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?

Our first car when I was a child was a Riley Kestrel, then a red ford cortina and I still remember their registration numbers

Loving all the love for the Capri.
DH's first car was a Mini Metro and he was deeply envious of my brother's Capri 😂.
His dad had a Ford Sierra which had some water within its bodywork, he said you could hear it gurgling around when his dad took a corner!
We've had a fun discussion talking about cars from our past. The DCs will never experience this nostalgia!

My first boyfriend had a red ford capri with a black roof.

My parents had a VW beetle that all 5 of us crammed into somehow and we went on holiday in it.
They then had an orange/red mark 3 cortina, that made us all vomit! It was the vomit comet. The bodywork turned to rust as you looked at it.

This is a real trip down memory lane!
After I passed my test in 1985 I drove a Ford Cortina Mark 3. It had a choke, not sure I can explain what that was for to all the young’uns on here, and when it was frosty weather I used to detach the battery and bring it in overnight to charge up. My husband could fix anything that broke and we even painted it ourselves with some dark blue coach paint my brother had going spare!
Our next car was a Porsche 924 and yes, we were Yuppies 😂

I remember driving a FWB’s Capri, at speed, whilst on L plates 😎

We had a white MK1 Mexico when I was fairly young, trading up to the mark2 in signal green just as I started secondary school, lovely cars and something a little different back then

My dad was a company rep. He had a Ford Corsair GT then a Cortina MK2, then he got promoted and was given a MK3 Cortina 2000GT in powder blue, which he let me use at 17 to take my girlfriend out. She loved it and we've been married for nearly 50 years!

Great thread @OldFred!

My parents had the following in this order: Isetta bubble car (bought from an Oxford Don who had too many glasses of Sherry and sped around the corner, tipped over, had to have the bubble car righted by a passing policeman and lost his driving nerve), a mini van, an Austin 1100 (excellent car, later replaced by the Allegro :(, Hillman Stiletto (the fast backed Hillman Imp, temperamental), Cortina MkII (vinyl seats burned our arses on hot days), Morris Oxford (hated by my DF), Triumph 2000 (very up to the minute, unreliable), Triumph 2000PI, Cortina MkIII saloon (nylon fabric seats, electric shocks galore), Cortina MkIII estate, Triumph Dolomite (posh racing green with a vinyl roof, unreliable), Fiat 126 (couldn’t get up the hill), Peugeot 104 (tinny AF), Fiat 3P, Fiat 131, Vauxhall Nova, Ford Granada, Vauxhall Cavalier, Ford Sierra (stolen within a month of delivery), MGB GT, Austin Montego estate (horrific, looked like a hearse), MG Montego (horrible) … then I left home and lost track of the cars that came next.

I had a red Fiat Panda as my first car, an XR2, MGB GT, an original Mini, a MkII Golf (best car), a Morris Minor Saloon in Trafalgar Blue with 30,000 miles on the clock between 1966 and 1997 when I bought it, a Mercedes A class (horrible), a Fiat 500 convertible (loved it, sadly nicked), an Audi A3 (OK but everything has been eye watering expensive).

I’ve never owned a Triumph Herald or Vitesse but have wanted one since I was tiny. I absolutely love the every day cars of my childhood (born in 1967) - Ford Anglias, Zephyrs, Triumphs, the Rootes Group cars such as the Minx, Humber Sceptre, Imp, the original Fiat 500 (aunt had one and toured Europe in it), Minis etc etc. It’s real nostalgia but we forget how much time we spent broken down. In fact my DF’s Triumph 2000 PI burst into flames in a lay-by one day and we only just got out of it in time.

The first car I can remember my dad driving was a black Ford Anglia.Over the years he had a Vauxhall .?Victor,Ford Cortina ,Datsun Bluebird,Vauxhall Cavalier amongst others.

That was a great Porsche - first of the water cooled ones.

We had a 996 - it was like a go kart on steroids. So much fun.

First car was an Austin Mini 1000, then a Fiat 126, BF at the time had an Alfa GTV 6. My next one was a Fiat X/19 (fabulous car), a Toyota MR2, first MX5, second MX5, Honda S2000, Porsche 911, Alfa 147 ….. then I got a dog so the next very practical car was a Landrover Freelander. DH has a rare classic Porsche 911 and we have Fiat 500 Arbarth (great fun). My eclectic car history.

Mmmm … perfect car history!

Crikey, some of you have so many cars. Since 1978 I have had: Fiat 127, Golf, the bastard Rover 416?, Citroen Picasso, Ford SMax, Honda CRV.

My mum had an Austin 7 and my little brother put stones in the petrol tank more than once. Numerous other cars came along including a Ford Capri when they first came out in the 60’s. We had a steep drive and same little brother sat in it playing cars, released the handbrake and shot off down the drive into the hedge on the other side of the road!

No one has mentioned caravans, camper vans or motorhomes!
A few of my friend's parents had an assortment of these and I was deeply envious.
There seemed to be a lot more of these parked in driveways in my childhood than there are now.
My sister and I always said we will buy one, and tour the UK and the continent in our retirement.

924 was a good good car. First front engine water cooled Porsche into production (beat the 928 to it even though it was designed first). Was the car that stopped Porsche going bankrupt too.

Yes we also had a caravan in the 60s , can't remember the make but 5 of us fitted in it and my dad towed it with the Ford Corsair. One holiday we went to Bournemouth but the family hated it so much, we left and went to Barmouth in Wales which we loved!

My father liked huge old coach built cars, which he drove verrrrrrry slowly, no doubt pissing off every other driver.
My favourites were an old converted Rolls Royce hearse, with bench seats in the back where the coffin would have been. I think he installed them himself, out of wood, with caravan seat cushions covered in corduroy, made by my mother. They faced each other rather than facing forward but were great to stretch out on.
Then he had an ancient Austin Sheerline limousine, with head lamps like dinner plates and reading lights in the back. Leather seats and walnut dashboard, with running boards that we used to love standing on when he drove.
Those cars must have been 25+ years old when he had them in the sixties.
It was quite disappointing when he got an ordinary car, which was a red and white Sunbeam Rapier.
My first car was a Morris Minor and then there were various Minis, one of them hand painted pink, an Austin Healey Sprite, an MG midget, a bright yellow Vauxhall Nova, a black Ford Anglia, a dark blue Beetle.. then newer and more sensible cars with children and jobs, Polos, Fiestas, Peugeot 205, Skodas.. a couple of retired London cabs. With the shop and the rural milk round, we had some pick ups, land rovers, Discos and an old Ford Capri, an older BMW.. then I got into vans.

A relative had a Ford Cortina! I always remember it. This was in the 80s.

My dad measures his life by what car he had at the time. I was born of the Yellow Citroen 2CV era, whereas my brother was of the Chestnut Granada. My husband I married while he dallied with his white transit van.

He is currently in his Landrover Discovery Sport era but would like to move on soon.

My parents had a few falling apart cars but ended up buying several Saabs. If one goes past I love the sound of the turbo whine. Absolute classics, fast too!

How could I forget my plum and custard 2CV? One of the few cars I bought new. I did stained glass windows at the back and had a striped hood.
Finally got fed up not being able to overtake anything without the wind behind me..

@bozzabollix I had a Saab estate (which I missed off my list upthread), it was one of the best cars I’ve had, solid, comfortable, very quick and still going strong at just under 200,000 miles.

I remember my Dad’s white Chrysler Alpine with orange upholstery!! Very 70s