Cars from your childhood

[OldFred]

I love watching Celebrity Antiques Road Trip where they get to drive really cool classic cars.
Some cars really take me back to my childhood in the late 70s/80s.
My mum had Datsun Cherry and dad drove a beast of a BMW which resembled a tank.
My brother had a Ford Capri which I loved.

What cars were a part of your childhood?

Stickers, not sticks.

My dad was a royal engineer so he always had a car to do up.
We had a ford Bedford van once that had bench seats. I was one of four so when we went out on a Sunday there might be room for an extra friend. Picnic and rounders.
Mum had a 1100 called Betsy who broke down on the hill going into Weymouth. Dad asked for mum's new American tan tights to make a fan belt! A Datsun was called the yellow peril and there were numerous Vauxhalls. My first car was a midget in harvest gold and we later had a golf cabriolet that we only sold last year. That one I miss, it was like driving a skateboard.

I once bought a gold Jag to collect my daughter from boarding school. I had a head scarf on like Miss Fritten in St Trinian's. She was being bullied and it cheered her up no end. Don't worry I sold it on for a profit. I'm a demon with the leather cleaner!

Family friend of ours had a Lancia Fulvia. That was quite a car.

Bloke across the road from us had a Jensen Interceptor, you heard it before you saw it. He owned the local chippy. Guess he was doing well!!!

Wow, there are some seriously cool cars on this thread!

@HelpMeGetThrough I had never heard of a Jensen Interceptor, now that is a car 😍(One for sale on autotrader just shy of 60k!)

Did anyone else get 10 driving lessons on their 17th birthday, with the almost foregone assumption that you'll pass on the 10th lesson? 😂
Those were the days!

The Interceptor was a hell of a car, the sound of it was one thing, then when you saw it, wow!!!

@OldFred six lessons actually. To be fair the grandparents were farmers and I drove on their land, including the land rover and tractor, and a very old car of my grandmothers in which you had to double de-clutch to change gear. I passed my test in a Triumph Toledo.

I remember the first time I drove round Hyde Park Corner, before there were lights. I swallowed hard and got close behind a black cab and went the way he did. I found a super cut through to Sloane Square! In tje late 70s/early 80s, I was told of two ways to drive in central London: slightly slowly and end up behind everyone or slightly faster and keep moving.

Neither of my parents drove, so no family car. My childminder had a Ford Capri. Me, my brother, her daughter, and 2 other kids she looked after went I it occasionally! No seatbelts, no child seats. Great fun!

After my parents split my mum had a boyfriend who had a green Datsun LPB 4W. Can't remember important stuff but can remember that!

One of my mums friends had an old Morris that had the indicators that flipped down from the side, I used to love going in that car.

@TheyGrewUp I do think that the youth of today will never have as much fun as we did learning to drive in days gone by! No theory test back then either.

My dad drive am Austin Princess then a Vauxhall Cavalier then we must have been doing better Golf GT and then an Audi Saloon

In the late 70s my mum foolishly allowed my dad to buy her a car at auction. The car itself was fine. Austin Allegro, good runner, well maintained. The problem was the colour. My dad thought he had bought something in a classy Racing Green. Trouble is, he was colour blind, and it was actually Tango Orange!!
He only realised when my brother said " who's parked a satsuma on the drive?"
My mum was not happy, and didn't speak to dad for a long time....

An Allegro being a good runner? There was a reason they were called an “all agro” 😀

My first BF had an Allegro - always known as the Aggro; it had a square steering wheel. He bought it in pristine condition from a chap that had to give up driving - the garage had even been carpeted.

My first car was a 67 Mini - I’d love to have another one but suspect I remember it through rose tinted spectacles. It was replaced by a Datsun Cherry which had a great engine but the bodywork rotted.

Parents had: Morris Oxford, a Wolseley (broke down a lot), an inherited Triumph 1500, several Renault 16s, and then a Vauxhall Victor. I had my 6 driving lessons in a Mini Metro and did my practice in the huge Vauxhall.

Earliest car I remember was a Morris 1100 with real leather seats.
Mum went through a Ford Popular, several Skoda Coupes and finally on to a couple of BMW 318is.
Dad had a Vauxhall Victor, several Saabs and finally a BMW 328i.
I drove most of Mum's cars and one of the Saabs, but trumped them both with my Mercedes, which just got its MOT, well TÜV, again today. It is 24 years old and I have had it for 22 years. Both my parents have travelled in it and both are now dead, so I will keep it going for as long as I can.
Yes, my family are all petrol heads :-)

Mum’s first car was a mini clubman, Dad took one of the seats out so the carrycot could go in it! She then bought me one when I turned 17, mine was green and was named Kermit! My daughter also had a mini as her first car and I’ve had more than 1 newer version clubman. We had various cars over my childhood including marinas, Vauxhall viva, an alfasud. Several beaten up MG’s and a Sprite where always in bits in the drive/garage.

My dad had a Vauxhall Cavalier, he loved that car even though it would never start in winter and every time he unlocked it the alarm would go off. My primary school was opposite the house so I could always hear when he went out!

Apparently when I was a baby my dad did some car maintenance course and somehow he took part the engine and he couldn’t put it together again, our neighbour and the mechanic round the corner had the same car and had to help him put it together again!

We got rid of it when my dad had to stop driving which must have been when I was about 12, I thought the car was ancient in 2004 but it was only as old as me.

Loving all the old petrolheads on here! 😅

The Capri was the best car ever ❤️

I was a shallow teenager in the 80s, my boyfriend of choice was 'Greg' who had a Fiesta XR2i. It was red and fast as was Greg 🤣

My parents used to change their cars a lot. My dad had many big Rovers, and in later life, Jags, which he loved. When I was really small, I remember he had Austin cars - a Princess, Maestro and Montego.

My mum had a few Golfs, Polos and minis and I passed my test in her Peugeot 205.

A Ford Capri will always be the coolest car, to me.

I can remember us all squidged in to an old mini when I was really young. Ford Capri and Ford cortina are the others I loved. Then we had a Ford Granada. My dad had a new company car regularly and we used to love spotting the new car registrations. Not the same these days!

My first car was an old style mini, beige with brown upholstery. I loved it.

my dad had a green morris minor, my mum had a very early mini in the early 1960s - a push button to start on the floor. About 6 kids fitted in it. My dad later upgraded to a red morris 1100. We went across France and Italy in it one summer, with deck chairs tied to the roof!

We had an Austin Montego estate when I was really young.

There's someone around the corner from me who drives a red Volvo 240 GL estate as their daily driver... I love it!

My DF drove some absolute bangers that never lasted long. I can remember a white Ford Cortina with leather seats that burned the backside off you in summer, a red Lada, a bright yellow VW Passat that was a bee/wasp magnet. I used to feel like Indiana Jones trying getting into it without being stung. The worst was when he bought an ancient ex-ambulance that had been painted in black gloss paint. DBs and I refused to get into it, so DF said “Fine, you can walk”. Walking was preferable to being carted round in that Clampetmobile.

My uncle used to have a classic mgf roadster. The back seats were barely existent, you had to sit side ways as there was no gap for legs once the front seats were pushed back to let you in. I was frequently squashed in the back with spaniels.

So was Greg or the XR2i the love of your life at the time? 🤔

I might have gone out with someone because he could borrow his mum’s Triumph Spitfire (he was very nice but just a bit dull and in my defence I was 16 at the time).

There was a 2.8 litre injection version - complete rocket ship. They were cheap for a while because of it being a Capri.