seems is better still. The cabin has quite a premium feel to it.

Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear it, the interior certainly seems well specced.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Fiesta's appearance, compared to the older model. In saying that, the RS performance model looks fantastic. I will definitely be happy if/when I upgrade!

Never got round to getting any further with my driving but did a bit of learning in a 2000 Ford Focus 1.6LX X865UYC, it was my Grans car and whilst being out of work over the winter she gave me the offer of staying over for a week on the proviso that I did a bit of driving (noting that previously the only thing I had driven is my 125cc on a learner licence for a few years and said focus round an empty car park!).
Cost only £11 to put me on her LV insurance for a week, easy and excellent value.
Seemed to be a nice thing to drive and was not only up to 60Mph on the first trip out, I even overtook a tractor!
Later on in the year a drove it a few more times, including from Crewkerne to the outskirts of Taunton (again with no proper lessons), did end up with the fuel pump failing on one trip, quite a relief when I realised that I had done nothing wrong when after parking for about 10mins it would not start.
It was also used by my sister to get some experience when learning and she borrowed it a few times once she had passed (including, unfortunately hitting another car in a car park the first time she took it out on her own).

It ended up being sold that same year when my gran decided to give up driving, with my Auntie using it as a trade in for a 6 month old Micra K13 to replace her rust bucket of a KA (the only car she had new, WF56JCJ, only lasted 10yrs!).
The Micra (WA14UVT) became my Sisters first car in late 2015 and she has done many, many miles in it and has only had two real issues (a VVT solenoid (which our local (literally next door!)l garage had difficulty acquiring) and rear wheel bearings).

Bletchleyite said:

My best mate has just bought a 2018 Fiesta having previously had a 2014ish one and speaks very highly of it, so the newer one it seems is better still. The cabin has quite a premium feel to it.

Click to expand...

I had pretty basic Fiesta for a month in 2015 as a loan car when my Jaguar XF was being repaired - I'd driven it into some parking barriers at Liverpool University, totally my fault.

I was impressed with the Fiesta, it seemed to have all that was required and it was perfectly up to the job of getting me to work and home again each day.

Maybe I was being sensitive, but the one thing I noticed is that other drivers behaved much more aggressively towards me in the Fiesta than when I drove the Jaguar. My driving has its faults, but I'm very observant of 30mph speed limits in built up areas, and when I was in my Jaguar I felt that other drivers just followed me naturally, whereas in the Fiesta they drove up to me and followed far too close, appearing to think that the sort of person who drives a Fiesta could be intimidated into speeding up. An interesting experience. Now way off topic, sorry!

Passed my test March 1982 (earliest test date, requested 5 months earlier due to post strike backlog), I hadn’t been able to start lessons immediately after 17th birthday due to no driving licences being issued during the Civil Service Unions shutting computer centres in 1981

Didn’t buy a car for 6 years (after university and started working), a 3 year old Peugeot 309SR

Butts said:

Passed my test second time in 1981.

1st Car a Triumph Dolomite 1850 - "OLD" L Reg.

Click to expand...

Found one of those parked in a street in Reykjavik about eight years ago. I didn't think to check whether it was a r/h or l/h drive model.

My first car, in 1983, was a brand new Renault 5TL. Cost me £125 per month and I was only earning £25 per week on a Government YTS 'slave' scheme. Obviously the maths didn't add up and I had to sell it after about a year.