As a spin-off to the post your car thread, i thought i would make a list of all the vehicles i have had, and see if people will also add what have been their transportation over the years.

I have had a few motors!

In order, year-make-model, and what happened to them...



1984 MK1 Vauxhall Nova 1.2, 2 door Saloon > Bought when i was 16 as a project, started to get in the way and all brakes seized on and then the shell was sold for autograss racing.

1989 MK4 Ford Escort 1.3, 5 door hatchback. > Bought a few months before i passed, wrapped it around a roadsign about 3 weeks after passing my test, totally ruined it, scrapped it myself.

1991 MK2 Vauxhall Nova, 1.2, 4 door Saloon > Owned it for about 10 months, someone hit it up the arse when my mum was driving it, didn't do any damage, then it was hit up the arse again a few weeks later while i was driving, rear floor caved in, written off.

1990 MK2 Vauxhall Astra 1.2 2 Door Hatchback. > I made it into a GTE lookalike as it was already white, got it all finished, got caught misbehaving in a carpark in it, then the clutch went, i fixed it, then engine blew up, sold all the GTE bits again and scrapped it myself.

1988 Ford Escort Van, 1.3. Bright yellow! > Bought as a non runner and another project once the astra was all done, got it running and found it was unbelievably rotten in all the wrong places so i sold it for spares.

1988 Vauxhall Nova 1.2, 4 Door Saloon > bought it because it had a long MOT but was cheap as it looked hideous, burgandy and black, with surface rust all over it. Engine blew up and my mate had a spare 1600 engine out of a cavalier so we put that in it and i raced it at a drag strip most weekends. Lost my license from the carpark incident in the astra by then so sold it.

1996 Rover Metro 1.1S, 5 Door Hatchback > Bought with long MOT, Looked ok for what it was, very clean bodywork for its age, good on fuel etc.. Took it for an MOT months later and found that the rear subframe was rotten to bits. Scrapped it.

1993 MK3 Ford Fiesta 1.4 Ghia, 5 door hatchback. > Bought for cheap with a full years MOT, some (presumably) pissed up/uninsured/banned driver rear ended it and drove off, i chased him, couldnt keep up. Straightened it as best i could to keep it going as it was mainly cosmetic damage and i couldnt afford another car at the time. Parked it up after i had saved some more money, then..

1991 Mk2 Vauxhall nova 1.2, 3 door hatchback. > Again long mot and taxed as well. Just needed a water pump to get it on the road, so did that, then built the bashed up fiesta as a banger and raced it! The damage had already been done by the leaky waterpump however, and the head gasket blew, so i fixed that myself and then someone in a big 4x4 sped past me in a small village with cars coming the other way, so i flashed my lights do show my disapproval, so the 4x4 slammed his brakes on and reverse rammed me, burying the front of my car under the higher chassis of the 4x4, he then drove off. Wrecked, so was sold to a guy who built into a stockcar or a lightning rod,i cant remember which.

1996 MK3 Ford fiesta 1.1i 3 Door Hatchback > Had it for a year or so before the injection system packed up so i scrapped it.

1990 K10 Nissan Micra 1.0L, 3 Door Hatchback. Bought for £30 with 2 months MOT, I cleaned up the very faded pink (should have been red) paintwork, colour coded the bumpers, Added the 1.2 clocks and guages so it had a rev counter, and low fuel light, gave it a good service, fitted some 2nd hand alloys i got cheap and a CD player i had in the garage, MOT'd it again and sold it straight away for £400.

1989 Volvo 240 Estate, 2.0l. > Bought it woth no MOT or tax for banger racing for £50 once the micra was finished, but it was in such good condition i stuck it in for an MOT anyway, it needed a brake light bulb and a track rod end replacing, so i kept that and sold the micra. Owned it for about a year but the rear susension wasnt that good really and eventually gave up when i was towing a mk2 granada on a trailer and the rear springs broke, so my mate had it for banger racing, and come to think of it, i was promised a mondeo to race in exchange for that, which i havent had yet.

1998 Rover 216 Si, 5 Door Hatchback. > Given to me for free by my mate from work as he had bought a new car and was sick of the site of it sat on his front garden, so i had it. The car is the newest car i have had, and only needed a cat to get through an MOT, but has cost me the most to keep on the road as it has had... a new radiator, head gasket, waterpump, timing belt and tensioner kit, 2nd hand set of alloys as the tyres were not that brilliant on my steel wheels and the alloys with tyres were cheaper than 4 new tyres. erm, exhaust system, new brakes all round, new windscreen and a 2nd hand bonnet after it flew up at 60mph, injectors reconditioned to pass this years MOT, and thats about it so far.

Next car will be....

1993 Eunos (Mazda) MX-5 > My mates car, and as he is getting a newer shaped one he is letting me have it for £300! It only needs a windscreen and a fog light switch to pass an MOT as it runs out in 2 months, (already took it for a pre-MOT checkover) plus as its an import, it has power steering, Air-con and a momo steering wheel.


Well, now im knackered, thats a lotta writing!

What about you?? cars, bikes, whatever, what have you had??

Awwww, Jack you look su cuuuuuute

You have a love for gutless engines or something? That's a lot of cars though.

So far I've had one car:

1995 Ford Mondeo MkI 1.8 - bought for £380, had a year now, still going fine. Engine doesn't pull that great, especially from cold. I put a nice deep, 6 foot long "go-faster" scratch down the passenger side a couple of weeks after I bought it when I drove far too close to a wall. Also buckled the front passenger wheel when I took a tight bend too fast and ran up the vertical curb on the exit. Blown a hole in the exhaust and its been broken into once. Leaks oil but gets me from A to B and, very surprisingly, I leave most traffic behind at traffic lights. How do people accelerate so slow? I nearly floor it everywhere and still don't feel like I'm making good progress. I clearly got too used to the performance of my Dad's TVRs. I hope to have bought my own before I'm thirty. Damn. I've never thought about getting that old before. Scary. /me whimpers

lol thats a lotta cars, with me its quite simple

1987 3.5 v8 range rover classic -> my dad traded his old audi 80 for it and was gonne be rebuilt, when my dad got another car he said that the rangie was mine. it huge, sounds great and i love it but its a typical old range rover and rotton and is atm missing the roof,windscreeen,rear wings, bonnet, boot floor, rear top and bottom tailgate, one rear door and a few other bit lol but we still drive it for a laugh round the farm. its gonna be stripped and sold for spares.( it didnt come in the stripped down state that was use, were aiming to have a bit of fun with it in a very bare state soon, youlle know what i mean if youve seen a 4x4 is born)

and finally lol

1996 vauxhall corsa sport 1.4 16v in black(see sig) ->bought it about a month/ 6 weeks ago now and is gonna be my first car if all goes well, payed £500 for it. am gonna spend about £250 on it doing the cambelt and water pump then a full service plus discs and pads on the front and shoes on the rear, i also need to put a replacement bonnet release cable on it (come with the car) and the indicator stalk is a bit dodgy on the main beam(useual problem), the only other thing that i want to do is have a few, small, bit of paintwork sorted by a mate of mine,and have the wheel refurbed

1994 1.4 Red Vauxhall Astra GLS

Cost me £150 off someone who was desperate to get rid of it, now I just need to pass me driving test.

Quote from 5haz :

1994 1.4 Red Vauxhall Astra.

Cost me £150 off someone who was desperate to get rid of it, now I just need to pass me driving test.

are you sure its red not flame pink lol

1997 Fiat Punto ELX 1.2 16v

1999 Peugeot 306 1.9D (owned for less than 24hours, driven for less than 45min before it was written off by a lorry while parked at work) Total bargin btw.

2000 Peugeot 306 2.0 Hdi Meridian

I am [now] insured on my mum's Mazda 3, but she isn't letting me drive it yet [wonder why... ]

Quote from J@tko :

I am [now] insured on my mum's Mazda 3, but she isn't letting me drive it yet [wonder why... ]

What vehicles have you owned so far?

1989 transit - learned to drive in it, drowned it in the floods a few years back.

several rusty e34 bmw's - most of which died sideways related deaths, 1 didnt.

95 mazda rx-7 - 16th birthday present from hell. Life quite litterally driven out of it. spent every penny i had restoring it to former glory, started eating parts so on it went to the next noob.

92 pug 106 Type Rawr - little rocket, completely stripped ( no radio, a/c or any luxury ) full works cage and saftey gear, gave it to a mate after wreaking his ibeza ( by no means a fair trade but was stuck for cash )

92 nissan sunny - ran like a clock till the clutch went, gave it away

92 clio - 1.4 magane engine, 130 mph, killed 1.4 civics, pugs... anything basically. Gave it away with a g/b issue, turns out the syncro got loose, quick adjustment and it went like a clock

several puntos lagunas corrollas and free rubbish in between them above but most go trashed/scrapped/sold on

Current banger: peugeot 306 - almost dead. pishing blue smoke since last week. have to keep it insured for the ncb so its going to be shedded soon

Next purchase ?: on the look out atm. 1.6 almera 3dr or charade gti preferable.

Quote from Bob Smith :

You have a love for gutless engines or something?

Not really, it was just a case of having to really due to insurance costs, as the first 6 cars (well 5, i never drove the first nova, too young) were hellishly dear to insure eventhough they were tiny engined things because i was a new driver, then from the metro onwards was after i had re-taken my test in 2004 after losing my license for a year for dangerous driving, (did a handbrake turn in the astra) so as a 21 year old, my insurance was the same as, if not dearer than a 17 year old who had just passed their test, the metro cost me just over £1100 tpf&t so anything bigger was just stupidly expensive to even bother with.

It has only been the last 2 years that my insurance has dropped to a more sensible level, as it has been over 5 years since the date of the offence that led to my conviction, hence the 2l volvo and 1600 16valve rover.

I will never forget those dates...

Date of offence, December 3rd 2002.
Date of conviction, 11th august 2003.

Young and stupid, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Quote from james12s :

are you sure its red not flame pink lol

Well to be precise its red with some Pigeon shit splatters. The old bloke was really desperate to get shot of it and couldn't find anyone who would take it on, passed MOT first time though but the radio dosen't work. My sis drives it right now but as soon as she buggers off to uni and I pass me test it shall be miiine.

Quote from Bob Smith :

You have a love for gutless engines or something?

Not all of us can afford £2 grand a year insurance.

Quote from 5haz :

Well to be precise its red with some Pigeon shit splatters.

It's a vauxhall specific joke, as their brightest red is called flame red, and used to fade so badly that they looked like a light pink, if not worse, i saw a mk2 astra once that i swear was nearly white on the roof and bonnet it had faded so much. Kinda applies to most older red cars, but vauxhalls seemed worse for it.

EDIT, here is a 'flame red' corsa, see how bad it is?







And here is how flame red should look...

Let's see..

1987 Pontiac Sunbird - dad used to own a rental business and this car was part of that. dad gave it to me when I was around 15-16. didn't take care of it and had a bad oil leak. eventually blew the engine.. sold as parts for $500

1993 Mustang LX convertible - bought for $1500. nice car for a while then everything started breaking. oil leak, transmission, exhaust.. eventually sold it for $1000

1985 Toyota Supra - great car, powerful too.. had a few repair problems including a broken woodruf key in the middle of a spring break road trip. good times. was t-boned on the driver side then pushed over and t-boned again on the other side, in the same accident! im ok though.. totalled the car and got $6000 for it

1992 Nissan 240SX SE - bought in 1997 for around $7500. few modifications to it but pretty much stock. sold it a couple years ago for $1000 to the landlord just to get out of a stupid argument with some other person..

2002 Subaru RS 2.5 - current car. bought 2.5 years ago for $12,000, 55k miles. still in great condition. plan on keeping this one until i can buy all electric

Quote from Stuff :

1985 Toyota Supra - great car, powerful too.. had a few repair problems including a broken woodruf key in the middle of a spring break road trip. good times. was t-boned on the driver side then pushed over and t-boned again on the other side, in the same accident! im ok though.. totalled the car and got $6000 for it

Sorry to be a n00b, but what is a woodruf key, as i have never heard of one over here in little old england, im guessing is a different name for something else, like american > english differences... Fender = wing, Hood = Bonnet, etc..

Ooops.. forgot a f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodruff_key

Basically its a little wedge that sticks out of a shaft so it can turn something else. In my case it was the engine crankshaft and the transmission. The key broke and my engine overheated. Exhaust headers turned orange and were warped. Cost about $600 to fix since the engine had to be torn apart and headers machined back into shape.

na woodruf hey is a british used term but it less common now, classics use woodruff keys all over the place lol

and dan that corsa is flame pink alright lol,

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Sorry to be a n00b, but what is a woodruf key, as i have never heard of one over here in little old england, im guessing is a different name for something else, like american > english differences... Fender = wing, Hood = Bonnet, etc..

Aw...COME ON NOW...Google+"Woodruff Key"=Answer to your question!

If you are too lazy/thick to use google, then admit it and I will tell you!


[edit] aw bums...peoples here can type quicker than me [/edit]

No its not that, its just something i hadn't heard before, i know now!

Back on topic. Driving for 21 years and approximately 446,000 miles. Well, here we go.....

April 1988, turned 16 and got my driver's license. Couldn't get learner's early back then, had to be 16.

April 1988 through, er, April 1988 . 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura, mileage negligible. My father had acquired a company car, thus he saved this one for a few years for me. Two weeks and the front brake lines were dry rotted and split (parent's weren't much on vehicular maintenance). Foot went to the floor as I braked to turn onto a bridge. A car was up ahead stopped waiting for traffic turning on from the other direction even though he had his own lane to drive through. No brakes, I avoided him but couldn't avoid another car. Insurance write-off as my parents thought that you should always have full coverage insurance even though you pay twice every year as what the car is actually worth.

1988-1990: 1983 Ford Escort, 23k-36k. The Fairmont wasn't technically mine, just mine to drive. Thus, Mom took the insurance money and put it down on a new car and gave me her old car. I graduated in 1990 from High School and as a gift, my parents said I could have the car to do what I wish rather than it being their car and I could drive it. I promptly went searching for a trade .

1990-1992: 1985 Ford Escort, 43k-86k. That 83 was the last time I had an auto tranny. I don't know why I bought this car, more from listening to my parents. It was 2 door as opposed to 4 door like the 83, and more importantly it was a 4 speed. First time I had ever driven a manual was on the test drive of this car. No problems, must have been born for it I was taking it to the shop for something, brakes or exhaust I can't remember, and the transmission blew a hole in the side of the case.


1992-1995: 1992 Geo Storm, 25 miles to 60k. After buying one tranny for the Escort and finding out Ford changed something halfway through the build year, I couldn't find another transmission. Thus, I decided to trade it. I stupidly let Mom talk me into getting a brand new car as it "wouldn't have so many miles on it and it would be reliable..." Why I let her talk me into it I don't know. I had a job and could afford it just fine as I was staying home while going to college and working the evenings. This thing was a piece of garbage. No so much a piece of garbage that it constantly broke, but a POS in that wear items were constantly wearing prematurely. I was constantly replacing the brakes, which no, it isn't from my driving
because I still drive hard today and don't wear the brakes like that. Also, the tire size was a weird size at the time and I couldn't find anything that fit in a normal all-season tire. Everything was an expensive soft compound "performance" tire. It didn't even have to snow, just look like it was going to snow and the car was all over the place. I literally had to use the handbrake to turn the car in the winter or it would continue going straight no matter how slow I tried to go when turning. That and there are hills everywhere in western PA, so if you had to stop, you weren't going again. Taking a run to get up a hill was a necessity. Thank you PENNDOT for putting stoplights in the middle of every freakin hill there is.

1995-1997: 1989 Toyota Hilux, 89k-139k. I already wrote about this on in the Top Gear Hilux video thread. I watched how much abuse a friend of mine put his Toyota through and knew I had to have one. As said in the other thread, they are nearly indestructible. They say it's snake oil, but I bought into the snake oil and used Slick50 oil in it. Snake oil or not, all I can say is this truck was the smoothest and best running vehicle I had ever had or driven. I completely thrashed this truck all over western PA. I took it hill climbing, mud bogging, higher speed dirt road running, rock climbing, and I had never gotten stuck in it. I was forward momentum hindered for about half an hour, but as it still moved back and forth and I did eventually back out under it's own power, it wasn't stuck. I loved this thing and I'd give anything to have this one back. A Ford Probe ran underneath the rearend of it launching it up and off the side of it's windshield. It was a total loss and the insurance company gave me around $1800 over book value because of it's condition. I have a 3 page list of "drivetrain extra clean", "Interior extra clean", engine compartment, wheels and tires, paint, glass, all listed as "extra clean" with an extra monetary value listed next to each item. The best part is, 2 days prior, you couldn't tell what color it was because it was completely covered in mud from 4wheeling.

1997-1997: 1994 Toyota 4Runner, 50k-66k. I owned this all of 6 months. I started dating my wife who lived about 45 minutes to an hour north of me and went to see her nearly every day. From there we were in the truck constantly also and I couldn't keep the payments up on it. Nor could I keep gasoline in the thing. I mean, really, look at the numbers. 16,000 miles in 6 months.

1997-2002: 1988 Toyota 4Runner, 105k-189k. Thrashed on this thing pretty good to. Opted to get out of the big 94 with the weak 3.0L V6 and get back to the indestructible 22RE motor.

1997-1999: 1992 Chevrolet Corsica. Aquired through marriage. It was my wife's car when we got married.

1999-current: 1996 Nissan Altima, 48k-168k. My current car. I traded my wife's Corsica for this, then acquired it as my own personal work runner when I traded my truck in on a new car for her. It's falling apart, but still runs great. I now again, after 15 years of driving manual transmissions, drive an automatic . I am dying to get rid of this and get back into a manual...

2000-2004: Honda Nighthawk CB550SC, 12k-24k. My first (and only) bike. Put most of the miles on the 2nd year. 10,000 miles that year and 2000 miles the next 2 years. Didn't have time any more to ride.

2002-2007: 1999 Toyota Tacoma, 58k-92k. Frame rotted with only 92k. For a Toyota truck, the motor isn't even broken in yet at 92k. Got rid of it prematurely and got my wife a new vehicle, thus I now drive the POS auto Altima and hate it.

2007-current: 2006 Mazda Tribute S, 900 miles- currently 32k. Was snowing so hard I couldn't even see the front end of the truck from in the cabin. That's my kind of test driving Testing it out in the weather I am buying it for.

2001/2002 Renault Clio 1.2 - Purple. Drove it home about 5:30pm on the day I bought it. Written off about 8am the next morning. Not my fault.

2002 Peugeot 106 1.2 - Black. With the above I was a bit pissed off and didn't want to go and look at cars anymore so I let my dad go and buy this Pug for me. It was a disgustingly bad car. No power, no grip, no creature comforts, no safety. Traded it in to buy the next and my current car.

2004 Volvo S40 T5 SE Geartronic (Auto) - Silver. Fantastic car. Power, grip, all the creature comforts and hopefully would stand up well in a crash. However, it's thirsty, expensive for road tax and expensive for insurance.

hmm, not too many, I suppose, and all quite old:

1990 VW Passat B3 GL Variant, 70 bhp turbo-diesel. My very first and favourite car. Sturdy, lightweight for a huge car as it hadn't much electronics in it, and the engine was very torquey until 3,500 rpm, so it got up to it's maximum speed quite quickly. Sadly, the engine gave in after 320.000 km. Used it as a "camping" car to go to rock festivals, thanks to it being a wagon. It's the only car I really miss having.

1992 VW Vento, same 70 bhp turbo-diesel. I got it as a replacement for the Passat. Was reasonably fun to drive being lighter than the Passat, still, there are two reasons that I didn't really like it: 1) Buying it used, it had a stupid fart can (on a diesel, d'oh), a spoiler and car colour matching alloys. In short: it was quite riced. I still grew to like the spoiler though, as it helped with parallel parking, as the stock saloon rear would've made judgeing the distance to the car behind harder.
2) I could've gotten a red Audi A4 Avant with 114 bhp for the same money. But back then, my parents still had a say and deemed it too dangerous for me. In retrospect, they were propably right. Still, it was red and a wagon, so it would have felt like a proper replacement for the Passat.

1994 Citroen BX, 90 bhp turbo-diesel. Looks good on paper: my most high powered car, lot's of extras like A/C, ABS, electric windows, hydropneumatic suspension. But it was the most rubbish car I have ever driven. The engine, even though presumably more powerfull, didn't create any torque at all. I was often left standing by biciclists at traffic lights. Most of the time, the gadgets weren't working, most annoyingly the suspension and the power steering. The strange part about the steering was that when it stopped working, it was as hard to turn as the wheel of a car without power steering at standstill, even when the Citroen was moving.
The suspension was rubbish beyond belief: when not working, it nearly broke my back, and the rare times it did work, it felt like a boat. And it cost quite a lot to fix. Also, once the breaks failed completely, so I had to carefully come home using the engine and hand break.

1995 Toyota Corolla XLI 16V, 88 bhp 4banger, 3 door hatchback. The car I have now for three years, or 180.000 km (has about 300.000 km on it). Can't complain, it's reasonably sporty, sturdy, cheap, lot's of extras like A/C, electric windows and sunroof, seat heating, etc. Sadly, it's slowly starting to show it's age, as something with the exhaust is wrong since a few weeks ago, and I haven't the money right now to fix it. Sounds like a ricer's car for the moment. Also, since this winter, some rusty patches start to appear, so instead of fixing it, I might just get me another car.

'70 Toyota Corona, '83 Holden VH Commodore, '86 Holden VL Commodore, '71 Toyota Corolla, '74 Ford Escort, '84 Ford Cortina, '88 Holden VL Commodore, '85 Ford Telstra, '90 Suzuki Vitara, '72 Datsun 120Y, '86 Mitsubishi L300, '89 Hodlen VN Commodore, '90 Ford Falcon, '99 Ford Fairmont, '08 Holden Commodore... That's the ones I can remember I think I've missed a few

Just the one. But hardly surprising since I only passed my test 4 months ago

96 Mazda 323F, 1.5. 13 years old, 132.5k miles on the clock (only 3 or 4k by me), no mechanical issues at all. Looks like it's been accident damaged though, since the front end has a couple of cowboy repairs. I like the way it looks, it's fairly easy on fuel consumption and for only being a 1.5 it can still shift.