A toss of the Dice. The day of decision as to buy or not to buy. Do I or don`t I?
Jessie & Malcolm Newlands:
No picture available of van but here is a sample of the Austin A 40
Our first vehicle was an Austin van which had no engine!! The first engine I bought out the surplus Army Reconditioned stores but the engine didn't fit the transmission!! I then bought a scrap engine from a scrap dealer in Portobello. It cost me 2 Pounds for the engine and I had it reconditioned by 2 brothers who had an old shack under the bridge at Annfield - Watson Scott and his brother (can't remember the brother's name). The brother was a Mechanic who worked for a company overhauling engines (we did things on the cheap back then!!). This was in 1956. Anyway sometimes it went and sometimes it didn't but it did the job and usually got us where we wanted to go. Sometimes (a lot of the time) I seemed to get water in the petrol I was buying and that's when it wouldn't go. Anyway after our son was born Jess would have a picnic Tea all ready for me getting home from the Fishmarket at 4 p.m. (started at 6 a.m.) and we would head off to Gullane. We wouldn't be at the top of Easter Road and our son slept the whole way to Gullane and back home too! Rattling and all! It sent him to sleep! When we came to Canada I sold it for 12 Pounds!
After we landed in Canada (we were still doing things on the cheap then too) I bought an Austin A40 for a few dollars. We got it cheap because the gaskets between the 2nd and 3rd cyclinders kept blowing because the cyclinder head was warped. Anyway it did the job too (even took us in to the closest hospital to us (20 miles away) the night our daughter was born. Our son used to stand up at the front between Jess and I (no seat belts back then) and would laugh and say "Bang! Boom"! every time we went over a pothole in the road. Anyway that was us till we could afford something better and bought a '59 Ford in '61 and that was a great car and did us a good few years. Have had many cars since then (no cheapies though now) and presently have a Honda Odyssey - almost 2 years old it is now but this will be my LAST vehicle. The Odysseys are Mini vans - so I started with a van and I am going to finish my driving days with a van!
Karen Stewart:
1978 Vauxhall Chevette
"We bought this car from my dad John (webmaster) in 1981 when Bruce my husband was learning to drive. Bruce took lessons in his instructor`s car and after failing his driving test for the second time, the instructor told Bruce that there was no need for further lessons but encouraged him to practise in the Chevette. A few weeks later, Bruce passed his test in his own car accompanied by his brother in law.
I then eagerly filled the car with "essential " items (first aid kit, box of hankies, wet wipes, maps etc) and dressed it up with cushions in the back seat. Bruce was content but no way would he drive a car with CUSHIONS. They were duly removed!
Because we had bought a car, we could not afford a summer holiday. We however spent a weekend in Jedburgh, borrowed my parents` tent. and had a most enjoyable wee break.
Bruce keenly looked after the car, faithfully topping up the oil and water each week and having it regularly "home tuned" by the local garage. Do people still get cars home tuned?
A few years later, my sister sold us her car, a Ford Escort. We sold the Chevette in 1987 for £325 to a gentleman from East Calder who bought it for his wife to was learning to drive. After she had passed her test we regularly used to see the husband driving it himself!. A good buy obviously.
I suppose like many of you, my first car, a banger or not will always have memories for me. Who can forget the first time you got behind the wheel and felt the independence of travel that awaited you? For the first month or so the car was always on your mind. Always wanted an excuse to get in and start the engine, select the gear and release the handbrake and off to where knows. King of the road indeed. Now with the novelty well and truly gone, the car is just a means to an end. Taken for granted, and just an everyday utility. Ah indeed nothing can bring back the experience of it all.
Now here is your chance to relate your experiences with your first motor car. Tell us all about it.
John Stewart:
Car: Austin A30 (Baby Austin); Year of Procurement: 1966; Year of Manufacture:1955;
Colour:Blue: Indicators: Flashers: Heater: No.
Taken on the first day. Picture shows my wife, Olive with our daughters
Pamela and Karen when we stopped off in the Queen`s Park
I got my first car 1966. Mind you I really had no need for one at first being a bus driver in Edinburgh with a free pass. Even my wife got off free when travelling with me. The conductors would turn a blind eye to her when I showed my pass. Only when I began commuting to Livingston to work did I have to get a car.
This was a blue Austin A30, baby Austin. It was 11 years old and I paid £100.00 for it to Abbeyhill Motors, Edinburgh. You know, I don`t think M.O.T.s were in existence at the time. It had a hole in the floor where the front passenger seat was resting. This car gave us complete enjoyment for a year. My two girls just loved it. They nicknamed it `Blue Peter`after the programme of the same name.
When I secured my house in Livingston at the end of 1966, I disposed of it in part exchange for my first Austin A60 Cambridge from Mercury Motors, Leith Walk.
Footnote: One evening a few weeks later, two policemen came to my door enquiring if I was the owner of this same `Blue Peter`. It was lying in Iona Street, Leith, untaxed. After explaining it had been handed over to Mercury Motors. Accepting my explanation, they settled down to cups of coffee and cigarettes. They stayed for over an hour blethering about new lives in Livingston. Such were the times.
.Carol Ford:
My Dad's first car was a Morris (Pre-War Morris 10, I think) As a matter of interest, our second, a Ford Prefect
I was only about nine when it was bought. I only remember that we started going holidays when Dad bought the car. As I said before I used to get a skelp asking all the time "Are we nearly there yet?" on the journey down south to auntie's. I took that photo with my first camera (Kodak Brownie) and my Dad was shouting out the window to the boy standing on the car "Get off that bloody car!".
My Mum told me they had saved a deposit for a house but Dad wanted a car - so Dad won! No other stories about the car - sorry.
It doesn't half bring back memories thinking about it all eh? Poor Dad - he was only 50 when he died (had such a horrific time in the war apparently). His health just went downhill after it. At least he had the enjoyment of a couple of cars, which he loved.
Standard 10
My own first car was a Standard 10. Bought for £40 - second hand. Two pals and myself drove down to Torquay in 1966. Everybody said "you'll never make it in that". But we did - drove down over the Shap (10 m.p.h. going up and 35 mph coming down (wind assisted). We had a fab holiday. My wee car was sold for scrap eventually after two years of enjoyment.
Peter Sellar:
Not Peter`s car but as a 1946 Coupe, it would have hardly changed much during the War from 1939
I had just won £3000 on Strangs football pool, and bought a well a used 1939 Hillman Minx Coupe de Ville. It had 2 large chrome head lamps & a massive chrome hinge on each side that allowed the top to fold back. (sorry no snaps) .The wheel base was also the same width as the tram lines and it was scary when you got stuck in the rails.
So with the sun shining brightly off we went to Gullane and it was so nice I decided to take the top down and the wife and I drove down to Gullane in style. Then after a chilly day on the Gullane sands we got ready to return home and you guessed right, it started to drizzle. I tried to get the top back up but the hinges were stuck solid, so we had to drive home with a refreshing drizzle in our face getting soaked to the skin and colder by the minute. By the time we arrived home we were like a couple of Zombies. I eventually freed the hinges and got the top up. Once in place it never came down again until I sold the little beauty before immigrating to Canada.
Maureen Whitelaw:
First car my husband and myself shared after our wedding was a Ford Consul, 1957.
Above Consul is of my soon-to-wed husband`s, the one he had when I met him. I am the one wearing the red cardigan.
The anecdote here is that he was pointed out to me by friends as one of the few single men around who had a car and it was
suggested that if I went out with him we would all have transportation. So they pointed him out to me, I liked what I saw ,
I was introduced and I flirted with him until he asked me out and the rest as they say is history.
The second Consul photo was taken on a trip to Alaska. It was a special time for me, we had a new puppy who was with us for
the next 15 yrs and it was on this trip that I felt the tiny flutterings of a new baby. It all seems so long ago.
Not ours, but a Datsun Cherry like it nevertheless
When my husband and I met in 1980, he did not own a car - he wooed me with his pushbike. Six months later his Mum gave him her old Datsun Cherry. It was the same colour as the one above, but had doors in the back. This was heaven compared to the pushbike. It was not without it's problems though. The ignition compartment fell apart with it hanging down below the dashboard. You put the key in, turned it and then took the key out before it would start. Many a time I had to push start the car whilst wearing my finery. I had not passed my driving test so I did the pushing !!! The front passenger door release was broken and I still have the scars to show where I ripped my fingers open trying to get the door open. The car used to overheat so our journeys always took longer then normal whilst the car cooled down. Eventually the car went to the scrapheap in the sky when the back wheel axle broke in two. We loved that car !!!!
Linda Malcolm:
Not our car, but one like it.
I can't really lay a claim to a first car as, like your dear Olive, I have never learnt to drive! However, the first car my ex- husband was VW Beetle. He had it before I met him and you could hear him coming before you saw him. It was a "herbie" white with a black and white apron and I can still remember the registration - ECH 279J. That was 32 years ago!
My God, they were cars and a half. Built like tanks. Here's the photo of my Dad with his pride and joy in about 1962-3 (he bought it without informing her in advance! She got used to it though.). I was interested to read about your sky-blue A30, as my Dad had one which he sold in round about 1966, registration number VS 7029. Funnily enough it had a hole in the floor too, which left me and my brother with our feet in water after a trip to Wales. He swapped for a Ford Anglia, but we got fed up pushing Fords in the winter, so he moved on to rear-engine foreign cars. My Dad worked in A.F.Henry & MacGregor and later Salvesens when they took them over till 1961.
Jack Mackenzie:
Mk 2 Consul 1956 on
My first car was a Ford Consul Mk 2. I think it cost £350 and I bought it on the' never never', big mistake. I had to trade it in for a cheaper Standard Vanguard Mk 2. The back seat area in that car was huge, great for a kiss and a cuddle with the girl friends, and that's as much as you will get out of me.
!947 Original Standard Vanguard
Alex, or should I call him Mr Wallace, after I check for emails 'Oldleither' is my first webpage stop in the morning, it never disappoints.
