The Dark Wob

Good car for learners the Datty, light steering, easy clutch, nice gentle gearchange. They are like the mechanicals of an A35 made oil tight and with all crudity ironed out, then cloaked in a pair of flares and a Kaftan.

My lean towards Munich’s finest began XX when I was working ina Ford dealership.
I was servicing one of Henry’s finest when I heard a distinct sound come in on the ramp next to me.
Looking up it was a henna red 323i E21. It sounded lovely and sitting in it - I could easy see the difference from Henry.
As soon as I could I bought an E21 and had several before buying my E30 323i some 34 years ago.
I have had a BMW on fleet ever since.

I have had other cars at the same time including Passats, ovlov, Granada, Astra and Fiat. But always a BMW - if only the 323i that is still with me.

I was born in 1961 so was an impressionable kid when the mk3 Cortina came out and so that really should be my thing.
But Father Alf ran a small country garage which traded in Anglias, Minxes, a few standards and Vivas/Crestas and my playground was the orchard come scrapyard which was full of 1940s and early fifties stuff. I played in these for hours and on some the engines would slowly turn over on their knackered batteries. I'll always remember a mk6 Bentley which dad took in p/ex against a Minx from an Air Force bloke at RAF Cardington.......this fella had taken the head off but run out of skills to put it back together. It was fettled up and dad ran it for a few months.....as a trader everything was always for sale and he got a decent offer and off it went.
As a kid I would hang around the workshop and was only too happy to help out with decokes where I'd get the job of grinding valves in.
I became an avid custom car reader aged about 11 and for my 12th birthday I got a non running Ford Pop to begin my build.......then I discovered girls and it never got done!
Once married with kids my eye was taken by a Ford Pilot around the back of a closed garage but it proved impossible to buy as the owner 'knew what it was worth'. I looked around for a while before buying a 1946 Rover 14 in bits which I spent a good a few years working on......then a good mate died and I decided I wanted something to drive now because life was too short.......
I looked around a bit and bought a 1947 Rover 12 sports saloon.....that was nearly 20 years ago and I've still got it and it was joined about 5 years ago by a 1941 Chevy pickup.
I just love the shape of the older stuff although I like anything 'cherished'.......including right into the 80s

This is a great thread - looking back at most of the utter crap I've had over the years (and still have some of) it's been primarily informed by what was available rather than things I had a burning desire to own.

There were a couple of exceptions - both disappointing in their own way - a MK2 Cortina 1600E I owned in the early 80s (shit steering, shit performance, fucking terrible brakes), my Passat VR6 that was a lot of fun at times - but not the ultimate car I'd hoped when I owned an earlier 1.8 and found out there was a VR6 version. In many ways the 1.8 was the better car.

A certain amount of it has been about being deliberately contrary, too - I have deliberately dodged BMWs because so many people rave on about how great they are.

I once floored my boss in the late 80s when I got promotion and was offered an upgrade from my Fiesta XR2 company car to a BMW. In those days BMs had virtually nothing as standard - and I'd had a lift in a colleague's weezy 1.8 thing (the same thing I was getting offered) with concrete seats, keep fit windows and a massive steering wheel - I was not impressed, and managed to score a Sierra XR4x4 that had been a Salesman's instead.

I bought my 56 Chevy as it was RHD - and though I like some Yank stuff, I really don't fancy driving on the wrong side of the car. I had no idea at the time that this basically makes me a cunt in the eyes of 99% of other Yank car owners who don't think RHD ones should be legal in a RHD country. Seriously, I don't know why these yee-hars dont go to the USA if they wish to emulate it so much.
I had wanted a Tri-Chevy since seeing one at a car show Wollaton Hall in Nottingham when I was a kid. At the same show I remember seeing a Honda SS50 with a perspex screen that had a sticker on saying "helmet law fuck" - funny the things you remember.

When I bought the Chevy I had no idea what they were worth, what to look for or any clue about the RHD thing. It was £1500 (I think) and since it had its original reg I thought I might make money from plate raping it if nothing else.

It is pretty funny to think that now I could wob it up to fury and start driving it due to the changes in MOT rules. When I bought it it was a long way off MOT standard at the time (still is), although the chassis is very sound.

I bought the AMC because it was a RHD yank with a V8 and MOT for £2500. It's been a lot of fun actually.

A couple of years before I'd tried to buy a RHD AMC Wagon from a bloke in Scotland - that (or a RHD 70s Jeep) is still my Holy grail (aside from the Chevy ever getting done).

I can identify with the disappointment in the VR6 / 1.8 analogy.....Too many times, I seem to have discovered that often the better car for me is lower down the range. I had a weekend with the boss's M535i E28 and I much preferred the overall drive of the E18 520 that my mate had at the time. Of course, performance was far better in the bigger, newer car but it didn't drive as pleasantly overall. I have never craved outright performance though.

I had a similar "meh" when I changed from a 2.3LX Granada to a 2.8 Ghia X - I liked the softer suspension and basic trim of the cheaper model and I didn't appreciate the air-con when I had to change the rad, either.

My Cowley is a nicer thing to drive than the Isis, too, so I won't be making that transition.

Are there any ISISs left?

That 1.8 Passat wasn't all that swift, but it was mega economical.

I know somebody with about 10 Isisses but there are a good few around still. They are one of those cars that tend to linger in barns, unrecorded and unknown. When I was at primary school one used to come past me each morning, a duo-green Series II (the last model, mesh grille). That would have been over 55 years ago and I remember my Mum telling me it was a rare car, even then!

That Isis is still in the village, shut away in the garage of the original owner's son - himself now well past doing anything with it.

See there isn't any car I desire to own, not at the moment and not for some time now; I did used to have temporary boners over some cars but I will not pay silly money for them. So now I rather tend to let the cars come to me, my next car will be what turns up and feels right.

Anything I am prepared to drive, never mind actually Want, is way above what I am prepared to spend on a car. I haven't bought anything over £3K since I got my licence in 1977 and don't intend to start now. Much as I love cars I have loads more interests to spaff my money on and those wants are not going to go away....