The car you got after passing your test

[echo beach]

7 hours ago, Slighty batty said:

Shortly after I passed my test my dad was given a company car, and so he gave me his old Lada as a Mother’s Day present. It came complete with a starting handle (I kid thee not) for emergencies and an instruction manual which said the components had to be wrapped in slushing compound during the winter months. One needed the muscles of a Russian shot putter to able to turn the wheel. My eldest boy (who was only about 6 years old at the time, but already very much into cars) was so embarrassed by it he actually asked if I really needed to park it on our drive, and couldn’t I park it up the road “outside the Fletcher’s house.”  He’d identified their house as a suitable parking spot because they were the skankiest family on the road. 

I also had a Lada when I was at Uni. In addition to the starting handle it also had a decent tool kit and a stirrup pump for blowing up the tyres.

As aerodynamic as a brick, built like a tank but was made for the Siberian conditions and would start first time in any weather.

Eventually scrapped but probably now being used on the front line in Ukraine!😆

 

My first car was a 1952 Austin A40 Somerset. Those were the days when cars were characters and had names not just numbers like today.

Drove it from Sheffield to Chesterfield all through the horrendous winter of ‘62 until in March  it skidded on pack ice on an untreated road and hit a coal lorry. That was the end of car number one. My next car was a Ferrari under the guise of an A40 Farina Well, the Farina bit was Italian!😀

 

echo..

[echo beach]

3 hours ago, lavery549@yahoo said:

My Dad had an Austin A40 , Black , we called it Bessie 

That’s my first car lavery54,

Must have been repaired and put back on the road!😆

 

echo

[wearysmith]

While we're talking cars, don't forget there's a car show on the Moor this Sunday. I believe it's from 10 (maybe 10.30?).

[echo beach]

6 hours ago, Meltman said:

First car was a Hillman Imp. I loved that car and it took us everywhere...not always without a problem though .

 

My mate turned an Imp on to its roof just short of Owler Bar having passed me racing up the hill from Baslow.

Nice little motor  but not sure about it’s stability!

 

echo.

 

echo.

[Guest]

My first car after passing my test was a cortina gt, it cost £150.

The fastest and quite probably the most comfortable was a Saab 9000  167000 on clock when I got shut, around 100000 of which I added.

Terrific car . I've had 3 of em now.

[echo beach]

42 minutes ago, crookesey said:

 

The NSU Prinz was almost identical, there were quite a few rear engined cars around in those days.

It was. 2  cylinder rear engined. Did 60+ to the gallon which was unheard of  when I had mine in ‘65.

 

echo.

[Slighty batty]

8 minutes ago, echo beach said:

I also had a Lada when I was at Uni. In addition to the starting handle it also had a decent tool kit and a stirrup pump for blowing up the tyres.

As aerodynamic as a brick, built like a tank but was made for the Siberian conditions and would start first time in any weather.

Eventually scrapped but probably now being used on the front line in Ukraine!😆

 

My first car was a 1952 Austin A40 Somerset. Those were the days when cars were characters and had names not just numbers like today.

Drove it from Sheffield to Chesterfield all through the horrendous winter of ‘62 until in March  it skidded on pack ice on an untreated road and hit a coal lorry. That was the end of car number one. My next car was a Ferrari under the guise of an A40 Farina Well, the Farina bit was Italian!😀

 

echo..

Yes, mine had a tool kit as well. It took a lot of maintenance but luckily my husband liked tinkering with cars.
 

My dad also had an Austin A40, she was called Jezebel and like yours she kept going through the winter of 62/63 without a problem. Dad often said that newer cars had failed to make it up a hill in that snow, but little Jezebel always chugged to the top with ease. One day dad also skidded on ice but Jezebel emerged unscathed because a farmer had opened a gate and as the car spun round it shot straight through the gate opening without touching a thing. Dad said the farmer looked amazed. 

[crookesey]

35 minutes ago, echo beach said:

It was. 2  cylinder rear engined. Did 60+ to the gallon which was unheard of  when I had mine in ‘65.

 

echo.

Even better than the Fiat 500. 👍

[m williamson]

40 minutes ago, Uggy said:

My first car after passing my test was a cortina gt, it cost £150.

The fastest and quite probably the most comfortable was a Saab 9000  167000 on clock when I got shut, around 100000 of which I added.

Terrific car . I've had 3 of em now.

 

Saab went out of business mainly because their engineers were perfectionists and they ignored the instruction from General Motors to copy the Vauxhall Cavalier and simply brand them Saab. When GM investigated why profits weren't what they expected they found out that Saabs were 85% Saab Trollhattan design and build.

I bought a new Saab 93 in 2000. Kept it for eight years.  Two years after the warranty expired the front inner suspension coil snapped and took out the tyre doing so. I had the car booked in for its MOT the following week.

The main dealer on Pomona street collected the car and contacted me the following day to say the work was done. I went to collect it fearing the worst as regard to cost. They charged me for the MOT, no charge for the suspension coil or tyre because Trollhattan had said that that simply shouldn't happen, and they apologised for the inconvenience!

 

I asked the guy at the service desk if he'd mentioned the state of Sheffields roads to them and he said that sometimes too much information only confused the issue 🤣

 

[Al Bundy]

Datsun 120y.