OV9

Something prompted this in my head earlier. My dad got a 2nd hand Austin 1100 wagon (yellow - not my image) as a 2nd family car when I was a kid. I think they are kinda cool now, but at the time it wasn't classic or classy or remotely cool to me in any way. I hated being seen in it.

It was almost replaced by a Lada Riva as they were so unbelieveably cheap. This gave me serious fear. Rubber floor in place of carpets. Thankfully he saw sense and bought a 4-speed basic spec Maestro instead.

My dad had a Fiat 132, the first new car I remember him bring home - Stand out feature for me was the clear Red sun visors that pulled out of the roof liner.

The car itself was pretty cool but it NEVER worked - it was in and out of the garage form Day 1 to when Fiat accepted it back and gave my dad a full refund after about 7 months.

But I clearly remember the stress it put him under. He had a series of second hand Hillman Hunters before that but got promoted and decided to treat himself. He was so angry and disappointed. I ended up hating the car.

A few years later, he got his first company car - a 2.0 Mazda 626 which didn't put a foot wrong.

My dad replaced his V8 SD1 with a Vauxhall Cavalier. Everyone hated that Cavalier.

Dad bought a brand new Ford Probe 24v. Embarrassing name, and embarrassingly slow. Looked okay though

It wasn't hated, just the bottom of the pile, the Austin Montego Estate. It's ownership was sandwiched between Cortina/Granada estates and then some Carlton estates after that, but the Montego always felt like the lame duck amongst all of those. I think it was dark blue. Dad bought it at auction, and it was incorrectly listed as a 2.0 when it actually had a smaller engine. To be fair the auction did give him a partial refund to split the difference, although part of that might be down to the fact he was a trading standards officer, and businesses tend to treat you nicely when they discover that

My mum bought a Brown Austin Allegro in the 90's.

We used to call it "The Turd" as it was proper brown, with velour to match, and my sister used to lie down on the back seat when she was in it so her friends wouldn't see her.

My dad replaced a 928 GT with a W208 Mercedes CLK 320 AMG in the early 2000s and post financial crash swapped a first gen L322 range rover for a very late Discovery 2 with cloth seats. I was in my teens / had left home respectively so perhaps a stretch to say I was a 'kid'. Neither were objectively terrible other than in comparison to what had gone before. I did hate the Mercedes though as a result of loving the 928 so much.

Rich B wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:12 pm My dad replaced his V8 SD1 with a Vauxhall Cavalier. Everyone hated that Cavalier.

We had a Cavalier estate. Blue. Will forever be my childhood memories car...went on loads of holidays in it.

Always loved and was fascinated by the tape holder, with the red eject buttons.

My dad was famous for buying utterly shit cars in woeful condition that he'd work on, fix up (with my help) and when it was something like decent (or as decent as it could be) he'd sell it on and buy another woeful shitbox. Low lights include :

Moskvitch 1500
Austin Princess
Austin Ambassador (tbf, it was a really comfy car with velour seats)
Lada Riva
Renault 21 (he chose this over a Saab 99 Turbo because "it was newer" - radiator exploded on the way to Cornwall)
Hillman Avenger estate

I wasn't a kid but the car I hated most that he had was a Vauxhall Zafira - utterly and irredeemably awful.

He did have a couple of decent/interesting motors :

A Bedford CF van with a bull bar on the front, painted black with a bespoke red velour interior. He bought it with a seized engine and we transplanted the 2.3 6 cylinder lump from a Vauxhall Magnum.
A Vauxhall Cresta - I remember it had a weird line speedo that changed colour.

Gavster wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:35 pm It wasn't hated, just the bottom of the pile, the Austin Montego Estate. It's ownership was sandwiched between Cortina/Granada estates and then some Carlton estates after that, but the Montego always felt like the lame duck amongst all of those. I think it was dark blue. Dad bought it at auction, and it was incorrectly listed as a 2.0 when it actually had a smaller engine. To be fair the auction did give him a partial refund to split the difference, although part of that might be down to the fact he was a trading standards officer, and businesses tend to treat you nicely when they discover that

The car in the photo is Azure Blue - I had a 1.6 Maestro Mayfair in the same colour (which was arguably the most reliable car I've ever owned).

My Dad also had an Allegro. My legs used to stick to the vinyl seats if I was wearing shorts.

I was in the sixth form in the late 90s, everyone was driving Fiestas/Novas, but one lad bought an Allegro. Quite an individual choice but not enough to be interesting and it was also a bag of bollocks. We killed it jumping a railway bridge.

Another guy had a Maestro until someone pilfered his keys in a nightclub one night and wrote it off. He replaced it with another Maestro. He’s now my accountant.

Delphi wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:50 pm My dad was famous for buying utterly shit cars in woeful condition that he'd work on, fix up (with my help) and when it was something like decent (or as decent as it could be) he'd sell it on and buy another woeful shitbox. Low lights include :

Austin Ambassador (tbf, it was a really comfy car with velour seats)

Oooh - Ambassador fwend.

My folks had a base spec 1.7L. It was huge inside (for the time) and comfy, but managed to be utterly gutless, whilst still struggling to average 30mpg. The super-soft under-damped suspension was obvious when I was a youngster, but only later did I get to pilot the boat and experience the wobbly detachedness of the gear lever, the massively overservoed brakes with no feel, the massively overservoed steering with no feel, and the utter utter guttlessness of the powerplant. And on top of that - it was utterly guttless.

I don't remember it fondly.

In my memory Dad didn't really have any bad cars. He was a sales rep and had company cars that were replaced every 3 years.

When I was born however he had a Marina which he said was terrible.

in my memory the list

Mk3 Escort 1.6L x3
Mk2 Cavalier (Brown)
Changed jobs to Avon Tyres
Austin Maestro - Pool car until his...
Austin Montego
Ford Sierra Sapphire
Mk3 Cavalier
Mondeo - first of the diesels
Vectra - He didn't like this.
Change of jobs
Mk4 Astra.
Rover 218SDi
Started Taxi Business
Many Taxi's until retirement.
retirement
Vw Tiguan
Another VW Tiguan.

In a previous life before company cars he had a 1960's Jaguar S-Type

In between crashing a Fiat 127 and buying the Fiat Uno that would eventually be my first car, my mum had a Vauxhall Chevette. I look at pics now and quite like the shape but at the time I mostly hated the vinyl seats which were always too hot or cold.

Actually, after the Uno she bought a mk1 Tigra. Thankfully I was driving by then so rarely needed to put up with being squished into the back seats.

My dad had company cars and they were usually nice, even the big velour-seated Rovers.

My mum had a 127 with the 3rd degree burn plastic seats... We used to sit on towels in the summer

I loved all the family cars but mainly due to happy memories or playing silly buggers.

Vauxhall Chevette, I went with him to a garage to have a sunroof fitted and I got to see them chop a hole in the roof. On hot days you could take the panel out . That was rear ended years later.

A Vauxhall Cavalier saloon 1.6, he let me drive that up the street when I was about 8 and on a trip to Cornwall he set the brakes on fire coming down a long steep hill. That died as just as we left on holiday the rear shock broke through into the boot .

Rover 213 in Burgundy, they had a Honda engine I think and you could hear valve bounce before you changed gear, 900kg ish and so much fun. I learned to drive in it and it's where I saw the black 512 TR as we both raced for a 2 into 1 section, the Ferrari won.

Renault Laguna 1.6 with cloth interior, steel rims but huge touring car spoiler. Incredibly comfy and our first car with AC.

Rover 214 SLI, rebuilt K series, it would LOO whenever you wanted and the engine was a peach. The head gasket took it in the end while in traffic.

Rover 220 something, T series engine I think, went really well but very very floaty. Used to be good fun goading VTr and VTS Saxos in period but you needed to be on the brakes 50 metres before anything else as it wallowed so much.

Focus 1.6, Focus 1.4, 1.3 Mazda 323 and now a Skoda Citigroup for my Mum Kia Spirtage for my Dad.

His first car was a Triumph Dolomite Springbwith a full length copper exhaust as my Grandad "knew a guy" and it sounded like an angry wasp from a mile out so he tells me

My Grandpa had a brown interior 10V quattro and we have not a single picture of it

Dave!

after the SD1 (and a mk1 capri before i was born) my dads car criteria seemed to consist of variations of the exact same spec - 4/5 doors, 2.0, petrol, auto, not Japanese/Korean (my grandad spent a lot of the war in a POW camp - my nan wouldn’t have been happy!) - all driven till they get to the scrap heap.

Cavalier GL
Sierra 2.0i Ghia
Rover 820 si
Seat Toledo GT
Renault Laguna
Peugeot 406
Ford Focus

I thought they were all kind of interesting.

The ‘worst’ was probably his e30. It was a late one, but a 316i on bottletop alloys. By then the e36 was out so it was the old shape, and the 316i was the worst model.

It was actually a nice car, but he had some terrible luck with it! Someone shunted into the back of it pushing him into the car in front, got broken into and had the pull-out radio nicked, and left us stranded when the cambelt snapped.

Nothing stands out as particularly worse than the other. Beetle and Rancho would be great still to have

in rough order
Marina 1.3
Marina 1.8 (but iirc it was badged as a 1.3)
Mini
Metro (one trip had 6 of us and a gas cooker in it)
LHD Beetle from a US neighbour (was on California plates when they gave it to us)
Sierra 1.6 auto estate
Sierra 1.8 hatchback
Rancho (in that orange/brown colour)
Rover 400 something

I seem to have forgotten the more recent stuff after that