Here's some of the cars I've owned over the
years...
The Yank Tank
My first ever car! A 5 litre V8 Chevrolet
Caprice Station Wagon with 70k on the clock, bought from
Adventures on Wheels in
New Jersey, a company that sells cars to tourists and then buys them back
when they leave the US.
It had lovely blue vinyl (bench) seats,
which were very hot and sticky in the summer. It travelled all the way from
Washington DC to Toronto, Ohio, Boston - 12 states in all.
It was the car I was in when I got stopped by the
cops, at 2am on my 21st birthday, doing 74 in a 55
limit on US50 near Annapolis. The policeman couldn't understand my British
licence, so after a lot of confusion let me off with a warning!
The Yank Tank was sold off a year after I
bought it, as I didn't go to the US enough to justify keeping it, and it
started to rust away...
Ford Fiesta 1.1L
No pictures of this one, it was an ancient
(old) T registration Fiesta. I only kept it a few months.
Ford Ka
My first ever brand new car... It looked like a pregnant rollerskate, but it did an indicated 110mph...
This was bought from Chiltern Ford (not recommended) who
managed to take 4 months from order to delivery. The only changes to
standard spec were (a) metallic paint (b) CD Player and (c) alloy wheels, so
hardly something that should have taken months to sort out.
A nice car but the Ford fools who serviced it didn't
grease the spark plugs so they seized in the cylinder head. They had to be
drilled out by Ken at
Caveman's in Darlington (highly recommended).
This car took me everywhere from Scotland to Cornwall to
Bordeaux. I did 62k and the only thing to go wrong was the spark plugs (as
above), a wheel bearing going, and a problem with the throttle idle control
valve which I never got fixed before trading it in for...
Mercedes SLK
This was a 2001 SLK 230, 180hp, 0-60 in just over 7
seconds, with automatic transmission (like all good Mercedes should have),
black and blue leather interior, upgraded alloy wheels, CD player, heated
seats, cruise control etc. And of course that fantastic folding hard-top
that converts the car from a coupe to a convertible in 20 seconds. When I
got it, it only had 4k on the clock and was like-new.
It was great fun cruising with the top down, even when it
was cold outside, the heaters did a good job of keeping you warm.
Unfortunately it drank petrol like George Best does
whisky, and they were about to bring out a new model (so not doing anything
much for the depreciation), so after 18 months of happy ownership, I let it
go...
I'd have another one though, if anyone's offering, and is
willing to pay the fuel bills. :-). A V6 would be just perfect.
Land Rover
This one gets his own
web site...
Renault Megane Coupe Convertible
What can I say, I like folding hard tops, and this one
does 50mpg as it runs on diesel. How reliable it is now it is out of Renault
warranty remains to be seen - the French don't have a great reputation for
the quality of their engineering...
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