My Brief Car History
Discussion
Having seen all the recent threads with car histories I thought I'd do one on my brief car history from 17 to now. Apologies for it being a bit dull. My first car was a 1989 Mini Mayfair that I paid £1600 for in January 2012 whilst I was still learning. Before buying it I had a look at a few other Mini's with my Dad but they needed a lot of work, I was almost put off buying a Mini altogether. I did the stereotypical mods you'd expect on a Mini with Cooper stripes, spotlights etc. It already had a Stage 2 head and Maniflow exhaust when I bought it so it went quite well for a 998cc. In the first few months of owning it I had a few fueling issues so was towed by the AA a couple of times.
I passed my test in July 2012 and drove it to college daily. It passed its MOT in October 2012 after I paid out to have welding done on the front floor and boot floor. When my insurance renewal was up in January I made the decision to sell it and get something modern. At this point it needed some more money spending on it to get welding done on the inner sills. I wasn't enjoying driving it daily throughout winter because it was always freezing cold inside, a pool of water used to form in the passenger foot well, the windows were always steamed up and I had to scrape both the outside and inside of the windows in a morning.
The replacement was this 2003 Citroen C2 1.4 Sensodrive which I paid £1850 for this January. At first I was quite pleased with it. I did a few subtle mods to it like new VTR alloys and MK2 rear lights. It didn't take long for me to get bored though, I didn't like the Sensodrive gearbox once the novelty wore off and I was desperate to get a manual.
Then earlier this month my Grandad bought the C2 off me for what I paid and exported it to France. I had a look around at a few cars but couldn't find anything interesting that was reasonable to insure. My Mum decided she wanted a new car so she sold me her 2004 Hyundai Getz 1.6 Sport for £1000. Not bad considering it's only done 21,000 miles. Although driving a Hyundai is slightly embarrassing it's a surprisingly good car. The gearbox is really smooth and the engine is powerful enough for a small car. The steering has more feel than my Citroen C2 did too. The plan is to keep this car until I can afford to buy and insure something a bit more interesting in the future.
Me and my Dad also have a project on the go, a 1980 Mini 1275GT. This photo is a few months old and the car is currently stripped down without its engine in the garage. Once the Mini is finished I will hopefully be insured on that to give me something interesting to drive occasionally.
I passed my test in July 2012 and drove it to college daily. It passed its MOT in October 2012 after I paid out to have welding done on the front floor and boot floor. When my insurance renewal was up in January I made the decision to sell it and get something modern. At this point it needed some more money spending on it to get welding done on the inner sills. I wasn't enjoying driving it daily throughout winter because it was always freezing cold inside, a pool of water used to form in the passenger foot well, the windows were always steamed up and I had to scrape both the outside and inside of the windows in a morning.
The replacement was this 2003 Citroen C2 1.4 Sensodrive which I paid £1850 for this January. At first I was quite pleased with it. I did a few subtle mods to it like new VTR alloys and MK2 rear lights. It didn't take long for me to get bored though, I didn't like the Sensodrive gearbox once the novelty wore off and I was desperate to get a manual.
Then earlier this month my Grandad bought the C2 off me for what I paid and exported it to France. I had a look around at a few cars but couldn't find anything interesting that was reasonable to insure. My Mum decided she wanted a new car so she sold me her 2004 Hyundai Getz 1.6 Sport for £1000. Not bad considering it's only done 21,000 miles. Although driving a Hyundai is slightly embarrassing it's a surprisingly good car. The gearbox is really smooth and the engine is powerful enough for a small car. The steering has more feel than my Citroen C2 did too. The plan is to keep this car until I can afford to buy and insure something a bit more interesting in the future.
Me and my Dad also have a project on the go, a 1980 Mini 1275GT. This photo is a few months old and the car is currently stripped down without its engine in the garage. Once the Mini is finished I will hopefully be insured on that to give me something interesting to drive occasionally.
Shame about the first Mini showing its age a bit for your daily use!
That 1275 Mini looks like an awesome project. Good luck with that
Good move on pacing yourself and waiting for something a bit more intresting - hopefully your current runaround will allow you to set aside some cash to pounce on something nice whenever you decide/find it.
All the best,
Matt
That 1275 Mini looks like an awesome project. Good luck with that
Good move on pacing yourself and waiting for something a bit more intresting - hopefully your current runaround will allow you to set aside some cash to pounce on something nice whenever you decide/find it.
All the best,
Matt
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