Old cars we knew - funny stories

Yes, I had an old mini, I loved it. It could be temperamental to start and I could take the key out of the ignition without turning the engine off! I used to go to the local shop, take the key out, lock it up, do my shopping and go back to it with the engine still running!! It also had a starter button with a rubber cap on the floor. Later when I had a puppy he came shopping with me and waited in the car, he always removed the rubber cover off the starter button!

Remember the days when cars had vinyl seats ?

I remember us all getting into the family car on a hot day and the vinyl would be blistering hot to sit on, not to mention the smell, which I’m sure was probably really toxic.

Most girls and women wore dresses or skirts in those days and the hot, sticky vinyl melting onto the back of your legs was excruciating!!

I also remember my Dad putting silver foil on the front of the car radiator in Winter time. I seem to remember seeing a lot of silver foiled radiators!

My first car, bought when I was 17, was a Morris Minor convertible. Bought for £25 I had only had it for 3 weeks when I was in an accident (entirely my fault...) Luckily my brother was a mechanic and replaced damaged wings etc and I chose to have it resprayed in bright yellow!

I sold it for £45 - the only car I have ever made a profit on!

I remember a girl who used to buy a car for £50. Run it til it dropped. Get £20 from the scrapper and go again. She drove some radical cars!!

My dad came home one day with an Armstrong Siddley, so in we all got for a drive around.
We got to the top of our road, and bang, the rear half shaft, or some such, had broken, and that was the end of our outing.
(He probably bought it because his name was Sid, and mum called him Siddley)

One of our early cars was an Austin Allegro, that had a gear box like stirring porridge, when selecting a gear.

I learnt to drive on a really old bomb - a Holden premier estate. It was huge and long and I figured if I had a prang the long body would offer protection. It cost $500 in 1975. The first time I went out alone at night it just stopped and so I knocked at the nearest house and asked if I could use their phone- no mobiles then. Luckily my husband was home and came armed with jumper leads to get it going. These days I would think twice about knocking on some stranger’s door at night. Innocent days then.

My first car was a Hillman Imp which was a dud from the start.
The worst occasion was on a freezing night when we all turned out from an evening 'do' most the worst for wear after a few drinks.
Car wouldn't start of course, as usual, so everyone pushed it to bump start it. Within minutes, huge clouds of smoke came out from underneath and we all hid behind a hedge awaiting the explosion. Petrol dripping on the exhaust apparently.

Actually a slightly more recent one - 2002ish - had a Peugeot with hydraulic suspension. It failed while we were in France. But altho it was a French car they wouldn’t fix it. We drove home to north England in what I can only describe as a bouncy castle. It wallowed and bounced all the way. We were all car sick. Lovely.

Oh the days when you could see the road through the floor! ???

I can remember that the car was a Standard Vanguard and was a mushroom colour.

Our first car was an old mini that we bought when DH was serving in Belgium, where DH passed he driving test. Our first long outing was a trip to Antwerp Zoo, but the rear subframe broke on the way and we had to limp home. During our next posting to Northern Ireland, a collision with a huge seagull broke a headlamp, there was a rust hole in the floor panel where water came up off the road and left you paddling, and someone shot a hole in it (I kid you not) which just missed the petrol tank. Fortunately it also missed, by a whisker, the man they were aiming at! For all it's misfortunes, it was a good little car that never let us down mechanically and we covered a heck of a lot of miles in it with all our kit and caboodle and two small children stuffed in the back! Amazing what you could fit into a mini!

Gone are the days when you saw the exhaust had dropped and was dragging along the road Or held up with wire.

I can remember my dad breaking the window-winder and was left holding the handle of it as he drove along. He'd said it was a bit draughty so started to wind it up---needless to say it was draughtier than ever as well as there just being enough room to do his hand signals

We once had an old banger - some kind of Triumph - that got stuck in second gear on a journey home from holiday. Made it all the way from Darlington to Edinburgh. Don't ask me how. My husband was the mechanic. I just quietly prayed. LONG trip and certainly memorable!!