Re: Car "Quirks" Your Family Has/Had.
Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:38 am
Growing up at home my dad bought whatever was cheap out the damage and capable of towing a caravan and I mean some proper nails too. My mum could only drive autos so my dad tended to have manuals because it usually meant on a miserable wet day he would find the car gone and my mums honda c90 sat on the garden instead.
Due to towing a caravan though it was usually large cars he had except for a handful of Austin maxi 1750. My dad also never owned a car very long which looking back now he probably didn't bother with insurance or tax back then. One nice car my grandparents bought my dad was a rover 3500 vitesse on a c plate,was sold though when my mum died in 1995 and went back to shonky nails for a few years.
Some of his little pearls were,in no particular order
1977 open commodore 2.8 with a knackered gearbox. 4th was noisy and 3rd didn't work.
Ford granada ghia 2.8 that caught fire when it backfired through the carb
Volvo 245 2.1 in cream colour with brown vinyl roof. On the way home from buying it it packed up,coil died I think and it was towed from Clipstone to Skegby with a 1.3 Talbot alpine.
Vauxhall carlton 2200 estate with taped up door edges,bitumen sills and a really bad fuel smell in the car.
Open rekord that someone broke into and nicked the stereo. Never ran right after that due to butchered wiring from failed hot wire
Vauxhall cavalier commander 1.6 with no ignition keys just an on/off switch and a push start.
Granada 2.3 lx yet again with no keys just an ignition barrel hanging down.
Cortina 1.6 that blew its engine
Cortina 2.3 that was a write off and the engine went in the carousel 1.6 above.
Many more but too many to list.
My grandad (dad's dad) only bought British until his last car which was a volvo 340 variomatic on a G plate. Bought at 2 years old and kept till he died in 1999. Before that though he had a few cars I can remember but are vague due to me being born in 1987. First memory was a very early mk2 granada ghia x and he towed a monza caravan with that. Grandma decided they were getting too old to tow so made him sell the granny and van and buy a commer camper. Had that a month before grandad sold it as he hated it. That was replaced by an A plate 2.0 GL Sierra automatic and a sprite caravan.
One of my earliest memories is of going on holiday to great Yarmouth with my dad,mum,mum's mum and sister in my dad's white ambassador and caravan,grandad following in the Sierra and caravan. Sierra blew its engine somewhere near Swaffham so my dad ended up towing his van and some family to vauxhall holiday site,coming back for grandads caravan then on the third return trip he towed in grandads car. They ended up swapping the engine on site the next day. Couldn't get away with that these days!
Not many folk on my mums side drove. My aunts boyfriend had a bmw 520i from new in 1984 till 1997 when it was chopped in against a Peugeot 306 on motability for his mum then he had motability cars till last year when he bought a tiguan. Another aunts boyfriend has only ever had vauxhalls. Started with a white chevette with tartan seats,then an E plate 1.6 mk2 cav,L plate 1.8 cav,V plate vectra 2.0 auto and he's now got a 1.9cdti vectra estate. Owned the last vectra nearly 10 years now and it's never been serviced,only gets fixed when it fails an mot too. God knows how it's still alive.
Another aunt,the only one who can drive, only had escorts for years. Started with a Y plate pale blue mk3 that was stolen,a red x plate mk3 replaced that,E plate mark 4 and L plate mk5 were the next ones. Replaced the mk5 with a 406 though but thought it too big,bought a rover 45 but hated it so bought a c max. Had that for years till last year it was replaced by a pug 207 1.6 hdi. On a 61 plate. I did say it won't be ideal for her being a dpf fitted car as she only does less than 2 mile to work a day and probably less than 3000 a year total.
Due to towing a caravan though it was usually large cars he had except for a handful of Austin maxi 1750. My dad also never owned a car very long which looking back now he probably didn't bother with insurance or tax back then. One nice car my grandparents bought my dad was a rover 3500 vitesse on a c plate,was sold though when my mum died in 1995 and went back to shonky nails for a few years.
Some of his little pearls were,in no particular order
1977 open commodore 2.8 with a knackered gearbox. 4th was noisy and 3rd didn't work.
Ford granada ghia 2.8 that caught fire when it backfired through the carb
Volvo 245 2.1 in cream colour with brown vinyl roof. On the way home from buying it it packed up,coil died I think and it was towed from Clipstone to Skegby with a 1.3 Talbot alpine.
Vauxhall carlton 2200 estate with taped up door edges,bitumen sills and a really bad fuel smell in the car.
Open rekord that someone broke into and nicked the stereo. Never ran right after that due to butchered wiring from failed hot wire
Vauxhall cavalier commander 1.6 with no ignition keys just an on/off switch and a push start.
Granada 2.3 lx yet again with no keys just an ignition barrel hanging down.
Cortina 1.6 that blew its engine
Cortina 2.3 that was a write off and the engine went in the carousel 1.6 above.
Many more but too many to list.
My grandad (dad's dad) only bought British until his last car which was a volvo 340 variomatic on a G plate. Bought at 2 years old and kept till he died in 1999. Before that though he had a few cars I can remember but are vague due to me being born in 1987. First memory was a very early mk2 granada ghia x and he towed a monza caravan with that. Grandma decided they were getting too old to tow so made him sell the granny and van and buy a commer camper. Had that a month before grandad sold it as he hated it. That was replaced by an A plate 2.0 GL Sierra automatic and a sprite caravan.
One of my earliest memories is of going on holiday to great Yarmouth with my dad,mum,mum's mum and sister in my dad's white ambassador and caravan,grandad following in the Sierra and caravan. Sierra blew its engine somewhere near Swaffham so my dad ended up towing his van and some family to vauxhall holiday site,coming back for grandads caravan then on the third return trip he towed in grandads car. They ended up swapping the engine on site the next day. Couldn't get away with that these days!
Not many folk on my mums side drove. My aunts boyfriend had a bmw 520i from new in 1984 till 1997 when it was chopped in against a Peugeot 306 on motability for his mum then he had motability cars till last year when he bought a tiguan. Another aunts boyfriend has only ever had vauxhalls. Started with a white chevette with tartan seats,then an E plate 1.6 mk2 cav,L plate 1.8 cav,V plate vectra 2.0 auto and he's now got a 1.9cdti vectra estate. Owned the last vectra nearly 10 years now and it's never been serviced,only gets fixed when it fails an mot too. God knows how it's still alive.
Another aunt,the only one who can drive, only had escorts for years. Started with a Y plate pale blue mk3 that was stolen,a red x plate mk3 replaced that,E plate mark 4 and L plate mk5 were the next ones. Replaced the mk5 with a 406 though but thought it too big,bought a rover 45 but hated it so bought a c max. Had that for years till last year it was replaced by a pug 207 1.6 hdi. On a 61 plate. I did say it won't be ideal for her being a dpf fitted car as she only does less than 2 mile to work a day and probably less than 3000 a year total.