My car history (a killing time thread....)
Discussion
Inspired by a few other car history threads on here and being somewhat bored, I thought I do my own. Be warned it’s quite a long read and made me realise that I’ve made a few decisions when buying cars!
I passed my test some point in 2000 and my first car was a G reg red Vauxhall Nova complete with a four speed gear box and a manual choke. It got me through my test but didn’t last long because it was a nail with an appetite for spark plugs. Despite being a bit s
t, I loved it. Not my actual car, but as close as I can find on the internet.
picture upload
After this I moved onto a 1.2 Punto SX with a mighty 75bhp. Now I really loved this little car, to 17 year old me I was pretty swish and it felt ace razing around in it. This was relatively short lived as well because once I started uni it was sold by my folks who said I didn’t really need a car at uni. They were probably right, but that didn’t mean I was very happy about it! This is as close as I can find on the internet.
I was then car less for a few years until uni finished. My folks had moved to a Sheffield whilst I was at uni so I followed suit. I had use I’d a Mk3 Golf which felt mighty at the time. My sister decided she was going to work abroad so I inherited her Fiat Seicento Sporting (I’d driven it a bit previously when back for uni holidays whilst she was learning to drive). All my mates took the piss mercilessly. Still it was a set of wheels complete with a CD player and the obligatory 6x9 speakers. It was slow as anything and I remember driving from Sheffield to Tamworth to see my other half with my foot jammed as hard as I could on the accelerator and still seeing the speedo fall on uphills on the M1!
This little beast had earned the nickname ‘the crumple zone’ because my sister had a few bumps in in. Stock photo.
Next up was my first brand new car; a Clio 1.4 Extreme. An uncle had passed away and had various pensions, insurances etc and my aunt bought my sister and I identical Clio’s. They were via a family friend who worked for Renault so they were pretty cheap. This little car felt amazing, easily the fastest thing if owned (0-60 was 9.8 if I recall correctly). I was still living in Sheffield at this time and would regularly drive around the Peaks just because. I could finally drive down the M1 to see my other half and not have to downshift on hills! It always managed 40mpg no matter how I drove it. Another stock photo.
I’d now moved in with my other half and had moved to Tamworth, got my first proper job in construction recruitment (which I ended up hating very very quickly). My attention soon moved to cars and for one reason or another I started looking at MINI’s. I ended up changing my Clio for a 2004 Chilli Red Cooper with a pretty good spec (Chilli pack, xenons, A/C, cruise, privacy glass, CD changer etc). I thought it looked the tits; red, white roof, mirrors, wheels and bonnet stripes. Now the fastest thing I’d ever owned. Another stock picture.
I moved to a different company and got a big bump in my basic salary. I was bored over Christmas / New Year so popped to my local MINI dealer who had a Cooper S that grabbed my attention. It was Indy Blue Metallic, white roof and mirrors, full black leather, cruise, CD changer, Chilli pack etc. I’d only had the Cooper for 8 months or so and struggled to agree a decent trade in value so scrapped the idea. A few weeks later the car was still there, the price reduced and they upped the trade in value so a deal was done providing I could collect by the end of the month. Job, jobbed. So the end of January 2007 I collected my Cooper S and was over the moon. It felt like a little pocket rocket, sounded ace, looked brill and felt like an event to drive. I even loved the woof affect dash trim. Pics of the actual car.
By summer 2007 I’d had enough of recruitment. I despised it, it just wasn’t for me but it had opened my eyes and given me some useful contacts. That summer I made the decision to quit and retrain as a quantity surveyor. I moved to a consultancy who paid for me to do a part time conversion course whilst working. Brilliant, but it involved more driving and a temporary pay cut so my time with the Cooper S was cut short.
I looked at various things (Ibiza FR’s, Fabia vRS etc) but only MINI could do me a decent trade in. I swapped to a Pepper White One and instantly regretted it. It was cheap to buy, insure and fuel but I loathed it after the S. I had the aero spoiler fitted, some 16 inch Cooper S wheels etc to try an make it more appealing. It didn’t work. Instead of diving in, I should have taken a breath and waited and thought about my options more. With hindsight my other half and I should have swapped cars reducing my fuel bill. It’d have meant driving a Corsa most days but I could have hung onto the Cooper S that I loved so much. A day after I’d agreed on the swap my sister decided to work abroad again so I could have had her Clio for free. I tried to back out of the deal but I was young and the sales lady said I wouldn’t get my deposit back etc. I wished I’d grown a pair and written off the £250 rather than live with a car I hated for 18 months so so. I can’t find any pictures of the actual car but this is near enough to what I collected.
I then got a decent pay rise at my first salary review and I was desperate to get rid of the MINI One. I narrowed my choice down to either an E46 325/330 or a Clio 182. After looking at what felt like a million cars, I settled for an E46 325ti. Not a great decision in the end with everything seemingly trying to stop me buying it (the deal changed for a few reasons I can’t remember after I’d paid a deposit) then on collection day the M1 was closed so I barely made it before the dealership closed. Turned up, one key was missing, the reg was right on the MOT certificate but it was listed as an X5. Took ages to get a new key out of the salesman the there were a few issues which they dragged their heals over sorting. I ended up sorting the dodgy head unit and broken CD changer out myself via eBay. All was good for a year or so and then the usual E46 issues came...snapped rear springs, dead wishbone bushes, dead water pump and dodgy thermostat. Then can another set of wishbones, new rear shocks, more snapped springs, warped rad, cracked expansion tank and corroded brake lines. Every time it went near a garage it cost me money. Then the fuel pump died leaving me stranded at work. That was fixed and then it was goodbye after a few very expensive years. I still like the damn thing be did a few things like a DIY refurb, colour coded the exterior trim and painted the interior trim Titan silver to match the exterior. Definitely a car I should have walked away from the deal started changing etc. I deleted the pics I had of the car but a quick google and someone had bought the car so I nicked a photo off their thread from another forum.
Just about the time I called it a day with the 325, I was given a promotion which came with a car allowance or a company car. I took the company car which was a bit poo but it was cheap and a fixed cost. I ended up with a Fiesta Zetec S 1.6 diesel with heater leather and few other options. At first I quite liked it but stared to get cheesed off with it and I realisd that it was going to be a long four years. I ended up doing 86k in it and it felt a bit shagged by the time it was collected.
About two years into my time with the Fiesta we had our first (and only) kiddie. A perfect opportunity to get shot or my other half’s Corsa which I despised. Technically a great car; cheap as chips to run and never broke down. But the driving position was crap, the interior was crap and it was slow. Really slow. With the impending arrival of the baby it seems like a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone...get something a bit quicker and more interesting yet practical. I missed out on a lovely Golf GTI edition 30, rules out a few dogs of GTI’s (rusty wings mainly) and bought an E90 330i M Sport. Obligatory picture
Link to my very old thread in here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
This was a great car; one minor mechanical issue with the VANOS actuators which was about £300 to fix. Most of the money spent on it was fun stuff; lip spoiler, wheel refurb, repainted bumpers etc. As much as I loved it, my other half got cheesed off with the fuel consumption and wanted something cheaper to fuel; tax etc.
Meanwhile it was time for a new company car. The list had improved and with a further promotion I had a better list. A choose between an F56 Cooper S, Octavia vRS and a Focus ST diesel were the three on the shortlist. With a not quite one year old the Cooper S was ruled out and the Focus seemed a bit lairy (I wanted Tangerine Scream) the vRS won. Turns out whilst a bit dull, it was a great car to knock about in for 83k and four years; it swallowed mountain bikes with ease for trips to Wales etc, was brilliant when we moved a few years ago and generally lugged us and the dog about without fuss. It averaged 48mpg over those four years and was brisk enough. Picture from a trip to Breacon.
Now that I had the vRS and the moaning about the 330’s fuel consumption was getting too much we started to look at options for my other half. I wanted something semi interesting but she wanted something as cheap as possible. With the vRS being pretty big and the little dude getting bigger we decided that a smaller car could work. Enter the F56 Cooper. Struggling to find a used example with the right options we ended up ordering a new car.
Link to my thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Whilst technically better than the original MINI’s I struggled to bind with it. In fact neither of us were that bothered about it when it went last summer. It was supposed as fast as my vRS but it always felt a lot slower and wasn’t as fun to hustle like my old Cooper was.
My vRS was now getting bloody expensive due to BIK changes and moving to the next tax bracket. Whilst I actually liked the car, I resented what it was costing. I could easily have leased the petrol 240 version for a lot less. The original plan was to get rid of the MINI and order an i3S on the company car scheme and buy a used M135i. This seems like the best of both worlds; cheap second car that is cool in a quirky was and a quick petrol car for me. Trouble was the i3S was removed from the car list and if I wanted an EV it was an Renault Zoe or an eGolf. Neither appealed. Which leads to the current cars...
I ended up ordering a new M140i which is costing less per month than my vRS (excluding fuel obviously). The fastest car I’ve had by some margin. I really like it, it does everything I ask of it. With my boring sensible hat on it’s a bit fast to really enjoy on the bike roads and has ruined some roads that felt fun in slower cars because to feel exciting you need to be travelling at some way beyond the speed limit. Here’s the link to me thread
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
And a picture...
Also needed to get a car for my other half. Having lost a fortune on the MINI and wanting to spend less each month we decided on a cheaper car. My father in law had inherited his wife’s 116 and wanted something else. We agreed to buy the 116 because it was bloody cheap and we knew that it had been wet maintained and been reliable.
Link to my thread
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Picture
Despite being slow and using too much fuel for the performance in offer, we both quite like it. It’s had a few upgrades...double din head unit with Apple Car Play, leather M Sport seats etc. It’s been reliable and cheap to run for the last year.
Well done for making it all the way through this!
I passed my test some point in 2000 and my first car was a G reg red Vauxhall Nova complete with a four speed gear box and a manual choke. It got me through my test but didn’t last long because it was a nail with an appetite for spark plugs. Despite being a bit s
t, I loved it. Not my actual car, but as close as I can find on the internet.picture uploadAfter this I moved onto a 1.2 Punto SX with a mighty 75bhp. Now I really loved this little car, to 17 year old me I was pretty swish and it felt ace razing around in it. This was relatively short lived as well because once I started uni it was sold by my folks who said I didn’t really need a car at uni. They were probably right, but that didn’t mean I was very happy about it! This is as close as I can find on the internet.
I was then car less for a few years until uni finished. My folks had moved to a Sheffield whilst I was at uni so I followed suit. I had use I’d a Mk3 Golf which felt mighty at the time. My sister decided she was going to work abroad so I inherited her Fiat Seicento Sporting (I’d driven it a bit previously when back for uni holidays whilst she was learning to drive). All my mates took the piss mercilessly. Still it was a set of wheels complete with a CD player and the obligatory 6x9 speakers. It was slow as anything and I remember driving from Sheffield to Tamworth to see my other half with my foot jammed as hard as I could on the accelerator and still seeing the speedo fall on uphills on the M1!
This little beast had earned the nickname ‘the crumple zone’ because my sister had a few bumps in in. Stock photo.Next up was my first brand new car; a Clio 1.4 Extreme. An uncle had passed away and had various pensions, insurances etc and my aunt bought my sister and I identical Clio’s. They were via a family friend who worked for Renault so they were pretty cheap. This little car felt amazing, easily the fastest thing if owned (0-60 was 9.8 if I recall correctly). I was still living in Sheffield at this time and would regularly drive around the Peaks just because. I could finally drive down the M1 to see my other half and not have to downshift on hills! It always managed 40mpg no matter how I drove it. Another stock photo.
I’d now moved in with my other half and had moved to Tamworth, got my first proper job in construction recruitment (which I ended up hating very very quickly). My attention soon moved to cars and for one reason or another I started looking at MINI’s. I ended up changing my Clio for a 2004 Chilli Red Cooper with a pretty good spec (Chilli pack, xenons, A/C, cruise, privacy glass, CD changer etc). I thought it looked the tits; red, white roof, mirrors, wheels and bonnet stripes. Now the fastest thing I’d ever owned. Another stock picture.
I moved to a different company and got a big bump in my basic salary. I was bored over Christmas / New Year so popped to my local MINI dealer who had a Cooper S that grabbed my attention. It was Indy Blue Metallic, white roof and mirrors, full black leather, cruise, CD changer, Chilli pack etc. I’d only had the Cooper for 8 months or so and struggled to agree a decent trade in value so scrapped the idea. A few weeks later the car was still there, the price reduced and they upped the trade in value so a deal was done providing I could collect by the end of the month. Job, jobbed. So the end of January 2007 I collected my Cooper S and was over the moon. It felt like a little pocket rocket, sounded ace, looked brill and felt like an event to drive. I even loved the woof affect dash trim. Pics of the actual car.
By summer 2007 I’d had enough of recruitment. I despised it, it just wasn’t for me but it had opened my eyes and given me some useful contacts. That summer I made the decision to quit and retrain as a quantity surveyor. I moved to a consultancy who paid for me to do a part time conversion course whilst working. Brilliant, but it involved more driving and a temporary pay cut so my time with the Cooper S was cut short.
I looked at various things (Ibiza FR’s, Fabia vRS etc) but only MINI could do me a decent trade in. I swapped to a Pepper White One and instantly regretted it. It was cheap to buy, insure and fuel but I loathed it after the S. I had the aero spoiler fitted, some 16 inch Cooper S wheels etc to try an make it more appealing. It didn’t work. Instead of diving in, I should have taken a breath and waited and thought about my options more. With hindsight my other half and I should have swapped cars reducing my fuel bill. It’d have meant driving a Corsa most days but I could have hung onto the Cooper S that I loved so much. A day after I’d agreed on the swap my sister decided to work abroad again so I could have had her Clio for free. I tried to back out of the deal but I was young and the sales lady said I wouldn’t get my deposit back etc. I wished I’d grown a pair and written off the £250 rather than live with a car I hated for 18 months so so. I can’t find any pictures of the actual car but this is near enough to what I collected.
I then got a decent pay rise at my first salary review and I was desperate to get rid of the MINI One. I narrowed my choice down to either an E46 325/330 or a Clio 182. After looking at what felt like a million cars, I settled for an E46 325ti. Not a great decision in the end with everything seemingly trying to stop me buying it (the deal changed for a few reasons I can’t remember after I’d paid a deposit) then on collection day the M1 was closed so I barely made it before the dealership closed. Turned up, one key was missing, the reg was right on the MOT certificate but it was listed as an X5. Took ages to get a new key out of the salesman the there were a few issues which they dragged their heals over sorting. I ended up sorting the dodgy head unit and broken CD changer out myself via eBay. All was good for a year or so and then the usual E46 issues came...snapped rear springs, dead wishbone bushes, dead water pump and dodgy thermostat. Then can another set of wishbones, new rear shocks, more snapped springs, warped rad, cracked expansion tank and corroded brake lines. Every time it went near a garage it cost me money. Then the fuel pump died leaving me stranded at work. That was fixed and then it was goodbye after a few very expensive years. I still like the damn thing be did a few things like a DIY refurb, colour coded the exterior trim and painted the interior trim Titan silver to match the exterior. Definitely a car I should have walked away from the deal started changing etc. I deleted the pics I had of the car but a quick google and someone had bought the car so I nicked a photo off their thread from another forum.
Just about the time I called it a day with the 325, I was given a promotion which came with a car allowance or a company car. I took the company car which was a bit poo but it was cheap and a fixed cost. I ended up with a Fiesta Zetec S 1.6 diesel with heater leather and few other options. At first I quite liked it but stared to get cheesed off with it and I realisd that it was going to be a long four years. I ended up doing 86k in it and it felt a bit shagged by the time it was collected.
About two years into my time with the Fiesta we had our first (and only) kiddie. A perfect opportunity to get shot or my other half’s Corsa which I despised. Technically a great car; cheap as chips to run and never broke down. But the driving position was crap, the interior was crap and it was slow. Really slow. With the impending arrival of the baby it seems like a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone...get something a bit quicker and more interesting yet practical. I missed out on a lovely Golf GTI edition 30, rules out a few dogs of GTI’s (rusty wings mainly) and bought an E90 330i M Sport. Obligatory picture
Link to my very old thread in here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
This was a great car; one minor mechanical issue with the VANOS actuators which was about £300 to fix. Most of the money spent on it was fun stuff; lip spoiler, wheel refurb, repainted bumpers etc. As much as I loved it, my other half got cheesed off with the fuel consumption and wanted something cheaper to fuel; tax etc.
Meanwhile it was time for a new company car. The list had improved and with a further promotion I had a better list. A choose between an F56 Cooper S, Octavia vRS and a Focus ST diesel were the three on the shortlist. With a not quite one year old the Cooper S was ruled out and the Focus seemed a bit lairy (I wanted Tangerine Scream) the vRS won. Turns out whilst a bit dull, it was a great car to knock about in for 83k and four years; it swallowed mountain bikes with ease for trips to Wales etc, was brilliant when we moved a few years ago and generally lugged us and the dog about without fuss. It averaged 48mpg over those four years and was brisk enough. Picture from a trip to Breacon.
Now that I had the vRS and the moaning about the 330’s fuel consumption was getting too much we started to look at options for my other half. I wanted something semi interesting but she wanted something as cheap as possible. With the vRS being pretty big and the little dude getting bigger we decided that a smaller car could work. Enter the F56 Cooper. Struggling to find a used example with the right options we ended up ordering a new car.
Link to my thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Whilst technically better than the original MINI’s I struggled to bind with it. In fact neither of us were that bothered about it when it went last summer. It was supposed as fast as my vRS but it always felt a lot slower and wasn’t as fun to hustle like my old Cooper was.
My vRS was now getting bloody expensive due to BIK changes and moving to the next tax bracket. Whilst I actually liked the car, I resented what it was costing. I could easily have leased the petrol 240 version for a lot less. The original plan was to get rid of the MINI and order an i3S on the company car scheme and buy a used M135i. This seems like the best of both worlds; cheap second car that is cool in a quirky was and a quick petrol car for me. Trouble was the i3S was removed from the car list and if I wanted an EV it was an Renault Zoe or an eGolf. Neither appealed. Which leads to the current cars...
I ended up ordering a new M140i which is costing less per month than my vRS (excluding fuel obviously). The fastest car I’ve had by some margin. I really like it, it does everything I ask of it. With my boring sensible hat on it’s a bit fast to really enjoy on the bike roads and has ruined some roads that felt fun in slower cars because to feel exciting you need to be travelling at some way beyond the speed limit. Here’s the link to me thread
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
And a picture...
Also needed to get a car for my other half. Having lost a fortune on the MINI and wanting to spend less each month we decided on a cheaper car. My father in law had inherited his wife’s 116 and wanted something else. We agreed to buy the 116 because it was bloody cheap and we knew that it had been wet maintained and been reliable.
Link to my thread
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Picture
Despite being slow and using too much fuel for the performance in offer, we both quite like it. It’s had a few upgrades...double din head unit with Apple Car Play, leather M Sport seats etc. It’s been reliable and cheap to run for the last year.
Well done for making it all the way through this!
martin mrt said:
Great write up, some interesting cars too.
140i is a great car, mine went back to lease company last year.
Thanks140i is a great car, mine went back to lease company last year.
I like mine so far, it’s been a really good car. I’d like a bit more noise from the exhaust because it sounds so muted especially compared to the earlier cars.
Brett748 said:
Good write up and the M140is a brilliant car.
I bet you regret a fair few of the car swaps though, you must have suffered terribly on depreciation several times.
Yeah some weren’t great. The folly of youth I guess. I bet you regret a fair few of the car swaps though, you must have suffered terribly on depreciation several times.
The worst offender was the F56 MINI; that was worth about 10p after three years. Way worse than the early ones. The 330 was probably the best losing £1,500 of what I paid for it. Even with the money I did spend on it it was probably the best car to run.
The M140i is funded by a car allowance so I’m not stressing too much about the money that’ll loose. It’s no worse than having a company car which would cost a load each month in BIK and the loss of my car allowance.
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