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Car Park Shenanigans

PeteS said:
Ah the brown Austin Allegro. Marvellous.
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My mum had one of these secondhand. When it was eventually replaced, she got a red Austin Allegro instead that had a big rust hole in the passenger door and was affectionately known as "the Blu-tak mobile" by my school friends because of her preferred solution for keeping water out of the door mechanism.
 
Uhh, as an American I'm frequently flummoxed by the Englishers....Are bath mats not sold in the UK? :D

Washable-Shower-Horror-Blood-Bath-Bathroom-Bloody-Footprint-Mat-No-Slip-Rug.jpg
 
bugmum said:
My mum had one of these secondhand. When it was eventually replaced, she got a red Austin Allegro instead that had a big rust hole in the passenger door and was affectionately known as "the Blu-tak mobile" by my school friends because of her preferred solution for keeping water out of the door mechanism.
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I had to look up what an Austin Allegro looked like. We had something similar here in the 80s, the Chevrolet Chevette.

As you can imagine, they were called Shit-vettes. Dirt cheap to own and operate and that's about all it had going for it. :)


070616-Barn-Finds-1980-Chevrolet-Chevette-2.jpg
 
Ooh,@bugmum, you've reminded me of my favourite old car- my ancient Mini! Bought for forty quid, drove it for two years and sold it for more than I paid for it. It had a hole in the floor on the passenger side, covered by a rubber mat, and I used to tell passengers it was so they could put their feet through to help get us up hills.

I still miss that car. Only sold it because I was pregnant and it was only a two door - I couldn't get a baby seat in the back.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
I had to look up what an Austin Allegro looked like. We had something similar here in the 80s, the Chevrolet Chevette.

As you can imagine, they were called Shit-vettes. Dirt cheap to own and operate and that's about all it had going for it. :)


070616-Barn-Finds-1980-Chevrolet-Chevette-2.jpg
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But they got through anything. In the winter, I could drive down a back road and plow through a snow drift almost up to the hood and keep going.

The shit-vettes lasted ages. And if you needed parts for your aged car, they were hard to find in wreckers' yards as most of them were still on the road years later.

Comfort? No. But it could take a beating and still go.
 
brownmane said:
But they got through anything. In the winter, I could drive down a back road and plow through a snow drift almost up to the hood and keep going.

The shit-vettes lasted ages. And if you needed parts for your aged car, they were hard to find in wreckers' yards as most of them were still on the road years later.

Comfort? No. But it could take a beating and still go.
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Exactly right, they were the perfect first car for my generation, able to stand up tall to anything we threw at it :D
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
I had to look up what an Austin Allegro looked like. We had something similar here in the 80s, the Chevrolet Chevette.

As you can imagine, they were called Shit-vettes. Dirt cheap to own and operate and that's about all it had going for it. :)


070616-Barn-Finds-1980-Chevrolet-Chevette-2.jpg
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We had the Chevette as well, rebranded as a Vauxhall Chevette, with a slightly different & more aerodynamic looking front. Rust buckets I think - weren’t around for long.

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hunck said:
We had the Chevette as well, rebranded as a Vauxhall Chevette, with a slightly different & more aerodynamic looking front. Rust buckets I think - weren’t around for long.

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I had a three year old shove-it for two years before I pranged it into the back of a bus. The bus had hardly had a dent (it was an old style Parkinson Royal). My shove-it was a write off. Before that though I had been down to the West Country from London, where I lived, all at 80 to 90 mph, to Wales, all at the same speed, and a holiday in Scotland again traveling at the same speed. It never broke down once.

The shove-it had a terrible reputation at the time. I guess I had a good one.

The type of bus I rear ended. They were built like tanks.

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hunck said:
We had the Chevette as well, rebranded as a Vauxhall Chevette, with a slightly different & more aerodynamic looking front. Rust buckets I think - weren’t around for long.

View attachment 72913
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Except of course now like a lot of this stuff they are sought after, albeit not as much as MK1 Escorts where a basket case will go for £5k or more. Going back to the point of the thread though if you drive any of these cars you'll be able to spot them in a car park easily.:D
 
PeteS said:
Except of course now like a lot of this stuff they are sought after, albeit not as much as MK1 Escorts where a basket case will go for £5k or more. Going back to the point of the thread though if you drive any of these cars you'll be able to spot them in a car park easily.:D
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As an American, I am flummoxed by the love for Escorts in the UK. In the US they weren't much different from the Chevettes, just a garden variety grocery-getter that was cheap and mostly energy efficient.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
As an American, I am flummoxed by the love for Escorts in the UK. In the US they weren't much different from the Chevettes, just a garden variety grocery-getter that was cheap and mostly energy efficient.
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I had a used Escort and it was the worst piece of crap of all the cars I had. Even the back of the seat fell off when my husband was driving it. I wasn't in the car at the time and didn't see it.

Chevette totally more reliable than the Escort
 
brownmane said:
I had a used Escort and it was the worst piece of crap of all the cars I had. Even the back of the seat fell off when my husband was driving it. I wasn't in the car at the time and didn't see it.

Chevette totally more reliable than the Escort
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Back then, everything was more reliable than Ford. My best friend was from a "Ford Family" (only bought Ford cars and trucks) and she drove a 1989 Escort that was second in unreliability only to the Ford EXP that she had next.
 
Aydee_Aitchdee said:
Back then, everything was more reliable than Ford. My best friend was from a "Ford Family" (only bought Ford cars and trucks) and she drove a 1989 Escort that was second in unreliability only to the Ford EXP that she had next.
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Well, we all know what FORD means;)
 
Could be wrong but I don't think the US got the MK1 Escort. They had a lot of competition success and were brought out in all sorts of what was then very sporty models - Mexico, Rs1600. Rs 2000 etc. Boy racer mobiles of the day and the sporty stuff now goes for eyewatering prices.
 
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