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Your first car

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Bletchleyite

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On insurance, back in 1985 it wasn't significant - more related to the value of the car insured than to the potential third-party cost I think, although I wasn't 18 when I had my first car and nominally had a few years' driving experience, my insurance costs weren't high at all - I can't remember how little but nothing mad. Even my 2.8 Capri a couple of years later didn't cost me a lot to insure. Prior to my first car I'd been named on my grandmother's insurance for her Mini Clubman Estate and this cost nothing.

In the late 90s I seem to recall putting me on my parents' Corsa (in which I was a very tight fit!) cost about £30 per year even as a learner.
 
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DustyBin

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On insurance, back in 1985 it wasn't significant - more related to the value of the car insured than to the potential third-party cost I think, although I wasn't 18 when I had my first car and nominally had a few years' driving experience, my insurance costs weren't high at all - I can't remember how little but nothing mad. Even my 2.8 Capri a couple of years later didn't cost me a lot to insure. Prior to my first car I'd been named on my grandmother's insurance for her Mini Clubman Estate and this cost nothing.

I really feel for young people these days, insurance costs are prohibitive to car ownership for many.

You had a 2.8i? I never got above a 2.0 in Capris, I do have a Sierra with the 2.8i V6 though which makes up for it.
 

Dai Corner

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Ford Fiesta YYD 917X bought off a relative in about 1991 when it would have been ten years old. I'd passed my test a few years before but saving to buy a house was more important to me. Had my only own-fault accident a couple of weeks later.

Two more Fiestas F456 PWS and J420 EHU followed, then a Renault Megane N634 SPG. Back to Ford with a Focus Y288 OKG. Now have two Mazdas; an 03 plate MX-5 and a 67 3.
 

jfollows

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You had a 2.8i? I never got above a 2.0 in Capris, I do have a Sierra with the 2.8i V6 though which makes up for it.
A890 OPO, built 1983, I had it 1987-1989, last V5C issued 3/3/97. I sold it when I was moved to the USA for a few years. Nice car. No automatic choke any more! My last Capri, but I had a 5L Mustang as a later Ford purchase which I imported to the UK in 1992 which was better, albeit in part because I bought it new.
 

swt_passenger

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Passed test summer 1974, bought first car a few weeks later, a grey Triumph Herald. D reg - new in 66?
Great car for DIY- you could sit on a front wheel and work on the engine...

My first driving “lessons”, like many at the time, was on a disused airfield in north Northumberland with my dad. I was about 15, the car was a Morris Traveller.
 
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GRALISTAIR

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That would be pretty much unheard of nowadays* (high insurance costs). Was it common back then?
My father was director of a company and they were getting a whole new fleet of company vehicles. The old ones were sold off cheap to employees or - probably unfairly, to someone like me. I don’t think it was common for young people like me to drive one.
 

CD

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As I had been learning in my fathers car on a disused airfield, I was able to pass my test the day after my 17th birthday on a cancellation in December 1964.
First car was a 1953 Standard 8, which I bought for £3. Next was a Mk10 Jag which cost me £30. Bit airy around the floorboards but no MOTs in those days.
Later drove buses and HGVs and have never had an accident (lucky so far!), although several close misses caused by other people.
 

Neptune

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A 1986 C reg mk2 Ford Fiesta 950 popular when I passed my test in 1993. Brilliant little car which I enjoyed tinkering with, spent plenty of time sorting the rust out. How many drivers today could cope with a choke, 4 speed gearbox and no power steering.
 

PaulC1309

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Passed my test aged 17 (first time) in 1991. First car was a 1983 Vauxhall Nova 1.2L in white/rust with a lovely maroon interior! had Nova SR alloys and steering wheel. Had it for 3 years and sold it to a mate who had it for another couple of years before it finally dissolved. Replaced it with a 1990 VW polo saloon (yuck) which decided to snap it's cambelt. Hated that car but have had several VW's since favourite being a Golf GTD
 

Trackman

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The first car I even owned was an old red 2.0L Opel in the 80s.
Cannot remember the model name.
It stunk of dogs and cigarette smoke because of the previous owner.

First car I ever drove was a Hillman Avenger.
 

John Webb

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Passed test on second go in 1971. First car was a 1963 Vauxhall Viva obtained in early 1972 from my sister's father-in-law.
1972 ELO 126 C small.jpg
Exchanged in 1975 for a brand-new Bedford HA van:
1975-10-11 ELO and LGW Small.jpg
(By then I'd repainted the Viva a lighter blue and added stripes after several near-misses at night - it turned black under sodium street lights!)

The van was eventually replaced by a second-hand A reg Cavalier:
A 713 NBM small.jpg
which I traded in for the first of three Landrover Discoveries. I currently drive a Freelander 2.
 

Harpers Tate

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1612106094326.png

2 litre Nissan BlueBird brand new in 1986 for £8000. The first of (up to now) six cars, all brand new. I had just passed my test weeks before, although the Mrs. had had a licence for several years. Insurance wasn't a problem; I worked for a company that had a very advantageous staff scheme that was based solely on the IG of the vehicle with no account of the driver's experience. Fully comp, any driver, low premiums
Kept it 3 years. The next was a Toyota Carina (again 2 litre) which we ran for over 12 years. Two SUVs followed and we're on our second all electric car now.
 

Journeyman

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I don't know why, but I just don't like modern Minis. An original one however... :D
Oh, I completely know why I don't like them! Horrible tacky looking things that are absolutely massive compared to the original, and completely not in the spirit of being a cheap and simple car.
 

theblackwatch

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I passed my test at 17 when in 6th form but I didn't get a car until my 20s, when it became pretty necessary due to a new job which involved a 12 mile commute. I'd seen an advert in the local free rag (remember them?) and a dealer was offering a brand new Citroen AX 1.0 for £5,995 with a year's free insurance and 0% finance for one or two years. The offer at the end of the month. So, on Jan 31st - exactly 25 years ago today - I wandered up to the dealer (10 mins walk from home), found a salesman, showed him the advert and said something along the lines of "you've got this offer on which expires today, and I want one". He asked if I'd driven one before, to which I replied no (I'd not driven much at all since passing my test), and he said to hang on and he'd find one to test drive.

A few minutes later, he came back, took me over to a car and told me to take it out. When I got in, he just stood there, so I asked if he was getting in - he replied no, just take it out yourself, so I did for 30 mins or so. When I got back, I told him that I thought he was rather trusting (bearing in mind I'd arrived there on foot and not shown him any id/driving licence!), his response was that he'd been doing this job for something like 20 odd years and he knew an honest customer. Anyway, we did the deal, and 2 days later I picked up a brand new car. It was ideal for my journeys to work, but going down to Birmingham or places for railtours I had to flog it a bit!

When I traded it in (in 2001), I dealt with the same chap who had sold it to me.
 

paul1609

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1971 Bedford Van was my first got in 1977
Snap ex GPO Telecoms bought at auction. At 18 graduated to a L Reg MK 1 Ford Escort 1300 GT, a rev counter and 2 speed wipers!
Top speed was officially 96 mph but on the brand new and lightly trafficked M23 you could get up to 100mph on the speedo going down the Gatwick straight to Brighton which my mates used to think was like light speed.
 
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ATW Alex 101

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I passed my test in January 2017 having just turned 18.

My first car was a 1997 Kia Sportage which I’d actually owned since 2014 when me and a mate fixed it up. I used it for around a month until I decided that I can’t afford 12mpg :lol:. It remained in my garage for 2 years after that until I further decided it was just taking up space... :lol:

I then drove a 2006 Vauxhall Astra Estate for around 8 months until that decided to pack in. I sought out a cheap runabout where I found a rare 2002 Mazda Demio for £350 from an old lady who had owned it since new. Fully intending to only keep it for a few months whilst I found something better, I kept it until September 2020! I saw the potential in it so I did it up, using parts I handpicked in Asia. The downside were that the wheel-bearings were weak and only had a life of about 15k miles, so I replaced each one three times. It is now sat in my garage. The only reason I don’t use it is that I needed something bigger for long-distance journeys

8E92C60D-2A52-4F0D-9E6F-95BD178494C5.jpeg

Nowadays, I’m driving a 2008 Audi A6 Limited edition. Nearly 250k miles and going strong!

For work, my first van was a 2004 Mercedes Sprinter. Kept that for a year then it died in October 2019 at 365k miles! I replaced it with a 2008 Ford Transit Jumbo, ex-Red cross with full service history. Still going!
 

Lewlew

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Passed my test in 2013 at the age of 23. First car was a T reg Renault Clio with no power steering. Good little thing until it developed a few problems a year later and got scrapped.

On my 5th car now, which is due to be collected next week for scrap. Only sold one of the cars with 4 going for scrap. I would love to own a car that is less than 10 years old lol
 

pitdiver

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I passed my test December 1986. I have never owned a car of any shape or form. Never found it necessary. I learnt t drive so I could drive my first wife from the hospital after giving birth to our first child. Drove her car that was it.
 

pdq

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I learned to drive in 1990 in my parents' Panda, which got changed for a 1.3 Astra during that time. Passed my test first time when I was 17 and 4 months.

I went to Uni in 1991 so didn't need my own car. It was very rare for students to have cars in those days.

I then worked in London where I was able to drive a colleague's 2CV (effectively our company pool car). I bought my own car for £800 when I was 23 or 24 - a 1983 Capri 1.6 LS, LVW811Y. I loved that car and wish I had had the space and resource to keep it.

When I got married a few years later we sold the Capri for a 3 Yr old Fiesta as the Capri was needing some work, and my wife found it too heavy to manoeuvre. Have since had a Cavalier and Mondeo, followed by 3 (soon to be 4) brand new Skodas, first a Fabia then Octavias.
 

jfollows

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The thing that always makes me think when I consider my first car is the change in technology over time since then.

I had a 2L Capri, shortly before then my dad had a Rover 2000 TC, which was supposed to be "powerful" as well, they both managed little more than 100hp (horsepower) and the Capri is rated at around 31mpg (miles per gallon) whereas the Rover wasn't much more than 22mpg.

My last car, now sold because I wasn't using it, managed 22mpg also but with 500bhp (Jaguar supercharged V8). So around 5 times the power derived from same amount petrol than the Rover 2000 - which used to demand "five star" petrol when such a thing was available. Today (or recently) I was using "premium" unleaded.

On the other hand, there are now incredibly economical engines which deliver around 100bhp, which - to be honest - is about all that a car really needs for most purposes. Ford's 1.1L engine says it gets more than 60mpg for a little under 100hp (70hp or 85hp variants).

I suspect car engine technology progress now close to an end given the inevitable move to electric cars.
 
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K-reg Renault 12 (when the letter was at the proper end of the number plate ;)), originally owned by my mother but I gradually assumed ownership as I did more work on the thing at the same time as learning to drive (passed 1st time <:D).

Also the first car that I got a speeding ticket in ...
 

ABB125

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My father was director of a company and they were getting a whole new fleet of company vehicles. The old ones were sold off cheap to employees or - probably unfairly, to someone like me. I don’t think it was common for young people like me to drive one.
Ah right, thanks. It just shows how family connections can be useful for all sorts of things!
 

90019

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I passed my test in 2009, then bought my first car in 2010, which happened to be just at the end of the scrappage scheme, meaning there were almost no cheap cars available.

I ended up buying a 2003 Ford Ka (SD03MXG) for £1475 (the alternatives being a beige Hyundai Accent or a high mileage Fiat Seicento).

It was the Style - one up from the base model, with such luxuries as painted bumpers and a slightly better tape player.
It was the 70hp Duratec engine which was great in a tiny car like that, being built out of what felt like tinfoil and crisp packets it weighed almost nothing and with wheels right in the corners it handled like a go kart.
The gearbox was excellent, if a little strange - it would hit the rev limiter in 2nd gear at 70mph but could also happily sit at 30mph in 5th without the engine struggling.

There were a couple of issues.
I found out later that it had been in a crash at some point in it's life and was very slightly wonky, which lead to some rather... interesting handling characteristics at higher speeds.
The clutch was slipping, and the trader I bought it off had done a very good job of hiding that. We managed to get him to pay for the parts, but it was like getting blood from a stone.
The heater control valve was stuck open, meaning the heater was permanently on, so at the end of a journey the dashboard would be not far off the temperature of the engine. This did lead to some issues in the summer when it rained, and I had the choice of using the demister with the windows closed and melting, leaving it off and not being able to see anything or driving around with the windows open and getting wet. I would usually opt for the latter.
The thermostat failed and got stuck shut, so it would constantly overheat and boil over for a few months until I could afford to fix it.
It would blow bulbs almost constantly, particularly one of the tail lights and the nearside headlight, and because of the way the newer engine had been shoehorned in, there was almost no space to get at that headlight, so I had to rely on a friend with much smaller hands who could actually reach it.
Surprisingly for a Ka, it wasn't too rusty - there was a little on the bootlid around the wiper and a couple of bubbles around the filler cap, but the rest was unusually solid.
 

rcro

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I played the "experience game" with regards to insurance after I passed my test, as a 21 year old male. Ended up with a 10 year old 1.8L petrol Ford Focus estate surplus from the police - very well maintained with new clutch, just looked a bit tatty and the radio wouldn't turn off, so all good once DVLA had reclassified it. Much cheaper to buy and insure than anything smaller I could find at the time. It was very noisy above 60mph and difficult to get to accelerate hard - at somewhere around 25mph it was happy in any gear, so after a year I replaced it with a magic-powered VW that could both overtake effortlessly and get 80mpg on the motorway (at 58mph) until electronics and emissions scandal made it unreliable. The Ford had 2 owners after me and got up to 230,000 miles which is a lot more than I would have expected it to last!
 
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Blue Mini - UYU955M - 1982 - great little car , but I really wanted a 1275 Mini (very rare)
Never had much to do with Minis after a mate at the time managed to squeeze the 1500 engine from a Triumph Dolomite into a Clubman saloon body. Only ever rode in it once, got out and expressed some feelings that the forum filtering software would probably not allow. Fine, he’d fitted this engine properly but had paid little attention to the braking/handling/suspension ...
 

Ashley Hill

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Passed my test in 1990 at 19. My first car was an X reg Mini Metro (£1200) . It was a lovely shade of beige and didn't have a radio,but you lifted the bonnet and everything was recognisable and I really looked after it. Compared to what I drive now I wish I had it back,lift the bonnet now and I can just about find the dipstick.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Never had much to do with Minis after a mate at the time managed to squeeze the 1500 engine from a Triumph Dolomite into a Clubman saloon body. Only ever rode in it once, got out and expressed some feelings that the forum filtering software would probably not allow. Fine, he’d fitted this engine properly but had paid little attention to the braking/handling/suspension ...

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
 

Meglos

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My grandmother gifted me £100 for driving lessons on my 18th in 1981. It took two tests, but I passed within a year, and just under the £100. I got my first car six months later when my father upgraded, and I ended up with a bright yellow 1976 R Reg Ford Cortina 1.6. It weighed a tonne, but went like a rocket, and more than once I got it over 100 on the M25. In those days the M25 wasn't complete, and the route from Reigate to the A3 was over the top at Epsom Racecourse!
 
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