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What’s the most embarrassing car you’ve ever owned?
In his ill-spent youth my brother owned a Ford Capri. It was a monstrosity.
I’ve just called him and the car’s specifications slipped off his tongue as though he was still driving it. “It was a classic — a Mark One, 1600 GT XLR with fake wood dashboard, a clock in the centre console, not forgetting the twin choke Weber and the huge General Grabber tyres.”
He seemed to spent most of his weekend primping, preening and pimping his motor and while his head was under the bonnet I would laugh at him incessantly.
But maybe I was wrong. Crap cars are now apparently highly desirable and 20-year old Trabants are selling for over £5,000. In these days of financial uncertainity that’s quite a nice little investment.
Ah the Trabant. Immortalised by U2′s “Achtung Baby” album cover in 1991, with its fibre-glass body and 600cc engine Vorsprung durch Technik it was not.
Not that bone-rattling suspensions and outdated designs were confined to behind the Iron Curtain.
What was the worst car you’ve driven? And let us know how much an Austin Allegro, often referred to as the ‘All-aggro’, is going for these days?
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My first car was an Austin Allegro. Despite its rather embarrassing colour – as sort of greeny brown – and a gearbox that seemed to come from a tractor, it ran well and had a great acceleration. The Allegro has had a pretty bad press.
I have never owned an embarrassing car. Why would I?
I have owned some bangers but never been embarrassed by them as they were a result of financial necessity at the time.Cars are for transport not status in my mind.Had you asked for the worst car I probably would have said a 1980s Skoda. It was a horrible machine to drive , slow and heavy on petrol I even preferred my flirt with a lada estate. Drive on and don’t judge a person by their car It just makes you look shallow. Somebody tell Jeremy please
Right after WWII I was enrolled in college on the GI Bill, working part time, and needed a car. Some old timers will remember that new cars hadn’t been built for several years, and it would be another year or two before the manufacturers got into production again. The existing cars hadn’t been properly maintained during the war, due to unavailability of parts and the shortage of gasoline. During the war, people used all kinds of stuff for fuel, in many cases badly damaging the engine. Consequently, if you needed to buy a car you were in a bad spot. There were few drivable cars for sale anywhere.I finally found a 1936 Studebaker Dictator that would barely run, had no shocks or brakes, very little paint, and the body and especially the fenders were rusted through in spots. I was on the West Coast, so this car must have been dragged in from back East somewhere, as we don’t put salt on the roads in the winter, so the cars don’t rust out underneath. The electrical wiring was deteriorated so bad the headlights would sometimes suddenly go out without warning. Buying it was foolish, and I spent scarce dollars on minimum repairs to make it drivable. None of my friends would ride with me in it. In college, having a car helps get dates. This one didn’t. I finally traded it for a 1937 Ford with no engine. I think the new owner drove it to Portland, parked it somewhere and left it.