Cars

When I was learning to drive, DH used to take me out between lessons for some practice. We were out in the suburbs one Sunday afternoon on a narrow road and he asked me to slow down because there was a lorry coming towards us. I said I had room. He said I didn't. In squeezing past I practically ran onto the pavement where a woman and her dog were walking. DH shouted at me (almost unheard of) and I got out of the car and refused to drive any further. He said we weren't going home until I got back into the driving seat. I started to walk down the road. He got behind the wheel and caught up with me and said "this is your last chance. Get in the car." I didn't, so he threw my handbag onto the road and drove off without me. I thought, "oh, he'll stop down the road”, but he didn't! We were eight miles from home and I discovered I only had enough money in my purse to get about half way on the bus! It was very late when I eventually got home. He was comfily settled in his armchair and never even looked at me when I came through the door. I threw my L plates in the bin, but the following day he had fished them out and put them back on the car. I passed my test first time later that year. God knows how, though! Stupid woman.

Passed my test at 18. My dad made me change all the wheels round on the car before I took my test so I " won't have to wait for a man to help you! " He also taught me how to change the plugs and adjust the points! I had an old Vauxhall Viva which went well until my friend slammed the passenger door and all the internal workings fell out onto the pavement. Everyone had to climb in through the driver's door for months. All good fun in those days.

Oldgoat that brought back memories. DH also had a split windscreen Morris Minor. The engine blew up when he was coming back from the North with a carload of wedding presents. He managed to coast off the motorway and into a scrap yard where they sold him a recon engine which he installed and carried on. Meanwhile I was waiting for him to arrive and getting frantic. No mobile phones then of course. Eventually I phoned my parents,and got,the message as he had thought to phone them. It sounds like a Carry On,script in the telling, but was high drama in 1970!

I bought a Citroen BX once. It was red, hydraulic suspension - super comfy ride. You could feel the suspension rising when you turned on the engine. Even CDs in the player didn't skip. One night, I had been working in the evening until about 9 0'clock. I hadn't travelled far towards home, when I felt the suspension drop, and the car was shuddering. I stopped on the hard shoulder, and discovered my new exhaust was trailing on the ground. I had nothing to tie it up with, and I didn't want a spark to ignite any fuel, so I did the only thing I could do - I took off my tights, plaited them into a rope, and tied the exhaust up to the bumper. As I continued home, I discovered that my suspension still hadn't come up, and now my brakes were starting to fail. I limped home in second gear, and called the mechanics out. It turned out that my new exhaust hadn't been fitted properly, and had worn through the hydraulic pipes, and also the brake lines. When my mechanic telephoned the exhaust fitters, they accepted liability, and I didn't have to pay for the repairs. This was the worst experience I ever had in a car, and I've avoided hydraulic suspension ever since.

oldgoat

Talking about goats, tho, more info needed, please, about taking a goat on holiday. Intrigued!
elizabeth I drive a shift gear here in the uk, actually prefer it cos I actually like inter-reacting with the engine, if that makes sense?, but(sometimes) drive an automatic in the US. That being able to turn right when traffic lights are on red your way, given a clear road, natch, plain gives me the heebie jeebies. I mean. The traffic lights are on red. That means stop. I'm English and a law abiding citizen. Turning on a red light is just plain wrong !!!

OH's first car was a Morris ?Minor with a split windscreen and no heater. He found a heater in a scrapyard and installed it in the passenger footwell, next to my legs, where it got dangerously hot. Thankfully, he was given his dad's old car, a Singer Gazelle , and started to teach me how to drive on a disused airfield - nearly ended in divorce. I then had proper lessons with an avuncular chap who used to smack my leg if I made any mistakes. After I passed my test I started to drive to work in the Gazelle. It had a column-change gear lever and OH had told me to always start in second gear - not helpful advice when I stalled on a hill and the car kangarooed up in little jerks. When I told him about my problem he said "Oh, didn't I tell you, you only start in 2nd on flat ground?".

I passed my test second time in a mini in 1973. Cant remem er how much lessons cost but i had to pay for them out my meagre wage. I do recall petrol costing 6/11d (a gallon) in thr mid 60's though. We have owned a morris minor 1957 for nearly 40 years it has never let us down, the children loved it and the grancdildren like nothing better than sitting on grandads lap in the driving seat going up and down in the back garden. Wwhen we changed our car last year, not the moggie of course, that stays here , we got an automatic and hVe never looked back. Automatic is so straightforward and easy, never having to do a hill start, never cutting out. Can con entrate just on the driving. Brilliant. Go for it elizabeth.

elizabeth68 Automatics are really easy to drive but before we bought our first one I had a lesson with a driving instructor. (I didn't want to pick up any bad habits from OH who 'knew' what to do.) Because you don't have to change gear and they don't seem to stall you will be able to concentrate on the road. Give it a go!

Driven since 1966 but only in UK and manual cars
Since retirement I spend 6 months a year with kids in US
So far, I am too scared to cope with left hand drive automatic cars. Any one else facing this dilemma? I really need to face my fears!

When I was 19 I spent a couple of weeks driving a double decker bus around our city - no training, no PSV licence. It was legal because the bus was an old one (with the jump on/jump off open entrance platform) that had been donated by the Council to a voluntary organisation which used it as a play bus, so my job was to drive it from one venue to the next (no passengers on board). It was a huge vehicle, with a steering wheel bigger than a dustbin lid and no power steering either! I loved it that everyone else on the road took care to get out of my way - lucky really as I had only held my car driving licence for a couple of years and my driving was probably pretty dire. Would never be allowed nowadays (and quite right too, much safer!)

Passed my test in 1969. First car was a fiat 500 which was quite snug as we are both tall people. double de-clutching was the order of the day then. I also remember cars being started with a crank handle. I hasten to add that I am only 65! Ethelbags is right, now we drive computers on wheels.

Just after I passed my test in the 1960s, I decided to attend a car maintenance classes which were held about seven miles from where we were living. I learned to change a tyre and to fix a starter motor amongst other things (none of which I can do now). Unfortunately, on my way home from one class I ran out of petrol and had to ring home to get my DH to come to my rescue! I was not popular and have still not lived it down.

Respect, TrustNoOne!

trustnoone, think it's fair to assume you get to keep the Winners T-shirt! Wow!

Fond memories...I've just started to tackle old pics from my parents home (no albums for them, oh no..pics found in shoe boxes, envelopes.) there seem to be photos of every car they owned, all taken with dad lounging in front in a studied nonchalant sort of way and presumably taken by mum, cos she rarely appears on any of them. The first seems to be of a shiny black (had to be!) Ford taken in the New Forest in July 1936.im going to have fun putting these into an album. Gonna title it 'One Man and his Cars'.

One safety gadget I do miss, as a pedestrian, the clicking sound the indicators made. I often cross a road without looking behind me thinking I would hear the indicators and the cars are so quiet nowadays you cannot hear them coming.

The first car I bought myself was a turquoise blue Fiat 500. It was a dear little car, with a sun roof, and a choke lever on the floor. Our eldest son could almost put his head through the top while sitting down. A garage nearby has a white one on it's forecourt and brings back fond memories.

My now DH turned up on the doorstep in 1977 when I was at teacher training college with a 'surprise'. It was a second hand Ford Escort with the iconic 'Coke bottle' front. What fun we had in that banger. It gave us freedom to roam at will and we enjoyed trips and visits all over the country. Not so much fun in the winter though when the way to start it was put it in second gear and rock it or push it down a hill. Brrr!

Am I bragging or wat, In 1966 I got a steering ticket for a 50,000 ton tanker called the British Diplomat and we were empty on our way to the Gulf, now I'm expecting at least one of you to say "bin there,done that,got the T-Shirt".

I didn't pass my driving test until 2 years later and I will agree things are very different now.

I hope I'm still on topic.

My 2CVs were used to transport floor boards and joists vertically, with the roofs off!

I hate to say it but the DSs used to stand up and wave out of the roof! Although we did have safety harness style seat belts fitted in the back!

Wasn't the airfield at Davidstow was it, Emily?

My sister had a 2 CV and took 2 children and a goat on holiday !

i'm expecting my next car to drive itself. That'll be he day I give up altogether, Emily!

I learned to drive on a disused airfield post war. Then at 17 out on the road with my father. Quite terrifying at first.

Once he signed up for an advanced driver course but did not have time to go due to work so sent me instead. The gear ratios of the fast cars I got to drive were quite different from our landrover and mini's so that was terrifying too. this was because in those days shifting down the gears to break seemed to be the done thing.

However now I am happy to be driving and have just changed to an automatic. I am expecting my next car to drive itself!!

Passed my test first time by some miracle (I wouldn't have retaken it if I'd failed becasue I was so scared of driving!). Drove my DP's saloon sized company cars for a few years so when I got my first car, a mini, I wouldn't take it on really busy roads at first; I was scared that it was so small the lorry drivers wouldn't see it! The children loved it, though, as it registered every bump on bad roads; they thought being rattled around was good fun

About that time I drove a van of my husband's whose footbrakes were non existent. You had to use the handbrake.
As for the driving test - my first lessons in teens with Dad led to us both giving up.Tried again at 27 when pregnant and passed on 3rd attempt - the tester was scared I would give birth on the spot.
I'm still driving at 80 but my first accident in all this time earlier this year has worried me.