What makes and models of car (or other motor vehicles) did you have at home during childhood ?

[WildRosie]

From my time on, Dad had a Volvo 145 estate, then a 144 saloon, an Audi 100 then a Datsun Stanza. Both Volvos and the Audi were company cars but he bought the Datsun outright. Mum had a MK 3 Vauxhall Viva, an Austin Allegro, a Chrysler Alpine and, finally, a Fiat Strada. We were fortunate to be a two-car family (also necessary with seven children) but from the mid-80s we just had the one; a VW Golf and a variety of Fords at different times.

Dad's cars were, by and large, tough and reliable. Mum was less fortunate; she'd had enough of the All Aggro after six months and she got a brand new Alpine - whose gearbox failed the day after we got it home! Wot fun. Strada was a poorly-built rustbucket.

I should also mention the Fiat 126 my Dad had as a courtesy car for a few days while the yellow Volvo was away. Bright turquoise and so tiny he could drive it around the front lawn, which he did.

My mum used to take the Fiat 126 to a car park where they kept the keys and would move the cars around during the day so they could squeeze more in. The guy running it was huge, about 6ft 5 and built like a brick shithouse, she came back one day and he was moving the car with his head stuck out the window and his knees up to his chin because he couldn't fit in it 🤣

Vauxhall Victor
Hillman Hunter
Avenger
Vauxhall Cavalier

Christ, I’ve just lost an hour on a Wikipedia rabbit hole of researching cars circa 1980.

@Echobelly oh yes, I remember the cars with pop up headlights and I wanted one of those, but what I really really wanted was a car with wipers on the headlights. I seem to remember Volvo did a fine line of cars with what I as a small child called “windscreen wipers on the lights”.

Back on topic: Ford escort, Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall cavalier and Ford escort.

A two tone Vauxhall Chevette. Bottom half was blue, top half was silver.

My BIL once had a MK3 Vauxhall Viva estate, the kind with the curved tailgate. It looked like an oversized Silver Cross pram. The speedometer was horizontal rather than circular - it reminded me of the clapometer from Opportunity Knocks.

The first car I owned was a red Escort Mk3. It hated hills and cold mornings.

Jaguars, land rovers, and of course the iconic Mercedes that I still love today. Ford escorts were very common among friends parents but we never had one of them.

I feel I should chip in when I was a baby in 1969/70 my parents could not afford any car and apparently a BSA motorbike with sidecar was our first family transport.

I would never have felt safe in a sidecar (are they still road-legal ?) or as a pillion passenger, car or no car. Still, needs must I suppose .

@WildRosie

I would never have felt safe in a sidecar (are they still road-legal ?) or as a pillion passenger, car or no car. Still, needs must I suppose .

It was a very different world on the roads back then !

True. Much less traffic and going rather more slowly than now. I cringe when I see adults riding bicycles towing a ground-level trailer containing their precious child. How can they be anything like safe ??

My mum had a Citroen 2Cv which struggled to get up hills. Then a ? Nova which I drove as my first car.
The only car I can remember my dad having was a Sierra cosworth, which was stolen within 2 months of him getting it. Police found it in Liverpool with the seats ripped out. We had Volvos after that.

My Metro didn't like hills either - 15mph was the best it could manage on one occasion. Thankfully there was no traffic behind me.

We had a really steep hill going into our village when I first got a car and I had my moms out 1lt Fiat cinquecento. I'd be in 2nd gear, flooring the accelerator and crawling up the hill.

It was bloody hilarious one very snowy day though when my little car was able to make it up the hill and everyone else had had to pull off into the verge. I was stopping and collecting little old ladies on the way up and dropping them home. It was a very front heavy car and did brilliantly on ice and snow.

Showing my age now
We had in no particular order
Ford Zephyr- dark blue
Ford Consel - Burgundy/grey
Ford Capri - dark green
Ford Corsair - white/black roof
Vauxhall Carlton - cream
My dad at 85, is still driving, he changed to Honda's, just had a CRV 2004, gone to the great scrapheap in the sky, and got a Honda Jazz.

My dad always had Skodas. They were ugly bastards and a source of bullying, but reliable, imagine learning to drive in one 🙄 they are less obvious in style now.

But my first car was a Nova, no power steering, chock pull out start, iffy heating, misty windows, always had a cloth to wipe the screen so I could see and a tape deck which you took the front off to stop it getting nicked.

We racketed around dangerously in my dad’s work van, which had no back seat, just a van space full of tools and parts, and no seat belts. Later this was joined by a brown Ford Cortina which had a door that needed to be held closed with wire, and through whose passenger side footwell you could see the road.

Astonishingly, we all lived to grow up.

My dad had a red Talbot Sunbeam...this must have been early 1980's and oddly enough i can still remember the number plate.

The Chrysler, then Talbot, Sunbeam was based on the Avenger so that probably helped it along. It's hard to believe as the two cars look so different. Maybe the sharing was limited to the chassis and some other things you can't see. There might be a Lotus Sunbeam or two still knocking around.

Vauxhall cavalier's
Renault Laguna's
Mazda 6 ts2 estate

1 Laguna became mine and then I got the mazda after my Dad died

So many of these ostensibly naff cars are very rare now. I gather there is only one roadworthy Morris Ital in the whole of the UK. If there are more, then their owners aren't admitting it 😉.