Cars cars cars

Whilst there are too many cars on the UK roads and we all need to drive less, I still bloody love cars. I've never been one for the flashy motor though. The bigger, brasher, noisier, faster.... the less I'm interested in it. 

It's been a lot of years since I really visited this part of my psyche and it's been awoken by EVs. The possibility that I can have a car that's fun to drive, doesn't literally stink and at least has the potential to be propelled by carbon neutral energy is really damn exciting.

I've also been sucked into the world of the CarPervert, Jonny Smith. He's an engaging presenter and I enjoy that he isn't chasing the extreme, outlandish super car nonsense. The man's doing up an Austin Allegro for goodness sake. His love of cars in infectious and really all embracing. He's as interested in the cars of the everyman, the cars with stories behind them, as the engineering marvels that outperform everything else.

All of this has got me reminiscing about the cars I grew up with. The fascinating Volvo Amazon estate owned by the woman at number 10 who never drove it, ever....  but kept it on the road. The VW camper a neighbour had that burnt more oil than petrol - something he seemed to be proud of, but mostly its the cars my parents owned.

I can vaguely remember a few of them. There was a Reliant Robin they had when I was really tiny.... the radio didn't work. A Renault 4 with it's weird gear stick. A Peugeot 504 with deeply questionable brakes and maggots under the rear bench seat because me and my brothers had dropped so much food down there. An awful Talbot Alpine Minx that was just the worst sounding thing every created. A white Cavalier Club special edition thing with a tiny little spoiler. Once, with my grandmother in that car, we were parked at MFI. She piped up that we were parked next to a car that was exactly the same..... It was a 911.

The car I remember most from my childhood was the Cortina. That deserves its own post.

My granddad had better cars. I think there was a Datsun Cherry, definitely a couple of Nissan Sunnys. He bought Japanese cars that worked.

My parents didn't buy Japanese cars that worked, they bought old DAF automatics and had their mechanic friend stick some second hand washing machine belts on when they'd fail.

The first car I drove was a Peugeot 205 1.8 diesel. It was great. Much better than the 1990 Cavalier my parents owned at the time. I once drove that through a puddle and it completely died.

My first car was a 1986 Golf MKII. My dad taught me everything he knew so I chose badly. It was knackered. Something like 60k on the clock and it hadn't been given an oil change in at least half that. But I loved that car and another Golf has always been on my desired list. Never happened because I've always been too practical or poor... my god I really wanted a MK5 when they came out.

Apart from that Golf.... oh and the cut and shut Volvo 340 I replaced it with, my car ownership has been fairly uneventful. They've just all worked. I do find myself craving some originality though. The Citroen Xantia estate I owned was great. Yes the boot leaked so badly the rear foot wells filled with water, and the stupid plastic clutch clip failed and left my wife stranded among rowdy football fans, but it was an interesting car and I loved it.

I'm hopeful the move to EVs will see some interesting cars come back. I may even get one.