So my dad (age 73 this coming May) has been trawling through the old family photos, scanning and posting up pictures on Faceballs in a series he’s called ‘All The Cars I’ve Ever Owned’, along with his scarily accurate memories of them, repair, garages etc.
He was always one to trade in after a year or two, so it's quite a detailed memoir of owning cars in the North East in the 70s/80s and 90s, which I thought might be of interest; The list starts in the late seventies, with a clapped-out Renault 4, and ends with some almost-current moderns.
I've added a bonus list at the bottom of our 'second' cars - i.e. my mum's daily commuter, though I don't have actual photos of all those, so where missing I’ve trawled the web for the nearest ones I can find.
Would love to see some lovely blurry, faded old shots of other people's 70's/80's family chariots over the years added so please do add your own!
1) Renault 4 1978
Bought from a painter and decorator in Berwick upon Tweed for £120. [It looks grey, but it was originally sky-blue-Littlepixel]
It had holes in the floor [under the mats where you could watch the road going by—Littlpixel], and failed its MOT the following year—but I learnt to drive on it, we had loads of fun in it, and it ran like a little tractor in the snow when other cars had ground to a halt.
2) Vauxhall Viva Estate 1978—79
I did not have this one long [six weeks I think - Littlepixel] and this is the only photo of it, taken by my daughter on her little Olympus PEN half-frame. The car was a complete dog.
Its temperature gauge was jammed at normal so I had no warning when it brewed up near Harrogate. It needed a very expensive engine re-build. I decided to sell it, and then ran it into three feet of water on a flooded road near Hartlepool and drowned it.
3) Renault 6 1979-80
A wonderful little car, surprisingly speedy, roomy and comfortable. It needed one new drive shaft but was otherwise very reliable and it explored most of north-east England.
Unsurprisingly it was nicknamed 'Double-up' because of the numberplate.
4) Renault 16 1980-1981
An armchair on wheels, SO comfortable and roomy, column gear shift, sun-roof. Costly to maintain though, with an alloy cylinder head prone to warping, and valves which needed re-grinding by Billingham Motors. The spongy suspension did not help passengers prone to car-sickness. (That's be me in the back seat with my sick-box-Littlepixel)And the paintwork faded badly.
[I seem to recall my dad putting a smaller 'sports' steering wheel on it - probably the only 'mod' he's ever done-Littlepixel)
5) Audi 80 Estate 1981-82
Bought from John Rae's garage of Hartlepool. The hard teutonic seats were a bit of a shock after the Renault 16 armchairs, but it was very reliable and the luggage space was big enough for a shed-load of camping gear. The 'Carburol' sun shade band was a gift from my brother who worked for them at the time.
6) Volkswagen Passat Estate Mk1 1982-84
From the era when the Audi 80 and the Passat were identical except for the badges. [And the grill]
This was the newest car I ever owned, only 8 months old, an ex-demonstrator from the VW franchise at Marton in Thornaby, and it's year letter X was still current.
I was in hock to the HP company for ages. I never liked it as much as the much older Audi, and it had a manual choke so it was tricky to start on cold mornings.
7) Cavalier MkII GLS 1984-85
Bought from Wentane Motors of Stockton as a clean low mileage example at about 2 years old. I loved this one, comfortable, very modern for its day, and very capable. It did the 650 miles from Zeebrugge to Switzerland in one hop on our first family holiday ‘sûr le continent’. I only recall one fault—a leaking petrol tank.
(I remember this - wet stripe behind the car on the A19 - freaking out about being chased by ribbon of fiery death-Littlepixel)
8) Cavalier MkII CD 1985-7
A bit posher trim than the GLS I'd had previously (velour seats, electric sunroof, more toys) but not quite as quick. Another Wentane 2-year-old. I did a lot of miles in this one travelling between Stockton and Nottingham (where it's pictured outside my rented ex-council house) once a week while I was working away from home for BBC local radio.
9) Renault 11 Turbo , 1987-89
The only 3-door hot hatch I ever bought, and I loved it. Proper hooligan motor for the mid-life crisis years and indecently quick - I managed to turn it through 360 degrees in the wet on a roundabout in Birmingham, fortunately without damage to it, me, or anyone else. Bought from a garage in Great Ayton, it came with an early trip computer, which always went haywire when I drove past the US listening station at Menwith Hill. But these 2 indifferent pics taken in France are the only ones I could find so perhaps I was a bit embarrassed by it?
10) VW Polo Mk2 Breadvan 1989-91
The Renault 11 Turbo had to go as my children were about to learn to drive and it was uninsurable for under-21's, so I bought a Spanish-built VW Polo. 'If only everything in life were as reliable as a Volkswagen...' Ha! reliable my ar$e; it turned out to be a dog; all four wheel-bearings needed replacement. And SO slow, ran out of steam on every hill. It was not helped by being rammed up the rear by a nutter taxi driver on Mapperley Top in Nottingham so we spent a whole summer holiday with the tailgate jammed shut.
11) Renault 21 Saloon Ti 1991-93
Another very swift motor, with air dam, side skirts, and go-faster stripes. Bought fairly cheaply as a high-mileage example from Empress Motors of Aberbeeg. I was racking up almost 30,000 miles a year at the time so nearly-new was too expensive an option because of the depreciation. The only 4-door saloon I ever had. This one was largely very good, though it stranded us in northern Burgundy with a busted radiator. A kindly local towed us 5km to a garage, and it was fixed in 2 hours on a Bank Holiday Saturday while we had lunch. Photo on the dockside at Hull.
12) Citroen BX Diesel 1993-94
This one was a shocker. Another from Empress of Aberbeeg, and I must have been sleep-walking when I bought it not to spot that it had been used as a taxi and was clocked. Ran (when it ran at all) like a bag of spanners, clouds of blue smoke on start-up, and deeply uncomfortable. Bristol Street Motors of Nottingham failed to change the timing belt at the due interval so the engine seized at traffic lights in Hyde in pouring rain. Then some sod shunted it in a car park in Manchester. Photo is at Castell Rose campsite in Anduze, Cevennes. Amazing that it got that far.
13) Renault 21 Hatch 1994—98
Bought specifically for long haul trips to and from French holiday destinations and kept for quite a long time by my standards - 1994 to 1997 or 1998 as I recall. Bought as an average mileage 3-year-old example from a Stockton dealership, though I forget which one. Extremely comfortable, capacious, and well thought-out car. Faultless, only routine servicing needed.
14) Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 1998-00
Often derided as a ‘bread and butter’ car for reps—I had 3 over the years and all of them were excellent, unlike the later Vectra, which was well known to be a stinker and best avoided. This one came from Brunswick St Motors in Stockton. and gave me 2 years of faultless service. I loved the layout of the controls, it looked handsome, and it was a pleasure to drive. Photo taken at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, with a GWR 0-4-2T.
15) Renault Laguna Mk1 2000-06
The usual excellent Renault comfort and drive-ability. A reliable car until the Stockton burglars, who had stripped our living room of everything valuable while we slept, used it as a getaway car and smashed it into our garden wall. It was found dumped a week later. I had it repaired but it was never the same again, and its offside drive shaft failed catastrophically at high speed on the autoroute near St Quentin. 3 days in a hotel while £1400 of repairs happened. With hindsight, I should have scrapped it there and then and got a hire car home.
16) Peugeot 406 Estate 2006-11
Bought relatively cheaply as a high-mileage ex-fleet car from Direct Car Sales of Stockton. We got this one specifically as a load lugger to move stuff to France while we were doing up our house here and preparing to emigrate. The plan was to run it into the ground then scrap it when it became uneconomic to repair, as an old right-hand drive car would be unsaleable in France. The plan worked. It was completely reliable, swift and comfortable until the rear brakes died.
17) Ford Focus C-Max 'Harrison Ford' 2011-14
Bottom of the range trim level but still very well appointed, including cruise control. It's the only 'monospace' (people-carrier) I've bought to date, Two small criticisms of the design - the large A-pillar made visibility on LH bends difficult, and the front edges of the rear wheel arches were poorly protected from stone chips. Reliable except that it blew a turbo-hose just before it was sold on (but was still drive-able). Bought from the wonderful Jean-Paul Lemoigne in our tiny Ford garage down in the village. He's that rarest of things, an honest used-car salesperson.
18) Renault Laguna Mk3 Diesel 2014-16
Another honest second-hand car from Monsieur Lemoigne at a bargain price. Roomy, quick and comfortable, and a good-looker. Plenty of goodies including excellent dual-zone air-con and a trip computer. Never let me down, and just had 2 routine annual services, though it's cruise control tended to get moody in hot weather, and the dashboard buttons were too small if one had gloves on in winter. Sold on at 99,900km so as to get a good trade-in price rather than because it had any serious problems.
19) Ford Focus Estate Mk 3 2016—
Which brings us up to the present day. Ford Focus 1.6 diesel estate with 'Titanium' trim level (ie mid-range). 4 years old, 82,000km on the clock. The third one from the redoubtable Monsieur Lemoigne, which he found for me and fetched from Toulouse. Loving it, so far so good...
Bonus list - my mum’s cars. Always second fiddle, apart from the Panda.
Austin 'All Aggro' Allegro
Bought off a local farmer. Rusty. Square Steering wheel, Cold. Awful.
Chrysler Avenger
aka ’Snoopy’ because of black/white paint/roof combo (Ours had a black vinyl roof). I remember helping paint a liberal coat of Black Hammerite on the wheel arches to curb the tinworm and add to this effect
Panda 750 FIRE MkII
Bought new. Thrashed by me and my Brother when we first passed our tests. Rusted like nothing on earth and the electrics hated cold, wet, hot weather.
Such fun, so pointable and nippy despite titchy engine. Would own again in a heart beat - maybe with an Abarth Twin Air…
Mk1 VW Golf GL More-door
Panda rusted like hell (remember when new cars rusted in the first year?!?!?!) so this Late model Golf Mk1 was bought rather than fixing it after an MOT failure!
This was a bit of a dog, bought at night. Sump plug was a piece of wood and I think it may have been 2-golfs cut-n-shut into one. Engine blew up at 85 on the M4 near south wales - looked like the Challenger disaster in the rear view mirror (pic is me and friends waiting for AA truck and subsequent 200 miles of UB40 on the grumpy AA Relay man's stereo)
Seat Marbella
This seemed a retrograde step to me as it’s essentially a mk1 Panda, not mk2. Cheapness a factor I suspect.
Not half as fun as the Panda. Cheap dash switches broke like bird's-eggs.
Peugeot 106. Diesel I think, with 90s-tastic green metallic paint. Not loveable like the petrol and Rallye versions.
He was always one to trade in after a year or two, so it's quite a detailed memoir of owning cars in the North East in the 70s/80s and 90s, which I thought might be of interest; The list starts in the late seventies, with a clapped-out Renault 4, and ends with some almost-current moderns.
I've added a bonus list at the bottom of our 'second' cars - i.e. my mum's daily commuter, though I don't have actual photos of all those, so where missing I’ve trawled the web for the nearest ones I can find.
Would love to see some lovely blurry, faded old shots of other people's 70's/80's family chariots over the years added so please do add your own!
1) Renault 4 1978
Bought from a painter and decorator in Berwick upon Tweed for £120. [It looks grey, but it was originally sky-blue-Littlepixel]
It had holes in the floor [under the mats where you could watch the road going by—Littlpixel], and failed its MOT the following year—but I learnt to drive on it, we had loads of fun in it, and it ran like a little tractor in the snow when other cars had ground to a halt.
2) Vauxhall Viva Estate 1978—79
I did not have this one long [six weeks I think - Littlepixel] and this is the only photo of it, taken by my daughter on her little Olympus PEN half-frame. The car was a complete dog.
Its temperature gauge was jammed at normal so I had no warning when it brewed up near Harrogate. It needed a very expensive engine re-build. I decided to sell it, and then ran it into three feet of water on a flooded road near Hartlepool and drowned it.
3) Renault 6 1979-80
A wonderful little car, surprisingly speedy, roomy and comfortable. It needed one new drive shaft but was otherwise very reliable and it explored most of north-east England.
Unsurprisingly it was nicknamed 'Double-up' because of the numberplate.
4) Renault 16 1980-1981
An armchair on wheels, SO comfortable and roomy, column gear shift, sun-roof. Costly to maintain though, with an alloy cylinder head prone to warping, and valves which needed re-grinding by Billingham Motors. The spongy suspension did not help passengers prone to car-sickness. (That's be me in the back seat with my sick-box-Littlepixel)And the paintwork faded badly.
[I seem to recall my dad putting a smaller 'sports' steering wheel on it - probably the only 'mod' he's ever done-Littlepixel)
5) Audi 80 Estate 1981-82
Bought from John Rae's garage of Hartlepool. The hard teutonic seats were a bit of a shock after the Renault 16 armchairs, but it was very reliable and the luggage space was big enough for a shed-load of camping gear. The 'Carburol' sun shade band was a gift from my brother who worked for them at the time.
6) Volkswagen Passat Estate Mk1 1982-84
From the era when the Audi 80 and the Passat were identical except for the badges. [And the grill]
This was the newest car I ever owned, only 8 months old, an ex-demonstrator from the VW franchise at Marton in Thornaby, and it's year letter X was still current.
I was in hock to the HP company for ages. I never liked it as much as the much older Audi, and it had a manual choke so it was tricky to start on cold mornings.
7) Cavalier MkII GLS 1984-85
Bought from Wentane Motors of Stockton as a clean low mileage example at about 2 years old. I loved this one, comfortable, very modern for its day, and very capable. It did the 650 miles from Zeebrugge to Switzerland in one hop on our first family holiday ‘sûr le continent’. I only recall one fault—a leaking petrol tank.
(I remember this - wet stripe behind the car on the A19 - freaking out about being chased by ribbon of fiery death-Littlepixel)
8) Cavalier MkII CD 1985-7
A bit posher trim than the GLS I'd had previously (velour seats, electric sunroof, more toys) but not quite as quick. Another Wentane 2-year-old. I did a lot of miles in this one travelling between Stockton and Nottingham (where it's pictured outside my rented ex-council house) once a week while I was working away from home for BBC local radio.
9) Renault 11 Turbo , 1987-89
The only 3-door hot hatch I ever bought, and I loved it. Proper hooligan motor for the mid-life crisis years and indecently quick - I managed to turn it through 360 degrees in the wet on a roundabout in Birmingham, fortunately without damage to it, me, or anyone else. Bought from a garage in Great Ayton, it came with an early trip computer, which always went haywire when I drove past the US listening station at Menwith Hill. But these 2 indifferent pics taken in France are the only ones I could find so perhaps I was a bit embarrassed by it?
10) VW Polo Mk2 Breadvan 1989-91
The Renault 11 Turbo had to go as my children were about to learn to drive and it was uninsurable for under-21's, so I bought a Spanish-built VW Polo. 'If only everything in life were as reliable as a Volkswagen...' Ha! reliable my ar$e; it turned out to be a dog; all four wheel-bearings needed replacement. And SO slow, ran out of steam on every hill. It was not helped by being rammed up the rear by a nutter taxi driver on Mapperley Top in Nottingham so we spent a whole summer holiday with the tailgate jammed shut.
11) Renault 21 Saloon Ti 1991-93
Another very swift motor, with air dam, side skirts, and go-faster stripes. Bought fairly cheaply as a high-mileage example from Empress Motors of Aberbeeg. I was racking up almost 30,000 miles a year at the time so nearly-new was too expensive an option because of the depreciation. The only 4-door saloon I ever had. This one was largely very good, though it stranded us in northern Burgundy with a busted radiator. A kindly local towed us 5km to a garage, and it was fixed in 2 hours on a Bank Holiday Saturday while we had lunch. Photo on the dockside at Hull.
12) Citroen BX Diesel 1993-94
This one was a shocker. Another from Empress of Aberbeeg, and I must have been sleep-walking when I bought it not to spot that it had been used as a taxi and was clocked. Ran (when it ran at all) like a bag of spanners, clouds of blue smoke on start-up, and deeply uncomfortable. Bristol Street Motors of Nottingham failed to change the timing belt at the due interval so the engine seized at traffic lights in Hyde in pouring rain. Then some sod shunted it in a car park in Manchester. Photo is at Castell Rose campsite in Anduze, Cevennes. Amazing that it got that far.
13) Renault 21 Hatch 1994—98
Bought specifically for long haul trips to and from French holiday destinations and kept for quite a long time by my standards - 1994 to 1997 or 1998 as I recall. Bought as an average mileage 3-year-old example from a Stockton dealership, though I forget which one. Extremely comfortable, capacious, and well thought-out car. Faultless, only routine servicing needed.
14) Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 1998-00
Often derided as a ‘bread and butter’ car for reps—I had 3 over the years and all of them were excellent, unlike the later Vectra, which was well known to be a stinker and best avoided. This one came from Brunswick St Motors in Stockton. and gave me 2 years of faultless service. I loved the layout of the controls, it looked handsome, and it was a pleasure to drive. Photo taken at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, with a GWR 0-4-2T.
15) Renault Laguna Mk1 2000-06
The usual excellent Renault comfort and drive-ability. A reliable car until the Stockton burglars, who had stripped our living room of everything valuable while we slept, used it as a getaway car and smashed it into our garden wall. It was found dumped a week later. I had it repaired but it was never the same again, and its offside drive shaft failed catastrophically at high speed on the autoroute near St Quentin. 3 days in a hotel while £1400 of repairs happened. With hindsight, I should have scrapped it there and then and got a hire car home.
16) Peugeot 406 Estate 2006-11
Bought relatively cheaply as a high-mileage ex-fleet car from Direct Car Sales of Stockton. We got this one specifically as a load lugger to move stuff to France while we were doing up our house here and preparing to emigrate. The plan was to run it into the ground then scrap it when it became uneconomic to repair, as an old right-hand drive car would be unsaleable in France. The plan worked. It was completely reliable, swift and comfortable until the rear brakes died.
17) Ford Focus C-Max 'Harrison Ford' 2011-14
Bottom of the range trim level but still very well appointed, including cruise control. It's the only 'monospace' (people-carrier) I've bought to date, Two small criticisms of the design - the large A-pillar made visibility on LH bends difficult, and the front edges of the rear wheel arches were poorly protected from stone chips. Reliable except that it blew a turbo-hose just before it was sold on (but was still drive-able). Bought from the wonderful Jean-Paul Lemoigne in our tiny Ford garage down in the village. He's that rarest of things, an honest used-car salesperson.
18) Renault Laguna Mk3 Diesel 2014-16
Another honest second-hand car from Monsieur Lemoigne at a bargain price. Roomy, quick and comfortable, and a good-looker. Plenty of goodies including excellent dual-zone air-con and a trip computer. Never let me down, and just had 2 routine annual services, though it's cruise control tended to get moody in hot weather, and the dashboard buttons were too small if one had gloves on in winter. Sold on at 99,900km so as to get a good trade-in price rather than because it had any serious problems.
19) Ford Focus Estate Mk 3 2016—
Which brings us up to the present day. Ford Focus 1.6 diesel estate with 'Titanium' trim level (ie mid-range). 4 years old, 82,000km on the clock. The third one from the redoubtable Monsieur Lemoigne, which he found for me and fetched from Toulouse. Loving it, so far so good...
Bonus list - my mum’s cars. Always second fiddle, apart from the Panda.
Austin 'All Aggro' Allegro
Bought off a local farmer. Rusty. Square Steering wheel, Cold. Awful.
Chrysler Avenger
aka ’Snoopy’ because of black/white paint/roof combo (Ours had a black vinyl roof). I remember helping paint a liberal coat of Black Hammerite on the wheel arches to curb the tinworm and add to this effect
Panda 750 FIRE MkII
Bought new. Thrashed by me and my Brother when we first passed our tests. Rusted like nothing on earth and the electrics hated cold, wet, hot weather.
Such fun, so pointable and nippy despite titchy engine. Would own again in a heart beat - maybe with an Abarth Twin Air…
Mk1 VW Golf GL More-door
Panda rusted like hell (remember when new cars rusted in the first year?!?!?!) so this Late model Golf Mk1 was bought rather than fixing it after an MOT failure!
This was a bit of a dog, bought at night. Sump plug was a piece of wood and I think it may have been 2-golfs cut-n-shut into one. Engine blew up at 85 on the M4 near south wales - looked like the Challenger disaster in the rear view mirror (pic is me and friends waiting for AA truck and subsequent 200 miles of UB40 on the grumpy AA Relay man's stereo)
Seat Marbella
This seemed a retrograde step to me as it’s essentially a mk1 Panda, not mk2. Cheapness a factor I suspect.
Not half as fun as the Panda. Cheap dash switches broke like bird's-eggs.
Peugeot 106. Diesel I think, with 90s-tastic green metallic paint. Not loveable like the petrol and Rallye versions.