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Family Cars

After getting married we decided that a second car was requirement, so we started looking around. Much as I fancied a Toyota MR2 or Celica, one sports car was enough, and something more sensible was required.

That turned out to be a Ford Orion Ghia 1600 injection. It had the same engine as the XR3i, but with a sedan/saloon bodyshell, and slightly different gearing which meant it had slower acceleration, but was faster at the top end. With the arrival of the Beagle and Colin it was just as well we didn't pick anything smaller...

However, it was too small, and we wanted something bigger. With the carry cot and all the other things required for a small child the poor beagle ended up in the front passenger foot well. So we went looking for something larger. We narrowed it down to 2 options, either a Volvo 740 estate or a Renault Espace MPV/minivan. Cath didn't like the Volvo (she drove it about 50 yards) so it was the Espace.

This was quite a versatile vehicle. The carrycot fitted into the floorspace between the front 2 rows of seats, which meant the beagle could sit up and watch the world go by. At SK musters I wouldn't bother with a tent, but just arranged the seats to give the maximum amount of stretching space. Taking all the seats out we even managed to transport my sister's big pram back out to her house. The only things I disliked about it were that it wasn't converted to right hand drive properly (the most used switches were the furthest away), the driver's seat wouldn't go back far enough and at any real speed the wipers suffered from a lot of lift, and above 85 were virtually useless.

From the Espace we went to a Ford Sierra 2.0i Ghia estate. A most acceptable car that had a fair turn of pace when required, and was pretty good at towing the caravan. (Yes, we had a caravan. After years of slumming it at SK musters in tents it was pure luxury. Not just for us, but for everyone in the regiment. We had about 10 people in at one time, sheltering from the rain and trying to keep warm, and we used to carry a lot of gear.) The Sierra was the first car we had fitted with a CD player, which was really useful - no more buying tapes to record music for the car!

After the Sierra came a Vauxhall Frontera. I've always admired its chunky 4x4 looks, and I finally succumbed. It was a fairly decent car, but needed a far bigger engine than the 2.4 liter it had. Towing the caravan at legal motorway speeds just seemed to fall in a slight power hole, and towing at 70 was far easier and involved fewer gear changes. The Frontera looked the part, even though it wasn't really a serious off road vehicle.

When we decided it was time to look for something new, we really had no idea what to look for. We'd decided to buy down near Grangemouth (more dealers, more choice and the better chance of a good deal) but hadn't really come up with anything. To drive from Grangemouth to Falkirk you have to drive past the local Mercedes dealer. We'd never considered a Merc before, well outside our league, we'd thought. However, I persuaded Cath to go and have a look, just for something to do. Mercedes are certainly impressive pieces of machinery, they just ooze Germanic quality. We had a test drive and were immediately hooked.

An even more pleasent surpise was waiting when we got the finance figures. Due to their excellent residual values the leasing figures were far lower than we expected, so we ended up ordering an E200 estate in green, with mushroom trim, walnut wood finish, electric windows all round, sunroof, and extra seats and CD system in the trunk.

Looking back I think this was one of my favorite cars that I've owned. It was so quiet and relaxing to drive. We drove down to Newcastle (about 3 hours) one Saturday morning for a presentation, and I stil felt fresh on arriving as when we left. It felt solid and safe and the 7 seat capability was really useful. Cath was a bit concerned in the white stuff, though. After the Frontera (with its 4 wheel drive) the Merc was a bit slippy, being rear wheel drive only, and so we decided to change again after 2 years...

During the time we had the Merc, I'd been working in London, flying down Monday, back Friday. I wasn't too keen on leaving the Porsche at the airport all week, so bought an old wreck of a Nissan Sunny 1300 sedan just to run back and fore. It served its purpose, lasting a year before being scrapped.

This was replaced with a Volvo 760 GLE, full leather, 2.6 V6 engine and electric everything. Trouble is it was a heap of scrap, and I shouldn't have bought it. Coming towards the springtime of 1996 my thoughts turned to an open top car as my 'spare' vehicle. I'd previously test driven a Mazda MX-5 Miata, and had quite enjoyed it. Trouble is it was only a 2 seater...

Jumping ahead a bit (but it doesn't really fit anywhere else), in early 1997 we also acquired a Hyundai Accent. Running around in the Porsche was just too expensive on the repair bills, the Wrangler wasn't really a long range vehicle, so something else was needed for the daily slog. After looking at lots of small cars, the cheapest worked out to be the Accent. It was quite a fine little car, and I was well pleased with it.