3 year old Mk I Ford Focus. Cost Mr B £6500 ish. Somehow, I chose it, even though I couldn't drive at the time, because I figured it was a good medium sized, mid-engined car for him to enjoy driving to work and me to learn in. I replaced the radio with a DAB one.

Nissan micra k11 for 300 quid. Cheap runner super banger 1litter engine chain cam 0-60 in less than 12 seconds. Everything looks good until I check is rusting like hell, sad to see it go, failed mot end up in scrap yard. Like the car very much it drives like a go kart. Weirdly the previous owner put a short shifter on the car lol!

I also opted for the K11 Micra, although my 1 litre "S" model could never manage 0-60 in less than the 14 or so seconds from the bumf. Nice little car for a first one - no electric windows, A/C or other bits to go wrong (I was only earning £10k p.a. then, so couldn't afford expensive repairs on complex electricals!). God knows how I managed to save up £6450 for it (2yo) in 1998! Not cheap compared to when I bought my second (and current) car, a Mazda3 1.6 petrol TS2 at £10,300 new (del miles only) from Motorpoint in 2006 (the list price of the Micra when new was nearly £9k!!). Got £450 px for the Micra.

8 years of happy (if a bit slow) motoring - generally very reliable, simple to drive/park and cheap to run, which is why I bought it. Got rid of it as it finally started to show its age (starting to rust in expensive to repair areas), failing its MOT twice, so it was time for a change.

Morris 1000 pickup truck. £90 in 1969. Had been used as a Land Rover alternative by a farmer. Failed the first MOT due to rust. I was standing underneath with the tester when he tapped a hole in the chassis with his finger. He didn’t even blink – just said “I don’t think we’re going to be able to pass this one.”

Why? Always more interested in commercials than cars. Had vans for 12 years after that before finally getting an estate car.

Vauxhall Velox. A senior apprentice in the garage I worked at decided that one of the rear wheel bearings needed adjusting. A few hours later the wheel fell off. I ended up in a ditch. No harm done. To pay for the towing home cost I had to give the car to the rescue garage. Then I bought a Standard 8. That conked out within a mile of buying it. Nothing much has changed over the last 45yrs.

With the old Vauxhall Velox I used to put in 4 gallons for a quid ...

A 1972 Renault 4 in white cost £500 quid which I had saved up from summer job. Had the car for 3 years it took me all over Europe on a lads road trip only required usual service items and only extra expense was a new clutch. Sold it to buy a Renault 17 TS still hanker after a good 4 though

We had a Renault 6 850cc for a while, same engine bigger body. 0-60 eventually but fun to drive, that was pretty much trouble free. From what I remember, the engine felt unburstable.

1929 Riley 9 £30 plus whatever an MOT copst. Sold for £120 one year later.

(a LONG time ago..)

Like Alan O, mine was that Harry Potter star, an Anglia, passed on from my brother. The gear stick broke off once en route back from uni, so learned all about sliiping the clutch quite fast, as well as traffic light anticipation, so I never had to stop in 2 hours driving!

First car I bought was a white Citroen GS - smoth as silk, loved German motorways [army days] and had a 1,200 cc air cooled engine. Faultless car. Paid £1,200 in about 1977. Can't remember what I sold it for 4 years later.

Great cars, so long as we don't compare them to those of today in terms of safety and road holding! Such fun to 'turn on a sixpence'. The soft top version my Mum had felt as though the rear end would only follow the front at low speeds....

D type Jaguar. Because they they were winners in those days. Wish I'd kept it...and its box.

Ahhh, John F, how true!! Dinky or Corgi for you? I think Corgi brought in suspension first, which I thought was the bees knees! I remember the Bond Aston Martin DB4 too, with ejector seat, bullet proof screen behind the rear window (press the exhaust pipe in to operate), opening doors too.

If we're talking toy cars, mine's a green Pickford's box van.

...and mine's a mint 'n boxed tank transporter with tank. When I was a small boy my father bought a few Dinkies 'cos they were so well made and kept them well away from me! Nothing v rare, but nice mementos. Didn't really go for Corgis, despite the cool suspension.

I remember having a Golf Driver 3-dr as a company car and being offered an AX GT five door by the FD as someone had left. I departed the office, drove about 10 miles for a job, returned to the office and took the Golf keys back. Far too light and flimsy for my liking.

My first car was a hand me down from my father's business, a 1.5 Alfasud, which I managed to drive for about a year before the engine knocked itself to pieces. I still miss it and its idoisyncrasies like the fan switch being on a stalk by the steering wheel.....(bizarre)!

my first car after passing the driving test in 1993 was a honda civic 1.3 dl 1985 C reg for £1200, it had similar components to a rover 213, the seats at the back can slide so if you needed more boot space and vice versa.

only bits needed replacing was a new clutch, brake pads, exhaust, i kept that for roughly 10 years, the body was getting rusty and someone stole the front indicator light the whole kit.

Getting parts for it was rare, so with great reluctance it had to go, next car was a vauxhall astra 1994 1.4 hitorq model, wish i never bought it!

still miss the civic it was metallic blue

Edited by sajid on 10/10/2012 at 21:47

Mine was a 1953 Ford Anglia. I won £265 on the football pools in 1962 and lashed out £150 on this car on my Dad's advice. He was a big Ford man; I wanted a Morris Minor but he talked me down. The Ford was a rubbish car, actually. 3 speed gear box, no heater, vacuum driven wipers - the faster you drove the slower the wipers operated. Nightmare in a thunderstorm going up Dinas Maywwyd! Nevertheless did me proud for several years and was replaced with a 1957 Morris 1000 which had a heater and proper wipers but, sadly, still semaphore trafficators which stuck, so you had to give the door pillar a bang from time to time. Happy days!