Cars I have owned - the best and worst.

Best: My current MX5. Not for petrolhead approval, but as a fun car to drive it's by far the best.

Worst: Austin 1100. An absolute heap.

Most disappointing to own: MGF and then the MGTF which followed it. Could have been great but shockingly unreliable.

Worst - Hillman Imp

Best value - a 1957 Austin A35, it took me to Istanbul and back as well as trips to Heidelberg and Prague in 1965 and 1967

Most satisfying - SAAB 9-5 Estate LPT with uprated engine management - now replaced with the Aero version - still getting used to it - currently not allowed to drive for another week.

quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:
Worst - Hillman Imp

Best value - a 1957 Austin A35, it took me to Istanbul and back as well as trips to Heidelberg and Prague in 1965 and 1967

Most satisfying - SAAB 9-5 Estate LPT with uprated engine management - now replaced with the Aero version - still getting used to it - currently not allowed to drive for another week.

haha Hillman Imp. My mother used to drive one - surely the slowest rear engined car ever!! Or does the Fiat 126 have it's hair dryer motor in the back?

Phil

Best Car for 'avin a laugh and just enjoying it was my 1971 Citroen 2CV which was LHD and had been modified to cross the Sahara, which it did in 1984 in aid of a cancer charity. I didn't drive it BTW, I was 13 at the time. It had a strip light, reclining seats (ooo!) proper bull bars, the list goes on. However, it fell apart and was canabilsed for parts.

I now own a Citroen C4 VTR+ 2.0 16v (notice a trend?) which goes like stink and is just an all round fantastic car, handles well etc... So I suppose this is my best car. Just one minor niggle, which REALLY hacks me off, the traction control turns it's self back on when you go over 30. So much for getting it sideways round corners!

The worst car was a 1988 Escort 1.4 I bought from the auctions for £65, so you can imagine. Green with one silver door from an Orion. However it never broke down, and the door was the only thing it failed it's MOT on. Add to that it was very quick, and I used to piss a guy off in a Punto Sporting daily, and I didn't care if I banged it, and it was good in the snow, I feel bad saying it was the worst!

quote:

Originally posted by living in lancs yearning for yorks:
Best #1 without a doubt my Caterham 7 Superlight. Unfortunately, may be about to sell due to lack of time and to free up some cash for new house

I very much hope to build one of these... one day. Hopefully the R400. Shame they stopped making the R500 - I hear it went like stink!

Arguably, my current '99 Subaru wagon is the best car I have owned, although a rear wheel drive toyota corona turbo was possibly the "most fun". The Preludes were also a pleasure to drive, but the kids forced the change to a normal 4 door vehicle.
The worst would , strangely be my first, the good old Valiant Charger. 4.3l petrol with large Holley carb - 18mpg on the open road. Pulled like a schoolboy, rolled like a bus and you didn't have to go to the gym cause of the heavy steering.

The Hilus Surf was also a dog on the road, but then I didn't buy it for normal road usage, so doesn't count.

Best #1: Mid 70's Vauxhall Firenza. Not the droop snoot (drool) but had header/exhaust work and 2 x DCOE 40 side drafts with stretched tights over the inlets as air filters. 2300CC.

Best #2: Mid 70's Vauxhall VX4-90 with the standard but rare ZF 5-speed box with racing shift pattern and twin Stromberg CD-175s.

Worst: Fiat 14 estate company car. Handled OK but ALL controls (pedals, steering, even switches) felt as though there was a big wad of bath sponge resisting driver input.

Best Regards,
Mark Dunn

Worst was an Austin Metro it was the first car I ever owned and c**p wouldn't describe how bad it was.

Best was BMW 528, Jet Black with mobile phone etc in car. Wife wrote it off one day in Glasgow.

So now she drive a new style 3 series.

Best - Triumph Stag - drop dead looks, great sounding V8 - twin exhausts - fast enough to impress - convertible.
2nd best - Escort Mexico - great fun, great drivers car - now as rare as hen's teeth.

Worst - Triumph Stag - 25mpg - always needs something doing but then it is 32 years old!
2nd Worst - Ford escort MK2 - always going wrong and rusted away before my very eyes!
Dave

My worst car to drive has been the best to run so far - an '02 BMW330d touring. It's....Well, it's a diesel. I've decided I don't like diesels and I now shed a tear longingly for its predecesssor, an '89 325i touring which rusted to death despite my desparate, King Canute-style efforts.
My best ever car (I've only had 4!) was a '73 Ferrari365gt4/bb. It was brown and since I sold it on I've learned that some UTTER charlie has painted my baby red. GrrrrRRRRRRRRR!!!! Still, what memories; there's something rather stimulating about 165mph in a 30 year old thinly-veiled racer riding on roman chariot wheels with about a ton of flat12 howling just behind your head.

naimshake - I don't blame him - brown is a crap colour for a Ferrari!
Dave

My first car was a 1275GT Mini brand new in astral blue metallic with a sunshine roof bought on my 19th birthday with my own savings. I loved it but it was a crap, arthritic, noisy and uncomfortable box of trouble but good fun around town. My best car is a tie between a Lotus Carlton and a Range Rover. I don't have a car now. I can borrow my mates TVR whenever I want or one of his company cars but there is nowhere to park where I live when in the UK and the local buses are very good so I have gone without a car for 6 years.

Worst - 1970 vauxhall viva which ate head gaskets to i ran it with no stat in.

Most loved - 1968 triumph herald

Most disappointing - 1999 bmw 323 - dull.

Best - 1997 alfa 155 - mediocre build but great twinspark engine and a hoot to drive. Current 156 is close but not as fun.

Best - '93 Lancia Dedra Turbo, fast, comfortable, understated.
Worst - '96 TVR Chimaera, had it's good points but fell to bits, stank of piss and had mushrooms growing under the drivers seat - smashed it up rather spectacularly.

quote:

Worst - Hillman Imp

The Imp was actually a fairly advanced little car in its day, with its all alloy rear engine design. Quality control was pitiful unfortunately, and they weren't too fond of side winds.

Some very brave souls raced them for a few years during the sixties in the Bathurst 500 mile race at Mt Panorama, in a class with Datsun 1000s, VW Beetles, Mini 850s and even an NSU Prinze. This on the same track at the same time as thundering V8s!

The Imp's 875cc Coventry Climax derived donk produced around 130 pulsating hp in race trim. I remember them making frequent excursions into the weeds, usually backwards, and acting as speed bumps for the big boys.

The pic, taken at Bathurst in 1967, shows an Imp (bottom of picture), about to dodge a couple of crashed cars.

You're sure it's not about to swing into them tail first?

Nope, it got around.

How on earth can you remember 40 years ago? I can't remember last week!

i have to log in for the u.s.a. naim owners. we don't have hillmans, vauxhalls, minis, etc. over here - what we specialize in is muscle cars.

best: second car was a '58 ford fairlane, purchased at junkyard for $35 usd (first car was 1951 vw bug, flipped it) - black w/ gold trim and a lotta rist. presently have a '71 mbz 250 c, like it a lot. also liked 2004 volvo s60, a lot of car for the money, just turned it in after lease, wish we could get the diesel here. honorable "best" goes to 1959 chevrolet apache 3/4 ton pickup truck (purchased from a friend for $5).

worst: mgb; actually a great car but i rebuilt the engine (it was my first engine rebuild), didn't work out. "honorable mention" worsts go to 1959 volvo 544 (also a great car but never got it to run), 1961 rambler station wagon (id.), 1967 pontiac bonneville (id.), and '61 chev. impala (a classic but threw a rod instantly).

Best car was a Jap Import Mitsubishi FTO 2.0L V6. Tiptronic gearbox, high revving MIVEC engine. Turned heads everywhere when they were new to the uk. Paid 6k for it, kept it 2 years, put 2 tyres on it, sold it for 6k. Aston looks with Japanese reliability.
Worst car, french. Peugeot 306 d-turbo or Renault Megane.

quote:

How on earth can you remember 40 years ago? I can't remember last week!

Rasher, I can't remember five minutes ago, but in 1967 I was twenty, and very interested in cars. Some things stick in yer head.

I forgot to mention that Vauxhall Vivas and Toyota Corollas were also in that class. The Vivas didn't roll, they fell over, and the Corollas always won the class by laps.

yes i can barely remember my telephone number but recall the ten cars i had at 19 like it was yesterday ...

Best is shared by a Honda Accord type R (fantastic on track days) and a Mazda MX5 (first summer with the roof down...)

Worst is both Opels (Vauxhalls to you brits), an Ascona 1973 (more or less everything was changed, engine, gearbox, seats, etc. etc. when I finally gave up) and a 900 (sold as a SAAB, but, no, it wasn't one).

JohanR

Best car E30 M3 (the proper one), which I stupidly tired of (after 11 years).

This was replaced with my worst ever car an Audi TT, so very very very very bad; I think TT really stands for 'Total Tedium'. It was so dull I sometime forgot where I had parked it and fell asleep before even turning the ignition on.

Balance now redressed with my second best car - an E46 M3.

My nightmare would be anything by Ford, unless it were the original GT40. Mogadon for the great unwashed (Ford cars not the GT40!).

My most reliable was made by Hasbro, ‘Transformer’, robots in disguise, more than meets the eye! Tag lines like that?

You’ll probably be surprised to learn as much as I was that in 1993 Vauxhall Astra engines were actually made from Battenberg cake, and as such, mechanically impaired!

To say this car took me up to ninety at the dealership would be an understatement, in fact it was enough to make the car become completely banjaxed outside the dealer principals’ house; he lives 10 doors away from me, and I must confess it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had a portrait of his right hand on his bed side cabinet (a proper bowsie Casablanca so he is). I got my money back though; however, the down side to this is; I still get filthy looks off him to this very day. He-he-he feck-him

My current car is a BMW E39, it’s absolutely brilliant and so is the dealer; plus in my experience, its proven to be no more expensive to run in real World terms than any other vehicle I’ve owned. They’ve not all been so called ‘premium’ class cars either.

Have I mentioned I think Vauxhalls are crap!

Beano despises bad service.