First Car Stories

(Time before digital cameras)

MoneySupermarket is running a First Car Campaign where they would like bloggers and website owners to write about their first car experiences.  Everyone who shares their experiences will be set a diecast model of their first car.

So let me take you back to the summer of 1991!!  (Actually, I'm not entirely sure it was summer, but it sounds good!). Me and two girlfriends of mine (one is in the photo above) had booked tickets to see EMF (our latest band crush!) in their hometown of Glocester.  We booked B&B for the weekend with one little obstacle to overcome - I had to pass my driving test!!  So 2 weeks before our first ever road trip I passed my test and went out and bought a Mini Metro - SPORT (no less).

It cost me £600 and I bought it from a local garage in town.  I loved it.  It was white, had a rev counter and go faster stripes (OK I added the stripes from Halfords, quite possibly my favourite shop of that era).  I only seem to have a couple of part pictures of my car.

A couple of things we noticed on the way to Gloucester - the car was very quiet.  So quite that we didn't realise we'd left the engine running when filling up!!  The petrol gauge never worked, it was hit and miss as to how much petrol was ever in the tank and it was rather easy to change a tyre!  It had pug filled marked all over the body and mismatched colours - but you know what, I didn't care!  At 19, this was my ticket to freedom.

My Austin mini Metro SPORT was my 'girl racer' car.  A 1.3 no less and I drove this car around town where we met fellow 'racers' - I'm not talking fast and furious here people!  I'm talking like-minded youngsters PARKING UP chatting until we saw the milk floats go past - where the racer part comes in is beyond me.  One fellow 'racer' informed me that all my pug filled marks on my car were actually bits of sandwich and anything else that could be found laying around.  I was quite shocked at this and when I asked him how he knew he responded with 'I filled it'!  Small world.

I loved that car - I think I mentioned that before, I also love the boy racer who filled it and now we have a 20-month-old son 18 years later when we met up again - like I said, Small World.

The only pictures I seem to have of my first car - the inside - and the father to my son some 18 years later;)