Everybody has a story to tell about their first car

I’M having some car trouble at the moment.

My beloved mini is needing a bit of work so is currently out of action and it’s not going to be cheap to fix, which is a pain.

I was thinking about the days where I would just take my mum’s car and drive it, when I first passed my test and had no money to buy myself a car.

I was 17, I used my mum’s red VW Golf and would drive to see friends or go to town and barely put fuel in it because, well, that wasn’t my job.

I didn’t even think about the wear and tear of the car. If ever it needed a new tyre or something done, I’d just let my mum pay for it. Now as an adult I realise how expensive they can be and obviously it’ll be much pricier these days.

Do you remember the first car you actually purchased?

Whether it was a banger or a new one from the garage – I think we all have a nice memory about our first car. Or if not a nice memory, there will be a story attached.

Mine was out the garage. Now I wasn’t loaded but I took it on finance and my grandparents put down the deposit for me. But with a regular job and income I knew I could afford it and I was lucky to have a helping hand from family.

It was a red Fiat Sciecento – a great first car. Small and not too expensive to run.

My friend Morag and I got new cars around the same time, we used to take turns who would drive to go and see other friends or who would do the McDonald’s run after a night out.

My car got nicknamed “the Pat van” for two reasons, it looked kind of like Postman Pat’s van, same colour and shape. Also we were obsessed with watching Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze movies so Pat seemed very fitting.

There’s many stories about the Pat van. Hours of driving around with pals in the back, not really doing anything other than driving and listening to music.

The excitement of getting out in the car was one of life’s pleasures back in the day, I guess it still is.

The difference is – back then we’d have parents to help with fixing it or changing tyres/oil.

Now we’re the grown ups and have to deal with it all, we realise how lucky we were.

A red VW Golf like mum’s one.