Beginnings...

[Kieran]

Been chatting and searching the forums, and have noticed a few posts about what cars people have had prior to their VR-4s (or indeed, GLSes)...

So, what have people had before? Likes/Dislikes, pet names, etc?

I'll Start:

First car(1998): 1985 Mk3 Ford Escort 1.3 Lawnmower:sleep:
-Grandad's old car. Still got it - It's now a restoration project, that mostly involves looking at it, thinking "*£*&$£ing hell it's rusty!" and then leaving it for another few months....

Second car (1999): 1995 Fiat Cinquecento Sporting (The Bug):devil5:
Loved it! Nimble and enough go to have a laugh!
It fell apart on an houly basis, but easy enough to fix. I would NOT however own another Fiat! Dealerships are terrible!

Third car(2002): 1996 Honda Accord Coupe 2.0iLS (The Honda):rolleyes:
Big, thirsty, rare(ish)... After the Fiat, we loved it! Liked it's looks, comfort, etc. Sold it far too soon and regretted the descision ever since - got scared by 27mpg and group 15 insurance!! :huh: Wasn't thinking straight, but hey ho - I'd have never got the Galant if I hadn't sold this!

Fourth Car(2003): 2000 Rover 25 Turbo Disease-l:veryangry :wall: :furious3: (The Pig, the sodding Rover, Smokey and the Bandit, the tractor, plus a busload of other rude names).
A silly mistake. OK, it *was* cheap to run. And quite torquey. But that was it. Truly dreadful.:gun2:Kept it about 2 months:D

Fifth Car(2003 and a bit): 2000 Mitsubishi Galant 2.0 GLS :adore: (haven't thought of a name yet!)
Love it. Costs are more sensible than the Honda (and they weren't bad, to be honest); dealerships are better, and it's the best car I've ever had. Love it to pieces. Swift, comfortable, quiet, Mondeo-man scaring looks.

Who's next?

[Spirit]

OMG - I will try and remember as many as possible - these are not in any particular order either :

Renault 5 1.1L INSERT INTO post VALUES (White)
Ford Escort Popular 1.3L INSERT INTO post VALUES (Orange) - yep that was orange yo read
Ford Capri 1.6GL INSERT INTO post VALUES (Beige) hehehehe
Renault Fuego 1.6L INSERT INTO post VALUES (Silver) :nono:
MG Montego 2.0L INSERT INTO post VALUES (had a Silver/Black/Blue and BRG ones)
Rover Montego 2.0 Estate INSERT INTO post VALUES (Red)
MG Montego Turbo INSERT INTO post VALUES (White) - was stolen and used as a get away car in a house burglary
Audi 80 Sport INSERT INTO post VALUES (Silver)
BMW 318i INSERT INTO post VALUES (Black)
Mitsy Galant 2.0GLS INSERT INTO post VALUES (White)
Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia INSERT INTO post VALUES (Black)
Ford Mondeo 2.0 GLX
Mazda 626 1.8GLX
.....and now of course the VR4!

I am sure there are a couple more but brain gone dead now
:D

[MTB]

a short list for me:

1990 - mit lancer stationwagon, 1,300cc, manual, white, traded-in
1995 - subaru impreza wrx wagon, 2,000cc, manual, blue, stolen :Cry1:
1998 - mit galant vr-m, 2,000cc, +/-, white, traded-in
2000 - mit legnum vr-4 INSERT INTO post VALUES (1996-made); 2,500cc, +/-, white

that's all! :D

[Darren]

Mark 5 Cortina 1.8 Solar Gold with a red vinyl roof ! INSERT INTO post VALUES (Splatter) or sometimes the Mystery Machine, just depended on how many hippies I had in it. One time I had 5 in the car 2 in the boot and 4 on the roof rack holding on to the Rugby goal posts we'd pinched for our mid forest BBQ, of course, driving through the forest without any roads is quite difficult with that load, but i was young and stoned.

Nissan Urvan Bright Yellow lol INSERT INTO post VALUES (loveshack) not difficult to guess how it got it's name. These things are a mare for locking up and skidding for miles.

Rover 214i INSERT INTO post VALUES (Mr Whippy) It was the most abused car I've ever seen, it was driven by about 10 different people on a regular basis and every single one of them considered it to be an offroad edurance car. The thing used to sigh when you got out of it, several people tried to steal it, I crashed it, my freind ripped the bonnet off at speed and we eventually had it crushed.

Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6l Expressions special edition !! INSERT INTO post VALUES (mutley)
Bought for a grand, drove it like i'd stole it, didn't care about it, didn't love it. 4 sets of tyres in 2 years. nuff said.

Mitsubishi Galant GLSi Rohan Red INSERT INTO post VALUES (Brunhilda)
Loved it but she didn't like fat people and scottish roads. Treated her well, serviced her, cleaned her. Drove her like I'd stole her but intended to keep the parts. Great fun to slide around.

Mitsubishi Legnum VR-4 name pending

[BraindG]

Mines a fairly short list aswell

1992 -
Montego estate - 1600
Used for discos I was doing at the time, was quite a fast car due to it being super light, but when I crashed it on a blind corner in the wet, into a stupid tourist on the wrong side of the road - I realised that the montego was NOT a safe car to be driving about in, the bonnet was up at the window, half the engine was in the car - and the Clio we hit, didn't "have" a mark on it.

1993
Toyota Carina II - 1600 16v
Best car ever, reliable, fast INSERT INTO post VALUES (could keep up with the xr3's :D) got me all round the country, and out of trouble from time to time - this was my most abused car, it got me through my boy racers days - ill always remember the foggies - 2 up ontop of bumper, and 2 under bumper, these foggies, and my headlights had 100w bulbs in them - but obviously when the lights are on dip, they are nearly as bright as full beam used to be, so allot of people used to flash you cos they thought you were on full beam. How wrong could they have beam! INSERT INTO post VALUES (eheheh) im sure I could see the back of their retinas :)

1997
Mitsubishi Galant - 1800 8v :INSERT INTO post VALUES (
after buying this car I wish I never had!.. was slower that the Carina by a huge margin. Other than that was comfortable, and is what made be go a few steps up to its offspring, the vr4.

2000 -
1st VR4 Amazing car, no problems ever - the most fun ever!... took me about 3 months though to feel comfortable in such a powerful car.. jumping from a 8v 1800, to a 24v 2500 twin turbo, is a rather huge step - keep in mind I had never driven a performance car in the past.

2003 -
2nd VR4 - it will eventually be right.

[SGHOM]

God !! I've had so many cars, It's impossible to remember them all. here's a few I can remember; 1st car, vauxhall "A" beagly beagly !! my big sister bought it me for my 17th birthday, & I passed my test in it on new years eve, 1975 ! the examiner couldn't believe what he was getting in !! 1976; almost new , Alfa Romeo Alfa Sud 1.5 TI. £1750 brand new. & I got it, 6 months old for £1150. what a car !!! 0 to 60 in 11 secs, & a 5 speed gear box .:D . kept it 2 years, re-sprayed it twice & then scrapped it . It litterally disintigrated before my eyes. loads of bangers between then & recently, inluding, new granada ghia X. :nono: . recent purchases include in 1996 BMW 750 IL. [ I will never sell my legnum, but if I did, this is the car I would go back to ] there is no better driving machine on the road than a 7 series beemer. honest. now it gets really embarrasing !!!:Cry1: I was skint, so I traded in the BM for a brand new....................DAEWOO MATIZ SE + !! go on.... take the p**s, I dont care !!! I was one of the first to get one back in 1998. :o :o . now I own a pug 406, 2.0 est auto. [ and very nice there are ] a Renault Kangoo van 4 work , &........................ wot is it I drive now ???

[Japmetal]

Being a fairly sprightly 22 years old, I have the shortest list yet [Tries to get his brain working, to remember when he had what car];

1998; Passed test, spent my first year in a Mint-Green Corsa 1.5D of my parents' teasing hell out of all the Fiesta 1.1s posing round town

1999; First car, 1989 Corolla 1.3 12v - This car kicked ass, the engine was perky enough to have fun, the suspension was firm enough [amazingly] to hold speed round bends [essential when it takes years to get up to speed] and the 5-door liftback body meant that when it started to slide, there was almost enough time to climb out & push it back where it should be before you ended up facing the wrong way ! Also, being a Toyota, I never, EVER, had a single problem with any part of the car [a big bonus when you're trying to save for your second ever year's insurance !]

Summer 2000; Got bored of being sooo slow, spotted a tarted-up 1993 Lancer GLXi, and crashed it into a lamppost 2 weeks later [showing off, never again] spent a further 5 months reparing it [costing me half the car's value again, still paying of the loans] and went on to have stonkingly good fun teasing BMWs who thought it was an Evo. Would still have this car now [and wouldnt be teling this story] if some stupid old tart hadnt pulled out of a junction into the side of it last November 15th

January 2003; Bought my pride and joy - a 1990 Galant GTi 4WD 4WS and if I thought the Lancer was fun, this thing is an absolute scream; mad road-holding [despite the dodgy standard 65-profile tyres] AND enough power to sail past anything you're likely to want to pass - I cant imagine what a VR4 must feel like under your right foot :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

[banjo]

Probably being the oldest, it doesn't mean I've had the most but probably the oldest cars:

Passed my test in a 1939 Ford Prefect in 1963 which I bought at the age of 18 for a tenner, which the previous owner had kindly put an exchange engine in INSERT INTO post VALUES (£40 in those days) and couldn't sell. Good old Ford side valve producing about 20 BHP. Kept it for 18 months and sold it for a tenner.

After this I had a succession of old bangers including another Prefect INSERT INTO post VALUES (still 'sit-up-and-beg'); a '52 Standard Vanguard, '52 Vauxhall Wyvern, '53 Vauxhall Velox.

And then I had my first 'modern' car: a 2 year old Mk.1 Ford Cortina with the rubbish 1200cc INSERT INTO post VALUES (50BHP) engine which I drove to Spain and back, by the time I got back the big ends and main bearings were rattling so loud you had to have ear plugs!!

I then bought a Citroen DS21 Pallas which I got through a mate of my dad at trade price INSERT INTO post VALUES (£550) in 1970. A lovely car with full leather interior, sunshine roof and 100BHP so for those days was fairly fast.. 6 months later I realised I couldn't afford to run it - spares/servicing were very expensive so I sold it for....£725.

Next car was one of my favourites: a MK1 1500 GT Cortina, This was for the time quite a fast car INSERT INTO post VALUES (80BHP) with good ase out handling and very reliable without the complications of the Lotus. It was stolen from a municipal car park in Welwyn Garden City and never found or seen again.

Next in 1975 was a MK1 2.5 INSERT INTO post VALUES (120BHP) manual Granada. Quite a good car except those early V6's weren't that smooth and got a bit rattly after a few miles. This was my first waxoyled car and it worked very well. This was also stolen from the same municipal car park!! It was found wrecked.

A Volvo 144 Auto was next, not much you can say except it put me off Volvos forever.

A MK1 Ford Granada Ghia 3.0 auto was my next car, the best of the Grannys I had, except for the replacement of the auto box at 70,000 miles.

Next was a 100 and something BHP Vauxall Carlton estate, quite a good car but realised that Vauxhall still hadn't fixed the rust problem.

Then my last Ford, a Granada Ghia 2.8 INSERT INTO post VALUES (136BHP) estate - the boxy one. A good car, but started to get put off by Ford's ever rising spares prices.

I then had 2 Vauxhall Senators the first a 12V 178BHP INSERT INTO post VALUES (4 years) and a 24V 205BHP in succession, which in my view were the best cars Vauxhall have made. The 24V I had for 8 years and 120,000 miles, it took me all round Spain when I was working there. My only grizzle was the air con which only lasted about 12-18 months between condenser replacement.

And now I have my first Jap car, the VR4, an excellently engineered car. I will buy another