Your first motor stories

The Criminal Justice Bill was the governments ultimate response.

1964 Morris Mini Minor, Tartan Red, 4552 VU.
Sliding side windows, solenoid starter button on the floor, cable door openers. Took us from Manchester to Cornwall on holiday, to loads of gigs & we slept in it at The Bickershaw Festival in '72.

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Stolen for a fortnight, it came back full of Fleetwood, Pay & Display tickets, it had been to the seaside on its holidays.
It would refuse to start if there was a heavy dew, misfired if it rained and rusted away even in the height of summer. I became a slave to WD40.
Replaced the rear subframe, entire braking system, CV joints, a front wing, the carpets every couple of years as it leaked like a sieve, and resprayed it a hideous shade of Black Tulip with a matt black roof (it was the 70s)
The annual MOT failure report would always run to several pages. After the brakes failed on a hill and we came to rest in a woman’s front garden a mechanic declared it “a total fuckin death trap!”
So it had to go.

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Haha, I had an old Triumph Herald in the 70s. The locks were so worn, you could open them with a screwdriver.

It was stolen three times in one month from outside my girlfriend’s place in L’pool (I was round there a lot) and left in exactly the same spot on a housing estate in Birkenhead on all three occasions.

When I reported it stolen the third time, I suggested to the police where they might find it - sure enough, that’s where it was :laughing:

We finished just after that - the bloke who was nicking it was probably well disappointed he’d missed out on his regular transport home! :smirk:

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My old EH Holden…

…was stolen 3 times. Each time it was found by the cops it was in better condition than when it was stolen. It had been washed (?), full of fuel, and on the final occasion, the boot was full of cigarettes (I was a smoker). The police left them in the car as they knew me quite well.

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Liverpool?
Only 3 times?
:grin:

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Of course, we never found the hub-caps :grinning:

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I was there, but I don’t remember it.

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love those ford zodiacs , i know someone with one still

incredible history re ladywood and balsall heath. thank goodness things have got a bit better now

Is that a Ghia ? My second car was an escort 1.6 Ghia
My first was one of these. Paid ÂŁ80 for it with 12months Mot . 449F5C39-6511-48C1-87E6-15F9A842FBC1

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first car was an austin 1100 . hydroelastic suspension if i remember . bought it off a junior doctor who had allowed the engine to freeze if i rembember

took my mates to brighton in it and one complained of a wet bottom , turned out the wheelarch was rusted through showering water on him

Waits for predictable joke!

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My second car was an Austin 1800 automatic with the same suspension. Oh, how we larfed while sitting in drive with the handbrake on watching the other road users gawk when the front would bounce up and down in tune to the revs.

I inherited a Morris 2200 from my father, same body as the 1800 but with a 2.2, 6 pot engine. A very thirsty land crab. Oh and it was brown, the upside was that it had a huge back seat :roll_eyes:

If you slid the front seats forward and laid them down, they formed a double bed :grinning:
Perfect for the young couple/drive-in theatre interface :+1:

'Tis actually the ONLY reason I kept the car for as long as I did.

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I had a Rover 827 Sterling where all 3, very deep, velour coated rear seats slid forward, at the touch of a button, making a perfectly flat, extremely comfortable, full car width double bed,

I thank you,Rover, with all of my heart. :grinning:

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Velour? Yuk, stain removal must have been a nightmare :scream:

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Not my car, but identical even down to those wheel trims. 1275 A series engine, black velour interior.

The go faster stripe wasn’t black, it was a dark shade of brown (I suppose it’s possible that it had faded to that…) with a faint metallic fleck.

It had a persistent leak that would leave the footwells swimming in an inch of water every time it was left out in the rain. Luckily, as there was absolutely no sound proofing you could just pull the carpet out to dry and mop it out. I sealed around every possible ingress point on that car, and never ever solved it. So I just drilled the floorpan instead.

It was obviously the most uncool car on the road, but it took me all over Britain, never broke down and cost buttons. I actually miss it a little bit.

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Back in the late 70s early 80s my parents had an 5 speed 1600 estate allegro, my father claims it was reliable and never broke down. We drove to Germany in it for a family holiday (i was about 4yrs old, good knows what they were thinking). To this day I distinctly remember my father announcing that it was doing 95mph on the autobarn. It must have been quite a sight at that speed as i doubt many were sold on the continent.

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yes we bought an old allegro a few years back , think it stayed less than a month !