What was your first car?

[kirsty b]

A Mark 3 Escort in Caspian Blue - loved that car

[dogsbody]

A white Lada estate.

Bought it from Sir Tom Finney (well his plumbing firm actually, but I still got to meet him and shake his hand).

Broke down second time I drove it (on the way to getting bodywork damage, done between buying it and getting it, fixed) timing chain went, got it towed home and Dad and I fixed it fairly easily.

Wonderfully easy car to work on, if you got it to 60mph it took ages and ages to stop again!!

[Newbie]

Mine was an A reg Ford Fiesta called Angel, my parents bought her for me the summer after i turned 18 so that i could get to work in the summer holidays & they could go off on holiday without me I was so proud of her. Even though the radio only ever came on if i went over a vicious bump and when it did it was always at full volume & made me nearly drive into a ditch many many times! The button on the hand brake also fell off a couple of times & my friend's dad had to superglue it back together for me. Ahh, the memories!

(sadly it appears that Angel went sent to the big scrapheap in the sky the following year by her next owner).

[miffy]

They USED to be lovely things, with personality.
Now there is nothing wrong with the BMW version, except that it isn't a proper MINI! (I feel much the same about the 'new improved' Beetle, nice car, but not the real thing).

I used to think that too and resisted even getting in one. However when i took out the Minx for the first time it has all the personality of the classic minis in spade loads but with the safety features the other lacks. I had a very nasty crash in my white mini which scared the life out of me, the Minx is a much tougher car, sticks to the road like my Rosie did and is a blast to drive. If you have never driven a new Mini give it a go you will love it i promise.

[Hilary B]

I used to think that too and resisted even getting in one. However when i took out the Minx for the first time it has all the personality of the classic minis in spade loads but with the safety features the other lacks. I had a very nasty crash in my white mini which scared the life out of me, the Minx is a much tougher car, sticks to the road like my Rosie did and is a blast to drive. If you have never driven a new Mini give it a go you will love it i promise.

It's not a mini. It doesn't look right! It was bad enough when they changed the windows to be the same as everything else. I LIKED those weird slidey windows, and the door handles that were cables, and all those other oddities!
My Dad got a Countryman (the Austin version of the timbered Mini estate; the Morris one was called Traveller) when I was 9, and I remember being one of 7 under 11 girls transported in it (a couple of miles), 4 on the rear seat, 3 in the luggage section, when the minibus failed to arrive. Sure it wasn't as safe as you might wish, but no-one thought in those terms at the time, it was before seatbelts became compulsory!

[bramble]

Ours was a Ford Anglia. We bought it for £30 in 1965. We had so many problems with it. It had a wheel wobble when you reached 30 MPH, so you either had to drive above or below that speed.
When you banged the drivers door the passanger door always flew open.
We spent so much time topping up the water. There was steam constantly coming from under the bonnet.
It was a steep learning curve.

[Dane End Dolly]

Mine was i diahatsu charade and falling apart, my husband used to hang his head in shame when he saw me coming in that, but i loved it as it was my first car.......i upgraded it to a 2seater convertable sports car after that.....hee hee

[miffy]

It's not a mini. It doesn't look right! It was bad enough when they changed the windows to be the same as everything else. I LIKED those weird slidey windows, and the door handles that were cables, and all those other oddities!
My Dad got a Countryman (the Austin version of the timbered Mini estate; the Morris one was called Traveller) when I was 9, and I remember being one of 7 under 11 girls transported in it (a couple of miles), 4 on the rear seat, 3 in the luggage section, when the minibus failed to arrive. Sure it wasn't as safe as you might wish, but no-one thought in those terms at the time, it was before seatbelts became compulsory!

My minx is one of the first BMW minis produced and has a lot of lovely quirkly features such as head lights in the bonnet, torpedo shaped indicators, speedo the same size as Rosie's mini speedo and curved side windows and is lower than the recent ones too so retains more of a mini drive and look. It also has a chorme package. New mini never tried to be the same it was the next evolution of the mini and took the drive and hold of the classic mini and bmw technology and build quality and for me it works.
Yes I agree that the older minis had lots of quirky features design wise some good i.e the things you describe some bad i.e distributor cap right at the front of the grill so everytime there was a head on wind and rain storm the car coughed and spluttered! However they do not meet the new ncap ratings and after my crash i could see why as my old mini literally fell apart on impact really scary and the way folk now drive on roads they just are not safe any more.
I still have very fond memories of the minis i owned before the Minx and also our morris minor but feel safer and more comfortable in my new mini and i disagree with you she is every inch a Mini.
I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one. Each to their own.

[crazywitch]

mine was a morris 1000 van. lol showing my age now. 38 years of driving, no points ever, 2 accidents both not my fault, and never made a claim on my own insurance.

[Hilary B]

Thing is Miffy, it isn't that I dislike the new thing, I just don't consider it entitled to use the name Mini, because it isn't, just as the 'new Beetle' isn't a Beetle, it looks squashed! It may actually be a better car, but it is a DIFFERENT car and should have a new name! (BTW a Minx is an old Hillman, I had one of those for several months once as well)

[SarzWix]

I didn't pass my test til I was 30, so I missed out on the joys of owning an old banger My first car was an N reg Mondeo 2.5l GhiaX and it looked like an old man car (no badges) but went like sh*t off a shovel

[miffy]

Thing is Miffy, it isn't that I dislike the new thing, I just don't consider it entitled to use the name Mini, because it isn't, just as the 'new Beetle' isn't a Beetle, it looks squashed! It may actually be a better car, but it is a DIFFERENT car and should have a new name! (BTW a Minx is an old Hillman, I had one of those for several months once as well)

Minx refers to minnie the minx in the beano which is who i named her after as she is cheeky and she and i get up to all sorts of minx like adventures and jolly japes!
I know what a hillman minx is as used to go to classic car rallies big time as was a member of the morris minor club and then the mini owners club after that.
As i said we aren't going to agree on this one, the new mini is abit like marmite you either love it or hate it, BTW i love marmite too!!

[Gwyndy]

A white Ford Anglia estate. (That dates me!!)

[Snadger]

MLE 112D A red 1966 Ford Anglia (Harry Potter style) called Emily (MLE)

[lottie dolly]

my first car was a red mk1 ford escort,no wing mirrors or heater,it had excelent all round vision,winter was a bit of a pig,but i have fond memories of that old banger,like when the gear stick came of in my hand,and it was stuck in first gear forward,luckly i was not far from home,and was able to crawl along the long way back on a round rout,by ekk,those were the days,