Following on really for the "First car" topic made me start to think of what was the most memorable car ?

 

 

We all have a lot of motoring experience and memories behind us, so what was your most memorable car, Loved it or hated it, or maybe had a great road trip in it?

 

I have a few, but one that sticks in my mind was a 1968 Red Mini. Jeez, that thing was a heap, but it went like the clappers and was great fun. The memorable part about this was how soaking wet it got inside if it rained; carpets were soaking, probably from all the holes in the floor! Minis were notorious for floor rot. The real memory of that car was driving back from Cornwall with only the handbreak !! yep, the master cyclinder had gone and I had no brakes. It was a bank holiday weekend, and there were no garages to be found open down there so areturned 150 miles on just the handbrake, scary as hell but a memorable experience.

 

How about you ?

The first car I drove after I passed my test was as a mini van delivery driver for a flower shop in Harlow,  I was amazed at how it went around corners, remember one day the girls making up the order for a funeral were late and of course that made me late getting to the house and they had all left so I ended up having to find then follow the procession along the road to the cemetery and hand the flowers over at the grave site, not good how embarrassing.....

 

 

TR2A

Besides being my first, definitely the one I had the most sex in 

 

About 1987: BMW 323i, 143HP, it was a rocket at that time.

 

The picture is from the internet. My car looked very much the same.

 

I had the opportunity to test drive a M3 Evolution about 1992. Wow! Unfortunately, only for a couple of hours.

 

I was posted to London, needed a cheap car to get around and bought a £300 LHD Opel Kadett off the side of the road. Did many thousands of miles in it for about 5 years with only repairs being £150 of sill welding to get it through an MOT. Didn’t care about bumps and scratches, eventually passed it to a mate who ran it for a couple of years more. Most memorable deep toned horn, I loved it.

18 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

About 1987: BMW 323i, 143HP, it was a rocket at that time.

 

The picture is from the internet. My car looked very much the same.

 

I owned a 1980 BMW 323i which was the top model of the 3 series at that time.  Had nice dual exhaust and was fast for that era.  Sadly was stolen while I was at work in the Netherlands one day and police made you come in to their station for auto theft.  Police said it was probably already on a ship in Belgium never to be seen again.  Only had it a few months and was heartbroken to lose it. 

A 1992 2.4 litre Nissan Pathfinder. Nothing fancy about it and a bit underpowered compared to Land Cruisers, Patrols, Range Rovers and Cherokees. Used it mainly for fishing trips to the Red Sea. It could go anywhere and never got stuck. Pulled numerous more powerful 4X4s out of the sand and mud with it. Abused it for ten years and it never let me down.

The  Cortina Lotus.

I've never had an emotional feeling for a car, if it drives and doesn't give me problems it's a good car as far as I'm concerned. When I came to Thailand 20 years ago I bought a 2nd hand Honda Jazz for 450k, 200,000 km later I still have it, it has given me very few problems, a very reliable car.

22 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Besides being my first, definitely the one I had the most sex in 

 

Solo sex doesn't count.

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

I've never had an emotional feeling for a car, if it drives and doesn't give me problems it's a good car as far as I'm concerned. When I came to Thailand 20 years ago I bought a 2nd hand Honda Jazz for 450k, 200,000 km later I still have it, it has given me very few problems, a very reliable car.

Wasn't a car person either, and with one exception, all my vehicles were quite practical and thrifty values.   Nothing to impress anyone.

 

Did buy a Firebird to sell for profit, from a govt auction, but after driving for a week, quite fun, decided to keep it.

 

Never paid more than $5k for a vehicle, in the USA, and only bought 1 new one, a work truck, so practical and needed the dependability.

 

Really the opposite here / TH, and on my 5th new car, along with 3 new MC 

1994 Mercury Capri, convertible with separate hardtop.

My old Peugeot 504. Simple, almost agricultural, but sophisticated mechanically. Body designed by Pininfarina.

They had the first outboard rear disc brakes of any car. Jaguar beat them but theirs were inboard...near the diff...and never worked well. Won the South Africa car rally 5 times against Mercedes who had helicopter backup.

You still see them in North Africa a lot.

Slow-revving pushrod engine, but fantastic suspension.

 

I went everywhere in it. You could sleep in the early ones and I had some of the most comfortable sleeps of my life in it.

 

 

1993 Rx7 R1, with every bolt-on mod one could do.  Ran 12.4 in a quarter mile on street tires.  I loved that car.  Purchased in 1998 gave her up in 2001

   Had a Nissan Pulsar NX which was a fun car.  My most memorable was the first New Beetle I bought, when they started making them again.  Had a couple of them and loved them.  

I bought a Saab 9-5 and later on a new 9-5 Aero and although the Aero was a good looking and fast car, the first 9-5 I bought still sticks in my mind as probably the best car I've ever owned, and the most memorable because it was such well-built and smooth to drive car, that nothing else I had ever owned came close to it.

 

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

I bought a Saab 9-5 and later on a new 9-5 Aero and although the Aero was a good looking and fast car, the first 9-5 I bought still sticks in my mind as probably the best car I've ever owned, and the most memorable because it was such well-built and smooth to drive car, that nothing else I had ever owned came close to it.

 

       Years ago, my family had a reunion in Florida.  My brother drove his Saab 2-door coupe down from Pennsylvania but he had to fly back to get to work on time and he asked me to drive his car home to PA, which I did.  At the time, my car was a cheapo Dodge Colt, a lousy, small 2-door hatchback so barebones it didn't even have a radio--and which I did not even attempt to drive to Florida.  

     After I drove his Saab back to PA I got in my car to return to Virginia.  I still remember to this day what a difference in the driving experience!   Literally night and day--I wanted to roll the Colt off the nearest cliff.   My brother still has a Saab--a beautifully maintained gorgeous red convertible.  

My first ever car was a 1952 Triumph Renown, similar to this one, three gears and very comfortable, l loved it but it literally ate fuel, l reluctantly sold it and went back to a Vespa.

B-Model Mack with a 15-Speed tri-plex with an air-starter. Almost this color, and it had a cherry-picker on the back. I loved that thing. 

 

 

On 2/3/2025 at 6:35 AM, KhunLA said:

Besides being my first, definitely the one I had the most sex in 

 

Beautiful, worth a lot of money these days.

4 minutes ago, PJ71 said:

Beautiful, worth a lot of money these days.

Yep ... hindsight, wish I had a few of my vehicles still ...

... the van

... '50' Buick Special

... '76' Monte Carlo

... '79' Caddy coup

... '75' ish F-150

... '67' Buick Sport wagon w/glass surround 'roof' area.

28 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Yep ... hindsight, wish I had a few of my vehicles still ...

... the van

... '50' Buick Special

... '76' Monte Carlo

... '79' Caddy coup

... '75' ish F-150

... '67' Buick Sport wagon w/glass surround 'roof' area.

I had a friend that had that sold his 23 window Samba for $30K, this was almost 25 years ago so the value nowadays would be crazy.

5 hours ago, PJ71 said:

I had a friend that had that sold his 23 window Samba for $30K, this was almost 25 years ago so the value nowadays would be crazy.

A kid I went to high school with bought a '67 GT500 in '74 for $1,400 and still has it.

Range Rover SVR....beast of a machine..

 

One of my worst decisions. Old man's folly. Mercedes Benz 300 CE, 1989.

 

I bought it from a Malaysian, and should have known he would skimp on servicing. I had dreams of restoring it to its former glory. It became a money pit instead.

 

It had a certain ponderous Teutonic feeling to it, entirely different to any other car I have driven. While it stuck to the road like glue, I felt if I ever got it to break out the rear end, it would be a fiery Gotterdammerung. The supposedly reliable W124 engine was quite thirsty.

 

The second time it broke down in traffic, I said enough is enough, and sold it to a Thai for much less than I paid. I later learned from the mechanic who brokered the sale the new owner had written it off, trying to escape a police checkpoint while ferrying drugs from Myanmar.

 

Its final gift to me was a speeding fine for doing 155 km/hr, because the new owner had neglected to change the blue book to his name. It took me a month of traipsing around police stations in Chiang Mai to convince them I was not responsible.

 

A memorable car, but for the wrong reasons.

 

 

Citroen 2CV in red with double headlights (pic from Internet, my one was fully red). Removed the back seats and put pillows in. Great to "test the suspension"  in summer nights with open open roof. Had it for 4 years. Never a problem with very minimal maintenance. 

 

It was the fastest car on the road too, allways in front of the other cars 😎

 

 

I think I misread the topic title as memorable event instead of memorable car, my most memorable car was two similar cars at the same time that I owned in Sharjah UAE one for me and one for my dear departed wife (not dead just currently living with a Doctor in Bury St Edmunds)  A GMC Jimmy and A dodge Ramcharger both great for towing stuck Arab gentlemen Mercs out of the sand and beach bar B Q on a Friday.

 

The GMC outside my villa complete with windsurfer on top

 

 

And the Ramcharger somewhere out in the desert

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Rimmer said:

I think I misread the topic title as memorable event instead of memorable car, my most memorable car was two similar cars at the same time that I owned in Sharjah UAE one for me and one for my dear departed wife (not dead just currently living with a Doctor in Bury St Edmunds)  A GMS Jimmy and A dodge Ramcharger both great for towing stuck Arab gentlemen Mercs out of the sand and beach bar B Q on a Friday.

 

The GMC outside my villa complete with windsurfer on top

 

 

And the Ramcharger somewhere out in the desert

 

 

 

Was the Jimmy an '80? I loved those square-bodies. 

 

 

I had a '74 C30 pick-up. I bought it in '78 for $150. The box was rusty and dude said the engine was shot. I puta cam and a set of lifters in it for about $75 and drove it for ten years. The 350s that year had a soft cam, and several of the lobes on the back had warn down flat.