Cars I’ve Owned

My list would be too crossed due to SWMBO. So I will provide award winners.

Worst car _ Audi 1.9 TDI Avant.
Best handling car_BMW 118d Msport
Worst handling car_Volvo XC70 (people say it handles like a boat. That's unfair to boats)
Best car for depreciation _ Landrover Defender 90XS (3yrs at £400)
Worst car for depreciation _ BMW 6 Series convertible (3.5yrs at £33,500)
Most comfortable car_Landrover D3 V8
Most economical car_Outlander PHEV
Most uneconomical car_Landrover D3 V8
Most speeding tickets_Nova GTE
Most expensive to service_Audi 1.9
Most warranty claims_Discovery 2 X5 TD5 (new chassis at 3yrs)
Least warranty claims_Outlander PHEV
Fastest car_ BMW Z3 3.0
Most fun car_Mini JCW (so far)
Smallest car_Fiat 500
Biggest single bill _ MGB roadster + £16.5k restoration
Best allrounder_VW California
Most expensive to buy_VW California
Cheapest to buy_Hilliman Avenger + £100 (twin lights)
Longest ownership_MGB Roadster
Shortest ownership_Fiat 500
Cheapest to service_Fiat 500
Most hyped car_BMW X5 3.0d (first edition)

When i got my driverslicence at 18y in 1991 i only ever had driven small motorbikes
Honda Camino (25cc , 2-stroke) and a Suzuki DR scramblebike(50cc)
Got my mom's car for my 18th birthday
It was a '84 SUBARU Mini Jumbo 665cc ! witch costed about 5000€ new back then
I drove it for 6 months and blown the engine....mom was not pleased!

A used '88 TOYOTA Corolla 1600 GTI 16v hatchback it was next .
Payed 6.250€ In '92

Meanwhile the 50cc Suzuki DR was standing there unused and sold it to get a real motorbike.
So a '91 SUZUKI RGV 250cc 2-stroke it was...
Full Lucky-Stike colors Kevin Schwants lookalike.
Payed 4375€ in '93

Sold the RGV a year later for only 125€ less then i payed !
For a '93 HONDA Fireblade 900cc ( the one with the two round headlights)
Payed 8625€ in '94

Meanwhile in '95 i swapped the Corolla for a beemer
To me still the nicest model from BMW
'92 E36 - 325i coupé in Mauritius blue , black leather interieur.
My best mate had a E36-M3 so we where two very proud young boys ...
Payed it 17.800€ cash ! witch was a loooot of money for boys our age but i earned it all myself
I remember working 6 days a week 10h/day and spending it all on cars , buying clothing and partying ...
A good friend wanted a Renault 5 GT Turbo and i borrowed him money without anything on paper and without intrest , we where real pertolheads back then .

Sold the Fireblade in '98 for 6600€

Then, don't know why , sudenly my intrest for fast&furious cars went away and got a
'99 Land Rover Freelander 2.0 Diesel softback (partly convertible)
This time my first ever new car , payed 27 000€ cash
Selling the beemer got me 10 750€

Had a lot of fun in the Freelander but a Def was the real deal next....
a '03 Defender SE 90 Td5 it was , a Zambesi Silver hard top , two seater.
It was 30 800€ new , payed cash without a finance , selling the Freebie brought up 16 000€

driving a Defender is a ultimate experience and i told myself i never would sell it.
I had a Hannibal roof tent and did 4x4 meets but never did realy extreme off-road as i was thinking about how valuble that car was...

At certain point due to working at only 3km from home and buying a house to renovate the Defender was most of time parked up and unused . And driving to France visting my brother-in-law was no fun 1000km in a noisy tin can...
Always since my early 20's dreamd of a VW California i got to buy a unused showroommodel with a very good discount and so i let my '03 Defender go in 2012 with not even 80 000km for the sum of 13 500€ witch i still regret but without selling it there would never been a Cali on the drive.

The '12 Cali was 49 990€ payed again without any finance plan .

And actually i drive a 16y old RENAULT Kangoo two seater witch my wife got with only 8000km on the clock when one year old in 2001. Now it has 125 000km and hope it gets thru the "keuring" (MOT) next year.

Next up .....? Who knows...


From all the cars&bikes above i still have the sales bills and maintenance bills in a map witch i just used to get to make this list.

Can try and look for some retro pictures later.
Cheers
Edit:
No picture of the nice Subaru....
Me 19y old on the RGV and the Corolla in the background.

The Fireblade and Corolla with new rims...

My lovely BMW ....

LR Freelander

And my Defender , this was one of the first off-roads things i did when the car was 2 months old.

Later we used it to camp , this is taken on the driveway and my Renault Kangoo is partly visible to , my house still under construction.

This was actually during a roadbook in Vandieres where we held the recent Cali champagne meet . We had a Defender meet there back then .

Second the X5 being the most hyped car. I owned a 2013 X5 40d. It was just a sort of very fast small van. It had know sole and was always breaking down. F

Just updated. Unfairly I had the VW Cali as most warranty claims. That accolade actually goes to Discovery 2 TD5 that I forgot about. Near enough everything that goes wrong did.

First X5 was even worse. We had a 2010 X5 that was better and the 8 speed was nice but stupidly hard suspension and negative camber meant it ate a set of tyres every 19k miles. That one did a transfer box but BMW picked up 90% of the £5k cost.

I’d forgotten about motorbikes, I might have to go back & add some ...

All this wasted cash! - if only I’d stuck to a handful I might’ve been able to jack in work & clear off in the Cali by now

2CV67 said:

1934 Scott Flying Squirrel (600cc water-cooled 2-stroke bike)
1934 Morgan MX4 3-wheeler
Renault 4CV (rear engine)
Jowett Javelin
Supercharged Frog-eye Sprite
Triumph Vitesse convertible
Sunbeam Tiger 4.2 V8
Lotus Elan coupé
Fiat 500 (rear-engine)
Lotus Elan Sprint drop-head (High point?)
Citroen Dyane
Fiat X1/9 (mid-engine)
Renault 17TS (folding roof)
2CV6 (x2)
Renault Fuego (folding roof)
Porsche 911E Targa 2.4
Renault Espace
Toyota Yaris
Suzuki Wagon R+
California
Golf Cabriolet

Click to expand...

Jowett Javelin now there’s a car !

Nice Fireblade. Had an RRN in 1992 in black (second batch into the UK). Stolen in 1993. 21k miles in 15months.

Had some fun on that.

2CV67 said:

1934 Scott Flying Squirrel (600cc water-cooled 2-stroke bike)
1934 Morgan MX4 3-wheeler
Renault 4CV (rear engine)
Jowett Javelin
Supercharged Frog-eye Sprite
Triumph Vitesse convertible
Sunbeam Tiger 4.2 V8
Lotus Elan coupé
Fiat 500 (rear-engine)
Lotus Elan Sprint drop-head (High point?)
Citroen Dyane
Fiat X1/9 (mid-engine)
Renault 17TS (folding roof)
2CV6 (x2)
Renault Fuego (folding roof)
Porsche 911E Targa 2.4
Renault Espace
Toyota Yaris
Suzuki Wagon R+
California
Golf Cabriolet

Click to expand...

And more Frog eyed Sprite , Triumph Vitesse , Sunbeam Tiger , Lotus Elan ....respect !

Trebor said:

Jowett Javelin now there’s a car !

Click to expand...

Agree.

Dad bought one after he totalled a Singer Le Mans that he'd rebuilt. Fond memories of the Javelin on Whitsuntide holidays to the west coast of Scotland. Arisaig, Malliag, Skye and Ardnamurchan - magic times. As a ten year old I had to sit on an old wooden crate behind dad so all the gear for camping would fit in. I once went with him to the Jowett works. Sadly too young to really remember too much about that. He moved on to Hillman Imps and then...

Our first car which was an Alfa 1300 GT Junior (ex Dad) - still the best car we ever owned just for the amazing style. I have and ebay search set - so I'm still hankering after one...

Actually, I'm surprised there aren't more folks like us with a lot of Alfas and SAABs in the list.

After the GT Junior we moved to the Netherlands and to start with things were good then things went downhill a bit.

Red Alfa Sud - superb to drive but quickly went a bit lacy round the edges.
I then had company cars
Renault 14 - in a colour that what we called baby sing brown - although we didn't learn about that until a bit later
Honda Quintet - not a bad car actually
The other half had an Opel Kadett - which was a good car.
SAAB 9000 - and relax, now we're getting somewhere.
Another 9000 - this one did 400k Kms and we brought to back to the UK. Some idiot swiped it from the drive and smashed up the interior - the insurance guy when he saw the mileage said according to his formula we owed him - not vice versa!!
SAAB 900 - workhorse
SAAB 9000 Anniversary edition - finally died when the electrics got a bit flaky - but another workhorse - vast boot - really comfortable - took my sons back to the west coast of Scotland camping in this one. Fond memories.
Back in the UK the other half went - Ford Fiesta (2), SAAB 900 convertible, SAAB 9-3 convertible which we still have - we're waiting for the Tesla Roadster convertible - hope the SAAB lasts out.
After the last 9000 I then went VW Polo - travelling a lot, kids car initially but if your car is either on the drive or in an airport anything cheap works. Actually enjoyed driving the Polo a lot even on motorways.
Then finally on retirement the Beach. Which was the first new vehicle we'd ever bought (exception was the Kadett) all the rest we actually bought were bought off lease and run for as long as reasonable.

Anyway, if anyone has an Alfa 1300 GT Junior in decent nick I might be interested.

Bramco said:

Red Alfa Sud - superb to drive but quickly went a bit lacy round the edges.

Click to expand...

What a stylish car the Alfasud was - shame they built them with such dreadful steel or there might be some left around as classics.

How did I miss this thread. I love cars and have spent far too much on them in the past but here are a few of my favourites.

My first quick car... Renaultsport Clio 182. I was 21 and just drove it flat out everywhere. It just stuck to the road and loved to rev. Great little car.


When I qualified as an air traffic controller I treated myself to an Mercedes SLK 55 AMG. It had a stonking V8 in a tiny car but it broke after 2 weeks so we rejected it...



We swapped the SLK for a C class with an even bigger V8 (6.2litre). The noise... oh the noise. The C63 AMG was unbelievably quick and we enjoyed 2 track days with the car before we decided to sell to buy a new house. It was very expensive to run as you'd expect but I had 'scratched an itch' by having a monstrous V8...



Another itch to scratch was to run a 'modern classic' so we bought an old Porsche 944. It was very cool as it had pop up headlights and made the garage smell amazing. It even featured in Classic and Sports Car magazine with me at the wheel... oh and did I mention it had pop up headlights?!! We really didn't use it enough so it went after about a year.



We now run a BMW M140i. This has been a really nice surprise of a car as I didn't drive one before I ordered but it is blisteringly quick and really is a bit of a bargain with some fantastic deals from BMW on these. It is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing with 345bhp and almost as much torque as the C63. In the real world it feels just as quick as the C63 too but we can get 30mpg out of it and it has £140 road tax. Great car...

@CaliforniaCamping , you'd better had stick to the Clio...
Mate's of me had Clio 16v and Renault 5 turbo's .....real fun to drive!

hotel california said:

@CaliforniaCamping , you'd better had stick to the Clio...
Mate's of me had Clio 16v and Renault 5 turbo's .....real fun to drive!

Click to expand...

I think you're right. I miss that car so much. It's mad to think "hot hatchbacks" like the BMW we have now have nearly double the horsepower of hot hatches only 10 years ago! We will all be driving 600bhp Ford Focus' soon

... when I was young the money was few ... I remember I was going out on Sunday with only one pound in my pocket ... but then I started working hard and I had hard cars! Abarth 695, Abarth 124, Alpine Renault, Bmw M3, Lancia HF, Subaru Sti ... and also hard bikes..Kawa 500 Mach3, Yama Rd500, Honda Rc30, Ktm gs350, Maico 500, MV Agusta1000 ...... .bei times .... all the other cars and motorbikes do not remember them ... it's old age ...

alter said:

... when I was young the money was few ... I remember I was going out on Sunday with only one pound in my pocket ... but then I started working hard and I had hard cars! Abarth 695, Abarth 124, Alpine Renault, Bmw M3, Lancia HF, Subaru Sti ... and also hard bikes..Kawa 500 Mach3, Yama Rd500, Honda Rc30, Ktm gs350, Maico 500, MV Agusta1000 ...... .bei times .... all the other cars and motorbikes do not remember them ... it's old age ...

Click to expand...

A bit of a bike and rally car theme there. Love it

..... the memories of those times do not leave me .... fortunately ..... was the youth ...., I have some pain of falls with the cross bikes ..... hahaha. .... now I try to stay young with the Cali !! ....

Looking at our car mix I think I may be a bit eccentric! I’ve excluded work periods where I have had load of company cars (thankfully company cars a thing of the past!). Some were owned concurrently…..

First car - 1964 VW Karmann Ghia Coupe (was my Grandfathers)
Then in roughly the right order:
1969 Morgan 4/4 Competition
Then I built a Burlington Beretta (family arrived by this time) which is based on Triumph components
2CV
Vauxhall Astra
1966 Ford Cortina MK1 - which I uprated with almost period modifications - hot 1600 Kent crossflow etc
Volvo 850 estate
Volvo V70 estate
1969 VW Beetle (which I again modified and upgraded somewhat)
I then built a Dax Tojeiro AC Cobra replica (we bought the Cali after we sold this some 16 years later as I kept it a while)
Saab 93 Convertible (still got)
Saab 93 Sportswagen
1967 VW Splitscreen Microbus (still got)
Golf GTI Mk7 (still got)

It’s been fun so far!

I went through the Japanese phase, having a MR2 turbo then a couple of Supra twin turbos. Then moved on to a Porsche 911 C4 and then kids popped out so that was traded in for a Porsche Cayenne 4.5 Turbo - I thought I had a hole in the fuel tank it dropped so quickly...

Then started my own business so toys went, ragged an old Ford Focus for a few years, an S-Max Titanium Sport then ended up with the T6 Beach oh and somewhere in there I had a GSXR-600 but quickly decided bikes and I where not going to have a long happy life together...!

Wow , people have had a lot of cars .......
Then I started my list and realised how many I had forgot about.....

Series 2 Swb landrover 1968
Ford escort 1.4 1988
Volvo 340 1986
Cavalier Sri 1996
Landrover 110 csw 1992 camper
Series 2 Swb landrover 1958
Honda Civic est 2001
Honda Accord aerodeck 2007
Landrover 90 csw 1992
Landrover 110 csw camper 1996
Landrover 110 csw auto 1992
Landrover 110 commercial 1999
Landrover 110 camel trophy 1998
Landrover discovery camel trophy 1998 team
Landrover discovery 2 2004
Landrover d2 2001
Landrover discovery1 1996 v8
Citroen dispatch 2008
Ford transit 2011
Ford transit 2012
Ford transit 2013
Landrover 90 csw 2004 ( still have)
Honda CR-V 2013 ( still have)
VW California Ocean Dec 2017 ( picking up tomorrow)

Tompoole. You sure love your land rover as do i, but the puma 2.2 was a nightmare and killed the love. But it was the only make of car i never lost money on. The Morgan on the other hand was a money bit. I wish I still had my old and trusted 300tdi 110. How long the California lasts is in debate.F

Here's my completed Alziemers test:

1. Lambretta Li 150 (ex Police - no miles, bought at auction. I crashed it a lot )
2. Nasty early Mini with plastic bonnet (cost £17.50 - full of sweet wrappers)
3. Slightly better Mini (mostly held together by rust)
4. The worst mini in history (spent a fortune on it and it remained a complete steaming turd)
5. Morris Minor 4 door saloon. Superb little car.
Baby number one arrived
6. Morris Oxford saloon. (a roomy but a rough old tub that steered like a yacht)
Baby number two arrived
7. Austin Allegro (personal import from Belgium which I converted to right hand drive. I know, I don't know why either!) Sold immediately afterwards as:
Baby number three arrived
8. 1936 Morris Eight saloon (resto project)
9. Morris Marina estate (very reliable. Sold to a neighbour who immediately turned it upside down on ice right outside his house on a Sunday morning. There were more blue flashing lights than you could shake a stick at!)
10. Austin Mini Metro for Mrs B
11. Rover Mini Metro " " "
12. Morris minor two door saloon (mint. After I sold it, it was lost in a flood)
Baby number four arrived - it was about this time that we discovered what was doing it and I was despached to the vets for modification!
13 Peugeot 505 seven seater Family estate. (Lovely car, very roomy and built like a brick built **** house).
14. Peugeot 505 seven seater Family estate. (New - Lease car)
15. Peugeot 505 seven seater Family estate.
16. 1928 Morgan J.A.P V twin Aero three wheeler. (resto project)
17. VW Golf Estate Umvelt (new)
18. VW Polo (Mrs B wrote it off )
19. Replaced by a Skoda Felicia (new)
20. VW Golf Estate TDI (new)
21. VW Passat Estate TDI (new)
22. VW Golf GT TDI (New, I saw this then new model at the motor show and had to have one. Having bought one of the first in the country it turned out to be the worst new car I have ever bought.)
23. VW Passat Saloon TDI (second hand as three of the babies were by then at university at the same time ££££££££££££££££££££££££
24. 1909 Renault AX #
25. VW Passat Estate TDI (ex VW press fleet but very low miles)
26. Jaguar XJ6 Soveriegn (the best suspension I've ever owned).
27. 1927 Rolls Royce 20hp Windovers Landualette (exquisite art deco opulence)
28. 1923 Rolls Royce 20hp Barker open drive limosine with partition (owned for only 24 hours before taking it back due to severe engine cooling issues).
29. Mercedes Benz E Class seven seat estate. (Great car. I'd probably still have it if the auto gearbox hadn't started to let go)
30. Mercedes Benz R Class seven seat estate. (comfortable and a good tow car but compromised in just about every other way. The ugliest car I've ever owned. We called it the Pig. Also started to develop auto gearbox issues!).
31. VW Golf estate. We found out after purchasing this cheap stop gap car that it had been modified. It had a large Garrett turbo fitted and other hidden racey mods. It went like a cat with its tail on fire. Gave it to our eldest son who ragged it into the ground.
32. 1912 Austin 10/12 Sirdar Phaeton #
33. Skoda Superb TDI MK 1 (simply superb)
34. 1994 Mercedes Benz 190 2.5 diesel auto ( lovely car, built like a tank but so sluggish)
35. VW California T5 SE 180 dsg 4 Motion (utterly gorgeous)
36. VW California T6 150 manual Beach (most versatile car I've ever owned) #
37. Skoda Superb 170 ps dsg estate. (Fantastic) #
38. 1933 MG J2 two seater sports. #

We still own the five of the above marked #

I've also owned 3 x Triumph Heralds, a VW Transporter T4 LWB panel van, 3 x Citroen 2cvs (great fun but not a car to be involved in an accident with), a Morris traveler (all rot), 2 x early Passat TDis, a BMW 316 (mint), an elderly (also mint) Mercedes Benz E class saloon, a Mobylette moped, a Honda C50, a new Honda C70, a new Honda C90 step throughs (all great bikes) and a new Honda SL 125 trail bike. I can't remember where any of these came in the scheme of things. Most of these vehicles were either bought cheaply and sold on quicker to make a bob or two or were used for cheap commuting hacks.


So there you have it, the good, the bad, the ugly.......... and the darn right awful.

Which of these vehicles couldn't I live without? ...................without a doubt, the answer has to be the California. It will do more and is much more practical and versatile than any of the above.

You can’t beat a tdi mate
My old 200tdi camper was absolutely great, it took us over 100k miles without much trouble......
I know what you mean re puma ... I had three transits and while they never let me down , there was always an issue that needed sorting .!!

My current td5 is an absolute gem but needs more attention than the old tdi....

Let’s see how much fun we can have in a Cali ,

my 300tdi was the very last one made, took it all over europe and into Russia with a roof tent on the top. Just had so much fun with it. The puma was always in the garage. And the narrow power band lead to just going up and down the gearbox, made driving hard work. But boy do I miss it, it was the 110 double cab and I used it as a skip, touring machine and a great tow car. But it was just too untrustworthy to keep. But as I said did not cost a penny and is worth more now then I paid for it new. Fords are not that good, too cost cutting for the price. F

frenchie said:

my 300tdi was the very last one made, took it all over europe and into Russia with a roof tent on the top. Just had so much fun with it. The puma was always in the garage. And the narrow power band lead to just going up and down the gearbox, made driving hard work. But boy do I miss it, it was the 110 double cab and I used it as a skip, touring machine and a great tow car. But it was just too untrustworthy to keep. But as I said did not cost a penny and is worth more now then I paid for it new. Fords are not that good, too cost cutting for the price. F

Click to expand...

I have just finished 2 300tdi full rebuilds
Everything galv and rebuilt to good as new
Never owned a 300 until these
Had 2 200’s
A td5
And now 2 300’s literally just drove them home and stripped them down
It has took me 12 months to get them finished
Looking forward to using one and selling the other
Great you say that there the most reliable and did exactly what you wanted
Looking forward to many many years of adventures in the Defender as well as the California

The 300tdi, never missed a beat. To my mind land rover went the wrong way with the puma engine. But the defender was going to be killed off thanks to the EU. I am sure you will have great fun it. But don't add A/C its useless in the defender and takes up lots of cabin space which is small enough as is. F