cars your parents owned when you were a kid

oh ,and for tony, hox, mississippi....you can include favourite chariots are eligible, or carts, or donkeys.....don't feel left out...

My parents didn't care about cars. To them, they were an expensive nuisance, though necessary. When I was small they always bought cars from American Motors, a company which no longer exists. We had a Nash Rambler circa 1948 which lasted until about 1956. They bought a green Rambler that year, which lasted until 1962, when they bought two white Ramblers in the same year: one a push-button automatic and the other a stick shift with a blue roof. Those two cars lasted until 1974, but I had left home in 1969. Boring, eh? I remember grandma (who live next door) had a Model A Ford when I was very small, then got a Packard or DeSoto shortly before grandpa died in 1954. No horse-drawn carts in this story, sad to say.

My dad had a Vauxhall Victor (remember them?) , and a green mini; and another (slightly different shade of) green mini. Then, when he went self-employed, and had a series of vans: Bedford Ha van (so called because people went: "Ha ha ha ha ha" when they saw you drive it) ; a Nissan van, then an Astra van. My first car was a Triumph Dolomite (cute) which I wrote off a few days after passing my test. Then a turd-brown Fiesta. Then a Triumph Acclaim. Then my dad's Astra estate (he saw me coming, it was a shed). And now: a Rover 416. Bit grown up, middle-management, pipe 'n' slippers type car, but I love it...

We had a Triumph Mayflower when I was a kid. It took us two days to drive from Macclesfield to the Isle of Arran for our holidays. It had a wonderful roomy back seat where my brother and I could happily torture our little sister for hours on end whilst the radio was tuned to the Light Programme and we got a diet of Sing Something Simple and the Sunday request show with loads of stuff from people in the forces - and the Sunday morning Kids programme with the sinister Uncle somebody or other calling us 'kiddies'... and Mrs Dale's Diary and, of course, the Archers. When that went my Dad got a big purple Ford Zephyr which he wrapped round a telegraph pole whilst completely paralytic just before my folks split up. Ah, the joys of youth.

We did actually have a donkey - well, a sort of mule type mongrel thingy when we lived in Algeria in the seventies. For some bizarre reason it was called Fanacapan. Then we had a mazda 626 which my dad bought from the guy opposite and smelled of sick (the car not the bloke). I think we only kept it for about 6 weeks before the stench got too bad! It used to play really appaling elevator music if you didn't put your seatbelt on. The most annoying car in the world.

Ford Consul Mk1 Ford Prefect Austin A40 Somerset Triumph Herald 1200 Datsun rustbucket another rusty Datsun All pretty shyte really. My own first car was a 1934 Austin 10. I still own it although it's on the other side of the world. It cost me £70 in 1970 and I am only the second owner. It cost £176 17s 6d when new so held it's value well.

Mini Cooper Ford Escort Ford Cavalier Ford Serria Rover 216 Then they got a litle crazy, retired at 50 and moved out to Greece so they got a Hyundai Galluper which was inported to the UK but they sold that at Christmas and brought a Hyundai Getz (or Gitz as I call it!) as well as a motorbike and as they are living in Greece no doubt a donkey will shortly follow!

When I was a kid we had these massive green Daimlers. Unfortunately they were Daimler Fleetlines and belonged to Leeds City Transport, but they stopped outside our door every ten minutes. My wife got a job as a sales rep which came with a company car; she's now gone back to nursing so we've BOUGHT our very first car, a Nissan Primera, as we weren't prepared to sacrifice the convenience we'd got used to. Sad, I know.

You're just flaunting your sodding affluence you middleclass wannabees. My dad didn't even live with us but I seem to remember on the rare occasions he deigned to visit us he was riding a motorcycle with sidecar.

The first car we got was a Vauxhall Viva in wedgewood blue. We used to go for evening rides out of Middlesbrough in it, looking at factories in the rain. I thought it was really flashy. Even though we had a couple of minor accidents it was never as exciting as riding in my uncle's sidecar. Since then I've lost touch with all the different makes of car and only recognise them by the colour.

Stone me, Missi, a motorcycle with a sidecar? That's a bit extravagant, if you ask me. My dad took us to school in a rickshaw made out of an outdoor toilet and stale bread rolls for wheels (oiled with dripping).

My grandad had an old morris minor called Flossie... we used to go for drives in it, with grandad doing 10 miles an hour and my grandma shrieking orders... my grandad had never passed a test, used to drive tanks in the war and insisted on double clutching everything. scary thing is, he still drives now at 87... my dad didnt have a car til i was about 12, then he got a radio rentals car, with removable plastic green signs in the rear windows... it was an estate car, and horrid... but i didnt mind cos it was a CAR... he kept that til i was about 18, and when he took early retirement, he started to build and restore cars, like MG's and Morgans, which were lovely.... he used to take me and my mate rachel into town and drop us off at the Dirk and dagger pub, and we felt really swanky.... they have mazda sports now. Oldest bloody swingers in town my mum and dad... I have a rover 414si, and i loathe the bloody thing. Flat cap of a car, boring bastard car... grrr...

I sense you don't like your car, Liana. I can pick up on these things, you know. It's a gift. :)))

I dont, no.. it's not a car i would choose to possess.. i too had a sporty mazda, left hand drive custom german model with cruise control and all the works. then some little @!#$ from yorkshire nicked it and decided that after he got home he would trash it for the hell of it... i needed to get a car asap and dad thought the Rover a good deal. Hrmm.

You had an outdoor toilet? We didn't have any kind of toilet, we used to @!#$ on the neighbours!

*senses Monty Python skit coming on*

Rick Shaw lived in my road, and he used to skit on the nay bores too!

My parents had a morris minor too, Martin. It was a clapped out old brown thing, which apparently drove them across spain at some point. It had difficulty taking them to the shops by the time they sold it (or otherwise disposed of it). I can still remember the moss that lined most of it. One winter, someone wrote 'nice garden' on the window in the frost. I kinda liked it too.

My son taught me to drive in a Morris Minor he was 18 and had just passed his test and I was 40. Once I passed my test first time which supprised me I brought a brand new Daf 33 crashed that then got the next one up another Daf 44 brand new again, sold that went on to a Morris Marina hatch back hated it. Next was a big heavy Volvo Saloon no power steering then best car I ever had, it was 3ys old and sold it when it was 8ys old even the number plate was worth a few bob and have a photo of it to this day. Then went on to a Ford Escort Ghia and my last one was a Honda Civic quite old but a great little starter no matter what the weather, it just fell apart in the end and by that time I was 73yrs of age so just gave up but boy do I miss it. I went to evening classes from the beginning to learn how to maintain a car and after that did most of my own maintenance so saved on money...

A rusty sh** coloured Talbot, a mustard Volvo, and a gold mini-Metro called Betty Maelstrom...

Both Dafs were yellow, suppose to be the safest colour on the road and red the most dangerous, Marina white, Volvo pale blue, Escort brown and Honda cream and brown thought I would just like to clarify that...

i got one of they little silver scooter things, it doesnt fold up any more though

my mum had a navy blue Austin 1300 from the day I was born - they took me home from the hospital in it - until I was 18. I remember the seats were very very very hot in the summer, they were plastic and your skin used to get stuck to them. My mum loved that car so much. In the end it kind of died as the only gear left was reverse and it's not really acceptable to drive around Richmond town centre backwards.