The MG one wasn't so bad, certainly not as bad as the standard ones. Few friends had those and they were pretty terrible. One of them woke up one morning to find his missing, which he wasn't hugely upset about. He was pretty upset when one his neighbours tapped on his door to say his car was blocking the road round the corner, seems the theives nicked it, drove it 100m or so then decided to bail on it. Abandoned it in the middle of the street, both doors open and a screw driver still in the ignition barrel
Not so bad in relative terms. Nothing good EVER came out of Austin Rover group, or BMC. I think the government bail outs were a terrible decision, as they were able to continue doing things wrong - where was the incentive to up your game to rival the competition if you can continue loosing money? BMW or Audi / VW etc. never needed a government bail out because it was producing better quality vehicles that people actually wanted to buy.
Ha, yeah...think time may have dulled my memory slightly/a lot! It was my first car as well so that probably went in it's favour too
There was a good documentary on the iplayer about the relationship between the German car manufacturers and their current economic situation, which was nicely compared against the British car market.
That was an excellent programme, which didn't tell me much I didn't already know or suspect, apart from the fact that it was the British army that saved VW after the war. Now, that was a revelation. But a great synopsis all the same.
I learnt to drive in my mother's Morris 1000 Traveller. Shortly afterwards, she chopped it in for the great British world-beater (sic) - the Austin Metro. It was dire. The Morris might have been 10 years old, but it still out-performed the gutless, bland, feeble Metro. The Metro was a marketing scam. It's a bit sad when you have to appeal to patriotism to sell your wares, viz: "our product has no discernible advantages or redeeming features, but it was made by your countrymen." Brilliant.
My first company car was a Metro City, Metro Shity we used to call them, absolute loathsome car, so basic, it didn't have a passenger sun visor or nearside mirror. I remember when we picked three of them up brand new from Evans Hawshaw in Aylesbury, one of my colleagues pulled the whole gearstick out as he pulled out of the dealership!
Ford Popular 100E, 1172cc side valve, 3 speed gearbox, vacuum powered windscreen wipers that were hopeless when accelerating and thrashed about trying to rip themselves off the spindles as soon as you took your foot off the throttle due to the increase in vacuum. Taught myself to drive when I was around 14, by starting up the dumper trucks on a nearby building site and creating chaos. Paid dividends when I was 17 and took my test as I only needed 1 driving lesson to pass.
Mine was a 1984 VW Polo. Paid 30 quid for it. Ran solid for 3 years. No service no oil change. Finally the alternator went and would have cost more than the car value to replace with a second hand one! Ended up selling it to a really cool guy who raced it in a destruction derby! Still got the pictures.if I find em ill post some up. Was spray painted black with "Men in Black" on the side.. Lol
1976 mkII ford escort 1.1 pop plus. Bought for £125 in 1987. 1 new clutch, 1 engine rebuild, lots of rust to repair, but gave me an insight into fixing stuff. Happy days. Until some scrote nicked it one lunchtime outside the local near the factory where I was serving my time :-(
Mk 1 Ford Escort 1973 I think! Blue .. Wish I'd kept it!!!!!!! I'd still drive it today and probably would have now done it up. Only thing I disliked same as my bug .. Plastic seats .. Hot day ... Burnt bottom and thighs. Lovely cars ! Except yes Pete The Rust !!!!
1995 micra, still have it. Fookin bombproof. The only thing that can stop it is oover 2.5 ft of snow. -18 degrees dont phase it at all. I still have it but its runied from NOT driving it. Great car. 112k mls on it.
