Family cars: by the time I was born in 63 my parents had a 1958 Standard Vanguard station wagon. A very solidly engineered English car (Australian assembled)with 2 litre 4 cylinder engine. It had three speed manual trans on the column which regularly jammed. My father used to swear at it, "bloody gears!" The first time I was caught swearing I was about 4, standing on the seat holding the steering wheel and the gear lever, yelling "bloody gears!" just like Dad.
Next was a 69 Ford Falcon wagon, our first new car. My Grandfather worked for Ford Australia and got a company car, usually a TOL Fairmont V8 sedan. He arranged with my parents he would order a Falcon wagon to my parents specification, only thing was for him to drive it for a year it had to be Auto and have a radio. Other wise it was BOL which he would have hated! When his year was up, my parents bought the car at a great discount. It was a fantastic car, did over 500,000 miles. It was totally neglected, Dad never got it serviced, only fixed if something broke. Eventually it was a bit of an old bomb and we joked the drivers seat only fitted my Dad's bum. It was traded in on a Mitsubishi Colt for my Mum in 1984.
Mum's cars: Mum worked through most of the 70s, dropping Dad off at work at 6am, then back home to give 3 kids breakfast, then drive to her own job, and reverse each evening, soon lost its appeal so Mum got her own car. First was a 62 Ford Anglia, a cute reliable little car. Next was a 65 Ford Cortina, good too. When this started getting unreliable she traded it in on a 72 Morris Marina which was a piece of junk - water leaked in every time it rained, electrics failed constantly, once the accelerator spring broke and the engine raced at full speed till she turned the key off, locking the steering when we were still moving! It was replaced by a 72 Ford Cortina wagon 2 litre, a reasonable car but not very well built, you had to slam the doors shut and occasionally the back axle would jam up, so the car sat lop-sided till it went to the mechanic to be adjusted - they never found why it did that. That was traded in on a 1975 Renault 12 GL, a really fantastic car which started my love of French cars. The whole family were amazed with that car, we had the big Falcon with a 3.6 litre 6 cylinder engine, then Mum got this little Renault with a tiny 1.2 litre 4 cylinder, it was half the size but there was more room in the back seat, and a dead flat floor we could fit the three teenage kids on the back seat comfortably, with the Falcon the seat was hard and there was a hump in the floor so the middle kid had knees up. Mum's little Renault became the "family" car and the Falcon became "Dad's" car. I learned to drive in the Renault. Eventually Mum replaced the Renault with a Mitsubishi Colt in 84, Dad's Falcon was traded in on the Mitsubishi, I got Mum's Renault and Dad got my Leyland P76.
My cars: My first car was an Austin 1800 which I bought not working and repaired it before I got a licence. I had good mechanical ability and no money so I started buying old cars cheaply, fixing them up and driving them a while, then selling the car and buying something a little newer. So in the first few years I owned several cars.
Austin 1800s, 1966 and 1967
Morris 1500 Nomad, 1971 - Terrible car, UK people may be interested this was an Australia-only model, a 5-door wagon version of the Morris 1100, with the 1500cc motor from the Austin Maxi. (Maxis weren't sold here.) When I bought it, I took it to a local mechanic who specialised in Minis and other BMC/Leyland front drive cars. When he saw the car his reaction was, (Quote) "oh, S**t, you haven't bought one of those F*****g things have you? It's going to leak oil out of every aperture, it's going to break down constantly, it's going to jam in gear, jump out of gear, rattle and clatter and things will fall off it." He was right, it did all those things and more.
Morris 1100, 1967- beautiful condition, burgundy duco with beige interior, one old lady owner - it needed a reco engine when I bought it as it hadn't been used enough and moisture in the oil has stuffed the engine. After that it was great. It lost synchro in second gear, I sold the car - should have repaired it, it was a lovely car.
Citroen GS 1220, 1974 - fantastic model, amazing to drive with hydraulic suspension, but mine was not a good example (Ibought it from a dishonest dealer) and it gave me some grief. I still loved it and one day I might get another as a classic.
Simca 1100 Special 1974 - a very rare car here, I bought it as a "collectors item" as the model was not sold in this country, my car was imported by Chrysler Australia as an evaluation car to see if they wanted to sell the model here. They decided to import Mitsubishis instead, my little orphan was sold to Chrysler Australia's French interpreter who drove it for a couple of years, till he hit reverse instead of fourht gear and destroyed the transmission. I got a new trans and clutch sent out from England but had other troubles with the restoration and never got it back on the road. When my partner and I moved house, I gave the car to a Simca enthusiast as I would not be able to care for it properly and it was starting to deteriorate from being stored outside.
Mini 1275LS 1978 - the last year Minis wer sold in AU and this was the top model, similar to a Cooper it was fast, sporty and cute. It was red velour interior, silver exterior with black go-faster stripe down the side. The colour was called Hi-Ho Silver. Really. I sold it after a year as I was by then a poor university student and needed the cash to fund moving out of home. I sold it for what I paid, $4000. Today it would be worth about $20,000.
Leyland P76 1974 - these cars are scorned as Australia's equivalent to the Edsel, a spectacular failure. I love them. At the time, jokes were, they should call it the P38, it was only half the car it was supposed to be. The engineering was way advanced over the opposition Holden Kingswood, Ford Falcon or Chrysler Valiant. Front disc brakes standard, rack and pinion steering, macpherson strut front end, all-aluminium V8 motor of 4.4 litres released just before the oil crisis in 1973...lots of safety features not standard in other cars for 10 years, fantastic handling and comfortable ride, acres of space inside but not huge ouside (though its styling made it look bulky and heavy). Unfortunately the build quality was woeful in early examples and they got a bad reputation. Later ones were much better but the reputation stayed....I gave mine to Dad when we had the big car shuffle in 1984, I got the Renault.
Holden Gemini RB 1986 - sold in USA as a Chevy Spectrum, this was my first new car. I took out a loan to buy a more reliable car. It was the worst car I've ever owned. Constant trouble with anti-pollution equipment, gears, brakes, seats, engine seized up when 3 years old. Nasty little car.
Renault 18 wagon 1981 - fabulous car, worked hard, died when I rolled it.
Renault 20 TS 1980 - this car fitted me like a glove. Magnificent smooth luxurious car, converted to LPG so cheap to run. Accident damage from previous owner, repairs weren't rustproofed properly so it rusted badly down one side. Did 480,000 km with engine, gearbox,clutch never repaired, just normal servicing. Confirmed my love of French cars.
Toyota Corona wagon 1985 - totally reliable. totally horible. A truly awful car to drive, I took it to suspension specialists to try to have its wandering steering, rough crashy ride, sloppy handling repaired. Response - "that's what they are like." Yuk. My neighbour bought it and still owns it, she loved the car, it was genuinely the first reliable car she had ever owned so she forgave its other vices.
Mitsubishi Magna wagon 1993 - sold in other countries as Diamante, a really good car, loved it.
And now ... just bought a brand new Peugeot 307 HDi wagon, 1.6 litre diesel. I will post pics very soon in its own thread. Only my second ever brand new car. Love it so far...
Chris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_P76
