[Lindsayp]

I never forget also my ex-father in law's Austin A35 pickup truck. The "35" denoted the maximum speed in a tailwind downhill I think. He was apparently once stopped by a copper for speeding, XFiL told him to take the car and try it for himself! No ticket was forthcoming.

[chevvron]

I never forget also my ex-father in law's Austin A35 pickup truck. The "35" denoted the maximum speed in a tailwind downhill I think. He was apparently once stopped by a copper for speeding, XFiL told him to take the car and try it for himself! No ticket was forthcoming.

My first car was an Austin A 30 which did have its faults but I loved it. The '30' certainly did not denote the max speed downhill as I took it to Santa Pod on a 'Run What You Brung' day (ie you can run anything on the track you like against the clocks and get an elapsed time for the quarter mile plus a terminal speed) and it clocked a terminal speed of about 50 mph every time.
Unfortunately I broke a halfshaft showing off to some girls at the factory where I worked so as my brother was about to buy his first (well used) Alfa, I got his Mini to replace the A30.

[seanxair]

A Peugot 407SW estate I had as a new company car about 10 years ago would switch all the systems off including the engine of its own accord. No option only a forced landing which involved coasting to the side of the road switching the ignition off and a second later it would be fine. Happened 4 times and each time it went to the garage where they couldn't find a fault. Twice on back roads no problem. Once on the M1/M18 junction as I was in the inside lane and the last time on the A1 south at Bramham in the outside lane doing about 75mph. Only for the alertness of two HGV drivers who shepherded me to the hard shoulder I'd have been chips. I refused to drive it again.

[Paul_Sengupta]

We had a couple of 407s as pool cars. As I remember they used to go into "sleep" or "battery save" mode if you didn't do anything for a while. I remember being flummoxed by this when I was listening to the radio while watching the aeroplanes in the Manchester viewing park, well, also having a bit of a snooze after a night shift. When it went into power saving mode, seemingly nothing could wake it back up again apart from actually getting out of the car, locking it, unlocking it, and getting back in.

They were quite comfortable and I was quite impressed when my 70mph run to Manchester and back averaged 55mpg! (diesel)

[morticiaskeeper]

[quote="cockney steve"]

@morticiaskeeper Is he still in business? [\quote]

Retired!

Some of the other "works" vehicles he trusted to me - Riley Elf, Riley Pathfinder, Rover SD1, VW splitty camper, VW LT28 camper, Iveco Daily, Renault Espace, Saab 9000, Saab 900, BMW M535, Montego Countryman, Maestro Van.

And lastly, that I can recall, a Nissan Ebro 7.5t truck that looked like it had competed on the Dakar!

[Korenwolf]

I went from a Mark 1 Cavalier to a 405 diesel estate and I have to say, have owned French cars ever since. The 405 was a cracker, bought it with 145000 on the clock and traded it in at 280k. Its replacement was a turbo'd 405, it was a dog but only because the aircon didn't work, which meant that the radiator cooling fans wouldn't either. Always overheating and we were glad to get rid a couple of years later. The replacement was a 406 2.1TD, and if I'd thought the original 405 was good, well the 406 was a belter. Loads of oomph and super comfortable, I'd have another one tomorrow.

I had a Focus for a while, not very impressed, the cabin was rubbish for a so-called family car, with difficulty in getting the seats folded for carrying big stuff like furniture. It used to cut out as well, the cause was a sensor mounted on the gearbox, cheap to buy one but gearbox would have needed to come out to fit it.

So, we traded that in.....for a Peugeot! An ex-rental 308 bought at one year old, it's been tremendous, just gone through 100,000 and apart from normal servicing has needed just the rear brakes replaced, and a front coil spring which was no doubt down to the shocking state of the roads around where we live.

[mick w]

I never forget also my ex-father in law's Austin A35 pickup truck. The "35" denoted the maximum speed in a tailwind downhill I think. He was apparently once stopped by a copper for speeding, XFiL told him to take the car and try it for himself! No ticket was forthcoming.

My first car was an Austin A 30 which did have its faults but I loved it. The '30' certainly did not denote the max speed downhill as I took it to Santa Pod on a 'Run What You Brung' day (ie you can anything on the track you like) and it clocked a terminal speed of about 50 mph every time.
Unfortunately broke a halfshaft showing off to some girls at the factor where worked so as my brother was about to buy his first (well used) Alfa, I got his Mini to replace the A30.

Mine used as much Oil as Petrol , I used to snigger on my way to work , seeing that little rear Window filled with blue Smoke .

[Sir Morley Steven]

My dad gave me a five year old Morris Marina. It was like a clown car. What a pile of schyte.

[spaughty]

My worst was a Citroen C3 Pluriel.

Happily the memories are fading but it had some kind of a semi-automatic gearbox which tried to kill me at junctions if I pulled out into any gap less than half a mile. Basically:
1) I selected a gear
2) Gearbox generated a random number
3) Gearbox waited that random period
4) Car moved forward sharply

Its other trick was to self-lock suddenly. It happened once to my wife with the keys on the front seat and the baby in the back. Fortunately she was just outside the house where we had a spare set of keys...

[skydriller]

Hmmm, where to start?

1st car I ever owned was a 1985 Ford 1.6D Escort. I had it through College, Uni and for the first few years of work, had over 150k miles before it passed away.

My current car is my toy, an old 996, I always wanted a Porsche and I wasn't disappointed, its great fun and handles better than anything else Ive ever driven, It actually makes you want to drive it quickly and precisely, a sports car you can use every day, but take the kids to school in and take on holiday too.

In between Ive had various cars and hired many, many more. The bad ones that stand out were hiring an Opel Minerva? and a Hyundi i30 estate car....Both drove like they were large bowls of custard, stuff didnt work and I seemed to be forever putting petrol in them, and that Quashqai thing?

Mini Cooper & BMW 1 series were fun, the latter more practical space wise but still fun to drive (and as a result my GF now has a 1series). I surprised myself by liking the Dacia Dusty I had in Romania, for the price it was an outstanding 4x4 that handled all the Carp that country could throw at it on and off road.

But each to their own...

Regards, SD..

[riverrock]

Automatic Nissan Micra (hired).
Poor driving position and no power.
You put your foot to the floor, you looked at your watch, you counted to three then the noise would suddenly go high pitch as a lower gear was selected (it couldn't have had many of them). I wondered whether the high pitch noise was created with a speaker, as I didn't go any faster.

Most disappointing : Hummer H3 (hired). Big in the outside, tiny on the inside. Only two small uncomfortable seats in the back and the pointless pickup truck rear meaning no boot. Terrible radio, driving position similar to Ford Transit.

[nickwilcock]

Worst ever was a Morris Marina hire car. Utterly appalling handling, drum brakes which didn't work when wet and it could only just reach 70mph on the M3. I'd had use of the old Ford 100E family second car, but unlike the wretched Marina, it didn't pretend to be something it wasn't!

That was back in the early 1970s. Worst car in recent times was something called a Ford Fusion, again a hire car. When I drove it back from Ulm to Munich, it struggled up some of the A8 gradients - changing down allowed it to accelerate (just), but it made an appalling racket and when I changed up, it promptly decelerated as it didn't have sufficient power to maintain speed uphill in top! What made it worse was that I totally failed to get any noise out of the radio except for admonishing beeps and flashing German text which meant nothing to me. Utter POS!

[avtur3]

Automatic Nissan Micra (hired).

.... You put your foot to the floor, you looked at your watch, you counted to three then the noise would suddenly go high pitch as a lower gear was selected (it couldn't have had many of them). I wondered whether the high pitch noise was created with a speaker, as I didn't go any faster. .....

Sounds as though it was a CVT auto, the one which has infinitely variable ratios, put your foot down, revs peak and car slowly (depending on engine size) speeds up until it catches up with the engine. A strange sensation that takes some getting used to.

[avtur3]

Worst ever was a Morris Marina hire car. Utterly appalling handling, drum brakes which didn't work when wet and it could only just reach 70mph on the M3. I'd had use of the old Ford 100E family second car, but unlike the wretched Marina, it didn't pretend to be something it wasn't!

Each to his own, I had a Marina 1.8 4 door saloon as a company car back in the late 70's, power from 1.8 (not TC) was OK and it did have disc brakes up front. I found it made getting from A to B quite an 'enjoyable' challenge

[kanga]

..

Sounds as though it was a CVT auto, the one which has infinitely variable ratios, put your foot down, revs peak and car slowly (depending on engine size) speeds up until it catches up with the engine. ...

Sounds like a neighbour's Daf from the '70s. She was used to it and loved it for her sorts of journey needs (mostly local and (sub)urban), and a bonus was that none of her young relatives wanted to borrow it ..