What did you drive in the 90s?

[CharlieAlphaMike]

Excuse the poor quality of the pictures. Back in the late 1990's, I had a Fiat Seicento Sporting. Oh...and something to tow it with

Edited by CharlieAlphaMike on Friday 26th February 09:16

[RobGwynRGC]

Om said:

OK. Not very original. But I went to the What did you drive in the 80s (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=74&t=1800408) thread and because:

a - I was too young/poor in the 80s
b - The 80s by and large weren't that great anyway (see (a) above)
c - I only owned rubbish cars

I decided to create one where I didn't feel quite so vehicularly challenged. I put this in GG rather than in Classic Cars... as the 90s still seem too recent but if it should be in another section, so be it.

By the 90s some things had improved -

• Car design and engineering had improved significantly by this point (in the late 80s really but see above). Overall reliability, galvanising, fuel injection, turbos etc were more commonplace and better understood. Computers were being used more in the general design and engineering. These were starting to be used in the 80s but by the 90s had matured and cars were increasingly robust. Fewer howlers.
• Just enough safety features to add to rather than detract from the experience.
• I had finally sufficient money from an actual (though poorly paid) job to be able to save up/borrow enough money to start buying the cars I would have liked to own in the 80s...

The music had gone downhill, though it had been doing that since the 70s and if I create a thread for the 70s then its Matchbox and Corgi as far as the eye can see...

Which brings us to - What did you drive in the 90s?

(Mine to follow when I have found the damn photos).

No pics but I had a blue 1976 Toyota Starlet as my first car in 1999. It had a switch in a recess in the dash to immobilise the engine and it shook violently when it passed 60mph. It cost about £100, but a shedload more to insure. Didn't last long but it was fun, in a way.

[soxboy]

Passed my test aged 17 in 1991. Smoked round in my mum's Talbot Samba LE, followed by Peugeot 205XE, followed by Renault Clio 1.2 Oasis.

In 1994 I got my own first car, 1980 Mk1 VW Golf LS 1.3
1996 first job so splashed out on mk2 Golf Driver 1.6 3dr
1998 Golf got written off so replaced with exactly same model, had until 2000.

1994-95 I was on my sandwich year for a firm of surveyors in York, if I needed to go out on inspections they told me to take whatever works cars were available rather than use my own, so thrashed:
205XS (most often, very nearly bought it when I left, wished I had)
205 GTI 1.6
Alfa 33
Rover 214Si
BMW 318ti compact
Saab 9000CS turbo

When I had my first full time job I was given mk5 Escorts to drive. I know these cars have an awful reputation, it was thoroughly deserved!

[white_goodman]

Joey Deacon said:

Passed in 1992

1)1985 Escort MK3 1.1 (un)popular. As poverty spec as it is possible to go, not even a rev counter. Even though it was only 7 years old it was very much end of life.
2)1989 Peugeot 205 XS - lovely one owner car, got hit in the side 2 months later.
3)Back to the Escort for a year.
4)1986 Fiat Uno Turbo Mk1 - Loved it, some of my best memories are with that car. My dad ended up swapping it for an MG Metro as it had (a very bent) MOT (The metro had the MOT, the Uno had run out). I still give him crap over that decision.
5)1988 Peugeot 205 1.6 GTi - Should have gone for the 1.9. The car never idled properly and had clearly been thrashed. Not a patch on the 205 XS I had
6)1993 Rover 220 Coupe - First job and stupidly bought it for £10K. Found it had been accident repaired at some point, hated it from then on but kept it for three years due to the finance. Really not a happy time car wise.
7)2000 Subaru Impreza Turbo - First ever brand new car - Mar 2000 so technically not valid. Kept it for 22 months, sold it as soon as I put the costs into Excel one day.

Out of interest, other than the idle issue, why did you not like your 205 GTi and what did you prefer about the XS? For the record, I love 205s and really wanted a 205 XS/AX GT as my first car but I think that insurance would have been a struggle and my mum was upgrading her car and offered me a price too good to refuse on her Cinquecento Sporting, which was only a 1.1, so cheaper to insure, so I went that way instead. After changing that for a mk3 Astra 1.4 (a huge mistake), my first "quick" car was a 205 GTi 1.6. My real-world childhood dream car was a 1.9 GTI but at 22 with 5 points on my licence, the 1.6 was a big enough stretch to insure, even TPFT. Mine had quite a "lumpy" idle, especially when cold, so perhaps that was a feature, a consequence of early fuel injection and a light flywheel? I'm not really sure. Mine was 12 years old and 150k by the time that I owned it and had no doubt had a hard life too but I absolutely loved that thing. It loved to rev right up to 7k and the engine was really sweet up there and the handling balance and steering feel was delicious. Really solid front end and a mobile rear that you could bring in to play as much as you liked with the throttle and it never "bit" me in that respect. It was quite economical too. Driving in traffic was a pain, as if you didn't slip the clutch, it had a tendency to kangaroo and I made a decision early on that when coming to a stop it was best to just drop it into neutral rather than 2nd and coast to a stop to avoid the kangarooing. You kind of had to drive it hard really because it wasn't the nicest car to just pootle about in but that suited me just fine at the time!

I did think of upgrading to the 1.9 after a year but it felt a little lazy and inert in comparison. Might have been just the one that I drove though, as when I got my 1.6, I drove 3 different cars and they all drove slightly differently! My 1.6 was a pre-cat example, so only 15 bhp down on the 1.9 in reality. I would still love another, probably a 1.9 because I like the bigger wheels and the "leather" bolsters on the seats but I'm not convinced it's actually the better car and they're a little harder to justify at today's prices, mine only cost me 1800 pounds at the time.

[Blockbuster]

I passed my test in 1995. I was only 17 and didn’t have much money so my grandad gave me his 1983 (A reg) 1.1 litre Peugeot 205, since he was getting to the stage where he was giving up driving.

It was a bit of a wreck but beggars can’t be choosers and i somehow managed to keep it going until 1997.

After that I moved into my own flat and couldn’t afford the rent as well as a car so had to make do with public transport for a couple of years until I managed to get myself a pretty basic K reg Peugeot 309!

[Pinkie15]

Passed my test in Jul 89, but was saving money to go travel round the US. Came back in Mar 90 with no money, the off to Uni

So early 90s starts with use of my parents car
Cavalier Commander 1.6
Astra 1.3
Rover 214Si

The my first wheels in 93 a Citroën BX 16 TRS B675SHP
MK 2 Cavalier 1.6 D126MRO
H reg Renault 19 TXE (??) 1.7 H273JJB

[Northernboy]

I had only two cars in the ‘90s.

My first car was a celica GT, which I was very happy with, and this was the second;

[AC43]

MonkeyMatt said:

My first car was a Peugeot 205 GT, followed by a 405 Mi16

405 Mi16 - brilliant car.

[AC43]

Old Merc said:

Peugeot 405Mi16X4. One of the most underrated cars of that time. 4X4, 16V DOHC, LSD front and rear, Active rear suspension. I had it re-chipped, altered the induction, wide speed-lines with Yokohama`s. It would do 150MPH ( I often went to Germany in it ) and stick to the road like glue.

My boss's boss had one. Fantastic car. I don't think the general public were aware of what they were but the press raved about them.

Even more reason to have one.

[Moley RUFC]

A red 1985 Mini Chelsea....loved that car and I never saw another Mini Chelsea at the time or since

[BroadsRS6]

Late 1990s. Mallard Green Escort RS Cosworth was my first really sporty car. The big turbo (tiny bhp increase only for some reason) and quicker than my mate's Sierra Cosworth so i was happy!
Wish i'd kept it.

Edited by BroadsRS6 on Wednesday 3rd March 14:04

[FourstarGTR]

Great reading this post, lots of memories. so..

Passed my test in 91,
1980 Opel Kadett 1.3, blew it up (twice) and learnt how to fix engines...
1988 Peugeot 309 1.6 (couldn't afford a GTI) - 'made of tinfoil'; much faster than the Opel, some pratt ran into it at a junction and wrote it off
1985 Vauxhall Astra 1.3 which was my mates old car - reliable and kept me OTR until I finished Uni and got a job
1995 Vauxhall Cavalier V6 - I had arrived!! What a car, went like stink (got done on the M20 at 113mph chasing a red Ferrari, oops)

now with job and having learned and enjoyed fixing old cars I decided I could obviously do a better job...

Built a Stuart Taylor Locoblade (like a cheap Caterham 7)... with a 900cc Honda Fireblade engine in it and a sequential shift system.... Oh boy... it still used the bike's gearbox so would only do 112mph.... but it went from 0-112 in about 5 seconds!! Registered it in 2000 i think. Great end to the decade.

[MKnight702]

Bought my first car in '91.

1) Triumph Spitfire 1500 - first car, taught myself how to repair it (a regular occurrence)
2) Westfield SE - used as my main car, did 38,000 miles in 3 years
3) Mini City - Bought to use in place of the Westfield when I moved jobs (I kept the Westfield of course!)
4) Fiat Coupe 16v Turbo - bought when I had to sell the Westfield due to getting married and not having a garage.

[AC43]

FourstarGTR said:

Great reading this post, lots of memories. so..

1995 Vauxhall Cavalier V6 - I had arrived!! What a car, went like stink (got done on the M20 at 113mph chasing a red Ferrari, oops)

I thoughts cars like that were brilliant when you could get them as company cars.

FourstarGTR said:

Built a Stuart Taylor Locoblade (like a cheap Caterham 7)... with a 900cc Honda Fireblade engine in it and a sequential shift system.... Oh boy... it still used the bike's gearbox so would only do 112mph.... but it went from 0-112 in about 5 seconds!! .

LOLZ!

[s m]

AC43 said:

FourstarGTR said:

Great reading this post, lots of memories. so..

1995 Vauxhall Cavalier V6 - I had arrived!! What a car, went like stink (got done on the M20 at 113mph chasing a red Ferrari, oops)

I thoughts cars like that were brilliant when you could get them as company cars.

Those V6 Cavaliers were quite a sleeper in manual form

Pretty light for a V6 saloon of that time, I remember my friend taking another friend and me to pick up his M3 from a big service

We were expecting to leave it comfortably on the way home ( even though it did seem unusually quick for a repmobile.........but no, first chance to open the taps on the M3 and it was pretty much stuck on the M3s taillights up to 3-figure speeds. Even on the fast roundabouts it was unshakeable

I think it was even better on fuel than the M3!

[cerb4.5lee]

s m said:

AC43 said:

FourstarGTR said:

Great reading this post, lots of memories. so..

1995 Vauxhall Cavalier V6 - I had arrived!! What a car, went like stink (got done on the M20 at 113mph chasing a red Ferrari, oops)

I thoughts cars like that were brilliant when you could get them as company cars.

Those V6 Cavaliers were quite a sleeper in manual form

Pretty light for a V6 saloon of that time, I remember my friend taking another friend and me to pick up his M3 from a big service

We were expecting to leave it comfortably on the way home ( even though it did seem unusually quick for a repmobile.........but no, first chance to open the taps on the M3 and it was pretty much stuck on the M3s taillights up to 3-figure speeds. Even on the fast roundabouts it was unshakeable

I think it was even better on fuel than the M3!

I have fond memories of the Cavalier V6 as well. A chap I worked with had one and I always enjoyed going out in it. I always thought how strong the engine felt in them.

[psi310398]

With my name in the logbook rather than family cars:

I was given a Citroen BX - hateful thing that was scrapped after a drunk Frenchman crashed into it. Boy, was I surprised and grateful for the cash settlement!

Poverty spec Mercedes 190E - well put together and reliable. I still regret selling it.

Mercedes 300 SL - I kept this from 1995 until 2016. Probably the best put together car I’ve ever owned but the 3 litre straight six was a bit asthmatic.

Mercedes S600C - eye watering running costs and not very reliable. My most expensive mistake.

Saab 9000SE - possibly the car I loved the most until I bought a Series 4 Alfa Spider. I only got rid of it because I was given a company car (a Volvo S40 at that - the dullest car I’ve ever had, outside hiring).

[Munich]

Passed my test during 1996. My first car was a Mini Park Lane (photo is not of my car, but I had the same wheels)



I followed this up with a Peugeot 106 Aztec 5-dr



Followed by one of these (Cavalier SRi) (not my car in the image. Mine was a st box with different style wheels between front and rear)



Year 2000 then came along and I will have to post my next cars in the "What did you drive in the 2000's?" thread

[Milemuncher]

D reg Renault 5TC 1.0
C reg VW Golf C 1.3
K reg Citroen ZX Reflex 1.4i (my first new car)
P reg Citroen Saxo VTR
S reg Alfa GTV 3.0 V6 Lusso

Happy days!

[s m]

cerb4.5lee said:

I have fond memories of the Cavalier V6 as well. A chap I worked with had one and I always enjoyed going out in it. I always thought how strong the engine felt in them.

Certainly were Lee - like a lot of Vauxhall engines they seemed to get much stronger with high mileage

Even new and on skinny tyres they had enough poke to make a GT86 look anaemic off the mark
Very quick for the money
Think he almost had it to the end of the clock