What car did your dad drive...

carchaeologist

Self explanetry really,what cars did your dad drive and is there any funny stories attatched to them?
Mine had an 81 english import VW jetta at one stage that got so rusty the rear axle came away from the body, it was welded up and lasted a year or two more until the same thing happened again!!
Ah,pre NCT days eh!!
Im sure there is some funny stories to be told out there!!:D

Captain Slow IRL

He had 2 cavaliers (maybe 1 was a vectra?!), at 2 different points. 1 would just cut out without warning and bring on the engine light, leave it a minute and it would start and drive without hesitation - opel dealership couldn't pinpoint it.

The other cavalier was cool - recaro bucket seats and alloy wheels, and they were all factory fitted. Then the older brother wrote it off:(

Ruu_Old

We had a number of jalopies as we called them during my childhood years.

Fiat 127 (3rd series)


Fiat Ritmo (3rd series). I always liked that one.


A dreaded Toyota Corolla wagon type one, like the one below. Exhaust fell off several times, had to be held up by a wire hanger and finally a hole appeared in the middle of it so it sounded as though we were driving a Boeing down the street.
The paint job well...it was silver-ish and looked like someone used interior house paint on it.

Pigman II

Hillmann Avenger (although it was called Chrysler Avenger by the time we got ours).

Cool name for a cool car. We used to pretend it was the ectomobile.

admiralofthefleet

back in the 80's it was one of these..til the focus arrived

chuci

my dad had a new ford cortina and was teaching my mam how to drive when they first met and she crashed it into a tree.

anthony4335

The one I most remember is a 1982 Toyota Starlet ,red ,I even still remember the licence plate 453 GIE. Used to sit me or my brother on his lap and let us steer it. my brother now does the same thing with his son. Before that was a Corolla in blue, after that was a Lada 1500 riva estate in cream (learned to drive in this one). My parents have a thing for the underdog when it comes to car manufactures, currently drive a Kia.

kelle

Triumph Toledo in 1974, followed by a Triumph Dolomite in 1977, then a Triumph Acclaim in 1988.

God, I remember the Lada jokes: What do you call a Lada on top of a hill? A miracle. How do you double the value of a Lada? Put petrol in it.

byte

I remember a Renault 4, with the mad L shaped gearstick sticking out of the dash!

Duiske

A Triumph Herald is the first car I remember my dad driving



followed by a Hillman Hunter estate...

carchaeologist

chuci wrote: »

my dad had a new ford cortina and was teaching my mam how to drive when they first met and she crashed it into a tree.

Haha, nasty,though seeing as you appeared he must have forgave her!!!:D

120_Minutes

i can remember every car my dad's had since i was born, and most of the reg's, yet i cant remember yesterday....

renault 16
toyota cressida
toyota cressida (again)
opel ascona
peugeot 505
renault 9
toyota carina 2
mitsubishi lancer
toyota carina e
volvo s40

thalia_13

haha my dad had some bangers, mostly fiats through the years, the ritmo I recall especially nosiy and shaky despite being new. My mum drove it through a flood up as high as the window and god love the car it didnt seize and made it though without any issue!

He had a lovely VW campervan, the hippy one, god knows why he got rid of it, it was class! Then it was a Hillman Hunter....

He went through alot of cars, mustve liked that new car smell! has a 96 merc now, against the trend! its some beast of a car, a bullock ploughed in to the front of it a few months back, and he was still able to drive her home. poor bullock was driven through the window (and subsequently had to be put down poor thing!)... german engineering must account for all likely incidents!

youcancallmeal

My Dad went through quite a few but one that comes to mind is the beautifully boxy Nissan Sunny:

Tzetze

First car I remember was a Mark 1 Cortina. There were a couple of Fiat 127s, an estate Passat (yellow ugh), a Vauxhall Viva. That's about all I can remember before the more modern cars.

brayblue24

kelle wrote: »

God, I remember the Lada jokes: What do you call a Lada on top of a hill? A miracle. How do you double the value of a Lada? Put petrol in it.

What do you call a Lada with a sunroof? A skip

Jigsaw

Something like this

http://www.snuffledopple.com/images/4822g.jpg

humberklog

This little beauty. An Autin 1300 estate.

freddyf

My dad had about 4 or 5 different Mini's, then he got posh and bought a nissan micra. I think he had 3 of them, Now he drives a nissan van.

My dad dosent like change.

kevmy

youcancallme>al wrote: »

My Dad went through quite a few but one that comes to mind is the beautifully boxy Nissan Sunny:

We had two of these before we moved onto an Almera. New upgrade is expected 2009 - probably a Primera:rolleyes:

Pre-sunny days I have vague memories of a horrid green Renault which had the needle stuck at 70 mph

FatherTed

brayblue24 wrote: »

What do you call a Lada with a sunroof? A skip

Why do Lada's have rear window heaters? To keep your hands warm when you are pushing it.

I remember we had:

Beetle(Blue):

Escort:

Kadett:

Kadett:

tc20

The ones i can remember - (from the early 70s onwards)

Grey Ford Anglia (the Harry Potter job)

Brown Mini (summer hols all round Ireland in this)

Yellow Vauxhall Viva (gearstick came out in his hand a number of times)

Green Ford Escort Mk1 (4325 ZC) (loved that car, i recall the clock going around 100,000 miles and Dad beeping the horn when it did!)

Red Renault 12 (807 CIK) first car i drove

Yellow Opel Kadett like Father Teds brown number above ^ (first car i crashed, well wrote off actually )

Blue Ford Fiesta (823 NNI) car i bought him to replace the above...

Got me own wheels at this point!

BrianFantana

Ah yes..

Ford Cortina (broke down going though some flooded road the day he bought it and had to roll up his trousers and push it out),
Mark 1 Golf
Another Mark 1 golf
Opel Ascona.
Then came my fav an 87 Nissan Bluebird ZX Turbo in Black..loved it.
Next 1.6 Primera.
1.9 Passat,
2 Renault lagunas.
Lexus IS200
Lexus IS250

carchaeologist

120_Minutes wrote: »

i can remember every car my dad's had since i was born, and most of the reg's, yet i cant remember yesterday....

renault 16
toyota cressida
toyota cressida (again)
opel ascona
peugeot 505
renault 9
toyota carina 2
mitsubishi lancer
toyota carina e
volvo s40

What were the regs?Im a bit of a number plate enthusiast!!:DThere is hardly a cressida left in the country now i would say!
Im liking the stories, keep em coming!!

milod

'72 Ford Escort 2 door Mk1 (1.3)
'74 Hillman Avenger
'76 Citroen GS 1.1
'78 Fiat 131 Mirafiori (head-on collision after 6 months)
'78 Citroen GSA 1.25
'81 Nissan Bluebird 1.6 Saloon
'84 Mazda 323 1.3
'88 Citroen CX
'91 Opel Astra 1.3
'95 Mitsubishi Lancer
'00 Skoda Octavia

jos28

The first car I remember is a Grey Ford Anglia 1965c
The next was a Vauxhall Victor Reg RZC 801-I think it was 1959
http://shane-conway.fotopic.net/p44028966.html
My Dad's was grey/wine coloured. It was a huge car with a bench seat in the front and the gear stick on the steering column. The entire family could fit into it, and we did !
Mam, Dad, 3 kids, Granny and Auntie all drove from Dublin to Kerry for the holidays in it.
After that he bought a Hillman Avenger Reg TIN 883. It went round the clock when my Dad had it and then it went on to be a taxi.
My Dad worked on the assembly line for the first mini back in the 50s, pity he did not get free samples.

WiCkLaMuLlA

well i member Da had,
Ford Cortina
Ford Corsair ?
Bedford Van (white of course)
Morris Marina (reg. 9947 ZU)
Ford Escort 1.1 an ex-demo model which he got rid of asap as it 'drank loike a fish son'.
a yella Datsun Cherry reg. 88 GNI
A red Nissan Cherry reg. 342 KNI
Nissan Micra reg. 115 PNI (i learned to drive in that one)
Mitsubishi Colt reg. 87 WW 656
Renault 19 Chamade reg. 90 WW ???
God alone know what came after that lot but i tink he's driving a Pug 307 now !!

ps. Up Wickla !

anthony4335

Ah the lada jokes, I have not heard them since my parents traded it in 1990 for a Proton 1.3GLS. Horrilbe car to look at but not too bad to drive, rear wheel drive and all. There quite a few of them around back then but they dissappeared in 1990, as my parents were about to get another one.

brayblue24

carchaeologist wrote: »

What were the regs?Im a bit of a number plate enthusiast!!:DThere is hardly a cressida left in the country now i would say!
Im liking the stories, keep em coming!!

You asked for it:
Blue Vauxhall Viva CZJ 371
Blue Vauxhall Viva 6053 YI
Blue Ford Cortina 930 OIK
Mustard Toyota Corolla K20 722 FZC
Beige (LOL) Renault 5 770 CNI
Brown Fiat Panda 86 D ???? (I think I might have got a life around about that time!)..

giftgrub

It was 1978, I was a baby, it was my parent's first car when they moved back to ireland from South Africa where the old lad had been working

It was a Hillman Hunter




The f***er actually got stolen, and we got it back! The ignition was ripped out, my old lady had to rub two wires together to start it

WiCkLaMuLlA

ok i have to admit loving them Opel Kadett's in the pics above:) i actually went to look at a 1980 one last year, red so twas, the later square headloight model, very low moiles and feck all corrosion......yummy 1.2 enjun and it actually had headrests......jaysus i need to lye doon now:rolleyes:

dazberry

The 'ol lad worked** in FIAT so - from early days it was FIAT after FIAT...
** well clocked in and clocked out - whether he did any work is debatable.

(prior to my appearance/memory a Mini, and maybe a FIAT 500)
Fiat 600
126 I called it Herbie - but that didn't make it go any faster
127 (at one point we had both the 126 and 127 - it didn't last long)
Panda (due to the FIAT connection - it was ex-Garage - so for 5 years we drove around with a cream coloured Panda with 80s go faster stripes with Sweeney and Forte Panda on the side).
Ritmo (don't think anyone like this - but my 'ol lad had it for years after we all bolted)
96 Punto (sat in it once - never liked it. My mother had a 96 Corsa - it was far nicer).

D.

Run_to_da_hills

Da's cars
VW Beetle Oval 1956-1965
VW Type 2 Splitty Camper 1959 (Have similar again)
VW Variant Square back 1965-1969
VW Variant Square back (New) 1969-1978
Ford Thames Camper 1972
VW Type 2 Bay window camper 1975-1979
Peugeot 404 1978-1981
VW Golf MK1 (New) 1981-1999
Peugeot 405 1999-2003
VW Golf MK3 (Current car)

Gary ITR

My dad had a long list of bangers....

Mazda 323 (208 DZJ)
Nissan Sunny Van
Nissan Cherry (Last generation, cool car)
Nissan Bluebird
Toyota Corolla DX '84, Irish model, stolen 4 days after he bought it and burned
Mazda 323 (1980) Had this car around 1994, perfect condition, garaged and one owner from new, also had just got a full respray... Stolen and burned
Nissan Cherry
Renault 9 Louisianne
Toyota Carina II, 85, lovely car
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Carina II Executive, (88 L 212)
Fiat Brava '96
Mercedes E200 '00

Hermy

Rover P6B
Ford Zephyr
VW Beetle
Fiat 124
Citreon CX
Vauxhall Chevette

carchaeologist

I never listed what the old man had that i can remember..
Reliant regal supervan
Ford anglia estate
a selection of MK1&2 escort vans
MK3 escort 112ZX
VW Jetta MK1
VW Jetta MK2 898UZK
89 and 90 VW passats
Mk4 golf
I have an 83 chevette and a 1980 datsun cherry now.

pow wow

Tiny old rustbucket Fiat with a hole in the floor that he sold into banger racing for about a tenner in the late 1980s. Then it was a Renault 5 in a fetching gold colour, followed by a 1990 micra (pops likes little cars)....he went 'modern' after that lol

TheDriver

Fiat Merifiori (think its a 131),
opel ascona luxes 4 speed diesel in beige (now lets see complain about slow!!!)
Another Ascona GL with 5 speed.

carchaeologist

TheDriver wrote: »

Fiat Merifiori (think its a 131)

Yep, the mirafiori is a fiat 131, they made a supermirafiori aswell.Horrendous rotters!!

DublinWriter

An Austin Cambridge.

It was built like a Sherman tank and was probably just as economical.

The starting motor was gone and I remember him regularly having to use a starting handle that went in just under the front bumper. He had it up to 1980!

The accelerator pedal broke and he fixed it using an elastic band from a model airplane that I got from Santy one year.

trout

Triumph Dolomite, followed by a Rover 3500 Vanden Plas (it spoke!) and finally, an Opel Senator, which I learned to drive in.

ollaetta

My father had the same Beetle from 1962 to 1980. I still remember him out putting boot polish on the tyres.

Changed it reluctantly for a Mazda 323 which was rusting within three years. Very much doubt if that made it to 18 years!

carchaeologist

ollaetta wrote: »

My father had the same Beetle from 1962 to 1980. I still remember him out putting boot polish on the tyres.

Changed it reluctantly for a Mazda 323 which was rusting within three years. Very much doubt if that made it to 18 years!

Nice one,where did the beetle end up?I use boot polish on my own classics tyres now!!:D:D
The 323 wouldnt have been a patch on the beetle...

skyhighflyer

The following (he's only in his mid-40's though so not such a long list)

'83 Opel Kadett
'88 Peugeot 205
'89 Corolla
'92 Renault 19 - red hatchback (the first one I have proper memories of - sitting in as a young lad - I remember listening to the radio when he won Billy Joel tickets for the River of Dreams tour - odd)
'94 Renault 19 - white saloon
'96 Alfa 146 Boxer - Loved that feckin' thing, I conviced him to buy it as an 11 year old car nut! Bought before there were many Alfa's on the road here - it was so loud you needed earplugs for a long journey - oddly, the most reliable of the lot too! I've been keeping an eye on Autotrader for a tidy one as my first car - hard to find now as they apparently only made them with the boxer engine for a year or so.
'00 Focus
'02 Laguna (absolute heap of ****e - depreciated by 10 grand in two years and finally flogged it clapped out after 62k miles:eek:)
'04 Golf - boring but does the job

jos28

carchaeologist wrote: »

I never listed what the old man had that i can remember..
Reliant regal supervan
Ford anglia estate
a selection of MK1&2 escort vans
MK3 escort 112ZX
VW Jetta MK1
VW Jetta MK2 898UZK
89 and 90 VW passats
Mk4 golf
I have an 83 chevette and a 1980 datsun cherry now.

Pics of the cherry please !

Before my time he had a Fiat 124. Up until about 5 years ago he had a 1990 Seat Ibiza with a 903cc Fiat engine, the same one as in the 127 (maybe even the 124). Sounded very loud even for a 1990 car and had its fair share of problems, after about three head gasket failures the engine had to be replaced, apparently the engine was knackered because the previous owner allowed it to rust by only using water as coolant. Higher end Ibizas from that era used 1461cc Porsche engines.

He moved on to a 2000 Fiat Punto HLX which he still has today but also still has the Ibiza. It's in the driveway with an electrical fault - he wants to get it back running again, hehe.

stovelid

We didn't have one. I feel deprived.

carchaeologist

You asked for shots of the cherry..and if anyone knows of another let me know,as far as i know this is the only original irish one (the FII version)left on the road in this country,though i would like to be corrected!!.

WiCkLaMuLlA

carchaeologist, was the Cherry the replacement moniker fer the Datsun 110aFII ??? i remember those cars very well. the 120y was a goodun too, i tink they did a swanky looking coupe version aswell ??? In Malaysia, Borneo etc they still drive these auld Datsuns about, some look really dangerously worn out and some look fairly good though. Is that yella wan your own car and is it still rust free after all these years ? cheers WiCkY

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

carchaeologist

WiCkLaMuLlA wrote: »

carchaeologist, was the Cherry the replacement moniker fer the Datsun 110aFII ??? i remember those cars very well. the 120y was a goodun too, i tink they did a swanky looking coupe version aswell ??? In Malaysia, Borneo etc they still drive these auld Datsuns about, some look really dangerously worn out and some look fairly good though. Is that yella wan your own car and is it still rust free after all these years ? cheers WiCkY

The cherry was always called the 100A,mine is the F11,the version before mine up to 1975ish was the N10 type as you can see in this pic..

The green car behind it...

is a 120Y supposedly the bigger brother to the cherry, but the cherry has more room inside believe it or not! This is the coupe version..
The coupe is a nice car,but can be tail happy in the wet!!!
Yes the yellow car is mine, its not rust free,but not rotten either, so im happy enough with her!!
Hope this is of help,there isnt alot of these type cars left in ireland these days...:(