SCOTT MCGREGOR TRADING UP

Actor Scott McGregor got more than he bargained for when he spotted an ad for a red Honda Civic.

“I found this little red hatch in the Trading Post and a mate of mine drove me out to see it somewhere out woopwoop,” McGregor says.

“It was a good 40-minute to an hour drive and when I got there it was a girl selling the car. She opened the door and I was taken back a bit — she was quite cute.

“So I ended up buying the car, asked her out on a date and we ended up dating for about four years.

“Whenever people would ask where we met, we’d say the Trading Post.”

It was a better experience than his first car, a gold Ford Laser that came to an untimely end soon after he bought it with hard-earned cash from a part-time job at McDonald’s.

“I didn’t have it for long because someone ran into the back of me and took off,” he says.

“It was a big 4WD (that hit me). I was shattered because I was at high school and I’d saved up and the car was stuffed. I kept driving it for a little while but it was no good.”

Later in life he developed a taste for twowheelers, buying himself a classic Yamaha 400SR cafe racer before graduating to a Ducati Street Fighter.

He also briefly hosted the Blood, Sweat and Gears car show on Foxtel.

“I did go through a time where I was right into to my cars and motorbikes but to be honest it’s more about getting from A to B these days,” he says.

And he admits to getting frustrated by drivers who impede that process. “I’ve been known to lose my cool now and then.”

Top of the pet-hate list is drivers who play with their phones at the lights.

“These days so many people are on the phone. You’re trying to get a green arrow and people just aren’t paying attention. That really upsets me,” he says.

A sponsorship deal with Honda has meant the Neighbours heart-throb has been reunited with the Civic nameplate, although the turbocharged current model is a far cry from that first hatch.

“I was surprised by just how quick the car was off the mark. I don’t feel like I’m driving a four-cylinder. It feels more like a V6,” he says.

With a baby on the way and a passion for golf (he plays off a single-digit handicap), he’s already sizing up an SUV. “I’ve got my eye on a CR-V I think,” he says. But if a mega-dollar Hollywood contract lands on his desk you can expect to see him in the brand’s NS-X supercar.

“I like the way things are going in terms of electric cars and the power behind them blows me away,” he says.