Practically Classics Forum

By amazing coincidence, the only split-new car I had ever bought - until last July when the Smart came along - was an FSO 125p 1300 saloon in bright red, D641WTF. I got it from the FSO dealer in Reading, ran it for 8 happy Months, then sold it back to the dealer for the same price as I'd paid new when the lure of a nice Austin A60 Cambridge became too great to resist.
I guess it was pure luck, selling an FSO at a time when the main dealer was short of new stock so was able to pass on mine at above RRP to a new customer.
I did enjoy the FSO though, and during the time I had it, I took out the nasty, moulded radio mounting area of the dash and made a replica of the Fiat original from some teak, which poshed up the whole car and prevented the (Lucas Opus - Radiomobile's high end range) radio/cassette player dropping out quite as frequently! I also replaced every Polski-Fiat badge around the thing with original equipment Fiat ones and spent a day returning those and the dashboard to stock when I'd agreed to sell the car.

Only downside to it was that, even if I'd painted "NO, IT'S NOT A LADA" in two foot high letters all over the body, people would still have pointed and laughed.

A 1971 Austin 1300.
Bought for £50 in 1988 and looked perfect, of course the rear subframe had the usual acres and acres of rust and I taught myself to weld using an arc welder (and the importance of keeping a bucket of water handy).
Ah, I still have the grease gun!

a 1968 Hillman Minx, with the strip dash, then at 18 years old I bought a nice, 1994 M reg Vauxhall ventora 3.3litre, then a beetle,aged 21,, next a 1973 Daimler sovereign , a Fiat supermirafior sport , orange with black velour, i was only 21, car was just 2 years old on a W plate. then a triumph stag aged 22. then a opel monza 3.0 E aged 25.

.... called 'Xray'.....



1978 Cav Mk1 1.6GL. Bought from Archway Motors of Findern (Derbys) (Vauxhall Dealer, still going I think). Nice crushed velour red 'boudoir' inside too. Used it every weekend to 'blat' from Portsmouth to Derby on weekend leave. Monday-Friday it sat in HMS Nelson car park. I managed to put a crack somewhere in the block, probably by over-wellying it . USG Vauxhall dealer in Hilsea (Pompey) dropped in a nice new Opel unit..... and about 3 months later it went up in flames bringing Commercial Road in Pompey to a halt!

Well, I thought it was good at the time.....a 1.4 Renault 18TL in red (pic for illustration only). I had it for a year before the big end went!



My car choices, in general, have improved since!

Nowt wrong with R18s! Great engines too, especially the one in the Diesel version. The reliability of the 12s, 18s and other of the Régie's cars of the period would shame many modern cars built in that same part of the world.

There's a really lovely, black 18TL that I sometimes see when I'm down Durham way, clearly being used regularly and very tidy it is too.


*Goes off in search of wood to touch, seeing as my modern was made by French people .....*

JPB wrote:Nowt wrong with R18s! Great engines too, especially the one in the Diesel version. The reliability of the 12s, 18s and other of the Régie's cars of the period would shame many modern cars built in that same part of the world.

There's a really lovely, black 18TL that I sometimes see when I'm down Durham way, clearly being used regularly and very tidy it is too.


*Goes off in search of wood to touch, seeing as my modern was made by French people .....*

It's ok, John. Hambach is not really considered proper French, by Germans anyway.

Hmm, confusing but in an eccentric sort of way. A bit like Berwick Upon Tweed except that Scotland can have that back any time they want it and there are no car factories there.

My first car was a white 1977 Triumph Dolomite 1500 HL bought from the then trading T Davidson’s Triumph Specialist which was situated in Bawdeswell. I was only 16 at time and my family and I called in to the specialist on the way back from visiting my grand parents in late October '88. By the time we arrived at the forecourt at nearly 8 pm, the light was pretty poor, although there was some light offered by the outside lights. I remember the 1500 stood between two sprints, which naturally caught my attention first. The blue sprint had sold and the magenta sprint needed a replacement gearbox, so it left the 1500. The 1500 was riddled with rust, quite severe rot underneath as we later discovered. Anyway it had an overdrive gearbox and a webasto sunroof and despite going back the following morning for a second viewing and seeing the true extent of the problem areas, I bought it for 325 pounds. The engine was a allegedly a reconditioned unit, but unbeknown to me, the suspected faulty clutch turned out to be crankshaft end float, so another secondhand engine was sourced from Davidson’s, only this time it was a sweet running unit. My intention was to do the car up but unfortunately 6 months after buying the car, it failed its mot test spectacularly do to extensive under body rot. Davidson’s bought the car back for 125 pounds, mainly because he knew it had a sweet engine and of course sported a fully working overdrive gearbox. The car was broken up 3 days after he collected it.

That was a shame Steve but still, we've all learned from some of our less positive car-related experiences and your current Toledo has to be one of the best examples around.

Good to see you posting here by the way.