What Old Car?.
Discussion
If you were like me, much of your childhood motoring was spent in Mums car.
Mum usually had something rubbish. Dad had various rover V8's and then BMW's , Mercs and so on.
Mother ended up with the dregs of BL or other such, (until finally, a massive tantrum landed her with an Alfa 156, which self destructed), several Marinas, a Princess, then several Dolomites, an Allegro, a Granada, two Escorts, an Orion.
And then she gave up.
I recount various tales to my kids about these cars, 'And then the entire front end snapped off', or 'and so for the second time, the crank snapped, piercing the sump, and coated the entire road in oil', or even ' Of course, de-icing a car was a family affair in those day's.
And they often laugh, like the money grubbing hyenas they are, but I have begun to feel terribly sorry for my Dear Mother.
She must have been stressed out most of the time, as we lived in fairly isolated surroundings.
So, to the crux, I'd like to buy one of the above or similar - not a concourse restoration or ' sympathetically modified' example, that I can give to my children as daily transport to college, ( 2 miles there and back), which will expose them to the horror of late seventies/early eighties motoring.
I hope this might make them a little less 'entitled'.
I miss my Mother awfully, who never failed to act gracefully and kindly, despite the motoring catastrophes that were inflicted on her.
I only ever saw her succumb to despair once, on a lonely road, somewhere between Harrogate and blubberhouses, after two hours without a single passing vehicle - she pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and said 'I'm getting rather tired of this'.
An AA patrol, on his way back from Scarborough rescued us several hours later, by that point mother had said 'Damn', several times.
Mum usually had something rubbish. Dad had various rover V8's and then BMW's , Mercs and so on.
Mother ended up with the dregs of BL or other such, (until finally, a massive tantrum landed her with an Alfa 156, which self destructed), several Marinas, a Princess, then several Dolomites, an Allegro, a Granada, two Escorts, an Orion.
And then she gave up.
I recount various tales to my kids about these cars, 'And then the entire front end snapped off', or 'and so for the second time, the crank snapped, piercing the sump, and coated the entire road in oil', or even ' Of course, de-icing a car was a family affair in those day's.
And they often laugh, like the money grubbing hyenas they are, but I have begun to feel terribly sorry for my Dear Mother.
She must have been stressed out most of the time, as we lived in fairly isolated surroundings.
So, to the crux, I'd like to buy one of the above or similar - not a concourse restoration or ' sympathetically modified' example, that I can give to my children as daily transport to college, ( 2 miles there and back), which will expose them to the horror of late seventies/early eighties motoring.
I hope this might make them a little less 'entitled'.
I miss my Mother awfully, who never failed to act gracefully and kindly, despite the motoring catastrophes that were inflicted on her.
I only ever saw her succumb to despair once, on a lonely road, somewhere between Harrogate and blubberhouses, after two hours without a single passing vehicle - she pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and said 'I'm getting rather tired of this'.
An AA patrol, on his way back from Scarborough rescued us several hours later, by that point mother had said 'Damn', several times.
Edited by jimreed on Sunday 10th December 23:32
Nice post OP. 
My Mum generally had newish motors so they didn't usually strand us, but I can relate to what you are saying!
She started off with a Fiat 600, then a 127, 128 Estate, Fiesta, MKIII Escort, Fiesta Ghia, Nova, Fiesta and another Fiesta until she stopped driving in 2010.
Of them all I'd love to find a good Fiat 127 - that was just such a great little car.
Out of what you have listed I'd look for a Granada - I had a 1978 2.8 Ghia and a Scorpio back in the 80s. Such great cars, and prices shouldn't be too silly yet!
Good luck on your quest.
My Mum generally had newish motors so they didn't usually strand us, but I can relate to what you are saying!
She started off with a Fiat 600, then a 127, 128 Estate, Fiesta, MKIII Escort, Fiesta Ghia, Nova, Fiesta and another Fiesta until she stopped driving in 2010.
Of them all I'd love to find a good Fiat 127 - that was just such a great little car.
Out of what you have listed I'd look for a Granada - I had a 1978 2.8 Ghia and a Scorpio back in the 80s. Such great cars, and prices shouldn't be too silly yet!
Good luck on your quest.
tSo you want to by an old/classic car with the most basic interior possible to demonstrate to your kids how little you had "back in the day"? - I'm sure they'll love you for that!
Why not also take all of the TV's out of the house except the one in the sitting room, turn the colour off on that TV so that it's in black and white only, and then re-tune it so it only gets BBC1, BBC2 and ITV?
Next, you could switch off the central heating, so the whole house is only warmed by a single fire.
And to really complete the feel, switch off all the electric to the house every now and again to replicate a good old fashioned power cut!
Buying an old/classic car to re-live old memories for yourself and your own enjoyment is understandable, but buying one to prove some sort of point to your children seems a bit strange.
Why not also take all of the TV's out of the house except the one in the sitting room, turn the colour off on that TV so that it's in black and white only, and then re-tune it so it only gets BBC1, BBC2 and ITV?
Next, you could switch off the central heating, so the whole house is only warmed by a single fire.
And to really complete the feel, switch off all the electric to the house every now and again to replicate a good old fashioned power cut!
Buying an old/classic car to re-live old memories for yourself and your own enjoyment is understandable, but buying one to prove some sort of point to your children seems a bit strange.
jimreed said:
I miss my Mother awfully, who never failed to act gracefully and kindly, despite the motoring catastrophes that were inflicted on her.
I only ever saw her succumb to despair once, on a lonely road, somewhere between Harrogate and blubberhouses, after two hours without a single passing vehicle - she pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and said 'I'm getting rather tired of this'.
I only ever saw her succumb to despair once, on a lonely road, somewhere between Harrogate and blubberhouses, after two hours without a single passing vehicle - she pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and said 'I'm getting rather tired of this'.
Edited by jimreed on Sunday 10th December 23:32
Top woman.
jimreed said:
I recount various tales to my kids about these cars, 'And then the entire front end snapped off', or 'and so for the second time, the crank snapped, piercing the sump, and coated the entire road in oil',
To lose one crank is unfortunate, to lose two makes one wonder what was going on.To get back on course, juggling the choke, accelerator, brakes and gears on a freezing cloudless morning is an experience......probably best left to history
A nice idea in theory but do you really want your kids driving these old rust buckets and sharing the road with (trying to keep up with) their peers who are invulnerable in their 21st century survival cells?
It isn't just young people either, for every lad who is driving as though he is invincible there's a school run mum in a two tonne SUV in which she could remain practically oblivious while she drives straight over your boy's crisp packet.
It isn't just young people either, for every lad who is driving as though he is invincible there's a school run mum in a two tonne SUV in which she could remain practically oblivious while she drives straight over your boy's crisp packet.
ElectricSoup said:
Without giving them the full Austin All-agro experience, and having a eye on safety and reliability to some extent, how about a Volvo 340?
A mate of mine buys and sells older cars - he had a lovely All-aggro Van Den Plas earlier this year. At least you'd have a nice leather seat to get comfy in while awaiting recovery! My mother always had reasonably newish Volvos that, whilst utterly feral were indestructible and almost entirely reliable (the Fuel Injection on the 265 GLE did however appear to be the case study where Bosch decided to prove a point and demonstrate to Lucas that they could do unreliable in a much more Teutonically efficient way).
Our friends and school-run partners the Martineaus however had a succession of the most epic snotters known to man and entirely unsuited to taking six children the thirteen miles to school every day. These included;
Fiat 128 Estate
VW 411 Variant Estate (fetching shade of hearing aid beige)
Citroen GS Club Estate (often requiring crank starting and no functional heater so that, in winter, we were all draped in rugs in the manner of a 1970s re-make of Silas Marner)
Our friends and school-run partners the Martineaus however had a succession of the most epic snotters known to man and entirely unsuited to taking six children the thirteen miles to school every day. These included;
Fiat 128 Estate
VW 411 Variant Estate (fetching shade of hearing aid beige)
Citroen GS Club Estate (often requiring crank starting and no functional heater so that, in winter, we were all draped in rugs in the manner of a 1970s re-make of Silas Marner)
My mother always had reasonably newish Volvos that, whilst utterly feral were indestructible and almost entirely reliable (the Fuel Injection on the 265 GLE did however appear to be the case study where Bosch decided to prove a point and demonstrate to Lucas that they could do unreliable in a much more Teutonically efficient way).
Our friends and school-run partners the Martineaus however had a succession of the most epic snotters known to man and entirely unsuited to taking six children the thirteen miles to school every day. These included;
Fiat 128 Estate
VW 411 Variant Estate (fetching shade of hearing aid beige)
Citroen GS Club Estate (often requiring crank starting and no functional heater so that, in winter, we were all draped in rugs in the manner of a 1970s re-make of Silas Marner)
Our friends and school-run partners the Martineaus however had a succession of the most epic snotters known to man and entirely unsuited to taking six children the thirteen miles to school every day. These included;
Fiat 128 Estate
VW 411 Variant Estate (fetching shade of hearing aid beige)
Citroen GS Club Estate (often requiring crank starting and no functional heater so that, in winter, we were all draped in rugs in the manner of a 1970s re-make of Silas Marner)
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