This post lists the cars I’ve owned over the last fifty-four years. Sadly, I don’t have pictures of most of them. On turning seventeen I got my provisional licence and signed up with the instructor who had taught my mother to drive. In May 1971, at my second attempt, I passed the test and getting a car became my all-consuming ambition. I was working for the AA between school and university and reckoned I could save £100 for the car + £50 for insurance. My father didn’t drive, couldn’t see why I needed a car and so was not willing to help me, a pity really as an extra £100-£200 would have made a huge difference to what I could buy.
Now for the cars
1. 1962 Mini
After endless scanning of ads in the local paper and Exchange and Mart and numerous wasted visits to view rust boxes I settled on a nine-year old Mini that showed its age. I should have waited until I’d saved a bit more but the impatience of youth knew no bounds. The car may have cost £100 but during the two years I owned it I spent around £400 on replacing parts, most expensively the engine and gearbox, but also was a sucker for accessories that would allegedly make the car go better, faster or be safer. Most Saturdays were spent fixing something, whether necessary or not. Its fate was sealed when a massive Scania truck ploughed into it when stopped at traffic lights.
Engine: 848cc, 34 BHP, Overall length 3.0m
2. 1970 Mini van
The cars that followed were much better, largely because by then I had more money at my disposal: the Mini was replaced by 1970 Mini van bought from my upstairs neighbour. It had the optional 998cc engine. I fitted, necessitating the payment of Purchase Tax. This vehicle served me well for several years.
Engine: 998cc, 38 BHP, Overall length 3.3m
3. DAF 66 Estate
In 1976 I got promoted to District Building Control Officer, one benefit of this being that I now qualified for a low-interest car loan, repaid by deductions from my salary. DAFs of this era were famous for their own ‘rubber band’ automatic transmission, since reinvented as CVT transmission used in millions of cars across the world. It made for a very good car when driving from site to site. Helpfully, the nearest main dealer to me, Woodlawn Motors was easy to get to.
Engine: 1289cc, 57 BHP, Overall length 3.8m
4. 1979 Chrysler Sunbeam 1.3 – my first new car
I can’t remember why I decided to change cars, but the Chrysler Sunbeam caught my attention. I was particularly attracted by the frameless rear window.After a while I decided that I needed something with larger luggage capacity. Going over the jaded paintwork with T-Cut left patches of primer. The solution was what is known as a ‘blow over’. The trade-in dealer was not impressed!
Engine: 1295cc, 59 BHP, Overall length 3.8m
5. 1981 Austin Maxi 1750L
About this time British Leyland were selling off stocks of the just-discontinued Austin Maxi. A new one could be mine for £4,100 and soon was. To my boss’s chagrin, mine, unlike his, was a good reliable vehicle. Apart from the load-carrying capacity, the other attractions were the 1748cc engine which brought in a higher work mileage allowance, and its overall length of 4.04m, which meant just it fitted in the off-street parking space at my home. It stayed on the DVLA register until 2000, a life of 19 years.
Engine: 1748cc, 72 BHP, Overall length 4.1m
6.1985 Austin Maestro HLE
Maestro cutaway (from brochure)
Lot of people rate the Maestro as British Leyland’s worst car. I beg to differ: I like the big doors, generous glass area and wheel-at-each-corner styling. A local dealer had this one on the forecourt and with the benefit of finance (which I later regretted) it was mine. It was an HLE model (premium trim, economy tune) and was a beautifully relaxing car to drive.
AROnline Maestro development story.Engine: 1275cc, 64 BHP, Overall length 4.05m
7. 1990 Skoda Favorit
8. 1995 Skoda Felicia
In the early-1990s my business was failing and I was deep in debt. Then the tide turned. With more than a little difficulty I cleared the car loan on the Maestro and sold it, giving me a temporary cash buffer. My DAF dealer (above) now sold Skodas and I was able to buy a Favorit 136L on HP with a very low deposit, the remaining cash tiding me over – this was the time of the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia so perhaps Skoda were desperate to move metal. When I collected it, I looked at the dashboard and remarked to the dealer, “it’s got a rev counter; this model doesn’t”. In reply he said “it’s so chaotic in the factory that they’re fitting whatever they can find: count yourself lucky”.
Following Volkswagen’s takeover of Skoda, The Felicia was a reskinned Favorit with other VW engineering improvements – for example mine retained the Skoda 1289cc engine, but with fuel injection rather than a carburettor.
Engines: 1289cc, 63/68 BHP, Overall length 3.85m
/9. 1998 Suzuki Wagon
Suzuki Wagon series 1 (from brochure)
As someone who places a premium on functionality, the Suzuki Wagon looked just the vehicle for me. Others were less keen. Jeremy Clarkson (IIRC) said of it “the only person who would buy one of these is an escapee from a lunatic asylum”. And I was hoping to keep my secret safe! Uniquely both Wagons were built in Hungary.
10. 2001 Suzuki Wagon
Suzuki Wagon series 2 (from brochure)
The second incarnation of the Wagon was an aesthetically less challenging restyle. Mine is still on the DVLA register, MOT expiring January 2006. Apart from my DAF it was my first automatic.
Engines: 996/1298cc, 64/75 BHP, Overall length 3.4/3.5m
11. 2003 Honda Jazz
12. 2006 Honda Jazz
My second Honda Jazz
When the Honda Jazz appeared I knew it was the car for me, mainly because of its ‘magic seat’ which when folded gave a massive luggage capacity. I bought one and wasn’t disappointed.
Three years on I got a mailout from Chiswick Honda saying that they were short of cars like mine and would be able to offer me a very good trade-in price against a new Jazz. My first instinct was to ignore it, but on checking their website this looked to be true. At Chiswick Honda I tabled a printout of an ad showing what they could sell mine for, and my cheque book (remember them?) and said that if they could agree to £4,000 cost-to-change we had a deal. They did, we did.
Engines: 1339cc, 82 BHP, Overall length 3.3m
Why these cars?
When I moved into my own home in 1981 the 4m max parking space (ex front garden) was a key factor in choosing a car.
Whilst working as a council employee (1974-1984), maximising the difference between the mileage money one could claim and running costs was a key factor: thus a Maxi 1750 could be a better option than something smaller.
Once I became self-employed in the UK (1984-2008) it made most sense to run my cars as company cars and change them every three years or so. Choosing cars like my two Suzuki Wagons and two Honda Jazzes kept the perk tax to a minimum. IIRC the tax due was originally based on engine size, then on CO2 emissions. The Jazz was particularly good in this respect.
The ones I didn’t buy
You’ll have noted the absence of exotica, fast cars and prestige cars. No Fords or Vauxhalls either.
For my first car, I was mainly looking at Minis. I would have done better with an Austin A40 or Morris 1000, but the techno-snob in me didn’t want a car with 1950s technology. I also looked at several Wolseley Hornets and Riley Elfs (Minis with a boot) but the ones in my price range were really ready for the breakers.
Later I was attracted by the idea of a Saab 96 or Nissan Prairie but both were too long for my parking space. With hindsight I wish I’d bought a Triumph 1300 at some point.
And in Australia …
Here in Australia I’ve owned a Prius C, Nissan X-Trail and Toyota RAV4 hybrid.
In my teenage days most of my contemporaries and me impatiently waited for our seventeenth birthdays, the point at which we could apply for provisional driving licences and start the journey that would end with passing the driving test. This is now less the case: In UK a government report stated that driving licensing among young people peaked in 1992/4, with 48% of 17-20 year-olds holding a driving licence. By 2014 only 29% of 17-20 year olds held a licence.
