The Way We Were
2000, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
‘We can only see the Puma’s nose, so it’s hard to tell if it’s a 1.4 or a 1.7. But it’s not a Black special edition’
WELL, WE KNOW WHAT IT ISN’T…
Focus. That’s what this snapshot of Chipping Campden at the dawn of the new Millennium is missing – and we don’t mean that some of the shoppers are looking a little fuzzy around the edges.
The Focus we’re looking for was the nation’s biggest-selling new car – and yet the first generation of Ford’s Escort-replacing hatchback is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps ‘New Edge’ styling, a European Car of the Year gong and a clever grille badge that opened to reveal a keyhole for the bonnet release didn’t really cut it in the Cotswolds.
Then again, if you look just behind the Huxleys restaurant – still going strong to this day – you can just about make out two other big hitters from the Blue Oval’s showrooms. We can only see the Puma’s nose so it’s hard to tell if it’s a 1.4 or a 1.7, but despite its hue we can tell you that it isn’t the Black special edition because that wasn’t launched until 2001. It’s a similar story with the Mondeo which, judging by the rear spoiler and body-coloured bumpers, could be a range-topping ST24, which shared its creamy 168bhp V6 with the Cougar coupé.
Just behind there’s a Proton Saga – known for its dependable Mitsubishi-sourced mechanicals and strong showings in the JD Power new car satisfaction surveys at the time, if not its awe-inspiring handling – and another Ford, an Escort MkV estate. There’s another period load-lugger squeezed in between the HH-R-generation Rover 400 and first-generation Nissan Micra. Peer at the Fiat’s front and you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s a Bravo or a Brava, but you can just see the tell-tale roofbars of a Marea Weekend. It wasn’t a huge seller here, and now there are fewer than 100 left on the nation’s roads.
If anything, it looks like the marque of choice in Chipping Campden is Volkswagen, including the pre-facelift Polo MkII that looks as though it’s about to narrowly miss mowing down one of the market town’s shoppers. This one’s a 1986 C-spec model, powered by Wolfsburg’s carb-fed 1.0-litre engine. It looks like it’s holding up well here, slightly skewed bumper aside, but it disappeared from the DVLA’s records just four years later. We also find a Corrado parked up outside the town’s 17th-century market hall – there isn’t enough detail here to make out exactly which variant it is, but there’s no telltale VR6 badge so we suspect that it’s a four-pot model – and a Golf GTI MkIII parked on the opposite side of the street.
There’s a first-generation Škoda Octavia just in front of the GTI and two stablemates of Citroën’s 1990s range – a Xantia and an AX – but it’s trickier to pinpoint the chunky off-roader that they’re parked next to. It might be a Vauxhall Monterey, but the odds are that it’s actually an Isuzu Trooper because it was by far the bigger seller of the two.
There’s a first-generation Freelander further along, but we’re more intrigued by the firstgeneration Range Rover a little further up, parked just outside the Noel Arms. Look closely and you can just spot the For Sale sign in the windscreen – a cared-for four-door can easily sell for £10-15k today, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this car’s seller is asking for a tenth of that.
Finishing off our line-up outside Malvern Strollers – no longer with us, but we suspect it was perfect for anyone looking for some countryside clobber for a spot of walking in the nearby hills – is an E30-generation BMW 3 Series, a fifth-generation Ford Escort and another Golf, this time a MkIV. All look like they’re holding up rather better than the Rover 220d, which has already lost at least two of its wheel trims despite being barely two years old.
Finally, an honourable mention for the Merit-spec Vauxhall Astra MkII closest to the camera, which sadly disappeared from our roads in 2004. Had this been one of its Luton-badged cousins, that registration number would have been wonderfully appropriate…