What were you driving at the start of the '10s.....

[Daverh]

This was my toy in 2010. It was noisy, low and a bit unsafe which made it feel faster than it really was

 

[MaDProFF]

S3 I think. Annoyingly never be able to replicate that image with other cars I loved that car, so close to buying an RS3 Saloon or even and RS3, just never did in the end.
AMG GLA45
Volvo XC60 T8

 

[benclear]

All this talk of Escort Turbos...

End of 80's
MGB GT owned since 86 that I (as in, personally did all the work except lower engine rebuild and some structural welding) had well and truly sorted, except respray. It was insured on a special policy as per the V8 version - blessing in disguise as it meant I had pretty much had carte blanche to do as I wanted. Performance wise, it could keep up with an Escort RS Turbo on fast windy Devon A roads - although brakes would be smoking at the end. Whilst well sorted, it was totally docile on city traffic - mostly thanks to an Oselli 2L fast road spec bottom end. It might not sound much, but was dyno'd at 100bhp at the wheels, and that was before it was upgraded to Webber carb.
Also, Mini 1000 manual as a basic run around, for when MGB was off the road and cheaper on petrol for commutes.

End of 90's
Still had MGB GT, but oil pressure relief valve was causing problems. Other commitments and alternative mules of MGF VVC and Mini 1000 auto gave no reason to fix. I swear that Mini could drive itself.

End of 00's
Literally just scrapped the MGB after 23 years ownership as moved house and it was showing the effects of being stored for so long. A decision regretted on many occasions. MCC Smart car (which I eventually kept for nearly 14 years, ) had replaced the Mini. Family car was a Passat Estate (prior a Passat 406 then BMW 218i Estate) that was traded in for the Tesla.

Best car I ever owned was the MGB GT. I had put my heart, sole and sweat into every square inch of that. It had personality and every trait it had, I put into it. Second best was the Mini 1000 - it was just so much fun.

Used to love borrowing my mums MGB GT V8 years ago, a real driving experience, petrol additive, a proper choke, a live rear axle that helped it leave black lines round hairpins, I’d happily own one but would constantly deem it outmoded and leave it at home like my other ICE cars!

 

[benclear]

Since we are about exit the '10s it would be a good time to recap on how much money people have wasted (or not) on cars over the last decade and how you have ended been here in a Tesla.

Am normally very careful with money, but cars is my down fall, I cannot help but waste £££ on them.

I started the decade wasting about £500 on an aftermarket body kit for the 350Z, and was contemplating adding a SC kit....

....and I finish the decade with the only car I have genuinely not felt the need to change/modify/sell up

I dare not add up just how much £££££ I have wasted on cars in between over the last decade, am almost certain it would have been enough to have paid off the mortgage on a reasonable sized house......But what's money for if not wasting it on cars, and for me these cars are worth every penny!!

I do wonder what the next decade will bring, I have a suspicion our X might still with us in the family.

Happy Holidays to everyone

Our car history is a bit similar, I reckon we both used to only buy Evo 5* rated cars!
I’d sold my 350z by turn of the decade though, I was onto BMW’s first ever low pressure turbo offering, the numerically pleasing 123d. Was outright dangerous in the wet when the turbo spooled up at ridiculously low rpm’s.

 

[m-i-l]

My Tesla Model 3 is actually my first car. Definitely saved way more than the cost of the Tesla Model 3 by not having a car in the time since I got my licence. Still not convinced I actually need one now I live in London, and can sometimes go weeks without using it. The school run for example is 10 mins walk, but would be about 10 mins drive in the terrible morning traffic, it would probably take 10 mins to find a park given the school isn't even on a road, and I might end up with a parking spot 11 mins walk away! And for the commute, there's nowhere to park at work, and even if there was it would take longer driving and I wouldn't be able to do any reading or writing on the way.

 

[Adopado]

My Tesla Model 3 is actually my first car. Definitely saved way more than the cost of the Tesla Model 3 by not having a car in the time since I got my licence. Still not convinced I actually need one now I live in London, and can sometimes go weeks without using it. The school run for example is 10 mins walk, but would be about 10 mins drive in the terrible morning traffic, it would probably take 10 mins to find a park given the school isn't even on a road, and I might end up with a parking spot 11 mins walk away! And for the commute, there's nowhere to park at work, and even if there was it would take longer driving and I wouldn't be able to do any reading or writing on the way.

Maybe you should offer your car to the needy?

 

[nightowl]

At the start of the '10s... I was in my 20s, relying on public transport. Hadn't learned to drive and generally was happy enough walking/cycling and getting trains and buses when needed. Commuting by train to work every day with a 15 minute walk either end, sometimes in cold or wet rain, often with the train being delayed or cancelled and usually with crowds of people trying to get on/off the train whilst I'm trying to do the opposite.

Took driving lessons and passed my test in 2016. Spent 3 years after that in a Micra with manual gearbox that already had a few dents and scuffs, expecting to possibly have a few minor scrapes with hedges and such. I made a few mistakes but have learned from them in that time.

Having been on a few train journeys since... I don't miss it. All the waiting around to change trains etc. and the delays. And the stained seats that are evident when GWR changed their colour scheme to green/grey...

 

[mo.dilwar]

Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec: April 2010-March 2012
Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDi: March 2012-April 2014
Toyota Yaris Hybrid: April 2014-November 2015
Toyota Yaris Hybrid: November 2015-March 2018
Nissan LEAF 2.Zero: March 2018-August 2019
Tesla Model 3 SR+: November 2019 to present

 

[gangzoom]

Our car history is a bit similar, I reckon we both used to only buy Evo 5* rated cars!

EVO was one of the great magazines I actually enjoyed reading, that and Performance car when I still didn't have a licence, the Impreza write ups were my favourite!!

I really don't know if its just nostalgia, but even though our X is the by far the best car I have ever owned am still unsure how I will feel about it looking back in 2030/40.

Where as one of these things still makes me turn, the fact this one was up for £94K and sold suggest am not the only one!

Early Roadster are starting to go for silly numbers now I see, as a self confessed car fanatic am sure we all agree there is something about Tesla's that go beyond the hype around AP/tech/Netflix etc?? But we'll have to wait and see I suppose.....

 

[gangzoom]

My Tesla Model 3 is actually my first car.

That's some first car!! This was my first car (not my picture), it broke after I tried to get it above an indicted 70mph down a hill

 

[pgkevet]

That's some first car!! This was my first car (not my picture), it broke after I tried to get it above an indicted 70mph down a hill

If you must have fancy cars like that for your first, huh. Mine was an Austin A30 and I had to drill holes into the driver foot-well to let the water out that came through the pedal voids every puddle. There's a few old farts here will remember hammering on the B pillar to get the indicator arrows to pop out each time. No heaters and wiping the condensation off the windscreen as you drove added to the fun. And using a starting handle 'cos I couldn't afford a new battery...a nuisance if it stalled across a junction.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Perhaps we should do this by decade:

In 1970 I was driving an ex-Thames Valley Police, 1964 (BGN 918 B, IIRC) grey Mini van, that I paid £40 for at auction.

In 1980 I was driving a Clan Crusader, fitted with a tweaked Hartwell 998 engine, twin 40 Dellortos etc, that I used to race in hill climbs and sprints at weekends:

In 1990 I was driving a metallic silver grey BMW 325i.


In 2000 I was driving a fairly boring Mitsubishi Shogun 2800 TD, plus this homebuilt, road legal single seater for fun:

In 2010 I was driving my second new Prius, a white one, that sadly got rear-ended and written off three years later, to be replaced by a Prius Plug-in.

 

[Ant M3]

Mixed bag for me ...
I think in 2010 I had a Freelander2, followed by a Scirroco and a Mazda 6 Sport... then a Honda Civic TypeS, a Ford Focus then a Merc C300h, BMW MSport Touring.
Must admit (acceleration aside Obvs) my M3P really reminds me of my VW Scirroco from a handling / driving point of view

 

[vitesse]

This was my toy in 2010. It was noisy, low and a bit unsafe which made it feel faster than it really was


View attachment 493307

Ginetta?

 

[Adopado]

Took driving lessons and passed my test in 2016. Spent 3 years after that in a Micra with manual gearbox that already had a few dents and scuffs, expecting to possibly have a few minor scrapes with hedges and such. I made a few mistakes but have learned from them in that time.

There's quite a range amongst current Tesla owners ... I passed my test in 1973! I certainly had some "adventures" in my early driving years... we'll leave it there! No driver aids in those days of course so it's just as well that I was driving things like Minis with low power. Even powerful cars can feel relatively tamed nowadays due to clever traction control, ABS etc... if you drove a rear wheel drive car like an RS2000 you had to quickly learn how to manage power and drift! Great fun factor. Certain empty roundabouts at 2am on a wet night would see my mother's (low power) rear wheel drive Corolla drifting around the complete circle ... it wasn't my mother driving of course and she never knew what her car had done!

 

[LukeT]

It's kind of interesting that Teslas attract such a range of people. There's the performance, the cutting edge technology and the chance to take an aspect of one's life that is pretty terrible for the environment and make real inroads into that. Maybe more besides.

So that seems to bring in a curious mix of folk. There are the previous petrol heads, the folk for whom energy and environmental impact are top of the list and those who want to be at the leading edge.

The engineer in me has always appreciated certain performance cars but not enough to own one. That needed something to get the environmentalist in me going. Tesla did that and my previous cheap car life went in the bin, for the time being.

In 04 we got a 2000 2 litre petrol golf and in 07 a 2000 VW Transporter for camping and cycling and the like. In 13 and 16 they got replaced with a mondeo and a newer van, then the mondeo went for the Model S in 2019. They each did 140-200k miles. Hoping Model S will do at least similar lifespan and then who knows. Van does much less miles but I'd still like to change it to an electric something in a year or two.

 

[thegruf]

 

[Daverh]

Ginetta?

Sylva Stylus (a relative of the Fisher Fury) which had a 1.3 Ford xflow engine from a 1978 mk2 Escort.
It was a reialble, fun car the long list of random quirks that kit cars tend to have:

• It was on remoulds when I bought it which felt like I was driving on ice even on a warm, dry day.
• The fastest I ever went was about 80mph on the speedo at which point the A-piilar was flexing. My mate was following in his car and told me the actual sped was more like 65 but that's a moot point as almost every time I got in I pulled the speedo cable out of the gearbox/bell-housing so I just used my sat-nav speedo.
• The fuel guage went from full to 1/4 tank in about 50 miles so I made a habit of stopping every100miles to refill as I didn't trust it. I carried a fuel can in the passenger footwell as it was too tall to fit in the boot.
• The car was so short that I would remove the seat cushion if I needed to drive with the roof on otherwise my head would be jammed against the ceiling.
• It wouldn't easily start when hot and with the exhaust running through the fibreglass sill they had a habit of cathing fire if not properly shielded, which mine wasn't.
• The 32/36 DGV Weber carb sounded great but every journey left my clothes stinking of oil or petrol fumes.
• No ABS, Airbag, traction control, crumple zones or collapsible steering column in the box-section steel frame. The high chance of death in an accident did however mean that my insurance was around £100/year for a 20 something year old with 0 no-claims and the only MOT emmissions check was the inspector revving the engine to check for excessive smoke
• The only time it broke down was when I snapped the weld on one of the engine mounts - it cost me a pack of beer to have repaired by a friend of my uncle.

I sold it for more than I originally paid and I miss what that car represents in terms of the early days of mine and my wife's relationship

There's dust in my eye - must be all of these ICE emissions

 

[gangzoom]

if you drove a rear wheel drive car like an RS2000 you had to quickly learn how to manage power and drift! Great fun factor.

Yet these car we 'drive' now are essentially actually been operated by computers which decide how much power to send to which wheels, whilst seamlessly managing 100 different variable like cell temperature etc.

I read somewhere F22s cannot actually fly without CPUs due to how complex their design is, these cars really are the same, we aren't really driving its the computers doing it for us, even managing the power output down to a decimal place!!

Pretty soon I think the up and coming generation will look at cars we've driven in the past like steam engines. Nice to sit in one over xmas holidays but far too slow/noisy and a faffy in real life.....Its progress I suppose, but I will miss the driving experience .

I do wonder if now is the time to buy an older combustion car and keep it for fun in the future?

 

[Latibes]

Here is what I was driving, and

my two M3s together