Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

I can't tell if this topic has been started before, as you can't search the site for "first car", but incase it hasn't...


What was the first car you owned after passing your test (not the car you learned to drive in)?
What was it like to own?
What happend to it, and after how long?

I was given a 999cc Fiat Uno 45 (the 45 was the hp ). It was a fantastic little car (speedier than it looked, mostly cos the body work was made of cardboard). I owned it for about a month before I was driving around at 4 in the morning with some mates after not sleeping the night before and fell asleep at the wheel and drove it into a BMW (I was bloody lucky, if he had driven into me he would have killed the lot of us, kids: think before you drive!). Didn't do a lot of damage to it but there was another one available so I was given that one instead.

VW polo saloon 1 litre 2 door... really wish I still had it cos knowing now what I do it so would have had a G40 lump, a bit of the old stretch and poke and slammed on it's arse!
Gave it to me dad until the engine died and she got scrapped...
Great little car as I remember... but I may be being mugged down memory lane, and it could have been rubbish. Do remember the little thing with fondness thou.

Ford Fiesta MK2 1.0 on a e plate, FANTASTIC car, never let me down, went through hell and back, lasted 4 years i think.

I used to put contaminated fuel in it from work, espacially during fuel crisis, so pinked like mad and gave you a headache!

Finally the head gasket blew, but she still kept going.

1991 Mitsubishi Colt GL 1.3 carb.
Loved it, bought her for £100 literally, MOT tested for a year and tax. What can i say, It never went wrong in the year that i drove it, only once the alternator gave up, but that was purely down to age, 139k when i bought the car. The condition overall for its age and mileage was incredibly immaculate. It drove like it was new. Dont have any pics on here unfortunately but i'm trying to dig up some old ones. If i saw another one i would be tempted. Bleeding quick for a 1.3, surprisingly economical, and it really stands out in a line of traffic, it had the unique body shape. Basically a galant, but a hatchback version. Also it was turquoise Overall, yet another example of how the Japs build vehicles to last. For a first car, it was truly amazing.

1987 ford sierra 2.0i LX which had been chipped (apparently). it was heading for the scrapper as it was a friend of the family's, so i was given it as my first car. what a beast. i was 17 or 18 so that's about 13 years ago now, but even then an 18 year old hammering around in a 2.0i sierra meant that i got pulled over fairly regularly as our local law enforcement agencies assumed i must be joyriding.

it was in a bit of a state and needed a little welding but other than that it was nigh-on indestructable, or so i thought. drove it on to a beach in cornwall and when i went to pull away the rear end sank in the sand. then the tide came in (middle of the night). despite this ordeal i managed to get her towed out of the ocean and she was right as rain as soon as she was on dry land.

eventually though my inexperience and immaturity got the better of me and a few too many seconds looking at the stereo in wet / dark driving conditions caused me to drive at a spectacularly low speed into a parked vehicle. in super-slow-motion the sierra spun out and flipped onto it's lid. we were in the car upside down, and even after we crawled out we thought we might be able to push it over and drive away! hahaah! what idiots.

car was dead, and i'll never remember our family friend asking me how i managed to kill it when he had abused it since it was new and never had trouble with it!

mk1 cortina 1500 super, it belong to my dad who offered it to me instead of scrapping it

My first car was a Mk3 Escort 'B' reg. I payed £1100 for it and rolled it in to a field 4 days later. Expensive 4 days of driving. That put me off Fords for life.

Greig

Greig Sri wrote:My first car was a Mk3 Escort 'B' reg. I payed £1100 for it and rolled it in to a field 4 days later. Expensive 4 days of driving. That put me off Fords for life.

there's a theme developing here...

Ford Focus 1.6 auto... bought it 'cos the insurance was slightly cheaper than the manual ones and the dealers had good deals at the time.

It did 26mpg if you drove like a saint, always ran lumpy, at 48k miles the brakes failed, shortly followed (around 52k) by the gearbox. Got it going, traded it in for a newer Focus 1.8 manual on an even better deal (worked out about £5k plus trade-in off the list price)... crap on fuel, runs lumpy, gearbox is notchy, brakes are worryingly sharp, and it seems impossible to get the tracking right.


... someone mentioned a theme developing... ?!

Still can't work out how a 20 year old Cavalier SRi can be so much faster and so much better on fuel even around town. Needless to say, the Focus is being replaced by the SRi after I've got it exactly how I want it!


Andy

ilovemyelite wrote:

Greig Sri wrote:My first car was a Mk3 Escort 'B' reg. I payed £1100 for it and rolled it in to a field 4 days later. Expensive 4 days of driving. That put me off Fords for life.

there's a theme developing here...

Aye, that you crash your first car.


Greig

Mine was a 1984 B reg Ford Escort 1.1 popular plus in White. It was only 4 years old but god that was rusty..

1973 L reg Hillman Hunter 1725cc

got given a ford fiesta 1.1 B reg as my 1st car but i killed it skudding around the yard where i kept it like a prat with no bonnet or air filter on, it backfired and a huge fireball came out the carb and you can imagine what happened next.

so while i was learning to drive my dads mk3 L model 2.0 cav i bought myself a white 1.0 nova. which 2 years later when it died looked just like a white gte replica. did the usual hell and back antics took it everywhere and anywhere, still miss it at times. did buy another nova last year to try and bring the fun back but it wasnt the same.

my first car was a proton 1.5gls, it was a great car but got writen off about 3months after i got it when some guy in a ford ka decided to smash in to the back of it on the motorway

H Reg browny grey polo saloon, 1 litre, wouldn't pass 88mph!

1981 Mini, Yellow, Tinted windows, White Alloys, black wide arches, buckets etc etc,

had it for about 2 years then crashed it while looking at some lovely looking young ladies,

sold it for £150 as spares

A Vauxhall Astra MK1 i went everywhere in it, and it was well battle scarred,After 3 years the head gasket went then the back box fell off it still started though, in the end 2 boy racers bought it and drove it away

1.2i 4 speed nova, it looked the part.



Still got it in the garage.

and it's not moved in years

my mk1 1.0 4 speed (before changing the gearset for a 5 speed) had similar styling ideas to that, looks nice. i dropped mine 60mm on speedlines.always wanted compomotives but were lots of money. looking at that i wish i still had mine sitting in the garage.

Squig wrote:and it's not moved in years

It has, it got painted last year.

mine was a battered silver 1.0l mini 25, that squig and my mum picked up for £200 from some guys field. i should have lost my lisence in that car as just before it was taken off the road we found out that the speedo didnt read right at all. at 30 by the clocks i was attually doing 45mph. lol