Cars You Never See Anymore

[passenger]

 

[Cosmic]

Neighbour used to have one of these...

 

[dessiato]

Got a mate who lives in Andalusia who has a red one of those, right hand drive on Spanish plates. Reliable motor and the Spanish seem not to like rag-tops like the British do...

My Astra convertible, which I've had years, attracts a lot of positive comments. Even from people with "better" cars.

 

[Dogsauce]

Neighbour used to have one of these...

View attachment 95884

There was one of those dumped in the woods near where I grew up, over the decades it's gone from largely intact to just a few bits of chassis.

 

[Cosmic]

 

[ringo]

There's an old Lancia in the next street to me, think its a Thema

 

[doddles]

Was my first car, a hand-me-down from my parents. When we moved to Australia in 1972, they took the car with them. There were only 3 in Western Australia, since the Escort Station Wagon was never sold there. We used to wave if we saw one of the other 2.

 

[Dieselpunk2000]

The Vauxhall Nova saloon. I had one as my first car, a 1.2 Merit Exclusive. In maroon.
With beige seats and a poo-brown plastic dashboard. It was reliable and easy to fix, but a horrible, horrible car otherwise.

 

[existentialist]

This was our first car (this model, not the actual car)

Our second was the same, only in the estate version. I've always been quite fond of them.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Mr Soni (one of my teachers) used to drive this...

View attachment 95868

My first car was an Austin 1300GT in exactly the same colour ("Autumn Gold" apparently!).

 

[magneze]

Vauxhall Chevette

 

[dessiato]

I bought two of these. The idea was to put a V12 Jag in one. Luckily I ran out of money before it happened.

 

[DotCommunist]

Neighbour used to have one of these...

View attachment 95884

that is gorgeously cute, like a roller had sex with an old school mini

 

[Tankus]

My dad's first car ..he loved it...the A35 was really well packaged .....red leather seats ..twisty bakelite knob for indicator's

..I occasionally see one running around in Caerphilly

Blimey .....all day pre m4 drives down to tenby from the valleys....... exciting....

 

[Smick]

yes, but they will never replace the original, they tried with the Fiat Croma
but you just do not make cars like that anymore

Unless you're German. BMW have series 1-8 as well as the Mini, Audi have A1-A8 and Mercedes have classes encompassing most letters of the alphabet. Within each of those there are sub styles, differing door numbers. It seems they can make a profit off any volume of car sales.

 

[DownwardDog]

I saw a Commer FC moving under its power the other day. There must have been millions of these made but I assume they have the structural properties of a Pringle can and succumb to corrosion fairly quickly.

 

[dessiato]

I saw a Commer FC moving under its power the other day. There must have been millions of these made but I assume they have the structural properties of a Pringle can and succumb to corrosion fairly quickly.

That's been lowered.

 

[Dogsauce]

I saw a Commer FC moving under its power the other day. There must have been millions of these made but I assume they have the structural properties of a Pringle can and succumb to corrosion fairly quickly.

I saw a racing green one on the motorway a few weeks ago, very well restored. Looked gorgeous, total head-turner compared to the ubiquitous VW campers. Must have been the first one I've seen for a couple of decades.

 

[Dieselpunk2000]

I remember seeing loads of those Commer vans in British Telecom yellow when I was a kid. The Post Office had Sherpas and were always driven with the sliding drivers' door open.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Saw one of these the other day. Made me feel old.

 

[dessiato]

Saw one of these the other day. Made me feel old.

View attachment 96360

They were quite attractive for a small car.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

They were quite attractive for a small car.

Ford's response to the success of the Golf and other fuel crisis busting 'superminis'. It looks much nicer than I remember.

 

[weltweit]

Most reliable of my second hand cars, my Fiesta was.

And it had a go faster stripe which must have added 4mph

 

[Dieselpunk2000]

I had the MK2 Fiesta. It was a smashing car. I soundproofed it with high-density acoustic foam that I 'liberated' from my workplace. It had a 3 note horn as well

 

[not-bono-ever]

Just in case there is a Ford Lord love in starting here, yes they did have a consistent line of good looking wheels, but they did produce this

less than 10 on the road ish

 

[weltweit]

My Managing Director at the time had one. Oh how we laughed.

The rear view is even more ugly.

It is Americanised I think .. just not European.

 

[plurker]

Ford's response to the success of the Golf and other fuel crisis busting 'superminis'. It looks much nicer than I remember.

A mate had the XR2 variant of that. Scary fast car, he nearly came a cropper once in it by Haydons Road, whilst driving very irresponsibly, where the bridge goes, and there was a car waiting to do a right turn over the peak...

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I had the MK2 Fiesta. It was a smashing car.

They were a bit variable. The one I had was a massive rustbucket.

 

[dessiato]

They were a bit variable. The one I had was a massive rustbucket.

The ones to get were the German built ones. The UK ones were riddled with problems.

 

[mauvais]

Just in case there is a Ford Lord love in starting here, yes they did have a consistent line of good looking wheels, but they did produce this

less than 10 on the road ish

It's just unfathomable. If you delete the indicators and whatever else is in the bumper, it looks generic American, even vaguely statesmanlike. As it is, it looks like it belongs deep under the sea. So why did they do it?

Some designs are a bit avant-garde and get better with age, like Bangle's stuff, but this one was never going to improve.