I passed my test first time after 8 lessons in 1992, but I didn’t get a car until the next year when I needed it to get to college. I was pretty open minded about what I wanted except it shouldn’t be gold, so I got a champagne gold 1983 3 door Renault 11 GTL 1.4.
I did 1000 miles in the first week, without going more than about 15 miles from home.
First week of college, I went to pick up my friend and his mum reversed out of her drive, turned 90 degrees and broadsided me with her rear end. New door and rear panel required. Insurance said it was a write off due to cost, paid out but let me keep the car, which I only realised years later was strange. A friend who worked in a Renault dealership fixed it up in his spare time for the insurance money.
It was a pretty good car, took the hammering I gave it for 6 years, main cost was drive shaft gaiters. I took it to uni with me as my parents don’t drive, the student house I lived in was quite unusual as 4 out of the 6 of us had cars.
I loved that car, I never saw another with the combination of 3 doors and body side trim. I doubt there are any on the road now.
It’s claim to fame was that, for a while, it regularly carried the future wife of a 90210 star!
I replaced it with a 1989 BMW 525 Se which was a whole other ball game, but still an old car.