My Mixed Car History - What to do next..
Discussion
I've just found myself without a car for the first time since I passed my test 11 years ago. I sold my most recent car at the weekend and am now stuck in limbo trying to decide what to pick up next. With this in mind, I figured it was about time I shared my car history to date - it isn't as exotic as some of the histories other members have shared here, and there's a clear theme of Fords/Peugeots, but hopefully it's interesting none the less..
My first ever car was an E-reg Renault 5. It cost me £400 from my local mechanic, and in the 1 year of ownership broke down 4 times and cost me over £800 to keep on the road (clutch, driveshafts etc). If I remember right it cost me over £1,500 on insurance that year and was a measly 4 speed 1.1 carb!
(obligatory photo of a random red r5 as I can't find any of mine)
This was part exchanged at a Peugeot dealership after a year (for £180!!) and I replaced it with a series 2 106. It was a 1.1l and one of the better cars amongst my 18 year old mates at the time. Unfortunately I wasted far too much money 'doing it up' - as fast as it looked it was always just a 1.1 under the bonnet
. Although not to everyones taste, I like to think the modifications were reasonably subtle.
After just over a year I got very bored of the performance and opted for something a bit quicker. My uncle works for Ford Motor Company and I got a pretty good deal on a new 2.0l focus zetec.
I drove this around for a couple of years whilst at Uni, and then got a job with my uncle at Fords. This meant a 100 mile round trip each day which was costing me a fortune in a 2.0l - so I downgraded to a fiesta 1.4 tdci. Unfortunately I never got a photo of this one, but it was panther black and pretty boring (but great on fuel!).
After 6 months of day/night/weekend shifts and the 100 mile commute I'd had enough and left Fords to begin my career in IT. With this I took the opportunity to get back into a quick ford and picked up a new Fiesta ST.
As part of the Ford Options scheme I was able to trade this in after a year for very little cost. I took the chance to pick up one of the limited edition ST500s. I still don't know how I got such a good deal on this, but I ended up paying £8,900 OTR through the ford privilege scheme.
I sold this car back to the same dealership I bought it from a year later for £9,200!! Of all the cars I've ever owned this was the only one I actually made money on (even more impressive being that it was brand new and I put 10k miles on it!).
In between buying and selling the Fiesta ST500 I also picked up a bargain bucket series 1 peugeot 106 xsi (I was missing the french hot hatch scene!). I paid £400 for it and sold most of the 'chavy' parts stuck on it for near enough £400. I then spent a few weekends in a mates garage sticking a GTi engine under the bonnet and this then became my Castle Combe workhorse for a few months! It upset plenty of far more expensive cars - good times.
Bored of the fiesta performance and Fords in general I decided it was time to go for something Jap. I jumped on a coach to Wales one night after work and picked up a red ep3 Civic Type R. Paid £5,200 for it, it was absolutely mint (other than the horrible white wheels!) and only had 50k on the clock.
As much as I loved this car, it was absolutely awful on fuel and I found the setup of the car a bit disappointing - it was only fun in vtec and I was mostly driving it around town (vtec in first gear isn't funny or clever). I sold this on after 6 months for the same price I paid for it and went back to the bargain basement looking for something cheap to keep me on the road. A good mate of mine was selling a series 2 Peugeot 106 for his brother, and I snatched it up as I knew it's history.
The plan was always to keep this for a year or 2, save some money, pay off some student debts and eventually pick up something newer. This didn't last long and after about 3 months I found myself driving back from Birmingham with a GTi engine rolling around in the back of the car (this was sure suicide and I'm still not sure how I managed this alone!).
After fitting the GTi engine and upgrading the brakes etc I lived with this car for over a year. I kept it badged as a 1.1 xl and from the outside it looked nothing special. It was a real sleeper and proved to be great on fuel and pretty reliable considering.
As always seems to be the way with these things, my girlfriend began getting fed up with my 'car activities' and it felt like the right time to sell the Peugeot and buy something a bit more grown up. With a budget of £2k, I picked up a lovely E36 328i from someone local and ran this for a couple of years.
I paid £1,950, it had 132k miles on the clock and drove like it was fresh out of the factory. It's at this point I realised maybe I'd made a mistake sticking with Peugeots and Fords all this time! I sold it on for £1,830 2 years later after meeting a lot of timewasters and tyrekickers!
This was my car history up until June of this year. It was at this point that I realised I wasn't getting any younger and that wedding bells and the sound of kids were soon to be on the horizon. With some incredible man maths I decided it made complete sense to pick up a car I'd always wanted and probably wouldn't get a chance to own if I didn't buy one now - a series 1 Lotus Elise. I picked up a perfect Aluminium Silver Elise from Scott Walkers in Dorking for a shade under £11k.
It goes without saying that this was by far the best car I had owned to date, and lived up to everything I thought it would. What I didn't consider was that the girlfriend probably wouldn't enjoy the car as much as me, and after 5 months of doing the weekly shop with bags on her lap she was fed up and sending 'SELL' signals my way. I advertised the car last week at what I thought was a reasonable price and it was sold to a couple of guys from France at the full asking price within a week! I secretly thought it wouldn't sell being so close to winter - bugger!
This brings me back to the start of my story. For the first time in 11 years I'm without a car and find myself flicking through the classifieds working out what to do next. I've got a few ideas and will hopefully book a few tests drives in the next couple of weeks, so watch this space..
My first ever car was an E-reg Renault 5. It cost me £400 from my local mechanic, and in the 1 year of ownership broke down 4 times and cost me over £800 to keep on the road (clutch, driveshafts etc). If I remember right it cost me over £1,500 on insurance that year and was a measly 4 speed 1.1 carb!
(obligatory photo of a random red r5 as I can't find any of mine)
This was part exchanged at a Peugeot dealership after a year (for £180!!) and I replaced it with a series 2 106. It was a 1.1l and one of the better cars amongst my 18 year old mates at the time. Unfortunately I wasted far too much money 'doing it up' - as fast as it looked it was always just a 1.1 under the bonnet
. Although not to everyones taste, I like to think the modifications were reasonably subtle.After just over a year I got very bored of the performance and opted for something a bit quicker. My uncle works for Ford Motor Company and I got a pretty good deal on a new 2.0l focus zetec.
I drove this around for a couple of years whilst at Uni, and then got a job with my uncle at Fords. This meant a 100 mile round trip each day which was costing me a fortune in a 2.0l - so I downgraded to a fiesta 1.4 tdci. Unfortunately I never got a photo of this one, but it was panther black and pretty boring (but great on fuel!).
After 6 months of day/night/weekend shifts and the 100 mile commute I'd had enough and left Fords to begin my career in IT. With this I took the opportunity to get back into a quick ford and picked up a new Fiesta ST.
As part of the Ford Options scheme I was able to trade this in after a year for very little cost. I took the chance to pick up one of the limited edition ST500s. I still don't know how I got such a good deal on this, but I ended up paying £8,900 OTR through the ford privilege scheme.
I sold this car back to the same dealership I bought it from a year later for £9,200!! Of all the cars I've ever owned this was the only one I actually made money on (even more impressive being that it was brand new and I put 10k miles on it!).
In between buying and selling the Fiesta ST500 I also picked up a bargain bucket series 1 peugeot 106 xsi (I was missing the french hot hatch scene!). I paid £400 for it and sold most of the 'chavy' parts stuck on it for near enough £400. I then spent a few weekends in a mates garage sticking a GTi engine under the bonnet and this then became my Castle Combe workhorse for a few months! It upset plenty of far more expensive cars - good times.
Bored of the fiesta performance and Fords in general I decided it was time to go for something Jap. I jumped on a coach to Wales one night after work and picked up a red ep3 Civic Type R. Paid £5,200 for it, it was absolutely mint (other than the horrible white wheels!) and only had 50k on the clock.
As much as I loved this car, it was absolutely awful on fuel and I found the setup of the car a bit disappointing - it was only fun in vtec and I was mostly driving it around town (vtec in first gear isn't funny or clever). I sold this on after 6 months for the same price I paid for it and went back to the bargain basement looking for something cheap to keep me on the road. A good mate of mine was selling a series 2 Peugeot 106 for his brother, and I snatched it up as I knew it's history.
The plan was always to keep this for a year or 2, save some money, pay off some student debts and eventually pick up something newer. This didn't last long and after about 3 months I found myself driving back from Birmingham with a GTi engine rolling around in the back of the car (this was sure suicide and I'm still not sure how I managed this alone!).
After fitting the GTi engine and upgrading the brakes etc I lived with this car for over a year. I kept it badged as a 1.1 xl and from the outside it looked nothing special. It was a real sleeper and proved to be great on fuel and pretty reliable considering.
As always seems to be the way with these things, my girlfriend began getting fed up with my 'car activities' and it felt like the right time to sell the Peugeot and buy something a bit more grown up. With a budget of £2k, I picked up a lovely E36 328i from someone local and ran this for a couple of years.
I paid £1,950, it had 132k miles on the clock and drove like it was fresh out of the factory. It's at this point I realised maybe I'd made a mistake sticking with Peugeots and Fords all this time! I sold it on for £1,830 2 years later after meeting a lot of timewasters and tyrekickers!
This was my car history up until June of this year. It was at this point that I realised I wasn't getting any younger and that wedding bells and the sound of kids were soon to be on the horizon. With some incredible man maths I decided it made complete sense to pick up a car I'd always wanted and probably wouldn't get a chance to own if I didn't buy one now - a series 1 Lotus Elise. I picked up a perfect Aluminium Silver Elise from Scott Walkers in Dorking for a shade under £11k.
It goes without saying that this was by far the best car I had owned to date, and lived up to everything I thought it would. What I didn't consider was that the girlfriend probably wouldn't enjoy the car as much as me, and after 5 months of doing the weekly shop with bags on her lap she was fed up and sending 'SELL' signals my way. I advertised the car last week at what I thought was a reasonable price and it was sold to a couple of guys from France at the full asking price within a week! I secretly thought it wouldn't sell being so close to winter - bugger!
This brings me back to the start of my story. For the first time in 11 years I'm without a car and find myself flicking through the classifieds working out what to do next. I've got a few ideas and will hopefully book a few tests drives in the next couple of weeks, so watch this space..
and, if you don't do huge miles, go and buy an STI Impreza or an Evo - something practical to do the shopping in but at the same time a lot of fun for you. The only trouble I can see is that you have now had a Lotus Elise, I strayed away a few times, including to Porsche and Ferrari but I am now back in an Elise. I am not using mine everyday so slightly different scenario but the damn things do get into your soul! Maybe a beater for the winter and as mentioned before something in the spring.
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