Favourite car my dad (mum) owned

[MidgetSaab]

Following on from the sentiment of the 'My first car was' post what was you favourite parents car? It really ought to be from your childhood era to qualify.

Apparently I cried when the Cortina Mk1 estate went to the scrappy but as I was 4 I don't really remember that so it has to be the French Blue Triumph 2000 estate, it wasn't quite as fast as my dad thought it was which made for some interesting overtaking moments, it was big and comfortable but most of all on family get togethers my mum the Aunts and Uncles all went in different cars and all my cousins were in the Triumph, about 7 kids and my dad puffing away on a B&H with Test Match Special on the radio. (The test match always seemed to be on in his car, I reckon they played many more tests in those days)

[Luxobarge]

My family had a variety of interesting cars when I was a kid, including an Austin Westminster, a Wolseley 1885, a Rover P5 3 litre, a Citroen GS and a Triumph 2.5PI, but my two favourites have got to be the dark blue Daimler 2.5 (like a MkII Jag) and the white NSU Ro80.

They all - but particularly the Daimler - were probably responsible for the love of wood-n-leather comfy luxobarges (!) that I still have today, and I recall the NSU as being amazingly technologically advanced, we never had any technical problems with it apart from a few (very expensive) fouled plugs and the rear light units filling up with water. It got more quiet the faster you went - and it wasn't noisy to start with!

Mum also had a number of cars, including a Mk1 Cortina which was awful, and a Fiat 500 which was worse.

Cheers

[Aar0sc]

I was in tears when dad sold the Subaru L-Series, the Legacy Saloon, and both the Honda Integra MkIs we had.

Favourite was his Austin A35, BAS 595, where are you now?

[vintagemotor]

I cried when Dad scrapped his Vauxhall Victor FD estate RUX 2H, cried again when he scrapped the chevette XSG 789R, again when the Rover Sd1 3500 went VBW 388X and never cried more than when the Granada mk1 Ghia went GAW 41N

[MG Mal]

I'm stuck between my dads old Burgandy Morris Oxford, or the Green Zepher Six.

Both excellent cars.

[TerryG]

My dad's cars were all pretty rubbish.
I was brought home from the hospital in an singer chamois but it was sold when i was 3 and i don't remember it.
A Morris Marina 1.8 replaced it (XBP 584L) it was nice when it arrived but needed sweeping up when it was time to replace it and i remember him saying "look at that" and pointing at the speedo doing 120 on the A40 at some point. I'm not entirely sure that wasn't kph.
After that was a string of transits, SLN 182W a 1.6 Mk2 petrol crew bus, was replaced because it snapped it's cam belt and bent a valve or 2, it was great fun but it was even less reliable than the marina. Next was A11 KKC a MK3 on a personal plate was a hi-cube 12 seater 2.0 petrol, replaced because he insisted on running it on unleaded and it didn't like it after a few years, G999WGS another MK3 transit this time a 9 seater 2.0. That died for the same reason as the previous one. He replaced that with an M plate Tourneo 2.0 dohc but i had moved out by then.
The only one i would think about owning myself is the imp that i don't remember.

[Maaarrghk]

My Dad was (and aged 80, still is) a self-employed builder.

When times were good we had both a car and a van, when they were lean it was just a van.

Earliest were a couple of A35 vans, just like Wallace and Gromits, then came A55's, bedford CA's (one with stacked twin headlamps and a brass Spitfire bonnet handle that I still have, an FX4 Taxi, a couple of Mk1 Transits, an 1100 Mk1 Escort van that I learned to drive in and a series 3 "light weight" (WRONG - they were heavier than standard, the correct term being "air portable") Land Rover.

Car wise, I can remember an Austin A35, an Austin Cambridge, a Mk2 Consul, 3 Rover P4's (the 100 was my favorite of all) an Anglia (Mum HATED it, so it went after 2 weeks) and an Allegro with the "square" steering wheel. Oh, and one of the first Subaru 4WD estates to make it over here that had the best heater I have ever found in any car before or since.

I loved the Rover 100 because it was 6 cylinder with leather and walnut and had that Rover smell - anyone who's Dad had one will know what I'm on about.

[bnicho]

The cars my parents drove in the period from my birth to me leaving home were pretty ordinary actually.

- 71 Holden Torana LC sedan 1600cc 4cyl (not the cool six cylinder) COI113
- 76 Toyota Corona RT104 2litre. HTB221
- 76 Mazda 808 1300cc HFE556
- A very rusty and unreliable Hillman Imp (Sorry to the Imp fans, but Dad hated it!)
- 84 Ford Telstar Ghia (basically a locally made Mazda 626 in disguise) MYA520
- 92 Mazda Astina SP BN074

My grandparents had much cooler cars. Examples:
- 62 (I think) Morris Mini Cooper 997. The car I came home from hospital in when I was born.
- 78 Holden Torana LX 3.3 litre six cylinder Auto. JLL970
- Ford Laser TX3 (Mazda 323 sports model in disguise).

There was also the neighbour's 74 XB Ford Falcon GT sedan. Red with a 5.8 litre V8 and a four speed toploader. He traded it on a new Ford Fairlane in 1989 and got something like $2000AU for it. The same car today would be worth $30-40,000....

Cheers,

[Minxy]

I'm stuck between my dads old Burgandy Morris Oxford, or the Green Zepher Six.

Both excellent cars.

Snap! My dads green Mk4 Zepher six will always stick in my mind - sat in the middle of that front bench seat and my dad letting me change gear.

[mr rusty]

Iremember being perched on my Dads lap and changing gear and steering too! That would be soooooooo frowned upon these days

The first one I can remember was an A60 with bench seats and column shift, rotten as a pear but the MOT was somewhat slacker in the sixties. It was obviously rotten because although I was only in infant school at the time I can still remember being told off for poking my fingers through the rust bubbles on the bodywork This car was rolled through a hedge and into a field when my Dad overdid it (crossplies and wet road...a warning from history...) with all of us in it and no seatbelts. It was all pretty low speed and I remember my Dad walking off and coming back with a farmer and tractor who rolled it back with some chain, dragged it back to the road, and home we all went with bent roof and front pillars and no screen and the doors held shut with bailing twine. It was replaced with a distress-purchase godawful but cheap Ford Escort....not the Escort most folks think of but the estate version of the 100e........very slow, vacuum wipers, brush painted....awsomely cool now but horrendously embarressing then My Dad hated it, we hated it, the thing was passed by everything on the motorway, it lasted a few months before being ditched in favour of another A60, but this time a Farina one Put me off Fords for life!

The shame about the Escort was that it was registered VKV2, which these days would be very saleable, but it died with the car as such registrations were still pretty common and worthless in the sixties.