The cars you learned to drive on

I learnt the basics in a 1980 Saab 900. It was a manual 5-door hatch and it was beige. I only had a chance to drive it around the Woolworths parking lot a couple of times before my parents gave it to my sister. It was worth about $1,500 but she neglected it so badly that after six months it was sold for $25.

Shortly after that fiasco I got this:




It's a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280S. A column shift automatic, 2.8Ltr twin carburettor straight six. Initially I had the same difficulties any learner would have in any car but after that it was really quite easy to drive. The only difficulties were/are manoeuvring it in tight spaces because of its sheer size and having to mentally convert the speedometer from Miles to Kilometres per hour.

It'll do 120mph in 3rd gear.


whoa, I just got wicked-bad deja vu.:unsure:
 
You little dictator you :p
 
The driverinstructor had a Skoda Octavia, which was nice.

Then I bought my car...and crashed it:

w126 280SE 1984
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Now I was driving on my mother's car...hopefully to be mine soon, as she doesn't drive it herself:

w115 240D 1976

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If the damned economic slowdown would go away, I would go for another w126.
 
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well, the driving school had Mk1 Focus, 2 of them actually.. 1.6l and 1.8l models. After that, I got in touch with a lot of different cars, ranging from Daihatsu Hi-Jet 1000 4x4 to Omega MV6.. But I have to say that Kadett C was one of the more entertaining cars I've driven, where as my inner rally/racing driver drools after E36 3-series I once drove..
 
A car that looks exactly like this, only with L plates and a big L Triangle thing (my instructors' car). Its a 2009 Fiesta Titanium 1.6 Diesel.
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And my parents 1999 Kangoo 1.4 Petrol.
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Those are the only cars I've ever driven - nothing exciting or special here.
 
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A 1.4L petrol? How long does that take to get up to speed? I thought my little coupe with a 1.7 was slow but that sounds Biblically slow.
 
Well, today the instructor only showed me some stuff, driving starts thursday.

A 1.4L petrol? How long does that take to get up to speed? I thought my little coupe with a 1.7 was slow but that sounds Biblically slow.

Ha, mine has 3-cylinder 1 liter engine, but only weighs 790kgs
 
2004 Chrysler Town and Country. Damn I loved that thing. (identical vehicle, just not the one my parents' owned):

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There was a time when I had only ever driven Vauxhalls - four of them.

It is nearly 13 years to the day that I first sat on the proper side of a car; it was a 1993 1.4 litre Astra MkIII belonging to a family friend who was a copper. It's safe to say he knew how to drive.

When I took proper lessons with BSM I had two Corsas to deal with; both, I think, were three-door 1.2 litre models, but the second had considerably harder brakes than the first. The change happened a week before my test and it threw me enough that I only passed third time... although all three tests were in the same week.

And then my first car was a 1990 1.0 litre base model Nova. Which lasted all of five months before I managed to total it.

Then I went Italian and bought a Lancia Y10... and I don't care how many of you point out that it's an Autobianchi in other markets, as far as I'm concerned that makes me a real petrolhead as I know damn well the horrible pain of owning a ten-year-old Italian car... when I was 18.

If the damned economic slowdown would go away, I would go for another w126.
I looked into S-classes recently, figuring that in the middle of a recession, the last thing anyone would want to buy was an enormous, gas-guzzling Merc. I found a 1994 S280 (the W140 barge and the last of the Panzer Division Mercedes models) for ?995... even with 15 years and 130,000 miles on the clock, an S-class will still have plenty of life left in it, and considering it was a shade under 40 grand when it was new... sale of the century. The W126s, though... didn't see many of them, and I suspect many will now be considered classics and will fetch more cash.

No idea what the market's like in Finland, but I'd still say don't give up on finding one...
 
VW Golf Mark III Diesel (64 dieselpowered horses) :) and I have to add that I liked that car a lot. Despite being boring and diesel, I think it was the perfect car for learning how to drive.

And for Bikes the Yamaha XV750 (Virago) limited to 34hp (it?s the law that beginner motorbikers ; wich includes drivers-ed, only are allowed to have 34HP on a bike in the first 2 years).
 
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A 1.4L petrol? How long does that take to get up to speed? I thought my little coupe with a 1.7 was slow but that sounds Biblically slow.

It's not a performance car. We don't try and drive it fast. But I must say it isn't actually that slow. And it is kind of fun to drive. It just does not do motorways well at all. There is bare bodywork on the inside (designed to be so) - it lacks in the soundproofing department :p
 
I've done a lot of being a learner. I've had official lessons in early Vauxhall Corsa and Nissan Micra and - after a rather sizeable break - a recent Clio, 206cc, Fiesta and Suzuki Swift. I've also driven a Mazda 323, Peugeot 205 diesel, recent Corsa tdi (the boyfriend's), a Landrover Discovery (off-road only) and my beloved Austin Mini.
The early corsa and micra share the title for worst car I've had the misfortune to be in, both of them causing me considerable back pain. The 323 I wasn't in long enough to form an opinion on, but it was long enough to ensure that I've never again let Dad 'help' me. The Fiesta gave me a cramp in my left leg no matter how I adjusted the seat. The recent corsa was fine, though as a passenger it gives me a sore arse. I found the Clio comfy enough but the brakes were rather all-or-nothing with about 2mm between the states and the steering was so light that to me it didn't feel like it was actually attached to the car. The Swift is entirely inoffensive, but has too many modern gizmos for me to consider buying one. I loved the 205, aside from the steering being a pig at low speed, and the burgery biodiesel smell which made me hungry. The Discovery was surprisingly easy to reverse into a bay.
 
Like about 99 % of all people here back in the 1980's, I learned on a Golf.

A Mk. I Golf diesel with 50 HP and a manual, to be exact. It was wine-red, like this one but a bit darker:
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For the mandatory Autobahn drive during my time in driving school we used a Jetta with an automatic gearbox, though.
 
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The driving instructor drove a suzuki Forenza, so I should have some idea as to how a lacetti handles.

then there was one of my parent's cars...
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It was very gay and slow...

but then 1 month of having my permit later, I started learning on this. It lasted till about a month after I got my license.
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that car was not terribly slow, but it had horrible chassis.

I shall now go down in a hole of shame.
 
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I learned to drive in a variety of vehicles.

Learned the fundamentals in a 1991 Subaru Loyale.
Learned standard in a '93 Subaru Legacy and '91 Saab 900S
Fully developed my manual skills in my '84 Vanagon and '70 Subaru 360.
Took Driver's Ed, drove a Toyota Corolla S for that class.
Spent most of my required out-of-class driving practice in my mom's Honda CRV and my dad's work truck, a Ford Explorer.
Passed my driving test with the Ford Explorer.

Learned to ride a motorcycle with a '79 Honda CM400T
 
Learned to drive in a whole pile of different cars, dads N15 Pulsar, my Holden Camira JE (first car), 04 Nissan X-trail, and dads 05 Corolla Sportivo (replacing the Pulsar, now mine). Got my licence in a 99 AE112 Corolla manual.
 
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