My Previous Cars - Before the Mk3 Cav.

[Robsey]

BEFORE THE MK3 CAVALIER!!

As there was a bit of a conversation about carburettor cars in another of my threads, I found myself waffling about my first three cars.

I bought my first car in December 1989 for a huge £650 from a work colleague, complete with a duck pond in the boot / tyre well.
Toyota Corolla mk2.
1980 (Suffix V reg) 1292cc DX model in a rather sexy beige colour.

Similar to my Sahara Beige car. Except mine was a DX with brown vinyl slide-back sunroof.



The quirky 4K OHV engine.
The exhaust and inlet are on the same side of the head.



Fuelling was via an Aisin carburettor.
The only big running issue I had was when the condensor packed in.

I spent weeks scratching my head on that one... and a fortune in parts.
All for it to be a £1.75 part.

And the basic interior with a mono radio



A fantastic car that I cut my mechanic'ing teeth on, including full engine strip and rebuild.

The most impressive bit was the timing adjustment. There was a micrometer style adjuster for fine tuning.

In the summer of 1991, I part-exed the Corolla for a 1986 Maestro 1300L.
---------------------------------

A better colour choice, this was a bright red car.
A totally different car from the Toyota with proper stereo music and velour interior.

I fitted a Gunson GCE233 radio cassette for better quad-stereo output.
And a Moss alarm. Or was it a Sparkrite?

All a long time ago.

I have photos somewhere, but these are photos from the internet of similar looking cars

The familar turtle shape of a Maestro with plastic bumpers.



The very simple 1275cc (mini derived) A+ series engine.
Normally the air filter casing had a sticker saying "A+ Series".



And the simple but very cosy interior



Wow it all brings back memories.

The Maestro was part-exed on 5th December 1995 to make way for the wife's mk3 Cavalier... which hogs the biggest WIP on this forum.

I took ownership of her Mk2 Cavalier 1300 base saloon in Polar White.
With a very spritely 13S engine.

This is my only decent photo of the old girl who got scrapped in 2007 due to rot and vandalism



In the interim, I have briefly owned...

A dark blue D reg Cavalier mk2 1600 hatch, which got stolen and crashed into a lamp post...

A strange green G reg Proton, which got scrapped soon after due to rust

And the blue Toyota Yaris that I had for a few months during the restoration of the mk3 Cavalier in summer 2016.







It was a CDX model, which amazingly went to Envoy CDX on this forum.

So that is it.
All the cars, that I have owned, but do not have their own thread on here already.

Feel free to comment or add your own list.

[3cav3]

Wow, only 5 cars in your time driving, I must be well into the late 20's, -i used to get bored very quickly.
A shame that the white mark2 got scrapped. It hardly seems any time ago that they were everywhere but can't remember the last time I saw one on the road. The same with a lot of 80's and 90's cars.One thing I've particularly noticed is that these days you rarely see wrecks driving round, I wonder if it's the stricter Mots or easy finance that is to blame?

[Robsey]

I think you will find that the various scrappage schemes saw a lot of 80s and 90s cars make their way to the crusher.

For me, all my cars would have been keepers - it is the hoarder in me.

I know that there are no KE70 Corollas left that are roadworthy in the UK.
All online stuff seems to point to Australian cars suped-up for drift racing.

A recent failed dabble at getting a maestro digi dash to work for the camper van re-kindled my love affair for the car for a few weeks.

However, for the sake of my sanity and my very poorly bank account, I am strenuously fighting the addiction to buy any un-necessary retro car parts.

I am only on my 4th proper car in 30 years of driving.
Each of which have given me an unofficial apprenticeship in car mechanics.
Until I became very proficient in each one.

Neither the 1.6 Cav mk2 or the Proton lasted more than a month in my ownership.
The Yaris... a bone of contention between the wife and myself.
I probably would have sacked the Cav mk3 for the Yaris... an ugly duckling but it simply worked.
No fuss, frills or whatever... It went to a good home with a good friend who needed a cheap car at the time.

[3cav3]

Just totalled it up and I've actually had 33 cars in 23 years of driving, out of all of them though, the only one I regret parting with was a very rare Volvo 440 turbo diesel, an amazing car that had been serviced every 5k from new, and I put 60k on it in 2 years with almost no new parts needed. Wish I still had it now as there was absolutely no electronics to go wrong and it would do a genuine 60mpg if driven carefully.

[Robsey]

I regretted letting every one of them go at one time or another.

But that is what you get when you get to "know" each car in minute detail.

I had the Corolla for approx two years (89 to 91).

Maestro for four years (91 to 95)

White Cavalier Mk2 for twelve years (95 to 2007)...
(Although it was the wife's from approx 1990 to 1995).

Since then "we" have owned the Mk3 for twenty-four years (1995 onwards).
Mine since 2005.

And "we" have had the Vectra-c for nearly fourteen years (2005 onwards). Still the wife's.

And the camper van... well that is still in her late father's name (1986 onwards), although I have been charged with fixing it up since 2012... ah well, one day it will get done.

So as you see... all our cars are long-term commitments.

The anomoly being the Yaris, which I only had for two months June to August 2016.
The only thing that did not work was the radio... it was just dead.

The 1.6 Cavalier (Autumn 2003) and Proton (not sure when), I only drove them once to my home... then a few weeks later they were each scrapped.

[ilovedmymantas]

Just totalled it up and I've actually had 33 cars in 23 years of driving, …

Wow! A friend used to joke he changed his car every time the ashtray was full. Were you a heavy smoker

I regretted letting every one of them go at one time or another.

But that is what you get when you get to "know" each car in minute detail...

...Since then "we" have owned the Mk3 for twenty-four years (1995 onwards).
Mine since 2005.

And "we" have had the Vectra-c for nearly fourteen years (2005 onwards). Still the wife's.

And the camper van... well that is still in her late father's name (1986 onwards), although I have been charged with fixing it up since 2012... ah well, one day it will get done.

So as you see... all our cars are long-term commitments.

Fourteen and twenty four years owning the same cars is some achievement !

I only managed to keep the sri going fourteen years before I had to give up.
This one's on almost six years and has had more money spent on it so should last as long, I'll just be a pensioner then probably getting tooted at for hesitating .
Hope not

My five other cars were 'forever' - at the time. Usually circumstances forced a change but I was happy with all of them.

[Robsey]

All the Vauxhalls were long termers.

White Cav was with us about 20 years too.

To be honest, there are not many cars that I didn't like driving...and I have driven many marques and models, from an automatic Fiat Panda to a long wheelbase Renault Master.

Probably only a mk3 Escort stands out due to an odd sitting position. I am 6ft 1" tall afterall.