05 April 2009

A life history in cars and bikes

Just got a new car which I am very happy with. Its fast and it goes around bends like a train. It is also, by far and away the most expensive vehicle I have ever owned.
This got me think about my earlier cars - which are summarised, in chronological order below

1983 (ish) - bought an Austin 1300 for £30 to drive around the fields on the farm and eventually make a buggy out of. The buggy never got made but we had some fun...
1985 - Honda CB1oo my first bike which I bought for £150. Fell off it quite a few times trying to go around corners too fast.
1985 - Was given a half share in a Vauxhall Cavalier 1300 by my Mum. eventually gave it back to her after her car blew up
1986 - Bought a mini for £200 at the car auction where I worked in the holidays. It was a classic case of a botch up job but I drove it around for a year, while bits stopped working and feel off. In the end I scrapped it
1987 - Mazda 323, bought it for £100 and drove it for 3 years. Lived out of it for 5 month in London. Had to replace the prop shaft 3 times and it leaked like a sieve so all the carpets were rotten (I ripped them out). Apart from that it was great. Eventually had to scrap it when the rust holes above the windscreen were too big. Engine still ran fine.
1990 - Ford Fiesta which I bought for £50 off a guy called Rocky who was towing it to the scrap yard. Replaced the 950 engine with a 1600, XR2 unit. Up rated the brakes, suspension and exhaust, put some big wheels on it and hooned! My first real boy racer machine. I had it for 2 years then my XGF took it and drove it in to the ground. I re-inheriated it in 1993 when she went to Aus and sold it for £200.
1991 - Second bike, CB 125 which I bought to take my bike test on. Sold for £350, same as I paid for it.
1991 - First proper bike, CBX550 bought for £500. I did some epic trips on that bike. For a while it was my only mode of transport and I rode it around Europe twice. I had it for about 6 years before it was stolen and torched by some Scallies in Liverpool
1993 - Bought a Mitsubushi Colt for £400. Had 8 gears, which was rather odd. Drove ok though. XGF crashed it numerous times but it lasted for a 2 years until the gearbox packed up on a weekend in Wales.
1996 - After the colt I bought a meastro van for £900. A great machine which I lined the back of with ply and we used for numerous camping trips all over the UK. XGF was driven into by a truck and the engine blew up. Eventually sold it for £200
1997 - After the CBX was torched I bought a Kawaski 900 Ninja from a guy in a pub in Llanberis for £1600. I still have it today. That is still the fastest I have ever been on land (155 mph on the M58 out of Liverpool).
1998 - Rover 800, which was bought off my brother. A huge boat of thing that I bought for £700. Was good for sleeping in the back of. It was stolen numerous times but kept turning up in Toxteth. Can't remember why I got rid of it.
1999 - After the Rover I bought a Peugot 205 diesal for £1000. It was shit. Sold it for £850 a couple of months later.
2000 - Renault Clio from a scrap auction that was fixed up by my mate Chris. It cost £600 to buy and another £500 in parts to fix. Taken over by XGF who kept it after I moved to Norway
2001 - Ducati 750ss bought from Gareth when he moved to Aus for £1800. Great bike but way to "nice" for me.
2001 - Landrover class 10 racing offroad beast, bought from Andy Nash for £2500. Had a lot of fun with that and spent a huge amount of cash keeping it going. eventually moved to Norway in it and its still sitting outside my house now.
2003 - Volvo 340, the cheapest car in Norway at 5000 nok. Had it for two years and sold it on for the same price.
2004 - Range Rover - a class motor which I bought in the UK for £1800 and brought over to Norway for a year. Eventually took it back and sold it for £900.
2005 Audi 80 - at 90000 nok the most expensive machine to date. Drove it for 4.5 years, the last 3 of which it was juddering like a kangaroo on E. Just swapped it for a major service on the new machine, valued at 15000 nok.
2008 - KTM 450 trials bike, bought for the off road adventure in Aus. Currently residing in Gareths garage in Perth.
2009 - Audi A4 Quattro. At 4 years old, by far and away the fastest, shinnyist and most expensive car I have ever owned.

Now if you are quick at maths you will see that, proir to the new Audi I have spent a total of £17380 on cars. With the new Audi that has just more than doubled! Interestingly the amount also doubled when I bought my Audi 80.

Does this imply that my next car will cost 50 grand?

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