Cars You Have Driven

[markw]

I'm sure the latest Peugeots are much better although having driven works pool car 405 estates a couple of times which were allegedly turbodiesel but which had turbo-lag measured in weeks, not ideal when driving around Birmingham and you've got a two second window to get out of a sidestreet before a rapidly approaching Travel West Midlands Leyland Lynx broadsides you, it's not just the experience of the ancient and poorly developed Simca Horizon of the 1970s that's clouding my judgement on French origin motors.

That said my cousin has just bought a Citroen C3 which seems to be built out of granite and so far is performing well above expectations, so I may yet be convinced that modern French cars are not all made from tin foil with elastic band engines.

[tonymadge]

This got me thinking about my vehicles and the times I had some good and some not so good when I was in them.
Ok first off.
Austin A40 Farina bought for £80 when I was just 17. It was a great car and I learned how to set tappets using a bit of cardboard from a fag packet as the measure! That car saw me through my first trips out with the dear wife to be. Sadly it had a lousy fault where the fuel pump which was electric and under the floor used to cut out, this meant lying underneath and hitting it with a hammer! The A40 was put to sleep when the rear of the car decided to detach itself one morning due to rust...
I then bought a Morris Minor Van for £15 This was an ex post office van and was a lot of fun. However I got it cheap due to the gearbox being siezed. I had to take off the prop shaft and tow it home.
Those were the days when everyone knew someone working at British Leyland and a neighbour got me a replacement gearbox for the princely sum of 40 woodbines! I often wondered how he managed to get a gearbox out under his coat!
Anyway gearbox fitted and a new coat of paint, midnight blue from Woolies, It even had a bee painted on the roof, no a real bee that landed as the brush went over it
The side exhaust was great and noisey. That lasted me 6 months until I got my first company car a 1978 S reg Ford Escort 1.1 estate. My story goes on from there but I will stop so I dont bore you

[Garry Russell]

I learned how to set tappets using a bit of cardboard from a fag packet as the measure!

Yep and we used fag paper for the points and a thumbnail thickness set the plug gap nicely

Oh....and yes you youngun's....it did work...very well

[Jon.M]

This got me thinking about my vehicles and the times I had some good and some not so good when I was in them.
Austin A40 Farina bought for £80 when I was just 17. It was a great car and I learned how to set tappets using a bit of cardboard from a fag packet as the measure! That car saw me through my first trips out with the dear wife to be. Sadly it had a lousy fault where the fuel pump which was electric and under the floor used to cut out, this meant lying underneath and hitting it with a hammer! The A40 was put to sleep when the rear of the car decided to detach itself one morning due to rust...

I had an MGB roadster which had the same problem, an electric fuel pump mounted in the offside rear wheel arch so that the engine died shortly after driving through puddles. A can of WD40 was always in the boot but it did mean kneeling in the rain to spray the contacts.
And MGBs suffer badly from rust in the sills so that the roadster will sag in the middle.

The worst design fault I found on a car was the cheap split rear axle and single transverse leaf spring on my Triumph Spitfire MkII. During spirited cornering the rear outside wheel tried to tuck under the car, a horrible sensation.

Jon

[DaveB]

I've only ever bought petrol Peugeots Mark though I have driven diesels too. Didn't care for the 306 diesel much.. it went as you say.. slowly but a 405GRTD I drove for a short while was completely different. It'd probably still be going now had it not been written off the day after I gave it back! The 309 GRi I had got chopped in after 3months due to a mysterious cutout problem that wouldn't go away but the last two (405LX 1.6 petrol and 406LX 2.0 petrol) have been great. I've got over 100k on the clock on the 406 and it's still going strong

ATB

DaveB

[tonymadge]

MGB well thats another story I had a roadster and a GT in my younger day. Once again its a story I wont bore you with

[WhisperJet]

1998 MERCEDES CLK 230 (Son's)
2000 LOTUS ELISE (Son's)
2004 TVR TAMORA (Son's)
2008 LAMBORGHINI GALLIARDO SPYDER (Son's)

I'm thinking of giving myself up for adoption... Are you interested?

Cheers,

Nick

[cstorey]

Ah, Nick - I don't think it would be worth paying the price of having a Father like me! ( although your adoptive Mum would be very nice)

Chris

[FlyTexas]

I'm very boring.

You and me both, Chris. I've only driven just a few cars and have only owned pickup trucks...never any cars.

Brian

[fran65]

1983-1986
FIAT 500L (my first and only love)
ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA

1987-1994
ALFA ROMEO GIULIA SUPER 1600
FIAT UNO

1994-2004
VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT

2004-TODAY
HONDA CIVIC