How many cars have you owned?

[Welly]

Was thinking about this last night whilst stuck in traffic, started counting through the cars I've had since passing my driving test at the age of 17, forgot about some of them! but double checked the count at 13 cars.

13 cars in 30 years, that's an average of one car per 2.3 years. The Volvo has ruined the trend as I've had that now for 9 years

Please post about yours...........

[trufflehunt]

Took my driving test in 1973 aged 21. Only drove a few miles in a car before doing my PSV,
and driving buses in Glasgow.

From there, 43 cars.....

Currently...
1993 Mazda MX5 (project)
2002 VW Golf 1.9 TDI

Shortest owned. Various..., all minimum 6 months.

3rd Longest owned : Peugeot 106 3 years 10 months
2nd Longest owned : Triumph TR5 4 years
Longest owned : Peugeot 406 HDI 4 years 3 months

[steve_earwig]

It seems like hundreds but I suspect it's only something like 20, I think I listed them on here about 10 years back...

These days I don't actually own any cars When I first came here I had to reapply for temporary residence every year and, bizarrely, the cars were linked to it, so I had to re-register the cars regardless of whether they needed it or not at the same time I was doing myself. After a few years we found out that I could just "gift" the cars to t'wife and avoid all this nonsense. Obviously it doesn't matter any more but the yoyo's still in her name, just in case they dream up another way to use it to rip me off.

[Doggy]

Think I listed mine a few years back too, think the total's about 30.
Some of them were for quite a while too, ( 7.5 / 5.5 / 4.5 / 4 years).
I feel old.

[Welly]

I think I need moar cars

[PeterN]

I passed my test in 1956 and my cars were:

1939 Ford prefect KMK330
Austin A70
1950 Hillman Minx LJJ356
1955 Vauxhall Velox 'E' LHD PLP522
1956 Vauxhall Cresta 'E' JAN 907
1958 Vauxhall Velox PA
1960 Hillman Husky
Morris Cowley
1956 Morris Oxford Mk5 'all metal' estate'
Morris Oxford estate with wood 'Like Morris 1000'
Another one the same
1958 Humber Hawk
Riley 1.5
1959 Humber Super Snipe 2.5l
1960 Humber Super snipe 3.0l
1955 Morris Oxford saloon
Morris 1000 Van PFN14
Commer 15 cwt van
Wolsely 15/60
1963/1967 Morris Oxford Farina estate LHD
Austin A60 diesel estate.

That was in Kent, in 1970 we moved here and still had the Oxford estate which I converted to RHD using the interior of a Wolsely 16/60 from the scrapyard. Then we had:

Morris 1000 van ex GPO
Bedford CA 11 seater van diesel
Bedford CF van Diesel
Vauxhall Viva
Vauxhall HA Van
Hillman Super Minx estate
Vauxhal Cresta PC
Ford Granada estate
Ford Cortina estate
Another Cortina estate
1980 Ford Cortina Estate, bought that in '82. Newest car I have had.
1980 Citroen CX Safari diesel
Another later one
1986 CX DTR Turbo Safari. Had that 7 years and covered over 150k. Fantastic car.
At the same time we had one BX hatchback diesel and three estates, the last being
BX TZD Estate
Then started the XMs, I think 6 or 7 2.1 diesel estates, 2x Mk1s and the others Mk2s mostly with the reg and one hatchback. Then moved on to the 406s
2.0. Hdi estate GLX
And now we have two Hdi Estates 'His' and 'Hers' one GLX and one LX both Moonstone.

I think there may have been some I have forgotten but you get the gist.

Peter

Oh yes, + 2 C5s

[rwb]

I've got some catching up to do!

Here's my list.

* 1996: 1983 Mk II Fiesta 956cc. It rusted away.
* 1997: 1988 Renault 5 1.4. Had a Nissan sunroof that leaked badly.
* 2004: 1997 406 LX 1.9D
* 2005: 2002 406 GLX 2.0 HDi (90)
* 2013: 2007 407 GT 2.2 HDi

[GingerMagic]

I passed my test in 1991....

Cars I've owned are;
1973 Marina Coupe - fantastic, reliable, but slow and I crashed it after 2 months...
1978 Marina Saloon - not so reliable, sold it after 2 months...
1981 Fiesta Supersport - had this for just over a year but it was such fun, I decided to part exchange it as I had many 'conversations' with the local constabulary regarding my driving style ( wish I kept it though)
1983 Triumph Acclaim - a very underrated car, reliable, quick, easy to fix as the bolts in the engine bay were colour coded. Part exchanged this for...
1993 Renault 19 - actually a good reliable car, turbo diesel, comfy, probably the last decent car Renault made... Sold this to my neighbour to buy a joint* car with the missus..
1997 Peugeot 306 - by far the best car, turbo diesel, had this for 13 years in total but after 3 years I needed to buy myself a car as I changed jobs and lost my works van.
1985 Mk 3 Escort van - £50 - had this for 6 months but then the cambelt went - sold it for £75..
1999 Mk6 Escort van - the last one was so handy I bought another one. Had this for 4 years, bloody brilliant motor. Sold it and bought....
1996 Mondeo Estate - £100 - needed another 4 door car as we now had a baby... Very reliable but fuel consumption was a shock after having diesel engines for a few years, eventually all the locks packed up, electrical gremlins rearing their ugly heads. Sold it to the banger boys and bought....
2002 406 Estate Hdi90 - stank of dog, but had new tyres, clutch, exhaust, cambelt etc. I thought I could get rid of the smell but after 2 years it still made me wretch on a hot day, so when the power steering rack went I sold it and bought...
2004 406 Executive Estate 2.2Hdi - cheap on eBay and cheap for a reason, ex taxi so horrendously maintained but nice interior and I enjoyed tinkering with it. I learned much about the 406 as I bought several very cheap donor cars to make this one better. After 2 years the crank seal went and as I was starting to fall out with the car I chose to replace it with....
2002 406 Estate 2.2Hdi - needed work but once I came to terms with the colour of it I really really liked it - turned it into an Executive using the old one as a donor. I never wanted to sell this car, but the wife wouldn't drive it (too fast for her) and she now had the Picasso and my job transferred to a 5 minute walk from home. The car would sit for weeks at a time without being used and although it never failed to start it was time to pass it on...
1998 VW T4 - it's a family car and does everything we need, apart from go faster....

Looking back it's more cars than I thought, but generally I've been lucky with the cars I bought.

That's it, apart from all the cars I bought on eBay for about £50 that I stripped for parts and weighed in - maybe another 10 on the list - I wasn't counting those though...

[Welly]

And the reward for the 'shonkiest motors' goes to..................

Gingermagic

There's a pattern, I think, of lots of car changes through the 80's and 90's but then a slow down in the late 2000's. I don't know if that's because cars are better now or we're all skint

[Doggy]

There's a pattern, I think, of lots of car changes through the 80's and 90's but then a slow down in the late 2000's. I don't know if that's because cars are better now or we're all skint

It's because we mostly have cars from the golden age of automotive perfection, (post 1980's so they're reliable, pre hideous modern styling*).

[stevewalsh]

Morris Marina
MK3 Escort Diesel
Astra Van
VW LT Van
SWB Transit 2.5 Diesel
LWB Transit 2.5 Diesel
Opel Manta 2 Litre GTE
Ford Granada MK2 2.8 Ghia
Ford Mondeo 2 Litre Petrol 4x4 Saloon
2 x Ford Mondeo 2 Litre Petrol Hatch
Ford Escort Diesel Estate
2 x Peugeot 406 Estates. D9 2.0 HDI... Still got 1 as a current car
Mazda 6 Estate, 2009, 2.2mzrcd. Nice motor but prefer 406

Bikes
Honda C50 Chicken Chaser Field bike
Yam FS1E
Yam 200 electric
Yam RD250
Suzuki T250
Suzuki GT750 Kettle, x3
Kawaski Z900 x3
Yamaha FJ1100
Yamaha XJ750
Suzuki GS1000EX
Yamaha DT100
Kawasaki Z1300 x6
Honda GL1500 Goldwing X2. 1 Still current bike but ready for a change Possibly for another Z1300

Probably a few missing of both lists

And a GPZ1000RX inbetween the Z1300'S
and a Honda CBR1000
Both of which were too fast for me, I saw 170mph on the 1000RX Speedo, I dont know what the true speed was but it was fast enough.
And a FZR600 Bought as a crashed bike from a mate, didnt like it.

[trufflehunt]

.... Suzuki T250

aka.., the Suzuki Hustler, a true Japanese 2 stroke screamer. Yes, I owned one of these back in the 70's.
Owned 7 or 8 bikes over the years. This was the only one on which I thought I was about to die.
Summer day, long fast country road in Dorset, piling it on, swept in to a bend at around 70. The bend
kept tightening, and I drifted out and out, towards the path of the car coming the other way. I missed him
by about half a handlebar's width.

[stevewalsh]

My hustler was a blue one, Excellent bike in its day. I think I had 1 around 1978, A bearing disintegrated in the gearbox, I was an apprentice engineer at the time, I stripped it and had the shaft metal sprayed and reground at work for free. all it cost me was a few gaskets and got a new bearing at cost from work, about 2 quid.... Wish I still owned most of my old bikes

[DaiRees]

Passed test in 1990 but my list is very short compared to you lot :

1984 Talbot Solara GLS
1985 Fiat Uno 55C
1986 Ford Fiesta 1.6D
1986 Vauxhall Nova 1.2 Merit
1994 Ford Mondeo 1.8 LX
1998 Peugeot 406 1.8 LX Saloon
2002 Peugeot 406 2.0l HPi Executive Estate
1993 Suzuki Samurai (weekend toy)
2012 Volvo V70 SE Lux DRIVe

[highlander]

I passed in 2007

1994 Renault Clio 1.4 RN (3-door)
1996 Renault Clio 1.2 Panache (5-door)
1999 Peugeot 406 1.8 LX saloon
2002 Peugeot 406 2.2 Coupe SE
2008 BMW 525i 3.0 M-Sport

So out of the above, the BMW is the only car that has spent less time legally allowed to be on the roads than I have... And I haven't ever owned a diesel.

The 1.4 Clio was, in short, stuffed. Wifely Person bought it for me as a surprise from a work colleague who was apparently as short on mechanical sympathy as she was on ethics. Had a cracked bearing in the gearbox, so shifting gear was like trying to stir a cauldron full of heavy metal gears using a large metal ladle. It had likely never had an oil change, or a filter change. The sump was pretty much dry, as was the expansion bottle. The brakes were screwed. But it still worked - it drove, it seemed to have a bit of pep to it. It felt much better after a proper oil change and top-up of fluids, but still failed the MOT on brakes, and would have been quite expensive to get them sorted out.

The 1.2 Clio was bought because the 1.4 still drove so well despite many years of utter neglect. But was so much slower, it was unreal. Mechanically bullet-proof, but it didn't like driving much faster than 50 MPH, because at that point it was screaming its head off. And it really, really didn't like hills. So it wasn't surprising that the first time we tried to take it up to Thurso, we went up the Berriedale Braes (13.5% incline, up and down, with a few hairpin bends thrown in with sheer cliffs on one side for pure mortal peril) as that's the way the A9 goes. The poor little Clio had steam pouring out from under the bonnet by the time we reached the top on the North side, so we had to stop and let it cool off for a bit.

We got the 406 purely because the Clio wasn't really up to the job. I upgraded from the 1.8 saloon to the 2.2 Coupe because I wanted a bit more power. And from the Coupe to the BMW because I decided it would be best to have rear doors, for those times I need to give my parents a lift.

As it happens, from the 1.2 Clio to the 1.8 406 was a jump of around 50 HP. As it was from the 1.8 406 to the 2.2 Coupe. And again from the Coupe to the BMW. So that's some nice progression.

I'm thinking about doing the intake manifold mod for the BMW that gives it the DISA infinitely variable length intake manifold, which is pretty much the sole difference between the 525i and 530i on the facelift model E60. Which would give me around an extra 50 - 70 HP, depending on the remap - which would be quite nice.