VW Splittie Campers.

They look great but you know they are permanently on the brink of exploding with rust, the engine is about to detonate, there is a quarter inch of suspension travel and they driving experience is medieaval.

I just get depressed when I see one yammering away in the indide lane of the M3 on the way to Cornwall. You just know it's going to come back on a low loader.

I'm actually surprised that the 70's BL stuff and 80's Austin-Rover stuff actually depresses you, due to the fact you hardly ever see the cars mentioned above on the road! (Apart from the Metro of course).

My daily commute is along part of the M5 near Bristol. Fridays wouldn't be the same without seeing all the VW camper vans parked on the hard shoulder with their engine covers open and a blonde-haired surfer-wannabe scratching his head...

hehe, I'm sorry, it must be because every time I see one it reminds me of my best mate's first car, a sad faded baby-blue example which shortly after purchase overheated and died in a plume of white smoke.

Another vote for the mk4/5 Escort. Mk3 Golf too.

I know it's a dick move to check peoples garage when they say things like this but...why didn't you buy a sports car or one that stands out from the crowd.

I agree that most cars are pretty dull. Modern ones probably more so.

993s bloody prices keep going up

The crap cars from any decade past are still crap when you see one but there is a certain nostalgia that kicks in, it is like seeing someone you used to work with but didnt have a lot of time for or a song you werent keen of but haven heard in twenty years, your opinon mellows and it is just nostalgia, things seldom seen become rare and somehow more valued, even a Brown Maestro brings a smile.

Remember the miserable afternoons in Double Maths at school ? now imagine being given ten minutes to go back and observe, or the long boring car journey in your dads old car, ten minutes to sit in it and drink in the smells and re-aqauint yourself with the experience, five minutes in a shop you used to go to as a kid, long since demolished....

I was walking the Dog and a group of four people walked past a minty fresh looking "Jet Black" model Metro from about 88 and were getting all misty eyed over it, nostalgia, it is powerful and dangrous.


You go back to things after years of newer, bigger, better and faster and sometimes it doesnt work but sometimes you regret not going back sooner, I went at 18 from cycling to driving and then didnt bother until I was well into my thirties and the simple pleasure of cycling came flooding back,sometimes the new thing overwhelms what was good about the old thing.

One of the things I really don't like... regardless of the vehicle, is unpainted plastic bumpers.

Especially if the sun has bleached them.

acceptable examples. mk5 escort and that fiesta are horrible examples of bulging mid-late 90s. never really liked mk5+ escort (except cossie)


my dad recently had a 1k mile corsa rental. had to have a sit in it just because, it was terrible (aside from the fact i couldn't work out how to unlock it) the interior is just so wierd and chubby

I agree with you Richard.

When I see an old retro car on the road it usually makes be smile, I have affection for those unloved cars that are neither modern or "classic". As above, I find chintzy, high/slab sided, bloaty modern cars depress me the most.