What did you drive in the 80s?

[s m]

Mr Micawber said:

bqf said:

FWIW said:

My car in the late 80s was a Nova 1.3SR in mustard yellow

Edited by FWIW on Thursday 21st March 14:39

Edited by FWIW on Thursday 21st March 14:40

I loved the Nova SR. The alloys - one of the greats I reckon

These always looked better than they drove. I remember borrowing a friends red 1.3SR one day and the brakes being so bad that I almost didn't manage to stop at the first junction that I came to. At the time I was driving a 205 diesel van and it felt far better to drive in every way than the Nova.

Sounds like the brakes were a bit poor on that particular example - certainly wasn’t a trait that was common to all of them as I drove a few when looking to buy one, Used to run a 1.2 as a daily
205 was certainly the class leader for that type of car at the time but the SR was up there amongst the best of the rest

[Bobajobbob]

A Dawes 10 speed racer

[rallycross]

Bobajobbob said:

A Dawes 10 speed racer

I had one of them! In the early 80's, was ok until it got stolen.

when I finally got my 'driving' licence I had a great time playing with cheap cars as my dad lent me the capital to start a car sales business.
Simple idea, we took all the trade ins from the 'out of town' main dealers ( he already knew most of them from previous work) we sold them from a car lot in the city - all at cheapo prices

Mostly mundane things like Escort, Fiesta, Micra, Metro, Nova, Marina, Allegro, Ital, Chevette, Cortina, Sunny, Fiats etc - used to get them for a few hundred and sell them for £995 with a new MOT.

The ones to note included these below ( some of the ones listed obviously cost more than a few hundred ££ at the time but they all came as p/x from large dealers never knew what was coming in next).

Lancia HPE and Beta Coupe - 1.3, 1.6, 2.0 ie, 2.0 VX - in the 80's when these Lancias were still rot free and amazing value for money, still love them.
Alfa Sud 1300 and 1500 to and sprint coupe
Fiat 131, 132, 127 GT, Uno’s (70 Xs was fun)
Capri's - all models from 1.3, 1,6, 2.0S, 3.0 ghia
Scirocco Mk1 GLS and basic Golfs
Manta and Ascona Berlina 2.0 SR RWD
Datsun 180b SSS with dog leg g/box
MG B GT ( even in the 80’s total rust buckets)
Lancia Delta GT 1600 t/c and 1500 single cam
Astra GTE mk2 8 v digi dash, mega miles, but still drove really well
XR3i - always felt quicker than 105 bhp
XR2 - we had loads of these, way better than you might think to drive but always at risk of being stolen in the 80’s
Cavaliers all models but the SRi 1.8 - they were like rocket ships back in the day, first car I had with recarro seats.
Renaut Fuego 1.7 and R18 turbo
Granada Ghia 2.8 i X professionals shape model

Thinking back to these old bangers most of them had such individual character where as today’s equivalent trade ins would be pretty much all the same to drive, and a lot more reliable than back in the 80’s!

Edited by rallycross on Saturday 23 March 11:51

[cerb4.5lee]

Bobajobbob said:

A Dawes 10 speed racer

I bet that was fast and I had to make do with a Peugeot 5 speed(might have been late 1970's). I loved it at the time though.

[Allanv]

rode a - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_FS1

[MikeGTi]

[motco]

MikeGTi said:

I have the AA Patrol version of that in my shed. Belongs to my 40-odd year old son.

[vixen1700]

Passed my test in 1984 and for the rest of the '80s drove 2 x MGB GTs which I look back fondly on and three years in the company of an MG Metro. What a stbox that was.

[MikeGTi]

motco said:

I have the AA Patrol version of that in my shed. Belongs to my 40-odd year old son.

My brother had the AA car, clearly I arrived at the scene before he did...

[Hammer67]

73 Mini 1000
74 Dolomite 1850
78 Dolomite Sprint
77 TR7
62 Herald 1200
79 Corolla 1.6 Liftback
78 Mirafiori Twink
72 Cortina 1600
84 MBX125FE

Loads of half volleys through the covers for 4.

[foxbody-87]

My dad’s bks

[techguyone]

First car was a mk2 2.0 litre Capri S in White

swiftly followed by another, but in silver metallic, with black vinyl roof

Then a 2.0 l Ford Sierra Ghia 5 door in white

I liked Fords.

[Grumblemut]

Chrysler Avenger (tilt head to view, no I don’t know how to turn it around (newbie))
Sunbeam ti
Capri 2.0s

[sjc]

This ...

Then
This

[BIRMA]

I had one of the very first BMW M5's to hit the UK shores. Back in those days nobody knew what it was as it only had discreet badging and didn't look that different from the standard saloon car.
There were no speed camera vans or unmarked police cars and the roads in 1985 were an awful lot quieter too.
I used to say to my secretary 'Diane I'm off to survey a job and won't be back until this afternoon' the roads between 11 and 3 were very quiet in Hampshire compared to today so I used to take quite a few days off between Tuesday and Thursday every week not to do a survey but to just waste petrol.
I was never pulled up in the car, the Police were much too busy stopping 'hatchet faced youths' in Nova's/Corsa's to bother a subtle looking executive car.

[heisthegaffer]

TameRacingDriver said:

I had a red go kart with turbo written on the back so used to imagine it was an Uno Turbo.

[Nickyboy]

One of these mostly

[Rob 131 Sport]

I wasn’t 17 until October 1989, so my motoring in the 80’s was a B Reg Kawasaki AR50 finished in that famous shade of Green.

Love a go on one now.

[Jaguar steve]

As a multi-franchise Spanner Monkey I worked on and drove almost everything from Eurohatches to 7.5 ton trucks.

My own cars through the '80s were a random collection of garage px'es that were too scruffy or leggy to retail and a Mk 1 Escort with uprated brakes and suspension and a Holbay 1600 fast road engine.

[j4r4lly]

Didn't have anything particularly interesting in the 80's. None of them tended to last very long although the Metro stayed in the family for 5 years and was still going strong into the early 90's.

The Daimler went bang on the M11 and we had to tow it back home with a neighbors 1.3 Hillman Avenger (it killed the clutch). Two of the Capri's were stolen, 1 being written off, the Simca was written off by a hit and run driver in a stolen car, the Golf was a festering pile of unreliable junk and the 1.6L Cortina which I paid £150 for, was almost indestructible and never failed to start and was actually quite nice to drive in a wafty way. Old cars like these are actually quite liberating as you don't really care where they are parked, if they get doored in a car park etc. Living in Hackney and then Canning Town in the 80's it wasn't worth having anything decent.

1973 Chrysler Simca 1000 GLS
1971 Capri 2000 GT
1974 Capri 2000 GT
1975 Daimler Sovereign 4.2L
1985 Bedford Astramax Van
1977 Capri 1600 GL Auto
1974 Capri 1600 GT
1984 Vauxhall Nova 1.0 Swing
1984 Vauxhall Nova 1.2L Saloon
1977 VW Golf 1.5 GLS
1976 Cortina 1.6L
1977 Cortina 1.6 GL
1983 Metro 1.0 HLE